The Chicken Dance comes to Kenya

So went up to the school tonight to teach, only to find my class having a dance off. It was so much fun. I learned some new Kenyan dances and I taught the students the chicken dance and the Macarena. We told stories, jokes and sang songs, it was a night full of laughs. They wanted me to tell a story but I declined since my signing skills are not as good as theirs. They were so welcoming though and when I got up to do my impression of a kenyan dance, the were sup portative. Ok they laughed their butts off but it was fun to feel like I was a part of the school. I think they like me being there. I learned our school participates in a national dance competition. Im thinking I’ll talk to the head master and see if I can go with them. I also played a game today in class to practice the signs I teach them. It went well and they seemed to like it. I might continue it, it might help with the midterm. I was told today, I have to create a midterm for all of my subjects. I have never created a test before. Im nervous to give it out because I don’t know if I want to see the results. I know Im the worst teacher right now and I will get better but I still feel like I should be teaching more, that the students would improve with any other teacher. But no matter what, I am in love with my students, my town and this country. I have never felt more right. Well, this will be a short posts since it’s late and I am tired. So untill next post, good night.

Happy Valentines Day XOXOXO

Happy Valentine’s Day XOXOXOXOX This time last year I was participating in the giant pillow fight in San Francisco and getting smooched on the muni. Unfortunately, Kenya doesn’t seem to celebrate the holiday with the same dedication that America does. So, I am hanging out on my bed, playing on my computer as I procrastinate finishing my lesson plans and schemes of work(The one aspect of teaching I really am starting to hate) and feeling blah( I think I may be coming down with something). I did get my dad’s package of peanut M$M’s so that helped make the day exciting,. I don’t know if I did something, said something or my neighbors are noticing my slimming, but I have been getting food made for me in very large quantities. My neighbors have been making me beans, chapti, rice, more beans and even bought me 2 pineapples all in 1 day. I feel like I missed something, like I should be having a baby or have someone die to deserve all this food.. If I haven’t mentioned it before, Kenyan culture thinks the more meat on you the better. To them, someone who is big is considered healthy. If they notice you slimming, they will tell you and ask if you are sick. Every mealtime I have with them, I have to fight to serve myself, otherwise, I will leave more than half of the food on my plate. They also do not like the fact that I have been eating PD&J for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Every morning, they ask what I ate for dinner. Sometimes, I lie and say I cooked. So what am I going to do with all of this extra food? I noticed sasa was getting on the slim side so maybe I will give her some of the food. Better than having it go to waste.


So, Friday night, I went up to the school to help the students, like I always do. Most of them wanted to enjoy their firday night., but one student had a lot of vocab he wanted me to give him the signs for. Since now, I have never had a problem helping them with the vocab. I have actually enjoyed them asking me. But looking over the words, I noticed almost half of these words are words I have been teaching them these past weeks. Im stumped. Im starting to think I must be the worst teacher if a student can’t even remember one vocab word I had taught them earlier. I know some of my students have multiple disabilities, including mental delay ,but all 60? So what am I doing wrong? Part of me feels like I am getting played. Like they are smarter then they let on, they are used to having a teacher lecture and just have them copy down the homework and here I come, the newbie, and they want to see who can quit first. But then I think of how the kids interact with me outside of class and them seem to enjoy my company. So, Im at a loss of where to go from here. Do I back track and teach them vocab they say they don’t know? Do I just pretend they are lying to me and continue on with the lessons? If I didn’t have the unseen amount of pressure for them to perform well, on the national exam, I would take my time and focus on the vocab, because how can you learn about the sentence structure when you have no idea about the vocab? I have a few ideas playing in my head right now. I’ll think I’ll try them this week and get back to you.
You guys remember that teacher I wanted to strangle? No, don’t worry, I didn’t strangle him. I just gave him a dose of American stubbornness. One Friday, he had the 2nd to last class of the day and I followed him with my KSL class. Well, when the clock struck the required time, I walked in and stood inside the classroom. He was walking around showing a book to the students. I let him finish, although I stayed inside the classroom. He finished up with the students, looked at me and signed class finish. He cleaned up his area, erased the board, and walked out…although not before giving me the stink eye. I talked to the other teachers and asked if I should have done anything differently. They said no and that what I did was the only way to deal with him. Hopefully, it will only take a few more times before he get the point that I am tired of him taking up my class time.
Saturday night, I had some of my neighbors kids over. Since the dinner party they have been pestering me on seeing a movie. I finally let them in….boy was that a mistake. I don’t understand how it happened but, I hate small kids now. 15 minutes hadn’t even gone by when they started fighting over my things. I wanted to kick them out. But Im starting to feel like that wouldn’t have been ok with the mamas. I did get on them about fighting over my stuff, but when they are used to a beating to get the message across, just being firm with them seems weak. Im hoping it was just the excitement of being in the muzungu’s house without the mamas was what caused the ruckus.
Well, I am off to school. I think I am coming down with a cold but if I don’t go, they don’t have subs, so there would be no one to teach my class. I hope all of you are doing well and I miss you all. I actually came down with a dose of homesickness on Sunday. It’s never happened till now. I think it was a combination of the holiday, me getting sick and listening to my music without my singing buddy. Weird. J well till next post, kwa herii

Cheeky little buggers...and birthday cake

Hey guys and Donia, sorry for the delay in posts. I have seriously been running around like a chicken without a head, and trust me, they do run. I haven’t really had a chance to breath till now. So updates….
I have been living without running water for about 4 days. The good thing is it’s not just me but the whole town. This means, there is more pressure on the people who control the water to get it up and running. So, living without running water means I have to get water from the tanks on the school grounds… and because my tanks are small, I have to go a lot. Its definitely becoming an inconvenience. My dishes are piling up because I would rather have water to drink and take a bath then wash dishes. But if water does not return tomorrow, Im going to have to suck it up and wash them…my kitchen is starting to smell.
I had my first dinner party on Sunday night. I guess you could call it a success. If you call running out of dishes, half of the cake stuck in the pan and having a kid pee on your floor a success, then yeah it was a success. It was fun having the ladies over. The kids also seemed to like going over to the muzungu house especially when there was a movie involved. Yeah I bribed the kids into liking me with Kung Fu Panda. Hey it worked. I cooked rice for them, another lady brought over beans and chapti. I was really good and I didn’t kill anyone with my rice. I also got a gas stove from one of them. I probably have the best neighbors. They are all mothers so I am like their baby. I have a gas stove and a jeko which I didn’t have to buy. The gas stove definitely works faster than the kerosene stove and I really starting to get the hang of this cooking thing.
I am still working in the classroom at night. It is my favorite time with the students. It’s very relaxed. My students writing skills are very weak, so I have been trying to teach them composition. I think I got through one lesson before they started asking for signs. Although, I can’t tell if they are genuinely asking or trying to kill time so I don’t lecture on composition. There seems to be a bit of let’s mess with the volunteer. The other night, one of the words that came up was period. I always ask if they know the meaning an sometimes they do, but this time they didn’t know. So, for the next 5-7 minutes, they sat watching me struggle to explain puberty. I tried to keep it simple as possible but there were some words they would stop me at and ask the meaning. Well, I later found out they know all about puberty and periods from class 6. So, did they forget or did they just want to see if the volunteer could pull it off?
Besides getting to teach the cheeky little buggers, I have started to integrate with the staff. Everyone is very helpful and seems to enjoy my company. They tell me I am never short on things to say and like my students am very cheeky( maybe that why my students and I get along so well). But like most teachers will tell you, there always has to be one that you just don’t connect with, and I found him. This gentleman is very nice, however there are a few of his quirks that just seem to irk me. My lessons always seem to follow his and this wouldn’t be a bad thing if he would get out of his class on time. Every single day and every single lesson, guaranteed, he is 15 minutes over. With 1 lesson being only 30 minutes, I don’t get much time to teach. I have asked the other teachers and it seems like he does it to them, although I only asked the female teachers,. So I don’t know if it’s just him or some weird patriarchal thing, since that is sort of the culture here. Once in a while, I can understand, but every single lesson? I was teaching tonight in class 8, we were going over vocabulary, and the same gentleman walks in and starts writing on the board. He finishes and then waits, like I should know this is his class time. So like any true stubborn American would do, I took my time. I guess all this” taking over my classes” was sort of getting to me. He asked where some of the students were, I told him I let them go since my class was over, it was their bed time and I didn’t know he wanted to teach. I am not sure how to deal with this situation, Kenyan style. This country seems to be very indirect and I have no idea how to be indirect. I think I might talk to the deputy headmaster and ask him to either talk to the gentleman or tell me how to address it. I’m going to be working with the man for the next 2 yrs, I wouldn’t want to have it start badly from the beginning and be uncomfortable for the rest of my time.
Well, that about covers the updates. It’s been a month of adjustments and I know they aren’t over, but I haven’t run home crying yet so that’s something good. Even with all the up’s and down’s of this job, I’m having a wonderful time and I don’t even mind when I’m so exhausted from school, I go directly home a sleep for 4 hours.

Here’s the recipe for the cake that got stuck in the pan. I also included the frosting, although I thought the cake was sweet enough without it( believe it or not it was the salt loving Kenyans who wanted it). I do advise when making it, follow the recipe. I sort of added some extra banana and pineapple… it was still good but a little too banana-ee

Tenaya’s birthday cake
Pineapple banana cake
1 cup sugar
¾ cup oil
2 eggs
1 ½ cup flour
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt
1/4 tsp vanilla
½ tsp baking soda
½ cup crushed pineapple
¾ cup diced ripe bananas
Mix dry ingredients. Add all other ingredients. Mix Well. Bake in greased enamel pan for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Sorry this part is a little hazy. Since I’m cooking it Kenyan style. Im sure it’s around 350 degrees and just cook it till its golden brown.

Frosting

¼ cup margarine
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups icing sugar
¼ cup Milk
Margarine should be fairly soft. Mix all ingredients, adding milk to make a good spreading consistency.

Looking back

Saturday, I woke up to the sounds of kids playing and roosters greeting the morning. I sat for probably 15 minutes watching them run around having fun. I thought about the night before and how much fun I had with them, how spending time with them, answering simple questions and watching wrestling was so fulfilling to me. It hit me that this felt right to me, this was where I belonged. I thought back to the year long application process and how many times I called my mom crying because of some paper lost or another unnecessary test I had to do. I thought about my life before Peace Corps and how unsatisfied I was with it, always thinking there was something was missing. If I compare life now to life then, I would say I truly have never been happier than I am right now. Most of you who follow this blog know I have epilepsy. But for those of you who don’t know, I have been struggling with it for a long time. The dependency on others, the prejudice, the stereotypes, feeling ashamed of it, and feeling like the world was closed off to me. I struggled in school because of it and struggled in life as well. But then, I guess I had what you would call a breakthrough when I thought it would interfere with my dream of serving in the peace corps. Epilepsy had taken away my independence and at times my dignity, but I refused to let it take this away from me as well. Since being here in Kenya, I have never felt more alive or more myself. I’m still living with epilepsy and I will probably have to take medication for the rest of my life, but I have finally realized epilepsy does not have me. If being here has taught me anything it is having a disability is not a disability but an ABILITY that makes us stronger than we think we are, wiser than we like to believe and more stubborn than our parents might want us to be. All you have to do is persevere and you CAN follow your dreams. I did.

What is a virgin and do American's eat snakes?

Well, it’s been 3 months since I came to Kenya and 1 month of teaching and I am still alive. I actually feel more alive and more myself here than I did back home. The kids seem to love watching me joke around with them and the other teachers. They laugh when I get into a dancing mood and act like an idiot. They are very accepting and patient with me. This week has probably been my favorite with them. They seem to be opening up to me and love hounding me with questions. They also seem to know where I am at all times. When I sit down outside, a message goes through the compound and 3...2...1... WOOSH, I have almost the entire school circling me. I told my deputy headmaster, if we ever need a quick gathering, just put me in the middle of the field and in 5 seconds flat, I will have the whole school together Then the questions start. “Do you have elephants in America?” “Do Americans eat snakes?” They love trying to rub off my tattoo and always ask why do I have a water bottle. When I told them I didn’t know how to cook, they laughed and couldn’t believe a 23 yr old didn’t know how to cook. The younger ones want to help wash my clothes. They come to my house asking if I need help. My classes are going continuing to go well, or at least they seem to be. I’m still stumped at times on how to teach them, especially English where I have to use Signed Exact English and KSL with no work book. But I am slowly getting better. They use totally different signs here than I am used to so they enjoy teaching me new signs. It’s like we are learning Sign Language together. My KSL class cracks me up. I go in with a lesson plan and end up not even covering the lesson. The minute I walk in, the students start finger spelling vocab they don’t know. Most times they don’t know the meaning, so I explain the word and we look up the sign together and if there is no sign I try to give them an alternative. I have them for art as well and today decided to use water color for a change. They loved it and even started to have a paint fight in the end, painting each other.
Then in the evening, the upper primary students have a sort of study hall. I went up there once and noticed there were no teachers. So I have decided to go up at night and be there in case they need help. Tonight was my first night and thinking I would just read while they did their work, I brought one of the Janet Evanovich books. It was like KSL all over again. Kids, who I didn’t even know, joined us and started asking for the signs for vocab words. One of the boys took my book and started writing words from the book. Trenton, Morelli, Virgin… I asked them if they knew what virgin was. They didn’t , so I had the pleasure of explaining it to them. They don’t know much about sex and what they do know, they don’t like talking about it. I hope to change it where they are comfortable talking about it, at least to me. The know how to have sex but none of the vital information, like condom use, STD’s etc. When study hall was over, I thought I would head home. The kids had other plans. They invited me to go to the dinning hall and watch wrestling. They love wrestling but again had a lot of questions. I had to explain to them it’s all pretend. Their favorite was obviously watching the “ hot, sexy” women wrestle. I’m impressed they know who the people are since the T.V has no subtitles. I wish in the news especially would provide subtitles. Allowing the kids to feel connected to their country. I am also thinking of organizing a movie night, where they can watch movies and actually understand them. After wrestling, we said our good nights and headed to bed. I can’t wait for the next study hall.

Peanut butter and Jelly no more!!!!

So I have been nervous about cooking here in Kenya. So nervous, I been surviving off of Peanut butter and jelly and badly cooked rice for 4 weeks. Yesterday, I got up the courage to cook my first meal. Ok so it was eggs but I still had to cook on the gas stove. Once I got started, I enjoyed it more and more. Here are some recipes I have tried out and some I thought you might enjoy trying yourselves.

1. Rainbow sandwich
Bell Pepper
Tomatoes
Onion
Grated Carrot
Eggs
Bread
Mustard
Sauté onions first, then add tomatoes and bell pepper. Add scrambled egg. Add salt and Ms. Dash for taste.
On 2 pieces of bread, add grated carrot, mustard and the omelet. Smooch together and enjoy.

2. No Bake Cookies
2 cups sugar
½ cup milk
½ cup margarine
½ cup coca( I used 3 small Cadbury chocolate bars)
½ cup peanut butter
2 ½ cup oats/biscuits
1 tsp vanilla( Optional, I didn’t end up using it)
Combine sugar, milk, chocolate bar, margarine and bring to a boil, cook for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and immediately add oats/biscuits, peanut butter and vanilla. Mix well. Spread onto a greased enamel plate, let harden and cut into pieces or roll into balls.

3. Elephant soup
1 elephant
30 cubic meters water
Salt and pepper to taste
2 rabbits(optional)
Blue band( butter)
Cut elephant into bite-sized pieces.( Save tusks for another use.) Sauté in blue band in a large sufuria( frying pan), then add water and simmer until done. Add salt and pepper to taste. If unexpected guests arrive, add rabbits- but check with them first, as many people do not like hare in their soup.

4. Samosas( I haven’t tried cooking these but I have been eating them a lot. The heaping club has a somosa day every week where we go out and get somosas. Very good)
Make some chapti dough and set it aside for at least ½ hour while you prepare one of the fillings. Knead dough briefly. Take a lime- sized lump of dough and roll into a circle. Cut each into quarters, roll into a cone, fill with filling, and pinch closed to make a triangle. Use the flour/water paste to seal. Try to seal the tips so that the oil does not get into the somosa. Deep fry or pan fry.

Filling - Vegetable
2 large potatoes, boiled
1/2 cup peas, boiled
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp grarm masala or curry powder
1 clove garlic
1/2 inch piece ginger
Some chopped cilantro
Bell pepper to taste
1 Tbsp margarine
Cut potatoes into small cubes. Mix all ingredients and fry until everything is mixed.

Filling - Meat
¼ kilo minced meat( 2.2 pounds is 1 kilo)
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp garam masala or curry powder
1 clove garlic
½ inch piece ginger
Pinch salt
Pinch cloves
Pinch dry mustard
Some chopped cilantro
Bell pepper to taste
1 Tbsp margarine

Fry onions until translucent. Add all other ingredients and fry till meat is done. If using tough meat, boil first.

Laughing, dancing and sunsets

Since moving to Kenya, I have started to love a lot of things


I love Mondays.

I love feeling prepared when I walk into the classroom.

I love getting the chance to sign with my students.

I love catching the sunset
I love laughing with my heaping club.( it's the nun's word for sex. I am sure you can guess what we talk about)

I love running around the field with the kids.

I love watching my kids sign( even though I still don’t know what they have said)

I love making my kids laugh

I love answering questions

I love pineapples

I love dancing with the ladies

I love greeting the teachers in the morning

I love watching my students faces when I tell them stories about America

I love getting mangos at 50 cents each

I love learning the language and culture of Kenya

I love watching my kids interact with each other

I love taking weekend trips

I love seeing the kids, all smart in their uniforms, stand at assembly

I love going to market and people watch

I love making someone’s day by shaking their hand( they get really happy when they shake the hand of a muzungu)

I love learning from the teachers

I love getting letters from home

I love learning from the students



But, I still hate ugali, tea, and cows. Hey, no one is perfect.