Today was one of my best days yet. First I got two whole extra classes, one for each grade. The grade tens had p.e. and the game I chose (big booty renamed to big money, because I don't know if booties are acceptable around these parts) was a hit. Sometimes it's hard to be a hit with the grade tens, and I have to resort to letting them pat my head, so that was a nice way to end the teaching part of my week.
I'm spending the weekend at Elijah's children's home. Jessica and he picked me up after school, with a girl with an incredibly soft voice who puts the sweet into being 16. Today she was moving into his home (so he now introduces her as his daughter) but first we had a few other kids to check up on. The kids are either being sponsored or looking for sponsors or about to start being sponsored... I'm not sure since much of the day was conducted in mother tongue. Pictures need to be taken of everything, which I get. I was asked to be in many of the pictures, which I don't get. Also it was drizzle-raining, so my hair was a frizzy mess, so I apologise for ruining the pictures. We visited a little house made of mud, which I thought was bad, but then we visited a little nook by the river bank where one orphaned boy had been sleeping for a few weeks. Elijah organised for him to stay tonight with a teacher from his school, with plans to find something more permanent tomorrow.
Then we got dropped in Masu town or something, to catch a matatu. It took a while and I was getting super starving, so we bought some bananas from a road side vendor. Imagine if all road side vendors sold only fruit? The best. Finally a mat (please, I don't need to say the whole word) came and the toll collector tried to pull me to sit in the front, but I dodged and got in a row with the other 3. I'm pretty sure the guy behind me was trying to initiate footsies, because in my experience, chair legs don't follow when you move away. Oh well though, I just ate another banana and looked at all the bright stars the Kenyan sky has to offer. Then we got pulled over by some police who were making sure that all mats were in good condition, and not over the passenger limit. As our driver paid the bribe, I just ate another banana.
Finally we arrived in Machakos. We picked up a few things for the weekend from a huge huge grocery store. My feelings in this store are akin to the first time I visited Dylan's Candy Bar in New York. Salt and vinegar chips! Butter nut squash! (does anybody know how to cook it with no oven or microwave?) Much cheaper brands of peanut butter! We will visit again on my way back to school on Sunday and I'm going to buy so many great things. I'm so excited.
Then we finally got to the orphanage. The kids had been waiting up and as soon as our car pulled in, my door was opened, a tiny boy carried my bag, several sticky hands holding little candies were thrust into my face accompanied by adorable voices asking me if I would like a sweet, and a chorus of welcomes rang out. These kids are all such sweethearts.
It's about 5 hours past my regular bedtime, so I'll save describing my favourite kids for another day, but let me tell you about dinner when we arrived. Oh man. A giant bowl of rice then a giant bowl of soup. In the soup was beans, carrots, billybillyhohos, tomatoes, garlic, and cilantro. It was SO SO SO good. Like I had to stop saying how good it was in case they might think I was over doing it. So delicious. Then there was games and singing and feet washing, that I will maybe give further details about another day but right now I am having trouble keeping my eyes open. More tomorrow.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Malaria and Machakos
Today during first period, the business teacher for form one wasn't around so I greedily swooped in on his class time. I say greedily but I mean calmly, since the other teachers think I'm crazy to want extra time with them. It was nice to just have a whole period of doing examples, and calling people up to the board, and having factoring races. Seriously, you add a racing component to anything and these girls are all over it. As I left the class I did a little two-handed-clasp-shake-over-each-shoulder (that is a hard motion to describe) in victory of the business teacher being away. Then it turns out he also has malaria and now I feel terrible, but not so much so as to regret the fun of the expand-and-collect-like-terms race. Because it was the best. Plus, he was back in the afternoon, because he just had a mild, easily treatable case.
In other news, I am going to Machakos tomorrow- a city so big that google maps has heard of it! Tonight I will dream of the variety of fruits and vegetables I am sure to find. Fingers crossed on apples!
In other news, I am going to Machakos tomorrow- a city so big that google maps has heard of it! Tonight I will dream of the variety of fruits and vegetables I am sure to find. Fingers crossed on apples!
Malaria and Machakos
Today during first period, the business teacher for form one wasn't around so I greedily swooped in on his class time. I say greedily but I mean calmly, since the other teachers think I'm crazy to want extra time with them. It was nice to just have a whole period of doing examples, and calling people up to the board, and having factoring races. Seriously, you add a racing component to anything and these girls are all over it. As I left the class I did a little two-handed-clasp-shake-over-each-shoulder (that is a hard motion to describe) in victory of the business teacher being away. Then it turns out he also has malaria and now I feel terrible, but not so much so as to regret the fun of the expand-and-collect-like-terms race. Because it was the best. Plus, he was back in the afternoon, because he just had a mild, easily treatable case.
In other news, I am going to Machakos tomorrow- a city so big that google maps has heard of it! Tonight I will dream of the variety of fruits and vegetables I am sure to find. Fingers crossed on apples!
In other news, I am going to Machakos tomorrow- a city so big that google maps has heard of it! Tonight I will dream of the variety of fruits and vegetables I am sure to find. Fingers crossed on apples!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Frightening news
1. The spiders are back after a week-long absence. I guess they like the stillness that came when Winnie and I went away for the long weekend.
2. Janet, the secretary, is hospitalised with malaria. Everybody says that there aren't any mosquitos at this elevation but the bite marks on my legs, though greatly reduced in number since getting a bug net for my bed, beg to differ. And apparently they are the malaria kind. I'm glad I've been taking my daily Malarone. (By the way, taking the pill in the morning DID alleviate the insomnia. You guys leave helpful comments.)
2. Janet, the secretary, is hospitalised with malaria. Everybody says that there aren't any mosquitos at this elevation but the bite marks on my legs, though greatly reduced in number since getting a bug net for my bed, beg to differ. And apparently they are the malaria kind. I'm glad I've been taking my daily Malarone. (By the way, taking the pill in the morning DID alleviate the insomnia. You guys leave helpful comments.)
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
This morning in the staff room I was preparing what I was going to say to the girls about their dismal scores, when I saw some of the other teachers marking. They all had many completly blank papers, where a student really just wrote her name, maybe just guessed something for the first question, then waited for time to be up. All the teacher were like, these girls are absurd! However, I realised that not a single girl in either of my classes handed in a blank paper. And suddenly I realised that even that girl who got 11% was at least putting some effort. The wind was taken from my angry-speech-sails. Some teachers had zero students scoring above 70, and in grade 9 math, over a third did. I figured that a "I can tell you're not trying!" speech was no longer relevant.
Instead I made a game time decision and spent the class on goal setting. They were told to write their goal for their upcoming end of June test, their goal for their end of term exam, and their goal for the year long course. For the math class, they had to write their goal for grade 10, 11, and 12 but since physics is optional after 10, they had to say if they were going to take it, and if not, what they were going to take instead. Then they had to list steps to achieve their goals, and make three specific promises. Next they wrote what they needed from me, and then we both signed the paper as a pledge. I realise that if my high school teacher made me write goals, I'd never stop rolling my eyes. But I've also come to realise that maybe the point of a teacher isn't to cater to the kids already getting 90s.
I got some pretty hilarious answers. My favourite were, "I promise to pull up my socks" and "I promise to subtract my jokes and multiply my seriousness." For the what they need of me question, most said things like, "answer my questions when I ask" or simply, "help me" but some were goodies like, "we need to obey each other." They answered with such earnestness. Overall, I've never loved them more.
The girls get an hour for lunch. For the next two weeks, I've scheduled four of my math students to come in and we just work on problems on the board and an individual pace. Working in a small group like that helps me see what they need to work on personally, and them see trends that the whole class should brush up on. Then I write them some individual extra homework, that they must hand in to me the next morning. After the two weeks are up, I think I'll just have a daily open extra help session every lunch. I like that it would be completely optional, but the principal is always like, "these girls are lazy. Who needs and hour break for lunch? They just dawdle. Let's make them all go to extra math every day!"
I like that they have an hour break because it gives me something to take away, as leverage, you know? A bunch of physics girls didn't finish some homework, so I gave them detention I guess, and made them sit in the back doing extra problems while I worked with my four grade nine math girls. Study time is never optional- from 7 to 5 they must be accounted for in the class other than that lunch break. They don't have class the whole time, but they have to be studying in silence. Then the day students in home, and the boarders again must be in the classroom from 7 till 10. Hard life, right? Anyway, my goal for June tests are: in math, to have a class average of 70, and in physics, to have no more than 5 people get below 50. I've got my work cut out for me.
Instead I made a game time decision and spent the class on goal setting. They were told to write their goal for their upcoming end of June test, their goal for their end of term exam, and their goal for the year long course. For the math class, they had to write their goal for grade 10, 11, and 12 but since physics is optional after 10, they had to say if they were going to take it, and if not, what they were going to take instead. Then they had to list steps to achieve their goals, and make three specific promises. Next they wrote what they needed from me, and then we both signed the paper as a pledge. I realise that if my high school teacher made me write goals, I'd never stop rolling my eyes. But I've also come to realise that maybe the point of a teacher isn't to cater to the kids already getting 90s.
I got some pretty hilarious answers. My favourite were, "I promise to pull up my socks" and "I promise to subtract my jokes and multiply my seriousness." For the what they need of me question, most said things like, "answer my questions when I ask" or simply, "help me" but some were goodies like, "we need to obey each other." They answered with such earnestness. Overall, I've never loved them more.
The girls get an hour for lunch. For the next two weeks, I've scheduled four of my math students to come in and we just work on problems on the board and an individual pace. Working in a small group like that helps me see what they need to work on personally, and them see trends that the whole class should brush up on. Then I write them some individual extra homework, that they must hand in to me the next morning. After the two weeks are up, I think I'll just have a daily open extra help session every lunch. I like that it would be completely optional, but the principal is always like, "these girls are lazy. Who needs and hour break for lunch? They just dawdle. Let's make them all go to extra math every day!"
I like that they have an hour break because it gives me something to take away, as leverage, you know? A bunch of physics girls didn't finish some homework, so I gave them detention I guess, and made them sit in the back doing extra problems while I worked with my four grade nine math girls. Study time is never optional- from 7 to 5 they must be accounted for in the class other than that lunch break. They don't have class the whole time, but they have to be studying in silence. Then the day students in home, and the boarders again must be in the classroom from 7 till 10. Hard life, right? Anyway, my goal for June tests are: in math, to have a class average of 70, and in physics, to have no more than 5 people get below 50. I've got my work cut out for me.
Monday, June 1, 2009
National holiday
Today was Madarakas day, or something like that. The day when Kenya got independance from Britain. I spent the day with Jessica and Elijah in the market area, where a celebration was taking place. Some government officials were in attendance, and each secondary school sang a song for them. Obvi my girls were the best.
There were also older women doing traditional dances that just wouldn't stop. The mc would be like, uh, okay, thanks guys and they wouldn't leave until their mics were turned off. The most hilarious part of my day was when I took a picture of a guy in a military uniform, and them he took out his camera and took a picture of me. Then we nodded at each other.
Today marks four weeks since I left home. Jessica, Elijah, and I went out for lunch after the ceremony, and them treated ourselves to a soda. I've had six cokes since arriving in Kenya: one when we went out on my first night here, one from the principal when I moved into the school, one at the funeral, one the first time I went to the market, and two at parent's day. I love having a Coke, because even though it tastes different from home, it's still kind of comforting, you know? There are other pop flavour available, but Coke is like a hug from an old friend. Today though, maybe to mark the completion of four weeks here, I got a black current Fanta instead. Oh Holy Moly, you guys. The best. Like a blue freezie but in carbonated form. I want a million more please. They don't sell this beveridge in Canada... so mark this down as number one on the Things I'm Going To Miss When I Leave Kenya list.
There were also older women doing traditional dances that just wouldn't stop. The mc would be like, uh, okay, thanks guys and they wouldn't leave until their mics were turned off. The most hilarious part of my day was when I took a picture of a guy in a military uniform, and them he took out his camera and took a picture of me. Then we nodded at each other.
Today marks four weeks since I left home. Jessica, Elijah, and I went out for lunch after the ceremony, and them treated ourselves to a soda. I've had six cokes since arriving in Kenya: one when we went out on my first night here, one from the principal when I moved into the school, one at the funeral, one the first time I went to the market, and two at parent's day. I love having a Coke, because even though it tastes different from home, it's still kind of comforting, you know? There are other pop flavour available, but Coke is like a hug from an old friend. Today though, maybe to mark the completion of four weeks here, I got a black current Fanta instead. Oh Holy Moly, you guys. The best. Like a blue freezie but in carbonated form. I want a million more please. They don't sell this beveridge in Canada... so mark this down as number one on the Things I'm Going To Miss When I Leave Kenya list.
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