Sharing Ideas

I had a great week with Jimmy and figured out the buses back to Luanda. It still baffles me that I can figure out public transportation in every city I’ve been to except LA. When I try to take the bus in LA, I almost always get lost or somehow just end up at the library. I’m not sure what this says about the public transportation in LA or about my addiction to books.

I am so impressed with Jimmy and how quickly he has adjusted to life in Isibania. The kids on his walk to work run out to greet him and he goes running with his friend Elias and one or two of the local dogs. Jimmy was even able to order food for us in Kiswahili. All I figured out is how to say mbili (two) after everything Jimmy ordered, point, and hope he chose well.  His roommates are all really fun and I think the Nuru organization is great. People in Luanda keep telling me they want Nuru to come here too. I think mainly they want to meet everyone. I told them they are stuck with me for now, but that maybe Jimmy and his friends will come visit sometime. 

The thing that both Isibania and Luanda have going for them is that people in both places seem hopeful that they have the ability to make changes in their communities. I think this mentality will bring about more improvements than the hope that someone else, e.g. mazungus, will bring money and things to change their communities for them. A few people still think this way, but it does not seem like the majority. When people do ask me to give them things though, I worry about the previous relationships these communities have had with people from the west.

Yesterday, the principal at the school next to where I do my computer work asked me to come teach in one of their classes. I walked in and asked the students what they wanted to learn and they said math and handed me some math problems that they were working on. In primary schools here there are about 10 classes from nursery class to the eighth grade and maybe four or five teachers. At some schools, the students study on their own until a teacher comes in to teach. Anyway, the students were excited that I would teach them math. After about 30 minutes of math, I said that I should probably go and they asked if I would teach them a song before I left. So, I sang a song and explained what it meant. Then, they sang a song for me and I left. I went to find the principal and tell him I was leaving. He thanked me for coming to the school and one of the teachers in the office asked me what I brought back for the school from Isibania. I said I brought some math for the kids and said goodbye. I have mixed feelings about her reaction. I mean, the school really does lack resources, but I don’t think I should give them things that they depend on and then leave them in a year feeling like they have even fewer resources.

When I was in Isibania, I put on a workshop for the teachers Jimmy worked with. They seemed to have an amazing grasp on inquiry and some great teaching methods, but they were having trouble planning lessons that connected to each other and built on what they had previously taught. So, I taught them about learning progressions. I could only find them for science, but with all of Nuru’s great teachers, they were able to make them for several core concepts in language arts. Then, we used the learning progressions to come up with learning goals for different grade levels and used the goals to backward plan lessons. I feel like the workshop worked really well because the teachers had so much experience in the different grade levels that they really had enough evidence as a group to come up with amazing progressions. I don’t have that kind of experience, but I was able to help them pull all their ideas together. Maybe I can do a workshop like this in Luanda too. I feel like leaving people with ideas that they depend on is better than giving limited resources. Ideas, they will have for a long time. I only hope that they realize that there are better ideas out there though and that ideas should evolve so I don’t come back here in a few years to find all of these outdated education theories (like the colonial recitations and rote memorization). 

Sheesh, development work is scary. I think I’ll just keep focusing on sharing ideas. That way they don’t see me as an expert either. We can just learn from each other. Like the five-year-old who sat next to me today at lunch. He showed me how to recognize a bad peanut and the whole time he was speaking Luo. He just kept using the words good peanut, bad peanut over and over again very patiently waiting for me to get it. Then he showed me that he could count in English so we played a guessing game about how many peanuts we thought were in each shell. He counted in English and I counted in Luo. Now, I won’t get sick eating rotten peanuts. Woohoo. Now, that is a good teacher. Hopefully by only sharing ideas, I won’t cause too much damage here.

Reunited with Jimmy!

Jimmy came to Luanda to pick me up and bring me to his home in Isibania. I was soooo excited to see him again, but here in Kenya girls and boys do not touch in public. Alas, we did have a fun trip here to Isibania. We stopped in Homa Bay at a nice restaurant by the lake where I ordered spaghetti (or a distant cousin of spaghetti made with the standard royco seasoning). Jimmy and I took pictures by the animal statues and realized that one of them actually moved and was a real camel.

When we arrived, Jimmy showed me around the house and its really cool to see the fusion of Kenya culture and American culture in the house and the way everyone lives. Isibania is a bigger town than Luanda and is incredibly green with rolling hills. It really is beautiful here and his housemates are really fun. I’m glad that I get to come here and meet everyone. Jimmy and his friend Elias took me for a tour of their neighborhood. It was funny greating people here because I kept trying to respond in Luo, but they speak a different language. Jimmy has already learned some of it as well as Kiswahili so he kept up the conversations. Then we went back and two of the girls cooked an amazing dinner of chapatti tacos. No offense to ugali, but I am going to really be sick of eating corn after this year. I was very happy to have rice, beans, avocados, and tomatoes with lots of yummy spices.

I’m really happy to be with Jimmy again. I have missed him these past could months. I’m really glad we are both in Kenya together even if we are still a couple hours away. At least we don’t have to drive through LA traffic. We plan to have some adventures here and are planning a trip to the Massai Mara soon. We will be back in the US in December which will be here before we know it. We both miss everyone at home and hope you are all doing well.

This is Jimmy,.  It was great to see Anne too.  She will get to see what we do here for the next week and it will be fun to take her around.  I know it will go by quick, but it’s good to have her here.  We will try to show her the best of what Isibania has to offer.

First Health Club Meeting

Today I had my first health club meeting at the secondary school. Even though I was told there was already a health club there, there was not one until this week. On Tuesday I met with one of their teachers and she created one for me. She selected a group of girls who showed strength in science and English and were interested in learning about health. They all met with me today and seemed very excited to participate in the club.

After introductions, I asked the girls to brainstorm what they already know about the connections between health and water. One girl said that water can be contaminated. Another added that you can treat water. As each student added something about the connections between health and water, we came up with three main topics of contaminated water, water flow, and water treatment. Under contaminated water, the girls mentioned some of the sources of contamination including sewage, industry, bathing, spraying chemicals (crops), and fecal contamination. The girl who added fecal contamination spoke of someone bathing in the water who then goes to the bathroom. We talked a little, and the girls giggled some, about the differences between peeing and pooping in the water. I also talked about how both human and animal feces can be contaminants. The girls also brought up methods they already know for treating water such as boiling and chlorinating water. One student added that you need to filter the water before you can boil it or chlorinate it. I told the students that we would be experimenting with several methods of water treatment. I also said that I would not have all of the answers, but that we would be scientists and learn together.

I asked the girls to brainstorm questions they would like to explore further this year as part of the health club. They came up with quite a comprehensive list:

·         How can we prevent waterborne illnesses?

·         What measures can be taken to those who contaminate the water?

·         How much of our environment should we and can we keep clean?

·         How can we maintain personal health?

·         How can we control (treat) waterborne diseases?

·         How can we educate other people to maintain health?

·         Which waterborne diseases can spread from one person to another and how?

We briefly talked about each question the girls suggested. I added to the last question about learning how they spread saying that that would also help us understand how to prevent the illnesses. Then I gave the students an assignment over their break to write about their own experiences with water such as where they get it, how they store it, and how they use it.

I was really impressed with the discussion on our first meeting. I have visited three primary schools in the area and noticed that most of the classes are still very lecture-like in style. I was worried that I would have to do that too, but the girls in the health club seemed open to other ways of learning. I also think their science teacher likes to do some hands-on labs so they are used to things being a little different with her. The teacher said that she would do more labs, but they do not always have enough materials for each student. She said this means that the students are used to working in groups or gathering around to watch one or two people do demo labs.

After our discussion about the connections between water and health and giving them the assignment, I opened up the floor for questions about anything. I have realized that the children here have many questions for me about the US and where I have traveled so I feel like it’s only fair to give them a chance to ask these questions. Also, I remember in my philosophy classes in undergrad how my professor always started class by letting us ask questions about anything. It was something I really looked forward to. So, I told the students that they could ask me anything and that I would try my best to answer. They asked me some personal questions about whether I had children. I told them I did not, but that I was getting married next year. They asked me about my fiancé and I told them what he was doing in Kenya. The girls asked me about the educational system in the US like how many years you studied in primary, secondary, and university. Then, the questions really got interesting and brought up some crazy discussions. It was great fun and I learned a lot about the students.

I need to get a regular power source so that I can start videotaping these club meetings. Maybe it is better that the first one was not videotaped though because the students were so open and I really think the first meeting set us off to a great start.

Electricity and Change

Last summer, the Opanga water committee would purchase oil in the next town over and bring it to Luanda to run the water pump. Saturdays were the busiest day when the pump was filled and everyone came to collect water. They would continue collecting water starting with the filtered water until it ran out. Then, they would use the unfiltered water until it ran out. Now, the pump is going to be run by electricity. This will make things much better as the water committee can save the money they normally spend on fuel for maintenance and repairs to keep the pump running. The tricky part that I did not realize is how complicated the process is to get power. Even Benson’s brother who has fully paid for his home to be added to the electric grid is still waiting and has been waiting for months for the power company to come out and do this.

Every day I have been here, I have seen people gathered at the tapstand. I can watch them as I wake up in the morning. The crowd thins as the sun becomes hot in the afternoon and continues to grow again as people collect water in the evening. I have noticed that the animals have not come as close to the taps. The donkeys still enter the gate, but wait by its entrance to carry the containers of water after they are filled.

Benson’s daughter told me that before the pump, she used to bring the donkeys down to the lake every day for water. She would leave early in the morning and walk about half an hour to fill the jerry cans then bring them back traveling uphill the whole way home. Things are definitely improving for the women (and donkeys) in the community.

There are some things about electricity that I worry will change in the community though. One of my favorite times of day is the evening after dinner when everyone “stories.” I love hearing people share tales from their past and stories about the world. I worry that this will turn into tv time like it is in the US and at Benson’s house they already watch lots of tv and they have only had power for a month. Benson says it is really nice to be up-to-date on the news and I agree that this is good, but I will be sorry if storying is lost to the tv.

Many Words

I am now back in Luanda. My first lesson on the journey here was how to be flexible. This can be taken literally in learning to squish into a matatu. Picture a minivan for a family of five. Now picture that same space filled with twenty adults, two kids, and a baby. My concept of personal space has been transformed into that of a sardine. The funny thing is that after a while, I stopped noticing and just enjoyed the ride. On the matatu from Kisumu to the ferry that would take me across Lake Victoria, I sat next to an engineering student who lives near Mbita. He is starting an online project to connect schools around the world. He taught me a lot about education here and wants to volunteer with Engineers Without Borders when we develop the well here next month.

It never ceases to amaze and shock me that I can feel like a young child all over again every time I live someplace new. Well, maybe this is part of the reason I keep trying to live in new places. One of the more difficult and frustrating reasons I feel like a young child is that I do not understand how to live and what to do to fit in. Do you ever remember being the only child at an adult dinner party? You are there, but not quite in the conversation. Your parents have to help you get a plate of food and none of it is what you are used to eating at home. You sort of feel like a distant observer even though you say hi to people. You also have to rely on others to get around. That is kind of the feeling that I have when I am in a new place that is very different from what I am used to. When I was with the Engineers Without Borders team last summer it was different because it was like there were a group of us clueless kids.

There are fun aspects to feeling like a young child though. First, children can sense that I relate to them. It is always the children who seem to bring me into their culture first. They don’t seem to care that I am helpless and are just as curious about me as I am of everyone and everything new and different. Like last summer, Stephan has taken me under his wing. He shows me all of the shortcuts through the corn fields and teaches me how to speak Luo. He says knowing a language is how you learn to know the people. Stephan is a very wise twelve-year-old. He has already picked up English from getting to know every visitor from the US and UK. The next language he hopes to learn is French. So, we walk around naming things and actions in Luo and French. I am learning many words from him and I hope that in time I will learn more about the people here.

New Meanings and New Adventures

I have just spent my first day in Kenya where I will be living for most of the year. I wanted to keep a blog of my travels and thought that I should just go ahead and continue the one I started for a technology and learning class I took with my advisor. At first, my reasoning was mostly keeping things simple (a.k.a. laziness), but after some reflection this blog title seems quite relevant. My goals here in Kenya are to work with Engineers Without Borders introducing new technologies for distributing and storing water and to help educate the community to use and sustain these technologies. So, in this blog I will keep you posted on my progress with these goals and my journey along the way.

Today, I toured around Nairobi's animal centers. I saw baby orphaned elephants being bottle fed baby formula and got to pet them. One was only 3 months old. They will be taken care of until they are about 3 or 4 years old then be reintroduced into the wild. While I haven't been obnoxiously begged for food by my horse Stetson in a few days, I thought of him when I fed two giraffes. The first giraffe was giving lots of kisses too. The giraffes are part of a breeding program to build up the population. I also got to hold a baby crocodile and a giant 50 year old tortoise. Both surprisingly seemed to like the attention, but I'm glad the crocodile was not as old as the tortoise or we might not have gotten along as well. There is also a cute golden retriever who lives at the hotel and enjoys belly rubs and seems rather wild when she plays. And there are monkeys, baboons, and camels that I've seen on the side of the road while driving by. I love the animals here and I'm sure I could enjoy other parts of Nairobi, but I leave early tomorrow morning for Kisumu. Bye for now!