Pictures!

Thank you to the EWB team for sharing the pictures!

The sunrise from the patio:

 

 The house where I am living (very spacious):

 Garung, the cuddly dog who likes to sleep on the front porch:

The lovely latrine and bucket bath stalls (tiled and everything):

The kitchen and rainwater tank:

Some of the shops downtown:

A view of the mountains:

Some of my friends here (Stephan, 13, is on the far left in red, Peter, 9, is the other boy in red looking off yonder, and Teddy, 7 I think, is the one in front with the gray and yellow stripes):

Market day (On Mondays people come from the town and the nearby cities to sell their goods, its like target comes to us):

A view of the lake:

The Teachers' Strike Continues

Well, Jimmy and I are at a bit of a stand-still with the public schools here. The teachers’ (from primary school to university) unions in Kenya are on strike to improve their wages from the government. In July, other civil servants received salary increases, but not the teachers. After the minister of finance did not show up to their first attempted meeting, they finally met to resolve the issues. The government offered the teachers’ unions a three part lump sum, but the teachers’ union did not accept the offer. They argued that the lump sum would not even reach the individual teaches and that like other civil servants, they deserve fair wages for each individual.

I have mixed feelings on the strike. I agree that teachers should receive a pay raise especially since the other civil servants did and there were plans for pay increases set up in 1997 that the government has not followed through on. I also feel that their specific demands for increased wages for the month of September and back pay starting from July 2012 are somewhat unreasonable. Namely, where will the money come from? The government cannot just hand out checks for money that is not factored into the budget. The teachers are going to have to compromise when it comes to the immediacy demands they have made or the government will have to immediately cut the budget somewhere else. My vote is for cutting the budget for campaigning. Somehow even during the teachers’ strike they have been able to meet with regards to government-sponsored campaign budgets. Go figure.

The tricky part is that the government doesn’t really feel the impact from the teachers’ strike. They are already finished with school. It is the students who really feel the impact of the strike. Stephan, for example, who is reading this post as I type, says that he is feeling bad because he hasn’t been going to school for months now. "We are still continuing with our learning at home though. We are reading story books, doing maths, and taking some English tests, and learning science," he explains. Stephan and some of his friends meet every day to study. Luckily, they are still in standard 6 and 7, the equivalent of junior high in the US and have awhile before their big exams. The students who are most impacted are form 4s, like seniors in high school in the US, who are taking their exams in December. They worry that they will have to compete with students in private schools who have had teachers while their own schools have been closed this term. The exam is the main qualifier for getting into university and getting jobs. The students here are just waiting to go back to school and doing their best to keep learning.

As for my research and the health club, I cannot give the exact details from what is taking place at the secondary school. The outcome though is that I cannot work with the club there until the strike ends and I need to be extremely careful teaching public school students at all. So, the waiting continues. In the meantime, I will have to improvise my research and keep track of the strike. I guess one finding is how much science education can be tied up with politics. Though, I guess we also see that in the US. I’m keep you all posted on the strike. Jimmy is also waiting with a group of great teachers who have no schools to go to for the time being. At least they have time to do some great training and planning. I think he is essentially running his own teachers education school. 

Well, here’s hoping the teachers' strike ends and the schools reopen soon!

The Impact of Weather

Okay, when it rains in LA, the drivers can’t handle it and traffic stops. Of course, this is also true of Friday afternoons regardless of the weather. When it snows in Gettysburg, PA people go to the store to buy extra food then stay inside for the most part. Mainly because Gettysburg is notorious for doing a crummy job snow plowing. Anyway, things stop a bit but you hang out inside, drink some hot chocolate, and enjoy a book. When it gets windy and is about to rain by Lake Victoria, you are not allowed to sit inside and relax. First, you must go out into the thorn bushes to retrieve clothes that have fallen off the fence. Then you have to run around finding all of the dishes that have blown off the dish drying rack (those will need to be rewashed later), then you have to let the chickens into the kitchen so they stop screaming, then you have to find the goats and make sure they are tied somewhere safe, you have to put giant stones by all the windows so they don’t fly open, then you bring the stove into the main house to cook. Oh, and inevitably during this time any power there was (in like 4 houses and a couple of stores) will have gone out so you have to do all of this in the dark or one handed with a flashlight. You also have to try to get the children to their respective homes before the rain comes or tell them to stay put until the storm is over. The good news is that rain means no hauling water for a while since you can harvest the water for use. It also means the crops do well unless there is too much rain in which case they can wash away. Oh, and poor Stephan had to come back early from playing soccer. Tomorrow, the soccer field will be a lake. All in all, rain is life.

Updates Part 2 and Happy Birthday Jimmy!

 The water project is doing well. I spoke with the lady who lives down by the pump and she showed me around her new garden. She has been using some of the water to grow kale and they have already sprouted. She also said that people have been coming from very far to get water; even people from the shore of the lake have been coming to get their drinking and cooking water.

My research…not going as well. There is a teachers strike for better wages (a document they prepared and have been trying to pass since the mid ‘90s) so none of the schools are starting. Some of the secondary school students told me that they will still go back to their boarding schools so they can be together and study. I may try to go on Thursday and see if anyone wants me to still run the health club, but I’m honestly not sure if anyone will be there.

Jimmy is having the same trouble with the teachers’ strike multiplied by nine since he works with nine different schools. He was also supposed to be expanding to new schools this term. The good thing is this gives his team some extra time to plan, but we are both hoping the strike ends soon. We had a great weekend in Kisii together though. It was nice to get away and see a city (with running water, toilets, electricity, a variety of food, and even supermarkets). Mostly, it was just good to see Jimmy! It is his birthday today so please send him many birthday wishes and tarheel football updates. :)

I’m still doing program evaluation with Lubi and Ellie, albeit from a distance. I miss having them with me in person, but it is nice to work with them from afar. I also managed to use the stove for the first time today. I cooked a giant pot of spaghetti that I brought back from Kisii. All of the ingredients came from Kisii except for the tomatoes and onions. It was crazy cooking in large quantities and feeding over 20 people, but it was nice finally cooking for the families who always cook for me. 

I miss everyone in California (and my East Coast friends if any of you are reading this). Please send me lots of e-mails telling me how you are doing since facebook is sometimes hard to load. I hope the start of the school year is going well. Miss you all!