Mzuri Sana

Mzuri sana is a response for habari yako, meaning I'm doing very fine. I have learned over 40 words since I got here! Everyone loves to teach me, and when I actually use the words they get very excited. So I am going to begin by describing my new modes of transportation. First, the mountain bike. I don't think I have ever sat on a seat this uncomfortable. It feels like I'm sitting on a metal pipe, and my sitting bones are really taking a beating. Luckily I'm starting to get used to it a little bit, but it will be an interesting 5 weeks of biking 5 days a week, to and from. Monday, Wednesday and Fridays, I bike about 2 kilometers from the house, to a gate where they store my bike. The ride is BRUTAL! The roads are so terrible that I constantly need to have my eyes on the road to make sure I don't crash into any huge rocks. Oh and there isn't a lot of flat ground, so its either going up up up, which takes the life out of me, or going down hill which is excellent. Luckily, it is about half up and half down to get to the gate, so one way isn't a lot worse than the other. The bike ride up to the nursery school is another story. It is probably about the same distance, but instead of the 15 minutes to get to the gate, it takes me at least 25 and when I get there I am beet red and super sweaty. The ride up there is literally all up hill. Many parts of it are so steep that I have to walk up because gravity makes it impossible to bike up. What makes it even worse, is that both times I have gone up there, 3 or 4 flies have followed me the ENTIRE way. And I cannot stand flies. People tell me to not let them bother me, because there are so many here, but I just can't do that. That ride is easily the most miserable thing that I have endured here. Luckily, coming back is much easier. Except it becomes an upper arm exercise because my hands are constantly on the brakes, which need to be pushed all the way in to slow you down at all. My other new mode of transportation is MUCH better. When I get to the gate, a man named James picks me up on his piki piki, motorcycle, and brings me to St. Andrews. He's a really nice guy and I tell him all about America and he teaches me swahili. Unfortunately my terrible memory makes it hard for me to remember the words he teaches me, so he's always disappointed when he picks me up at the end of the day and I forget half of them. He told me that I'm the first mzungu (white person) that he has ever driven, which I thought was pretty exciting. Here's a picture of me and James!

I tried to smile too big which is why I look weird

So far this week, my teaching at St. Andrews has been going well. On Monday we talked about self-esteem and self-talk, both of which the students have a hard time with. Oh I also thought of a great way (or so I thought) to learn all of their names. I gave them all name tags, and then took a picture of every single student. I'm going through them like flash cards on my computer, and so far I think I know about 5... whoops. By the time I leave maybe I'll know half of the names. Yesterday, we talked about pride and trust. I began the class by discussing two quotes by Wangari Maathai, a wonderful Kenyan woman who passed away a few days ago. I really like both of the quotes so I am going to share them with all of you. 


"You cannot enslave the mind that knows itself. That values itself. That understands itself." - Wangari Maathai


"African women in general need to know that it's OK for them to be the way they are- to see the way they are as a strength, and to be liberated from fear and silence." - Wangari Maathai 


I am trying to teach my students to make decisions based on THEIR opinions, not the opinions of any one else in Kenya. A key question so far has been asked them why. For a lot of the questions I ask, they do not know why, they just say that is what they were taught. I asked them if they though pride is good, or bad. The entire class said bad, which surprised me, because in America people generally use the word pride in a positive way. Luckily, I had two definitions of the word, and explained to them that it can have two different meanings. I then moved onto the topic of trust, which led to several interesting answers to some of my questions. I asked them who they trust, if anybody, and why they trust that person. About a third of each class said they did not trust anyone, because once you trust someone, they will turn your their back on you. Other people said their friends, God, or their parents. Some of the people who said they trust their mom wrote, "I trust my mom because if she didn't love me she would have aborted me", which I thought was interesting. Some of them said they trusted me which was very sweet. One kid wrote, " I trust Molly Snell, because she trusted our school by coming here and I know she will help me and I can trust her with my problems." I also asked them how many lies you can tell before you become a liar. I first asked the teachers, and all of them said you only get one lie. When I asked the students, they said you can tell millions of lies. The concept of lying has led to a lot of corruption in Kenya, which creates a serious lack of trust. That problem is too big for me to conquer, but I'm really going to try to rebuild trust at St. Andrews if nothing else.I am going to start class on Friday by doing trust falls, which should be fun and helpful for the students. The rest of the class will be small group discussions, giving each student a chance to share any conflict they have had with themselves. I'm really hoping they will actually share, but I have a back up lesson plan just in case. 
My work at the nursery school is very different, and really hard in a different way. Teaching english as a second language to kids who can barely read, and only know swahili, which I do NOT know, is quite the challenge. Luckily I have the other teachers as interpreters, but I can't tell if the kids are understanding, or just repeating what I say and memorizing it. At the nursery school there are two classes. One is just regular pre-school, and the other is pre-k/ kindergarten. The kids in the second class are between ages 4 and 7, and they are supposed to know how to read and write english by the time they enter primary school. I'm not sure that that actually happens. Today, one of the teachers wasn't there, so I was in charge of the pre-k/ kindergarten class for the morning. They behaved pretty well for the majority of the time, but they got a little unruly after one girl got stabbed with a pencil, or so I was told. I had no clue what to do because I know absolutely no disciplinary swahili, so I just kind of went with it and moved on. Another problem is I'm pretty sure that they don't understand that I don't know swahili, so they constantly talk to me in swahili and expect answers. It was a fun morning despite the language barrier, and here is a picture of me teaching them.

My face was still red from the bike ride, don't worry I'm not THAT sunburnt. (not quite)

The kids are absolutely adorable, and here's a few pictures that I took today that I think are precious. If it doesn't take too long to upload, I will also put up a video of them singing. The little guy that I zoomed in on is Kennedy, one of the cuties that was here last July when we visited. 

This is Lilly and she has the BEST smile. Unfortunately every time she smiled another kid leapt in front of the camera 

That's all for now! On Saturday Deb and I have our first official swahili lesson with one of the teachers at St. Andrews! Maybe I will come home fluent. (yeah right) At least I can try! Right now all I know is single words so I sound like an idiot. 

ps. I am still being force fed Ugali at St. Andrews. It really is not one of those foods that gets better the more you eat it. I hope you are all enjoying the DELICOUS food that is available in the US :)


Lots of love to everyone!
Molly

Habari Yako?

So I've decided I'm going to title every blog post a different swahili word that I learned that day. Today, one boy came over to me while I was talking to some other guys, and said habari yako about five times, before finally one of the boys said excuse me madam, this boy is trying to ask how you are. And of course I felt bad and gave him an answer right away, nzuri, meaning I'm fine.
Today was the big walk and I BARELY survived. We decided it was 15 kilometers, not 10. And this is not your regular 15 k walk. It was HOT hot hot, and super dry. Oh and we're at 6,000 feet if i haven't already mentioned that so the oxygen supply is a little low. We drove down to Kasarani, the slum where all of the students at St. Andrews live, at 9 this morning to begin. When we got there, there was "police detail" waiting for everyone to come together. The police detail was a great group of guys (and one girl) who were the security teams from two local flower farms. We parked the car, then got ready to begin. I had my backpack with two big bottles of water and my camera, the only necessities for a walk like this. Suddenly we heard drumming, and we turned around to find the "Kenya Scouts", the african version of boy scouts marching towards us. It was about 10 of the boys who go to St. Andrews, and they look VERY official. The best part was the 5 or 6 little kids trailing behind marching along. I'd say they were between ages 2 and 5. When they got closer to us all of the little guys ran towards me yelling "howahyou" which is the only english they know. When I knelt down to talk to them some of them jumped back and I was so confused. Later, I realized that they could see themselves in my sunglasses because they have a metallic finish, and they scared themselves. That was a big relief for me. Here are a few pictures of the little kids who LOVED seeing pictures of themselves on my camera.

this guy just looks so sad

Alright so the actual walk. Kenyans walk FAST. And the roads are all dirt and are full of pot holes. But I'm really glad I did it! I spent most of the walk with a group of 5 guys who had lots of questions about America, and lots of interesting answers to my questions about Kenya. One of them offered to carry my back pack which was very sweet and it was great to not have to carry it. At the half way point I was convinced I wasn't going to make it back because my toes were in so much pain, and my hip flexors started hurting big time. Oh and I was STARVING. One of the teachers gave me a little packet of biscuits which was a heeeuge help. All of the students kept coming up to me and asked if I was tired and I'd always say yesss I am and I'd ask them the same and they said oh no this is not a long walk. Many of them do this walk every day to get to school, or just to get around. In my lessons I told my students that in solving conflicts it is very important to put yourself in the other ones shoes. Today I did just that and it was really good for me. I had one my fancy running shoes, and many of the students either had simple flats, or shoes that clearly didn't fit them at all. On November 5th St. Andrews is having a Harambee, which is a fundraiser where everyone presents the money that they have raised for a certain event. All of the money that is raised from the walk will be going to building a new classroom, because they are expecting another 80 students next year, but they don't have anywhere to teach them. The money will also be going towards school fees for students who can't afford to pay. My goal is to raise at least $250, hopefully closer to 500. If anyone wants to support me, it's pretty easy. Send the money to 84 Old Sudbury Rd, Lincoln MA 01773, and if you are writing a check write it out to John Snell. He will collect all of the money, and then write out one check to St. Andrews, which my aunt, who is coming at the end of October, will bring over for me to present at the Harambee. Even $5 can really go a long way over here, so any donation is really appreciated by the students. If you are a student at LS and want to donate, you can give money to my sister.

Now I'm going to share with you some of the responses I got from my students yesterday. 

The first set of questions are answering this question. "Write down any questions you have about the topic conflict resolution, or personal conflicts you have" These are just a few of the 180 responses I got.

1) Every time our school teachers send me home for school fees, but I have nothing to do. So sometimes I feel myself that I am abandoned and then I have been thinking of taking my life. Please help me to solve the feeling and control myself because I still need to live. What can I do?

2)  Why do politics like seeing people dying when they have the right to solve it?

3) How can you make conflict resolution with a person you don’t talk to, because he/ she can not listen to you. He will be proud and feel like he/she is more valuable than you and will mistreat you. He will be making fun of you know that after all, you can’t afford to lose him/ her which is very bad.

4)  I sometimes quarrel with my mom but I know I was right. I can’t tell my mother she is wrong because she is an elder. It hurts me inside to know that I am right but someone can’t accept it because I am young. What should I do?

5)  How can you resolve a conflict if you are not involved. You have come home from school and find that your father is abusing your mother either language abuse, physical abuse etc. What is your first step in resolving.

After reading all of them I sat and tried to soak it all in. My first thought, was wow I am in way over my head. These are questions for a trained counselor, not an 18 year old right out of high school. I realized that I need to keep telling myself I am not here to solve all of their conflicts, I am here to teach them how THEY can solve conflicts themselves. It was good to see what I'm dealing with within these students and I think it was a good way for them to share concerns that they have probably kept inside for a long time. 

On a more happier note, I asked some of the students to give me feedback, and these were some of their responses.

1)  I like your teaching. New and marvelous. Bravo!

2) You are perfect, interesting and understandable. I just like everything in you. I love you

3) Molly Snell you are the best teacher, and friend I have ever came across. Your teachings, explanation and examples you give us fits your topics.

4)  I think you are so cool molly. I like the way you are teaching us. We understand you better madam.

This is the last thing I promise. (Just to prove to everyone that I really am teaching them) I asked one class to write down one thing they learned, and these were some responses. 

1) I have learned that I don’t have to disagree with anyone or anything because of nature.

2) I’ve learned to understand other people as the best way to solve conflicts between me and others. 3) Communication needs someone to cooperate, concentrate, ask questions, talk to each other and use eye contact

The last two questions I asked warmed my heart and filled me with confidence to continue teaching. Many of the students have come up to me to thank me for sacrificing my time to be here with them, and hearing that from students themselves really makes me feel like I am making a difference in their lives.

Hopefully this will be a relaxing weekend, because I'm not sure I'll be able to walk tomorrow. Who knew walking could make this so tired! I'm sure there is something I forgot to write about, but oh well. OH here's a picture of me walking today!

I was mid-wave which is why my arm looks funny

teacha teacha

So apparently people are actually reading this thing, so I figure I better start writing more! My first week of teaching has come to a close, and I think I have learned more than I have taught! This week I taught tuesday, wednesday, thursday, but starting next weekend it will be monday, wednesday, friday. I will leave the house around 9 every morning, bike about 2 miles, then get picked up by a motorcycle taxi to take me the rest of the way to st. andrews. He is charging me 300 shillings a day, which is the equivalent of about $3 which is a GREAT deal, seeing that is is about 7 miles each way.
So my first day, I arrived at 10 am and went to the teachers room, which is a room about the size of a dorm room for all 7 teachers. Every teacher has a desk (including me!) This is a picture of the list of teachers which was pretty exciting for me to see.

After getting situated in the teacher's room, I went down to my first class. After introducing myself, I had a COMPLETE mind blank. I literally could not think of anything to do for the next hour, despite my perfectly laid out plan in my notebook. Luckily with every class it got easier, but it was absolutely terrifying. I told the students my age and they were SHOCKED. I told them to raise their hand if they were older than me, and about 30 people total did. I did an activity with them where they are in partnerships, and one person has a piece of paper and a pencil, and closes their eyes. Then, I drew some shapes up on the board, like a big square with a circle, and a heart and a line in it, and their partner had to explain how to draw it. They were all laughing and having a good time, and they wanted to make SURE that their partners weren't cheating, so they would cover each others eyes. Here's a picture of them. One kid put a bag over his head so he couldn't see. OH, and whenever they need my attention, they say "teacha, teacha come here" (which is where the title of this post came from)

At 4 o'clock, my day was done and I came home. After dinner we watched the movie Sister Acts with Whoopi Goldburg which was hysterical.

On day 2 I got a little bit of african culture. All of my classes went well, and I did an activity that had all of the students laughing again. My goal for this week was to teach the basics of conflict resolution, while also making the students feel comfortable with me and each other. Ok so at lunch time, I had brought my own sandwich, but one of the teachers decided that I MUST try ugali. http://i-cdn.apartmenttherapy.com/uimages/kitchen/2009_02_09-Ugali.jpg. If you go to that link, you will find a picture of the one and only ugali. It's made from flour, maize and water. Quite the combination. I tried to explain to them that the reason I didn't eat much was because I wasn't used to it, but I think I offended them. Today, I was served ugali again and i've learned that not eating their food can be an insult, so i tried as hard as I could to eat as much as I could. So this was my first run in with some of african culture I'm not QUITE used to. The second dilemma came across during the tea break in the morning. Every teacher gets a cup of chai, which is actually quite good. The only problem is, if you drink it, it makes you have to pee, like any other liquid. And you'd think this wouldn't be a problem, but when you are at a school with no electricity, it certainly is. The first day I got away with only taking a couple sips, but yesterday I made the mistake of drinking my whole cup. And of course, a few hours later I had to pee so bad I couldn't hold it any longer. The bathrooms at the school are called pit latrines. They are literally a pit in the ground, with two cement blocks to put your feet on. So I walked over the the pit latrines, right past the head master who was talking to about 20 parents of the students, and they all turned and watched me walk over. There are 4 doors, each leading to a pit latrine, and the problem was none of them were labeled. I know there is a male and female bathroom for both students and teachers, but I had NO idea which one was the female teacher bathroom. The parents continued to stare at me and I contemplated which one to choose, and of course, the first one I chose was locked. So I looked like an even bigger idiot. Luckily the second one was not, so I went in, went to the bathroom, came out and walked back VERY quickly. Next week I'm going to attempt to figure out which one I am supposed to be using. 

Today went very well, and I asked all of the students to ask a question about conflict resolution, and to give me feedback on how I am doing so far. The answers I got were heartwarming, touching, depressing and shocking. I will share some of their responses in my next post, but I think this one is getting a little long. I am going to leave you with a video of one of my classes singing for me. Tomorrow I will fill you in on how the walk goes, and I will give you more information on how you can donate if you would like to. I have plenty of time to collect the money, so don't worry about that. Oh and I have never been one to check for typos, so I apologize if there are any typos in this post.

Africa Africa

I made it! My second flight wasn't NEARLY as nice as my first one, and I thought that it was never going to end. 8 hour flights by yourself are just not fun in the slightest, and they are very boring. Greg and Deb (My dad's cousin and his wife who I am staying with) gave me very clear instructions on what to do when I arrived at the airport, and I reread them about 10 times on the plane. Luckily, I got my visa, got my bags and made it through customs without any problems whatsoever. After the 2 hour drive from Nairobi to Naivasha, my journey was finally complete.
I am finally starting to settle into my new African life. It is great to be back here but it's a lot different coming by myself then it was coming with a group of people who I know really well. My first day here, we went to a bike race fundraiser to help out. I was the official timer which got pretty tricky when a group of bikers would come flying past me all at once. But it was a really fun event and everyone seemed to have a great time. I ended up playing with one of the boys I met at the nursery school last year and his little sister, who were 5 and 3 years old and were just adorable. Emanuel, the boy I met last year had grown at least a foot and I could barely recognize him, but it was really fun to see some familiar faces. Oh and I managed to get my first sun burn which is finally starting to go away. I forgot what 4 hours in the sun 75 miles away from the equator at 6,000 feet can do. Hopefully I will come home nice and tan :)
This morning I went up to St. Andrews, the secondary school where I will be teaching, and met with Peter, the principal of the school. It was absolutely incredible to be back at the school and see how much progress they have made. Last July, there were about 80 students, and now there are 186, and they are expecting their first graduating class to graduate next year which is very exciting. Peter is an wonderful man and the amount of work he does for the school is amazing. He talked about all of the fundraisers that they have planned for the school, including a walk this friday that I am going to participate in! The walk is 10 kilometers and I'll be walking with all of the students. If anyone would like to sponsor me, let me know! Even $5 can go a very long way here. Well anyways, I am going to begin teaching the course on Conflict Resolution tomorrow, so wish me luck! We worked out a schedule, and I will be going to St. Andrews 3 times a week, teaching 4 hours each day, 1 hour for every class. This post is a lot longer than I thought it was going to be, so I apologize for that.
Goodbye for now, and I hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of fall!

Oh and I am going to attempt to attach some pictures of where I'm staying. One is of the house that Greg and Deb live in, one is of the little guest house where I am staying, and one is of the view from their deck.

Best flight ever

All the words are in dutch on my computer right now, so lets hope I click all the right buttons and this actually posts. Well I have made it to Amsterdam! And thanks to some EXCELLENT connections, I ended up in first class! My aunt's friend is a flight attendant, and he happened to know all the flight attendants on my flight. I had gotten all settled in my seat 31E next to a lovely couple on their way to Poland, and a flight attendant approached me and asked if I was Molly, and he said come with me I have a seat for you. So I followed him to seat 1C. I was at the very front of the plane in the most comfortable seat I have ever had on a plane. It had an adjustable foot rest, it reclined, AND it had a built in massager! The best feature over all was the fact that it could go completely flat like a bed which made sleeping muchhh easier. Oh and the terrors of airplane food were no longer an issue, and my back up pb&j remains safely in my bag. I had a 4 course meal, including fresh veggies, fresh fruit, ice cream and much more. Also, all of the flight attendants knew my name and were a very friendly group. Needless to say, my next flight isn't going to be NEARLY as nice, and its 2 hours longer. I know none of this is relevant to Kenya, but I was just so excited with my luck that I decided to share it with everyone. Oh, and I have one tip. NEVER watch the movie Bridesmaids (even if you've already seen it) on a plane when you're alone. You get lots of weird looks, especially from the prestigious crew in first class. Its even worse if you can't control your laughter like me. If all goes well my next post will be from Kenya and I will have made it through customs successfully!!

Off I Go

I never thought that I would have a blog. But here I am, writing my first post. In 6 hours I will be taking off for Kenya. I first fly 7 hours to Amsterdam, where I have a 3 hour layover, then I fly another 8 hours to Kenya. A lot of people have asked me if I'm excited for my trip, and I answer very hesitantly, starting with I'm incredibly nervous. While I am very excited to have this opportunity, a lot of what I am doing is unlike anything I have ever done in my life. First of all, it is the first time I have ever flown alone. But that should be fine as long as I make it there in one piece and get through customs successfully. I have lived a relatively structured life, where everything is a routine, and that is how I like it. In Kenya I know this will not be the case and I'm sure it will be a great thing for me in the end, but I'm very nervous to see how it works out. I like the fact that I won't have a rigid plan to be following, and a lot of what I do will be my choice. Saying goodbye to family and friends has been one of the hardest things for me, but knowing that everyone will be just a skype call away is very reassuring. My bags are packed (almost) and I am ready to go. Hopefully once I'm in Kenya I'll have more interesting things to write about, but until then kwa heri! (goodbye in Swahili)