School Opening & Police

Greetings, my dear readers.  I realize it has almost been a month now since I last posted here last December 25th.  It is just that I became busy doing basically nothing.  Well, the nothing that I did was still productive.  I went hiking almost daily exploring those mountains around me, visiting Nairobi, Nyeri, and Karatina, and exercising with Insanity.

Last Wednesday, January 9th, finally came.  It was the day I was waiting ever since I accepted my invitation to serve with the Peace Corps.  It was the day my school was scheduled to open.

Panorama of Rev. Muhoro Secondary School f/t Deaf on the mountain top (using Olympus Stylus camera)

So I decided to make first impression on school staff and students by dressing up and wearing a tie.  It was a big change after wearing T-shirts and shorts everyday since I moved here. So I was all dressed and early ready waiting in the staff room (actually I was already prepared that its going to be delayed).  The deputy principal greeted me, but told me that the principal decided to cancel the staff meeting and push it to Thursday. Of course, I quickly changed out of the clothes back to my T-shirt and shorts, saving this to re-wear again on Thursday.

Dressed for First Day but was a false-alarm.

But I start to see students stream in.  Many students came from far away, yet they traveled alone, arriving by foot, piki piki, matatu, or taxi.  They all carried mostly one backpack and a plastic bag.  They are going to be here for three months yet they brought so little.  But later I learned they have kept small trunks of their belongings at the school for safekeeping.

So on Thursday, a re-run of getting up early, all dressed, and ready, the meeting was pushed to 10:10am, but it finally started at 10:45.  It was an interesting culture experience -- the meeting seemed business-like with meeting minutes, and so forth.

The principal told teachers that I will be teaching Physics, Chemistry, and Maths for Form 1 (freshmen) and Form 2 (sophomores), which I already knew, but I still await for my class assignments and schedule so I can finally start lesson planning.

Friday came, and still no information about my classes, so I helped others develop their Schemes of Work (SOW) which is like a map of lessons that will be taught for a term, that needs to be reviewed and approved by the principal (which can be audited by the Kenya Ministry of Education).  Naturally with my technology expertise, they were able to do them using computers rather than hand-write them. I kidded my deaf teacher/friend Fred that if I did his 4 SOWs, he will need to cook me dinner, which he actually did.

During all those time, I watched with amazement what the school asked from our students.  I guess that is typical for all schools throughout Kenya.  All students cleaned school inside and outside.  I mean scrubbed all the floors, sidewalks, trimmed bushes, hacked weeds with machetes, washed windows, cleaned school furniture, and everything else -- all by hand and using very little and simple tools.  And they did all that while wearing their school uniforms.  I have not yet started snapping photos of our students because I am not yet comfortable doing so.  I know I will take plenty of pictures once students and I start to interact and get closer.  Hey, did you know that there are no residential staff here except for one "dorm mother" for the entire school.  Teachers are pretty much 24x7 here, but they leave for their homes after classes except for one teacher on duty who leaves around 9pm.  So that would leave me and Fred (who lives in the other half of my house) for any emergencies or problems throughout the night.  In other words, the students pretty much take care of themselves, and sort problems themselves with their prefects (that they voted among themselves).  Furthermore, discipline is strict here, so in some cases there are punishments, but in some cases, they are simply kicked out of school.

So, come Monday, when I think we finally and actually teach our classes, I will see if I actually know my classes and schedule, and whether I would have any time to prepare lessons.  To be continued...

Time for the Police story.  Remember my iPod Touch and wristwatch was stolen from my bedroom dresser top using a wire from my clothesline bent into a hook and gripped through the windowless pane window?  Peace Corps security coordinator and the Principal wanted me to file the theft with the police (and I would need some report to file with insurance and see if I can get replacement or reimbursement).

So, Samuel, my counterpart, and I walked about 1km to Kaheti, the local village.  To my surprise, I often saw the place, but it seemed like someone's home with chickens and clothesline of clothes, toddler running around barefoot, etc., but it is a police "camp".

So, after they listened, they asked me why I decided to report today (Jan 9th) instead of on Dec 22nd.  I explained that I am a new Mzungu that lived there only one week, and I did not know anyone and anything around here.  So until now I am able to find information and get help get this done properly.

Then they asked me for the value of the items.  I told him $300 for iPod and $60 for the wristwatch.  He looked at me not understanding, and asked me to convert it into Kenyan Shillings.  After calculating on Samuel's phone calculator, I realized jeez.  I sheepishly told him iPod is 26,000 shillings and wristwatch is 5,000 Kenyan shillings.  The reason is that for a village like Kaheti, one can live for whole month with rent and all meals for just 1,000 shillings. Even an average 5-year teacher at this school earns only 20,000 shillings a month. He looked at me for a bit, and I can only imagine what he is thinking.  But anyway he entered it in their log, but told us we have to go to the main police station in Mukurwe-ini.  Huh? That is like 6km (3.7 miles walk away).

So Samuel and I walked to Mukurwe-ini the next day after the staff meeting.  I had to change out my nice outfit into my hiking outfit (while Samuel pretty much wore same thing -- Kenyans walk long distances wearing nice clothes and shoes anyway), and we walked the long distance.

Finally we got to the police station, we watched the officer on duty locking up two guys holding grocery bags or something into a holding cell, then attended to me.  We explained that we needed a police abstract and what happened.  He said okay, he will need 200 shillings.  I hesitantly handed it over, which he pocketed it. I have no clue if that was a bribe, or a fee for an abstract, but why would it go in his own pocket rather than some cash register (well theres never any registers unless its a big store though).

When he looked at my identity card from the Peace Corps, he did not know what that was, but seeing "Corps" he gestured to me (my translation) "you shoot people, you throw grenades, you slice throats, etc.  He was kidding me, but I was not sure at first what to make of that.  Then I realized maybe he thought I was in the military or something because Corps are also used like Marine Corps, etc.  ha.  But at least I got the police abstract.  No computer generated report or anything.  All hand-written and rubber-stamped.

So on our journey back home, as always being a Mzungu, toddlers in their cute school uniforms with dirty legs, shoes that do not fit (if any shoes even), start following behind me.  I am sure they were yelling Mzungu, How are you, and all that.  They got quite close so I decided to abruptly stop walking and some of the kids crashed into my back. It was funny seeing all the whites in their eyes and some eyeballs were about to pop out, but we all laughed.

So, after about 12 miles of walking on the mountain dirt roads I have my police report that I have no idea if would be useful with insurance, but I feel satisfaction knowing that it will satisfy my friends at school who were very sad and apologetic that their countrymen stole some things from me.

The rest are random pictures that I do not want to go waste -- some of you Facebookers saw them already, but I want the rest of you non-Facebookers to enjoy them as well.

Look at how nicely dressed and how old these guys are walking (they walk, I hike, so it appears) through the mountain trails.  It is their way of life.  Now that I turned 50 today, maybe I am like them, an elderly but healthy and able to navigate those trails.

Fresh bananas that I had the handyman chop down for me from the banana tree behind my house.  I am waiting for them to turn nice yellow color before sampling them.

During my hikes, I came close to some of the crops by the mountain side.  People dig dirt out to make "steps" by the steep hill and planted crops.  Notice that each plant is in a deep hole I guess so that it can catch and hold more water.

Beware of the attack guard cow.  Enter the premises at your personal peril!

Erikson Young, a returned Peace Corps Volunteer, sent me my very first package at my school.  Some magazines and postcards.  Thanks Erikson!

So, today is my birthday, turning to big 5-0!  Being in a land where nobody really knows me, I decided to tell a few friends here that today is my birthday, but my family and friends back home have started to wish my a happy birthday.  Thank you all.  Now I can finally enjoy my M&M that Adree sent me last November (finally got in December).  I decided to save it until my birthday today!  Since I have been here past 4 months I have not yet seen M&Ms around here (there are some chocolate here tho) but I have not eaten much if any chocolate lately tho.