Riding in matatus are a mix of chaos, unknowns, and anxiety. The drivers would drive in any space, on the shoulder, or in the wrong lanes racing against upcoming traffic. I try to stop looking ahead and look at the side windows, which seem to be less stressful. On one ride, I was not able to move my left foot due to packages, bodies and tight space, causing some discomfort and cramps in the leg. There are many other stories related to the matatu experiences.
While in Nairobi, we went to an Ethiopian restaurant. It was funny to think that we often ate Ethiopian while in the States, and now I am eating it in Africa, one country away from actual Ethiopian. The food was wonderful, and I hope to visit the country sometime soon.
The marketplace in Karatina, the closest "big" town to the deaf school. I will be coming to Karatina maybe once a week during the weekends to restock up my supplies of food and stuff. There are two medium sized grocery/department stores in the town. But I will need to take a 20-30 minute matatu ride to the road near the deaf school and walk the rest of the way. But today we used a cab instead.
My home! It is a duplex. A deaf teacher (Fred) lives in the other end, but he travels home during school breaks (school goes for 3 months then have 1 month break three times a year).
Fortunately this choo is clean and not smelly. Very few choo flies, but I did see some spiders though.
Steep steps upward toward the school. The house is at the bottom of a steep incline. The steps, as you can see, are falling apart. So I better know where to place my foot at night time.
Amanda Herrott, the current volunteer, will COS (close of service) on November 30th. I will be replacing her.
A school assembly -- to give you an idea as to the size of student population. There are about 300 students, but 220 of them are Deaf and boards at the school. The hearing students are day students. Yeah it is weird to see hearing students go to a deaf school, when I am used to see it in the reverse -- where the deaf goes to the hearing school. I think this school is a little unique in that sense. This is high school only and they have three streams (classes of same grade), with two streams for deaf students and one stream for hearing student in each grade level. By the way, they call these grades in high school "Form 1, Form 2, Form 3, and Form 4" instead of grade 9, 10, 11, 12 or freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior respectively.
Amanda teaching a class.
Dining Hall. For students. All teachers (pretty much the only staff, as there are no houseparents or other staff except for the principal office and her little support staff). The students "supervise" themselves in the evening along with one "teacher on duty". More on this other time.
The area is mountainous. Lots of hills and trees. Very cool and little mosquitoes. I liked the landscape very much.
One of the school buildings. This one contains the "house mama" (used for emergencies and medical) in a room, and the rest of the space are used for "life sciences" (like home economics).
A computer lab, with few of them working at the time. I might give a hand there. It is connected to a satellite dish for the internet access. When I was there, it was extremely slow, but they tell me it was fast last term. When asked whether they contacted the satellite company, they gave me a look and said they do not do anything like that, that only the principal does that. I go, oh okay, have you told the principal that its been extremely slow then. Their response is that "no way, I would not want to tell her, and that she will one day come in to get in the net, and she will notice for herself, and call the company". Weird to see the culture there, and am not sure if there is some fear or over-respect for authority. I will figure that out later.
Living room. Notice the furniture (and other stuff in the following pictures). Amanda and I agreed that I could buy them all from her at once, for 7,000 shillings. That translates into $82 dollars.
Tiny kitchen. Water filter on a stool and a gas stove on the floor.
Toilet with non-working toilet and shower. The faucet runs water, but it seem to come from a nearby river.
Hard to see but a big dresser. All the furniture in the house was locally hand-made.
Small twin bed. Amanda says it got a mattress, and a foam on top, and sleeps comfortably.
The only outlet in the house. So Amanda used an electric coil stove there. However when we visited the outlet was pretty much hanging out with wires exposed. It was not working for 4 out of 5 days that we were there. Amanda says that the house problems that continue to be problems when they were attended to (e.g., electrician comes in, and tries to push the exposed wire back in, and taped the outlet to the wall rather than replacing the outlet and screw it securely back in, etc.). Will share more stories like this once I move in.
Happy kids all the time.
Kids are very serious about football (soccer). They play with two shoes, one shoe, no shoes, flip flops, or whatever. And they are still good.
This building contains a woodshop and clay/kiln for ceramics or pottery class.
Woodshop.
Two big cows for milk I guess. But doubt they are deaf.
Rabbit cages. Dont know if we eat them
Davin who came with me to shadow Amanda. We were watching some girls racing down the football field for fun. He then decided to challenge a boy standing with us. He comes from the Wajir tribe which is known to be speedy. He was wearing flip flops. Davin and he ran, but the kid beat Davin so badly. Anyway, Davin ran clumsy and seemed not able to stop himself, so he fell headfirst with his hands (like a slide in baseball), and hurt his wrist. He suffered with swollen hand and pain for the next 4 days. When we returned for home, we split in Nairobi so that he could go to the Peace Corps medical and it turned out that he fractured two bones in his hand/wrist. I think he is in a cast now, but he told me that he is coming back to Machakos after staying in Nairobi for 3 days. I hope he will be able to tough out the rest of training and get better before he goes to his site which is quite remote and is without electricity and running water.
Fred, a deaf teacher, teaching this class. He signs pretty good, but is more of an oralist. He is bright guy and is working on defending his thesis for his masters.
A nice science lab. Well groomed compared to other classrooms so I guess some funding was given by some company or donor for this space.
Home Sciences (home economics).
Although the school (and all others supposedly) stated they do not practice corpal punishment, they make kids do hard labor for their offenses. The boy told me they were punished for being late to class, but I learned from other boys that they actually were caught cheating. They are "mowing" the lawn manually (actually there are no lawn mowers, but to cut this way). They swing these tools all day.
This is the meal the teachers eat EVERY DAY. No kidding. No variations. No changes. They deliver tea twice during the breaks and this meal for lunch.
Another kid being punished. He had to dig this hole that
