By Day 3, I was exhausted and so thankful that the other PCVs were there to help me de-stress! I was actually giving the lecture on Day 3. Life Skills is supposed to be taught in secondary schools in Kenya, but many schools don't offer it because they lack a teacher. It is supposed to cover things like dealing with peer pressure, gender roles, self-esteem, etc. Since many of the girls are headed into secondary and the others are headed into the real world, I wanted to start them off with a little help. I gave a discussion on stress, what causes stress, and the best ways to deal with it. Next, Andrea gave a session on yoga and meditation which was VERY well received. On Friday, a mom told me that her daughter came home that day and gave her some meditation tips. Although it was hard to do a lot of the poses, like warrior pose, in skirts, the girls had a lot of fun and I especially liked the 10 minute quiet reflection :-) In the afternoon, I did a second session on self-esteem. Many of the girls lack confidence, they don't speak up and speak very low when they are asked something. We talked about surrounding ourselves with positive people and then we had a mini photo shoot in the courtyard, where I had to resist saying several times, "THE CAMERA LOVES YOU!" After the photo shoot, they all made and decorated their own "stress diaries".
Thursday was Environment Day and the JICA volunteer, Sachiko, came over to give a talk on environmental education. There's a big disconnect though because they all know the things they need to do to save the environment, the namely saving and replanting trees. Yet, most families still use charcoal or firewood to cook meals and heat water. I tried to garner some interest in biomass briquettes when I first got here but it's a bit like hybrid cars- the price point isn't quite there for the low/middle income consumer. In any case, after the lecture, we went back to the house to try and cook a cake with a solar cooker (Thanks Giles and Nia!). Unfortunately, the day became overcast so the cake was half cooked in the solar and half in the jiko oven. The last activity of the day was supposed to be making a sack garden, something I was really excited about, but rain was looming so we just enjoyed the afternoon off.
Enjoy the pictures!
Hellen posing for the camera
Andrea leading yoga and meditation
I really need to stretch more!
Siato smiling!
Hey Meg! I loved reading about this. I remember it was so great to look back and see that you've done something tangible. Keep up the good work! Hugs!!!
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