Happy Day

So, I actually did write this on Wednesday but when I went to post it, I had run out of internet credit.

Today was a happy day. Today was a good day. Well mostly. I woke up around 7, made some breakfast, got dressed, cleaned up and headed into town to class. I had tuition today from 9-10 and it was the most frustrating hour of my life. I was trying to review a girl's exam with her and she just wasn't getting it. Thank goodness for that bell, I think we both felt like we were in some sort of torture. After that, I graded the other students exercises and headed off to my 11AM meeting.

I meet with a woman's group in town for Village Savings every Tuesday or Wednesday. The meetings are nice because the group is small (about 6), they are usually on time, and they understand the VSLA model pretty well now so I just kind of sit there and answer any questions they have. Today was also a special day because it was the end of our "prayer month". Last month, they wanted everyone in the group (me included) to pick someone else's name randomly and you pray for that person every day for a month and then at the end of the month you give them a present. I gave my partner a pair of earrings and I got a nice beaded headband. Smiles.

After that I had to go pick up the money for my next VSLA meeting, find some food, and then meet the other planning committee members of the business fair. We are trying to hold a business fair for May 13 for people all over the county and Nairobi. If it works out, it will be a big deal and make me very happy. If. Today we needed to register the group so that we can open a bank account and start accepting registration money. I was supposed to meet them at 1 so I had about an hour to run errands. I went to pick up the VSLA money that Josephine left for me at a photocopy place and I got scolded for having not come to say hi to them for a few weeks. I promised to do better, went and had some fries at a hoteli and then went to meet Sachiko and Moses. We walk all the way through dusty town up to the government offices area and of course we just missed the registration officer. She's off to lunch. I can't wait around for her because I'm supposed to be at my next meeting at 2. So we take the dusty road back to town and have some good conversation. Sachiko wanted to see the VSLA model so she tagged along at the next meeting, 20km away in a village Rotian. They only squished us 4 in the back of the car so I was thankful for that and the women were almost on time for the meeting. The meeting was supposed to start at 2 and most were there by 3, this is a success these days in my book. The savings and loaning process also went much more smoothly than last time and everybody left happy. Sach and I squeezed into a matatu on the way back where I sat on a sack of vegetables and she sat on a shopping bag filled with who knows what. I got back into town with Sachiko around 5, we went to Naivas (supermarket) and I splurged on some oranges and broccoli. The little things. Back in the tuk tuk on the way home, buy some eggs and kale, drop everything at home and head to my supervisors house to scan some things for the donor. On the way out I run into the kids I was supposed to meet yesterday and tried to explain to them in really bad Swahili that I didn't see them yesterday but we can draw tomorrow. Walking to the house I see some kids playing their own version of "games": rifling through burned garbage, sliding a smaller child on a sheet or coat, or just sitting throwing rocks. Resolve to play with the kids tomorrow.

I get to the house, greet everyone, scan all the documents and try to send them to the donor but of course the internet doesn't feel like working at that particular moment. Decide to wait until the night and go hang out in the living room. Watch a badly dubbed Filipino telenovela that I think I'm beginning to get hooked on. Play with my buddy Sian and head home about 7. In the two minutes it takes me to get from his house to my apartment, the electricity has gone out. Of course. And I used all of my computer battery scanning documents. Of course. Can't take a shower without the electricity so I just lay on the bed and read by booklight. After it's almost 8 and it doesn't seem like the stima is coming back anytime soon, I go make dinner in the dark (brown rice, steamed carrots, broccoli, kale and tomatoes to make up for the fries earlier), eat in the dark, still reading with the booklight. I decide to give the electricity till 10 to come back on before I give up hope of bathing today. At 9:49, I finish my book and the lights come back on. Smiles. Shower, gchat, emails, blog post. 11:49, day is done! Nite nite!

Yes, I know

I haven't blogged in awhile. Partly because I feel like I only have the same things to say and partly because some of the new things I have to say aren't so nice... Like my momma told me, if you don't have something nice to say...

So, this week I am bringing you Days of My Life. Certainly not as drama filled as a soap opera but it will give you all a better idea of what happens on the day to day. Many of you have asked what I do on a daily basis and we have some new volunteers coming in a couple of months who, if they are anything like me, are scouring the internet looking for some glimpse into what the hell they are getting themselves into for the next 26 months. Of course this comes with the caveat that all volunteers are different, so what is my experience is not necessarily that of others and even my own experience changes. I'm starting from yesterday because that's when I meant to write the first post...Enjoy!!!

Tuesday April 12th,

I woke up around 6:30 so that I could wash clothes (of course by hand) before I had to leave. My new place (I moved! No more mice!) has piping inside the house but they left the pipes without water too long and now there's rust. This rust turns to orange spots on your clothes as I found out the hard way last week. So I draw water from the tank directly and get to work. Because it's still a little chilly in the morning, I choose to wash clothes from my couch while watching Chuck. Good times. I finished about 7:30, made breakfast (3 scrambled eggs with tomatoes and onions, banana, apple, peanut butter- having control over my own food is a luxury I will never again take for granted), got dressed and then headed off to school. On the way out, the kids on my street were waiting for me with an onslaught of, Sasa Megan! Habari Megan! Give me chocolate! To the last one I give the stank face but to the other two greetings I happily respond. This is a great change from just a few weeks ago when I still got Mzungu! Mzungu! I think the tipping point was I gave some girls a jump rope and some popsicle stick animals my brother made, they loved it and made everyone start calling me my name. Today they want me to play with them, which I promised them yesterday if they left me alone. Time to pay up.

School is officially out but these kids really don't get much of a holiday because 2 weeks of their 3 1/2 week break are spent in "tuition". Tuition is basically an hour of each class Mon-Fri where the teacher can choose to review topics from the term or keep teaching new stuff. After some of the abysmal scores my students got on my exam, I decided reviewing was the best course. Anyway we learned 6 chapters this term and there's only 3 more to go for the next two terms. So, I have been taking each student one by one and reviewing the exam with them, asking them what they find difficult and what they find easy in the class, and giving tons of assignments. I'm trying to get them out of simply memorizing (how most students learn here) into actually thinking about the problems and solutions. I want them to think intuitively and arrive at the answer on their own. Work in progress.

Before my class I had a Swahili lesson from one of the teachers. I hope it helps, I really would like to be able to hold a semi-decent conversation at some point. I can introduce myself and follow along with the formalities pretty well and I can even understand a fair amount of what people say to me if they speak slowly and use easy words, But talking to kids is hard and I would like to infuse more Swahili in my teaching because I think part of what is tripping a lot of the students up is they just have no idea what the heck I am talking about. If I give a definition of supply using the word commodity but you don't know what a commodity is, how can I expect you to understand the definition? Anywho, I had my Swahili lesson before class and then after class I headed to see on of my beader friends. He works at a hoteli all the way on the other side of town. Bored, I decided to try a new way over there and passed by a Youth Rec Center/ Gym. It was closed (obvi) but I made a mental note to go back and check it out again at some point. My friend is working at a curio shop at a nice hotel in town and he's teaching me how to make some beaded things. Those of you whose birthday has recently passed were supposed to receive one of my creations but let's just say they aren't yet ready for the general public. I sat and beaded with him and chatted for about an hour, talking about Kenya, America, development, corruption, and all those fun topics. He used to live in Nairobi and Mombasa so his English is great and his mom lives in Germany so he has an interesting worldview.

After that, I was supposed to meet Josephine in town to shop for skirts but the dust defeated me. It's supposed to be rainy season and it even flooded here a couple of weeks ago but it hasn't rained since. Now all the mud from the flood has turned to a fine dust particle that gets kicked up as motorcycles, bicycles, people, cars, and trucks go along the road. Add a strong wind to it and you are literally eating dust. Not fun. At this point it's about 3PM so I figure it's as good a time as any to call it a day. I get home, take a shower since I'm all dusty, look for the kids who wanted to play and, when I don't see them, settle on the couch with my Kindle. I can't tell you how much I love my Kindle and how much it saves my sanity at certain points. The rest of the day fades away as I read, fall asleep, read some more. Porter was in town taking care of some business with Operation Smile and he came over with a friend around 7:30. After that, we drank some wine, watched some Law&Order on my computer, and it was bedtime!

OK, I'm off to a meeting, I know you all are waiting with bated breath for the next installment so check back tonight!