From Isaac
November 26
Habari ya mwalimu,
s I write this, the girls have just gone to the Parkside to rest. We had lunch together at a healthy restaurant. They are now more used to the lifestyle and are stars in the village. Ester, the teacher in the Special Unit, is very impressed with them and so are the teachers. They will be helping in the upper primary school next week. Ester is very grateful for their
help in the unit and though it is only her as the teacher, the girls' willingness, good happy nature, loving hearts and patience goes a long way into educating the special kids. The immediate villagers near the school are happy too and I have had
calls praising the girls. Within the family and the villagers around our home, they have become part of us and Joyce is very proud of them. Amy is Ashley's and she gets possessive if the other kids are around. Suzanne as usual is the girls' favorite and they tell me they love Ashley's smile. Am looking forward to the boys meeting the girls and I think it will be one big
family.
I am going back with the them to Ng'arua for I have to help Joyce in the maize harvesting--Amy and Shawna have said they will help too when they are not in school.The boys have to help too the first week of December. So on behalf of the village we thank you mwalimu for sending good volunteers and it's my great hopes that we see more of this in the future and work well towards the betterment of our communities especially the less fortunate.
Upendo mwingi
Isaac
Mzungu
November 25
Hello, all--Hamjambo. I received an e-mail from our two Doane Corps volunteers who are teaching in the highlands of Kenya, about three and a half hours northwest of Nairobi. Let me translate a few Swahili words for you. "Mwalimu" means "teacher" (and is a title--my "name" so to speak); "mandazi" is a doughnut--a sweet fried bread; "mzungu" means "white person" or "European."
Betty Levitov
Mwalimu,
We get up every morning with the sun and get ready for school by brushing our teeth with filtered water and putting on "clean" clothes. After a quick breakfast of drinking chocolate and mandazi, we begin the forty five minute walk to school. Each day the children of the special unit seem more excited about our arrival, and yet still cannot keep our names straight. We are usually referred to as "Mzungu" and "Mzungu". We begin our days playing with blocks and leggos - most of which are broken. We do work with matching, colors and numbers. Then we go over the day of the week, repeating "Today is Tuesday!" until the children respond in kind. Some days we work on Swahili or English, others on writing and, occasionally, we have P.E. The recesses are frequent, which sometimes makes the days feel wholly unstructured and teaching difficult. However, the children love it.
Here's something about some of the kids...
Musa is eighteen years old. He was found a couple years ago abandoned on the streets in Nairobi. Though his condition hasn't been completely identified, he has obvious mental retardation and is unable to walk, as his legs are too weak. Though Musa's life has not been a good one, he is always smiling and happy - always ready to shake your hand and shout "Mambo!"
Mwangi is one of our favorite children. He is ten years old and suffers from hyperactivity. Mwangi tends to do the opposite of what he is told. Tell him to go to recess and he stays inside. Tell him to come into the class room and he runs to the other side of the school yard. One of his favorite activities is grabbing our hands and leading us around to random locations. On several occasions he has lead us into the dorms, closed the door and told us that we are to stay and live there with him.
Mary is seventeen and has CP. She has trouble getting around and has poor speech due to her shortened tongue. She doesn't like learning and is prone to leaving when a lesson is about to begin. She loves attention and often begins talking to people who are in mid-conversation. She is a very happy girl who loves to shout and always talks about her loving mother.
BIG NEWS
November 16
I reached Amy and Shawna by phone yesterday at noon our time and 9 pm their time. Amy sounded loud and clear, in spite of the strange second of delay between utterances. They are doing well: they produced all the correct papers to satisfy the Kenyan educational bureaucracy; and poisoned a few rats, real four-legged ones that seemed to have squatted and assumed occupancy of their formerly vacant bedroom. They say they like "most of the food" that Joyce Kinyanjui prepares and are especially happy at their school. The Special Unit students greet them excitedly every day. Internet, very slow Internet, in Nyahururu, the closest town, is an hour away. "And so is beer" they report. They are planning a trip there this weekend.
They send greetings to all. And oh yes, the BIG NEWS, Shawna says, is that they got a puppy. A tan, black-eared "sort of German Shepherd-type." Shawna is especially thrilled.
Days
November 13
From Betty: I got an e-mail from Isaac Kinyanjui with news of our Doane Corps volunteers. Since there is no e-mail in the village, he's writing from Nairobi.
He says: "The women are okay and doing fine. They leave home by 8:30 and are back by 4, depending on the day's activity at the school. They already know the names of all the kids in the Special Unit."
Isaac adds that his two daughters, Ashley and Suzanne, "keep the women busy while they are home." He says, "they are great, those two. Joyce loves them (Isaac's wife) and the villagers are happy to know them."
The Village
November 4
It's strange that it isn't really that strange to be back in Kenya. After 24 hours spent on airplanes and in airports and a few days in Nairobi, we made our way to Ng'arua village - a four hour matatu trip. We realized shortly that village life was going to be tougher than we had originally imagined. No running water, no electricity, a hole in the ground posing as a toilet, and food that is, well, interesting. Despite our initial fright to the lack of modern conveniences, everyone we have encountered has been happy to greet us with a smile and a warm, "Karibu!" On our fourth day we made the 45 minute trek under the unforgivingly hot Kenyan sun to the village school. The students were all very shy - each one staring at us with intense curiosity, but not daring to say, "Hello" or offer a hand to shake. That is, until we approached the building with huge painted letters "Ol' Ng' arua Primary School Special Unit". Seventeen smiling faces greeted us, and with giggling voices, they said our names in unison. Though we have not yet really begun to work with these children, we look forward to teaching them. And, hopefully, they can teach us something as well.