So, a very special reader has asked if I could write in response to special requests.

YES!!!

In fact, I encourage each and every one of you out there to make a request because by doing that, you’d be satisfying your curiousity and at the same time be helping me accomplish Peace Corps goal #10. You see, the Peace Corps has 10 core expectations, or goals, for their volunteers. Each are snips of what the full goal actually states.

1) Commit to living and serving abroad for 27 months.
2) Commit to improving the quality of life with the people worked with, share skills and learn new skills as needed.
3) Serve where asked to go with flexibility.
4) Understand that effectiveness of work depends on integrating into the community.
5) Responsibility for conduct and performance 24/7.
6) Engage host country partners in spirit of cooperation, respect, mutual learning.
7) Work within rules of U.S., Peace Corps and host country.
8) Exercise judgement and personal responsibility to protect your health, safety and well being and that of others.
9) Recognize that host country nationals will percieve you as a representative of the U.S. in values, customs, etc.
10) Represent people, cultures, etc of Kenyans responsibly to Americanos during and after service.

Whew that was lengthy.

I could have sworn I posted my teaching schedule in an earlier post. No matter, here it is:
MON- English 6 8:55-9:30
            English 6 10:25-11:00
            KSL 7 2:35-3:10
            Athletics 3:10-4:00

TUES- English 6 8:20-8:55
            KSL 7 9:50-10:25
            PE 6 10:35-11:00
   KSL (for teachers) 3:10-4:00
         
WED- KSL 7 8:20-8:55
           English 6 9:50-10:35
           PE 6 10:25-11:00
           Football 3:10-4:00

THURS- English 6 8:55-9:30
               English 6 11:30-12:05
               KSL 7 2:00-2:35
   KSL (for teachers) 3:10-4:00
               Volleyball 4:00-5:30

FRI- PE 6 8:55-9:30
        English 6 9:50-10:25
        KSL 7 10:25-11:00

On Mondays and Fridays, it is market day in town, so I usually sprint to the main road 15-20 minutes away and catch a taxi for 20 bob. I return with a bulging green daypack, filled with fruits and vegetables.

Tuesdays used to be my internet days but that went, gratefully, down the drain with the arrival of my IDEOS smartphone. Saves me 50 bob roundtrip as well as the browsing fees at 1KSH=/ minute. Moar time and monee ftw. Man, I miss WoW.

I play sports with the children almost daily, including a 5am run now and then. Most weeknights, I eat in the dining hall at around 6:00 followed by tutoring and reviewing from 7:30ish until bedtime at 9:00.

I lesson plan and sign childrens books to the younger kids whenever I can. I’m still trying to get used to my schedule because I definitely want to add another subject next term. I forbid another English class though. I’m in dire need of a subject that has no ifs, ands, or buts. Mathematics. Or Science; I’m fine with either. I really hope to get rid of PE.

I feel as if I don’t have as much time to myself as I would like to these days. It’s not that I don’t like teaching or being with the kids. Not at all. The kids are often the reason why I can smile in the midst of the recent rash of homesickness I’ve had and the seemingly hopeless educational situation they’re stuck in. I found myself being saddened by the fact that my time had to be diverted away from teaching to attend a district teachers’ workshop. Let me say that it was interesting. At the beginning, we had to split up into what classes we taught then list the units of each subject we taught. Later in the day, those units were recited to a room of approximately 150 walimu (teachers), class by class; subject by subject. *NODS HEAD*

I had some good discussions with a fellow teacher whom I respect. Here’s to hoping the seeds we plant’ll germinate in our favor.

It’s week two of applying a Begay equivalent on the crook of my right arm. Hurts like hell and a teacher made me paranoid by saying it sounds like it could be typhoid. Josh with a jungle disease? Eek. This weekend, I’m going to visit a friend in Sipili, where the Samburu tribes are. So psyched!

In terms of learning new languages, I have to say I’m disappointed. Ever since I arrived, I’ve been trying to learn Kiswahili but we weren’t taught it until the last week of training, after we passed our language proficiency exams. I thought I’d pick up quickly once I arrived at site but it turns out that Kiswahili is mainly spoken on the Coast, where the Swahili tribe originates from. Progressing westwards, the tongue becomes, for a lack of a better word, ‘broken’ or not spoken at all. Kiswahili spread as a language along trade routes back in the day, so it’s only natural for the language to experience erosion. Think of it as one giant Telephone game. Yes, the Meruvians in Meru speak Kimeru, a language very much on its own. Another factor in my frustrations in learning any spoken language here is that Kenya has adopted English as one of the main languages. It’s taught in all schools throughout the nation. Meaning whenever Keyans see a mzungu, they’ll almot always speak English even though the mzungu starts or responds in Kiswahili.

With learning the Kenyan Sign, it depends on what region you’re in. Upon arriving to Machakos, I think I learned the purest possible form of KSL there is. Even in that form, there was still loads of contamination from ASL. At Kaaga School for the Hearing Impaired (can you believe some people here say ‘deaf’ is a derogatory term and H.I. is not), the contamination of ASL is much more evident. No, forgive me. It’s SEE and SIM-COM in the form of Total Communication that’s contaiminated this school. I feel as if I,m forcing myself to forget ASL to avoid giving them to teachers because some think ASL is superior to KSL, or that they are the same language. It’s interesting though because I see the teachers signing SEE and the students responding in their conditioned SEE talk. Once they’re out on the playground is where their true language comes out, filled with a sort of creativity and intelligence that is overlooked by so many. That, right there, is what I’m having a hard time learning right now because if I ask what a sign means, I’m not going to get an English word, or any word from any language that can be translated to English for this matter, that corresponds with the sign. I’m making great strides though, and I’ve already gotten comments from the students saying that so and so would never have caught that. I notice students haltingly sign when I watch now because they know I understand where others may not.

Mr. Sandman is a calling me,
Off to bed,  I’m going to be.