I had my breath taken away from me while, as lady luck had it, sitting in the front seat of a speeding matatu heading back to Meru from Ntugi. Albeit being crushed to the passenger door by the two others next to me, I had a panoramic windshield view of two beautiful forest elephants crossing the tarmac. I let out an ‘ayyy’ followed by a ‘whoa’ as my mind started to comprehend just how large these creatures were. The elephants were a dark grey, characteristic of forest elphants, with gleaming white tusks appearing 2 meters long. Amazing. This was my first sighting of one of the “Big 5′s”. I felt abuzz with excitement and wonder. Watching the elephants disappearing into the lush, ancient forest made me admire their power and mystery.

And to think, I had almost postponed my meeting with Samuel Murithi, a Kaaga Deaf alumn who recently completed his high school education at Reverend something Secondary School (I don’t know the full name because I’ve only seen it referred to as Reverend HS), because my stomach wasn’t quite cooperating after frequent twisting and turning aboard what was most likely a miraa carrying vehicle judging by the bulging white sacks in the rear, the driving, and the driver’s disposition. I had been in Maua for the weekend to celebrate a PCV’s birthday but let’s put that on hold for a bit.

Samuel Murithi is about 40 minutes northwest of Meru and I went out his way to help with applying for a university to attend in the States as well as scholarships. We met when he came to Kaaga for some paperwork and I took an instant liking to him for his friendliness and intellect. When I squirmed out of the mangle of bodies I was sweatily stuck in aboard the matatu, I was soon greeted by his smiling visage jogging towards me. It was as if we were two friends that hadn’t seen one another in ages. Except that we met not 2 weeks before. And the fact that it was only our third meeting. Friendships truly are different here, not that its a bad thing. Just different. Taking my hand, he led me across the tarmac to one of his friends’ whose laptop we would be borrowing. Yes, I’m still getting used to the mega cultural difference of grown men holding hands lovingly while walking or whatnot. I see this happen more with the men than with the women, which is surprising for some reason. It had rained the night before, so thankfully there was a lack of dust that usually swirled around whilst traversing a dirt road. Still holding my hand, we took a sharp right into a long, dark corridor with wooden beams covering what seemed to be a trench of some sort. A squeak of wood revealed a tiny brown mouse, fleeing in terror from the approaching humans. We got to the man’s house and greeted him. He helped us get safaricom bamba, which seemed to be scarce in the small town. After several failures, we found a barber shop that sells the bamba. (Bamba is what Kenyans use to top up their phones – a pre-pay system) I stood outside, the sun warming my resting hands atop the tin roof. To my left sat five men pulling away the larger leaves of the miraa branches, red-eyed from little samplings of the merchandise along the way. To my right stood two men paradoxically chatting in the shade while wearing winter coats. I was in a state of absolute fascination with the way the men were openly gawking at me that I hardly noticed my hand being led once more towards Samuel’s humble abode for a customary meet and greet of the family. I met his sister, her husband and their two kids. An amazing family. They served me a delicious stew with what I believe to be the tenderest chapati I have eaten to date. The house was one of the more humble ones I have seen during my time here. The landscape was beautifully dotted of farmlands crawling with Old McDonald’s animals. I caught myself thinking I wished I lived more in a village than the urban area of Meru during a quick trip to the choo.

After about an hour, we left for the local school where we would be using the laptop. To reach the school, we used a backroads path that crossed through a very natural terrain covered with cacti and other native plants that I enjoyed. Turns out the laptop didn’t work so we ended up just researching on my phone so that when he comes to Meru, we’ll know which sites to visit. I took my leave not too long after we took a walk in the town. That’s when I saw the elephants – on the way back.

Let’s go back to the middle of last week and lead up to my coming back to Meru and then going to Ntugi.

Tuesday brought about the beginning of exainations at Kaaga Deaf. What! The longest term of the year is over? I was awestruck and looked at my students with pride that can be compared to a father’s for his child. After wishing them all luck, I was told to sit in for the Class 7 exams, as well as to correct the exams and tally them all up. At the beginning of each exam, I announced that any cheating would result in a zero for the exam. It brought gasps and a flurry of confusion. Apparently, this is not practiced much. Maths and English were the first two exams of the day. So far so good while I hawked from behind my current book: “The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers”. All was not perfect in Kaaga, though. The afternoon’s English composition brought ’round anger and tears as I confiscated three papers after seeing them copy off sentences from some magazines they were peeking through their desks. Two more exams were zeroed for the KSL composition exam. Sad but I wasn’t going to be lenient about cheating and especially because corruption is somewhat of a major problem here. Overall, the scores of the classes I teach weren’t that great but I expected it after the warnings they gave us during training. Hopefully, next term will be better.

Friday rolled around and the students were buzzing with energy, ready to go home. It seemed like it would be a pleasant day to wrap up the first term of 2011. A lot of things went wrong that day, though. It was as if all the pent up emotion the students and some of the staff had for one another came bursting out like a puffball mushroom’s spores spurting high into the air after its covering becoming tighter with each passing day. Some students were accused of stealing. As a result, they had all their belongings strewn out across the lawn to be searched. Quite shocking. A staff yelling almost at the top of their lungs at students in a manner that didn’t seem to be diplomatic or just didn’t help matters any. To further the already heating atmosphere, the ,headmistress and deputy informed me to inform everyone else that provincial sports, the one that the students and I had been looking forward to all term, would not be attended by Kaaga Deaf. The reason given was that there were insufficient funds for transportation. Fourty were supposed to be picked for the team but that whittled down to 30, and then later to the actual team of 20. In addition to the announcement of the team picks being only 2 weeks prior to the sports and this being the second consecutive year of not attending sports; this brought an uproar of rage among many of the students. I was relieved to see that the students kept it out of sight of the other teachers and administration because I would have blown up had any caning ensued as a result. I could see that the students were eager to take their leave and I couldn’t blame them, even though it did break my heart a little to not be seeing them for so long. After the final staff meeting in the afternoon, I took off for Maua with perfect timing given all that had happend.

I met up with Mark in Maua town and we started our hour-long descent to Mr. Rohan’s site. Arriving just before dusk, we were greeted by a crazy bearded PCV, shoving bowls of delicious yellow lentil dahl into our hungry faces. Mark, Rohan and I enjoyed a night full of spirits afterwards with some awesome star-gazing. Saturday brought a day full of relaxation and preparations for the utilization of Rohan’s famed pizza oven. It indeed was a full blown pizza oven, one that had to be heated for 2 hours with four armfuls of thick firewood. The students helped chop the wood and prepare the fire while the Americans prepped the dough, sauce, and all the little toppings. It turned out a success with a total of 9 pizzas, 6 for the students and 3 for us. Mark and I ended up calzoning ours because it was too big and flimsy to be moved into the oven. Still uber delicious, even with the vinegary-smelling Kenyan cheese. That night, I enjoyed some wine while we played “F the Dealer”. It was nice to relive some college memories sans the toilet. This morning, I awoke early and took my leave. I decided to walk uphill to Maua to enjoy the morning and bustle of activity spilling out onto the only road. It was a walk to remember.

I’ll be staying in Meru until around Thursday. Nairobi awaits me on the 9th followed by a visit to my host family in Machakos and then straight to the Indian Ocean that’s been calling my name with each wave that crashes onto the shores of Mombasa since I stepped off that flight back in October. April, ah. I love you.