I am seated in near darkness. The only light eminates from the LED of my iPod speaker, and the display off this sweet smartphone which I bought in Kisumu. Ahh, that glorious city. I spent the weekend there with some other volunteers. Staying in cheap hotels and drinking like a freshman. I am happy in the knowledge that there is an escape should I require it.
Hard to imagine that it is only 20 clicks away, I haven't even left the district! And yet my town is without electricity, roads, adequate water or sanitation, and the people live in houses made of mud. The frontier of development as it were.
The closest big town is Ahero, located on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway, 10 km from Lake Victoria. The power ends after kilometer 5, and my town is at kilometer 7. The surrounding area is floodplains and bush, so lots of rice growing and mosquitoes.
And the school! Ah, the school. I think I shall grow to love it with time. It's quite small, about 200 students. Eight teachers, including myself, the principal and deputy principal. There were nine, but the Biology teacher skipped town last week. So who is making up the difference? You guessed it, the Dom. It's fine for the moment, as the form 1 students have yet to arrive. But once they do it will be hell. They keep telling me they are going to get somebody, but I grow more skeptical by the day. But oh well, whatever comes. And my co-teachers are cool as shit. (I went drinking with the religion teacher yesterday). The students are fine. Half the time they are mocking me, but the other half they are rapt with attention. I think a few of them may even escape this places.
So yeah, in summary, this phone is awesome. Samsung B7320. Tell your freinds. G'night.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
BZZZZ EEE-ERN... CONNECTION REESTABLISHED
THE INTERNET. IT EXISTS!!!!
Joyous this day is, now that I am reconnected to the world. I apologize to all of you who were hoping for some regular updates to this blog, alas I have failed to connect these last few months. The trouble wasn't that there is a lack of Internet (indeed there is a nationwide EDGE network in Kenya). The problem was that being me, I just had to upgrade to the latest Mac OS, Snow Leopard, which was incompatible with the driver for this internet dongle thingie. As you might have guessed, tech support is a bit lacking in Kenya, so to upgrade the driver I had to wait until I returned to Nairobi, which is where I am currently writing from.
So what's going on? It's been an eventful 2 months of training, which is now over. A pair of my trousers were stolen off the clothesline. I may have visited Tanzania accidentally (there was some confusion over where exactly the border is). I have eaten a bunch of odd parts of a goat, including the liver, intestines and stomach lining. I have toured an AIDS clinic in a truckers town (you can imagine what kind of business the locals engage in). My entire group has passed our language proficiency test, so we are all allowed to remain in Kenya (a Peace Corps Kenya first, I am told). And I have had altogether too little to drink.
Tomorrow is our swearing in ceremony, which will be held at the US ambassadors residence, on account of it being the 45th anniversary of Peace Corps Kenya. The Kenyan Minister of Education has been invited, but I doubt he will show (I'm afraid I can't elaborate, as I'm sure it would violate some kind of contractual bit about not commenting on politics, but read the news if you are interested. And then on Thursday it's off to site, and next week I begin teaching science (the new Missionary position, as it were).
So where is I going? The village is called Riat, it's next to the town of Ahero, near the city of Kisumu, in Nyanza province. Apparently I will be living about 4 km away from Lake Victoria, so I expect a fishy sort of diet. The climate is hot... and humid... and altogether uncomfortable. Lots of mosquitoes, which means lots of malaria. And lots of HIV, a cozy 15.3% adult infection rate! Fun stuff. I'm psyched.
Oh yeah, It's the same area where Obama senior was from, the Luo tribe. I've been trying to shift gears and forget my Kiswahili to make room for DhoLou. But it sucks spending two months on a language only to have to start with a brand new one (they aren't even in the same language family). No point bitching I suppose. Wish me luck!
Joyous this day is, now that I am reconnected to the world. I apologize to all of you who were hoping for some regular updates to this blog, alas I have failed to connect these last few months. The trouble wasn't that there is a lack of Internet (indeed there is a nationwide EDGE network in Kenya). The problem was that being me, I just had to upgrade to the latest Mac OS, Snow Leopard, which was incompatible with the driver for this internet dongle thingie. As you might have guessed, tech support is a bit lacking in Kenya, so to upgrade the driver I had to wait until I returned to Nairobi, which is where I am currently writing from.
So what's going on? It's been an eventful 2 months of training, which is now over. A pair of my trousers were stolen off the clothesline. I may have visited Tanzania accidentally (there was some confusion over where exactly the border is). I have eaten a bunch of odd parts of a goat, including the liver, intestines and stomach lining. I have toured an AIDS clinic in a truckers town (you can imagine what kind of business the locals engage in). My entire group has passed our language proficiency test, so we are all allowed to remain in Kenya (a Peace Corps Kenya first, I am told). And I have had altogether too little to drink.
Tomorrow is our swearing in ceremony, which will be held at the US ambassadors residence, on account of it being the 45th anniversary of Peace Corps Kenya. The Kenyan Minister of Education has been invited, but I doubt he will show (I'm afraid I can't elaborate, as I'm sure it would violate some kind of contractual bit about not commenting on politics, but read the news if you are interested. And then on Thursday it's off to site, and next week I begin teaching science (the new Missionary position, as it were).
So where is I going? The village is called Riat, it's next to the town of Ahero, near the city of Kisumu, in Nyanza province. Apparently I will be living about 4 km away from Lake Victoria, so I expect a fishy sort of diet. The climate is hot... and humid... and altogether uncomfortable. Lots of mosquitoes, which means lots of malaria. And lots of HIV, a cozy 15.3% adult infection rate! Fun stuff. I'm psyched.
Oh yeah, It's the same area where Obama senior was from, the Luo tribe. I've been trying to shift gears and forget my Kiswahili to make room for DhoLou. But it sucks spending two months on a language only to have to start with a brand new one (they aren't even in the same language family). No point bitching I suppose. Wish me luck!
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