Hamjambo! (the correct response back to this is hatujambo!)
It seems that I have experienced so much since I have last written, and in 4 weeks, I guess that is expected. The last time I wrote I had just been assigned to the all-girls school for school based training. I have finished my school based training and had an absolutely amazing experience. I taught Form 1 - (equivalent to 9th grade) math and biology to a class of 52 students. They have 6 math lessons a week and 4 biology lessons, so I was with the girls for 10 lessons each week and really had a chance to get to know them. The girls were so enthusiastic about having a mzungo as a teacher and I found that they responded really well to me. It is interesting to hear the teachers talk about the good and bad students in the class and then see how the typically bad students were performing really well for me. In math I taught them about the Cartesian plane and plotting points and equations on a graph, and in biology I taught on lipids, proteins, and enzymes. The girls were so eager to soak up anything I had to say about America, music, my hobbies, my family, etc. In fact, some teachers just wouldn't show up to school some days for class and the students would come and retrieve me to just talk with them during that class time instead. I spoke at a science congress club meeting (basically like a Science Fair project club) and really encouraged the girls to continue pursuing science if that is what interests them. The girls are raised in general with the concept that the math and science field is for men, so I did my best to explain to them that they can achieve anything if they put their mind to it. It may not be easy, but they can do it. I had one student (also named Diana) who was 1 of 12 children in her family and just wanted me to encourage her to continue school because she was feeling very discouraged and the cost of secondary school was really weighing on her family. It is opportunties like those that remind me why I am here.
I also really enjoyed the teachers that I worked with at Mulango girls and had a chance to educate them on healthy water intake, wrestling (they love it here!), and the use of birth control in America. Needless to say I had many interesting conversations with them.
We had a Halloween party one night which was pretty hysterical and interesting to see what costumes people could come up with. I made guacamole for the first time in my life and we enjoyed that with some chapati chips. Chapati is the american equivalent to tortillas, and it was nice to enjoy a little taste from home.
On October 28th we all went to Nairobi to have our future sites announced to us. I am right near the Tanzania border and Lake Victoria at a small school called Bande Girls Secondary School. I will be about 1 hour and 20 minutes from the small city of Migori and will live on the school compound. There are only about 37 girls at my school and only 8 other teachers. I will be honest - when I was dropped off at my school last week I thought to myself "you have got to be kidding me." I am really in the middle of nowhere, but I think it will be a great experience and that I can do a lot because the school is so small. My little house has 2 bedrooms, a "kitchen" (just another room that you specify for cooking, there are not any utilities or anything in it), and sitting room. I have a pit litrine and bathing room out back and no running water or electricity. It should be a good experience! Our water source is either a rain catcher or a 15 minute walk to the pond. When you stand outside my house you can see Lake Victoria on one side and the rolling hills of Tanzania on the other. It is absolutely beautiful out there. The school is really struggling and needs so much, but I am idealistic that I can really help them there. I took inventory in the lab and realized that we do not have anything. The physics teacher told me that they have to teach theories because they can't really perform any of the experiments since they have no supplies. They do not have a library or computers at the school either, so the students can't really do any kind of research. I was spoiled by having my school based training at Mulango where they had everything.
On my last night at site visit my fellow PC trainee who is about 8km from my site got very sick with a bacterial infection. We had to take him to the local hospital to get an IV and then I escorted him to a good hospital in Kisumu. Just when I was feeling lucky to have not picked up whatever he did, I came down with the same thing. I ended up throwing up on a bus on the way to Nairobi and then had diarrhea about 14 times in 3 hours. I couldn't keep anything down so I was put in the hospital on an IV and given lots of fluids, anti-spasm meds, antibiotics etc. When I was at the hospital with my friend a young girl was brought in who had performed her own abortion. It really upset me to see that, and my supervisor told me that that is unfortunately very common here. She was a secondary school girl, and I am just hoping that I will never have to deal with that at my site. Also, when I was in the hospital I was in the general ward for the first night and it was very sad to see some of the other sick women there. They have us all in one big room and some of these women had malaria, typhoid, etc. I was moved to a private room the next morning as PC likes us to be, which was better as it was really upsetting me to see them.
So as of right now, I am just hanging out in Nairobi before I return to the land of squatty pit latrines. I am enjoying the luxury of a toilet and a hot shower for just one more day here before I go back to Kitui for 3 more weeks of training. I will be sworn in as a volunteer on November 29th and then will come to Nairobi before heading out to Bande Girls school. I have to furnish my own house, so I will have to pick up a lot of that stuff in Nairobi as some of it is not available in Migori. They have this store in Nairobi called Nakumatt which is the Kenyan equivalent of Wal-mart.... it's fantastic. We have also enjoyed Java House while being in Nairobi which satisfies the Starbucks craving. It's funny to hear the list of places people want to go when they come to Nairobi- pizza, italian, coffee, etc. There is such a difference in how developed Nairobi is compared to what it is like out in the villages. I think that is something that surprises me most about being here compared to in America where everywhere you go there is a Wal-Mart and a nice supermarket.
That's all I can remember as of now, but I would love to hear how all of you are doing in the states or wherever you are!
Since I will be moving soon, my new address if you would like to mail letters (which I'm sure you do!) is:
Diana Tavares
Bande Girls Secondary School
P.O. Box 55
Othochrakuom
Migori, Kenya
Can't wait to hear from you all and keep in touch!
-Diana
It seems that I have experienced so much since I have last written, and in 4 weeks, I guess that is expected. The last time I wrote I had just been assigned to the all-girls school for school based training. I have finished my school based training and had an absolutely amazing experience. I taught Form 1 - (equivalent to 9th grade) math and biology to a class of 52 students. They have 6 math lessons a week and 4 biology lessons, so I was with the girls for 10 lessons each week and really had a chance to get to know them. The girls were so enthusiastic about having a mzungo as a teacher and I found that they responded really well to me. It is interesting to hear the teachers talk about the good and bad students in the class and then see how the typically bad students were performing really well for me. In math I taught them about the Cartesian plane and plotting points and equations on a graph, and in biology I taught on lipids, proteins, and enzymes. The girls were so eager to soak up anything I had to say about America, music, my hobbies, my family, etc. In fact, some teachers just wouldn't show up to school some days for class and the students would come and retrieve me to just talk with them during that class time instead. I spoke at a science congress club meeting (basically like a Science Fair project club) and really encouraged the girls to continue pursuing science if that is what interests them. The girls are raised in general with the concept that the math and science field is for men, so I did my best to explain to them that they can achieve anything if they put their mind to it. It may not be easy, but they can do it. I had one student (also named Diana) who was 1 of 12 children in her family and just wanted me to encourage her to continue school because she was feeling very discouraged and the cost of secondary school was really weighing on her family. It is opportunties like those that remind me why I am here.
I also really enjoyed the teachers that I worked with at Mulango girls and had a chance to educate them on healthy water intake, wrestling (they love it here!), and the use of birth control in America. Needless to say I had many interesting conversations with them.
We had a Halloween party one night which was pretty hysterical and interesting to see what costumes people could come up with. I made guacamole for the first time in my life and we enjoyed that with some chapati chips. Chapati is the american equivalent to tortillas, and it was nice to enjoy a little taste from home.
On October 28th we all went to Nairobi to have our future sites announced to us. I am right near the Tanzania border and Lake Victoria at a small school called Bande Girls Secondary School. I will be about 1 hour and 20 minutes from the small city of Migori and will live on the school compound. There are only about 37 girls at my school and only 8 other teachers. I will be honest - when I was dropped off at my school last week I thought to myself "you have got to be kidding me." I am really in the middle of nowhere, but I think it will be a great experience and that I can do a lot because the school is so small. My little house has 2 bedrooms, a "kitchen" (just another room that you specify for cooking, there are not any utilities or anything in it), and sitting room. I have a pit litrine and bathing room out back and no running water or electricity. It should be a good experience! Our water source is either a rain catcher or a 15 minute walk to the pond. When you stand outside my house you can see Lake Victoria on one side and the rolling hills of Tanzania on the other. It is absolutely beautiful out there. The school is really struggling and needs so much, but I am idealistic that I can really help them there. I took inventory in the lab and realized that we do not have anything. The physics teacher told me that they have to teach theories because they can't really perform any of the experiments since they have no supplies. They do not have a library or computers at the school either, so the students can't really do any kind of research. I was spoiled by having my school based training at Mulango where they had everything.
On my last night at site visit my fellow PC trainee who is about 8km from my site got very sick with a bacterial infection. We had to take him to the local hospital to get an IV and then I escorted him to a good hospital in Kisumu. Just when I was feeling lucky to have not picked up whatever he did, I came down with the same thing. I ended up throwing up on a bus on the way to Nairobi and then had diarrhea about 14 times in 3 hours. I couldn't keep anything down so I was put in the hospital on an IV and given lots of fluids, anti-spasm meds, antibiotics etc. When I was at the hospital with my friend a young girl was brought in who had performed her own abortion. It really upset me to see that, and my supervisor told me that that is unfortunately very common here. She was a secondary school girl, and I am just hoping that I will never have to deal with that at my site. Also, when I was in the hospital I was in the general ward for the first night and it was very sad to see some of the other sick women there. They have us all in one big room and some of these women had malaria, typhoid, etc. I was moved to a private room the next morning as PC likes us to be, which was better as it was really upsetting me to see them.
So as of right now, I am just hanging out in Nairobi before I return to the land of squatty pit latrines. I am enjoying the luxury of a toilet and a hot shower for just one more day here before I go back to Kitui for 3 more weeks of training. I will be sworn in as a volunteer on November 29th and then will come to Nairobi before heading out to Bande Girls school. I have to furnish my own house, so I will have to pick up a lot of that stuff in Nairobi as some of it is not available in Migori. They have this store in Nairobi called Nakumatt which is the Kenyan equivalent of Wal-mart.... it's fantastic. We have also enjoyed Java House while being in Nairobi which satisfies the Starbucks craving. It's funny to hear the list of places people want to go when they come to Nairobi- pizza, italian, coffee, etc. There is such a difference in how developed Nairobi is compared to what it is like out in the villages. I think that is something that surprises me most about being here compared to in America where everywhere you go there is a Wal-Mart and a nice supermarket.
That's all I can remember as of now, but I would love to hear how all of you are doing in the states or wherever you are!
Since I will be moving soon, my new address if you would like to mail letters (which I'm sure you do!) is:
Diana Tavares
Bande Girls Secondary School
P.O. Box 55
Othochrakuom
Migori, Kenya
Can't wait to hear from you all and keep in touch!
-Diana
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