Everything is Everything

"No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or sailed an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit."
Helen Keller

The strike has been called off, and classes resumed this week. It has come as a huge relief to myself and all the children—being cooped up with plenty of ideas can sometimes be frustrating, so this week I am putting them into practice. I’ve been trying to use locally available resources to teach such as balloons to represent a globe, drawing maps, and creating journals. Some of these have worked other have not.

I am teaching a stand alone class on HIV/AIDS to class 8(one of my favorite things to teach), the ideas I had was to have a journal where students could express their thoughts, and feelings regarding the topic. I told them they could write questions they had, write poems, or draw—by the end of the class I received all drawings of myself --teaching. So I missed the mark on that one, but I still feel like I want to stick with the idea, because the within 2 years the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS among Kenyan has rises nearly 2 percentage points. I strongly believe in open communication regarding the subject, and I know the future of HIV/AIDS in Africa really lies in the hands of the youth. A journal also provides an avenue to improve upon writing skill (which is desperately needed, some students struggle just to write a complete sentence in class 8) and the journal is for my eyes only reinforcing open communication.

My other idea was to use balloons as globes to explain the revolution of the earth around the sun! I drew the different continents on the balloon and had one student hold a yellow balloon and act as if they were the sun. I explained what an axis is and demonstrated a revolution. My students eagerly looked at the world as a balloon, but one signed "so in your home( America) it is night, now?" I wanted to hug her, it worked-- they filled out all my questions on the board correctly. I smile every time I think about it!

This week I was also informed that I was to help with the running activities, equivalent to track team. Imagine the irony: myself teaching Kenyans to run—I know! Truth be told, I am excited because I can put those three years on my high school the track team to use, and at least out dole out some challenging drills. For right now “track practice” consists of running in circles around a field, but maybe I can work in some hills or relay races, and then who knows maybe I have New York marathon runner on my hands?

I am trying to explore the idea of using video as a tool for learning. The students love anything visual and video just seems like an invaluable learning tool. I only wish I had the foresight to bring a projector or printer, but I guess I’ll have to make due with what I have. I have been learning from my fellow teachers as well. Today I had the opportunity to make my first snare or animal trap. One teacher intended to make one, to trap a bird to dissect for his science class. I decided to join because I teach the same class social studies; we walked around the school ground with machetes chopping small tree branches. We bent each stick and weaved other sticks through it, then we collected a leaf from a plant scratched it until I became a rope like fiber. We finished weaving tied the structure together and put the bait inside our trap—flour and corn. We will see tomorrow what we catch; I just hope it is not a snake! I promise to try to add pictures (maybe even videos) this weekend when I go to Nairobi; my connection is too slow and inconsistent to try to support that type of upload.

I’m really starting to feel at home here at Saint Luke’s, hard to believe that it has been almost one month since I’ve arrived! Although the strike threw a wrench into many things, but it feels good to interact with the students and staff again. My counterpart helped me choose a bicycle, and another helped me get it “serviced”, so I finally took to the road this evening. Many people know I am very scared of getting hit by a car which kept me from using a bike in college, but who has time to be afraid? The feeling of riding on the dirt paths and exploring new places; that has to be bigger then any fear. I live about 10 kilometers from town and I would like to start riding to town to avoid expensive and cramped matatus (mini buses used as transport here).

Everything feels as if it is falling into place. I have made quite a few Deaf friends in town ( who insist on giving me a mango every time I see them), I enjoy signing and getting to know them better. I want so badly to succeed in teaching these children, and helping my community. With every greeting, game and signed I love you, I am overwhelmed with a sense of responsibility to my students. I believe so much in the potential they possess. My only hope is that my imagination and ambition could create something useful and sustainable here.