Site Placement

I am currently in Nairobi, Kenya. Staying at a lovely hostel. It is unlike any hostel I have ever imagined. It's really a jolly good hotel. Tea 4 times a day. This is the site that Peace Corps is putting us, the volunteers (today we were sworn in), and our supervisors. I met my supervisor yesterday morning and found out that I will be 5 km outside of a town called Maua, which in Kiswahili means "flower." The town is located between a national game reserve and Mount Kenya. Very beautiful sounding, and it also sounds like it is the coldest place in Kenya - the temperature is in the 70's every month of the year.

I am a secondary school teacher at a small school that was founded in 2004. The principal is the representative that came to meet me. My initial impression of him is that he is very hard working as he was responsible for the creation of the school. The story, as I have heard it, is that he was a career teacher who saw a need for a secondary school in the area. He talked to the chief, a former student of his, who was able to mobilize the community around the project and raise the initial building. From there the principal contacted former students of his that now work for the government and was able to get teachers and grants for a science building. The story is very inspiring, and I am excited to be a part of the community.

About half of the students board and the other half are day students. I will be living on campus in a house that was formerly occupied by the principal. I will write more about that once I see it. I have learned that I do not have an adequate intuition for connecting Kenyan descriptions with the real object yet. For instance, I could tell you that Loitokitok has a supermarket and you would think of Safeway. I have come to associate the term supermarket to mean "corner store" - a store that is big enough to walk into but maybe only 15 ft by 30 ft. I can tell you about the traffic jams in Nairobi, but you don't imagine a city the size of Seattle during rush hour, with only a few traffic lights and with no lines painted on the roads in many places. Imagine that 1/4 of the vehicles in this traffic jam are vans called "matatus," about the size of an aerostar with 12 people crammed inside. The music is blaring, some have TV's with music videos and the drivers are young and aggressive, picking up as many people as they can as quickly as they can to make some money. Remember, no lines on the roads, its amazing.

Tomorrow morning I am leaving for the school. I've heard that the road is paved and is decent condition the whole way. I'll be in a station wagon with 5 people, three of whom are trainees meaning that we have 3 big pieces of luggage each. It will be a great opportunity to get to know more about my supervisor and become closer to the other two trainees that will be within 70 km of me. I just realized that I have been using trainee, as I mentioned before we are now real live volunteers. My principal was actually taught by a Peace Corps volunteer back in 1971 -2 while he was a secondary school student. He told me about what an impact the volunteer made on his life and career path.

An aspect of the school that I particularly appreciate is that students are allowed to attend the school term even if they are not able to come up with all of the school fees. This cost is offset by raising the school fees for those who can afford it. It isn't perfect, but I think that it is a much better system than 99 percent of Kenyan school where students are sent home and not allowed to return if they cannot afford the fees. A consequence of this system is that the school is very tight monetarily, and there are not enough teachers. In forms 2 - 4 each class has close to 65 students.

It will be a new and thrilling experience living in such close quarters to so many students. It will be important to set up strict boundaries initially, but I am thrilled by the prospect of having a form 4 student tutor me in Kiswahili, playing football afterschool, and teaching the students about baking their own bread.