November Rains Bring Spring

It has been almost a year since I first landed in Kenya, and now I am preparing to meet the new group of trainees as they travel to their training site in Loitokitok. In the mornings I have been hearing a vibrancy among the birds' songs that has not been present since last November. The start of the rains have come and everything is green again. There continues to be a lot of talk about El Nino, with people telling tales of last time El Nino hit the country and all of the destruction it caused. I was a bit scared by their stories, but now I am a bit disappointed by this "El Nino" - if it can even be called that. We only had "torrential" rains for maybe two days. I really think that the country needs more of this. I may be speaking too soon though, since the rain is supposed to come again in November and December.

A few days after the fiercest rains I went outside my house and found a week old puppy curled up next to my bread oven. His mother was not around, and although he as weak he was still alive. I wondered how it had landed here, but without giving it a thorough inquisition I bought it milk and started feeding it. He was so weak that the milk had to be poured into his mouth. It was all the talk around the school, "that dog is lucky to have landed at one of the few houses where it would be given milk instead of being stoned to death." I admit that buying milk for the dog made me feel guilty since there are so many humans around that would love milk. How would I have reacted if a beggar had found his way to my house?

I made a burlap bed for the dog and went to teach my classes. When I returned the dogs mother was there, and it was obvious that she was too malnourished to produce any milk for the puppy. A teacher at school told me, "if you love the child, shouldn't you also love the mother?" To which I said, "sure, but that doesn't mean that I want to feed her." After a few minutes I softened and I cooked the mother a meal of dog food (the dog food here comes as a powder. You have to mix it with boiling water and stir).

I tried to attend to the puppy again, giving it more milk, until it eventually threw it all back up due to my enthusiastic feeding regiment.

As I went to sleep I tucked the puppy into the burlap bed, and watched as the mother put her paws around it to keep it warm.

In the morning, the puppy was lying about a foot away from the mother, dead. I was disappointed, because I had been thinking about how fun it would be to have a dog, but I was also relieved because I have other things to focus my attention on besides a dog. Maybe I should have let the puppy sleep inside my house next to a sauce pot of hot water. Maybe there is nothing I could have done. I felt bad, but I dug a hole, while two of my students sung a Kimeru burial song, and that was the end of my puppy.

Since then almost all of the heavy rain clouds have faded from the sky. Even the dirt seems to be more vibrant than before, probably because of the contrast between the brown and green. The dust is definitely gone for a few days and the students are happy to be able to sit in the grass without getting muddy OR dusty.

I hope that we remain in this equilibrium for another week so that the new trainees can wake up their first morning in Nairobi to the smell of growing plants and the sounds of birds. If they miss it, at least they will get to see Kenya's second spring season in April.

A Few Photos

I am in Nairobi and I am using my access to electricity and nearby cellphone booster towers to upload a few pictures from my computer.

The first picture is one of the form four students at our school standing in front of his father's matatu. This is the most common vehicle used for public transportation. The student helps his father over the holidays by washing the vehicle and driving the route (and promptly washing it again because it is so dusty).

This is the acting deputy principal at my school, Mr. Nderitu. He lives in the hills above the school where the conditions are right for growing tea.

In August, just after the end of the term, me, Abed (left), and Martin (right) hiked to the "White Mountain." Our school is just behind the first line of ridges in the background.


Finally, here are two pictures of common building materials for homes in rural Kenya. The first home is mine. It measures approximately 10 ft. by 20 ft. The Kenyans in the village did not believe that a white person (muzungu) is able to live in a house like this. They believed that I would threaten to go home when I saw this house and demand that it be replaced by a much larger home with more amenities. I think it is nice though. It keeps the rain out most of the time, and it encourages me to spend more time outside. The bottom picture is of a more traditional style of home. This one is not quite traditional due to its tin roof, but the walls are made out of a mixture of sticks, mud, and cow dung and the floor is made of dirt.

Farewell Party for Form Four Students

The form four students are having a farewell party in about one week. They asked me to be their adviser for the preparations, and for the most part the program is similar to that of an American ceremony for a similar occasion. It will start with a service, then there will be presentations by the school clubs, followed by speeches from the PTA Representative and the chairman of the school's board. The difference is that as part of my role as adviser is to help them pick out a bull, which will be slaughtered the day of the event. We have not yet found the bull, but the process involves finding one in an animal market and then walking with the bull on a foot path cross-country to the school (up to around 15 km).

The bull is really what makes the occasion. We have to find a big healthy one. This isn't my specialty, and the students know it. Mostly my role is to be the money bearer and lead novice bull-hunter.

It is still strange to think about the places where technology has come in and the places where it has not. Everyone has a cell phone and wears a New York Yankees baseball hat (new, still with a sticker, just like my brother in America wears), but electricity is not very common. Only very rich individuals own refrigerators and then they own what Americans call a mini-fridge.  Butcheries definitely do not have a refrigerator and neither do schools. The people are very able to do without them though. On the day of the party our school cook and his two aides will butcher a cow, cook tea, cook the bull, and cook rice for around 400 people.

(Below is a picture from the wedding of Mr. Mutia that shows what a meal at a party looks like.)

Day After:

I met my students in Maua on Saturday expecting to spend the day sitting in the market until the time when the students bargained for a good bull.  Then we would end the day by driving it home. Instead, I met the students on Saturday to find that they had not made the necessary arrangements. I went home realizing that I needed to come up with a back-up plan for them in case they needed me to become the head bull diviner.  I am good friends with an animal doctor and after a phone call with him on Sunday morning I was preparing to take charge of the bull, but then one of the students called me to say that one of their fathers had agreed to sell us a mid-sized bull for the price we had budgeted for.  

I am happy that my student's pulled through without me, but then my happiness turned into slight disappointment when they told me that the father agreed to deliver the bull in the back of his Land Rover.  I have been told since that bulls can be rough on their handlers when they get separated from the herd.  Although I coveted the idea of trekking cross-country through the Kenyan bush, the Land Rover really was a blessing.  

Due to the delay, I did not have the time to go by foot anyways.  I had to head to Nairobi very early the next morning, because I was selected by my supervisor in Peace Corps to help plan the training for the new group of secondary school teachers that will come in November.  I will be busy in Nairobi, until Saturday morning, at which point I will rush back to Athiru to eat the bull that I picked out of the herd with my students.  Together we will listen to speeches by the PTA, board of governors, and the principal.  Then the deputy will give prizes to the students who performed the best and those who were active in leading the school.

Then on the 20th the form fours will begin their KCSE.  Each day for two and a half weeks they will take two 1.5-2.5 hour tests.  Then they will leave the school and wait at home for over two months before they receive their scores.