Ndovu [elephant]

Jambo!  I have now spent two whole days in Nairobi, and we've been so incredibly busy!  Yesterday, we started off by going to the Elephant Orphanage.  This is where Kenyan Wildlife Services takes in baby elephants who have lost their mothers (sometimes due to natural causes, but usually because of human causes).  We were there at feeding time, and watched the keepers feed the elephants huge bottles of baby formula (yep, formula for human babies...I guess it would be pretty difficult to milk an elephant).  

The baby elephants are rescued from the wild, nurtured until about age 3, and then released back into a national park when they are ready.  Sometimes, they even come back to visit to prove to their keepers that they are doing just fine on their own.

They really were adorable!  I even got to touch one!  One of my fellow students and I decided that we are going to go halfsies on an elephant.  Her name will be Ophelia, and she's going to travel home on the airplane with us.

Oh, and this is my favorite picture of my journey so far -- up close and personal with an elephant pooping.  Something I never expected to see in my lifetime!

Later we went to Nairobi National Park.  We didn't see nearly as many animals as the last time I was there, but we came pretty close to a lion!

Today we hung out with students from University of Nairobi, and they showed us around the city.  Tomorrow we're heading to the UN to learn about development issues regarding the slums in Nairobi, followed by a reception at the Canadian High Commission.

All in all, life is grand!

Jambo, Kenya!

Hey y'all!  Not really much to say at this point other than I made it to Nairobi safe and sound!  We just got in about an hour or two ago, and are all checked into ICIPE, which is an insect research station that we'll be staying at for the week.  I slept for most of the second flight, but it was wicked neat to fly over the Sahara!  It's just after 1:30AM right now though, and I have to be up and out by 8AM to go to Nairobi National Park --  gonna see some Walters and maybe some Simbas!  (For those of you who are unaware of who Walter is...get with the program!)  We've only been here for an hour or two, so there's not really much else to tell (unless you want to hear about the airplane food).. but now you all know that I am here, I am alive, and I am happy as a clam!

Anyways, off to beddy-bye I go!

Time to fire up the ol' blogaroo!

Hey there, folks!

As I'm sitting here watching mindless daytime television for the last time in a very long time, I've decided maybe I should check to see if this ol' sucker still works!  And wouldja look at that-- it does!

So, I'm sure you all know by now that I'm leaving for another journey to East Africa in 10 days.  This time, it's for school.  I'll be taking a full course load (5 courses) with McGill professors as we travel through Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.  I haven't chosen any classes yet (and won't until the program starts), but in case you're curious what kinds of neat things I'll be studying, check out this website.

I have a week of orientation in Montreal, so I'm heading back north on Friday. I've been told that orientation will consist mostly of professors trying to sell us their courses, but there will be some Swahili lessons as well!  Also, it will be a great opportunity to get to know the other 34 students before having to spend three months camping in tents with them.

Yep, that's right...  Camping.  While some nights we'll be staying in lodges and maybe even hotels, I've been told that the majority of our nights will be spent in two-person tents.  Anybody got any advice on how to keep the lions and mosquitoes at bay?

After the program ends on March 26th, have about two months to do whatever the heck I want.  The first week will be spent as a beach vacation with the other students, followed by a week of climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro!  Then, I'm hoping to find some sort of internship or volunteer work before coming back home to Boston on June 9th.

That's a REALLY long time from now though.  Right now, I should mostly just be focusing on packing.  As you can see below, I am still extremely unorganized.

But look!  Pappy will be so proud that I'm taking a Sudoku book!!

Santa gave me all sorts of neato gear for Christmas...how is he always so smart?!  Among many other handydandy things, I got an awesome 65L backpack, a really cozy sleeping bag, a compressible pillow, and a nice little pocket knife (courtesy of my awesomepossum brother, Mike!)  I think I'm being much smarter about packing than I was last time, but I guess we'll find out as time goes on whether or not I have everything I need!  (I definitely won't forget the Nutella this time!)

Anyways, I guess I should get started on my chores (and back to this incredibly riveting Lifetime movie...har har har).  Sorry that this post was a bit less than thrilling, but have no fear!  More exciting times are just around the corner!  Hopefully I will have adequate internet access while in East Africa in order to maintain this blog.  If not, welp, we'll just have to catch up in June! :)

sawa sawa [okay okay]

Ahhhhhh!  Only ten more days in Africa!!!  I can't believe how quickly July has flown by!!  This next week is so busy with all the volunteers trying to get things in order before leaving.  Sadly, all five of us are leaving on the same day... Oh, have I mentioned there are five of us now? heh whoops.  It was SO exciting when the other two girls from McGill came.  Want to know why?  THEY BROUGHT NUTELLA!!!  The jar only lasted 5 days, but boy oh boy, it was a great 5 days.

Our schedule is as follows:  garden, school, garden, school, meeting, school, garden, school, meeting, meeting, meeting, school kjfal;kdjfkjgkls;kjg!  Busybusybusy!  Don't you worry though kiddies, I'm going to fit in some time for fun things too!  Liiiike on Saturday, our gardening club (now titled "Tumaini Green Revolution Gardening Club...yeah, TGRGC rolls right off the tongue, eh?) is going to Farmer Ali's house for a soybean workshop, where we were promised that we would learn how to make our own yogurt!  And Sunday, I'm going to church with Rose!  Five hours of loud and proud worship!  Hallelujah!  On Tuesday we're visiting another one of Rose's brothers for chocolate ugali!  I got pretty excited when I heard it was chocolate, but then they all told me that it's only called 'chocolate ugali' because it's brown, and that it has absolutely no cocoa in it...bummer.  Wednesday is closing day at school, and we get to meet all the parents at school (and hopefully we'll even have some doctors or nurses giving a health and hygiene workshop)!

But next Thursday morning, bright and early, I'll be on a bus to somewhere unknown... Either Hell's Gate in Naivasha or Nairobi National Park.  Friday, I'm on a plane, and back in good ol' Montreal by Saturday afternoon!  Wowzers!

watoto [children]

Aren't you lucky?!  Two posts in one day!!  I guess I was feeling kind of guilty when I heard that Uncle Rick has my blog set as his homepage... pressure's on!!

Last week Juli, Sabrina, and I visited Matungu Special Needs School!  I really wish I had seen this school earlier on in my stay here in Kenya, so that I could have had more time to be involved with them.  The school is mixed day and boarding, and has about 50 or 60 special needs kids, but on the same grounds they have a primary school, so many of the kids are integrated.  It was neat to see teachers so passionate about making sure these kids could have a somewhat normal life.  At the school, they teach everything from behavioral skills, to mathematics, to everyday life skills like cooking, farming, and even going to the market.  There's even an exercise bike for muscle conditioning!

I wanted to go to this school to donate some of the toys I brought from home: plastic toy animals, pipe-cleaners for arts and crafts, and a whole mess of Legos (special thanks to the Brenan family!!).  This was truly the perfect place to leave these toys!  The kids were so appreciative and had so much fun playing with the Legos.  We joined them for an hour or so, watching as they all built planes, cars, or random structures.  Everyone was so incredibly focused!  And somehow, the four gallon-size bags of Legos were enough for the dozens of students in the room!

For me, it could not have been a better experience! [I have loads more photos that I'll put up soon!  I really went picture-crazy at Matungu.]

Afterwards, we visited our friend Hamza at St. Joseph's Secondary School.  Hamza was so happy to see us!  We had him give us a tour of the school, and then the head teacher Bernard offered me two hectares of land if I promise to come back and stay in Kenya forever!!  I'm not exactly sure how much that is, but it sounds like a good deal!

So here is what kind of offers I have received in Kenya:
-two hectares of land
-a house built just for me and the other volunteers
-our friend Fanuel's wife to cook lunch for me every day
-my very own chicken (this one I have for real!  His name is Lord Henry!  We got him as a gift just two days ago)

Sounds like I'm all set for life!

I really should update the creepy-crawly page soon... The other day, a giant green caterpillar fell from a tree.  When I say giant, I mean ENORMOUS -- and even that doesn't really cut it!  This thing...ugh.  It must have been 6 inches long and an inch in diameter.  Then Fanuel poured some sort of creepy-crawly-killing chemical on it and Anerico's son carried it away in a shovel.  Bummer...I was looking forward to a nice protein-filled dinner!

Suguwa meno yako! [Brush your teeth!]

Exciting news for this past week:  We started the new Health and Hygiene program at Tumaini Academy!

The project started by purchasing new taps the water container, so that the children now have water to wash their hands with.  The old taps were really rusty and stuck in there pretty good.  Unfortunately I'm still not strong and manly enough to fix that kind of thing. I managed to remove one of the taps with the help of Oyango, the groundsman, but then I had to call for reinforcements.  Regardless, the school now has a way for the children to access water!  Huzzah!!

The school already had many toothbrushes from previous donations, so we spent an afternoon labeling each toothbrush so every student would have his or her own.

 

It was really a never ending pile of toothbrushes... I think 160 in all.

In addition, we donated ten tubes of toothpaste, and have a meeting on Friday with the owner from Khetia's (a supermarket in Bungoma) to see if the school can be sponsored for toothpaste in the future.  Now the children brush their teeth every morning before classes start!

We also purchased water canisters so that each classroom can have clean drinking water.  That was quite a process...the canisters used to be containers of cooking oil, so they were SO MUCH FUN to clean.  Mmmm.

 

Anyways, to kick off the program, we went around to every classroom explaining the importance of hygiene.

These are the kids in grades 1, 2, and 3, all listening attentively, and only slightly distracted by my camera.

We had two of the younger classes watch the presentation from outside.  Here's Juli and Sabrina being wonderful teachers.

 

The chart Sabrina is holding has all of our steps to our program on it:
1.  Brush your teeth every morning after arriving to school.
2.  Wash your hands every time after using the toilet.  Use soap and water.
3.  Wash your hands before every meal.  Use soap and water.
4.  Be sure to drink enough water every day.
5.  Come to school clean every day!

I should put up a picture of the chart so that you can see my lovely art work.  Or maybe not...

Ah, this morning I stopped by the school bright and early, and I was so excited to see that our program was actually in action!  All the students were outside brushing brushing brushing, with the teachers supervising and helping with the toothpaste.  Success!! 

And finally, for those of you back home who have forgotten what your favorite Maria looks like, here's a picture of me with two of my favorite students!  Ayub Something and Michael Junior.  They enjoyed hanging with us in the office while we were labeling toothbrushes hours after school was over.  I guess it's more exciting to hang out in the teacher's office when mzungus are there...

 

That's all for now folks!

wakulima [farmers]

This week Kennedy from ACE Africa came to visit and teach us a bit about organic gardening!  The two day seminar was held at Anerico's place, the same location as our community garden itself.  We had a lot of preparation, arranging to borrow chairs, dishes, and utensils from neighbors, and also trying to figure out how much rice and beans should be bought to feed 30 people for two days.  Turns out about 6 goro goros of each...whatever that turns out to be.  Anerico also hired a lawn mower to prepare the venue.

Dad, maybe we should get a cow at home!  Might save you some yard work.  Not only can you use it as a lawn mower, but it can help you make some nice compost and liquid manure!  Kennedy taught me that!

We borrowed sooo many chairs from all of Anerico's neighbors, and created a nice little sitting area in the shade.  You can see the farmers were all hard at work, taking notes from Kennedy's lecture. 

 

 

We even had a field demonstration, during which everyone kindly pointed out that our garden is a bit overgrown -- even "bushy," as they called it.  Perhaps we have a ton of work to do, but at least now we know how!

That's Kennedy showing Anerico something in the garden. (Maybe I should have taken better notes!)  You can see that they are standing in the sukuma wiki (kale) section of the garden, which we now know should be harvested soon and sprayed with a magic potion to get rid of harmful pests.

So anyways, I am now an expert farmer, certificate and all!  After these two days, I know all about making liquid manure, from plant waste, animal waste, and yes, even human waste!  (But we won't use that method...apparently it's not culturally acceptable...)  I also know how to prepare the perfect compost, how to properly space each type of crop, and how to make all kinds of organic pesticides.  When I grow up, I'm going to have the bestest garden in the world!!!