Harambee Project UPDATE:
As of this posting we have raised $11,230! Only $70 to go!
THANK YOU to all that have made donations. Now the fun begins. Stay tuned.
There is something I’ve been meaning to talk about for some time now. Just something that has been on my mind. Its just been bugging me. I made a mistake a while back. It is entirely my fault. I take full responsibility for it. Before I departed for Kenya, well over a year ago now, I committed an error.
The name of this blog is hearkenya. Why did I come up with that name? I don’t know. I think at the time I thought it sounded pretty cool but in reality I thought it meant that I would be helping Deaf Kenyans hear. And that is where I went horribly wrong. I am not trying to help them hear. I am trying to help them learn English, math, science, and how to read. I am trying to get them to learn the proper signs of Kenyan Sign Language. I am trying to teach them to make the right choices in life, especially when it comes to their health. I am trying to encourage them to go on to secondary school and then to University. I am trying to teach them and their fellow hearing counterparts that Deaf people can succeed. Deaf people can do anything, except hear.
Many thanks to those of you that have contributed to my library project. For those of you that have not yet contributed, please, please, PLEASE consider making a donation. We have raised over $10,000 and are quickly approaching our goal, so PLEASE help us out! The sooner we get all of the money raised, the sooner the container will be shipped.
As I may have mentioned in the past, I work with a group of deaf adults. We meet every Sunday at 2 to discuss matters facing the Deaf in the community. When I initially came to my site I wanted to seek out the Deaf members of the community and learn more about issues facing them in this part of Kenya. Fortunately, this group already met weekly about a year before I arrived. Due to some disagreements during that period the group fell apart. When I arrived I managed to bring them all back together again. My counterpart, Patrick plays an important role within the group. Patrick has a respected voice within the group and is really the driving force behind everything we do. Its because of his influence we have developed a constitution, elected officers, and raised a decent amount of money through membership dues.
The majority of these individuals are in their upper twenties and early thirties. Unfortunately, with the exception of a few, they are mostly illiterate. There have been many occasions where Patrick and I ask them simple questions but we never receive an appropriate response answer. Our Sunday meetings sometime run over several hours as most of the time is spent trying to explain simple matters.
In the middle of last year we tried to think of projects that could benefit the group. I suggested that we start with smaller projects such as buying chickens or goats that the members could raise and later sell at a profit. My idea didn’t really receive much enthusiasm as most of the members wanted to start a hotel. I should clarify that a hotel here is just a little cafe that serves tea and some smaller meals.
While I was helping out at training in Loitokitok I received a text message from Patrick saying that the group just paid for rent at a small hotel right next to the school and that they are going to start serving in January. I was excited and nervous to hear the news. Excited to see that one of my secondary projects was moving forward but nervous because it would be a huge undertaking.
The hotel has been running for about a month now. They mostly serve chai and mandazis (similar to a doughnut). They do offer beans, rice and ugali for lunch. I should note that this hotel is really just a hole in the wall but it perfectly suites the locals as most of them are idle individuals who sit around and chew miraa all day. We already have encountered numerous challenges.
They all just assume that if they show up to work they will receive a salary. They don’t seem to understand the group concept either. That we all need to cooperate and work together. Its difficult since there is no one boss or owner who can hire and fire people at will. Everything needs to be discussed as a group and cooperation is key. This however is something they do not seem to understand. The first week there was much confusion as several members who were supposed to work never showed up. So the few members that did had to handle many different responsibilities. Few of them know how to cook so the others need to teach them. At this point they are not making in money. Each day we’re lucky to break even. I’m not sure how much longer we can keep this project going because there simply isn’t enough money for the project to sustain itself. We need to start making a profit soon or the hotel will have to close and all of the money that we initially invested in the project will be lost.
Patrick and I do our best to explain and try to help solve the problems. My main responsibility involves making sure they are budgeting correctly. I am currently working on a number of different worksheets that will hopefully keep everything simple as well as keep track of all of the money. Every night I walk down to the hotel to do some of the accounting. Sometimes I spend several hours there just listening to the many frustrations of the workers. Then I walk back, hoping that we can figure it all out.
My computer is temporarily working so I thought I would take this rare opportunity to write about a wonderful organization that I am working with called Kicks 4 Kenya.
Kicks 4 Kenya has graciously donated a bunch of soccer equipment to my school. Earlier this week we started practicing with some of the balls and cones that we’re donated by Kicks 4 Kenya. The students were thrilled to play with the new balls and even the neighboring school wanted to join in on the fun. When we initially went out to practice the entire school followed as well as all of the students from the hearing primary school…there must have been 300 students circled around me.
Thanks to TJ at Kicks 4 Kenya and all of those who made contributions to our little soccer project. I greatly appreciate your efforts and I will be sure to keep you updated as the school year progresses. We are preparing for the Deaf Schools competition in early April. I am hopeful with the addition of the equipment that we will be ready to compete!
I just return from an amazing adventure with my dad. He arrived a few weeks ago and immediately we were off to Masai Mara. Masai Mara is one of the best game parks in all of Africa. It shares the Kenya/Tanzania border with the Serengeti. The highlight of the safari was seeing two cheetahs chase down a gazelle. Unfortunately, our vehicle got stuck in the mud a mere fifteen feet away from the two cats and my dad and another guy got out to help push us out. I stayed put as i have a whole life to live yet. We finally got out of the mud and actually scared the cheetahs away. It was by far the best safari I have been on. After two days at Masai Mara we headed to Nanyuki to meet up with the rest of our expedition to hike mount Kenya.
Mount Kenya was amazing. The first day we were forced to hike an additional five km since our matatu could not make it up the mud filled road to the park entrance. We slowly made our way up to the peak over four days to avoid altitude sickness. On the fourth day we woke up at 2 am to hike the remaining distance to the peak. It was almost a full moon so we hiked to the peak with our headlamps turned off only using the moonlight. We made it just in time to catch the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen.
Now its back to work. We had a painfully long teachers meeting this morning in which we allocated classes among other things. I am happy with the classes I will be teaching this year. I will continue teaching math and English to my class (now class four), I will teach reading to classes 1, 2, and 3 and I will teach one lesson a week about AIDS/HIV to each of the upper primary classes (class 4 through 8). I am pretty excited about the progress on all of my secondary projects as well.
I am also excited about getting my computer fixed soon so I don’t have to deal with this damn internet cafe crap. Believe it or not its taken me 30 minutes to type this up because of the slow connection and overall slow computer that I am on at the moment. So I apologize to everyone that sends me emails yet I have not responded yet. Please bear with me.
Greetings from Loitokitok.
After all of the time I have spent in this little town over the past year, the beauty of Mount Kilimanjaro never ceases to amaze me. I’ve been fortunate to call Loitokitok home for at least a short time as its probably one of the most beautiful places I will ever live in.
As I mentioned before I am helping out with training once again. I sure have spent a lot of time with this new group of trainees. It has been interesting to watch them develop over the past few weeks. I really enjoy being on this side of the training. I am mostly here to answer their questions and assist with anything. I was pretty busy this last week though, as I had to assist during numerous question and answer sessions. They have been grateful for all of us volunteers helping out. Its surprising how much they have changed in such a short time. Since it is so close to Christmas I have decided to stay in Loitokitok until after Christmas rather than head back to site only to turn around again to pick up my dad at the airport.
Since I’ve been here I already have visited my mama and baba a few times. Tuesday I stopped by my mama’s clinic to say hello and she bought be a coke. I asked why she didn’t buy one for herself also. She said she had just taken tea and ask if I had tea that morning to which I responded that I did not take tea that morning. Shocked, she just stared at me for a second and said, “My God” as if something devastating had happen.
Unfortunately, my brothers aren’t around as they are in Nakuru visiting their grandma.
Paul and Ginnie will be here in a few days for Christmas and I am told some other volunteers will also be around. It should be another exciting Christmas in Loitokitok. Maybe I’ll get to slaughter a goat again.
Well I have some horrible news. I came back to my site to discover that my computer is broken. I have no idea what happened to it. It was working fine before I left. I am hopeful that it can be fixed but until then my posts will be even more infrequent as well as my emails. And no more aim chats for a while.
I just return from an eventful journey. I headed to Nairobi for Thanksgiving with friends. After Thanksgiving I went to Hell’s Gate with some new volunteers and Mr. Thomas. It was a pretty good time. The trip started out miserably as it was constantly raining and cold. But the second day was perfect. We rented some bikes and biked through the bike. As expected, the bikes weren’t that great it was worth it though because it was pretty awesome to be biking alongside zebras, giraffes, warthogs, buffalos, and more. It was nice to get my ‘biking fix’ in. Its been too long. Halfway through our ride we took a tour of a gorge. It was like being in a small canyon. It was nice to get off the bikes for a while and do some hiking.
After Hell’s Gate I returned to Nairobi for my mid service medical exam. After being poked and prodded I’ve been deemed fit to continue on with my Peace Corps service. The appointments themselves went fairly quickly so the majority of my time was spent lounging around the Peace Corps office with the rest of the education volunteers from my group.
While in Nairobi we hit up some of the nicer dining establishments. One night we ate indian food, another night we had some delicious sushi. The night after Thanksgiving Tom and I went to a favorite Ethiopian restaurant among volunteers. We ordered a ton of food and stuff ourselves for a good hour. I don’t think I’ve even been so full.
After being in Nairobi for medical exams for a few days I headed to Lake Nakuru with fellow deaf ed volunteers Charlotte and Erin. I’ve been low on funds after traveling around so much lately but I’ve heard such good things about Nakuru that I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go there. It lived up to my expectations. Since the park surrounded a lake, there was abundant wildlife. We tried to find some lions and jaguars but unfortunatly we did not. Hopefully when my dad comes in a few weeks I will finally see a lion while on safari.
This weekend I head back to beautiful Loitokitok to help out with training again. I’m not sure what I’ll do after that maybe come back here and spend Christmas with my neighbors or join up with some other friends on the coast. In the meantime, I’ve been cleaning up my house and preparing for my dad’s arrival. Only about three more weeks and I’ll finally have a visitor!
Once again I am in Nairobi. I am writing this post from the comfortable confines of the Peace Corps office. I arrived in Nairobi yesterday to meet up with some other volunteers to celebrate Thanksgiving. A former PCV who now works for an NGO in Nairobi graciously invited us into her beautiful apartment so we could enjoy a feast. We also got to watch The Office! All of us were pretty excited for that.
The term ended on Wednesday as the parents came to pick up their kids that day. This term sure flew by. To wrap up the term I had to fill out forms for each student and write their marks (grades) in each of their report books. We had to compile a form to give to their parents. On the form I needed to list the things that they students needed to bring to school next term, the existing balances, and any medical fees that the student incurred over the term. I was stunned to see the ridiculously high balances for most of the students but I guess its not surprising as most of Kenya is very very poor. The school must accept the students even if their parents can not pay the school fees.
Now I have a pretty long break until the next school year starts in January. I’ll be in and out of Maua. I will continue to make some trips to Nairobi and Loitokitok to help out with training before they swear-in in January. Most importantly, my dad is arriving in Kenya just after Christmas and we’re both getting excited to climb Mount Kenya together and go on a safari.
OK I’m going to take a page out of RPCV Kira’s book.
Grab a piece of a paper and something to write with. Now, write down my address:
Matt Palma NJIA Special School
P.O. Box 436 - 60600
Maua, KENYA
Write me and tell me what you want on the blog!
Last week I had the opportunity to meet the new trainees upon their arrival to Kenya. Like I said before, its always nice to get out of here for a short break and spend some time in a decent hotel. It was an interesting experience to see them right as the got off the plane. I felt like an RA in a dorm and they were a bunch of incoming freshmen. They had many questions about Kenya and what its like to be a Peace Corps Volunteer. I was happy to answer any questions they had. It reminded me of myself a year ago, moving to Kenya to become a PCV and really not having any expectations. While it was nice to meet them all right away, a few days afterwards I came down with the flu (possibly this swine thing everyone’s talking about). But everything is fine now.
Unfortunately I missed some class time being away in Nairobi and then getting sick. I did manage to give the kids a bunch of work to do before I left such as some worksheets and word finds that I made to keep them busy while I was gone. We have also been working on a sweet little art project that I am realizing will go a long way.
I handed out two pieces of construction paper to each student. Beforehand I told them that I was going to pick the colors so there would not be any fighting. Once everyone had their construction paper they had to fold them over. This gave me an opportunity to review a prior ‘whole and halves’ fraction lesson. Then they had to share my scissors and cut along the folded line. Then they had to switch one half of each color with each person sitting to either side of them. In the end everyone had four different colored halves which we proceeded to staple into small books. Basically, I had this idea to make books out of the construction paper but I really had not figured out what I was going to have them write in the books.
Once we were finished making the actual books I realized that they really love them and they’re going to bring them home to show their parents and my hope is that they will look through them often over the holiday. I figured it would be a good way to put a lot of the information we learned and then they would constantly be reviewing it. So each page in the book had a simple topic. One page just listed the months of the year, another had the days of the week, another had time, another had ‘opposites’, another consisted of writing a word in plural form, whereas another was the use of ‘a’ and ‘an’ and vowels. We’re not finished yet.
Earlier this week we had a visitor who fitted some of the students with hearing aids. I’ve noticed that a few kids have hearing aids but I never really investigated into the quality of the aid. I just assumed it was of very poor quality and was most likely some brand that I never heard of. Anyways, I went to introduce myself to our visitor and I starting asking him questions about the hearing aids. Much to my surprise they are the same brand as mine. The model isn’t the same but it was neat to see that same familiar Phonak brand that my family uses. One of the students that received a hearing aid is in my class. It has been interesting to see him function with it and hear new sounds. I try to test him in class by making different noises. When I do a very loud low hum he first thought it was a plane flying overheard. Since he has figured out that its me every time I hum he just smiles and points at me. During the middle of PE he heard some nearby farm machinery and his face lit up. I was curious to see just exactly what the sound from his aid was like so I did a little experiment and switched one of his with one of mine. Obviously we did not switch ear molds, I only switched the aids. It wasn’t bad, just different.
more photos...
My name is Matt and I am a Peace Corps Volunteer living in Kenya from 2008 to 2011. more...
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