So let me tell ya about this loaf of bread I bought.
There's a baker in Eldoret town that sells some of the best bread I've ever eaten: It's freshly baked, whole wheat, and nearly impossible for me to keep uneaten for more than a couple days. I can't even eat it with anything else because I don't want to spoil the tastiness of this bread.
So I bought a loaf of this a couple weeks ago. It was a dark, ominous Saturday afternoon, with a heavy mist in the air from all the rains that had been falling for the last several days. I was in town to pick up a couple of my students from a week long girls-empowerment camp the Peace Corps sets up, and had to make sure they got home all right. I meet them for lunch, do some errands and whatnot, and after picking up my bread I go to meet them at the matatu stage.
When I arrive there, I find there isn't a matatu, destined for my hometown Ndalat, filling up like usual. This is a little weird. I sit down on a bench next to a little kid, who proceeds to give me the usual "holy shit you are really white" look. I flash my disarming "I promise I don't eat little kids" smile and offer him some of my bread, which I begun to munch on while waiting for our ride. He happily accepts and begins to share in the awesomeness that is freshly baked bread.
My students arrive just in time to catch what is apparently the last matatu heading toward our town (it was filling at a different spot than usual) and coincidentally there are only two seats left. The conductors tell me there are no more matatus going after this, as the roads have gotten really bad from the rain. At this time its 3 o clock in the afternoon, and I've never heard of this before; the road must be really bad. It isn't paved, so when it rains hard it becomes a mudslide. I tell my students to take those seats and I'll figure out how to get home.
After they get on their way, one of the conductors that knows me tells me he knows how I can get home: a private car that is heading that way. He takes me up to the driver who seems normal enough, and while he wants a higher price, I explain to him that I'm a teacher that is volunteering for no money and can't afford more than the normal matatu price. [anytime I'm talking to someone at this point, it's typically in my broken Kiswahili] He reluctantly agrees to this, and as I enter the car I find the same kid who I gave some bread to, along with his mother.
We go on our merry way for a couple kilometres until -SNAP- one of the rear tires breaks CLEAN off the axle. Didn't even know that was a thing! The driver and I get out, look at the wheel, look at the axle, look at each other, and communicate without a word "there's no way in hell we are fixin this." Oh, and he spent our fare on petrol already, so we are out of luck there too.
I hang out a bit and luckily hitch a ride with someone else that was driving that way (cars traveling along that road are rare) and he even knew our driver, and offered to give me a ride. Along the way, as I answer his questions, tell him who I am, and offer him some bread as thanks, he discovers he's only going about half-way to my destination. I tell him it's cool, just take me as far as you can and I'll figure it out.
The centre I end up being dropped off at is affectionately called "soco" which means "market," although it is only a small collection of huts and shops. At this point, there's a sizeable group of people huddled under the little shelter that is there, also waiting for transportation further down the road, and it begins to rain again. The rain on top of everything adds a comical tone to what might otherwise be a bad day. There's a certain point for me where things stop being bad and actually become funny with how things get worse and worse, and this is that point. I'm no longer worried now; I'll probably have to spend the night with a stranger in this village, because all the matatus are turning around when they arrive here, out of fear for the dangerous road ahead, and it's too far for me to hike. Then I think "Peace Corps!" and chuckle a bit, knowing it'll all work out.
As I hang out hoping for something to happen, a couple other kids come to me, also seeming to wait for a ride. I share some more of my bread, which has decidedly become my dinner, as it is now about 6:30 pm. Their father sees this and comes over to greet me. After a bit of talking, we discover he actually doesn't live that far from me, and he thinks he's worked out a private car that is going in the same general direction as us. He says it'll be tough, and I'll have to walk a few kilometres from his house to get to mine, but we can make it. I happily agree to accompany him.
When the station wagon from the 19th century arrives, we manage to fit a whopping 3 men, 7 women, and 5 children inside of there. I sit in the emptied-out trunkspace - well, I don't sit actually, I squat like I'm in a latrine. There is so little space I can't actually sit down, so imagine taking a roller coaster while squatting, and all you have to hold onto is the back of the seat in front of you. Woo!
After 8 hours of this (or maybe it was only 20 min, hard to tell in that painful state) we get stuck in a stream of rainwater that crosses the road. I'm quite glad to get out and stretch my legs, as at this point my thighs are protesting and my arms are burning with the effort of trying to hold up my weight. The women I have to climb over warn me the water is deep and I think "no problem, I've got my waterproof hiking boots on today" until I step outside and SPLOOSH, it's about 2 feet deep. Welp, my socks and boots are soaked now, no going back now! The other men and I push the car out like the badasses most Kenyan men are and we go along our merry way again.
We go along for another 7 years of torture for my hamstrings, getting stuck in the mud a few more times, having to push our way out each time. The last time was the worst, and even with the help from another 5 local men, we weren't able to move the car at first. I'm still not sure why the women and children don't get out of the car while we push, but I'm not about to be the one to tell em to move it. So eventually someone realizes we need to push at the same time if we wanna do this, and is we give that one, solid heave up this muddy hill, I slip and fall into the mud. But the car moved! We were good! I get back in the car with the kids in the back with me and they proceed to give me the "who the hell is this white guy" look. Kenyans generally assume white people are rich and don't lower themselves down to things like manual labor and uncleanliness, so seeing me covered in mud after hauling the car several kilometres was quite a shock for them. That's me, breaking down those cultural barriers whatever I do.
We get to the family's house around 7:30 or 8:00, and it's dark now, so we trek it through the bush for a bit. I swear, Kenyans have night vision. They were only using a little light to keep me from falling flat on my face again. Our little caravan of 5 kids, their father and a weird white dude gets to their house after a bit of hiking, and the father welcomes me inside for tea and roasted maize to rest before he escorts me home. He talks about his work and takes great pride in his family, with his grand total of 7 kids. Initially the kids and wife let the two of us alone to speak, probably thinking I'm some sort of important guest, but I ask them to join us and talk a bit. I give the family the rest of the half-eaten loaf of bread, telling them how grateful I was for the help. I knew without it I would have been hopeless trying to find my way in the dark. They accepted it with the kind of gratitude you would never imagine for a half-eaten loaf of bread, and I return home.
As we walk in the night, I notice the father carrying a big stick. "What's that for?" I ask. "Oh, just coyotes," he says.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Walking to school
I was thinking the other day about how awesome my "commute" here is. It's about a 20 minute walk from my house to my school, and then another 20 min from the school to the nearest tarmac where I can get a ride to Eldoret town. I pass lots of kids, neighbors, cows, chickens, farms, primary schools and a little stream with a nice wooden bridge. It's absolutely beautiful and I after 7 months at site I'm still loving it.
So, take a walk with me from my home to school!
A few minutes walk takes me through a neighbor's shamba ya maize; the corn here isn't sweet, but is ground up and used for the main food here, Ugali.
This is the farm from the other side. It's only about an acre.
Right after that farm I go into a wooded area with a nice little stream and wooden bridge. There's a couple spots in the hike that are treacherous after heavy rain.
After climbing uphill a little ways, there are another few farms to pass through.
I see this neighbor almost every morning, and we always wave without saying a word. He's a man of few words and pretty cool to boot.
This is his house. What do you think of the view he wakes up to every day?
This is the little path I follow afterwards. Anytime you see a picture of a kid fistbumping me, he/she probably lives along this path.
This is a little duka shop where I sometimes come to buy a soda or something. The mama that runs it is really laid-back and we love sharing stories or jokes; trying to explain a dream I had last night or how my day is going in Swahili with her is probably the main practice I get.
These are all from the same path. Sometimes I have to discourage Rex from antagonizing the cows, but she's generally well behaved and my neighbors (including the children, thank god) have mostly figured that out by now. The girl with the headphones asked me what I was listening to so I gave it to her. She couldn't recognize Green Day for some reason. The kids know by now they can just run up and I'll fist bump em, and say whats up, and they are still just as excited about it as when I first came here it seems. It really helps me stay motivated when I see them nearly every day like this.
Some more shots of the kids.
Sometime soon I'll have a more detailed post on what I've been up to - I've been very, very busy. Hopefully lots of good news to come soon, like the completion of my first secondary project!
So, take a walk with me from my home to school!
A few minutes walk takes me through a neighbor's shamba ya maize; the corn here isn't sweet, but is ground up and used for the main food here, Ugali.
This is the farm from the other side. It's only about an acre.
Right after that farm I go into a wooded area with a nice little stream and wooden bridge. There's a couple spots in the hike that are treacherous after heavy rain.
After climbing uphill a little ways, there are another few farms to pass through.
I see this neighbor almost every morning, and we always wave without saying a word. He's a man of few words and pretty cool to boot.
This is his house. What do you think of the view he wakes up to every day?
These are all from the same path. Sometimes I have to discourage Rex from antagonizing the cows, but she's generally well behaved and my neighbors (including the children, thank god) have mostly figured that out by now. The girl with the headphones asked me what I was listening to so I gave it to her. She couldn't recognize Green Day for some reason. The kids know by now they can just run up and I'll fist bump em, and say whats up, and they are still just as excited about it as when I first came here it seems. It really helps me stay motivated when I see them nearly every day like this.
Some more shots of the kids.
Sometime soon I'll have a more detailed post on what I've been up to - I've been very, very busy. Hopefully lots of good news to come soon, like the completion of my first secondary project!
Friday, May 31, 2013
Animals of Kenya
I've come across quite a few awesome animals here in Kenya, and thought I'd highlight a couple.
I went to the Kakamega Rainforest about a month back, Amber has the album on her facebook if you want to see some pics of that. I took most of the pictures with my fairly small camera, but the one that was the best IMO was the random bull we found in a field outside the forest main - he wasn't very happy to see us, and I had to get within 15 feet of him to get a good, full picture since my zoom isn't the best. I think he nearly charged me for that.
On one of my trips on the way home from Kakamega I saw a family of baboons on the side of the road just chillin. Didn't have my camera though.
I went to Hell's Gate National Park at the end of April for the end of the school break, and boy was that something.
You can just walk around and see the wildlife without needing to be in a safari vehicle since there are no predators there.
I also went to Fisherman's cove, a small little camping spot next to Lake Naivasha, very close to Hell's Gate. While setting up camp we encountered some monkeys that were not very shy, and I was surprised how close they would let us come.
We went out boating after that to see the birds and hippos around the lake.
Then our boat broke down. As you can see from the clouds, a storm was rolling in... it was nearly dark, we were quite a distance from shore, and starting talking about life insurance and wills with each other before another boat came to tow us back to shore.
That's my "We're gonna drown if help doesn't come soon" face.
At the campsite there is an electric fence set up to keep the hippos from invading the campsite. But apparently that doesn't deter them from grazing right next to it... about 30 feet from our tents. It was too difficult to get shots in the dark, but let me tell you, there's nothing quite like seeing Africa's second most dangerous animal (a tip of my hat to the Malaria loving mosquitoes) that close to where you are preparing dinner. Beautiful and somewhat nerve wracking. Mostly awesome though.
This month has been really, really busy, trying to implement a lot of new ideas and establish a new "normal" routine at school. I'll write all about it soon, but I know everyone loves pictures so I thought I'd throw a few up here in the meantime.
I went to the Kakamega Rainforest about a month back, Amber has the album on her facebook if you want to see some pics of that. I took most of the pictures with my fairly small camera, but the one that was the best IMO was the random bull we found in a field outside the forest main - he wasn't very happy to see us, and I had to get within 15 feet of him to get a good, full picture since my zoom isn't the best. I think he nearly charged me for that.
On one of my trips on the way home from Kakamega I saw a family of baboons on the side of the road just chillin. Didn't have my camera though.
I went to Hell's Gate National Park at the end of April for the end of the school break, and boy was that something.
We went out boating after that to see the birds and hippos around the lake.
That's my "We're gonna drown if help doesn't come soon" face.
At the campsite there is an electric fence set up to keep the hippos from invading the campsite. But apparently that doesn't deter them from grazing right next to it... about 30 feet from our tents. It was too difficult to get shots in the dark, but let me tell you, there's nothing quite like seeing Africa's second most dangerous animal (a tip of my hat to the Malaria loving mosquitoes) that close to where you are preparing dinner. Beautiful and somewhat nerve wracking. Mostly awesome though.
This month has been really, really busy, trying to implement a lot of new ideas and establish a new "normal" routine at school. I'll write all about it soon, but I know everyone loves pictures so I thought I'd throw a few up here in the meantime.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
What's goin on?
I don't have a lot of time to be in town this weekend (where I can get internet), but I wanted to throw a couple little updates on here.
So, Rex almost ate of the new, young chickens William bought for the farm. She wasn't hungry actually, she was stuffed with ugali, but she is super playful. She even taunts cows while we walk to school, and I can only facepalm and apologize to the passing shepherds. Thankfully she isn't actually very aggressive, just hyper-energetic due to being 8 months old or so. Go figure. So I'm taking her to school now, trying to both fatten her up from school lunch leftovers and keep her away from my poor chickens that can't keep up with her. There is another dog at school that hangs around the kitchen, and me and her are good friends; it's easy to befriend dogs in a country where everyone treats them like vicious beasts most of the time. The first time I brought Rex to school last week, they nearly started fighting - they both thought they were protecting me from the other! After some time, and a little strong-arming, they are tolerating each other now.
No lion updates, sorry. When I went to Hell's Gate National Park a few weeks back, there were no predators so we could walk around the place and see zebras, giraffes and all that good stuff up close. The new animal for the month of April was the Hippopotamus! Haven't seen those before, especially so close up when we went boating on Lake Naivasha. Good stuff.
My students are super stoked about all the new changes I've promised. More experiments, soccer practice every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, a party if they do well at one of the competitions at the end of term, integrating grassroots soccer into life skills, and I'm opening up my house for visitors since we don't have an office for guidance and counselling as of yet. At the end of my first HIV/AIDS education session for my Form 2s, one of my students quietly asked me if he could have my phone number to talk more about it. I'd rather not start a precedent of handing out my number to students, but I invited to come to my home over the weekend to talk. I'm definitely going to make an effort for the students to have a "safe place" to talk about things they don't feel comfortable talking about to friends and family normally.
I learned how to make "good" beans and rice by lightly frying the beans with tomato, onion, and green pepper! That plus my regular pb+oatmeal will decrease my chances of starving to death due to pickiness/laziness : ) Seriously though, if I couldn't find peanut butter, I would probably be in trouble.
Next weekend I'll put up a real post with some answers to common questions I've gotten from family n friends at home. What is the average Kenyan like, what kind of things do they have in their houses, stuff like that.
I'll post some pics and some more of whats goin on when I celebrate my birthday with Amber next week, since she has internet at home now. I'll be 23 this friday! Woo! Of course, with my beard, Kenyans think I'm in my late thirties haha. Nobody has beards here...
So, Rex almost ate of the new, young chickens William bought for the farm. She wasn't hungry actually, she was stuffed with ugali, but she is super playful. She even taunts cows while we walk to school, and I can only facepalm and apologize to the passing shepherds. Thankfully she isn't actually very aggressive, just hyper-energetic due to being 8 months old or so. Go figure. So I'm taking her to school now, trying to both fatten her up from school lunch leftovers and keep her away from my poor chickens that can't keep up with her. There is another dog at school that hangs around the kitchen, and me and her are good friends; it's easy to befriend dogs in a country where everyone treats them like vicious beasts most of the time. The first time I brought Rex to school last week, they nearly started fighting - they both thought they were protecting me from the other! After some time, and a little strong-arming, they are tolerating each other now.
No lion updates, sorry. When I went to Hell's Gate National Park a few weeks back, there were no predators so we could walk around the place and see zebras, giraffes and all that good stuff up close. The new animal for the month of April was the Hippopotamus! Haven't seen those before, especially so close up when we went boating on Lake Naivasha. Good stuff.
My students are super stoked about all the new changes I've promised. More experiments, soccer practice every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, a party if they do well at one of the competitions at the end of term, integrating grassroots soccer into life skills, and I'm opening up my house for visitors since we don't have an office for guidance and counselling as of yet. At the end of my first HIV/AIDS education session for my Form 2s, one of my students quietly asked me if he could have my phone number to talk more about it. I'd rather not start a precedent of handing out my number to students, but I invited to come to my home over the weekend to talk. I'm definitely going to make an effort for the students to have a "safe place" to talk about things they don't feel comfortable talking about to friends and family normally.
I learned how to make "good" beans and rice by lightly frying the beans with tomato, onion, and green pepper! That plus my regular pb+oatmeal will decrease my chances of starving to death due to pickiness/laziness : ) Seriously though, if I couldn't find peanut butter, I would probably be in trouble.
Next weekend I'll put up a real post with some answers to common questions I've gotten from family n friends at home. What is the average Kenyan like, what kind of things do they have in their houses, stuff like that.
I'll post some pics and some more of whats goin on when I celebrate my birthday with Amber next week, since she has internet at home now. I'll be 23 this friday! Woo! Of course, with my beard, Kenyans think I'm in my late thirties haha. Nobody has beards here...
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Saturday, April 6, 2013
The end of term I and the beginning of some understanding
Alright time for my first real post in months!
So I've been a little busy.
We've just wrapped up the end of term I. In Kenya, the school system divides secondary schools into 3 terms a year, with about a month break in April, August, and December.
This first term has been quite an experience for me. When it comes to the new culture, language, expectations, responsibilities, and experience with teaching here, I feel like I just cannonballed into cold water. It's all so NEW. I'm not complaining, I'm having a blast, but it will be a while before I really really feel comfortable in this new routine and things get second-nature.
My school itself has a plethora of gigantic problems, and I've come to realize it's a situation pretty much entirely outside of my control. First of all there is a reputation for my school where parents basically just dump their kids there if they are doing very poorly; it's pretty much the bottom of the barrel. The school fees are about 12,000 KSH a year (about $150) for a student and even for Kenyan standards that's dirt cheap, but the parents have a hard time paying even that. I've been told by the teachers that the parents have money from harvest and just don't want to pay because the school is crappy, but it's impossible for me to know exactly why at this point. So I am looking at here is a lot of kids with little self-esteem and parents with very low expectations for their kids.
Then there are the teachers. The teachers are examples for the students to mimic, and when they teachers not coming to school on time, or not preparing their lessons or just giving an assignment and leaving, or when they see teachers generally just treating them like crap... well you can see how that can be an issue. And that doesn't even touch on the caning issue, which is something I don't want to get into right now, but teachers that hit their students with sticks as discipline... yeah. That's something that permeates the entire education system and culture here, and it makes it very difficult to focus on teaching when I see it.
Lack of resources is something you'd expect coming into this, but even for Kenyan school standards my school is really scraping by. When your school has a total of about 75 students (yes total), there's not much money coming in and it goes to pay the teachers first. One of my classes has 10 textbooks for 26 kids. I'm supposed to coach soccer next term but we have one polyester soccer ball that I'm certain will pop after a week of play. Whenever I sit in on my chemistry exams, there are about 5 calculators and rulers that get shared around the room. I think many of students don't take many notes because they just can't afford more than their tiny notebook so they don't fill it.
So I've come to an understanding after this first term, my goal is NOT to change this school. It's not to improve grades, it's not to stop caning, it's not to convince teachers to change their ways, and it's not to do anything particularly fantastic.
My goal is to give my students a role model, and do what I can to help them grow up with a better, more positive attitude about themselves. I'll show them that a teacher will come to school on time and teach 25 lessons a week and do his best to make experiments with the bare minimum, not because he wants a paycheck but because he thinks it matters. I want them to see they matter, that they are the only real reason I'm here, and I think they are worth it. My goal is to help them have fun while learning, to try to think a little more outside the box even if they won't take to a university. But most of all, I just want them to be a little more proud of themselves. A lot of my students are good, bright kids that are just a bit misguided. Hell, I was a rebellious little snot when I was their age who did everything he could to subvert authority too. I get that, I've been there. They're still growing up, but I hope they can see they don't have to grow up to be the people everyone around them expects them to be. They should be proud of who they are, even if they grow up to be farmers like their parents and never leave Ndalat.
Anyway, I can't complain, life is good for me here. I went to a rainforest for the first time last weekend! Amber and I went to the Kakamega forest reserve and had a tour guide show us around for a few hours (side note: I've noticed most of my practice with Kiswahili is with arguing about prices haha). We saw 3 or 4 different kinds of monkeys, I'll get pics and maybe even the video for that up at some point. I've yet to see the infamous horn billed bird that Amber has raved about, but I'm hopeful I'll catch a glimpse eventually, because I'm definitely checking that rainforest out again. Maybe I'll get a Biology field trip worked out at some point.
I remembered to bring my school's address today so you can mail me letters and stuff! Keep in mind it goes through my school, and I'll have to pay (read: bribe) customs more for more expensive things. Also, things take about a month to get here.
Great birthday gifts:
shampoo
dove soap
cheezits
socks
flea collars for my dog
letters! (I promise I'll reply)
also, pictures! I want to make a collage of friends and family from home on my wall
Additionally, if you have any soccer balls or frisbees or things like that you aren't using, I have about 75 kids that would make good use of them.
My address is:
Tyler Kight
Nyigoon Secondary School
P.O. Box 6805-30100
Eldoret, Kenya
Alright that's all I'll write for now, I've got plenty of great stories to share though. I'll try to blog more now that I have some free time : )
So I've been a little busy.
We've just wrapped up the end of term I. In Kenya, the school system divides secondary schools into 3 terms a year, with about a month break in April, August, and December.
This first term has been quite an experience for me. When it comes to the new culture, language, expectations, responsibilities, and experience with teaching here, I feel like I just cannonballed into cold water. It's all so NEW. I'm not complaining, I'm having a blast, but it will be a while before I really really feel comfortable in this new routine and things get second-nature.
My school itself has a plethora of gigantic problems, and I've come to realize it's a situation pretty much entirely outside of my control. First of all there is a reputation for my school where parents basically just dump their kids there if they are doing very poorly; it's pretty much the bottom of the barrel. The school fees are about 12,000 KSH a year (about $150) for a student and even for Kenyan standards that's dirt cheap, but the parents have a hard time paying even that. I've been told by the teachers that the parents have money from harvest and just don't want to pay because the school is crappy, but it's impossible for me to know exactly why at this point. So I am looking at here is a lot of kids with little self-esteem and parents with very low expectations for their kids.
Then there are the teachers. The teachers are examples for the students to mimic, and when they teachers not coming to school on time, or not preparing their lessons or just giving an assignment and leaving, or when they see teachers generally just treating them like crap... well you can see how that can be an issue. And that doesn't even touch on the caning issue, which is something I don't want to get into right now, but teachers that hit their students with sticks as discipline... yeah. That's something that permeates the entire education system and culture here, and it makes it very difficult to focus on teaching when I see it.
Lack of resources is something you'd expect coming into this, but even for Kenyan school standards my school is really scraping by. When your school has a total of about 75 students (yes total), there's not much money coming in and it goes to pay the teachers first. One of my classes has 10 textbooks for 26 kids. I'm supposed to coach soccer next term but we have one polyester soccer ball that I'm certain will pop after a week of play. Whenever I sit in on my chemistry exams, there are about 5 calculators and rulers that get shared around the room. I think many of students don't take many notes because they just can't afford more than their tiny notebook so they don't fill it.
So I've come to an understanding after this first term, my goal is NOT to change this school. It's not to improve grades, it's not to stop caning, it's not to convince teachers to change their ways, and it's not to do anything particularly fantastic.
My goal is to give my students a role model, and do what I can to help them grow up with a better, more positive attitude about themselves. I'll show them that a teacher will come to school on time and teach 25 lessons a week and do his best to make experiments with the bare minimum, not because he wants a paycheck but because he thinks it matters. I want them to see they matter, that they are the only real reason I'm here, and I think they are worth it. My goal is to help them have fun while learning, to try to think a little more outside the box even if they won't take to a university. But most of all, I just want them to be a little more proud of themselves. A lot of my students are good, bright kids that are just a bit misguided. Hell, I was a rebellious little snot when I was their age who did everything he could to subvert authority too. I get that, I've been there. They're still growing up, but I hope they can see they don't have to grow up to be the people everyone around them expects them to be. They should be proud of who they are, even if they grow up to be farmers like their parents and never leave Ndalat.
Anyway, I can't complain, life is good for me here. I went to a rainforest for the first time last weekend! Amber and I went to the Kakamega forest reserve and had a tour guide show us around for a few hours (side note: I've noticed most of my practice with Kiswahili is with arguing about prices haha). We saw 3 or 4 different kinds of monkeys, I'll get pics and maybe even the video for that up at some point. I've yet to see the infamous horn billed bird that Amber has raved about, but I'm hopeful I'll catch a glimpse eventually, because I'm definitely checking that rainforest out again. Maybe I'll get a Biology field trip worked out at some point.
I remembered to bring my school's address today so you can mail me letters and stuff! Keep in mind it goes through my school, and I'll have to pay (read: bribe) customs more for more expensive things. Also, things take about a month to get here.
Great birthday gifts:
shampoo
dove soap
cheezits
socks
flea collars for my dog
letters! (I promise I'll reply)
also, pictures! I want to make a collage of friends and family from home on my wall
Additionally, if you have any soccer balls or frisbees or things like that you aren't using, I have about 75 kids that would make good use of them.
My address is:
Tyler Kight
Nyigoon Secondary School
P.O. Box 6805-30100
Eldoret, Kenya
Alright that's all I'll write for now, I've got plenty of great stories to share though. I'll try to blog more now that I have some free time : )
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Encounters in the wild
So a lot has happened these last couple months, not really sure where to start. The lion. Yeah, that's as good a story as any.
I spent a couple weeks near Nairobi at a getaway hotel along with the other 110 or so Peace Corps Volunteers in Kenya while the elections went under way. We were consolidated for safety reasons, because in 2007 there was a massive outbreak of violence from the elections; thankfully things have gone really smoothly this time round.
Back in the states, I would often go on walks on my own in the evening, just to think to myself or listen to music. Usually those walks were in suburbs, with little to see other than front lawns and pavement. So, when I learn our getaway spot is surrounded by a savannah filled with zebras and wildebeests and giraffes, imagine my excitement over having one of those nice alone-time strolls passing by African wildlife.
Well I go out at dusk, and walk about a mile away from the hotel, passing by a couple joggers and generally just seeing some gazelles, zebras and a wildebeest, nothing particular amazing but a nice view nonetheless. I turn around to head back and in the distance, maybe 100 yards or so, I see something that looks kind of like a wildebeest swishing it's tail. Wait, that wildebeest has a mane. Wait, that's not a wildebeest. Oh shit where's my phone? Oh I left it charging in my room. I'm going to die.
It's walking parallel to my path, back towards civilization; I can walk away farther into the savannah, where who-knows-what awaits a tasty snack, or I can walk back to the hotel along with my new friend. At this point, I start hyperventilating and panicking a bit. I have no idea what to do. I start walking a strange angle away from the lion but towards home, while praying it takes no interest in me and doesn't decide I look like a good snack. I mean, I can't outrun it, fight it, or anything: If it starts walking toward me, I could picture the message back home "PCV Tyler Kight was mauled by a lion because he is SO STUPID he didn't take a phone with him on his walk along into the savannah."
Thankfully, a car comes rolling along after those 3 minutes of terror passed. I wave and shout in swahili "SI MAMA STOP SI MAMA TAFHADALI," they stop with confusion, I point, they let me in and take me back to the hotel. "Oh yes we've heard some reports of two lions being seen out here."
And so I lived to type another blog post.
I spent a couple weeks near Nairobi at a getaway hotel along with the other 110 or so Peace Corps Volunteers in Kenya while the elections went under way. We were consolidated for safety reasons, because in 2007 there was a massive outbreak of violence from the elections; thankfully things have gone really smoothly this time round.
Back in the states, I would often go on walks on my own in the evening, just to think to myself or listen to music. Usually those walks were in suburbs, with little to see other than front lawns and pavement. So, when I learn our getaway spot is surrounded by a savannah filled with zebras and wildebeests and giraffes, imagine my excitement over having one of those nice alone-time strolls passing by African wildlife.
Well I go out at dusk, and walk about a mile away from the hotel, passing by a couple joggers and generally just seeing some gazelles, zebras and a wildebeest, nothing particular amazing but a nice view nonetheless. I turn around to head back and in the distance, maybe 100 yards or so, I see something that looks kind of like a wildebeest swishing it's tail. Wait, that wildebeest has a mane. Wait, that's not a wildebeest. Oh shit where's my phone? Oh I left it charging in my room. I'm going to die.
It's walking parallel to my path, back towards civilization; I can walk away farther into the savannah, where who-knows-what awaits a tasty snack, or I can walk back to the hotel along with my new friend. At this point, I start hyperventilating and panicking a bit. I have no idea what to do. I start walking a strange angle away from the lion but towards home, while praying it takes no interest in me and doesn't decide I look like a good snack. I mean, I can't outrun it, fight it, or anything: If it starts walking toward me, I could picture the message back home "PCV Tyler Kight was mauled by a lion because he is SO STUPID he didn't take a phone with him on his walk along into the savannah."
Thankfully, a car comes rolling along after those 3 minutes of terror passed. I wave and shout in swahili "SI MAMA STOP SI MAMA TAFHADALI," they stop with confusion, I point, they let me in and take me back to the hotel. "Oh yes we've heard some reports of two lions being seen out here."
And so I lived to type another blog post.
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