First week teaching

Hellooooo friends,

So I arrived on Saturday and stayed at the volunteer house in Nairobi which was very nice. I stayed with a lot of other volunteers from the US and Europe mainly. It was a relaxing weekend where we toured Nairobi and hung out. On Sunday we went to church and let me tell you, it was a lot different from the Bracebridge masses I'm used to! (haha). The singing was very engaging and there was a lot of dancing. I found it very inspiring.

On Monday we had orientation. We were told to be ready by nine but Kenyan time nine actually means 11:30 haha. We ended up leaving for our placements a couple hours late. Then when we were driving in this huge van with 11 of us jammed in it, we ran out of gas and one of the guys had to ride a matatu (the public bus system in Kenya - large vans that fit 10-20 people and are relatively cheap to get around) to get more gas. But of course, there was a gas shortage so he had to go very far to get gas and didnt return for over an hour. We didn't arrive at our placements until 10pm with all the stops...only 4 hours late!

I am staying with a family - the parents are really nice and they have a 7 month old daughter. Her name is Lovelin and she is the happiest baby I have ever met. She is SO cute! There is another volunteer here from China. She is really interesting to talk to and the kids love learning kung fu from her.

ANDDDD now the school. It is a small school in size, but has 1000 kids from grades 1-8. There are 60-80 students in each class. There is only ONE text book for every 5-8 kids, isn't that crazy? That makes it hard to teach...with no overheads or photocopies or text books. My teaching schedule is very random, someone just takes me to a class, hands me a text book and says "teach." There is no prep time or anything beforehand, it's been weird.

After school, we have about an hour to play with the kids. They had a fashion show today for me where they take turns walking the catwalk...quite funny. They are always getting me to sing them songs, so I'm glad I spent so long at camp haha! They think my hair, arm hair and freckles are baffling. They have never seen white people before, so they ask me if the other girl from China is my sister hahaha! Overall, it's a little exhausting to be the center of attention at all times, but I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon lol.

I have much more to write, but don't have enough time. So, until next time...I will try to add pictures!

Lisa

Leaving...today!

Hi everyone!

For those who don't know, next Thursday I am off to Kenya where I will spend 3 months teaching at a local school. I will be teaching all subjects (math, science, english...) and be teaching kids in all grades. This will be my fifth work term (although it won't count for coop credit unless I do some kind of engineering work- but I only need 5/6 coops in order to graduate on time).

When I tell people how I'm spending my winter, the first question I hear is "why?" My interest in international development was sparked very young...I was recently reading a journal from when I was in grade 5 and my career goals were “to teach in underprivileged countries and write about my experiences.”

Then, when I was in grade 12 I went on a mission trip to Nicaragua with my high school. We painted a school and it was a really amazing experience. Though it was a short trip, it further solidified my interest in helping developing countries and ever since, I have wanted to do more.

But, since starting university I haven't done much that was aligned with that goal, so through this trip, I will be fulfilling a dream that I have had for a long time, and who knows what I will discover?

I recognize that 3 months isn't long enough to really change the world or anything, but I'm hoping to form some meaningful connections and if I can even help one person, I will consider this trip a huge success.

My flight leaves in 6.5 hours and I should be arriving Saturday morning at 7:00am their time. I'm so excited!!

Cheers,
Lisa