I'm still in the "observation" phase, but I have started walking around helping individual students with their work. Today, I actually had students requesting my help ("Madame", I would hear). I think they are beginning to accept me and are starting to feel comfortable with me - at least in Peter's class. I haven't been in the other two enough yet for that to happen.
Thursday, I got a "fun?" experience of riding a beat-up tuktuk home from school. It's like a three-wheeled motorized jalopy with kind of open sides that seats two people. To start it, the driver pulls a chord something like when you pull the chord on a lawn mower. We had just started going when the driver asked me if I had 100 shillings (about $1.07) so he could put in a liter of gas. One liter is about 113 shillings, so that's not much gas. There are 3.8 L. in 1 gallon, for those of you who are metrically challenged. The roads here are EXTREMELY bumpy, so riding in a tuktuk, which has absolutely NO shocks, is NOT my idea of a good time. I feel like I have to hang onto something to keep from flying out of the side when we go over the bumps. My chiropractor would have a fit if he saw what I'm riding in. It KILLS my back, but it's about the only option for transportation short of paying for a taxi which is about $30 as opposed to 500 shillings ($5.38). I'm guessing it's only about 10 km (6.2 miles) from school to home, but it takes nearly a half an hour over these bumpy roads. To top off the excitement for my first day in a tuktuk, this year (I rode a significantly nicer one in Mombasa last summer), it started to rain heavily. Unfortunately, the driver didn't think it was going to rain, so he had nothing to keep the rain from coming in onto me from both sides. Luckily, I was on my way home and not on my way to school - I looked and felt somewhat like a drowned rat when I got out.
Today's ride was a bit better, but my back is still hurting from it.
Wednesday night, I went to dinner with a couple who is staying here for a few days. We went to the Sands Hotel, which is right on the beach, but a little too windy to eat outside, and had a nice buffet dinner - Kenyan style. I steered clear of a few things, but I tried most of the items. I had red snapper for the first time. It was delicious! Some of their food here (even not at the hotel) is called the same thing as our food, but it definitely doesn't taste like our food. Oh yes, we also had cats and dogs roaming freely around under our feet. It was a very enjoyable night, all in all, however.
Thursday was about the same as Wednesday, but I started going to the other two teachers' classes. At home, we played Nerts (a card game) until about 9:30. We added to our mosquito bite count, but it was worth it. I love playing games!
Friday, I finally broke down and tried using the bathroom at school again. The first day I was there, I came out asking if there was any soap anywhere. The "custodian" (I don't know what they call her here) said, "I will make sure there is some in there tomorrow." Well, on Friday, there was not only soap, but also a hand towel that she had hung over the corner of the mirror. I thought that was so thoughtful of her!
I did a little shopping after school with Vicky and Jay (the couple staying here) and Christy (who lives here with her husband). It felt good to just go somewhere - even if it was just to the grocery store and a few other little "strip mall" type stores. I order a skirt to be made out of a kikoi - an African fabric with a Swahili saying on it. ( I picked that up today, and it turned out well.) The guy who sews the clothes uses a rather primitive sewing machine with a foot pedal that he pumps to make it go, but he was very fast and very good.
Saturday at 7:15 AM, Churchill (the taxi driver that picked me up at the airport) picked Vicky, Jay, and me up and drove us down to Wasini Island on the highway that connects Kenya with Tanzania. We got on a small motorized boat that took us about one and one-half hours to a different island where we snorkeled. Prior to that, however, we got to see many dolphins very close to our boat. They are so fun to watch. We could see the mountains of Tanzania off in the distance. After snorkeling, we went to Wasini Island for lunch. I ordered the seafood lunch which was a chipoti (kind of like a flour tortilla) stuffed with seaweed - very tasty, half crab, white snapper, and coconut milk rice. It was all really good, but I'm not real big on having a crab stare at me, nor a fish's head, while I'm eating their body. They had a big wooden club by each of our places to smack the crab with. It worked quite well, but I felt a bit abusive even though it was dead!
After lunch, we walked through a village and got accosted by the children. They are extremely poor, and they've learned how to beg, harass, do whatever it takes to get something from you. They were almost like piranhas literally grabbing things out of peoples' hands! They wanted me to give them my hat, my shoes, anything I had in my bag. I don't mind giving to children in need, but these children have been taught to do this, and it was rather disturbing to me. (It was such a different experience we had the day before when we stopped at a little school on Friday to give them some pencils, paper, sharpeners, and colored pencils. They were completely grateful and very gracious about it, and they were even poorer than the children in the village.) There are only about 1,000 people who live on the island, and the women have been the ones to come up with ways to earn money, which is funneled into their school.
After leaving the island, the workers on the boat put up a sail, and we sailed back to the mainland. It was a very nice day, all in all.
I went to church in Mombasa on Sunday - another 7 hour day coming and going. They asked me to teach Relief Society next week. They must be pretty hard up to ask someone who has only been there two times to teach their lesson, but I agreed. I realized that if I sit up near the front in the meetings and really focus on the speakers, I'm beginning to understand what they are saying better. Again, it will just take time to get used to their English.
I'm still working on my housing, but I think it's close to being figured out. I'll keep you posted.
Did you learn anything new about Africa today? I hope so.
Kadi
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