Chapter 6: Katherine arrives in Mombasa and finishes telling her Ugandan stories

Just had a lovely (no sarcasm!) saltwater (I know because I opened my mouth... yeah... mistake...) shower at the Reef Hotel on Nyali Beach in Mombasa, where I am staying for two nights before heading down to Wasini with GVI. But to continue with my last chapter...

After rafting, we were bussed back upstream to the Backpacker's Hostel at Bujagali Falls, where we binged on meat, chapatis, vegetables, and Nile Specials. At 9 p.m. they showed us the awesome edited video of our day, and we spent the night in the Cormorant dorm.

Day 2 in Jinja, we walked around Main Street and Gennie and I got split up from the other three girls. No matter though, we took two bodas to the 2 Friends restaurant (cute, right?) and had cheeseburgers. At 6 p.m. Gen and the others caught the bus back to Kampala, and I spent the night at Explorers Backpackers Hostel (the homebase for Nile River Explorers) and caught the Akamba bus back to Nairobi the next morning. Another 13 hours... yay.

Pretty early on in this bus ride the boy (my age, I guess...) sitting next to me told me that he loved me and wanted to marry me. He was from Tanzania, so he knew almost no English. To give you an idea, he knew about as much English as I know French. Yup, tres petit. LOL

...

I am currently sitting in the hotel's cyber room, hoping that Laura, whom I called (gasp! on the phone!) about an hour ago and agreed to meet online, will get on to facebook so we can talk. Fell guilty, Lau, if you're reading this later. :D

P.S. Viva Obama!

Chapter 5: Namubiru and Nasolo go rafting

Wow! Has it really been a month since I have written? Shame, shame. Well, I have some stories to get off my chest before I finish packing for tomorrow’s flight to Mombasa. If I hadn’t already been burned to a mzungu-crisp by the Ugandan sun, I’d be warning myself to be careful of the coast’s beachy rays… but I’m jumping ahead a little.

Last Monday I set off on what became probably the best short trip I’ve ever taken. I woke up waaay too early (afraid to death I would miss my ride) to catch my 7 am Akamba bus to Kampala. After 13 hours of popping my endless supply of pumpkin seeds and shifting my weight around the largest, and somehow least comfortable bus seat I have ever encountered, I arrived in Kampala around 8 pm. Within five minutes of getting off the bus, I had been reunited (involving much jumping and screeching) with Gennie, had met another volunteer with KACCAD (please don’t ask me what it stands for), Lori, and was on the back of a boda-boda, being whisked through town to the New Taxi Park. Yes, all of a sudden I was riding my first motorcycle, chatting with the driver over his shoulder about the upcoming election (never a dull topic if you’re an American traveling in East Africa). After a long taxi (or rather legitimized matatu) ride spent catching up with Gennie, we arrived in Bulenga, I met the other volunteers, and settled down on a foam mattress on the floor of the tiny room the four girls occupied.

The next few days I visited two schools with Gennie and other KACCAD members (including a Peace Corps dude), where I saw the “tippy-taps” they had built for handwashing, the murals they had painted for HIV/AIDS and health awareness, and participated (minimally) in a lecture on first aid. The second school we visited, Gennie and Lori facilitated a handwashing experiment and then answered questions about health, HIV, safe sex, etc. That class gave me the Lugandan name Namubiru, which apparently means “longfish.” Shveet. Gennie already had the name Nasolo, which I think means princess of the lion tribe or something equally awesome.

When I didn’t tag along with Gennie on her school visits, I hung around the KACCAD compound studying my GVI training manual. Funny story: I came to Kenya with the 2006 training manual, which GVI had sent to me in August, claiming it was the most recent copy. Turns out about 3 weeks ago, I get an email saying that my training manual should be the 2008 copy. Grrrreat! So I get emailed the new version, get all 79 pages printed at Sarit Centre, and read the whole thing in Uganda. In the first week or so of my Global Vision International program on the coast (specifically on Wasini Island in the Kisite-Mpunguti Marine Protected Area) I am going to be tested on my ability to identify and differentiate 8 dolphin species, 5 sea turtle species, 6 primate species, 13 avian species groups, and 6 Lepidopteran (butterfly and moth) species. I also have to understand the basic survey procedures GVI utilizes in the Kisite-Mpunguti MPA. I’m so excited, but a little nervous at the same time.

Halloween was eventful. We ate candy and watched Little Miss Sunshine.

Now, the morning after Halloween, Gennie, the three other volunteers, and I set off early for Jinja, which is the small-ish city at the source of the Nile River on Lake Victoria. By 10 a.m. we were clad in life jackets, helmets, and not nearly enough sunscreen, and floating down the Nile in a big red raft with Ben (the British geophysicist), Janet (the American who was not as succinct in describing her line of work), and Jesse the Australian, our Nile River Explorers rafting guide. We were on the Nile until 5 p.m., braving Class Five rapids (including a 4-meter waterfall), lunching on pineapple (YUM) and biscuits whose wrapper had a picture of Gennie’s 5-year-old doppelganger on it, capsizing and flipping, getting burned by the sun and battered by the water (and in my case, beaten smack on the nose by a stray paddle). I still have a bit of a bruise from that incident, actually, although I like it because I almost look like I’ve been in a fight.

OK… I think I’ve scared you enough. I need to stop procrastinating this packing job.

Will finish my Ugandan tales soon. :)

Chapter 4: University Blues (with an endnote on peeLAU)

I made my final decision to live and work at Starehe when Allison (b.t.w. THANK YOU for the blanket, I brought it with me and it’s still so soft) gave her senior project video presentation. At that point in June I still had no concrete idea what I wanted to do with my gap year. Her video made me realize that (obviously!) I should help those I know, those that I met last summer in Kenya. I gave myself a mission: Help these girls realize their potential and their options, and if you’re lucky, some of them will get into the American college of their dreams, and if they’re really lucky, that college will offer them a full ride. Yes, I spend four hours a day typing exams for the teachers, memorizing the foreign lyrics of the same ten reggae and Kenyan beats that Dan always has playing on his computer; I lead a Spanish club; and I teach some basic waltz and jitterbug, but I came here to help these girls apply to university, get in, and get aid.

I was fairly optimistic in the beginning. I thought these girls could get into any school they wished to apply to. What I didn’t anticipate was that they would all want to go to Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale. As they draw up their personal lists of potential schools, I find it extremely frustrating and a bit awkward having to explain to each one that they cannot all apply to the same schools, nor should they only apply to the famous, name-brand, ‘reach’ schools. They realize that it doesn’t make sense for more than a few girls to apply to any particular college, because what college will accept and provide aid to three girls from the same school in Kenya? However, a few seem reluctant to put the time in to research any reasonable ‘safety’ schools, at many of which they would probably receive a better education and have a more enjoyable experience than they would at Harvard or Princeton. I was talking about this with the school captain, Alice, and she agreed that many girls care too much about the college’s names. They want to be able to tell their families and their friends that they’re going to Harvard, not Middlebury, UPenn, or Juniata. What the hell is Middlebury? Juniata? But Harvard! Wow!

In the last two days I have emailed over 140 colleges in the States, asking what test requirements they have and what their financial aid situations are for international students. Practically every college can waive the TOEFL requirement because Starehe is an English-speaking school, and can also waive their application fees. However, almost every school does require SAT scores. SAT registration in Kenya costs 6,500 shillings, which is almost $90, and therefore out of the question for many of the seniors at Starehe. The CollegeBoard website says that only students taking the SAT in the States are eligible to submit an SAT fee waiver with their registration, but I’m going to email them to double check and ask for special dispensation. As for those 140+ colleges and financial aid, a handful will cover 100% of the demonstrated need of any admitted international student. This means that admission is extremely competitive. Another handful offer full rides to two or three admitted international students every year, so, again; extremely competitive. The majority of admissions offices that have replied to me say that their college does not offer full rides to any international students. I suppose a student could take out loans to cover the remaining expenses, but I think those schools are unfortunately out of the running for the girls here who can’t get a sponsor for their college years.

I would like to take this moment to thank Ken for lending me his laptop and recommending the Safcom modem. I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without the internet, so Thank you very very much, Koko.

As you can tell, my optimism has been dwindling a bit, but there is still hope.

Speaking of Hope, Optimism, and Change… : D … haha… I received my absentee ballot today! I asked Regina, the school secretary, to be my witness as I opened the envelope containing the ballot, filled in the bubble next to Obama/Biden, closed up the ballot in another envelope, signed my name next to Regina’s on that envelope, and put that one into another envelope, which I’ll mail the next time I go into town. YAY for long-distance democracy.

I promised myself I wouldn’t talk about food in this chapter… but I helped Asmahan, Sheillah, and Jane make pilau in my kitchen the other day. I really can’t say I did anything of use besides stirring everything in the sufuria and cutting the carrot extremely poorly, but it was nice having something in a tupperware that I could heat up for lunch the next day, rather than toasting another PBJ. The pilau we made had rice (sort of a requirement for pilau…), beef, carrots, onions, tomatoes, cumin (also essential), cardamoms, cinnamon, cloves, pepper, and salt. YUM for pilau.

The girls make so much fun of me when I say things like ‘chapati’ and ‘pilau’ because I can’t find the correct middle ground. It’s either ‘chuhPAddi’ or ‘CHA-PA-TI!’ It’s ‘puhlowww’ or ‘pee-LAU.’ I’m an embarrassment :)

Chapter 3: The WASP's 3rd Commandment

Walking along the path past the large classroom block on campus, squinting in the sun that shines directly overhead, and I mean directly, being so near the equator, I slow down a bit to really absorb the sight of the Starehe Girls’ Centre in the full light. Everyone has been emailing me and posting on my wall to “soak in” everything, which I took to imply a certain passivity that I don’t think I possess anywhere except when lying on a beach, “soaking” in the sun. I don’t think you can soak in an experience. You have to dive into it and swim around, seeing and learning anything you can get your hands on.

Back to that moment, walking in the sun towards my apartment after a long morning of typing exams and lesson schemes in the administrative block, I found myself looking up and around, despite the bright sunshine, at the incredible trees, branches, and flowers that lace themselves around the school’s plain white and gray buildings. I laid eyes, then, on a large palm plant that I had not noticed before, and the moment was complete.

I think it must be rule written nowhere for all temperate-dwelling whiteys like me that goes something like: “Thou shalt swoon at the sight of a palm tree.” Instantly thou shalt feel like you are in Paradise, where erryting is aire. So, I’m not in Paradise or Jamaica, but there are a few perfect things about living at Starehe.

For one, I sleep like a baby every night. And yes, this may have something to do with the lack of meat in my current diet, but it’s not something I lament. The second perfect thing about this place is the feeling I get watching two pairs of Form Twos (sophomores) twirl around the small, darkening music room, waltzing to a sappy Hayley Westenra song. [Laura, I wish you were here to show them some expert moves :) ] After trying to teach about 10 pairs of Form Ones (freshmen!) the waltz in that same tiny room, I can really appreciate the quality of learning that comes from small class sizes. Third, but certainly not last, I’ve learned how to cook chapattis. Yes. Me, cooking! And let me tell you, I believe you can rightly use the word “cook” only when flour or raw meat is involved. Anything else is baking, boiling, frying, or nuking. Chapattis are made of sugar, salt, oil, water, and FLOUR! I am a cook!

Throwback 1: A day in Prague

It turns out I have a bunch of things on my camera that have nothing to do with Kenya, but a lot to do with my friends and family. I'll be posting these Easter eggs to keep you all on your toes...

This video, starring Natasha, and costarring the backs of Gennie and Laura's heads and three Czech performers, was taken on the first day of the Prague Easter Festival or something like that. None of us spoke the language, so we really had NO idea what was going on beyond the delish food for sale in the stalls in that square.... Sausages, trdlos, corn on the cob, CREPES, coffee, chocolate bananas and strawberries :)

Portfolio 2: "My heart's all over the world tonight"

My living room the first day I arrived at the Starehe Girls' School. I'm on the third floor of Dorm C, one of the newly-built boarding houses at the school.Putting my mosquito net to some early, but as Jane says, unnecessary, use. Whatevs... I'm a princess with a forest green canopy bed now :) What you can't see is the Obama poster propped up above my curtain ledge.

The view out of my bedroom window.

Chapter 2: A few things done... Many left to do...

Right. It's late tonight, but the frogs in the reservoir outside my window are exceptionally loud and persistent, so I thought I might tire myself out by writing. Today I performed my first administrative tasks with the help of the physics teacher, Dan, worked on plans for a PE regimen for the girls, ate the most magnificently sweet mango I've ever tasted, washed some clothes, and taught game after card game to Rhodah, Sally, Jane, Carol, and Bridget, who are all in Form 4 (seniors). They start their hugely important KCSE exams in about a month, and I feel guilty for distracting them from studying, but they're so much fun to hang out with I can't resist.

Yesterday Jane sang me part of the opera duet she performed with her boyfriend for a Kenyan music festival and competition. She was so incredible without even warming up that I agreed then and there to use my computer to get her as much information on US universities with voice programs as possible. Rhodah wants to go to Harvard for Pre-law and Sally wants to study Public Relations. I want to help them apply, but I don't know the best way to do it...