A Smorgasbord of Paragraphs

This post may be the most non-cohesive post yet, because I'm pretty much putting my thoughts out about anything and everything from the past week right now. But here it goes.

Education update

Last week Friday and today I visited Lukenya Boys' High School, just down the road from Daystar. Overall it was a good school to be in, although a couple weird things occurred last Friday as a result of some communication errors – errors occurring both between me and the teachers and between the schools. I did learn one valuable lesson about cultural expectations. Last Friday, the teachers kept asking me when I would start teaching. I tried to tell them I wasn't going to be teaching, just observing, but they didn't seem to understand that concept. In talking to Jeff, I found out that he wasn't totally surprised they were expecting me to come in and teach a lesson. Apparently in some churches he attended as he traveled around the world, he was expected to give a sermon. No seminary training, not ordained, but it didn't matter – he was the guest and he should be able to share the Word. The same idea seems to translate into teaching, since this is the second school that was expecting me to teach lessons as soon as possible. Plus, according to what I've heard about teacher training in Kenya, they don't go in and observe schools hardly at all – they just start student teaching the last year of university. So this also explains the Lukenya teachers not grasping that I wasn't ready to teach; after all, any university students from Kenya who come to the school are student teachers and start teaching lessons within days or weeks of arrival. This also explains why they expected that I was coming back every single day for the next few weeks, which I cannot do due to classes and other schools I'm observing in.

Regardless, I did end up teaching a lesson today. I have taught lessons in other observations, plus I had the head of the language department in the room with me, so as far as I know it still follows rules since I wasn't 100% responsible for the class. The craziest thing was I had just seen the material this morning and then taught it at 12:30 pm. And call me conceited, but I feel really proud of the job I did on that one lesson, and totally would have taken on another. In my couple hours to plan this lesson, I even followed some guidelines Illinois lesson plans ask for and only realized later that I had done so. I wish I had Trinity professor input, but I think I had the approval of the head of the department at Lukenya.

Despite being in an African classroom, not being a full-out teacher yet, and seeing the material just this morning, I wasn't nervous up there. I was confident in what I was teaching, and the students seemed to respond positively. I have faith I taught them something. Basically, today has been one more voice saying “hey Becca – you're going to be a teacher. And you're going to have crazy days, and not every lesson will go as great, but you're so ready for this. You can definitely be a good teacher – without a doubt.”

Simple pleasures

I have experienced several simple pleasures this week.

Sunday morning, I journeyed downtown with Paige and Luke. We went to church first; I was joyful to finally be in a church again, and it was especially special since it was Palm Sunday. I got to sing “hosanna!” with African believers. I loved it. Then we went to YaYa shopping center, got a good lunch at Java House, and I spent over an hour just looking through the bookstore. I didn't buy a single book, just added to my list of what to look for on Amazon or in used bookstores, but I felt so happy just kneeling on the floor opening new and old books, reading descriptions, and noting titles. I am such a geek.

We ended the afternoon and evening at Jeff and Asaaska's apartment. I felt so refreshed just sitting in the living room, smelling real food cooking, having dessert (I did not know fresh strawberries, ice cream, and a peanut butter brownie could hit the spot that hard – so good!), and feeling at home. Tyler and Max also joined, and the five of us spent the night. The next morning, when I slept past 8 and took a hot shower for the first time since our heater broke about a month ago, I was feeling so happy. I didn't really want to leave this home environment to go back to school.

However, when I did get back to school, feeling a little letdown, God was like “hey, Becca, why don't I give you something to lift your spirits.” I went to class that afternoon, a class the entire program shares; and we sat. A few people said something about leaving, but we all knew that class never starts on time here. Yet, I had heard from Daystar students that just like we have the unwritten fifteen minute rule at Trinity, they follow a half-hour-and-leave rule – no teacher within 30 minutes, it's acceptable to leave after signing a paper indicating your presence. So that's what we did. We signed the paper and left. However, we were feeling the need to be sneaky, so headed down the back steps, giggling and rushing.

We later found out our lecturer's mother died – not quite as spirit-boosting anymore, but the fact was I already felt better just being goofy with the people I have come to love.

Then it got better. Dara's family is visiting, and we ended up meeting them out by the shops off-campus. After introductions, Dara pulled out of her purse baggies of chocolate that her parents had put together – one for each of us. You have no idea how good American chocolate tastes when you haven't had it in a really long time. Dara, if you're reading this – thank your family again. Then Jeff came over from a meeting on campus and decided we all needed smoothies for our group meeting. The night was topped off with watching Les Miserables while we made cards for Luke's birthday.

Tuesday something similar happened, and I don't think these people even realize it. My Tuesday class is not my favorite, and often frustrates me. It wasn't particularly bad this Tuesday, but I was still a little wound up inside by the time we were dismissed. I grabbed lunch, sat with two of my favorite African ladies, and then headed back to my hostel, not entirely sure what I was planning to do for the afternoon. Then I heard my name and saw Leah and Kaitlan standing ahead of me on the sidewalk. When I reached them, they told me they had just decided they wanted to go to Lukenya Motorcross, our favorite place to relax around the pool, and they invited me along. It ended up being seven of us, joined later by a couple more. Nothing major happened; we mostly just sat around, playing cards, laughing, and relaxing. But it was a good way to unwind.

Now, none of these things are something that took a lot of time, effort, or money. Yet, each proved to be just what I needed at the time. Sometimes it's the simplest things in life that can bring joy.

Easter weekend

This weekend is Easter, one of my favorite holidays. I have never been away from my SGCRC community for this holiday, and it was one of the things I was not happy I'd be missing. I'm still a little anxious, not sure where I am going to church on this day, but at least there are some plans for the weekend.

Four members of our group left this afternoon to head to Mt. Kenya, the second tallest mountain in Africa, for a weekend of climbing. I ask for prayers that they stay healthy, stay safe (climbing this mountain is not an easy feat), and most of all have fun and amazing experiences surrounded by God's awesome creation.

Another item for prayer regards the Supreme Court dealings in Kenya right now. Just as the U.S. Supreme Court is busy deciding the marriage laws for the country, Kenyan courts are deciding the leader of the country. The election results may be overturned if the court decides the election was rigged. They are supposed to make an announcement of the decision Saturday, and whatever the decision is holds a potential for inciting riots or protests. This possibility keeps us from being able to be in Nairobi this weekend (a long weekend in Nairobi had been one of our original ideas for the weekend). I just pray that the decision proves to be what is right for this country and that the people will stay peaceful.

Since our Nairobi plan fell through, we came up with a new plan. On Saturday one of the committees on campus has organized a trip to Fourteen Falls, some waterfalls nearby, and those who are not hiking Mt. Kenya are going on this trip. Then on Sunday us non-mountain-climbers are actually climbing our own sort of mountain – Mount Longonot, a strato-volcano located in the Rift Valley. It's a 3-4 hour hike that I've heard is quite steep. Me hiking up a steep slope for 3-4 hours? Yeah, I know, it doesn't sound like something I'd do, but I am! I have a feeling the view and feeling of accomplishment will be worth it.

So there you have it. A conglomeration of thoughts and events in no particular order. This doesn't reflect well on my organized writing skills.

Nor does this reflect well on my conclusion skills.

Half-way There

Last Saturday, March 16 marked the half-way point. Wednesday marked exactly 7 weeks until I'm back in the windy city of Chicago. Hannah, our student teacher, completed her 7 weeks abroad and left early Saturday. I realized after Sociolinguistics Wednesday that I will attend each of my classes only 5 more times. We're on the downward slope towards the end of the semester.

Time has passed both slowly and quickly. We have done so much that it feels like we've been here for a lot more than two months. Yet, when we all realized how little time we have left, it blew my mind. Didn't we just pull into campus a couple weeks ago? After months of planning, praying, and preparing for this semester, it's going to be over in less than 7 weeks. Crazy, right?

Sometimes I think I forget how unbelievable this is. I forget that I am thousands of miles away from my Midwest bubble; forget I'm far away from the United States even. The sunshine I'm enjoying is not part of a summer season or a nice vacation in the States. I don't remember that I am not on just another college campus. I forget that I am in Africa, something I never would have foreseen as an event in my college career. I forget this until I wander up behind the library, sit down on a rock where I am able to see for miles, and I see three lizards scurry past me. Then I remember. TIA – this is Africa.

The weekend events also remind me weekly exactly how fortunate I am and how incredible it is that I am in this country, on a totally different continent. It's things like watching a baby elephant who was rescued from the nearby countryside down two bottles of milk in front of me and reaching out to pet its bristly back or reading a Facebook message about riding ostriches this Saturday that remind me that I am living a dream.

I would be lying if I said I didn't miss my Michigan and Illinois homes, and I will be very glad to be back in May. Yet, God sends me little things like those lizards, this weather, the weekend outings, and creation around me to remind me to take advantage of the time I do have here. It's going to be gone in no time, and I will be wishing I were back here, enjoying parts of God's creation I do not see at home. I'll wish I was with my “family” of North American college kids, stargazing at hundreds of stars more than can ever be seen near Chicago, or jamming to tunes while we unashamedly hand-wash our laundry and hang it out to dry, telling stories of the monkeys that stole our food from our rooms, or even taking the hot, dusty walk down to the pool nearly every week and learning more about them through our conversations.

But we do have just less than seven weeks left. I have a lot more experiences to go through, a lot more memories make. The most that I learn and take away from this semester will not come from the classrooms of Daystar. It will come from observations in Kenyan schools, weekend activities that I have never done and will never get to do again, afternoons that seemed to be ordinary but turned into something memorable, and so much more.

God has plans for these next 47 days, and they're going to be good. Sure, there will still be things that are frustrating. But I hope to always find the little blessings in every day, because God definitely has poured a bucket-load of them on me. 

Less-than-quality picture taken by my webcam of my view as I write this blog

 

Zanzibar

 As promised, I have an update on this past week in Zanzibar. In one sentence summary: it was one of the best spring breaks I've ever had and I did not want to come back.

We left early Sunday morning and headed to Jomo Kenyatta airport. The last time we were there was just over a month ago, when we first stepped foot in Kenya at 4 am. Anyway, the flight to Zanzibar was a lot less eventful than the flight to Korr on the charter planes, but everything went smoothly. After several forms both in Kenya and Zanzibar and enduring the lines to get our fingerprints scanned and our faces recognized by the computer, we got another visa stamped in our passports and eventually made it out of the airport. One thing that was very different right away: it was humid. Kenya doesn't have humidity despite its heat. Add African heat to humidity and you're going to be sweating a whole lot.

Sunday through Tuesday afternoon were spent in Stonetown, on the west coast of Zanzibar. As previously mentioned, this is the historical and shopping side of the island. It's a very tourist-y spot, and it was suddenly strange to see so many wzungu every day.

We stayed at the Tembo Hotel in Stonetown for those two nights. This place is classy and gorgeous. It was originally the embassy housing in Zanzibar, and they converted the rooms into a hotel. Out the back is the beach – you can walk right on through onto the shore – and a magnificent spot for watching sunsets (and we had two pretty good ones... the first was amazing. The second was okay, though more cloudy). Our group was spread over six rooms, most with three people in them, and not one room was exactly the same, though all really gorgeous. I have to say, though, our room was quite possibly the best of the group. There were two double beds plus a king (I got a double bed all to myself), air conditioning, a TV, a tile bathtub, and a balcony that overlooked the pool area and ocean. It rocked.

View from our balcony

Most of the two and a half days, though, we spent our time outside of the hotel. A walk down the beach brought us to a boardwalk area, with some food shops open all day, pretty architecture to look at, and at night dozens of food vendors set up tables and offered a variety of unique dishes for pretty reasonable prices. If we went out the front of the hotel, we were headed for the jungle that is Stonetown's streets and shops. As shown in some of my pictures, most streets are very narrow – just large enough for one car to fit through while pedestrians squeeze in their stomachs and press themselves against the wall or hop into a shop to avoid getting run over. Lining these streets are many shops with African-made merchandise. A lot of it can be found in Nairobi as well, but going into Nairobi and finding the markets involves a full day's commitment, so I took advantage of the accessibility of these shops – plus allowed myself more splurge money because it was spring break – and bought a few things, including some items found only in Zanzibar. My bartering skills still aren't great, but I was able to knock the prices down on what I bought.

I liked shopping in Stonetown, but I don't know that I could have handled more than two days there walking those streets because it starts to get stressful. Everywhere you go, especially if you're white, no matter if you're intending to shop or not, you will have people following you offering you merchandise or just trying to pull you into their shop. They may even offer to lead you to somewhere, only to first bring you to their shop to look around or expect payment for their “tour” services. This heckling also included the beach behind our hotel – I was approached by a couple different men trying to sell fabric and sunglasses. They didn't hurt me in any way, but it just got annoying to constantly be pestered.

Aside from all the shopping, there is also history to be found in Stonetown. Though I found out the national museum is apparently no longer in business (really cool looking building though), and I never made it to the House of Wonders, I was still able to go to a historical site with a small group. After weaving through the streets, trying to figure out the right direction, we eventually made it to the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral – the former site of the slave market in Zanzibar. This was the final slave market to close, and was very well-known and trafficked thousands of slaves from east and central Africa. We paid just under $4 to get in, and it was well worth it, in my opinion.

Our guide first brought us into the sanctuary of the cathedral. This is one of the few Christian church buildings in Zanzibar, being a dominantly Islamic island, and still holds services on Sundays, and Christians from all sorts of denominations join under its ceiling. However, originally, this was the main site of the market for buying slaves. There used to be a tree that stood where the altar is now placed, and slaves would be tied to that tree and whipped, just to test their strength. Many died while bound there. The tiles under the altar in the church are spattered with red color, representing the blood shed at that spot. In the back of the church is the baptism font. The font is usually placed at the front of churches, but there is a special reason behind this font's placement. Children who were over 5 years old may survive and may be bought in the market. However, if children younger than 5 were brought to the market, they would be slaughtered. They now baptize children in that very spot – the font in the back of the church.

After the sanctuary, we went outside to a memorial that has been designed. An artist created 5 figures, chained together in much the same way the slaves were chained. These men and women were chained with separate nationalities, so that there was no common language spoken and an uprising was hindered. The looks on their faces saddened me, and I pictured even more morose and agonized expressions were on the faces of slaves chained in this way.

The final place we visited in this tour were the slave chambers. It's hard to come up with one word to describe this. I'd say “awesome” but that has too much of a positive connotation. Rather it was sobering and horrifying and saddening to be in this place, in the spots where men, women, and children stayed for days, locked up like animals. When we entered the chamber, we all had to duck – even I, at 5'3”. The first of the two chambers was the “larger” one. In this chamber, about 75 slaves would be held at once. I believe in this chamber it was mostly just men, if I remember correctly. There were less than ten of us in there – I can hardly imagine 65 more full-grown men. Across from the chamber was a second room, where 50 slaves were held (women and children, if I remember correctly). The guide told us that a drain that brought in sea water would fill the floor by their feet, and this also became the slaves' sewer. The necks, hands, and feet of the slaves were constantly chained while in the cell. Though there's a building on top of the chamber now, when it was used for slaves, no building was there so the hot sun beat through the concrete above their heads. There was one window; the light bulb that was in there while we were in there was added after it was no longer used for holding slaves, so the only light the slaves had came from one window. The conditions were so rough that this was considered the first test – if the slave survived the chamber, they must be a good worker. 

 

75 men in this one room

It hurt my heart looking around, thinking how de-humanized these slaves were. They were human beings, but they were treated as though they were worthless animals, or worse, that could be brutalized and cooped up. Sometimes the events of history make absolutely no sense to me.

Tuesday morning two boats pulled up to the beach by our hotel and men with bags of flippers and goggles dumped them on the beach for us to sort through, try on, and select. We had decided to go snorkeling.

We took a short boat ride away from the shore of Stonetown to “prison island.” This island was established as a place to send prisoners, but has been turned into a hotel, restaurant, and giant tortoise sanctuary. We visited the tortoises, which are the second largest in size only to Galapagos Island tortoises. See pictures to get an idea just how big these guys are.

After about 45 minutes or so on the island, we got back on the boats to travel a short distance to the reef nearby. There we donned our masks, snorkels, and flippers and jumped in.

This was one of the coolest things I have ever done – which, if you consider what I've done, is pretty amazing. There were so many fish of all shapes, colors, and sizes, not to mention the beautiful coral and other plant life – all of these organisms that I have only seen on TV or in magazines. I honestly felt like this wasn't my life, that a college kid from the Midwest in the U.S. who's studying to be an English teacher could not possibly be here, swimming off the coast of an African island, gliding through the bluest of blue water as fish that I've only seen in movies – or never seen at all – swim directly in front of my face.

We stayed out there 2 or 3 hours, snapping underwater pics or just swimming around in awe of what we were seeing. When we got out and headed back to shore, I realized a big difference between swimming in a lake for 2-3 hours and swimming in the ocean for 2-3 hours – my skin, in particular my lips, was more shriveled than I have ever experienced before. But I was happy, still not entirely sure if I was dreaming.

I was about to experience that “is this real life?” feeling a lot more in the next 3 and a half days. Once back from snorkeling, we grabbed a quick lunch and then piled all of our stuff onto a small bus to ride across the island to the east coast, to an area called Paje. We pulled into a compound that had several hut-like buildings, a bar and restaurant-type area, hammocks, and palm trees all around. This was New Teddy's Place, our home for the rest of the week. We were greeted by a young man named Simba (which we all recognized means “lion”) and eventually also met Genius, another regular worker. We split into different cabins, 7 of us girls in the “dorm.” I kind of wish my dorm was like that one. It was plenty spacious, even with 7 beds plus some shelves, and you didn't need to worry about tracking dirt in there – the floor was sand. From that point on, we didn't wear shoes most of the rest of the week.

Though New Teddy's did not have cabins directly on the beach, we were pretty dang close. Climb up some stairs, then descend onto a path and see the ocean. That path was tread by our feet more times than I could count. The beach was one of our favorite places. We would either swim in the ocean, or lay in the sun, or relax on some wicker beds, or take a walk down the beach to the couple of restaurants we liked to visit. I even slept out there some nights (whether intentionally or unintentionally). This part of our vacation was a lot more chill – everyone was reading, talking together, and just plain relaxing.

 

And, oh, the food. It worked out that in addition to our complimentary breakfast, the budget was enough for the program to pay for dinners from New Teddy's too. Zanzibar cuisine specializes in seafood, being a port, but not being into fish and not adventurous enough to try squid or octopus, I had some really good pasta, spice chicken, burgers, potato wedges, and some veggies while I was there. Plus, breakfast every morning was crepes with chocolate syrup and fruit. Such a welcome break from the monotony. My taste buds were more than satisfied.

And every morning, I got up for the sunrise, since sunsets weren't seen on this part of the island. Every morning it was different. Every morning I marveled at God's handiwork. How awesome He is.

Friday we were able to do another event as a program, and went to a nearby spice farm. Zanzibar is famous for its spices, being known as “the spice island.” We walked around with a guide who showed us various trees and roots, spices and fruits that are used or consumed by me and others nearly everyday, and I had never even known how they were grown or what they look like fresh from the tree. I smelled fresh vanilla and lemongrass, and saw what the nut of nutmeg looks like. I saw not-yet-ripe coffee beans, and new bananas and oranges. A guy from the farm climbed a tree and dropped 3 coconuts for us, and we opened it up and drank its milk and ate the coconut straight from the tree. If I cooked, I would have been enthralled. Even so, I was still really fascinated.

Again, I kept thinking I was dreaming. The ocean I looked out at every day could not be real – someone else had taken a picture of it and I was viewing that. I could not be laying in a hammock, staring up through the branches of five palm trees or watching a shooting star through the fronds while I sat around a campfire. I could not be on a gorgeous island just off the coast of Africa, lounging in a restaurant and enjoying a smoothie. I wasn't laying on a wicker bed frame, dozing as the waves of the Indian Ocean lapped the shore. I was only dreaming that there was fine white sand squishing between my toes. And all of this came included in a program where I pay just as much money to come here as I do to go to school near Chicago? This isn't my life. Dreams are made of this, but not real life.

Of course, this was my real life. I still can hardly believe I got to go on this vacation as part of another longer “vacation” in Africa. If I hadn't actually been there, and experienced this spring break, I'd say it was too good to be true. But it isn't. I went to Zanzibar. And I wanted to stay there. It's always a bummer coming back from spring break, and I was definitely really sad to go. I could have stayed there weeks longer. But of course, I have to face “real” life – school in Africa. If you can count that as real life.

But I am so grateful; I vacationed in Zanzibar! That is crazy. I know I use this expression a lot about what has gone on already this semester, but I feel so blessed to have enjoyed this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Pre-spring break update

Hey family and friends,

Just a quick update on what's happening in my life. It isn't a long, thought-out one, but rather a blurb to let you know what's going on recently.

First, the honeymoon period is over and many of us are feeling it. Thankfully, overall, the group itself has no huge problems with one another, and I'm still loving the activities we do through the program or in the city. However, due to this experience, I do have a new appreciation for international students and would really like to hug the international students who study at my school at home, ask them their honest opinion of the school and professors, and ask if I can help in any way.

Fortunately, we are all going on a needed break from school for the next week. Because of the elections, Daystar students have classes off on Monday and Tuesday (the election is Monday). It's a big national holiday around here, unlike at home, where all businesses and schools have the day off so that people can go to their homes to vote. However, instead of only taking Monday and Tuesday off, our program is getting out of the country for the whole week. We are headed to the island of Zanzibar. We fly out early Sunday morning and return Saturday. For the first few days, we will be in Stonetown. This is the part of the island that has historical buildings, museums, lots of shops, and restaurants. All these buildings are on one side of our hotel, and the other side is a beach. The rest of the week will be spent staying in “cabins” on the beach (different than the one near Stonetown). It's basically a tropical paradise. Overall, this week should be one of relaxation and fun. Little will be planned by the program, but rather we can decide which activities we want to do. I am looking forward to both aspects of this trip – the town, with its history and markets, and the relaxation and ocean breezes of the beach. I'm not bringing my laptop with me, but I'm sure I'll have a long blog update when I return.

Today I held went into Nairobi, went to New Life home, and held babies most of the day. Tomorrow on the docket is rock climbing.

Keep praying! Pray for the country as they participate in elections Monday; it's a big deal here, and can get pretty intense. There is no clear front-runner at the moment, so anything could happen. The candidates and other world leaders have been emphasizing peace, and we all pray that whatever the outcome everything goes over peacefully. Pray also for me and the rest of the group as we travel, and for our overall attitudes with our situation and actions towards one another. I appreciate all of the people who have been following what has been going on and praying for me and the group! I love you all.

See you after Zanzibar!