So this week marked the first week I was on contract with GVI. After reviewing the endless terms and conditions I signed on as a full time employee of Global Vision International for the next three months!
Since things have been a little crazy here on the coast, I never got my full staff training. This past week I was suppose to shaddow the community officer and slowely take over responsibilities. However, she had administrative work to do so I essentially was just thrown into the deep-end and went straight to work! It went well though and it made me feel more confident in my ability to lead volunteers through the day to day events on community.
I started with TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) training for the new volunteers, and then led classes, community meetings, and other programs throughout the week. It went really well and felt very natural so I am excited for things to officially get started soon. Next weekend will mark the beginning of the new expo, so that is when I will be in charge of the community program on the Island. Right now I am still just helping in Shimoni. So hopefully this week will go quickly, on Wednesday I get to move all of my things onto the Island, and then by next weekend I'll have near 10 volunteers to take care of!
It's all a bit overwhelming but I'm trying to learn as much as possible now so I feel as confident as possible next expo. Things are always a little unknown but as a result I am definitely learning a lot here!
Saturday, 24 September 2011
Sunday, 18 September 2011
Week off work!
After extensive Swahili lessons I've had the rest of this week off. On Wednesday I went up to Diani in order to get money wired to me. Thankfully, the transfer was successful and now I can live off more than about 5 dollars a day - it's great!
About mid last week I found out that while I have a 6 month visa, since the immigration officer only stamped my passport for 1 month I am legally not allowed to be in the country. So that was fun to find out I had to go up to the immigration office and probably bribe them in order to stay in Kenya. So Thursday I and a few people went up to Mombasa, we had some good western food & then got to the immigration office. Luckily, a guy there knew of GVI and had absolutely no problem stamping my visa for three more months! Mombasa is 100% different from Shimoni where I work. In the city it is loud, and busy. There are concrete buildings (as opposed to the clay/stone houses in the villages), but in general most buildings are still small huts. I walked into one grocery store that had AC though and it was like heaven. The other staff members and I just stood there in awe it was so amazing.
Another adventure in Mombasa was Biashara Street. While many tourists travel to Mombasa, they primarily only stay in the resorts on the outskirts. So three white girls walking down a Mombasa street is a very very rare occurrence. The fact that we (or the other two girls) acted like we knew what we were doing, deterred many of the locals from approaching us. In Mombasa you can buy Kangas, fabric that local women wear and we often have tailored into clothing, for very cheap prices so we wanted to go barter on the city side streets. The haggling was rediculous because you have to talk in Swahili as much as possible to let the vendors know you work in Kenya; AKA we are not tourists, we don't have money, so you can't rip us off. At the end of the day I came home with 5 pieces of fabric for 1,600 ksh or about $17 usd. I plan on having a local tailor make a few things for me to wear/bring home!
Lastly, in Diani I got my package that was went from home!! Nearly all the packages sent from Europe or the US never get to Shimoni. People here have had things sent 6 months ago and they still have not arrived. However, since I came out with about 5 shirts and 2 pants; I really needed more clothing to last me until December. So my parents decided to ship a package through DHL with clothes, camera and a few other things. DHL, while it was very expensive and did have some issues at customs, was very good and i got my package after only about 3 weeks! It was so nice having clean clothes. The package smelt like home too which was a nice feeling :) I have today to rest and then I'm back to work starting tomorrow!
About mid last week I found out that while I have a 6 month visa, since the immigration officer only stamped my passport for 1 month I am legally not allowed to be in the country. So that was fun to find out I had to go up to the immigration office and probably bribe them in order to stay in Kenya. So Thursday I and a few people went up to Mombasa, we had some good western food & then got to the immigration office. Luckily, a guy there knew of GVI and had absolutely no problem stamping my visa for three more months! Mombasa is 100% different from Shimoni where I work. In the city it is loud, and busy. There are concrete buildings (as opposed to the clay/stone houses in the villages), but in general most buildings are still small huts. I walked into one grocery store that had AC though and it was like heaven. The other staff members and I just stood there in awe it was so amazing.
Another adventure in Mombasa was Biashara Street. While many tourists travel to Mombasa, they primarily only stay in the resorts on the outskirts. So three white girls walking down a Mombasa street is a very very rare occurrence. The fact that we (or the other two girls) acted like we knew what we were doing, deterred many of the locals from approaching us. In Mombasa you can buy Kangas, fabric that local women wear and we often have tailored into clothing, for very cheap prices so we wanted to go barter on the city side streets. The haggling was rediculous because you have to talk in Swahili as much as possible to let the vendors know you work in Kenya; AKA we are not tourists, we don't have money, so you can't rip us off. At the end of the day I came home with 5 pieces of fabric for 1,600 ksh or about $17 usd. I plan on having a local tailor make a few things for me to wear/bring home!
Lastly, in Diani I got my package that was went from home!! Nearly all the packages sent from Europe or the US never get to Shimoni. People here have had things sent 6 months ago and they still have not arrived. However, since I came out with about 5 shirts and 2 pants; I really needed more clothing to last me until December. So my parents decided to ship a package through DHL with clothes, camera and a few other things. DHL, while it was very expensive and did have some issues at customs, was very good and i got my package after only about 3 weeks! It was so nice having clean clothes. The package smelt like home too which was a nice feeling :) I have today to rest and then I'm back to work starting tomorrow!
Monday, 12 September 2011
Fundraising Projects!
Lately, I've been brainstorming ideas for things I could fundraise for on the Island. While I will not officially live there for another three weeks, I've visited a lot and I have some time now to do a personal project. I'm hoping to come up wtih an achievable project that will greatly benefit the village. Then I would fundraise at home to collect enough money to hopefully finish the project within these next three months.
The biggest problems on the Island are sanitation and water. Just a week ago the first public latrine was built in Mkwiro (The village I'll be working with on the Island). More latrines definitely need to be built, but only after we measure the sustainability of the first one.
The Island's only source of freshwater is rain water collected in large water tanks. Right now the village has 5 tanks, two of which are unuseable. Three of the tanks are used to collect rainwater, but due to a lack of resources and money, they are now in awful condition. They are essentially large roof looking structures, which funnel the water into a large underground room. Unfortunately, only one of the tanks has a gate, and so any person or animal can get into the area freshwater is collected. Additionally, there are no pipes/spouts bringing the water out of the tank, so when a person wants to get water, they must climb down into the room leading to even more contamination. Lastly, because the tanks are in such poor condition, they collect very little water each rainy season.
Three of the tanks right now are 1/4 full, and this water must last the villagers until January/February when the next rainy season hits. However, the water they have will barely last them through September/October. At this point they must travel by boat across the 1km channel to Shimoni, buy water, and travel back to the Island. This takes a lot of money and effort to do.
Originally I was thinking of fundraising for a new water tank, however, if the already existing water tanks are in such poor conditions, adding another one may not be very beneifical. I recently found that the primary school (there is only one school in Mkwiro) has a tank, but it has been unuseable for nearly two years. When talking to the village chairman, the tank can be repaired provided there is enough money and research put towards the project. I'm at the preliminary ideas, but so far I'm really excited by this project. It would allow the children to clean the dishes after their meals at the school and to wash their hands throughout the day (neither of which are done right now). If the tank collected enough water the children may even be supplied with drinking water.
Again, much more planning and brainstorming to do, but I wanted to put the idea out there!
The biggest problems on the Island are sanitation and water. Just a week ago the first public latrine was built in Mkwiro (The village I'll be working with on the Island). More latrines definitely need to be built, but only after we measure the sustainability of the first one.
The Island's only source of freshwater is rain water collected in large water tanks. Right now the village has 5 tanks, two of which are unuseable. Three of the tanks are used to collect rainwater, but due to a lack of resources and money, they are now in awful condition. They are essentially large roof looking structures, which funnel the water into a large underground room. Unfortunately, only one of the tanks has a gate, and so any person or animal can get into the area freshwater is collected. Additionally, there are no pipes/spouts bringing the water out of the tank, so when a person wants to get water, they must climb down into the room leading to even more contamination. Lastly, because the tanks are in such poor condition, they collect very little water each rainy season.
Three of the tanks right now are 1/4 full, and this water must last the villagers until January/February when the next rainy season hits. However, the water they have will barely last them through September/October. At this point they must travel by boat across the 1km channel to Shimoni, buy water, and travel back to the Island. This takes a lot of money and effort to do.
Originally I was thinking of fundraising for a new water tank, however, if the already existing water tanks are in such poor conditions, adding another one may not be very beneifical. I recently found that the primary school (there is only one school in Mkwiro) has a tank, but it has been unuseable for nearly two years. When talking to the village chairman, the tank can be repaired provided there is enough money and research put towards the project. I'm at the preliminary ideas, but so far I'm really excited by this project. It would allow the children to clean the dishes after their meals at the school and to wash their hands throughout the day (neither of which are done right now). If the tank collected enough water the children may even be supplied with drinking water.
Again, much more planning and brainstorming to do, but I wanted to put the idea out there!
Kiswahili Day 2!
Today was another day of nonstop swahili lessons, but thankfully I am understanding most of it. The difficult thing is I'll learn how to speak it, and I can memorize the meaning of words... but when a local starts talking at a rediculously fast speed I'll have no idea whats going on. Pole Pole (Slowely Slowely...) has become one of my favorite words! And just conincidentally just one 'Pole' means 'Sorry' which we all know I say too much anyways so it works nicely :).
Life in Shimoni has been alright, the house is pretty empty and we've had essentially no food for 5 days which kinda sucks. I believe we're getting more food tomorrow though which will be nice. Tomorrow is also the last day of kiswahili lessons (And only a 1/2 day!), and then after that I have some time off until next Monday, just some training here and there.
Life in Shimoni has been alright, the house is pretty empty and we've had essentially no food for 5 days which kinda sucks. I believe we're getting more food tomorrow though which will be nice. Tomorrow is also the last day of kiswahili lessons (And only a 1/2 day!), and then after that I have some time off until next Monday, just some training here and there.
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Kiswahili Overload
I began an intensive kiswahili course with 5 other staff members today. We met our teacher at 8 am, worked 10 hours with a 1 hour lunch break in the middle... SO exhausting. It was really neat though and I want to learn as much as I can. Right now we all can get by in the village, but we couldn't hold a conversation with the locals in kiswahili. Hopefully by the end of this course (two more full days) i'll be prepared for life on the Islandd :)!
Saturday, 10 September 2011
Ups and Downs
So today, Saturday, was full of highs and lows. Being the last day of the expo, almost all of the volunteers left this morning. Laura, my best friend out here, and I have now been living here for a month and a half and she had to leave :( In addition, my other best friends out here left, so It's been a day full of tears and goodbyes. Those guys all got me through the rough days out here, it'll be a challenge without them. But it juts means I will have to travel to Europe soon and visit them all :)
The day did get better though once the goodbyes were over. It's placement day so all of the staff (except the senior staff) sit in a room and then get pulled out one by one to get told where they will be placed for the upcoming expo. Apparently this can sometimes just lead to more tears, but this time arouund it went pretty well. I have now 'joined' the 5 other interns who have been here for 3 months volunteering and are now becoming staff. 4 of them are being placed on either Forest or Marine, and then their is one other community intern and I to be placed on community projects. 3 ended up being placed as forest staff (Shimoni), and 1 on Marine (Mkwiro). The other community intern was actually given a position in Western Kenya to work on community development with a tiny village (sustainability-based). And then I was placed on Mkwiro, the Island! I'm definitely excited and very happy about being placed here. It'd be better if I could just go to the Island today, but instead I have training for 2ish weeks which will take place in Shimoni still. None-the-less, a very up and down day, but I'm looking forward to this week. For the next three days I am taking an intensive Swahili Lesson and from then on just more training :)
The day did get better though once the goodbyes were over. It's placement day so all of the staff (except the senior staff) sit in a room and then get pulled out one by one to get told where they will be placed for the upcoming expo. Apparently this can sometimes just lead to more tears, but this time arouund it went pretty well. I have now 'joined' the 5 other interns who have been here for 3 months volunteering and are now becoming staff. 4 of them are being placed on either Forest or Marine, and then their is one other community intern and I to be placed on community projects. 3 ended up being placed as forest staff (Shimoni), and 1 on Marine (Mkwiro). The other community intern was actually given a position in Western Kenya to work on community development with a tiny village (sustainability-based). And then I was placed on Mkwiro, the Island! I'm definitely excited and very happy about being placed here. It'd be better if I could just go to the Island today, but instead I have training for 2ish weeks which will take place in Shimoni still. None-the-less, a very up and down day, but I'm looking forward to this week. For the next three days I am taking an intensive Swahili Lesson and from then on just more training :)
Ugh
So this week nine "Party" wasn't so great for me. I was up in Diani the beach town and took out money from the bank, then preceeded to have my entire back stolen :( SO that has contributed to the no internet, no phone, no money situation I have been in. Long story short - not the best week :/.
I was able to go to the Island still which was good. I have become accustomed to living in Shimoni so when I arrived in Mkwiro Village on the Island, a much more reserved community, it was a little overwhelming. I know that I want to be placed on the Island, but it is very unknown and different from Shimoni so it will definitely take some adjusting to.
Mkwiro, while it has incredible sunsets and beaches, also has no electricty, no western toilets, no showers, and minimal fresh water. So it is definitely a new way of living, but I'm definitely looking forward to it. Again, it'll just take some time to adjust (I think I keep saying this to almost convince myself!). So in short this was my week, not the best, but it is steadily getting better :)
I was able to go to the Island still which was good. I have become accustomed to living in Shimoni so when I arrived in Mkwiro Village on the Island, a much more reserved community, it was a little overwhelming. I know that I want to be placed on the Island, but it is very unknown and different from Shimoni so it will definitely take some adjusting to.
Mkwiro, while it has incredible sunsets and beaches, also has no electricty, no western toilets, no showers, and minimal fresh water. So it is definitely a new way of living, but I'm definitely looking forward to it. Again, it'll just take some time to adjust (I think I keep saying this to almost convince myself!). So in short this was my week, not the best, but it is steadily getting better :)
Thursday, 1 September 2011
Weekend Plans
Weekend 9 is designated the 'party' weekend for all the staff who leaves at the end of this expo (Week 10). So, today we are all heading up to Diani, the closest tourist town about an hour and a half away, where we rented out inexpensive bungalos and will visit the local beach bars. From what I've heard, the staff goes absolutely crazy this weekend and it becomes sort of rediculous. I on the other hand, since I just became staff and on scholarship, will be on my best behavior. I would never want to behave inappropriately after given this much. But maybe later in December, at the next expo's week 9 party, I'll be able join in on the craziness!
I also just found out good news, on Sunday when I get back I'm actually traveling to the Island and I'll live over there for 4-5 days. I will most likely be placed as staff on the Island at the start of the next expo, so I'm really excited to go over there and begin training. The Island is much different than here, the village is very small and there is only 1 school and 1 orphanage. The GVI base is located right on the edge of the village on top of a cliff that drops right into the Indian Ocean - It's absolutely gorgeous. The living conditions are much simpler there, bathing in the ocean, only 1 hour of generator power a day, no shops to go buy local sweets from, but I'm really excited. So! Hopefully this weekend is a lot of fun, and now I have next week to look forward to as well :)
I also just found out good news, on Sunday when I get back I'm actually traveling to the Island and I'll live over there for 4-5 days. I will most likely be placed as staff on the Island at the start of the next expo, so I'm really excited to go over there and begin training. The Island is much different than here, the village is very small and there is only 1 school and 1 orphanage. The GVI base is located right on the edge of the village on top of a cliff that drops right into the Indian Ocean - It's absolutely gorgeous. The living conditions are much simpler there, bathing in the ocean, only 1 hour of generator power a day, no shops to go buy local sweets from, but I'm really excited. So! Hopefully this weekend is a lot of fun, and now I have next week to look forward to as well :)
Shimoni Customs and Food
This week has surprisingly been extremely calm. The kids are on their last week of winter break, and GVI is working there way to the end of the current expo. Next week is the last week of the third expo of 2011, then we have a 3 week break/training period, then the 4th expo starts for 10 weeks.
On wednesday this week Conor (community staff), one other volunteer and I were invited by one of the locals to his home for a meal. I had been walking around the village houses for weeks now, but I had never been inside. Very unsure of what to expect, we were looking forward to the opportunity. We arrived and were welcomed by many family members, a lot of which were students I had taught. Authmani, the local I've gotten to know well, had laid out straw mats which we sat on in what appeared to be the entry way of their house.
The house was made of stones and mud with a thatched roof. Coming off the entry way there were three bedrooms, one which I saw a bed and a sofa inside. Then down a hallway their was a courtyard in the middle of the house. Coming off the courtyard there appeared to be more bedrooms. The locals live with many generations and extensions of their families under one roof.
The three of us ate with Authmani and three of his relatives who spoke minimal English. We were given a local rice dish, Pulao which had different spices and some meat in it as well. Besides the fact that each of us had already had lunch (Confusion on what day we were to come to his house) the meal was really good. Knowing we would have to eat a lot, we had all taken two large portions. Unfortunately though Authmani then declared we were all to have two more large portions - and after that we were all feeling rather ill.
Authmani himself is very good at English and we were able to ask him a lot of questions about the local's lifestyles in Shimoni village. We found out a lot about his family and his heritage as wells as the daily practices of his Islamic religion. In Shimoni, there are a ton of cats, however there are only a few dogs which are hated by the locals. We found out in their religion a household should have cats, chickens, goats, and a cow if they are fortunate enough. Then if 'evil' comes, it attacks the cat first, then chickens, goats, etc. etc. and then the humans. He then told us that dogs are considered pests in their village, and are often killed if they get in any locals way. It wasn't the happiest of news, but still interesting to find out.
The two others and I were invited back to Authmani's house for a cooking lesson with his wife. Hopefully we can find a time in the future to go back and visit and learn some of the traditional Kenyan meals! We all know I'm an awful cook so maybe this will help me some :).
Hope everyone at home is doing well, miss you all!
On wednesday this week Conor (community staff), one other volunteer and I were invited by one of the locals to his home for a meal. I had been walking around the village houses for weeks now, but I had never been inside. Very unsure of what to expect, we were looking forward to the opportunity. We arrived and were welcomed by many family members, a lot of which were students I had taught. Authmani, the local I've gotten to know well, had laid out straw mats which we sat on in what appeared to be the entry way of their house.
The house was made of stones and mud with a thatched roof. Coming off the entry way there were three bedrooms, one which I saw a bed and a sofa inside. Then down a hallway their was a courtyard in the middle of the house. Coming off the courtyard there appeared to be more bedrooms. The locals live with many generations and extensions of their families under one roof.
The three of us ate with Authmani and three of his relatives who spoke minimal English. We were given a local rice dish, Pulao which had different spices and some meat in it as well. Besides the fact that each of us had already had lunch (Confusion on what day we were to come to his house) the meal was really good. Knowing we would have to eat a lot, we had all taken two large portions. Unfortunately though Authmani then declared we were all to have two more large portions - and after that we were all feeling rather ill.
Authmani himself is very good at English and we were able to ask him a lot of questions about the local's lifestyles in Shimoni village. We found out a lot about his family and his heritage as wells as the daily practices of his Islamic religion. In Shimoni, there are a ton of cats, however there are only a few dogs which are hated by the locals. We found out in their religion a household should have cats, chickens, goats, and a cow if they are fortunate enough. Then if 'evil' comes, it attacks the cat first, then chickens, goats, etc. etc. and then the humans. He then told us that dogs are considered pests in their village, and are often killed if they get in any locals way. It wasn't the happiest of news, but still interesting to find out.
The two others and I were invited back to Authmani's house for a cooking lesson with his wife. Hopefully we can find a time in the future to go back and visit and learn some of the traditional Kenyan meals! We all know I'm an awful cook so maybe this will help me some :).
Hope everyone at home is doing well, miss you all!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)