Safari Ants

Before the rains come the Safari Ants. We had another attempted invasion yesterday and i got some nice photos and some low quality video.
The videos are self explanatory. The pictures are of a mango slice, a mango pit, and a before, during, and after shot of a dead mouse in only 24 hours.

Enjoy!

Strange Names

Hello gentlefolk,

Here is an interesting cultural tidbit about the naming custom in our area.

--Disclaimer-- Appologies to any Kipsigis for any mistakes i might make in my recollection.

Okay... First the basics. In america as well as most the western world our last names are passed down and our first names our... Well.. kinda rabdom. My last name is Van Regenmorter which of course means that my father and his father all the way back have a surname of Van Regenmorter. It kind of makes family trees easy to visualize.

This however is not the case here. When a boy is born he receives two names. First he receives a surname which signifies when he was born or under what conditions. So if you're born at night you are Kiplangat (kip = boy born at, langat = night), if you're born in the a.m. You would be Kipmutai or if you're born around noon you'd be kibett.

Then you get a Christian name like Emmanuel. I think this was basically the result of British missionionaries and their difficulty with the language and is also an indication of how widespread christianity has been adopted here. funny enough the Christian names they choose many times are one's you'd hardly recognize such as Boniface, Obadiah, Zephania, or Enock.

So a typical name could be boniface kiplangat, but when the boy undergoes circumcision he looses his surname and inherits his fathers childhood name. It's confusing. So let's take an example. Assuming i'm born at night my name would be Jon kiplangat. When i get circumcised i would now take my father's childhood name (say... Kibett) and my new name would be Jon Bett. and finally my children would take my childhood name (langat) when they are circumcised. So... Basically your surname changes when you reach puberty and your name is only linked to your father. Therefore the only way to identify relatives and granparents would be a clan name which is rarely used and i don't believe is included officially.

Okay... Now on to something very different.

It's really important to have kids here. If you're a man and your wife can't deliver (no pun intended), you can get a second wife... Or third. (Polygamy is a fading but still practiced tradition). BUT if you're the infertile woman you have to get pretty creative. And i MEAN creative.

Sometimes an infertile woman will adopt a fertile daughter and have her marry her immaginary son. Therefore any kids born from her adopted daughter are by custom her grandchildren. Ok... That's a bit different but you get it right? Desire for family, respect, chidlren. But now... How do you name those grandchidlren!? The father is immaginary (okay there is a father... Kinda has to be ;) but he's not included in this family unit that i know of) so where do you get the surname? Essentially all of the family members are female, so he's given the last surname Chepkwony. This is odd for two reasons. Sons always have the prefix Kip- (see earlier paragraph), and only daughters get the prefix Chep-, but if your grandchild is a boy he still is chepkowny. Which essentially means daughter of woman (kowny means woman).

It's hard to follow i know... I had to consult the infinitely better memory of my better half to get all of this straight.

Hope you enjoyed!

Visiting Nairobi

I have't posted in a while so I figured I'd blather a bit about what we're up to.

Recently a volunteer near us got sick and kept passing out in Bomet and was flown to nairobi. It was pretty scary, but she's okay now. Anywho... we were planning on coming to Nairobi anyways to get our aching joints looked at (we are officially old now... 1/4 century). We took the opportunity and grabbed some clothes from the volunteers house and went to Nairobi early.

We've been in Nairobi for about 6 days and it was soooo nice. They put us at a nice hotel near the physical therapist and gave us enough stipend to eat pizza every night! We mostly just ate, but i did get a little work done too. I'm working with whitney (another PCV teacher) to make a list of colleges and such for our students to use to look for affordable options and within their exam scores.

So yea... It was pretty nice. We also watched movies on the labtop, played games, and hung out with other volunteers. Oh and we used the opportunity to find some affordable printers for the school.

Okay... Here are a few pictures from the Matatu we're in waiting for it to fill.

Jon

Fish Pond

So our fish pond is finally done... here's a short video of it and a snapshot of mandy playing with Leia

New kid on the block

A new puppy has arrived on our doorstep as of last night at 4am...

We are doing our best to restrain and allow it to wander off with its momma, but Leia thinks she's found her new best friend.

Leia is getting big!

P.s. My mom and dad are doing well. They just made it back to Nairobi from visiting bomet for 3 nights. More later

3rd Times a charm

1. A picture of our neighbor Michelle standing in our doorway. She's adorable... And demanding :)

2. The great rift valley. In the distance you can see the hills which mark the boundary of the rift and some Masaii cattle kicking up distance in the cattle. The Masaii as some of you know are Kenya's best known tribe. They're tradionally pastoralists.

3. A picture of the rift valley from the hills on the way to Nairobi. It's a common tourist stop for locals and yokels.

4. A group of local school children getting their picture taken.

5. The faithful Kabungut school bus, it's driver william, and a local electrical engineer Charles.

6. Bonus picture! My parents just arrived in Nairobi. Here's a picture from last night of mandy and my mom relaxing in a missions house in Nairobi. Nice house :) They'll be here for a month doing some painting and construction for a deaf translation center as well as visiting and traveling with us.

Oops, here are the pictures

Hrmm... Somehow that didn't go through right.

#1

Pics from a trip to Nairobi

I took a trip to Nairobi the other week to help the school buy a fish pond liner. It was a long, tiring journey which started at 3am and didn't end until past midnight.
I bummed a ride with the school bus taking a local elementary school on a field trrip. Here's some pics and some commentary, although the order that my phone decides to post the pictures is still somewhat a mystery to me.

Drama Drama

We have had a pretty eventful past few weeks at school. Unfortunetly, not in the best kind of way.

First - The Riot
About 2 weeks ago it was Mandy's turn to "be on duty". This meant she was in charge of monitoring students and discipline. As you can imagine, she was not thrilled. The first day was stressful with many students trying to fabricate reasons to go home. Then on the first night we both woke up in the night to the sound of yelling and screaming. We live on the teacher's compound, but it's part of the school so we knew the sound was coming from the students.
We got up and noticed that the generator was still on and the time was 2am... Something wasn't right. I decided to go out and investigate. A few houses down i found all the other teachers grouped together holding big sticks and talking in quiet voices. As i got closer they commanded me to turn off my flashlight.

Over the sound of yelling and broken glass they explained to me that the students were rioting and running around in the football field. No one knew why. they told me that the principal had already gone out to calm them down, but he hadn't returned.

I stayed with them for a while and then returned to inform Mandy and the peace corps security. The sound yelling continues until about 4am when the police finally arrived with big guns and restored peace.

The next day rumors abounded, but the truth started to come out after multiple school assemblies and staff meetings.

Apparently, the administration expelled a few kids for sneaking out of school and the kids and their friends were not happy. Some of the expelled students came back at night drunk and incitied their friends to riot. When they saw that they had little support, they started throwing stones at their own dorm windows in an attempt to rouse the others. This just made panic and several of the younger freshmen ran outside in their birthday suit. One scared boy tried to jump a thorny hedge to escape the madness and another is rumored to have run 1km to the nearest town... Naked.

Anyways... that case is behind us now. The boys were caught and little damage was done. Still not fun.

Second - The Dognapper
So as you might know, we got a puppy this term. Trash pit had puppies over April break and in may one day we found a cute little female puppy following her to our doorstep. I was making French Toast so i gave the puppy a few bites. That night and ever since, she has been our puppy. We named her Leia and she is a great dog. It's been over two months and she has only peed inside 4 time, all in the first week. She asks to be let out and doesn't chew much else besides her bones.

I gave her a rabies shot, a parvo shot, worm medicine, and even flea medicine. She is fat and very happy.

Then... Last Wednesday she disapeared. She wasn't at the house for lunch and she even missed dinner. Her mother was gone too. About 7pm we heard scratching on our front door. We open it and she runs inside and we see her mother outside. On Leia's neck is a rope. We get the rope off, give her food, and try to calm her down.

The next dsy we told a few people, but we didn't know what else to do. The day passed like normal. Then on Friday she disapears again! This time we assume the worst and start telling peiple she was taken. It's amazing how fast word travels in the village, but by 4pm we were following a group of school children to a house acorss the valley. Sure enough puppy was there. This time chained with wire and an improvised rubber collar. We took chai with the mother and after a brief attempt at kiswahili she let us take it back without protest.

Then comes Saturday. We both had to attend a teacher's conference in a nearby town and didn't get back until 4pm. And... you guessed it, Leia was gone AGAIN. We were really hoping that after the whole village new our dog no one would take it, but apparently not. By this point we were very upset. This dog had stayed with us for 2 months! It was our dog.

It didn't turn up that evening, so on Sunday we went out and started talking to villagers. No kidding... The First villager we saw said he new were it was, who took it, and why. There are secrets in the village. Apparently a young man around his 20's saw the dog looking very healthy and happy and decided he wanted it. This was also the same guy every time. When asked why he doesn't talk to us, we were told he is not educated and is afraid. But not afraid enough to take it...

After talking, we went to another neighbor who we know from the school and took chai with him. Afterwards we explained out situation and agreed to help us talk with the guy. We started out, but after 5 minutes a girl ran up to tell us that she just talked to the guy down at the river and that he wants 1000 shillings.

-to put that in perspective, we paid men 1200 shillings to do a weeks worth of solid hard labor and they were happy for the chance. 1000 is not trivial.-

By the time we reached the river he was gone. We continued to his mothers house and had a long conversation in too many languages about how her son needs to communicate before taking our dog. She then informed us that about a year ago, her son kept trash pit, so he felt that he has a right to all her puppies, even if he doesn't care for the dog.

This wasn't the best news, but she offered us the puppy anyways and we left. It's now been 5 days and no puppy snatching yet. We talked with many people and they all condemn his behavior as extortion and borderline stealing.
1. No one buys dogs, they are given and taken for free.
2. No one values the females (she was the only dog from the litter not taken in the first month).
3. The other dogs (males) were taken without payment.

So why then come back 3 months later and demand a lot of money? Because he views us as tourists i suppose. He needs money... i'm not sure, but i'm not going to give in.

Here's hoping.

Jon and MaNDY

Mooo!

They slaughtered a cow in our back yard the other day. Our house smelled like dead cow for 2 days.

Then our dog ran around and rolled in the blood and ate the pieces humans won't try to eat.

Yesterday all the other cows found their way to the slaughtering site and... Well... Completely freaked out. If a group of cows can look like a swarm of angry bees, these ones did. They ran around sniffing the air and screaming at the top of their lungs. Our dog hid behind us and we all retreated.

We also got a puppy! Pics to come.

Trash Pit Pasta

Here's a cute pic of "trash pit" in our flower garden after i gave her some left overs. That white dot on her nose... Pasta. :)

Q&A

Hey hey hey,

A while back michelle sent us a bunch of questions she had about our school so while i was thinking of it i thought i'd answer a few.

Q: What age is secondary school?
A: Thoeretically 14 to 18ish, but in reality it's as low as 12 and as high as mid-twenties. The older one's can make it akward sometimes for us... Being that they're the same age as us.

Q: How much does it cost for them?
A: For a full boarding school it's around $300 for the whole year. Yea i know... Pretty cheap for americans. Yet, many can't afford it here. Families here can make anywhere from $500 a year up to around $5000/yr for government teachers. If the corruption was better the government would be able to subsidize even more. Instead millions of AID dollars from britain get pocketed away every year.

Q: Is boarding school the norm?
A: For high school, yes. Almost all.

Q: Is there a girls school nearby?
A: Not with our name exactly, but there are several in the nearby area. We have other PCV's at some of them even. Traditionally if the family is poor they will send the boys first and the girls later if at all. This is improving though.

Q: Are teachers mostly male?
A: At our school it's about 7 females and 19 men. That's not unusual, but you also see almost all men in some places. A fellow volunteer we know is at an all girls school where she's the only female teacher besides the principal. Could you immagine... In a country where student-teacher affairs are common, but rarely prosecuted...

Q: Will most of your 600 boys attend university.
A: every year we have about 125 graduates and we usually have about 4 to 6 which qualify for government loans for university. There are perhaps another 5 or 10 who's parents have the money. That is 3 to 5% is typically. There just aren't enough universities or loans available so the competition is fierce. It's like saying you need to be in the 96th percentile on your ACT's to have a shot.... that can be tough for many. They also have to wait a year due to back-log.

Okay, thanks for the questions. I'll write more soon.

Thanks Mom and Dad!

Thanks mom and dad! We got your package this weekend when we went to the post office weekend and found your package waiting for us! The art supplies will be great and my boys are excited about the basketball video.

Some of the chocolate chips are already in my belly as i made some chocolate chip cookies last night :)

A note to those in the future. when you "declare" the contents of the package try and label as much as possible "school supplies". This will greatly reduce the customs fee on our end. -- Thanks!

Mastercard

Price of colored pencils - $1.50
Price of a ream of paper - $3.00

Watching 10 Kenyan adolescent boys pick flowers and draw them in pastels... Priceless.

-Mandy

Pictures from April Break

Hey peoples. I finally got around to sorting through our pictures from April vacation and i thought i'd post some of them on the blog. I'll also write a blurb about each in no real order.

1. Mandy and me visiting with our friend Bournice and her family. Bournice is one of the school's secretaries.

2. A monkey getting some food at the camp we stayed at in Uganda.

3. Cute pic of trash pit wanting to be invited in our house soooo bad.

4. We went to a teachers house for lunch and took a picture of her kids in the Tea fields.

5. Mandy's lovely hand plucking tea. Two leaves and a bud is their motto.

6. Two massive slugs decided to do some sort of courting ritual on the outside of our house. Aren't they cute?

7. Picture of the nile from the resteraunt

8. Another pic of the nile.

9. Mandy sitting with Bournice and her family.

10. Some of our PCV friends hanging out in the Adrift resteraunt/bar

11. Mandy, me, Domonic, and Sonya in Kisumu before leaving for Uganda. Sonya lives just across the hill from us in Bomet.

12. Me and Bournice.

13. nice view of the bungee tower on the nile... What a rush!

Thank You Dastech!

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You! We got your package at the beginning of May and we've been loving it!

For those of you who weren't involved in this massive care package, we recently got a big box of goodies from our friends in DASTECH (dow's agro group).

Above are a few pictures of us, the contents, us enjoying the contents, and Mandy's Art Club enjoying the art supplies.

in no particular order, here's some info about the pics:

1. Mandy basking in the goodness of American food. "the doritos may be gone, but the memory lives on"

2. Mandy glugging Charlie's Maple syrup and wearing her new tiger's sox

3. Me sniffing Mukund's dark chocolate goodness

4. Mandy enjoying some Chocolate pudding... Hmmm that was a nice idea

5. The rest of the pictures are from Mandy's Art Club today. She brought the supplies and explained them to the class, but wasn't sure what to do with the pipe cleaners. Then they did a practice activity on the board making a bunny in order to prepare for a larger World Map project, but when Mandy turned around they had proceeded to make the the bunny out of pipe cleaners! Then they just went crazy and started all sorts of things. They started off with words, went to pictures, and when she told them how to make 3D stuff they made a Bus and a House. We want to emphasize that we don't know a lot about art or teaching art, but if you have any ideas like that please let us know. The kids had a blast and it's great to see them finally get some creative outlet.

FYI - the package actually sat in the post office for 2 weeks because we were out of town, so in case your wondering, it got here in about a week! Oh, and completely intact!

Ants and Houses

Here is a short video I took over the weekend. Let me know if you can't watch it!

A Non-School Day (in pictures)

Today we decided to take a stroll around the school and nearby shambas and I grabbed a few pictures for ya'll

Picture 1 - the remnants of a cared up goulosh we left soaking when we went to nairobi... it was a lot easier to clean!

Picture 2 - Mandy relaxing on our front porch reading "three cups of tea"

Picture 3 &4 - A chameleon I was carrying decided to climb up to for a better view

Video!! - our school is building a new latrine for our students because the boys filled up the old one and it is... Unpleasant to use. They will happy to find this when they get back

I don't really know if the pictures will show up in that order, but here's hoping.