Monday, July 26, 2010

Oops, here are the pictures

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

#1

Sunday, July 25, 2010

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.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

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