Blogs, Bones, and Kimchi...

The modems have arrived! The modems have arrived!

Sleek, beautiful, white things – about the size and shape of a thin Mac mouse, with a little green light which, when blinking, indicates that through this small portal we can now access the world.

They arrived on Friday, after the usual barrage of paperwork. An official letter on CTC letterhead, stating our desire for 3 modems sponsored by Bodwell. A copy of my passport, photocopies of my credit card front & back. A signature authorizing payment till the end of time. I half-expected a thumbprint and criminal record check!

Three modems! Modem + digital camera + laptop = connectivity for these three schools…! I’ll be delivering the modems this coming week, and beginning tutorials on blogs, Facebook, and more.

RAFIKI LINK
So much has happened this week…

Maai Mahiu Secondary (Muniu)
- I met Mary and Caroline, the two girls we’ve sponsored to enter grade 9 (Form 1). They are smiling, happy, grateful individuals – I can’t wait to get to know them better. They loved the cards which were made by last semester’s Volunteer Club and signed by the Rafiki Club!
- Several teachers are taking on Rafiki collaborative projects, including: poetry reading, math contests, school newsletter creation, and much more…- Students are preparing to enter the World Environment Day annual competitions! Poetry, skits, drama, and recycled art – all are part of the festivities.- 4 students were very excited to try out a live video-conference conversation with Sharon Peters, a member of Teachers Without Borders. Though connection didn’t work with Ms. Carson, it is thanks her to positively angelic patience & persistence that we are continuing to work on this ‘live’ connection.

Longonot Secondary
- Teachers & students are working on research essays, math contests, poetry, blogs, blogs, and more blogs! This is the school with 10 laptops for 600 students (primary & secondary) – a lucky school.

Karima Secondary
- Six very dedicated and creative student leaders are Very excited about C150K…! They’ve brainstormed ideas for a ‘mural’ and are looking at either the shape of a dove, or a multicoloured wheel…- Teachers are excited & prepped for the Grade 8 English blog, poetry-reading, math contests, and more…

ONE PERSON

Must be Ken Mungai, this week. Mungai, pikipiki (motorcycle) driver without fear. Mungai, “I am working for CTC International”. Ken Mungai, my neighbour, who in a fit of generosity (encouraged by our complete lack of cash flow this weekend), made a set of delicious chapatis from flour, water, salt, and cooking fat.

Mungai is good at crises, in fact he thrives on them. Some have, non-so-kindly, suggested he creates crises. While in Canada, Mungai at first took particular joy in calling at 3am Canada time to say, ‘we need the money for school fees’. Important, yes. Urgent – at 3am? – no!!
His friends and acquaintainces know that if they so much as send a text – ‘my baby is sick’, ‘my mother needs food’, ‘I’m stuck at Kijabe’ – he will respond promptly & with full energy. Mungai has responded to countless mzungu ‘emergencies’…once, memorably, speeding up the edge of the Rift Valley near dark to pick up this mzungu and whisk her home.

All of which brings us to this Tuesday, 5pm, when Mungai was driving his piki-piki at an undetermined speed along the road to Longonot. A cyclist, loaded with mabati (metal sheeting used for roofs/walls), came onto the road without looking – and wham. The pikipiki turned in time to save Mungai and his passenger, Oh Yes Oh No (a nickname – his other names are Francis Ngugi)…

The mabati cut into his foot on the side of the ankle, right to the bone. Always ready to create a non-personal crisis, Mungai was in fact the most jovial of us in the taxi-ride to the hospital. We spent the day on Wednesday in lineups for doctors, X-rays and medications. His bones are intact & the crisis is over - and Mungai is back to his usual work.

KIMCHI IN KENYA

Believe it or not, that's what I ate for lunch on Sunday! On the outskirts of Maai Mahiu, a well-established orphanage run by a Korean couple who have been resident in Kenya for the past 11 years. They serve Kenyan food to the children, but somehow manage to prepare complete Korean feast for themselves & their 4 Korean volunteer staff. I joined them for lunch with Shikoi and Rocky, two of the environmental club volunteers.

And, in a moment of positively disconcerting déjà vu, a concerned Korean uncle asked if I would consider tutoring his niece, Hyo Jeong, just arrived from Korea, whose English is about as good as my Kiswahili (that’s not very good!). My first impulse was to recommend a semester or two in the Bodwell AP program… however it looks like she’ll be in full English immersion at Maai Mahiu Secondary, starting soon.

Modems and kimchi – globalisation at work!

Mali