Today was a really good day. And I was a good mom to Kenai and many of the students here.
With the fabulous art and creative skills of teacher Stephanie, Kenai's Darth Maul costume was great! Complete with chili pepper horns and a light saber that lite up. Huge Kudos to Stephanie for that one! It looked like a real costume!
Back in the states, Beth is the holiday person. She loves Halloween, and just about evey holiday that started in tradition or because Hallmark made a card for it. Me, take it or leave it. But, I really felt the need to share Halloween with the students and make it memorable for Kenai. Long story short, there are no pumpkins here, and watermelons are out of season. So, we carved the traditional Halloween papaya. I bought 30 of them at the market, we used forks, and away we went. They are actually quite perfect! Yes, a bit small, and you need to get pre-ripe ones, but cleaning them is way easier than cleaning a pumpkin, they are orange on the inside, and they carve quite easily. Oh, and they begin with a 'p.' It was fabulous!! Kudos to Stephanie again, and teacher Abel for their help organizing and working with the students on this new somaliland tradition.
It was funny, the kids did not get the idea of 'just for decoration.' Some did, but many wanted to eat the papaya and were wondering why we would leave the carved creations outside and on display. It is a crazy idea to try to get across to the kids- very wasteful in their eyes.
I also bought some cookies and candy, had visions of bobbing for oranges (it never happened, but the kids enjoyed the oranges), and had the kids eat doughnuts, handsless, from a string in the school courtyard. Sadly, only one or two kids got into the last game. How crazy are these white people?? That may not have drummed up the intended enthusiasm, but carving papapyas sure did!!
Finally, Kenai went to all of the dorms and tick-or-treated. What is it about halloween that makes kids come home and immediately dump and sort the candy? Here is no different. He dumped and sorted candy bars, cookies, small candies, an apple, four fanta, a can of juice and two yogurts. The kids are great to be so generous to Kenai! Again, how weird are some of our customs and 'traditions,' like trick-or-treating. How do you explain that one? Today, carving papayas and trick or treating put a smile on everyone’s face. I think that may be the point, even if it is a little wasteful.
Pics are on facebook right now, and I will post them here soon too.
Happy Halloween everyone!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
more on goats, school, and 'simplifying'
***
“Dear teacher, Please excuse Kenai for being late today. Skinning the goat took longer than anticipated this morning. Thank you.” Yes, it’s true. We were half an hour late to school this week because of skinning the goat. We were not actually doing the skinning- Mon is goat day for the kids at school. So Sun night the school buys the goats (two students go into town and negotiate with the goat man), and Mon am the goats turn from animal to meat. One of these days I will bring myself to watch the process, but in this case, we had to wait for the car to return before we could take it to school.
***
Speaking of goats, they are everywhere! Streets, in markets, in clusters on the countryside, villages, cities, alleys, in the hospital, restaurants, everywhere! And no one is phased by this. Goats are sustenance and very much a part of the way of life here. They roam freely and are only given attention in the animal-dinner process.
All of the teachers are doing presentations about themselves for the secondary students. Kenai and I put ours together before coming and presented first. It was a bunch of pics about the adventures we had in the states. One of the pictures was of Kenai brushing a goat at the petting zoo. I was speechless. How does one explain to these kids, who are late to school because skinning the goat takes longer than anticipated, who grew with more goats on their compound than toys or books, why not only Kenai is brushing a goat, but why I felt the need to take a picture of this and share it with them! Thankfully, my very shy son happily stood in front of 50 teenagers and articulately talked about zoos, and the area where kids can pet animals and how brushing the goat is what they ask you do there. The situations I put him in…
Another picture was of K throwing hay during a hay ride. I explained that in the fall, a tradition is to fill a tractor-bed with hay and drive around. I could not figure out any reasons why this was fun or an alluring activity. Anyone have thoughts on why hayrides are a fun fall activity?
Chicago folks will be happy to know that all of the kids now give a little 'woo hoo' whenever I or the other teachers say Chicago. Hometown pride being carried through to somaliland. good times. Chicago is way better than Boston or New York (they have been brainwashed to think those are the only two good cities in the US. Chicago will be their favorite when Im down. There are three of us from Chicago, and Im the only Californian. Hence, it'll be easier to put chicago on these kids mental maps.).
Finally, when the Halloween pics were shown, I announced that K would be trick-or-treating to all of the kids’ dorm rooms. They had two weeks to prepare for this American tradition to come to their campus. Everyone was excited by this, especially Kenai. In exchange for this, I am trying to figure out what they can carve or do to have a festive halloween. Pumpkins are not really an option. Watermelons are out of season and pricey- I may get one per dorm room for the students though. We shall see. I’d like to do something to celebrate Halloween with them…
***
As fabulous as the village school was for gleaming a bit of the realities of village education, it was not a sustainable educational solution. Nor am I a dedicated home-schooling parent. I switched K to a private school. Here, the teachers do NOT carry sticks to hit the kids, and there are more teachers than classrooms. Classes are close to bilingual and the math teacher and I have already exchanged a few notes about what K needs to work on. There are a good number of diaspora children there (Somali foreigners that moved back to Somaliland) and they speak English. I hate to say it, but the kids are just better behaved and more respectful of everyone, the teachers are real teachers, and I feel better leaving him there for the school day (7:30a-noon).
However, it is a half hour drive from campus. Kiette (a director) or the school driver take us in the morning, I hang out in town in the am, pick K up and we take public buses to go out for lunch (love the crazy public bus experience!), then the school bus picks us up around 2 to take us to my job (the tutoring program). It’s wearing thin on my wallet, and most days end up being over 12 hours by the time we get home. So much for simplifying life and slowing down… We will most likely start staying with one of the board members in town a few nights a week, and I think I am going to get my own car and a license. It will be nice to be self-sufficient instead of making someone drive us at seven am and then being stuck for the rest of the day. It’s yet another unexpected expense and moves me away from the goal of simplifying life (I am going to keep trying! Despite what you all may think about simplifying being 180 degrees from my natural state), but the car will also give us the freedom to be on our own schedule and explore life in Somaliland outside of the boarding school. That is something the secondary teachers are not able to do very often. Plus, staying in town a few nights will be nice- more of a neighborhood experience than the ‘resort on a hill’ that is the campus. Long-term this will be great, but its another transition that we are going through/ step in the settling process.
***
Kenai has taken to gardening with one of the teachers, Ode. He loves it! He talks to her about the herbs and vegetables daily, and is very diligent about checking up on them and making sure they are watered. It’s great to see the two of them hanging out and enjoying the activity together. He’s a good kid.
His favorite breakfast food is peanut butter and jelly cornflakes (he mixes the ingredients himself), and a glass of milk.
For snack at his school, the samboosa person comes on campus (way better than the kids wandering through town for an hour at the village school). I told him I’d give him money for snack some days. “Mamma, can you just come to school during that time instead?” “Why?” “Well, because if you give me money and I put it in my pocket, Im going to want to keep it there and not spend it.” Clearly, that is him rebelling against me!!
***
And how am I doing? Life is good. Food is still good, weather is nice, people are more lovely each day, and despite my mixed feelings, let’s face it, having a car and the freedom to explore the neighboring areas is so much more me than being in the boarding school all day. . I think I found the women’s’ gym- that’d be great! I have not been there, but someone told me about the gym and the ladies’ hours. A treadmill would increase my safety here by about 100 times! I’ve been running on the rocky, uneven, hilly ‘track’ around the school. Although I have not fallen lately (jinx), I also have yet to make it through a workout without at least one close call. That is my project for next week. And the fancy hotel that has now become my ‘office’ three days a week is flyless, has reliable internet and fabulous coffee. I can download things at the hotel, internet is too weak on campus to do so. Again, I struggle with become one with the village and its way of life, and actually staying in touch with you all and feeling like a productive member of the staff/ contributing to the efficiency of things with the other foreigners and high-society folks at the hotel.
The tutoring program that I am running and teaching at got off to a shaky start- enrollment was and still is about half of what we were hoping, and the organization of it all was so crazy at first. American v. Somali spelling of names and four last names is a challenge when trying to get one roster, getting folks to show up on time is a crazier concept than learning English to them, and communicating complex schedules (more than one start date/ three-day cluster for the kids) via the Somali way- word of mouth- is a pipe dream. On the plus side, when we have open enrollment in Jan, or recreate this program in some of the villages, I have lots of ideas on how to do it better. In the mean time, I have been so crazed with logistics, and redoing registration that I have not been able to devote time to figuring out how to teach English to these kids.
They are ages 5-14, some have no English, some spent the majority of their life in Canada and speak perfect English. Fun times. Also, the other tutors are all students who need more guidance and attention than I have been able to give. Directing and teaching the program full-time was an unrealistic expectation for the first time around, but I am getting there. By next week, logistics will be squared away and I can shift focus to lesson plans and the other tutors, insha allah. I was hard on myself about this (as was my boss), but I’ve gained some perspective and am now okay with the fact that it will have taken three weeks instead of three days for me to start and perfect a brand new program, in a field I am not too familiar with, in a county I’ve lived in for less than two months. Not to mention doing this while moving my son to a new school and figuring out those logistics.
I think I mentioned Im also teaching marketing to the MBA students. Tonight the stats teacher and I are meeting to come up with a joint project for the students. Im very excited about this!! Practical applications of stats into the traditionally more creative field of marketing- fabulous. Connecting dots and making the folks more well-rounded- this is good. I have high hopes for the collaboration and the student projects.
Teaching that class is great, but also keeps me working seven days a week, all of them in the city and off campus. Why would I agree to anything different?? ;) So far this is fine. Ask me again after a few months...
***
I think that is all. Any questions out there? Anything else you’d like to know about? Next time, next week maybe, I’ll give you a more descriptive account of the public buses. They are a hoot for sure.
Oh! There is another Eid break coming up. Half the staff is going to Ethiopia, half to Berbera (the beach). I am headed to the beach. It will be whale shark season there. Whale sharks!! There is a very good chance scuba steve (yes, scuba steve is his name) will lead us on an up close and personal diving experience with these fabulous and amazingly huge creatures. I cannot wait!! That’d be check off my bucket list. Not to mention it’d be a much needed break. That is in about a month. If only scuba steve could serve drinks with umbrellas when we came up for more air…
“Dear teacher, Please excuse Kenai for being late today. Skinning the goat took longer than anticipated this morning. Thank you.” Yes, it’s true. We were half an hour late to school this week because of skinning the goat. We were not actually doing the skinning- Mon is goat day for the kids at school. So Sun night the school buys the goats (two students go into town and negotiate with the goat man), and Mon am the goats turn from animal to meat. One of these days I will bring myself to watch the process, but in this case, we had to wait for the car to return before we could take it to school.
***
Speaking of goats, they are everywhere! Streets, in markets, in clusters on the countryside, villages, cities, alleys, in the hospital, restaurants, everywhere! And no one is phased by this. Goats are sustenance and very much a part of the way of life here. They roam freely and are only given attention in the animal-dinner process.
All of the teachers are doing presentations about themselves for the secondary students. Kenai and I put ours together before coming and presented first. It was a bunch of pics about the adventures we had in the states. One of the pictures was of Kenai brushing a goat at the petting zoo. I was speechless. How does one explain to these kids, who are late to school because skinning the goat takes longer than anticipated, who grew with more goats on their compound than toys or books, why not only Kenai is brushing a goat, but why I felt the need to take a picture of this and share it with them! Thankfully, my very shy son happily stood in front of 50 teenagers and articulately talked about zoos, and the area where kids can pet animals and how brushing the goat is what they ask you do there. The situations I put him in…
Another picture was of K throwing hay during a hay ride. I explained that in the fall, a tradition is to fill a tractor-bed with hay and drive around. I could not figure out any reasons why this was fun or an alluring activity. Anyone have thoughts on why hayrides are a fun fall activity?
Chicago folks will be happy to know that all of the kids now give a little 'woo hoo' whenever I or the other teachers say Chicago. Hometown pride being carried through to somaliland. good times. Chicago is way better than Boston or New York (they have been brainwashed to think those are the only two good cities in the US. Chicago will be their favorite when Im down. There are three of us from Chicago, and Im the only Californian. Hence, it'll be easier to put chicago on these kids mental maps.).
Finally, when the Halloween pics were shown, I announced that K would be trick-or-treating to all of the kids’ dorm rooms. They had two weeks to prepare for this American tradition to come to their campus. Everyone was excited by this, especially Kenai. In exchange for this, I am trying to figure out what they can carve or do to have a festive halloween. Pumpkins are not really an option. Watermelons are out of season and pricey- I may get one per dorm room for the students though. We shall see. I’d like to do something to celebrate Halloween with them…
***
As fabulous as the village school was for gleaming a bit of the realities of village education, it was not a sustainable educational solution. Nor am I a dedicated home-schooling parent. I switched K to a private school. Here, the teachers do NOT carry sticks to hit the kids, and there are more teachers than classrooms. Classes are close to bilingual and the math teacher and I have already exchanged a few notes about what K needs to work on. There are a good number of diaspora children there (Somali foreigners that moved back to Somaliland) and they speak English. I hate to say it, but the kids are just better behaved and more respectful of everyone, the teachers are real teachers, and I feel better leaving him there for the school day (7:30a-noon).
However, it is a half hour drive from campus. Kiette (a director) or the school driver take us in the morning, I hang out in town in the am, pick K up and we take public buses to go out for lunch (love the crazy public bus experience!), then the school bus picks us up around 2 to take us to my job (the tutoring program). It’s wearing thin on my wallet, and most days end up being over 12 hours by the time we get home. So much for simplifying life and slowing down… We will most likely start staying with one of the board members in town a few nights a week, and I think I am going to get my own car and a license. It will be nice to be self-sufficient instead of making someone drive us at seven am and then being stuck for the rest of the day. It’s yet another unexpected expense and moves me away from the goal of simplifying life (I am going to keep trying! Despite what you all may think about simplifying being 180 degrees from my natural state), but the car will also give us the freedom to be on our own schedule and explore life in Somaliland outside of the boarding school. That is something the secondary teachers are not able to do very often. Plus, staying in town a few nights will be nice- more of a neighborhood experience than the ‘resort on a hill’ that is the campus. Long-term this will be great, but its another transition that we are going through/ step in the settling process.
***
Kenai has taken to gardening with one of the teachers, Ode. He loves it! He talks to her about the herbs and vegetables daily, and is very diligent about checking up on them and making sure they are watered. It’s great to see the two of them hanging out and enjoying the activity together. He’s a good kid.
His favorite breakfast food is peanut butter and jelly cornflakes (he mixes the ingredients himself), and a glass of milk.
For snack at his school, the samboosa person comes on campus (way better than the kids wandering through town for an hour at the village school). I told him I’d give him money for snack some days. “Mamma, can you just come to school during that time instead?” “Why?” “Well, because if you give me money and I put it in my pocket, Im going to want to keep it there and not spend it.” Clearly, that is him rebelling against me!!
***
And how am I doing? Life is good. Food is still good, weather is nice, people are more lovely each day, and despite my mixed feelings, let’s face it, having a car and the freedom to explore the neighboring areas is so much more me than being in the boarding school all day. . I think I found the women’s’ gym- that’d be great! I have not been there, but someone told me about the gym and the ladies’ hours. A treadmill would increase my safety here by about 100 times! I’ve been running on the rocky, uneven, hilly ‘track’ around the school. Although I have not fallen lately (jinx), I also have yet to make it through a workout without at least one close call. That is my project for next week. And the fancy hotel that has now become my ‘office’ three days a week is flyless, has reliable internet and fabulous coffee. I can download things at the hotel, internet is too weak on campus to do so. Again, I struggle with become one with the village and its way of life, and actually staying in touch with you all and feeling like a productive member of the staff/ contributing to the efficiency of things with the other foreigners and high-society folks at the hotel.
The tutoring program that I am running and teaching at got off to a shaky start- enrollment was and still is about half of what we were hoping, and the organization of it all was so crazy at first. American v. Somali spelling of names and four last names is a challenge when trying to get one roster, getting folks to show up on time is a crazier concept than learning English to them, and communicating complex schedules (more than one start date/ three-day cluster for the kids) via the Somali way- word of mouth- is a pipe dream. On the plus side, when we have open enrollment in Jan, or recreate this program in some of the villages, I have lots of ideas on how to do it better. In the mean time, I have been so crazed with logistics, and redoing registration that I have not been able to devote time to figuring out how to teach English to these kids.
They are ages 5-14, some have no English, some spent the majority of their life in Canada and speak perfect English. Fun times. Also, the other tutors are all students who need more guidance and attention than I have been able to give. Directing and teaching the program full-time was an unrealistic expectation for the first time around, but I am getting there. By next week, logistics will be squared away and I can shift focus to lesson plans and the other tutors, insha allah. I was hard on myself about this (as was my boss), but I’ve gained some perspective and am now okay with the fact that it will have taken three weeks instead of three days for me to start and perfect a brand new program, in a field I am not too familiar with, in a county I’ve lived in for less than two months. Not to mention doing this while moving my son to a new school and figuring out those logistics.
I think I mentioned Im also teaching marketing to the MBA students. Tonight the stats teacher and I are meeting to come up with a joint project for the students. Im very excited about this!! Practical applications of stats into the traditionally more creative field of marketing- fabulous. Connecting dots and making the folks more well-rounded- this is good. I have high hopes for the collaboration and the student projects.
Teaching that class is great, but also keeps me working seven days a week, all of them in the city and off campus. Why would I agree to anything different?? ;) So far this is fine. Ask me again after a few months...
***
I think that is all. Any questions out there? Anything else you’d like to know about? Next time, next week maybe, I’ll give you a more descriptive account of the public buses. They are a hoot for sure.
Oh! There is another Eid break coming up. Half the staff is going to Ethiopia, half to Berbera (the beach). I am headed to the beach. It will be whale shark season there. Whale sharks!! There is a very good chance scuba steve (yes, scuba steve is his name) will lead us on an up close and personal diving experience with these fabulous and amazingly huge creatures. I cannot wait!! That’d be check off my bucket list. Not to mention it’d be a much needed break. That is in about a month. If only scuba steve could serve drinks with umbrellas when we came up for more air…
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
