Teacher Talk Tuesday

First Week of School

The prep school.

So okay, the kids aren't here yet; but still so much to do.  My classroom is actually a science lab which is great.  I teach all my classes here except one; have a smart board and video projector.  Now I just have to learn to really use it well in my lesson plans.  I also have to do a lot of decorating; apparently there hasn't been someone as a teacher in the classroom for a while so need to get things down and then new things up; clean out the office, which has been the dumping ground prior to now.  There is a lab tech who will basically get me whatever I need....nice!  Anybody know how to coordinate curriculum???  I'm the prep school science curriculum coordinator.  Oh, and I'm starting a forensics club.  Any ideas??

Ready for the first day of school.

Wednesday's Walk Around Town

Traffic Jam & Politics

One of the main re-election strategies of the Kenyan government is to fix the roads.  In some places it just means grading the surface so it is smooth.  In other places it means repaving.  And in other places it means a total overhaul of the roadway.  Take Thika Road for example, it went from a 2 lane-dual carriage way to a 4 lane super highway. 

On a reconnoiter to see how long it would take me to get from my house to school next week, I discovered that the stretch of Langata Road that I will have to travel is now going through a complete overhaul and traffic in each direction is forced to travel in one lane.  The traffic problem is compounded by the stopping of matatus to pick up and drop off passengers in a one-lane road without any way for other motorists to pass.  I guess I have nothing to complain about since I will be one of those matatu passengers for the foreseeable future. 

Please continue to pray for peace in Kenya as we get closer to the election time, violence seems to just spring up around every corner.  Last week 50 people were killed over cattle issues in a rural area of Tana River, leaving 100 families without homes.  Politicians are doing what they do best....the blame game.

Monday's Musings

Mercy Were

Me with Mercy on Visiting Day.

Last year I put out the word that I was looking for sponsors for a young girl in Nairobi to attend secondary school.  Many of you responded and together were able to send Mercy to a private boarding secondary school near her mom's home.  The finances provided were able to cover the entire school year of 2012 (ending in November), uniforms and textbooks, and outfit for boarding school (trunk and personal items).  

Mercy's dorm room at school; bunks are three beds high with 20 beds in each dorm room!!!

She started her Form 2 (Sophomore) year of high school after missing the second half of her Form 1 (Freshman) year due to lack of funds; and has worked hard to catch up with her fellow pupils.  Currently, she is averaging a B- and is 14th in a class of 50 students.  Her best subjects are English, History, and Geography; while she is working hard to catch up a lost year in Business Studies.  Her teachers say that she is very disciplined and doesn't get into trouble, and that she is working very hard to improve in the subjects that she was weak in at the beginning of the year.  

Mercy (on left) with friends on Visiting Day.

We are now looking forward to Mercy's Form 3 (Junior) year, which is very important in Kenya.  It is when high school students begin focusing their studies towards the national exam at the end of Form 4.  This national exam will determine where a student goes to university or college.  Mercy's goal is to become a primary school teacher, and she will need to have a C+ or more on the national exam to be able to attend teacher's college.

Would you please consider sponsoring or re-sponsoring Mercy for her Form 3 year of school?  You can contact me by email to find out more details on how to help financially.  

Teacher Talk Tuesdays

Thinking about "The First Day".

Since I have no idea what my classroom is like...or if I even have my own classroom, planning for this day is turning out to be bit difficult.  I am a person who like to have a plan of action detailed out before whatever the event is, the plan has been revised, edited, adjusted for timing, and practiced a few times just to make sure it's seamless.  And I hate creating the plan at the last minute, rushing around, or having to make changes at the eleventh hour.  So you see my dilemma, sigh!

Of course we will have some class rules/guidelines; it doesn't matter if my classroom is under the baobab tree (which it is NOT), the rules will be the same.  There will be routines: routines to come in and get ready for class, routines for getting packed up to leave, routines for getting into lab groups, routines for fire drills, and some more that I still have to think about. (Any teachers reading this please feel free to add).  Those will be dependent on the classroom situation.  Then there is the learning stuff that should occur during that first week which should result in getting kids turned on and excited about science.  And I don't mean to hand out the textbooks during the first week, or even assign homework; there is the entire year for that boring stuff!  

I was recently reminded by one of my previous boss's of this important time to grab students' attention with the concept of "Discrepent Events."  This is an attention getting, thought-provoking approach to initiate inquiry, a thing that puzzles the observer, causing him or her to wonder why the event occurs as it did.  An example of a DE is something like the "AntiGravity Bucket".  Put some water in a bucket, swing the bucket around in a large upright circle.  We expect the water to fall out when the bucket is upside-down (the law of gravity must hold true), but the water does not.   WHY?  Inquiry!!!  So now, its just to figure out what DEs will I demo each day to the classes.  

TIME TO GET BUSY!  SO EXCITING!

Wednesday's Walk Around Town

So what's been going on in Nairobi these days?

Well, major political moves going down with the presidential election coming up in March 2013.  Alliances are being made and then broken and new ones made; just typical Kenyan politics.  Two of the potential candidates have pending cases at the ICC for inciting violence in the last presidential elections in 2007.  If one becomes president how will that work out I wonder?  Also on the political front, MPs just opened a newly renovated Parliament, where each of the 350 chairs cost $3,000; you do the math.    Meanwhile the Kenyan people who have actually paid for the chairs can barely buy food for their families due to the rising cost of staples like rice and maize.
 

In a year-long drama, a probe into the conduct of the Deputy Chief Justice of the Kenyan Supreme Court has determined that she should be fired due to misconduct.  In the wake of small scale terror bombing, security at many public places has been stepped up.  The DCJ refused to have her bag checked, pinched the nose of the security guard, and threatened the guard with a pistol she pulled out of her car. Needless to say the DCJ is appealing the findings.  And so the drama continues.

On a more sober note, the Kenya Defense Force has, for the last year, been pushing the Somali terror group known as Al Shabab (who apparently have links to Al Qaida) away from the Kenyan boarder.  KDF has worked their way from the Kenya-Somali border to just before the port city of Kismayu; the Al Shabab stronghold.  As they continue to work with other African Union forces, Al Shabab has been creating havoc in refuge camps in Dadaab & Wajir and in the city of Nairobi by bombing public areas.  The sad thing is they have recruited discontented Kenyan youths to kill their fellow citizens.  Parliament is in the process of implementing an anti-terrorism bill into law.

Poaching of elephants are on the rise with orphaned baby elephants being reported daily to the elephant orphanage.  The increase in poaching coincide with the arrival of Chinese investment and the huge influx of Chinese in Kenya.  It is a common pattern in Africa; where Chinese investment go, poaching follows.  Additionally, lion killings are also on the rise; this is due to human-wildlife conflict over resources as human populations spread into previously untouched areas.  Perhaps someone should remind Parliament that the tourism sector is the backbone of the Kenyan economy.  I’m just sayin’!

What to pray for?  

• Against impunity and corruption in Kenyan government.
• A wise, godly man or woman to win the Kenyan presidency.
• The campaign against Al Shabab to be resolved swiftly.
• Justice done for the security guard who appeared to be too unimportant to matter.
• A fair and transparent presidential election.
• Safe roads, improved traffic laws and less corruption in the police force.
• Reduction in food prices and fuel prices.
• Peace in Kenya.

"Tentmaking" or Paul's Missionary Model

What is a tentmaker? Tentmakers are believers who support themselves as they do cross-cultural evangelism on and off the job.  This is in comparison to "regular missionaries" who rely completely on raising financial support and have organizational ties, or "Christian expatriates" who have moved to another country for the sole purpose of work having no call to missions but happens to be a believer.

There are many good, responsible, and accountable mission organizations who require their missionaries to raise their support or raise support as an organization for their missionaries.  The people who are commissioned and sent abroad are financially relying on the gifts of others.  For the first three years of the past four years I was one of these missionaries with Rafiki Foundation in Kenya.  The last year of the past four years, I relied on individual financial gifts from people as I worked with a local pastor in Kenya.  Starting in September I will be tentmaking as I work for Brookhouse International School in Kenya.

Paul's missionary journeys were emphasized by tentmaking, in fact that was his missionary model.  Other apostles did rely on the churches for financial support, but Paul did not.  1 Corinthians 9:6 suggests that Paul and Barnabas were self-supporting on their first missionary journey; "Or is it only Barnabas and I who must work for a living."  In the same chapter Paul gives many reasons in favor of donor support for the mission work, but states three times that he and by association, his teammates, did NOT use this right; vs. 12, 15, and 18.  In Acts 18, Luke writes about Paul's work with Aquila and Priscilla as a tentmaker, most probably as a leatherworker; with verse 4 stating that Paul continued with his mandate from the Lord, "he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks."  In Acts 20: 25 - 35 Paul commission the church leaders in Ephesus to continue in the way that he had shown them since "I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again" (vs 25) and "You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions." (vs 34).

Brookhouse is a door that the Lord opened for me to continue His assignments for me in Kenya.  It is possible now for me to do much more in specific areas than possible in the past four years.

Getting support for girls like Mercy to go to secondary school.

Visiting and caring for the sick in the hospital.

Cheering up sick children.

Visiting families with gifts of food stuffs.

I have some other new ideas too, but solicit your prayers as I continue walking in God's amazing plan for my life in Kenya.

Advertising Nairobi Style

I thought it might be interesting to do a variety of blogs based on a particular photographic subject matter.  Today's blog is on ad campaigns in and around the Nairobi area.  Most of the photos are taken with a camera phone as I'm riding around town in matatus and buses; (1) in an effort to appear more subtle with the picture taking and (2) so my camera won't get jacked.   So please excuse of the the quality of the photos and the watermarked windows.

So starting off there is the banner style of advertising:

Banners are strung across the road on somewhat shaky poles (note the left side).

These are small banners on the guard railing (just in case you missed one, there's at least 5 more to catch your eye).

Then we come to the billboard style, which used for products, specific campaigns, and supermarket hours :

Nakumatt on Ngong Road (pronounce "gong") aka Nakumatt Prestige, letting folks know they are open late.

Honestly, who is looking at the cell phone advertisement at the busy roundabout, anyway!

Deodorant products

Dettol, the body soap, the laundry disinfectant, the floor cleaner. 

They've come up with a slogan for women and children too; yoghurt for all.

Health campaign

Here we have the hand painted, wherever there is available space type of advertising:

On a wall

On a "strip mall" style row of shop.

On the odd shipping container turned phone service provider shop.

On a hotel building in town.

On a slum bar.

Lastly, there is the "lets stick an advertisement wherever people congregate" category:

Bus shelter.

Park bench.

Hopefully I've helped to expand your marketing skills.  Stay tuned for matatu (the Nissan mini buses) decorations and church names.

Learning Chicken

Despite the fact that I descend from poultry farmers; I do not now, or ever have, or ever wish to become a poultry farmer.  In fact, I never really knew much about live chickens until arriving in Kenya.  Live chickens are given as a sign of respect to a person.  Chickens are eaten when important people come to dinner.  Chickens are REALLY dirty and stinky.  Chickens will run fast when you are trying to catch them, because somehow they know they are ending up in the pot (unless they are tied up, then they are easy to catch.)  Chicken happens to be the favorite food of the Luhya tribe of Western Kenya (my tribe by adoption).  Luckily, it happens to be one of my favorite foods too (no wonder they adopted me.) My prior experience with chicken basically looks like this: pull frozen meat from freezer, defrost, season, grill or fry or bake, and eat.  I now have a whole new level of appreciation for my ancestors of the poultry farmer persuasion.  Follow the story of chicken preparation (or how to become a vegetarian in 20 photos or less.)

The designated chicken was tied up, pecking away at bugs and stuff all day long.  Sadly, I do not have any photos of this part of the story.  The chicken was reeled in by the rope attached to its leg and handed over to .... ME.  So I got the bird into position on the banana leaf (so its easy to clean up later.)

Correct position is standing on the feet (so it can't run) and on its wings (so it can't flap around). 

I'm sure, based on the other components in the photo, you can tell what is about to happen (note the knife that is being handed to me).

FYI: Correct blade position is the neck portion by the jugular and aortic vessels.

If you don't like blood, skip the next few photos.

The deed is done, the chicken is no more.

The experts make sure I've done things correctly; didn't I mention the blood of poultry farmers runs in my veins?

A bit more hacking, a bit more blood.

The chicken is hung upside down to ensure as much blood as possible comes out.

At this point, the chicken is put into a pot of boiling water, again I sadly do not have any photos of this part of the process.  This is done to soften the place where the feathers are in the skin and it makes the feathers easier to pull out (as demonstrated in the next few photos.)

This takes less than two minutes.

Note how its all done on the banana leaves for easy clean up.

All clean.

Into the kitchen with the plucked bird.  Have you ever eaten a piece of chicken and seen a little piece of the quill still in the skin?  Well this next step takes care of that problem.

Over the stove (yes that is the stove) the skin is singed so that those quilly things are burnt away.

Now, to remove the innards.  The biologist in me cheers.

Not the usual dissecting knife.

If you ever wanted to know, this is what it looks like inside a chicken.

It's all coming out!

There it all is.

After the innards are removed, the chicken is cut up into pieces, rubbed with salt and left for about ten minutes.  The salt cleans the insides of the chicken.

Rubbing salt in.  Don't worry, it gets washed off.

The chicken is seasoned nicely and cooked.  If I recall correctly, stewed chicken.  No photos of the eating part, but it was yummy.


PS.  The mess was pretty .... well, messy.  Good thing we had those banana leaves, we just rolled them up and; all clean.

Center: Large Intestine, Left: Liver and Heart.  FYI.

Special thanks to PQB, photographer.