Home again...

... but honestly, I think my brain has already been baked inside my skull since landing in this furnace 5 hours ago.  So there ain't no thoughts coming out except that it's hot.  I thought (apparently wrongly) that the rains would be on their way and that it wouldn't be quite so bad when I got here.  But.  I was wrong.  Hot. 

Maybe more tomorrow.  'Cause I've had some good adventures and good fun with good folks over the past few days.  Right now, though, I'm off to get wet.  Too bad the water coming out of the tap is hot, too.

Just a little something...

... to remind me of "home" while I'm enjoying the wonders of Kenya and getting fat on food prepared by American Baptist trained Kenyan cooks:

Meetings are going well this week, but there is "supposed" to be an element of refreshment and rest.  However, most of it happens to be meetings :(  At least I got to stroll down to the lake today and take some photos of pretty flowers.  I'm too lazy to put them from the camera to my computer at the moment, though!  So you'll have to do with a picture of home today :)

Hospitals in Paradise?

I had sme fun today. Bright and early I left home, and sweated all the way to the airport. A few hours later, I was happy to be in Nairobi, where the locals are complaining about the heat (27c when we landed!) and I'm basking in the coolness of the day! Because we have meetings for the rest of the week, I wanted to get an unpleasant chore out the way first thing this afternoon. Typhoid is a real problem in my normal place of residence, and it's been way too long since I've had. Y last typhoid vaccination. One of my colleagues, RM, for those of you who know him, has never had a typhoid vaccination! So off we went together to the hospital. Conveniently, one of the nicest hospitals in the country is a walking distance away from our guesthouse, so off we went, footing. I can't tell you how nice it is to walk down the street and not get shouted at because of the colour of my skin, and not sweat through a t-shirt after walking 10 steps! Anyway, I knew that we were meant to go to the emergency department to get the vaccinations. Why emergency? I haven't a clue, but that's what I'd been told. So we wandered into the emergency ward, and spent quite a lot of time wandering around trying to sort out what we were meant to do. I spied a sign that said, "information nurse", so off we went to get some information. Except that after standing there for some time, with no information nurse in sight, I spied another sign that said,"immunisations/vaccinations". So off we went to that little office. Unfortunately. There was no oe there, either. So I looked around again, and this time spotted a sign which said, "registration". Finally, we found a lady there who was happy to take our names. She gave us little cards with our names on them, and directed us to a sign that said, "counter 5". At counter 5, we told the man what we needed for the second time, which he wrote on a little pie of paper and told us to go in through the door marked, "ward B". Once inside ward B, we had to ask someone again what on earth we needed. She directed us to a counter in the middle of the beds in the emergency ward, where several white-coated doctors were scribbling away in their charts. So we mentioned to one of them what we needed again. They scribbled something on a different pice of paper and sent us to go find a sign that said, "pharmacy". Thankfully, that was easy to find! And there was a lady there to took our handful of papers, and we told her again what we needed. She proceeded to type a whole lot into the computer and spit out a bill, which I then paid with my visa. And then we were told to go sit and wait. While we were waiting, I read the receipt a bit more closely. Of course, after having everything written down and told verbally to about 5 different people, they still only got that ONE of us needed a vaccintion! So back to the counter again, where the woman was going to send us through the entire process again in order to get an order for a second typhoid shot (even though it was written clearly in the very first piece of paper that we showed to everyone along the way! Anyway, we convinced her to just add it to the bill, and We paid for the second vaccination (which, by the way, is a fraction of the cost of the vaccination at home!). Finally, we ended up being sent back to ward B and to,d to find a nurse to jab us. So, off we went to find a random nurse. Wew found one in the same place that we found all the doctors the first time, and she brought us into a room that was labelled "resuscitation room", which made me a little nervous about the kind of injections we were about to receive! Anyway, we were both jabbed in the arm, and a bit of a sore arm is a small price to pay for typhoid prevention, I would say. It was an interesting experience at the hospital today, though. The whole time, I was thinking about the role of language and literacy in the whole experience. Because its one of the best hospitals in the enti region, it is definitely pricier ithan your average place, which means that it's the expatriates and upper class lfolks who go there. That means it is mostly people who are literate in English. If you weren't literate in English, you wouldn't have a clue how to work that system. And yet, even after having our "order" written down on multiple pieces of paper, near the end, it still wasn't right! But if I wasn't quite highly literate and able to make sense of the reciepts, in English, we could have had a serious problem. Anyway, I don't really niw what the pint of this story is, but it did make me appreciate again the value of literacy in my own language, and realise again, what a disadvantage people are at if they don't have the luxury of literacy in their mother tongue!

A photo of last week

 So, here's a small photo of the group of us from my organization who were at the conference and one of me sitting at table with a bunch of the big-wigs :)

'Twas a fun conference.  Now I have to write up a quite report to give to our organization's conference next week.  The challenge is going to be making that report interesting for folks who I know are not as excited about language and education issues as I am!

A few firsts...

I. Tank I've been in Africa for a while now, and it's really becoming home. I always thought that the day I actually have to buy the Chinese made underwear in the market would be the day that I've been in Africa too long... Well, today I found myself standing and examining the Chinese underwear at the tab,e int the market. Infant, I had gone to seek out the underwear table in the market! But it's NOT because my dear old Hanes have kicked the buckets- I haven't gone THAT far yet to actually buy undies or a brassiere... But I did go looking for a slip today! I have two skirts now that become a bit on the sheer side in the bright sun, so I thought it was time to invest in the a cute little slip like the ladies here wear. And they are cute - like a t-shirt skirt with a but if cotton lace at the bottom :) anyway, ladies he wouldn't be caught dead outside without their slips, so I guess I'm just finally starting to become a decent woman here! And for $2, it was a small price to pay for a bit of decency! My other first today was getting some pictures hung on my walls! Now I'm really at home!

"Your eyes are closing..."

... is what RM said to me last evening whilst I was shoveling eggs into my mouth at the dinner table.  I was half asleep at the dinner table, and about 2/5 asleep at the moment.  But it's a good tired.  We've been involved in a huge language and education conference this week, and it's so good.  Me and Jackie are no longer the lone voices in the wilderness crying out for mother tongue based bilingual education :)  So it's great. It's wonderful.  It's really, really a lot of fun to be immersed in papers and talk all day about language and education and teacher training and policy and practice.  Really, I know, I'm a big language-in-education geek.  But it's good.  Just really, really tiring.  I also got asked (with 5 minutes notice!) today to make a short report on a paper that I heard earlier in the day, to the entire group.  So there I was, with only a few minutes' notice, to talk to a crowd of 100, which included some of my Multilingual Education heroes... But I think I did alright!  I get to report back to the group on 2 more "break-out" sessions tomorrow, too, so should be an interesting (and another absolutely tiring!) day.  Such a great opportunity to be involved in this whole thing, though, so I'll be in bed early tonight, and hopefully will have enough energy to keep on going tomorrow!  Picts to follow tomorrow, enshallah.

Where for art thou, Internet?

So, I did make it back to the land of the sweat.  And found that there is no city power.  Hasn't been for over a week now.  And with all the political rigamoroll that's going on in these parts, I'm gonna hazard a guess that it might be a while before we get any city power back.  And since moving into my ever-so-cute new house, I can't access the internet when there is no power.  Hence, my normal blogging and skyping time of 10:30 - midnight has been cut off :(  Hence, nothing for you, dear reader.  I shall try to do better at finding a better time to blog, as there is no shortage of interesting happenings around here!

The other day we had a little party (I mean, "celebration".  The auditors were here from the US last week, and apparently our organization is not allowed to throw a "party", but we are allowed to "celebrate the achievements of the human resources" of the group!).  We were partying because of all the new houses that have been finally finished!  As one of the tenants of the new place, I had to give a little speech to thank those who worked so hard to get it done.  I didn't have any time to prepare, so I fear my speech wasn't very entertaining, but anyway, people were itching to get to their sodas, and didn't want to hear me talk, anyway!  Our Director got a few photos of me giving my speech:


I fear this week is going to be full of "speeches".  We have a HUGE language and education conference, which starts with a bit reception this evening.  All the big names in African multilingual education are converging on this city today, and we shall have 3 very full days of presentation, networking and chatting up the mother tongue.  On that note, I best go and iron my fancies so I can at least try to look professional amidst all the academia this week!

If you think of it, you can pray that me and Jackie have the right words to say to advocate for the folks in this country.   And pray that all the technicalities go well, too.  I'm working as a "recorder" and reporter for a few of the sessions, Jackie has a big presentation, and I've been working with our colleague from the Ministry of Ed on a presentation, as well, which he will be giving, and I will be helping with the technical aspects of.  This could be the opening chapter in a whole new era of mother tongue education here in this country!