Dear America

Below are excerpts from Nikki Johnson's blog. A really fun read and nice montage of life at Hamomi and in Nairobi. You can visit her entire blog at NikkigoestoKenya2012.blogspot.com. 

"Greetings.

Dear America,

How are you? We hope you are fine. We are pupils at Hamomi Children”s Centre.We are enjoying as you do.We like typing and playing football.We also like to cook."

The above post was part of the computer class that we (Brady and I) have been teaching at Hamomi.

Laurel and Eric taught the students when they were here, and we’ve been reviewing some of what they learned before, practicing typing, and recently learning to write letters (both informal and formal). Brady and I also hang out with the kids during PE, and have enjoyed playing football, kickball, and also many singing games that the kids enjoy. Hide and Seek is also a favorite (some things seem to naturally transcend cultural boundaries)...  Feb 27, 2012


The class 8 kids at Hamomi are eagerly learning in computer class, even taking their exams early so as to get in more time with me. Today we built a spread sheet and learned about Microsoft Excel, they will each be getting email addresses soon as well. Last week we went online and I asked them what they wanted to learn about. So we googled “planets” and they were intrigued to click links and learn information about each planet very easily. We checked out image searches and found nice pictures as well. It’s cool seeing their eyes opened to things that I’ve known most of my life and taken for granted. I haven’t been using the internet much at all lately (either because I haven’t bought credit for my modem, the internet here hasn’t been working, or I’ve been busy and away from my computer), and there are many times that I realize how easy it would be to find out information quickly online, but instead end up going through a more round about process to figure things out.  For instance, I wanted to know who won March Madness, and met a kid at the basketball court who had DSTV (the big cable package here) and then he went home and later texted me what he found out from watching ESPN.  Everyone is a bit more dependent on each other here...    April 18, 2012

Today as I arrived and began my walk to Hamomi, I was enjoying hearing the swirling of the thunder, knowing that the rain was about to come. Just as I came into sight of the school, it began pouring.  The 1st and 2nd grade classrooms spotted me and begain screaming “Kimbia! Kuja! Mzungu, kimbia!” which means "Run! Come! White girl, run!"  So I ran through the first few minutes of the rain and reached the safety of the classroom and we pulled the door shut just as the rain turned very heavy.  It must have made for a very humorous sight (that is if anyone had braved the rain and stayed outside to watch long enough, which I strongly doubt).  The roof of the classroom is tin, so then we all sat trying to move the desks away from the walls that were getting wet, yelling instructions to eachother, yet unable to hear anything due to the pounding on the roof. The teacher had gone out and left them with some homework to fill out, so I sat and made sure they finished it. Next, they gave me books on science and religion, so I taught about the parts of animals such as wings and horns, and then told the story of Abraham obeying God to the point of willingness to sacrifice Isaac. After the rain let up, I climbed up the hill to the offices (which I’m very proud to say I managed without falling), and hung out with the teachers over lunch. This is always a fun part of my day and I enjoy the jokes we tell and how I get better at Swahili....

Here are some random observations I’d like to share with the world. You should be able to share these insights with your friends and feel smart and cultured:

When Kenyan women are learning to type on a keyboard, they have difficulty just pushing down a key enough for only one letter to be typed. Their hands are rough from years of tough labor and that delicate touch is not the first instinct.

The word “funga” means close, and is also used in basketball to refer to finishing a basket, or dunking the ball. (This tidbit is courtesy of the women’s club team I’ve been playing on lately which is really fun)

Standardized testing is huge in Kenya. The news for the last week or so has been all about the secondary schools in the nation who ranked the best on last years end of secondary school examinations (KCSE). Kids in their senior year put tons of effort into passing this test, the results of which are the biggest factor towards any continuation to university.

I watched the Uconn Syracuse Big East Tourney game with friends and we all were thinking of where we were when watching that epic 6 over time matchup a few years ago. Even separated by so much distance, its kind of cool to see how common our lives are at times. And even though my internet has been super spotty lately, worked it out and filled out my March Madness bracket!

“1 like a stick, 2 like a duck, 3 like a butterfly, 4 like a chair, 5 like a pussycat, 6 like a spoon, 7 like a walking stick, 8 like a snake, 9 like a head and leg, 10 like a stick and ball” This is a song for how kids here learn to write numbers.

This is a bit old, but an interesting tidbit none the less- There is a province called Nyeri in Kenya and last month a bunch of cases occurred there of men being beaten by their wives. Spousal abuse by men is much more common here than in the US, but it was very interesting to see it going the other way, and the cases were on the news showing men being beaten and scarred within an inch of their lives.  In response to this, the chairmen of Men’s rights issued the women of Nyeri a “red card” for their actions on national tv.

There was a soccer game between two national teams that are tribal rivals here recently and they had to stop the game for 15 minutes because the fans started to riot and throw rocks on the field.  An interesting sight to watch on tv as these professional athletes walked across the field removing the rocks from the playing field so the game could resume. It was like the girls who gather the flowers once a figure skater skates and people throw things like animals onto the ice.

One of my favorite things about Kenyans is that they like sharing stories.  Hope you’ve enjoyed the selection of ones I’ve told here!    April 2, 2012