Safari

After a breathtaking Safari to Maasai Mara and Lake Nakuru, I am back in Nairobi to continue my work. But of course I was acting like a Japanese and taking hundreds of pictures during the last 4 days. It might not be interesting to see the animal pictures for some of you, maybe you’d prefer people or buildings. But as soon as you have experienced a Safari by yourself, you’ll know the value of good shots and how hard it is to get them.

I was travelling with a French friend of my guesthouse (the blond one above me) and a nice group of Canadians we have met during the Safari. The first part of the Safari was at Maasai Mara, the most famous National Park of Kenya, just at the border to Tanzania and the Serengeti.

Kenya has around 42 different tribes, and one of them is the tribe of the maasai, a folk of nomads that are also famous for their warrior skills (and therefore often used as night guards in Nairobi). It is a very small tribe, but the fact that they live close and in the famous National Parks of Kenya (where most of the tourists go to) has made them internationally well-known.

Well but let me stop talking about people, on a Safari one wants to find animals and not human beings. Let me just show you some of the animals we’ve seen to give you an idea of the fauna diversity and the beautiful nature.

The animals you see most of the time are millions of Wildebeests (Weissbartgnus)…

…Tilapis (just fighting)…

… Thomson gazelles…

…or Zebras.

In case of their death vultures will do the cleaning job.

Quite rare are elephants…

…giraffes…

…monkeys…

…hippos…

…cheetahs (cute cub, isn’t it?)…

…or the king himself. (Most of the time he just lies around and let’s his wife hunt and work, as it should be *g*)

After all this impressions, we enjoyed the sunset...

…and played chess before sleeping in a tent full of mosquitoes. Fortunately we brought two mosquito nets with us and took Malaria prophylaxes just in case.

The second part of the Safari was Lake Nakuru. It is a small lake very famous for its diversity of birds. There are thousands of flamingos to observe that live along…

…with water bufallos (pelicans behind them)…

…or impressive rhinos.

Finally, I recommend everyone coming to Kenya or Africa in general, to do a Safari. It really is a great adventure and everything except the roads is amazing. I personally enjoyed these short Holidays a lot and could recover some energy to continue my work at school, which is not always that easy than it might have sounded in the former blog entries, for the school faces quite a lot of disturbing problems at the moment. But details will only be given orally back in Switzerland.

Assimilation

No one shall say, that I did not try to assimilate! ;) It took the hairdresser 3 hours to torture me. The next two nights I could not sleep comfortable for you cannot imagine the pressure my hair and skin was facing. Argh…

That’s why after two days I gave up and some female teachers of the Gentiana could enjoy undoing my hair. After hours of bargaining even “for free”, for whom of them will again undo a Mzungu’s (=Weisser) hair? ;)

Concerning my work I have prepared lessons with all the teachers where they had to use the cooperative learning method. (=Gruppenunterricht)

I was quite happy that it worked very well in all grades…

…and all, the learners and the teachers, liked it a lot and I hope they will in the future without me observing them still try to teach more learner-centred!

At the end again some impressions like this lovely lake…

…that impressive hotel…

…or another school which is in Kenyan measures quite a good and rich one. Unfortunately I could not take a picture of a (poor) slum school so far (you wouldn’t recognize it as a school), for it is not that smart to let them see your digital camera in some areas.

Well then, the next blog will be about my Safari to Masai Mara and Lake Nakuru. It will last four days only because of two reasons: First of all I do not want to waste too much time for Holidays and finish my work properly and secondly because it is quite expensive: 400 dollars for four days. If you remember my first blog entry, that is equal to around 40 glasses for my former night guard!!!

Life @ school

Two more week in Nairobi have passed and it’s time to publish some more news. I will write two blog entries at the same time, for right now I have much better Internet facilities, due to a guesthouse change and access to one of the office with free Internet! (Thanks to my Spanish friend Carolina!).

In this entry, I’ll inform you about life @ the Gentiana Primary school, and in the next one about how I use my spare time.

My main job given by my always busy chief Peter Baumgartner at the school…

…firstly is to observe the used teaching methods in classes and secondly to improve the used and introduce new ones that are useful.

Therefore I also prepare lessons for the teachers, e.g. here in the staff room. On the next picture you can see some of the teachers concentrating on their article in order to exchange the new information in a “jigsaw/group puzzle”. And trust me, teaching teachers in a foreign country is quite challenging, but would it not be boring if it were too easy? ;)

Well, after observing or teaching, everyone has earned a short break for lunch. Close to the school, there is a “cosy” place where we usually go to fill our stomachs. ;) Of course it is necessary to clean your hands before, for who the hell needs fork and knife to eat?! =)

The food is ok, but quite boring. Everyday it is either rice or Ugali (cooked flaw). But one gets used to it and it is still much better than the food of the goats below! ;)

Actually, one should not make jokes about a picture like this, but somehow you cannot always be sad about the unbelievable poverty you see in the slums. Some of the other volunteer workers at the guesthouse are already quite depressed, but with a certain amount of humour and good people around me during work and spare time (as you’ll see in the next entry), I try to keep my positive mood steady.

Life outside school

As mentioned in entry “life @ school”, I fortunately also have some spare time to fill. This is not difficult at all. First of all, I have my friends at the guesthouse and from time to time we go to the cinema together, play chess, exchange experiences of different projects or enjoy a nice meal, e.g. in a lovely Italian restaurant in order to celebrate the Birthday of “Eddy the guard” from Rwanda.

Secondly, I have also become good friends with some of the teachers. Every week, they show me new places or invite me to their homes to introduce me to their families.

Here for example at teacher Aida’s place, a very good friend who is very honest and reliable and also a good cook! ;)

Furthermore, there is Philip again, I have already mentioned him in the first blog entry. He not only introduced me to his whole family…

(Lunch at Omondi’s mother's place)

(look at his cousin's smile!!!)

(Playing Scrabble at Oscar’s place)

…but also organized an invitation to his cousin’s wedding. It was a very strange experience, for I did not know anyone, was the only white of around 300 guests and the mass lasted over 2,5 hours! They were dancing, singing, but also white-washing the brains by repeating sentences of the bible over and over.

Religion in Kenya is very important but in my opinion also very dangerous. What I have seen, the Catholic churches are doing a good job by helping the poor ones (not regarding their deeds during colonialism, but the main problem is the hundreds of different little churches spreading all over the country. The major goal of their priests and pastors is to collect fees of their followers to get rich by praying for them and as confirmed by most Kenyans I have met, just telling lies...

And people go to these churches at least every Sunday, pay their fees although they would need the money for food or school fees, but at least there they get some hope for a better life after death and are members of a little society. I could continue writing about this topic for hours, but don’t want to annoy you. Just let me show a picture of one of these churches.

Well, let’s change the topic and move to tourist attractions to rise my and your mood. ;) I am planning to go to a Safari in about two weeks, but to prepare myself as good as possible, I’ve already visited the Nairobi National Park with its beautiful view…

…and many interesting animals like this enormous Rhino…

…or that LAZY female lion which has adapted the Kenyan lifestyle better than me.

On the 23rd of July I arrived save in Nairobi and was picked up by Peter Baumgartner, the chairman of the Gentiana Primary school and a former journalist of the “Tages-Anzeiger”. He lives here since 1994 and after his retirement he started organising the funds for the Gentiana Primary school as well as producing a journal called “the organic farmer”.

The Gentiana primary school is a school for poor and rather mentally weaker kids of the community around it which cannot afford to go to an official school. I made a picture of one of the communities where they are living in.

When the school started in 1994 there were only volunteer teachers without professional education and any salary. Since 2001 the school is being financially supported by different sponsors, especially by Peter himself and some other donators. Therefore they could afford to build up new school buildings and the teacher got a salary and possibilities to re-educate themselves.

Now the school inherits about 330 pupils and 13 teachers, but actually there is only place for around 240 pupils, so the classes are much bigger and the school costs much more than foreseen.

On the picture above you see one part of my way to the school and one of the teachers called Philip, who does accompany me not only on this way but also after school for a beer or two and dinner. He’s very helpful as most of the Kenyan I have met so far, and in return, I do invite him of course, for the salaries of a teacher here are lower than low.

Here some pupils waiting for their breakfast during the morning break. Every day they get the same food called “porridge”, but at least they get something to eat. This is the kitchen were the food is prepared.

Me and some pupils at lunchtime, where they get maize or rice every day.

One of these pupils I have already closed into my heart, for “Camao” is only 70 centimeters high, but as you will confirm more than cute! ;)

On these two pictures there are some exotic animals we do not find in Switzerland. The turtle is living with some other adults and around 20 youngsters in the garden of Edith Baumgartner, Peter’s wife. The chameleon on the other hand is a common animal in Africa which I find, if this comparison is possible, almost as interesting as all the pupils and teachers of the GPS my camera. =) Actually they use it more often than I do and are always very proud to be on one of the pictures. For example the gardener himself, which proudly shows how good he is at watering the plants, even with two … at the same time! ;)

On my school way there are found many different “stores” of the communities, such as this “fundi”, which repaired my lovely shoes for around 0.10 Swiss francs….

… or a computer store, which provides some hardware tools. I just had to take a picture, for I do not know who will buy this hardware tools, for I have not found one computer around this area, for electricity is very rare and the only place I have found Internet is at a guesthouse closer to the city heart, but even there the connection is unbelievable slow, why I have to prepare all mails and blog entries at home, in order to be ready to “copy-paste” it when the channel finally is open for a little while. ;)

Or a store selling tab water. Although I have to add that it should not be drunk by people who are not used to it, unless it is boiled.

And the final picture I would like to show you in this first blog entry is one of my guesthouse’s night guard who helped me to learn some useful sentences in Kiswahili. As a reward, I have financed him his first glasses so that from now one he will be able to read the bible during the night shift instead of getting bored. He was very thankful for this gift and it cost me around 600 Kenyan shillings, which is the incredible amount of only 12 Swiss francs!!!