Tuesday June 19th
Internet is super super slow right now, but hopefully this will post. We spent all morning at the primary school. Alex taught, and I took a lot of video of the teachers teaching. I went with the nurse that comes part time now that we have set up a clinic, who treated all the kids with the fungus growths on their heads. Apparently it is really common here, spreading kind of like the head lice. When we go to the lower school we are attacked by a mob of children who are very very excited to see us. They jump and scream and wave and beg for pictures, but they get really shy when we try to talk to them individually, looking away and giggling.
I also love how the kids react when we take pictures. When we show them the picture, they look at it, recognize themselves, scream and laugh, and turn away. This is true of the students, whether they are 7 or 17. Very few of them have had pictures taken of them, so it very exciting, and I'm sure a bit strange. We are going to print out some of the pictures of the kids and bring them back next time because it would mean a lot to them to have pictures of themselves. It seems unfair to take so many great pictures of the kids and not share the pictures with them. When you are walking down the road here with a camera, I get two reactions. One is people requesting that I take their photo and give them a copy (some are content just having me show them on the camera screen). However, when I ask if I can take a photo or video of someone doing something cool or in a way we don't in America, a lot of people make it very clear that unless I pay them, they don't want their picture taken. A lot of places in East Africa where I have been, people think that Americans sell the pictures and make money. I suppose this is true for National Geographic and such, but I wonder how this rumor got started and got to be so widespread. However, I can understand them feeling strange that I get their photo and they don't get anything. I think I'd feel a little weird if a stranger wanted to take my photo too.
The rain here is really annoying. It rains at 5:30 sharp almost everyday, cutting the day short, and when I say rain, I mean RAIN. The sky turns dark, there is thunder and lightning, and the rain pounds down so hard on the roof you would think that it was a rock storm.
We also got the printer to work today! We brought a printer that a graduating senior donated, but it wouldn't work. Teresa refilled the color cartridge at the market, and after cleaning it, they now have a working printer! Teresa was very happy. They have one printer, but the whole school shares it to print all the exams, so having one more will make a huge difference. It is also really cool how they refill the cartridges here. It is way less expensive. I wonder why we don't do that in America.
Teresa bought us tomato sauce today, which is their name for ketchup, although it doesn't taste anything like ketchup in America. Alex and I thought this was pretty funny because we aren't sure what we are supposed to put it on. We have rice and vegetables and beans almost every night, and I'm not sure about you, but I don't usually put ketchup on beans. However, they knew that Americans like ketchup, so they bought it for us. They also bought us chili sauce. Perhaps we will experiment with putting ketchup on all sorts of things tonight :)
I also love how the kids react when we take pictures. When we show them the picture, they look at it, recognize themselves, scream and laugh, and turn away. This is true of the students, whether they are 7 or 17. Very few of them have had pictures taken of them, so it very exciting, and I'm sure a bit strange. We are going to print out some of the pictures of the kids and bring them back next time because it would mean a lot to them to have pictures of themselves. It seems unfair to take so many great pictures of the kids and not share the pictures with them. When you are walking down the road here with a camera, I get two reactions. One is people requesting that I take their photo and give them a copy (some are content just having me show them on the camera screen). However, when I ask if I can take a photo or video of someone doing something cool or in a way we don't in America, a lot of people make it very clear that unless I pay them, they don't want their picture taken. A lot of places in East Africa where I have been, people think that Americans sell the pictures and make money. I suppose this is true for National Geographic and such, but I wonder how this rumor got started and got to be so widespread. However, I can understand them feeling strange that I get their photo and they don't get anything. I think I'd feel a little weird if a stranger wanted to take my photo too.
The rain here is really annoying. It rains at 5:30 sharp almost everyday, cutting the day short, and when I say rain, I mean RAIN. The sky turns dark, there is thunder and lightning, and the rain pounds down so hard on the roof you would think that it was a rock storm.
We also got the printer to work today! We brought a printer that a graduating senior donated, but it wouldn't work. Teresa refilled the color cartridge at the market, and after cleaning it, they now have a working printer! Teresa was very happy. They have one printer, but the whole school shares it to print all the exams, so having one more will make a huge difference. It is also really cool how they refill the cartridges here. It is way less expensive. I wonder why we don't do that in America.
Teresa bought us tomato sauce today, which is their name for ketchup, although it doesn't taste anything like ketchup in America. Alex and I thought this was pretty funny because we aren't sure what we are supposed to put it on. We have rice and vegetables and beans almost every night, and I'm not sure about you, but I don't usually put ketchup on beans. However, they knew that Americans like ketchup, so they bought it for us. They also bought us chili sauce. Perhaps we will experiment with putting ketchup on all sorts of things tonight :)
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