Exam Week and US Culture Night
Friday, July 27, 2007

This was exam week in school so it was pretty boring for me. Monday was normal classes but tuesday and wednesday were spent watching class 8 take their Math, English, Science and Kiswahili exams. English and Kiswahili also have written parts in addition to the 50 multiple choice questions. I was able to read some more of the rejected Kenyan constitution though. Mr. Kariuki brought it in a few weeks ago. It was drafted after Kenya gained independence yet it was still written by a British Lawyer. It was not accepted by the legislature though so they are still using one that was written while still under British occupation. It's quite interesting and I'm surprised it wasn't put into place. I've heard that it was a matter of the higher-ups losing some of their benefits if it had been accepted. Also someone else said there were issues with the way land ownership was handled. The laws were not condusive to pastoral communities where there is common land for use by everyone. I hope they still try to revise it and eventually get it passed.

Thursday morning they had the Social Studies/ C.R.E (Christian Religious Education) exam. which is 60 multiple choice question on Social Studies and 30 multiple choice on CRE. It was a whopping 2.5 hours long with no breaks. But that was the last one. In the afternoon eeryone went down in the field and played a variety of games. The work camp volunteers had bought soccer balls, tennis balls, and jump ropes for the school's use. It was rather unorganized but that makes it that much more fun. I played volleyball minus the net for most of the time. We were playing witha soccer ball so it was a bit rough on the arms. The kids loved it and some of them were really good! They are also very skilled at jump rope. Even the little tiny girls could jump in and out with no problem. I made a pretty big fool of myself haha.

Mr. Kariuki came down and played with the kids too but the other teacher's refrained. A few of the other voluteers got involved but most just watched. They have got to be really tired from their morning of digging.

My home visits this week were really good. On wednesday I visited Plumesio and he showed me a very large boulder near he his. We met the other volunteers there too, by coinicdence, I guess its a popular tourist destination. They were on a home visit nearby. We followed their host along the side of the mountain to a very cool cave that the "Freedom Fighters" used to use as a safe hidden camp, protected from the brithish troops. It was awesome...the entrance was the exposed roots of several tress. It looked very deep but we couldn't go up very far because it was so narrow and who knows whats living up there now. We went back to the house they were visiting and had some delicious fruit. They also were selling tea that they had grown on their shamba. Unfortunaely I didn't have any money on me.

Yesterday the volunteers were visiting the house just up the hill from my home. The mother there is also called Julliet. So me and later Mama and Lawrence went up to meet them there. At first they had not yet arrived. I had tea and watched Maureen, the girl in class 3 who is always at our house after school, climb a tree literally like a monkey for fruit. She is the cutest thing ever.

When the volunteers arrived we had quite the feast: Kitheri, Papaya, Avacado, and of course tea. A very nice visit as well. Sarah was kind enough to let me use her phone to text my parent and tell them I needed minutes for my phone. Kind of a lose lose situation when your phone is out of credits and the only way to get more is to call someone.

Afterwards I went up to their camp for US culture night. Lawrence came too. Jackie had made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches which were awesome. I miss peanut butter! We talked about US history, politics, and everyday life. I showed them my one photo and told them about halloween. Then we had time for questions and ther were many! Mostly about foreign policy and how American view other countries. But there were also questions about Disney World, Religion, Gay marriage, and pop culture. It was rather awkward for me because on some issues I do not agree with with the Nation is doing. Plus I am not terribly politically savy. So I am really hoping I'm not the only one from the US in my workcamp, I won't be able to answer all of those questions!