Alright! I was called out today, by my good friend Kyle, that I've been a horrible friend and need to send some emails. Actually it was more like "Email me!" but basically yeah, I've been doing a bad job of keeping in touch and letting you all know what's going on over here. I started a blog about a year ago and have only posted like three times since then, not including a post that I started in December (about my December break) that's still not finished yet...
Time passes so much differently here living in the village. Sometimes it feels like nothing is happening at all, but all of a sudden three months have gone by and you didn't even realize it. It's a big reason why I'm not very good at updating all of you, haha. And you know I'm already not great at time management in general, so this is just more of the same thing.
Ok, so some more recent things: I'm not sure if you all know, but my site has water problems during the dry season (March to November). I had heard about this before, but got to see it first-hand these last several months. Since about March or April, students have been carrying water to school every day, sometimes twice a day. Each student brings a 10-liter bucket of water from some shallow well down in a nearby valley. They take about an hour round-trip and I'm still not sure exactly where they get it, but I have seen some of the "wells" the villagers use and they are not great. The water is sometimes not even see-through, but the kids will just drink it straight. And they wonder why they get sick so often. They just say it's malaria, but I'm pretty sure upset stomachs and headaches have increased since the rain here stopped.
Here is a project we just started to help with water needs of the students.
http://appropriateprojects.com/node/1751
We are going to clean out a hole that used to be used for rainwater collection, resurface the inside, build a small wall on top, cover it, and add gutters to the nearby school buildings, using a small project grant through Appropriate Projects. Check out the link above to read more and (if you feel so moved) maybe help by donating a few dollars.
Other things going on at school: Form Two and Form Four students are getting ready to take their national exams in a few weeks. I've been going in at night from 8 to 10 to help answer questions and let them borrow some of the books I have.
I've also been doing a very informal kind of art club with a few students during free afternoons. I bring in paper and colored pencils and tell them they can draw whatever they want. There's usually around 15 to 20 students every time =)
I've been thinking about starting an English club lately, but haven't done much with that yet. I just got some good ideas, but I'll see what the other teachers think.
Oh! Guess this is kind of a big deal, but we're past our first year at site! I think I've been in country now for almost 16 months now!! Wow. Less than a year left!
I don't know what else to add, so I'm going to stop now, but if you want to know more about anything in particular, let me know! I'll try to be better about doing these every so often ^_^
The water on the left is what the kids drink, straight from the muddy, sandy holes they get it from. The glass on the right is filtered and safe to drink.
Time passes so much differently here living in the village. Sometimes it feels like nothing is happening at all, but all of a sudden three months have gone by and you didn't even realize it. It's a big reason why I'm not very good at updating all of you, haha. And you know I'm already not great at time management in general, so this is just more of the same thing.
Ok, so some more recent things: I'm not sure if you all know, but my site has water problems during the dry season (March to November). I had heard about this before, but got to see it first-hand these last several months. Since about March or April, students have been carrying water to school every day, sometimes twice a day. Each student brings a 10-liter bucket of water from some shallow well down in a nearby valley. They take about an hour round-trip and I'm still not sure exactly where they get it, but I have seen some of the "wells" the villagers use and they are not great. The water is sometimes not even see-through, but the kids will just drink it straight. And they wonder why they get sick so often. They just say it's malaria, but I'm pretty sure upset stomachs and headaches have increased since the rain here stopped.
Here is a project we just started to help with water needs of the students.
http://appropriateprojects.com/node/1751
We are going to clean out a hole that used to be used for rainwater collection, resurface the inside, build a small wall on top, cover it, and add gutters to the nearby school buildings, using a small project grant through Appropriate Projects. Check out the link above to read more and (if you feel so moved) maybe help by donating a few dollars.
Other things going on at school: Form Two and Form Four students are getting ready to take their national exams in a few weeks. I've been going in at night from 8 to 10 to help answer questions and let them borrow some of the books I have.
I've also been doing a very informal kind of art club with a few students during free afternoons. I bring in paper and colored pencils and tell them they can draw whatever they want. There's usually around 15 to 20 students every time =)
I've been thinking about starting an English club lately, but haven't done much with that yet. I just got some good ideas, but I'll see what the other teachers think.
Oh! Guess this is kind of a big deal, but we're past our first year at site! I think I've been in country now for almost 16 months now!! Wow. Less than a year left!
I don't know what else to add, so I'm going to stop now, but if you want to know more about anything in particular, let me know! I'll try to be better about doing these every so often ^_^
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