A Chance For Peace

A friend of mine, a fellow Village Volunteer volunteer, has also been touched by Kenya. Like me, Tyler has been infuriated by the media's reaction to and the pervasive misunderstanding toward the post-election situation. He is going back next month with other volunteers to try and remedy that. I earnestly pray that he succeeds in making a dent in the most resilient disease of Western civilization -- apathy.

Check out www.AChanceForPeace.com

A documentary about peace and crisis.

In December 2007, suspicions of corruption grew as

the announcement of the presidency in Kenya was

greatly delayed. Violence erupted and to date,

approximately 500,000 Kenyans have become

displaced refugees and 1,200 are confirmed dead.

A CHANCE FOR PEACE will ask, “Is Peace possible?”

while giving Kenyans the chance for their voices to be heard and to

broaden the canon of information on an issue mischaracterized by the

Western media as simply “another African ethnic cleansing.”

Books of cultural relevance

Thanks to the donations written directly to me (instead of Village Volunteers where they could've received a tax-break), I could afford to pick up a few more items when I arrived in Nairobi. We stopped by a book store and here are a few things I found that exemplify (exaggerate, really) the difference between our side of the world and theirs.

(Click on the images to see full size)

These are curriculum-based stories for the grades listed in the circles above the titles. They each are educational (e.g., "Doctor Tortoise" discusses common health problems related to basic care such as dental hygiene) or moral (e.g., the lesson Bogi learns in "Bogi Learns a Lesson" is to not be lazy and take advantage of others' kindness).

One of my favorite stories is "Sipoi and the Ogre", which is based on the Maasai. I've uploaded the first and last pages of this story, though I've copied the rest of the pages if any of you are curious enough to request it. :-)

The most intriguing book is the one on the bottom right for grade 4, "A for AIDS". For every letter of the alphabet, it gives readers reasons to be a part of eradicating AIDS, educating about its transmission, HIV awareness.

E for education
Listen and read all about HIV and AIDS
Learn how to avoid getting infected
Learn how to love those infected
Learn how to live with those affected

M for money
A lot of money is needed to fight HIV and AIDS
Rich nations must reach out to poor nations
And give them advice and help to fight AIDS

N for Nelson Mandela
A hero in our time
He stated that his son died of AIDS
He said stigma against people with AIDS
Was worse than the disease itself!

O for orphans
Mother went first
Father followed fast
AIDS is not a curse, we'll win at last!

X for experience
If you think AIDS is a curse you're wrong
If you ignore good advice you won't live for long
Having AIDS is not a good experience
Happiness in the future requires a lot of patience

Mr. Anderson of Kamiak HS: Dago Primary Class 8 Thank You!

On Friday, June 27, my host arranged for me to attend the 8th grade class at Dago Primary School so I can document the use of the particular donations made by one generous teacher in Mukilteo, WA.

At Dago, the math teacher prepared a geometry lesson so the students can use the new compasses, protractors, and graph paper. Calculators were few, so they were given to the staff to use for grading. Class 8 were the recipients of the donations because they are to take a major examination by the end of the school year, which determines their chances of getting into a good secondary school (high school).


After the initial excitement of giving and receiving the items, I took a back seat in the class and quickly recognized the universal experience of student boredom. Notice when the teacher asks the class "Are we together?" or "Sawa sawa?" (which means "Okay?" in Swahili)... the class responds with a very under-enthused "yes."

(I wonder how much you can understand without my captions anyway? The other voices come from behind me, from Class 7. The classes share a roof with a mud wall between which doesn't reach the top, so it all reverberates on the tin.)

If you want to know what he's saying, consult your 8th grade geometry books. :-)

Pamela tells about Susan's background

This is after I revealed to Susan and the family that Susan will be sponsored by an American couple for the rest of her education (she's in 6th grade now). Pamela, who is trilingual in Luo, Swahili, and English, had adopted her earlier on and now is expressing her appreciation and describing how Susan came to her household.

Book Delivery

Emmanuel is passing out board books to the nursery and intro/kindergarten students. It is their first time with such books (even for the teacher!) and... I'm just glad to have been able to record this. They are speaking Swahili, and the very enthusiastic boy on the left is my Brian!

I was aiming to update something to this blog each night since there's so much to share, but I've hit the ground running in Fairbanks and have been constantly busy (not all work though!). I haven't had much time to finish captioning these videos, but you can be sure they will be done and posted. By the end of the year. :-) Just kidding! Maybe over the next couple weeks? By the end of August? We'll see... It's 5 gigs of pictures & videos after all!