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

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!

What do you think?

I flipped through this donated book the other day called "My Very Own Octopus". In it, a boy imagines all the advantages of having a pet octopus, which includes protecting him from bullies and hugging him 8 times with his 8 arms. Those are all cute and appropriate.

But this book includes full color pages of situations such as "My room would always look neat because my octopus would help me put away all my clothes" and "And when my friend David came to visit, my octopus would help us put away all my toys"... and then "of course we would share our allowance with my octopus for helping us"... Anyone else notice something about these lines?

The boy goes on to daydream that "We would always take my octopus to the store when we went shopping. Our cart would be filled in no time at all. And anything our cart couldn't hold, my octopus would." and "On Halloween, my octopus could go around with me, and we would collect more treats than Glenn and all the other kids."...

This is the definition of American greed and materialistic competition! Consumerism starts with our children! This little boy is 'living the good life' of the Western culture of overindulgence. I'm concerned about the orphans getting the impression that all white kids have large rooms to themselves full of clothes and toys (true as it may be for most), and getting hung up on that... I mean, I'm not sure I'm comfortable explaining to poverty-stricken orphans that American kids regularly get money from their parents to buy whatever they want at the toy stores!

On the other hand, I don't want to shelter them from what it is like for a middle class American family, because that's the purpose of books - to educate and expand the minds, help them explore their world in ways they can't otherwise... I remember last year even secondary students at Pirrar were marveling at what dollar bills look like, and kept asking about what animals we raised in America, and what kinds of foods we ate, what our homes looked like... Who am I to judge how to filter their education? Perhaps this book can be presented to the students as it is -- a book written for upper to middle class U.S. citizens. -- and hope they understand.

Blog readers, what is your opinion? This is a genuine question about cultural sensitivity that I have been wrestling with over the past several weeks. Please feel free to comment on my blogs; I appreciate any feedback and value open discussion. Thanks!