Differing loyalties

In the US there is this idea that Americans are individualists. The stereotypes of the lone cowboy or that one person who is right but is working against the system. After living here I don't buy this myth. My feeling is that Americans gladly support "the system." What I mean by the system is subordinating yourself to shared issues. Americans display of patriotism is an obvious example but even things like paying taxes. Something like 85% of people don't cheat on their taxes (at least not substantially). Someone littering on the ground is regarded pretty dimly. Even minor things like queuing are done naturally and without thought.

In Kenya the values are very different. For one thing no one believes, trusts, or really supports the government. When the British came they basically said whoever shoots the current chief will be the next chief. Enough people sold out that all tribal leaders were corrupt pawns of the British. Since then every political leader since then has used his position to get money for himself. The result is an incredibly wealthy political elite and a very jaded population. Politicians are recognized as the most corrupt people in the country, but also the most looked up to. The idea of devoting yourself to this national cause is unheard of and would be laughed at. This is shown in institutions throughout the country with school principals, religious leaders, company CEOs being openly or discretely corrupt. With leaders like this nobody thinks about sacrificing themselves for institutions. The idea of working extra hours for your company is bizarre.

On the other hand there is still huge loyalty to the local community. People spend a good chunk of their time and money on helping their neighbors with whatever the current need is. If someone gets accepted into university all the neighbors and relatives will put in money to pay for that person's schooling. He then reciprocates by spending the rest of his life giving money back to the community. My school was started by a bunch of local college graduates and a very poor community chipping in to make it happen. Somehow I can't see this happening in the US. When I lived in Iowa there was certainly little sense of community. I never even knew my neighbor's names much less giving them money for their dad's funeral. This community loyalty goes into places we would consider morally inappropriate- giving that contract or police post to your nephew while ignoring a far more qualified candidate. It makes perfect sense here. Why would you support someone you've never even met? Gangs also have a community mentality- rob from the institutions while supporting your community. This is considered pretty natural and sensible. Stealing from institutions is part of the lifestyle. These are funded by people you don't know and don't care about. Bribes are also natural- why would the integrity of a corrupt organization be a personal concern for you. Anyway some of the money gained goes to your community which is worthy of the cash.

This lack of loyalty for "the system" is slowly changing. The last election brought in a government firmly opposed, in principle, to government corruption. All kinds of government and even local initiatives are chipping away at corruption. My favorite is the Kikuyu radio station which announces which policemen were seen taking bribes. They then call up the officer on the air and ask him why he took the bribe. If he doesn't answer (as usually happens). They call up the superior and ask him why their underling is not at his post. Shame is an amazingly effective method in a collectivist society. A lot of the corrupt headmasters are slowly being replaced by honest ones who are rated based on how well their school does. All of these things are happening at the low levels. Politicians and high level administrators are still corrupt, albeit much more quietly. I think this civic mentality is slowly growing but it's going to take decades before it is mature and strong. In the meantime I hope the community loyalty is not lost along the way.

The Tyranny of Testing
The 9th and 10th grade testing began yesterday and have another 6 days of tests. 11th grade began a week and half ago with 12th graders around the country spending a month on their exams. It's a culmination of the whole year's work and is a big deal. Every year you got a bigger test until you hit the all important KCSE- Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education. Whatever you get on this test will resonate throughout your life. A B+ will get you into college while a high A can make you a doctor. An E blocks off any formal employment for your whole life. The problem is it's a really poor method of determining who is good. If I were an employer there are E level kids I would hire in a heartbeat while some of the top kids would be the last on the list.

The system is based on the old British style of education popular 50 years ago. Back then the brits wanted good soldiers- guys who were disciplined and did what they were told. It's not exactly geared towards free thought. The questions tend to be very exact with exact answers: What are the 5 causes of World War II? and there are only 5. If you use one that is not on the list you lose marks. It gets even weirder in the sciences. They are taught things like how to use Vernier callipers. Forgot that no one in the real world uses them but students only actually learn how to read the measurement on an exam paper. One teacher got an A in Physics but had no idea how to use the real thing. He had never actually seen the tool before and was pretty confused when I asked him how it works. The deficiencies are even more obvious if you ask someone to solve a problem. There is a mental search for the appropriate formula and then everything fits into that formula. If there is any kind of twist nobody gets the correct answer. God forbid you didn't learn the formula.

Over the years the curriculum has grown to a huge degree. There always has to be a way to distinguish the top students from the worst. As students improve on their memorization more facts have to be added. I majored in biology from the top school in my state and I couldn't answer half the biology questions. These students spend years memorizing this massive list of facts. Too bad this list provides almost no benefit in normal life. All the teachers and even the principle understand this. The problem is they are part of the system and they want their kids to do well in life. For that you need a high KCSE score, not understanding.

Another problem with this system is that it kills all interest in education. It is work. Not for pleasure, or betterment, or simple interest. Your purpose is to remember as many facts as you can so you can get a job afterwards. There is no room for detours, other info, or even in depth understanding of the material. I have never met a teacher actually interested in their subject material. They've spent so many years memorizing that they are deeply tired of it. Tired enough for a lifetime.

It's with sadness that I hear this system is coming to the US. When I was in school long ago I remember two really good classes. Both were taught by experienced who had taught the usual stuff and gotten bored. My English teacher taught creative writing which you really can't do in a standardized test. Can you imagine some poor smuck stuck in an office trying to decide which stories are As and which Cs? Most of the top writers would prob fail. The other memorable teacher was an old biology teacher. He decided the 2 biggest issues in science were the environment and genetics Sailing trips on the Chesapeake and electrophoresis in the lab. Not exactly conducive to being tested. But the man produced a whole load of motivated kids who went on to high powered jobs in science and environmental activism.

On the positive side this system is completely incorruptible. People occasionally try but it's pretty hard. If someone gets an A you know they actually earned that grade. Any other system has all kinds of problems- references and admission officers analysis are easily persuaded. The other thing is that if you got an A you put in some serious effort or have a really good mind. No matter how good the teacher you still need brains and perseverance to get this far. There's something about this focus and dedication which improves the person.

The difficulty with starting a new school

The problems with a beginning school are numerous. It’s a major struggle just to get started and the struggle continues for the next 10- 15 years. The government refuses to open schools. They must be started by the community, in the Harrambee tradition. The first is infrastructure. You have to find money to build all the buildings. A classroom costs about $3000 and a latrine $500. The tuition per student for a year is $130, hardly enough to cover these costs. Also, there is no electricity, water, fencing, etc. Things like a kitchen and a school bus are unthinkable. Established schools have these things and only pay maintenance costs.

The second is staff. In most schools the government supplies 95% of the required teachers from the Teacher’s Service Commission. They are university trained and most have a few years teaching experience. The government supplied the principal but has so far been unwilling to post any other teachers at the school. The first time we applied they said the schools with over 100 students got priority (we had 90). The second time they said that priority is given to schools with candidate classes (i.e. form four). Our school only goes up to form 3. Only 1 of the 8 teachers is TSC and every teacher has classloads greater than the legal limit. University trained teachers are preferable but they cost more, so we have a mix of high school and university graduates. The pay is nowhere near what the government pays but they take the job because they are waiting for the government to hire them. Some have been waiting for almost 10 years. Hiring teachers vs. facilities and books is a major balancing act. The principal usually leans towards teaches because without them the school would collapse.

The third problem is the basics. Every new class must be given a desk and a chair. Last year we started with 6 students per table and 2 per chair. As furniture was acquired students got seats and desks. The government says 1 in 3 students should have each subject textbook. We start with 1 for the teacher and see how far our credit can go with the bookstore. If this was an established school we would only buy a half dozen replacement desks every year and a handful of books. Instead we must have 80 desks, 80 chairs, and should have 240 new textbooks.

The fourth problem is tuition. Learning is highly valued in this particular society. Parents are willing to pay large amounts for a good education. I was talking to a teacher at a neighboring school where they charge 150,000 shillings per year. We charge 9,000. Tuition is a balancing act between school needs and parent’s ability to pay. This is the cheapest school in the area, costing about 250 shillings per week (a little over 3 dollars). Commonly, people are paid 100 shillings per day, when work is available. Quarries and construction work is 150 per full day, but only for the young and strong. 250/ week is a major strain on most families.

The fifth problem is students. Since most schools offer far greater services- e.g. trained teachers and running water- the only parents willing to send their kids to Kiangochi Sec. are either poor or don’t value education. Most are poor. About 10% of the students are double AIDS orphans (both parents killed by AIDS) and are living with extended family. Many others are in single parent homes and barely making it by. Work is severely limited in the area. Alcohol is all too common. This small community has 3 bars and a host of illegal drinking places. Many parents are alcoholic and I know of at least one student’s father who was killed by a bad batch of illegal alcohol. Because the students are poor most went to bad primary schools which are seriously understaffed- one teacher per 80 students. Beating is standard and many of the classes are taught in Kikuyu. The primary school teachers are unmotivated and overworked. Even if they wanted to they couldn’t keep up with the student’s actions so discipline is lax and students learn to lie about their actions. Having all the classes taught in English is a major shock. Some students are clearly bright but have this major language problem. One boy gets As in all science classes but still speaks broken English, writing a coherent essay is far beyond his abilities. As I mentioned tuition is a problem. Every 3 weeks tuition slips are sent home. If you haven’t come up with a couple hundred shillings you stay at home. Classes plummet from 40 students to 10, with a handful more coming back every day. Some stay out a day or two and some never return. One boy went away for a year. Some families do have the money- the businesspeople or those with large farms. The problem is the kids are either not very intelligent or their families don’t value education. If either were true they wouldn’t be here. The ten remaining students are usually the worst academically.

My closest fellow Peace Corps sitemate lives in North Murang’a. At her school they have a school bus and travel every week to sporting events. The school has a cafeteria, laboratories, dormitories, etc. 29 out of the 30 teachers are supplied by the government and class loads are never above 25 lessons/ week.

The good thing is that these things will happen in time at this school. The school next door started with the same issues 30 years and now has most facilities and is even sending students to university. I have hopes that it won’t take that long for Kiangochi. There is a master plan for my school which includes boarding rooms, teacher’s houses, a kitchen, etc. Every year we put in a couple more rooms and will eventually fill out that master plan.

Kaizen

Whenever the principal is missing I end up giving the school speech at the weekly parade. Last year I talked about the Japanese idea of Kaizen, constant improvement. The idea was to give some hope to these kids who are constantly failing. If they can improve a little bit every month then at the end of 4 years they should be in good shape. The principal walked in in the middle of the speech and really liked it. A couple weeks later it became the school motto. I like it because most school mottos are “strive for excellence” or “work to achieve” or the like. Usually they involve lots of work and the pressures their parents and society puts on them. Most kids don't have the time, energy, or support to do lots of work and the vast majority fall short of expectations. Constant improvement sums up my school perfectly. Every month the school improves in some way. Sometimes it’s adding a facility like a classroom or latrine while other times it is adding a teacher or buying textbooks. It’s fun for me to see the school always growing. When I came last year there were 16 students in one classroom. Now there are 160 students with 4 classrooms and a couple more rented. Our staffroom went from two tables in an otherwise empty room to 3 rooms with 9 desks. When I compare the kids who came last year with how they are now I see a huge difference. They’re less scared, more confident, and can read and write more intelligently.

This motto applies to myself as well. Every month I am a better teacher. Even on a daily basis I can see a change. Usually I teach two streams of students so I teach a concept in one class and then change it to do better with the next class later in the day. I can’t say my character is getting better but every month in Kenya my living standard has improved. Either I meet somebody useful (like the milk delivery person) or I learn a new way of doing something (like cooking a dish).

I can also see this improvement in the country. Education wise the grades required for college admission go up yearly. A few years ago a B- got you into university. In a couple years it will need to be an A-. There is definitely endemic corruption but I can see it being fought step by step, mainly at the lower levels. District and provincial officers are getting more careful about how they take bribes. When I lived in Kitui you could see the water and electricity lines moving out from the roads. Every month a few more houses got water or electricity. Never as quickly as promised or hoped for but it was improving. The difference between undeveloped and developing country is not just about semantics. In Kenya’s case if things keep improving it will be a developed country in not so long.

The real value of Peace Corps

Something the PC administration sometimes show trainees is a picture of a bunch of mud buildings titled “This is your village before you get there.” They describe the village and its problems. The second picture: “This is your village after you leave” is the exact same as the first. Nothing’s changed. All of the houses are still mud and all the same issues remain. The goal of this little drill is not to tell people their work is pointless but to kill idealistic expectations and get people down to reality. But it is true that Peace Corps volunteers are pretty limited in what they do. I am one teacher out of tens of thousands in this country. I do not pretend to be a better teacher than any of the others who have had training, know the culture, and know the educational system. When you consider the cost of my airplane ticket, training, salary, medical, and all the administration costs I am far more expensive than my Kenyan counterparts. The US government could have hired 3 teachers in my place, especially as there are thousands of unemployed university trained teachers.

So what is the purpose of Peace Corps? Partly it is direct aid. Aid which can’t support corruption. If the US government directly hired Kenyan teachers some of that money would be siphoned into pockets, wasting money and encouraging corruption. Part of it is for cultural exchange, Kenyans are learning a little about the US and, based on their experience with that American, think it isn’t an all bad place. This doesn’t work too well in my case as I dampen enthusiasm, destroy illusions of utopia, and tell people not to go to the US. I’m also supposed to bring back knowledge and understanding of Kenya to the US, through things like this blog. This effect is pretty limited. Talk to any ex volunteer and they will tell you that friends and families will ask about their two year experience for about 3-5 minutes and then everyone goes on with their lives. The reality is most Americans don’t really care about other countries or other people. This isn’t a bad thing. United States is a large country with a lot going on. Most people have enough issues of their own without having to think about what’s going on half a world away.

The real benefit of Peace Corps is in the alumni. To finish Peace Corps you have to go through 3 months of intense cross-cultural training and a 2 year practicum deep in a community completely different from your upbringing, trying to do a job which you aren’t really trained for, in a language you don’t really know. This teaches all kinds of things no college education or seminar could. Key things are adaptability and a willingness to truly listen to other people. People develop a heart for the poor along with a pragmatic attitude. A fair number of volunteers come in as bleeding heart liberals- wanting to do everything they can to help the poor, who are just waiting to be lifted up. Very few come out with the same attitude. Seeing endemic corruption, plenty of misguided programs, and plain stupidity causes volunteers to become a lot more cautious in their altruism.

All kinds of useful things happen to volunteers. A sense of what works and doesn’t comes from watching various development projects roll in and out of their community. People become a lot more culturally sensitive when they are a stranger in a strange land, so to speak. There is also a definite shaking up effect which hits many volunteers. Major problems are throughout the world and I can’t sit on my ass and simply lead the materialist life. People feel a need to do something useful in your life, even if they don’t know what. All of these things are the real training. In terms of costs this is a great deal for the government. 6 month internships in DC probably cost the same as my 2 years in Peace Corps and I learn a lot more.

In the almost 50 year history of Peace Corps only 150,000 people have “graduated.” Not many. But many of those have risen far. When I joined PC they gave a list of the famous people who went through Peace Corps. I had never heard of any of them. There was no Barack Obama or David Letterman. My memory is vague but it was something like a senator, a few congressman, some ambassadors, and a couple midlevel government people. No entertainers, famous baseball players, or otherwise noticeable people. Instead you get a bunch of diplomats, aid and NGO execs, cross-cultural trainers, and profs (like my dad). People who either work with other cultures, do development, or do US policy. My brother says that half the people in AID (the US aid program) are ex PC. A friend was talking about her training as a cross cultural trainer and basically the whole class was ex PC. A lot of the big development NGO’s were started by ex volunteers. An example is the flagship deaf school for Kenya which was started by a Ugandan PC volunteer. Another volunteer finished his tour and then started what is now a large and highly successful school in Tanzania. These are things they wouldn't have considered doing before joining. Most ex volunteers have lower key positions but many are playing vital parts in development. It works out well. People who were once relatively powerless and learning are now deciding policy and bridging gaps between cultures.

Relative poverty
An issue that keeps coming up in my mind is: Who is poor? I am thinking partly of myself and partly about my students. At my school there is a constant lack of money. The fees are about $110 a year (next yr $125) and about half the students regularly get kicked out for not having paid fees. There is a constant shortage of pens, pencils, and erasers so people are always borrowing from each other. Most kids do what work they can outside of school to help pay the fees. Average wages are about 150 shillings per day (a little over $2) though work is rarely available. There is a lack of classrooms so either we have big classes (70 students) or some students get put in the next compound, a situation with a range of problems. I often teach outside, under a tree. The goals of water, electricity, and feeding students are far, far off. Most of the year we had no lab supplies and even now it’s pretty limited. By most standards my school is pretty poor and the community even poorer.
When I talk to other teachers though my school is doing pretty well. One PC teacher friend of mine was saying in his classes there is only one textbook for 50 students, the one he has. The area is pretty dry so more than half of the rainy seasons never arrive. Each time the rains fail there is no food and little income and the people live off of relief food. They don’t enforce fees payment because virtually no one would come to school. Add to this the principal was stealing a high percentage of what was coming in and my school is looking pretty wealthy in comparison.
His school is actually pretty good in comparison to the ones in Northeast Province or even northern Central province. In these areas there is regular combat. They are theoretically part of Kenya but the areas are so dangerous the government doesn’t even pretend to control them. Refugees and rebels from Somalia and Sudan are constantly coming across the border. A decent percentage of the people are armed and raids are a regular affair. Farming is pretty limited and relief food rarely makes it and usually to the wrong people. If you take the time and effort to farm you may find find that it gets taken by better armed people. Schools are the least of their issues. They would be happy if a couple of their kids made it to adulthood. My school and village looks positively opulent in comparison.
To go even further afield there is a reason the people are fleeing to Kenya. Kenya is an island of tranquility in comparison to the places they are coming from. In Sudan genocide is still being openly practised and many are happy to have the underfunded and poorly protected refugee camps. Last I heard warfare in Somalia just started up again.

Life with or without meaning
Someone once said that a life without meaning is not worth living. I don't quite agree with that but having a purpose and goals definitely makes life life more interesting and worthwhile.
There are several reasons why I joined Peace Corps but by far the biggest was to find meaning in my life. Science is meaningful and certainly challenging but I would somehow it isn't the same as working with people. From long experience I have found that when I try setting goals around helping myself I never do what I need to do. I don't know why but I just don't get the work done. When I am trying to help others I feel energized and engaged.
I never actually consider the idea of what is meaningful until I watch something like Sex in the City or Seinfeld or reading up the latest fashion trends. A little bit is fun escapism and then it gets pretty boring and shallow. Billions of people are starving, hurting, and dying and you're trying to decide whether to wear the pink frilly dress or the green velvet one to the party tonight? God save me from a life like that. Granted, that decision beats the hell out of: Do we send the kid to school or do we buy food? a decision half my student's families face. whenever I start thinking about future plans i think good stable job, stress free, pays well, and all my debts and money issues will disappear. This job is better in my mind than in reality. I would thoroughly hate that job and would probably discover new lows in apathy. Whatever discomforts and annoyances I have, I have a job which constantly challenges me and sometimes gives me meaning. Can't get much better than that.