Electricity

Electricity is something I didn't have much of when I was living in the bush. Then I had a setup of a solar panel, inverter, and a large battery. This was enough to power my laptop, flashlight, e-reader, and a bit of evening electricty from the lightbulb in my tukel. Life in the big city has much more electricity but still has its limits. City power exists but is horribly unreliable and we can go for months without it so we mainly depend on our generator. This means life tends to run on a schedule. The workday starts when the generator goes on, and ends when the generator goes off. It also means that suppertime revolves around when we have power since we use the electricity to cook. We still do have a gas stove/oven combo but since gas is expensive and electricity is "free" this cuts down on some of the costs of living here.

Running a fridge/freezer also is pretty good out here if you keep it full which isn't too hard as it also makes for good storage of foods that we don't want to go bad. Flour here comes with extra protein and freezing it for a few days will prevent the protein from reproducing. Rats also can be a nusance so anything that they would like that isn't in glass or tin containers ends up in the fridge since its rat proof. Veggies out here don't last long so I chop them up weekly and throw them into the freezer to use throughout the week (bonus is that later I just have to grab a bit of different foods to make dinner). Water bottles added to the freezer when things get low means ice water for the really hot days.

Although electricity availability can get annoying, we have settled into a routine and its not a huge bother. Probably the biggest difference from north america is that our schedule is based on the generator running and we always know where our flashlights are at any given time (and they always have charged batteries). I'm reminded of how much I've adapted to life without electricity when local people visit and they are asking why I don't have any fan or lights on when the generator is running. Unless its dark, 1/2 the time I just forget to turn things on and with natural light, why bother?

Inflation

Note: this is a blog post I wrote about over a month ago when the prices were spiralling upward. Things have settled down and are somewhere in between the prices listed below but I've been gone for a bit and with fluctuations I'm not sure the current prices. 

Life here is getting more expensive all the time. Although there has been a blackmarket exchange rate for as long as I can remember, the difference between the bank rate and the black market rate has widened drastically in the last few months. As a result the price of goods is rising quickly. Here are a few examples. All prices are in USD and are in the exchange that we can get at the bank.

Item	cost in November	cost in May
small bucket of potatoes (fills a plastic grocery bag)	$7	$14
green pepper	$0.28 for a medium one	$0.28 for a very small one
carrots	$0.28 for one	same
onions	$1.41 for medium pile	$2.82 for medium pile
garlic	$0.28 for one	$0.42 for one
meat - mince	$8.47 for 1kg	$20 for 1kg
flour	$3.38 for 2kg	$7.34 for 2kg
20L of drinking water	$3.39	$7.34
1 egg	$0.28	$0.56

For us its frustrating to see the costs rise but not nearly as frustrating as for the local people who are already are living day to day and have to pay the price that things are going at for the day. For us, I tend to buy a weeks worth of food at a time and can afford to wait a day or two if the prices are high in hopes that the next day the price is less. Many others don't have that option.

One thing we never really bought much of is water since we have a filter and it has given us more than we need when we first arrived here. recently it has gotten slower and thus we have been buying water periodially since we drink more than the filter gives out. Last week those prices doubled and I'm not willing to pay that much for drinking water so instead I've been boiling it to kill bacteria and running it through a cloth to prevent guinea worm. This doesn't cost me anything but some time since the generator runs on its schedule regardless of my water needs and we use electric hotplates to cook. I've chatted with our local staff about doing this to save money but for them there still are expenses because they have to buy charcoal so they can boil the water which reduces any savings (if there is any savings after buying the charcoal).

Gasoline is the one thing that hasn't changed its price since we got here. Its still $1.69 per liter since there are gov't price controls on it. One might think this is a good thing but with price controls come shortages and finding fuel now is very difficult. At one station a few weeks ago I counted 40 cars lined up before the line disappeared around the corner. There were also a mass of motorcycles bunched together at the station and more scattered throughout the line. The only other gas station that was open had similar lineups. The rest were closed down because there was no fuel. Now I don't see as many lineups however the vast majority of gas stations have tarps over the pumps or the area roped off signalling they don't have fuel.

Life here is one big economics lesson that brings many questions and struggles. One thing we don't want to do is use the black market as its illegal but it also leaves other questions on how we can function in this environment in a stewardly way and how can we help others who are struggling with the rising costs. Do I barter for a good price (potatoes for example were going for $20 but I was able to get them for $14 one day) or do I let it go and pay more for the item knowing that those selling the products are most likely in a more difficult situation. On one level I want to let it go because I know it will help them for the short term however if I pay more for the item than its worth I am encouraging the idea that they can charge certain people more which can be damaging in the long term.

Exam time

Exams have been over for a while but I thought I'd do some catch up on how things went. It was a very different experience to be the one preparing the exam than to be the student writing the exam. I definitely prefer to be the instructor and not the student. The course I taught ended up being done earlier than I was given time for so I ended up giving them additional lessons over and above the course requirements and also gave the students the option to write their exam earlier than the scheduled exam time so they could get it done and out of the way which then would make for a lighter exam schedule. They chose to write early and get the course done and out of the way. 

Writing an exam for the students was an interesting experience. I'm thankful I had developed some practice questions for the students as it helped not only to find areas of weakness that I could review in class but also gave me an understanding of what to watch for. Since many of the students have done their primary schooling in Arabic and are now transitioning to learning in English, language can be a barrier for many of the students. In the practice questions I created I saw a number of problem areas where my wording was catching them up even though they understood the concepts so I made sure to be clear in what I was asking for.

Spacing was another challenge I found as I went along. Although I thought I had given enough space on the exam to do the work, I took extra blank pages into the exam with me just in case I needed them. I needed them all.

Timing was also interesting. I had 2 hours for the exam and I created an exam that I expected would take somewhere between 1/2hr and 1.5hrs depending on the student. well the first student out of the exam left shortly after the 1^st hour. By the end of the 2 hours there were 5 students left finishing off the exam. Since I was new at this, I had been tracking the number of students that left in 10 minute increments and saw that they were leaving in an expected pattern however it was taking them all longer than I expected. By giving them an extra 10 minutes (into their lunch break so it didn't affect other classes) all but one finished.

Marking the exam was also an interesting project. It was interesting to watch how the mark varied across the students. I even got an overall bell curve out of the marks (which also appeared in the spread of how long it took students to finish the exam) which was interesting to see develop. One thing I found helpful in being consistent was to mark all the exams at once going through 1 question at a time for all the students instead of marking one exam at a time student by student. In addition to keeping things consistent I was able to see if there was any pattern to how the students answered each question. One example of this was a question where I asked for the calculation of something but instead got the definition in about 1/2 of the student answers. Once I saw this pattern I reviewed the question and saw how it very easily got misinterpreted thus more of a problem on my part then on theirs.

One of the more challenging parts of marking I didn't expect was having to mark one question wrong for a student and knowing it was the only mistake on their entire exam. I never expected to feel so bad for the student that did so well. I guess part of me knows how difficult it is to get a perfect exam. 

Overall it was a good experience for me and I learned lots. I think the students did as well.

Life as a teacher for a few weeks

While J was away I started and finished teaching at the local nursing college. I was able to help out and teach some basic statistics to the students. I enjoyed the time I spent with them and also saw some of the challenges that many of them face. As a teacher I noticed that there was a wide variety of abilities in the class. Some students knew not only what I was teaching but also more advanced information that I had not taught while others struggled and had difficulty with basic math skills. Another issue was language skills. The students came from varying parts of the country and had different levels of English language skills.For some, their previous education was in Arabic and their English was limited, thus even though they were familiar with the content, they struggled to understand things due to the language barriers. I found much of what I taught was a balancing act of bringing the more complex content to them so all students understood while at the same time trying to keep it complex and interesting enough to keep those with advanced skills interested. I also found it interesting to learn some of the cultural differences in teaching styles and how the classroom works. The most interesting aspect of culture for me was when the students were dismissed. In Canada when the teacher tells us we are dismissed all the students make a mad dash for the door while the teacher stays behind to answer questions for those that still have questions. As a result I expected the 30 or so students I had been teaching to leave when class was done and I packed up my stuff. Nope.... Instead they all stayed sitting and watched me pack up my stuff and leave. That was a akward ending to my first class. It turns out that out here it is a sign of respect to sit and wait for the instructor to leave the room before the students leave. Any questions they have will wait until the instructor has returned to the office or if they find the instructor in the halls after class. Now I make sure most of my stuff is organized and packed up by the end of class so I don't take too long to make my exit. I also spend some time hanging and being available to students before heading back home.

Its been a while

Its been a while since I posted on this blog. Well part of it is because I spent most of February as both the medical "doctor" and the computer doctor. J was gone for a month to Kenya for some computer workshops/courses. Since he is the IT support for the team someone needed to be in charge and deal with any problems that came up over that time. That person was me. Although it was a busy month I had alot of fun and learned lots. before J left he gave me a crash course in all the different programs the team here uses so I could assist with any problems and do any necessary updates.

Much of my work consisted of submitting bug reports, resetting computer passwords, and pulling data from corrupted harddrives.

One team in particular had some problems when they were running a few different programs and working with someone in another country over the computer. Well its true that when the computer tech is around problems don't happen. After spending one morning running back and forth to their office fixing the problem and sending bug reports I started doing my work in their office. Well as soon as I did that there were no more problems. Later that week I got a call from the team saying they were having problems again so please come and sure enough before I got there I got another call from them saying "don't come anymore, the computer is scared of you and fixed itself". I guess computers aren't fond of their doctor :) The problem never did fully resolve (I think it was a combo of some program bugs and maxing out an already limited internet bandwidth) but we were able to manage and come up with some creative fixes so they could continue working.

The most fun was being able to reset passwords and getting data off of corrupted harddrives. Resetting the passwords was pretty easy given how J has things set up and I got to do some MSDos style stuff to reset things. Does anyone else remember MSDos??? (if you don't remember it was around the time of Windows 3.1... ok, now I'm really dating myself). Pulling data from the old harddrive was also kind of fun too. Although it wasn't hard, I did need a special device. I had initially tried to boot up the old computer and put the harddrive into another computer to get the data hoping it was a computer problem and not a harddrive issue but both ways failed since the problem was most likely a result of the harddrive corrupted in a vital area. Well the fancy device J owns allowed me to make the harddrive into an external one where I could bypass the corrupt section and pull the files needed. Since none of the files needed were corrupted it was just a matter of copy/paste onto a new harddrive. It was pretty basic but also cool how easy it is to get data off of harddrives if you have the right equipment. If it ever happens back in Canada and J isn't around I'll spend my money on this device instead of paying for the repair.

As much as I didn't like J being away, it was a good month where I learned lots.

Beer bottle bricks

A friend here on the compound recently posted a link to heineken beer bottles that were shaped to be reused as bricks. (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/when-heineken-bottles-were-square-62138490/?no-ist if you want more info on this concept) Although I wouldn't encourage drinking enough alcohol to build a house, l I love the concept. If there were a way to do this with water bottles we could solve 2 problems. 1 - good housing material to make basic homes. 2 - reduce the trash on the streets as the vast majority of it is discarded waterbottles which they burn with their garbage to get rid of. Those fumes I'm sure aren't healthy.

Changes in the market

   One thing that always annoyed me in Canada was when the supermarket would redo a store and move things around so I couldnt find things again. Well out here similar things happen. Every once in a while the police will move through the market area and tell people to move which opens up the market area. Usually people will clear out for a few hours to a few days and then the return and the cycle repeats itself every few weeks or months. Last week however the police decided to clear a much larger area up than in the past which resulted in lots of changes. It was nice to be able to walk down the much wider roads and not have to fight the people and car traffic as had slowly become the norm since shortly before Christmas. It seems with Christmas coming more vendors would appear to set up shop and slowly the 2 lane road became one for both vehicles and people. The downfall this week however seemed to be a major backup of traffic on the main roads for some reason and a boda/truck accident near the market which resulted in tons of traffic driving through the previously widened market roads. Hopefully the matatu (bus) drivers don't see it as a permanent short cut in the future and then we can go back to nice open roads where we can all walk or drive without all the chaos... now if only the boda (motorcycle) drivers can stay on the road and out of the market itself I'd be happy (compare it to someone driving a bike through the local produce market).

Another bonus to having all the changes is that they have a nice section where all the fruits/veggies are and as a result I found some new things (yay for dill, green beans, and passion fruit). I couldn't find the lady that I normally got my potatoes from and haven't been able to find her back but I have found a new person for this which is great. In general I prefer to buy from the same person as then I know the price will be fair and the quality will be consistent. It happens often enough that the price goes up when they see white skin so finding someone who gives a fair price is a good thing, unlike when I paid 10 pounds for a soccer ball only to find out someone else got a similar one for 3 pounds elsewhere.