Arriving at Chebisaas – 6/22

Ed note: I think my days are off by one? Anyway…

Another 2.5 hour drive over some bad roads brought us to A.I.C. Chebisaas, an all-girl, government-run school in the north that will serve as our data collection base for the next few days. The school looks and feels a little like a Kenyan sleepaway camp, complete with cabin-like lodgings and wooded surroundings. The headmistress, a big-boned and well-educated woman, met us near the gate and welcomed us into her house for tea. A crowd of gawking girls dressed in identical green uniforms formed as we unpacked some of our belongings and followed our hostess into her home.

After a meet-and-greet in which we discussed our plans for the week and thanked the headmistress repeatedly for her kindness, we moved our stuff into the cabins and explored the grounds a little bit. Chebisaas is a boarding school for 500 girls ages 13-17ish and has its farm of sorts – they plant some crops and take care of cattle, roosters, chickens etc. That should make for some good food in the coming days. All things considered, this place looks like it will be really pleasant, despite the lack of a shower and its overall remoteness.

The next day we were invited to join morning ceremonies and to be introduced as guests of honor. The roosters woke us up at 4something am, which was not a great start, but aside from that I think we all slept well in our faux Chinese silk bedspreads. Having taken the last bucket-shower, I was late and arrived in the middle of the school’s Kenyan flag-raising and anthem-singing. I attracted a lot of attention from the gathered students as I crept around the back of the assembly, trying to look inconspicuous. Typical. The girls sung a beautiful psalm (whichever one includes the chorus “let the master in”) and some teachers updated everyone on the winning and losing exploits of the volleyball and football teams, respectively, from the past weekend. We received a very warm welcome from the girls after Yannis and Dan introduced us all, though the students constantly shot quizzical glances at this bizarre assortment of wazungury (whiteys).

Both the Glasgow and Harvard teams spent the rest of the day testing out our respectively experimental setups to see if any equipment exploded on its way around the world. Our stuff worked well, though some of Yannis machinery was a bit damaged. While fiddling with our camera, another huge crowd of students gathered to watch. Eventually a teacher approached us and asked if their best runner, Gladys, could be our first subject. We weren’t really ready, nor had we really expected to test any girls from the school, but we let Gladys (and another couple of girls) have a go at it, to the delight of the 100 or so spectators. I rarely have an audience while palpating feet. Fun!

We head to the super rural school tomorrow to touch base, check out the surroundings and recruit some unwitting subjects to torture in the next few days.