You Gotta Test Yourself

Thought this would be fun.

In Kenya, at the completion of secondary school, every student sits for the KCSE or Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exam. It's sort of like a high stakes SAT or ACT in the US. The exam takes place over the course of about a month and students sit for one or two papers a day. Every student takes English, Kiswahili, and Mathematics. They usually take 2 or 3 sciences: Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. And they take 1 or 2 Humanities/Applied: Geography, Agriculture, History, Business Studies, or Christian Religious Education. At the bigger schools they offer other languages, music, computers, and a few other random subjects. Each subject includes two or three papers that take between 2-3 hours. Example: they will sit for "Biology Paper 1 - Theory" on a Monday, "Biology Paper 2 - Technical" on a Friday, and "Biology Paper 3 - Practical" the following Thursday.

What's at stake? Admission to a university. Their future. Their life. There are only a handful of universities in the country so competition is fierce. Last year something like 55,000 students achieved a grade high enough to be considered, but there were only 9,000 spots available. Their options for post-secondary education are few and far between. The students study like crazy, trying to memorize so much information from 4 years of education.

Anyways, I've included selected questions from this past year's exam. And my question is: 'How would YOU do?'


English

Imaginative Composition:

Write a composition ending with the words: "It then dawned on me that perhaps this is why I had been born."

Fill in the blank spaces in the following sentences with the most appropriate word(s).
(i) If we had gone to bed early last night, we __________ rested enough.
(ii) If I ___________ the recruiting officer, I would not take bribes.
(iii) Every one of the students now ____________ a role to play in keeping the school compound clean.

Fill in each of the blank spaces in the passage below with the most appropriate word.
There was a time when telecommunication ___________ Africa was nearly non-existent. With the ____________ of one or two more developed nations, most African countries ____________ infrastructure and telephony was out of reach for ___________ of the population. But mobile telephony has ____________ a lot of that and has demonstrated Africa's _____________ to leap-frog older technologies with new ones more ___________ to the environment.

You are the Chairperson of your school's Wildlife Conservation Association (WICA). Your group has just come back from a visit to a national park in a neighboring country. Write a report to the Patron of WICA about the trip. In your report indicate what you accomplished, the problems you experienced and what cautionary measures you would take during future trips.

Mathematics

Three quantities t, x, and y are such that t varies directly as x and inversely as the square root of y. Find the percentage decrease in t if x decreases by 4% when y increases by 44%.

Two places P and Q are at (36 degrees N, 125 degrees W) and (36 degrees N, 55 degrees E) respectively. Calculate the distance in nautical miles between P and Q measured along the great circle through the North Pole.

The product of the first three terms of a geometric progression is 64.
If the first term is a and the common ratio is r,
(a) Express r in terms of a
(b) Given that the sum of the three terms is 14,
(i) Find the values of a and r and hence write down two possible sequences each up to the 4th term.
(ii) Find the product of the 50th terms of the two sequences.

Given that q i +1/3 j + 2/3 k is a unit vector, find q.

Chemistry

(a) What is meant by isomerism?
(b) Draw and name two isomers of butene.

When 94.5g of hydrated barium hydroxide, Ba(OH)2. nH2O were heated to constant mass, 51.3g of anhydrous barium hydroxide were obtained. Determine the empirical formula of the hydrated barium hydroxide (Ba = 137.0; O = 16.0; H = 1.0)

State how the following substances conduct electricity:
(i) molten calcium chloride
(ii) graphite

Biology

Name two tissues in plants which are thickened with lignin.

State the function of each of the following parts of human ear.
(a) Ear ossicles
(b) Cochlea
(c) Semi-circular canals
(d) Eustachian tube

Name the substance that is responsible for the transmission of an impulse across the synapse

State the importance of tactic response among some members of kingdom Protista.

State two physiological processes that are brought about by the application of gibberellic acid on plants.

Geography

(a) What is soil catena
(b) Draw a labelled diagram to show a well developed soil profile
(c) Describe how laterization occurs

History/Government

Give one reason why Homo Habilis was referred to as 'able man'.

Give one reason why United States of America (U.S.A.) did not join the First World War until 1917.

Give 3 factors that should be considered when sending a message.
Explain the effects of Telecommunications on modern society.

What were the physical changes which occurred in early human beings as they evolved from ape-like creatures to modern people?


Soooooo......

Would you be going to university?

Happy Holidays from Africa!

Merry Christmas in January!
Congratulations year on making it another 365 days. We all knew you could do it. Keep up the good work. I think this year you'll keep pace, but the following year you might drag by a day. It's okay, its just fatigue. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger is what I hear. Let's raise our glasses to 2007. Clink.

Christmas has come and gone without any word from yours truly. December was nice. I had two lovely visitors: Morgan and Annie. They got to see my home in a completely different color than any previous visitors: green. Twas wonderful.

Just before Christmas we made our way to the coast, to the island town of Lamu. It's along the northern coast of Kenya, closer to the Somali border. It's one of the most traditional places in Kenya because it's quite remote. It's just now becoming more of a tourist place, but it still has a peaceful, laid-back atmosphere. There are two cars on the entire island, no public transportation (other than boats and mules). The streets are narrow and lined with 3-4 story buildings. We rented a house for a week, and filled it with around 25 people. Miraculously, there were beds for everyone and we had a great time.

I spent my days wearing a skirt (called a kikoi, all the guys where theym here. It's hot, you need some ventilation!), wandering around and getting lost in alleys, eating outrageous amounts of street food (it was awesome! bhajias for 1 shilling?! Street meat for 10?! And these pastries that looked and tasted like Krispy Kreme donut holes), jumping off the old pier with the local kids (until we got in trouble), and window shopping.

We also took a couple dhow trips (basically sail boats) around the island. One trip we went fishing. Not with rods and reels. Just the line and a hook. Throw it in, feel the tug, pull it in with your hands. I was a champion and caught four. I hadn't caught anything for like 10 or 15 minutes and had lost my bait MANY times. Finally I deemed my next bait 'lucky' and announced it to the group. Lo and behold, instantly I caught one...and another...and another...and another! All with THE SAME 'lucky' bait. The fish somehow bit the hook but not the bait. Wonderful. Then we went out to some random island and our captains cooked our haul. They kept telling us that if we didn't catch something we weren't eating. Lucky for us.

The other dhow trip we went snorkeling. It is supposedly the best place in Kenya to go snorkeling. That's great. What's not great was the fact that the boat didn't have any life preservers. Those who know me, know that I learned to swim a bit later in life and didn't have a very good teacher: myself. In an ocean, where I can't touch the bottom, I MUST have a life preserver. I freak out. So I spent my time clinging to the rope between the anchor and the boat, with my one flipper (the other was broken), and when I felt confident would swim off quite a few meters until I managed to get salt water in my snorkel (and from there to my lungs), at which point I would come spluttering up out of the water spitting and thrashing and generally freaking out. Then I would make a frantic dash (crawl) back to the rope, where I would breath heavily and watch enviously at everyone else having nary a qualm with this whole snorkeling business. And then I had to climb back in the boat. I don't want to go into it, but Eric has a nice long couple minute video of me trying to get back in the boat, in which none of the 5 or 6 people in the boat attempt to help me. Brian, you're sitting 3 inches from my hand! These 'friends' were content to sit back and watch the show.

Christmas eve was nice. We had a dance party, recreated the birth of Jesus (I was Mary), and sung some Christmas carols with accompaniement from my roll-up piano. Christmas came, Santa found me and gave me some gum and candy. For dinner we had seafood: lobster, crab, fish, and prawns. We had decorations up around the house: confetti, a Christmas tree, some lights. I wore a hat with a picture of a mistletoe in it.

Lamu was a wonderful place, I had a great time, enjoyed my friends and fellow volunteers immensely, and would recommend the place to anyone coming to Kenya.

From there we went back to Mombasa and Eric and I spent New Years in Nairobi and watched as many movies as possible. In the states I rarely saw movies in the theater, but here I see at least one every time I come to the city.

Anyways, those were a very condensed version of my holidays. Now school is back in session. My schedule has changed a bit: Math Form 3, Pysics Form 1 & 2, Geography Form 1 & 3. No more Biology, which is good for them. I've also become a class teacher in Form 3 and the Staff Room Monitor. Responsibility! It'll be a good year. It's an election year so people expect those running for office to be doling out some money this year. Maybe some will find its way to the school. Here's hoping!

Anyways, I hope everyone's holidays were wonderful and that the new year is treating you right! I'm coming home this year! Not so long. Take it easy!

P.S. The Choo Report: its been over two months and I still am without a toilet. I'm still walking across the market to the public one. The hole is dug as deep as they want I think, so construction should be taking place. Shouldn't be so long. There's nothing like relieving yourself at home, right?

Requiem for a Choo

I awoke two weeks ago to this scene:



Yep, that's my choo (toilet). I heard my principal shout to another teacher, 'Bwana Nzembei, are you aware that we don't have a toilet?' It had been a long night of rain, and in an area that normally does not receive a lot of rain the buildings are not constructed with that possibility in mind. It's now like a choo recliner, which would be great if you were sitting down, but not so much when you squat. My neighbor's choo had gone down in the previous rain, and another neighbor's went down the day after mine. They're dropping like flies! Or maybe they dropped on flies... and cockroaches. So now I have to travel across the market to use the public choo, which is wonderful first thing in the morning, or when you have 'an emergency' in the middle of the night.

With the rains come the return of my old nemesis: the scorpion. Here's a picture of one pre-death:



I thought they had given up, but in reality they were just regrouping. They had been hibernating for the dry months, just biding their time until they thought I had relaxed and let my guard down. But they always attack like villains in kung fu movies: one at a time. If they want my house why don't they surround me and take me from all sides? But they can't have my house!

So the school year is over. My first full year as a teacher wrapped up last week. There was a lot of work to be done at the end of the year and it was intensely busy. We said goodbye to our Form 4 class and announced next years prefects and head boy and girl.

Immediately following the closing of school I made my way to Nairobi to celebrate Thanksgiving with some American families. The house we ate at had a piano. Let me repeat: the house we ate at had a piano! A grand piano. And a full size keyboard. And excellent jazz music. The man of the house is in a jazz band and he gave me a few informal lessons on improvisation. Before eating we all made pilgrim or indian hats and then ate some marvellous food. Wow.

The next day, of course, was the Moustache Party. There were many truck drivers, used car salesmen, and pedophiles. I'd like to think of mine as a cross between an old civil war general and a modern day truck driver. We were supposed to play 'Pin the Moustache on the Donkey' but the donkey turned up missing. Maybe it knew what was coming. Awards were handed out. I received toothpaste.

I leave you with a few random shots from around the village:




Picture No. 1: We have Ndaa (a name that means lice and one of my favorite guys in my village), Gordon (a guy who is a hard core Rastafarian which apparently affects his tongue. I can't understand his 'American' accent), and Stephen (a guy who washed my clothes for me once, because I truly dispise washing my clothes).

Picture No. 2: It's me and Nzembei celebrating my birthday a month late thanks to Catie Lenaway's 'Birthday in a Box'. She's a wonderful person, who is extremely thoughtful.

Picture No. 3: It's Mary (the doctor's wife), the Doctor, and Pastor (also known as Muthonzwa - a very talkative noisy bird. He doesn't like this name). Notice that Pastor has his Bible on the table in front of him.

Man, the weather is nice isn't it?

Let's call it a day.