Time is freaking flying by! My family will be here in 12 days, and my Health Day is in 21 days! I just can't believe it! I've been doing a lot of work, trying to get things ready!

This past weekend was busy. I had a group of Indiana Univ. students Friday morning, so I showed them around Eldoret, and their teacher introduced me to a whole sale fabric store! (bad idea, as if I wasn't broke enough already!) Then Saturday night I took a bunch of us out to a club in Eldoret! Who knew Kenya would have such a night life!? We spent Sunday at the pool then back to my house for a Jersey shore theme party (fist pump, pushup, chapstick!) it was a little out of control...... Everyone left Monday and I spent the day recovering.

Today I'm in Eldoret, meeting with the District health members that are helping me with my health day. They have been so helpful to me! I'm really grateful, I just hope they actually show up on the day of the event.

Tomorrow JOYWO is doing a mobile VCT (HIV testing and counseling) so I get to go help with the counseling! Should be a good time!

Other than that and my delicious chicken ceaser salad i had for lunch, I have no news to report!

Hope you all are having a good week!

And here's a shout out to my brother Ben who graduated High School on Sunday! Im so proud of him!

Also a shout out to my cousin Michael who is also graduating from High School in 2 weeks.

May you both enjoy your college years (like I did), make mistakes and learn from them (like I did), learn the difference between hard work and hardly workin, and finish with the knowledge and power to do great things! I love you both!

I had an awesome day yesterday!

It started out with a little morning wog (walkjog) with kibaibai. On our way home we stopped at my neighbors. A couple days ago I was visiting my neighbor when the little girl Kosi, started crying cause she wanted to come to my house. I told her she could come over on Saturday. So this morning I picked her up and we went to my house. She didn't talk the entire way. We got to my house and began our morning of baking. We baked 2 cakes and a banana bread!

We were busy girls. And Kosi stopped being shy, and started chatting away. Did I mention she doesn't speak english. So all morning we were attempting to converse in Kiswahili. It was a lot of fun, and she was a huge help! I had to teach her how to use the western toilet too, at her house, the babies just go in the yard.

When we finished, we packed up the cakes and headed back to her house. We made cake for her family and their neighbors, who is my other favorite family to stay with. I spent the rest of the day with both families. Helping to prepare food, feeding the baby, and bathing the watoto (kids). I know it doesn't sound like a lot of fun, but it was some MUCH needed family time.

I cannot wait for my families to meet each other!

To end my really great day, I treated myself to some home spa time. Soaked my feet and gave myself a pedi. Also did a home made face mask with cucumbers on my eyes. The face mask is super easy!

Egg face mask

1 egg yolk, mixed with lemon juice. It makes a pasty goo, you spread on your face and leave for a few hours. It makes your face soooo smooth and if you have any redness or blotchiness, it helps that too! Try it!

here is kibaibai the first week i got him, i thought he was going to be a small pup

and here he is now! almost a year old, not so small anymore :)

This morning I took him for a jog/walk. I've been trying to take him at least once or twice a week, but i'm going to try harder to make it everyday. I'm also going to try harder at my getting back into shape, but I need some MOTIVATION! Any ideas? I was thinking about trying the raw food fast, to get a jump start. Any thoughts? I think I will start with one meal a day, for a couple days, then move to an entire day. We will see how it goes. But as most of you know, there is a lot of down time, out here in Kenya, and down time leads to bored eating. I will appreciate any ideas, suggestions and motivational tips. Today I'm going to visit my favorite family here ( the one with all the kids that love me!) That should brighten my day, after my stressful day yesterday. Yesterday I had the district head of the AIDS support program, ask me for donations of bookshelves, desks and other furniture, for the resource center they are putting in here in Kosachei. Now, I have lived here for almost a year, and have come to expect people to ask me for money, food, etc. But I would have never expected it from the DISTRICT! Needless to say he got an earful! I don't think he will make that mistake in asking me again. Donor dependency syndrome is a HUGE problem here in Kenya. There have been so many occasions where organizations and donors, come here and simply give people and programs money. They don't have to do anything for it. Which has turned the people of Kenya to come to expect handouts, and simply do nothing for them. This is why on a daily basis I get asked to buy a soda for someone, or to give them whatever it is I am carrying. I have definitely learned to brush it off, but sometime I just can't. Mom, dad, be prepared! You're a new, white foreigner, you WILL be asked for things. 28 DAYS! (not that I'm counting)

Ive been here in Kenya for almost a year! It will be exactly a year on June 8th. I cannot believe how fast the time has gone. But as my friend Breezie puts it, "the months go by fast, but the days pass soooooooo slow"

Being here in Kenya I have definitely learned to appreciate a lot, so I have created a list of things I will never take for granted again!

Here it is: (in no particular order, just off the top of my head)

high speed internetpersonal transportationwashing machine and dryercoffee makerovenvacuum cleanerhot showerbeer on tapfrozen chickendeli meatany restaurant that has everything on their menusaladdrinkable tap water (mine water comes from the tap, but has worms)the gymsidewalksnew clothes

I just thought of all these things. Now I'm not saying that I miss all of this stuff all of the time, but there are times when I miss what I had back home. We adapt to survive, so I have certainly "learned" to live without these luxuries. But would you, as someone living in America, call them all luxuries? How many times do you use one of these items during the day. When you use them, do you realize there are billions of people who don't even have the option of using these?

Just some food for thought while you go about your day. :)

First thing I want to talk about. I just got home from a pretty extended weekend. I stopped in Kakamega to visit my friend Lindsay on the way home. She made me a fresh salad for dinner. Yep a SALAD! That's something we don't get very often around here. She also sent me home with a whole bag of fresh picked salad greens! Since I do not have a refrigerator I had to eat all the lettuces tonight for dinner. I mixed it with some fresh tomatoes, onions, and green peppers. I made a homemade fruit vinaigrette (fruit jam mixed with a red wine vinegar), and topped it off with raisins and soy pieces. Can you say A- MAZING! I actually ate the entire thing, and can't even feel guilty because its a salad. Yum!

So on Friday I traveled to Russinga Island, to meet up with a few other volunteers. We were there to help our friend Izzy with a Girls Health Day. Of course did not go quite as planned, but it was still a success. We taught 100 girls how to make re useable sanitary pads!

It was a lot of work, but definitely worth it. A few other teachings on other health issues, then we ended the day with a dance party. This may or may not have included teaching all the girls the macaraina!

Going to the island also gave us the excuse to get all together and spend an extra day here:

Yep our little private island. We lucked out with only a 30 minute rain storm, then sunny the rest of the day. It was a great way to end the weekend.

Nothing else is going on this week, just talking to more people about coming to talk at my family health day. Im hoping to get some HIV testing and counseling available as well.

My family comes in 34 days! whoooooooo! I can not freakin wait!

Not a lot went on this week. I spent an afternoon on Thursday teaching a mama how to make jewelry, well mostly how to design better looking jewelry. But it was a really great craft day. Other than that I mostly spent time in Turbo. Im getting pretty known in Turbo. Which is good, so hopefully when my family comes to visit, it won't freak everyone out (as much) that there are "mzungu"in town. On Saturday I went with Anastasia to her church for some Baptisms. They were done in the river right there in Turbo!

Then today (Sunday) I went to visit Suzi's sister. I went alone since Suzi had to work. I thought I was going because her sister was sick, but really I think they tricked me into coming just to visit. I ended up sitting in church for over 3 hours, and I arrived late!

Religion is a huge part of peoples lives here. Almost everyone is in church on Sunday or Saturday, depending on their religion. I have still have not been to a catholic church here ( I know mom! dont be mad) But me going to church here is a little different than going back home. First off they always make me introduce myself to the entire congregation. Also since i'm usually the only white person, everyone comes up to me and asks me a billion of the exact same questions. And it's not just the first time I go, but EVERY time. Also the services are mostly in Kiswahili, and although I do understand Kiswahili, it's hard to catch the entire thing. I know these are just excuses, but thats what I am going with.

The church I went to today, was a pentecostal church. There was alot of yelling and screaming and it ended with them removing satan or demons from a girls body. It was actually kinda of horrific, but an experience nevertheless.

At the office tomorrow, then thinking about going to Kakamega for the day to go to the pool with Linds, sometime this week. Then Friday I am heading to Rusinga Island with the girls to help Izzy put on a girls empowerment camp! It will be a really good weekend.

Well my week "off" flew by, like I knew it would. I was busy visiting and catching up with my friends and "family" in my village. I had a meeting on Tuesday with the committee about the family health day. Its pretty much all planned, along with a menu. Here's the funny thing, its a day about how to live a healthy lifestyle, yet when it came to planning the menu, everyone but the community health workers and myself, didn't understand why we can't cook the traditional food in the traditional way. Well it's because the traditional way of cooking is cooking with a ton of salt and animal fat! How can we have a health day and then at the end serve foods fried in fat! After much arguing and reasoning, we came to an agreement. We will be doing beans and rice, and chai to top it off. The Chairman also thought since there will be visitors (my family) we should slaughter a goat for them.Well the chairman seems to think we have unlimited funds for this event, when in reality we're paying for this out of our own pockets, as well as a large "donation" from a unknown sponsor (myself). I know my family will be happy with rice and beans! haha.

I also went to visit my friend in Kakamega for the day. We went to the pool and laid out and ate yummy food that we don't get very often. It was a good way to end the week.

Now I am back to work, the next month and a half are going to fly by and my family will be here before I know it! I hope they know how excited I am to get to share this huge part of my life with them!

Whoa! I am so sorry it has been almost a month since my last blog entry! Time has literally been flying by! So here is a little recap of what has been happening here. (I also just posted 2 entries I had saved on my computer)

As mentioned in the blog below I have been working with community members on building a resource center. Of course it is not going as smoothly as I had hoped. I have been shooting down their ideas (in the nicest way possible of course.) But because we are applying for this grant, based on donations from donors in america, they think we can build this her (church size) resource center, that only costs about a million shillings! Thats around a hundred thousand american dollars! Now you see why I have been shooting down their ideas. There is also the problem of them asking me for things, such as a refrigerator for their health center, and pens and paper and notebooks for the meetings, as well as personal loans and what not. It is starting to get old, when people look at me and all they see is a white girl with a lot of money! What money?! Hello...... I am a volunteer! I usually just brush it off, but when it happens several times a day, it becomes hard to just brush off.

With JOYWO like mentioned below, I have been working everyday, going out to new areas and training new women's groups. It is actually exhausting to travel so far. The roads here are not like roads in America, so if you tend to get car sick (like me) the trip seems very long.

I actually have this whole week off! Of course I have everyday booked with other things to do. No sitting around doing nothing for this girl anymore, for now anyway. Today I am at the fancy hotel using their super highspeed internet, then I am meeting with district health officers about my family health day. Tomorrow doing a ton (literally) of laundry and cleaning my house (which always seems to be dirty........kibaibai). Wednesday I am going over to my favorite families house to teach them how to bake a cake in a jiko oven. Then this weekend going to visit my friend Lindsay for a relaxing pool and market shopping day.

Now about my Easter vacation! It was AMAZING, to say the least. A whole group of us volunteers went to Uganda (our neighboring country) and stayed in Jinga. What is in Jinga you might ask? Oh.... only the NILE RIVER! Which we went white water rafting down!

I went ahead and added all the pictures so you could get the whole effect!

It was actually a lot scarier than I thought, the falling out of the raft part. But it was a lot of fun. Our first rapid was a class 5 with a 15 foot waterfall at the end, we went down backwards.

Then at the place we stayed ( the cutest little campsite and hostel) they had a bungee jumping platform. So yes I did jump 145 feet into the Nile River as well! That was probably my one and only time I will ever bungee jump in my life, it was actually terrifying! My friend took a video of me so when I get it I will try to post it!

Then a few of us took some 4 wheelers out into the bush. We had a guide so we wouldn't get lost, but he was a local, so pretty much let us do whatever we wanted. We were out there for 2 hours. It started out sunny and dry, then started to rain and get muddy, we came back looking like this.....From left to right: Henry, John, Matt, Aaron

Andrea, me and Izzy. This was also the same crew for our white water rafting! Team war birds !

So as I said the trip was freaking AMAZING to say the least!

Now to the most current updates. Yesterday I got up and went straight to the chamba (farm) A few of the farm boys helped me re cultivate my little garden, then proceeded to help me make 3 seed beds and plant all my seeds. Im going to tell you the truth, if they hadn't gone out there with me, I would not have re cultivated or made seed beds, probably resulting in nothing growing. So needless to say I was so grateful for their help, and baked them banana bread to show my appreciation. my new seed beds! Farming is alot of work, no wonder I didn't do it in america!

Afterwards I had to go buy bananas to make the bread, when someone stopped me and told me that they saw Kibaibai tied up at someones house! I was furious! They took me to the house, whoever tied him up wasn't there, lucky for him! So now I guess I have to keep kibaibai tied up at all times. Which makes me sad because I know how much he likes to run around and explore. He is getting so big now I thought he would be okay, I guess I can't trust anyone around here. My little stinker butt. I can never stay mad at this cute little face!

Kibaibai and I went to our favorite families for some R &R. I love going there, the babies don't fear me or kibaibai, and they treat us like family. So it was a good way to end the day. So that is all for now, sorry it is so long. I'll try to update next week!

26-3-12This morning I had a meeting with my village chief (again) but this time the assistant chief and over 30 community members, youth and village elders were there as well. We were all together so I could talk about my idea for the community resource center and library, as well as the my family health day. The meeting went great!!!! I was so impressed by the input and suggestions. There is already a plot of land (actually given to us by the government in 1972) specifically for a social center! Which is perfect, so now we don't have to pay for land. During the meeting we put together a committee board for the project. I had to stress many times that this is not MY project but the communities, if I do this all by myself how will it be sustainable after I leave? They all agreed, so the board is meeting on Monday to discuss where to begin, as well as to start getting details on my family health day. They also agreed that we will hold the family health day in June when my family is here, so they can attend as well! Im really really excited. So I will let everyone know how it goes on Monday. Yesterday I met up with a couple of my friends (other volunteers) in Webuye for the day. It was a much needed break and getaway for all of us. There is a hotel with a pool there so we just lounged by the pool all day. It was wonderful, needless to say we got burnt, again,... we even put on sunscreen this time! Jua kali sana hapa! ( the sun is hot here.) But no complaints, it was a great day.

28-3-12This week and all of next week I am busy with JOYWO stuff. Everyday me, Juilet( my supervisor), and mama Lydia are going out to new places and they talk about the importance of table banking while I talk about the importance of family planning, condom use, and general health practices. We have a really good time together, so it is work, but fun too. On Sunday Breezie and Lindsay are coming over for the night. We plan to relax and lay out on my patio (lesso's up for sure, so the farm boys don't see us in our bikini's :) Then after my meeting monday, Lindsay and I are going to Eldoret to do a little shopping. I also am meeting with the Board Secretary of JOYWO on Monday. I met with her yesterday and she proposed an idea. She wants me to go along with her to Nairobi for a conference type thing. She wants to start a small shop here in Eldoret to sell goods made by our women. The conference is about making quality goods then how to market them. She wants me to go as the designer, since she like the jewelry I have made. Im hoping Peace Corps lets me go!! fingers crossed. It will be nice to do something other than health stuff for a change.

22-3-12I am sooooooo sorry for not updating in a LONG time! internet has been pretty sketchy, as well as the electricity ALWAYS going out in the middle of something important! Right now im at a nice hotel in Eldoret paying 2 shillings a miunte for the wi fi. but it's way faster than the internet cafe and i can use my own computer, so I guess I have to suck it up. Right now, there is not a lot going on. Same ol same ol with JOYWO. Planning my families visit for June and trying to keep up kibaibai, whom Im pretty sure has sundowners syndrome! hahahah im serious he literally goes crazy after dinner, bitting and barking! Anyway here are some posts from the last couple weeks as well as some pictures.

14/3/10Well.. the chief approved it! So now I am planning a family health day! it will be in May hopefully I can make it the 15th, which is international day of families. I'm planning for it to be pretty big. I want to have different tables for different topics. Some of my volunteer friends will come and help, as well as district health officials. Im going to be announcing the building of my community resource center and library! The chief approved that too! Im super excited! These 2 projects will definitely keep me busy for the next year!.

My mom says I should start putting some of my recipes up. So here is the recipe for my favorite breakfast: Banana Bread Oatmeal!

1cup milk1 bananacinnamonnutmegvanillaquick cooking oats

mash banana in a small sufria (pot) add cinnamon, nutmeg, and dash of vanilla. Bring to a boil, then add oats. Cook for a few minutes. When finished transfer to bowl and I add brown sugar and raisins. It is TAMU SANA! (delicious!)

I eat this almost every day!

13/3/12Today I didn't have work, other than meeting with the chief, so I told my friend Suzi I would come see here and bring her lunch. She works at the chemist (pharmacy) in Turbo. I thought I had a boring job when I was working at the bookstore, back in college, well her job is like 10 time more boring, and she had to go to college to work there! Anyway I made Gnocchi with a vegetable marinara sauce, and green beans with carrots. I should first mention, that most people (everyone) in Kenya eat mainly 3 things, ugali, sukuma wiki, and githeri. So when she opened the container she looked at the food then looked at me and gave me the "what the heck is this" look. I laughed and told her to just try it. She said she liked it, then yelled for her friends who were outside to come try it. They all assumed it was chapati. After about the 10th time of explaining what it was, I gave up and just said it's NOT chapati. Then they didn't understand why I didn't bring enough for them. That is another thing I've noticed here. No one brings there lunch (most don't even eat lunch). So when I bring my lunch I have to be sneaky when I eat it. Anyway it was a good cross cultural exchange, next time I bring something for Suzi, I will be sure to bring extras! 2 weeks agoOn Wednesday I traveled to Bomet to stay with Andrea and help her with her international women's day event. A few other volunteers joined us. The event included a booth about business and tips to success, a booth on family planning, a booth on malaria prevention, water treatment and my booth on how to make re useable sanitary pads. If you don't know what a reusable sanitary pad is, they are really a great idea! They are easy to make out of cotton fabrics such as old sheets, then you cut towels and put inside depending on how absorbent you need it to be. It is best to make a few of them that way you don't have to worry about running out during that time of the month. Then you just wash and reuse! What is really great about these is that once you spend the money (maybe 40 shillings per pad) you never have to buy them from the store. There are still a lot of girls who miss school here in Kenya, because they cannot afford pads, so this is a great alternative! We were all a little skeptical at first, because the event was supposed to start at 10 and no one had showed up by then. But by around 12 the women started trickling in. It ended up being a success! Over 200 women showed up plus local community and government officials! At the end of the program (which lasted over 4 hours) the mayor asked for donations for Andrea, because she is building a maternity ward onto her dispensary. Andrea raised over 10,000 shillings and the mayor had a birthing bed donated! The success of this event definitely inspired me to go through with an event for my community!

Other than starting to make plans for my family health day event, everything is pretty same ol same ol. Hopefully I can get a meeting set up with the chief and community officials so we can all be on the same page. this is me "smearing" my neighboors house, i talked about it a few blogs ago but wasn't able to upload the pic. better late than never! Kibaibai! Hes getting sooooo huge, this is him looking all innocent but really is covered in mud and just tracked it through my house!

bad picture, but this is me and my supervisor juliette teaching at a womens group training. I even made posters! ha

Sorry I have not updated in a while, I have actually been pretty busy. On Friday last week I spent the entire day with a family near my home. I help them "smear" their new house. Smearing is when you take much (sometimes mixed with cow dung) and literally smear it against the walls. I was a natural..... or so they told me! It was really fun, it was like being in a homestay all over again... only BETTER! Saturday was a bust, was supposed to teach some groups, but no one showed up.

Sunday Kibaibai and I went to visit my friend Lindsay in Kakamega. Yep I brought the pup with me, only he is about the size of a full grown DOG! Seriously he is huge, so traveling on a matatu (those mini vans over stuffed with people) was not an easy task, but we did survive!

She was given a room at her dispencary and she is turning it into a community resource room. So I went to help her paint. She wanted the world map painted on one wall, so we began to sketch it. Well she wanted it 5 times bigger than the picture we had, so we had to multiply all the measurements by 5. Those of you who know me, know math is NOT my strong suit..... uh hello social worker.... So after completed the entire continent of Africa, Lindsay says.. "that looks small compared to South America" and in fact, it was 12 cm to small. So after wasting all that time drawing it, Lindsay had to go back and re draw..... to be fair, I tried to tell her drawing free hand was not my best area, and especially when you add math to that. But all turned out fine, we didn't finish, so I will be going back to help some more.

Next week I am going to visit Andrea at her site, she is having an event to celebrate, International Womens Day. It will be a few of us health volunteers, so I know it will be a good time!

Now that I'm reading back through this, I know it seems that I am not doing much at my site. Well the truth is.... I am but just not large scale as I had hoped. With JOYWO I already have groups set up for me, and my main job here is to teach all of them about health and sanitation. Well there are over 400 groups and we are still growing, so I definitely have my work cut out for me. In my community, it is hard to find things to do. I have recently come in contact with our local AIDS resource center, so I am going to be volunteering there more often. And as you already know I started a women's exercise group. We meet on Tuesdays, at the moment I have about 4 women who usually come every week. So I just wanted you to know, I am actually doing work and not just traveling all of the time!

I was going to write a serious blog. I was listening to BBC the other day and it was a whole segment about the homeless and poverty in America. I was going to compare poverty in america to poverty in Kenya. I know I have said this before, but every Kenyan thinks every American is rich and happy. Well we know thats not true.... but did you know that everyday in America there are children going with out food, and families moving out of their nice houses in suburbia and moving into tents along with other families who can no longer afford their old lifestyles. I have to tell Kenyans all the time that in America, having a job does not mean that you have a good life. A growing number of the population has jobs but are still living at or below the poverty line.......

But I don't want to discuss this serious topic... instead I want to talk about hats. Yep hats, the ones you wear on your heads.... In the states, think about it, on a daily basis, what kind of hats do people wear. Well I think most people back home wear baseball hats, maybe golf hats? beanies in the winter..? Well here in Kenya, on a daily basis, you can see a plethera of hats. Just the other day I was on the matatu, we drove past a market where I saw a mama wearing a Dr. Suess hat, and another mama wearing a santa clause hat (which I actually see pretty often)! The motor bike drivers usually wear all different types of winter hats and beanies. Whats funny is, anything goes here. You can pretty much wear anything, and not one person will question what your wearing. I.e. on our vacation Andrea rocked the fanny pack! So when we are market shopping, we look for crazy things we wouldn't wear in America, and totally rock it here!

wearing a santa hat... rocking the zebra print cowboy hat!

Well I am back from my most recent adventure. My friend Andrea and I travelled to Ghana and Togo. Now for those of you who don't or didn't know..... Ghana and Togo are in West Africa. So take a map of africa.... find Kenya... now go all the way across the continent to the West... and you will find Togo and Ghana! Now that you know where these countries are you may be wondering... " why did you go to west africa?" Well the answer is, I have always wanted to travel, if you know me at all, you know that, and Andrea has travelled but has always wanted to go to West Africa, so we make the perfect pair! Our adventure started Thursday January 26th, our flight out of Nairobi heading to Lome, Togo. Our flight wasn't until 3 in the morning (random time I know) we enjoyed our last few Kenyan beers and waited to board the plane. Our layover was in Ethiopia, now that was a diverse airport if I ever saw one! We wished we had had more time so we could have actually explored the country a bit,.... but it will have to be another time. After sleeping in the airport for several hours we boarded and were bound for Lome, Togo. We arrived around noon, and our first dilemma began,..... Togo was colonized by the french... and neither of us spoke a lick of french! I racked my brain for anything I learned from my 2 years of high school french.... but couldn't remember a lick. Once outside we needed to get a ride to a hotel. Thinking ahead we asked a security guard how much it should cost to get to hotel Ibis, he tells us 2,000 francs. So we go up to the driver thinking we are oh so smart and tell him we won't pay more! Come to find out later, we got sooooo ripped off, the people in Togo help each other out by lying to travelers! Next we go in search of the hostel I had found prior, online. The chez mammy, we walk around for about an hour (with our backpacks, luckily we packed pretty light) asking for Chez mammy. No one had heard of it until finally someone said "Oh you mean Chez mammy (shay ma mi)! She gone, Chez mammy died" and in fact she had. The hostel had been abandoned for what seemed like a long time. By this time we were exhausted, hot (West africa coast is VERY hot and humid) and ready to give up, so we decided to treat ourselves and stay at a not so peace corps budget hotel for the night. We enjoyed it thoroughly! Hot shower, pool, and air conditioning. Air conditioning meant we were able to put on make up with out sweating it off! This is me and Andrea before dinner.

The next morning we headed to the Togo Peace Corps office. There we were treated like family, the head of safety and security gave us names of hostels in Ghana and booked us a room in Togo at a local french hotel. They also had the peace corps car drive us to get our stuff! The Hotel Gallion became our home base in Togo. That night we met a girl who is a teacher in Lome and had done peace corps Macedonia. We spent the night dancing and to regge music and playing in the band! She invited us to stay with her and her son for free, remembering what it was like as a volunteer. She welcomed us with op en arms and it was nice to be in a home. While in Togo we hit up the grand market, the beach and many different pizza places! After 3 days we decided it was time to visit Ghana. We were able to walk across the boarder! At the coast of Togo, it is only about 26 miles across!.

So we walked into Ghana having no plans and no idea what to expect. We hopped a trotro (like a matatu) to Accra, the capital. Peace Corps had recommended the Salvation Army as cheap safe place to stay. Cheap it was, with 6 beds to a room and only 7 cedis a night (a little less than 5 bucks a night) we couldn't beat it. Not knowing what to do in Accra, we headed to Jamestown which was a port for shipping and holding slaves back during the slave trade. Well now its not much more than a lot of shanty towns.

Definitely a cultural experience. That night we decided to get up early the next morning and head to Cape Coast which we were told is where the beautiful beaches were. We got salad and sandwiches at a recommended place, and ended the night sipping wine and chatting with some German girls staying at the same hostel. Well at around 1 a.m. I woke up throwing up, an hour later Andrea woke up sick as well.... this continued until past 7 in the morning. So much for getting an early start to Cape Coast. We both decided we needed to get to the beach to relax, so we struggled to get on a trotro (no air conditioning) trash bags in hand just in case, and headed to the coast. Again with no plan, we arrived and took the word of a taxi driver and went to a hostel called The Oasis, and an oasis it was. Right on the beach, a cute little hotel, dorm style beds and only 10 cedis a night, we were in heaven.

Still feeling sick we were not able to party the way the other Americans, that we met, were. But we still had a nice time. The next morning we got up early and headed to Kookum National Forest for a canopy walk. It consisted of 7 rope bridges hanging 100 meters over the forest floor. It was absolutely beautiful!

Afterwards we visited the Cape Coast castle, walking distance from our hotel. The castle used to hold hundreds of male and female slaves before shipping them off fro selling. It was a compelling and emotional tour, we learned a lot.

Afterwards we watched some cultural dancing and drumming at a local bar. To conclude this loooooong day, we fell asleep on the beach to the mesmerizing sound of the waves. While at the Oasis, we met a PCV who's site was near by. He had told us about the super bowl party that the marines at the U.S. embassy were having and invited us. So Friday morning we headed back to Accra to watch some good ol' American football. He had also told us of a "better" place to stay. We searched for over an hour, again with our backpacks, but to no avail, so settled back in to the Salvation Army. Since the party was supposed to be at midnight, we thought it would be a good idea to go early just to make sure of the time. We were told the embassy was not far so we walked. Well it turned out to be "not far" just around 5 kilometers. By the time we got there, again hot and exhausted, we learned that that party was not until Sunday..... DUH that would be why it's called super bowl SUNDAY! We broke down laughing so hard we cried! The marines invited us in anyway, they were having a BBQ and there were other PCV's there. We enjoyed a cold beer, chatting with PCV's and a few games of volleyball. We left making plans to possibly meet up later for beers at a local pub where they only cost 1 cedis (less than a buck!). Andrea and I were resting at the hostel, when one of the volunteer's we had met, Steve, busted in and said "get up we're going out!" We met a handful of other PCV's and enjoyed the local atmosphere. Our stomachs were still not back to 100% so we left early and headed back. We decided we had had enough of Accra, and didn't want to wait around for Sunday, so we went back to Togo the next morning and hopped a trotro to Kpalime. Just 2 and half hours north of Lome. By this time we were ready to relax, so the next day spent the entire day at the pool, of a luxury hotel that we weren't staying at, but enjoyed the peace and quiet. The next day we went to a beautiful waterfall in the village of Wome, and spent the day wadding and relaxing in the pool beneath the falls.

We headed back to Lome the next day and stayed with Meg for the next 2 nights before heading back to Kenya. We had an AMAZING trip! But it is definitely good to be home in Kenya. I missed Kibaibai like crazy! and when I got home yesterday i barley recognized him, he grew sooooooo much! Now it's time to get back to work, but will never forget our adventures in West Africa!

Here are just a couple more pictures:Andrea and I on the rope bridge above the rainforest

At the beach in front of the hostel The Oasis

A girl selling water near the Cape Coast Castle.

Hey everyone, i'm back from my most recent adventure! I actually typed up an entire story about it, but since the internet in my office isn't working Im in an internet cafe and do not feel like re typing the entire thing. So therefore you will hear about it later :). But I just wanted to let everyone know I'm home safe and sound! Ill update soon!

18-1-12I actually am not sure if life can get any better here in Kenya, and let me explain why! Today I taught my first exercise class to one of my women groups! Well only 6 ladies showed up, but that is better than none! Teaching exercise to these women was definitely not as easy as teaching in America, but I live for a little challange :) I taught them the basics, and they said they really enjoyed it! We're going to have another session next weeks. So that is # 1 of the best things that happened today. #2, a baby boy (well he's 2) was at the mama's house that we had the exercise session at, fell in love with me! He wasn't scared (like most babies are, because I'm white) then he cried when I had to leave!!!! My heart was melting. So that was #2, and #3..... I got my package from my grandma today. It consisted of 3 dozen of her homemade oatmeal cookies and peanut brittle! I'm basically in heaven,.... and off my diet! hahah. Anyway I just thought I would share my good day with all of you! Tomorrow I'm teaching at Atlas Secondary School, again, but I tell ya what, it was like pullin teeth to get back in to teach again. Most principals are more than happy for me to come and teach health to the students, but this principal..... makes it seem like he doesn't want me there and has to "squeeze" in time for me. I just don't get it, the girls are always really happy when I come, and they always have a lot of questions..... Oh well, I teach tomorrow and keep working on the principal.

19-1-12 Another awesome day for the books! It started off with an hour long run...... not only my longest run since arriving in Kenya 7 months ago, but I was also accompanied by my new running buddy! She is a women from one of my JOYWO groups, she lives near me. Her name is Bridget and I think she is around my age, but already has 3 kids! We don't talk much, during our run, but it's definitely nice to have to company! Also today I went to Atlas Secondary to teach the girls. I talked to them about peer pressure and sexual abuse. They said they were understanding everything I was saying. Afterwards, I had them write their questions (they could be about anythings) and then I read them anonymously. When I was through, I found myself in the staff room, being bombarded with questions by other teachers. . . . why I'm not teaching the boys as well,,,, why I don't come more often?.... I guess it's just the principal who doesn't want me there!, which makes me feel much better about it. So hopefully I will be able to come and talk with all the boys! I have found in these schools, that it is the boys who ask all the questions! Obviously gender roles are very different here in Kenya, which is why I like talking to the boys and girls separate. When I am teaching about these important topics, I want all of the students to feel comfortable, which is why is keep the separate. But I am so glad the teachers want me to come back! Hopefully I will be able to talk with the boys on Tuesday before I leave for Ghana on Wednesday! Also on Tuesday I am teaching another exercise session to the women I taught this week!

20-1-12Another long run this morning! Then off to work, went to another JOYWO training today as well as i have one tomorrow. They are fun and a good change of pace! I get to spend the whole day with mama Lydia and Juliette, we d rive really far out into the bush and train new groups about table banking and then I get to do my condom demonstrations :) You would really be surprised how many women have never even seen a condom up close and personal. They are always a little embarassed at first, but by the end they are a little more comfortable and definitely grateful for the education!

This will be my last post until I return from my vacation! We leave on Wednesday morning, and I cannot wait! We are going for 2 weeks and are each just bringing a backpack :) Yep we're real peace corps volunteers :) Peter, a boy who works on my farm ( a very cute boy) is watching Kibaibai for me. He loves kiabiabai and treats him like a pet rather than a kenyan dog. He always watches him when I go out of town. So Kwaheri kwa sasa! (goodbye for now)

11/1/12Well I'm back to work. Went to 3 groups today, would you believe it literally took ALL day! Anastasia my counterpart went back to her college in Nairobi..... I was assigned another counterpart... but I guess she didn't make the cut, because I haven't heard from her since training. Therefore I am group crashing alone. It's no big deal, except that instead of showing up at the end of the table banking meeting. I now have to attend the entire thing! ... and well they usually go way over the allotted hour. Being counterpart-less also means I don't have a translator. I'm going to have to speak better kiswahili, like yesterday! It went fine today. I said what I could in Kiswahili and others in the group helped translate for me when needed. Next week I'm going teach an exercise class to one of my women's groups! I'm really excited, I'm not sure what the ladies are expecting, but I think they are in for a treat! Tomorrow I have the day off then Friday and Saturday I have JOYWO training groups all day.

16/1/12Friday and Saturday went really well. Well..... Friday was kinda rushed since we didn't get out there until 12:00 and we were supposed to be there by 9:00. I am being forced to get used to the "kenyan time" thing. Meaning if your on time... your way to early... if you 1 hour late.. your on time....doesn't make a lot of sense... Saturday was better, we were more on time, and there were around 200 women there. These things we have been going to are actually training's. We are training the women because they are starting new table banking groups. Well... i'm not doing the training, i'm just teaching to the group about health... mostly doing condom demonstration! Im able to say the whole thing in kiswahili! With all these crazy awesome pictures from the holidays, going up on facebook... you're probably wondering "is she actually doing any work over there in Kenya!?" Well the answer is YES! But it's not quite a 9-5 job that most of us are used to in America. First of all, it is work just to live in this environment. Having to integrate is not as easy as it sounds. No I don't actually work everyday from 9 to 5, But on the days I go to groups, I am usually gone all day. And the days I go to these training's, I am gone even longer. So I am working... just a different type of work. But as you can see..... I have as much fun as I do work! We have to make time for fun, so we don't lose our minds! This week is gonna go by really slow, I can already tell. It's going to go slow because I'm so looking forward to next week! Going to Ghana baby!

6/1/12I went to speak with my village chief this morning. I had ideas for the new year that I wanted to run by him: starting an exercise class for women, having a nutrition day, doing a "how to build a home water filter demo", and how to build a sack garden. Of course the chief was on board for all of them! I really lucked out as far as chief's go. He is helping me to get the community involved, and he speaks pretty good english! He especially loved my exercise class idea, and wants me to teach one for men too! After that confidence booster, I headed over to the local primary school to see about starting an environmental club for after school. Just as I had hoped, they were on board as well! So it was definitely a successful day! I'm meeting with the chief again on Monday to discuss dates and places. Hopefully I will be able to start advertising for my exercise classes, and by advertising I mean going door to door and inviting people to come. Also coming up next weekend and the following weekend, I will be going with my supervisor at JOYWO to large women group "training's." I use quotations because they are more like lectures to the women, but JOYWY calls them training's. My supervisor is the common Kenyan... meaning... not very specific. There is no time set yet, and they haven't specified what they want me to teach about. Im debating discussing water and nutrition, or family planning and HIV...... oh the choices the choices. For those of you who knew me in America, I was really into health and nutrition, and being in Africa... I have crawled away from that. I really want to get back into it, so I'm leaning more towards teaching the women about nutrition. This brings me to my next topic. " KENYAN MAMA SABOTAGE" this is my mama that is sabotaging me ! hahahaMama's here in Kenya see being "fat" as being wealthy and healthy. Basically well fed. Every time I see my mama Lydia, (she is the one who gave me my Nandi name) she tells me she is happy because I am looking fat. I had the same problem during my home stay in training. No matter how many time you tell them that being fat is not what WE want. They don't listen. In training I truly had no control, because my family cooked my meals.... but now at my site... I have no excuse. My New Year's Resolution, ( probably like most peoples) is to take control of my eating and exercise more consistently. I would really like to run a marathon in June!Motivating myself is much more difficult here for a number of reasons. 1) there is no gym to get up and go to, 2) I live alone and only see my friends about once a month or so, 3) when running outside (which I do) you get stared at and called at, (usually by the kids, which gets old) 4) I am already out of shape, getting back into shape is TOUGH!So there you have it, my new years resolution, and my plans for the community.

7/1/12 I ran to town today (literally) with my fingers crossed the whole time, hoping that my packages would finally be there. And guess what... THEY WERE! I couldn't get home fast enough. Opening them was like christmas morning! My grandma and my mom even wrapped things in christmas paper, so it really was like christmas morning. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa and mom and dad! I love everything! Kibaibai loves his new toy grandma! Mom.... he was a little disappointed that there was nothing for him in your box.... I told him to relax and gave him a treat ;) Thanks again family!!! Today and tomorrow are my days to relax and hang out. Then next 2 weeks are going to be BUSY. Then off to Ghana and Togo with my girl Andrea!

8/1/12 Sunday.... the day of rest, and that's what I did. It was actually the most quiet and peaceful day I have had since I got site. Nobody was constantly at my back door asking for something. All the workers who have been around lately, helping with the maize harvest, weren't around. Kibaibai and I took a walk down to the river. And for the first time, not a soul was there. Usually there are a ton of kids who just sit and stare at you. Well not today! And to top it off the whole "motley crew" wasn't around to walk with us. It's days like these that I remember I'm in Africa.

For Christmas I had a few volunteers over for a few days. Ok by few I mean I cooked dinner for 12! Yep it was a bit chaotic but everyone helped out! I made most of the meals but everyone was so good at pitching in on cleaning up and what not. On Christmas day we slaughtered another chicken, and had mashed potatoes, beans, carrots, and yummy mac and cheese! Compliments of Breezie's care package. In case I forgot to mention.... we may have run out of water. Yes I had a house full of people and NO WATER! The toilets didn't flush for a day. Needless to say we bathed in the river when we had the chance. TIAme and Kibaibai, I made him a xmas sweater but he didn't like it to much

All the kids in my neighboorhood. They got to play in my yard since it was christmas. They also sung me a song!

Everyone was gone by Tuesday, I had Wednesday and Thursday to clean and recover. I tell you I don't know how my Grandmas do it! They host so many people over the holidays and cook every meal! It was a lot of work to say the least. On Friday, which was the day before New Years Eve. I had a JOYWO event. When the office told me about it, they made it sound so.... well... not a big deal. Needless to say I showed up Friday morning to Miletisa, to over 20 huge white tents, and sound system and stage being put up in the center. I guess there were over 3000 people there, mostly women from the womens groups. I had to get up and introduce myself and say a few words on behalf of Peace Corps. I got over any fear I may have had of speaking to large groups, real fast. We've all spoken in front of our classes in school, some have even performed to large numbers of people in a play. But speaking to over 3000 people, including government officials, in Kiswahili! Well I can cross that off my bucket list. For the New Year the same group, plus and minus a few, met up at another volunteers on Rusinga Island. Its absolutely beautiful there, but very rural. On New Years day we took a boat (and by boat I mean a hand built wood boat, with an extra passenger to scoop out the water as it seeps in) to a private island! We had the beach to ourselves all day! I guess the resort that is there is no longer in use. It is still owned but not taken care of. But they had the cutest little bungalows which included flush toilets! Also the care taker gave us fresh coconuts and had them peeled and a hole pokes so we could drink the coconut milk inside. DELICIOUS! Andrea, Izzy, and I on our own private island for New Years! It was absolutly beautiful!

Now i'm back home and back to work. I will continue going to the women's groups, but starting this month or the next I want to start some health clubs at the local secondary schools. We'll see how it goes. Also I forgot to mention the new addition to my house. a Chujio water filter! I visited the factory while in in service training. It's the filter made out of a clay pot. Well it averages 1 liter of water filtered in an hour. It was a little pricey,but worth it since I will not have to treat my water anymore! Plus I can offer clean drinking water to the people who work on my farm. If you can't tell.... Im pretty excited! I'm short on money this month, obviously with the holidays, purchase of a couch and water filter. Anyway I wont be able to update until next week or so. I apologize. I hope everyone had as wonderful of a holiday as I did! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

My friend Milcha took me to her cousins wedding today! I was so excited to go to my first Kenyan wedding. It was beautiful, yet simple. The day was perfect for a wedding! Most churches here are made of mud with tin roofs, so on a hot day, they are miserable! But today.... perfect! There was a gentle breeze, yet the sun was out the entire time! The wedding itself was very similar to weddings in America. The bride wore white, the bridesmaids had matching dresses. There were flower girls and junior bridesmaids, and matching grooms men. The service took about an hour and a half. Then it was off to the reception. The reception was held at the grooms house. There were big tents, and seats for the guests. The food was (kenyan) to say the least. The only real difference was that there were no tables, just lots of chairs. Now to the wedding cake! Let me just start by saying, there was obviously not enough to go around, there were around 500 guests! Not that I would have wanted any cake anyways. Cake here is absolutely .... not the greatest! I don't know why no one here can figure out how to bake a good cake. We have many bakery's here, but all the cakes just taste like crumbly corn bread. They are very dry and all taste the same, whether its chocolate or vanilla. And don't even get me started on the icing. It looks beautiful! But tastes and feels like its been sitting on the cake for years! Maybe after peace corps I stay here and open my own bakery! Grandma, you can come help. They have all the ingredients to bake wonderful things! I've baked numerous things in my jiko oven!, and I know the bakery's have actual ovens. So I just feel like there is no excuse........I got a picture with the bride and groom as they were discussing dowery.

Oh you haven't heard of dowery?..... Here in Kenya, when a man marries a women, he has to pay her family a dowery. This usually consists of several cows and goats. Depending on the size of the family and the educational back ground will determine the number of cows and goats. My friend Andrea and I always tell the men who propose to us, that our fathers want 100 cows, plus shipping them to America! hahaha I was told today that, that is way to much, but I now have someone working on getting 100 cow.. Look out dad! Anyways, it was an awesome cultural experience!

The Motley crew

Kibaibai pretty much has me trained to take him on a walk EVERYDAY. Otherwise he mopes around the house. These are the kids in my village who run screaming to greet us, then sometimes continue to escort us on our walk. They are very sweet, yet sometime annoying. They love Kibaibai and have actually started to pet him. People are usually scared of him, so I consider this an accomplishment. Yesterday I went to church with Anastasia. 3 hours sitting in the sun. No mom it wasn't a catholic mass! But it should count that I went to a church! and since it was 3 hours long, I figure I'm covered till after christmas ;). Speaking of christmas, I decorated the house in paper snowflakes and branches from a pine tree. Im expecting company on Friday, so I thought it would be nice to decorate. On Friday, Anastasia took me to her cousin's graduation party. It was actually similar to a graduation party back home. The women were busy cooking and helping out and there was plenty of food (rice, beans and meat). The difference was that it of course did not start on time, and the had many people stand up to speak. They put me on the spot and asked me to say a few words! "Congratulations and good luck!" What else is there to say? I also visited a nearby Hospice center. It was absolutely beautiful! It is not only for terminal patients however, they also do rehabilitation. The director was nice enough to show me around. There were 5 children there for malnourishment! It was very sad. The center was actually put together by an American! Hopefully on my free days, maybe once or twice a month, I will be able to visit.

I know I haven been great at keeping up with fashion friday, however.... ta da! You know whats special about this dress?.... I made it! Yep hand sewed it myself! Actually its a skirt so I can interchange the tops and then I made the sash and head wrap as well. Told you there is not a lot going on right now. I have 2 groups to go to next week then there will be absolutly nothing until after christmas! I think I will have to round up some more material...... For christmas I am planning on having some other volunteers over so we can spend the holiday together... although just our luck, the matatus are planning on going on strike from Dec 19 -29, against high gas prices..... yep TIA (this is Africa) At times like this I miss my car and being able to drive wherever and whenever. Oh well, learning experience I guess. It's not just fun and games with all this free time however, I am planning alot of things to start in the new year. I want to start and environmental club at the local primary school/s. Also a health club at the secondary school. I am really go to try to start some sort of exercise class for the women in my area, the hard part is finding a venu. You would be surprised how many women ask me about sore backs and joints. This is why I thought a yoga type stretch class might be a positive addition to this community. Also I would like to do a community cook day. I want to show families how to cook healthy meals with the food that is available. A huge problem is that mama's cook with a lot of oil and salt, thus leading to diabetes and hypertension. I guess we'll see how it goes next year!

Hello all, I got back from training late Saturday night. Luckily Breezie and Joy (2 other volunteers) traveled back with me and stayed the night before continuing their journey home on Sunday morning. I know I've said this before, but traveling in Kenya is NEVER easy. We waited in Nairobi for 4 hours before our shuttle left for Eldoret. The trip home took 6 hours instead of 5, then we had to catch a matatu to my house, stuffed in the back seat with 17 other people. Needless to say we slept in pretty late this morning. I was so excited to get home and see Kibaibai! He seriously doubled in size, I CAN NOT believe it! It's so nice to finally be home, though like I have already said, nothing can be easy. There is still no propane in Turbo, so I currently have no stove, hopefully that will come this week. Also I spent quite a bit of money in Nairobi so I will be living off of rice and whatever else is in my cabinets until pay day. Im definitely going to have to get creative with my cooking. Speaking of creative cooking, my mother in America has been bugging me to start putting up recipes that I've used. I'll start with the basic Kenyan favorite, Chapati. Chapati is a type of flat fry bread, that every family here in Kenya usually prepares at least once a week, hence why some of us have gained some weight. Chapati: All you need is flour, water and oil. Start with warm water in a mixing bowl ( I usually only use 1/2 cup, it will make about 2). Add a pinch of salt, pinch of sugar and a few drops of oil. Start adding the flour and mixing with your fingers. Add flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Once dough is mixed, divide dough into balls. Take some dough and roll into circle, add flour when needed. Make sure not to roll it to thin. Once it's rolled out, spread a little oil over the dough, roll it up, than coil like a cinnamon roll. Repeat with each ball of dough. Then take the coiled dough, dip in flour and roll out into another circle. Start placing rolled out dough onto hot skillet with oil, one at a time. Let the dough bubble before flipping it and add more oil to the skillet. Repeat for each one. And Voile! Enjoy! ( you can also find these recipes on the internet, just incase my directions are a bit confusing.)

You can also add cooked and mashed pumpkin or sweet potato to make it a tad bit healthier.

When I make chapati, I usually make a stew, or saute vegetables and beans, and enjoy a delicious meal!

Let me know what you think if you try it.

14/12/11I went to the office today, I usually just go to show my face and use the free internet. There is no real reason to go to the office other than that. But just my luck... no internet! And on the way in, the lady sitting next to me on the matatu was reading over my shoulder, every text message! Talk about no personal space..... TIA. I walked all the way to Turbo yesterday to pick up my awaiting package from Holly! Totally worth the walk! Thanks girlfriend! Also the post lady told me for future packages, if you send it to me as a registered parcel.. it should cost me nothing to pick up.... Im not sure what registered parcel means, but if you send something, check it out :). The next few weeks are gonna be pretty boring. School is out for the holiday and the JOYWO groups are over on the 22nd. Luckily while in training we had free internet, and I was able to look up a bunch of crafts. Hopefully that will be enough to keep me occupied. During holidays, things kind of stop around here. I mean shops are still open, but thats about it. So I will attempt my hand at hand sewing, painting, and more beading. Of course all this free time should mean I have plenty of time to work out! At training they fed us buffet style for every meal! So I took full advantage of that, and am now paying for it! Luckily my friend Josh is gonna be my new work out buddy. He lives near Mt. Kenya. So we'll be texting each other words of encouragement.

my market buys for thanksgiving. This is why I love africa, I bought mangos, bananas, pumpkin, honey, french beans, avacado, carrots, paipaiya, and omena (little fish for Kibaibai). All bought fresh from the market for less than 3 american dollars! Avg. price for this in America? I'm gonna guess around 20 bucks.I made a cute little indian hat for Kibaibai to wear for thanksgiving, he was not pleased.

Cassidy, Andrea, Me and Izzy at the animal orphanage.

The monkeys that got out of their cages and groomed us.

A cheetah at the orphanage. There was just this fence seperating us. I could literally get face to face with him. A little bit of home in Kenya. We waited in line for an hour for this KFC feast. You better beleive I ate every last bite!

Andrea and I at 2 for 1 happy hour. I won't mention how many we consumed. You have no idea how good ice cold beer from a tap tastes, when your used to room temperature Tusker.

For the past week I have been in In service Training. This is where Peace Corps gets everyone from my training group together to continue teaching us skills that can help us to improve our work in our communities. We have learned how to build better pit latrines, inexpensive ways to treat water, how to make sack and nutrition gardens, and how to be better educators. It's a lot to fit in to 2 weeks. It's been great to see everyone, some people I haven't seen since we swore in in August! On Saturday and Sunday we had free time and were allowed to travel into Nairobi. On Saturday we did some shopping. It's always such a culture shock when we go to the malls. Lindsay and I were able to buy more materials to make jewelry. We had sushi for lunch, it was super fancy and super delicious. Then to end the day we got to see Twilight: Breaking Dawn, and most of you already know my thoughts on that topic........ disappointment. On Sunday we had an Awesome day! We started our day by going to the Animal Orphanage at the Kenyan Wildlife service. We pet a baby giraffe, fed an ostrich and got groomed by monkeys. Then we went to another mall and waited in line for an hour to eat at the only KFC in Kenya. Totally worth it! An hour is worth the wait for a little taste of home. Then we ended our day with a 2 for 1 happy hour at a local brewery. Perfect day! We were allowed to be American tourist for the weekend and didn't have to worry about all eyes focused on us. Saturday we return to our sites and back to reality. I am definitely ready to get back to Kibaibai and back to my site. This training has helped me think of some really great ideas to work into my community, so we will see how it goes!This monkey and several others got out of their cage (the baboon in the back ground was pretty pissed) The worker put peanuts in our hair so the monkeys would pick them out of our hair.

30/11/11

So as most of you know, I am an animal lover. Well what could be better for an animal lover than awesome african animals!? On my way to training, while riding in the shuttle, I saw many zebras, baboons, antelope and gazelle! Then to top it off, at the hotel we are staying at there are monkeys everywhere! The just hang out on the roof tops! Today at lunch they were eyeing us and our food, we were pretty much face to face. It was so awesome however monkeys tend to bite, so it was a little scary. But again, it's just so cool being able to see these animals not in cages in the zoo.

Today we visited a small company that makes water filters. Earlier I wrote that I use PUR, a chemical to treat my drinking water. Well this company makes clay pots that clean the water as it filters through the pores! It was really neat seeing each step in the process of how each one is made, tested, and packed to ship. I am considering buying one, I just have to figure out how to take it back to site, traveling with more than a bag here is a little difficult. I also will try to take pictures if I go back. Ben... if you're reading this, imagine a huge ceramics studio with 4 huge kilns that hold 190 pots each! Pretty amazing!

Happy Turkey Day! I will celebrating Thanksgiving on Saturday with Lindsay, Anastasia and a couple of my farm workers. So tonight it's me and Kibaibai! But I am thankful that I have Kibaibai! I am thankful for my education and that I have been given this opportunity to be in Kenya and teaching about important health issues. I am grateful for the wonderful friends I have made here. I am thankful for my family and friends back in America and for all their love and support they give me. I could definitely go on, but I don't want to hear (day by day by day by day) (Meet the Fockers anyone?) I am very sad to miss this holiday with my family back home, but I know there are many more Thanksgivings in America to come, and I am grateful that I will get to teach my Kenyan friends a little about our culture. Hope everyone has a great day, stuff's your belly, and remember to be thankful.

27/11/11So my first dinner party in Kenya went off almost with out a problem. At 11 am my propane stove ran out of gas, I sent someone to refill it, guess what..... all of Turbo was out of propane! So we cooked the entire dinner on 2 charcoal stoves! We killed a male chicken ( I had anastasia's boyfriend do it, I was to busy cooking other stuff) I made green bean casserole (With fresh french beans) pumpkin and banana casserole, home baked bread, mashed potatoes and gravey (they tasted like KFC I swear!) and fruit salad. For desert I made fresh pumpkin spice donuts, and Lindsay made a carrot cake! I am so happy that everything went so well! Now I am on my way to a 2 week training. I may or may not have cried this morning when leaving Kibaibai.

Just a quick update, boring weekend, consisted of a lot of reading, beading, and playing with Kibaibai (he was happy). Today I'm in the office in Eldoret, and the rest of the week I will be going to more groups. School is on holiday now, so I will not be teaching anymore the rest of the year. Thanksgiving is just around the corner! I am very sad to be away from my family and friends, however this year I will be cooking along with my friend (another volunteer) Lindsay, and we have invited some Kenyans to join in this American tradition. My counterpart and friend Anastasia and her boyfriend, my grounds keeper, one of my farm workers, and Lindsay is bringing her friend from her site. I am excited to have this cross cultural exchange. We will not be having the traditional turkey seeing as 1: they are not available, and 2: even if they were, I have no oven to cook it in, so on the menu: chicken (we will of course slaughter our selves) mashed potatoes (I am teaching Anastasia how to make them) green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, bread, fruit salad, and dessert. If you recall, I have 1 gas burner, and a charcoal jiko, so I guess we will use my fireplace if necessary. We are having Thanksgiving on Saturday instead of Thursday. I will be sure to let you know how it goes! After this, bright and early Sunday morning, Lindsay and I will be heading to Limuru for our inservice training. We get to spend 2 weeks in Limuru, not cooking or cleaning, just learning and hanging out! It will be quite the vacation. I have to talk a bit about Kibaibai. He is growing up sooooo fast! He is getting so big, and has gone all week with only 1 accident! He is such a character, I swear if dogs could talk.........

This week I have been very busy (catching up) going to 5 women groups! On Monday, Andrea had to leave. Luckily she is only about 2 hours from me. On Tuesday I went to 2 groups, Wednesday I went to 1 group, and yesterday I went to 2. Yesterdays groups were in Kipkaren, which is where Anastasia's family lives, so her mom prepared lunch for us! It was so nice to finally see where she lives. I also got to meet 4 for her 8 brothers and sisters. Yep there's 9 children total! The oldest is my age, and the youngest is almost 2. Talk about a large family! There was a lot of traveling yesterday so today we decided to stay home and work. Anastasia came over to work on kiswahili with me. Before she arrived, a farm worker on my farm told her that he had found many opened condoms and empty glass alcohol bottles in the trash burn pile! He asked her "why does Ann (me) need so many condoms and drink so much alcohol!?" She defended my honor. When Anastasia told me what happened, I could barely control my laughter! First of all: the farm workers are not aware that I do condom demonstrations for the women's groups, second of all: I have not thrown the ones used for demonstrations, away so I can keep count, therefore there are no opened condoms coming from my trash can, and third of all: I purposely buy boxed wine, so I don't have to worry about getting rid of the glass bottles! When I confronted the worker that said this, I asked to see the condoms and bottles. He replied that he had already burned them. Well it seems to me that they are either trying to black mail me, or someone else on the farm doesn't want to admit that they're there's. All I can say...... at least they're using a condom! hahah This little incident made my day! After kiswahili, we had lunch at mama Eusila's hoteli, then I came home and gave Kibaibai a bath. Boy did he need it! I guess I will just have to deal with the stink eye he is giving me, for the rest of the evening.

So yesterday Andrea and I went into Eldoret, we were planning on going to the casino, however just our luck, it was closed (aka vegas attempt). Instead we went on a small "bar crawl" (I PROMISE I actually do work in Kenya, but it's the WEEKEND!) We had a good time, we shopped in the market, found some good buys, got more bead to make jewelry. Came home and made pizza, definitely a Great day! Today Anastacia and her friends took us on a hike. We climbed Mt. Tapsugoi. It was a perfect day for a climb not to hot and no rain (first day in a while that it hasn't rained). The mountain, is more like a big hill, but has great rock faces to climb! All we need is some rope anchors, ropes and a harness and we'd be set! (I'll work on it) Then we had a Kenyan lunch at her Aunt's house, mmmmmmm Ugali and Sukuma wiki (the traditional Kenyan meal). Now were home, kicking back and resting for the night. Andrea leaves tomorrow :( nitalia (I will cry). The peace corps car will move her into her new site on Tuesday. Luckily or in service training is in 2 weeks! Anyway GREAT DAY!Here is Andrea, Anastasia and I on the mountainThis is me and Andrea on the Mountain

And this is our attempted day in Vegas which turned into and Eldoret Bar Crawl. Si mbaya :)

I told you how busy Andrea and I have been making paper bead jewelry. Well here is most (not all) of our finished products. There's something tranquil about rolling paper beads. We only just started making these on Saturday

And you should recognize this smart young man.....he's just so cute I can't resist taking pictures :)

9-11-11Good afternoon family and friends. My mother katika America tells me that I am not writing enough on my blogs. POLE! (sorry!) So.... here is what has been going on. My friend Andrea and her puppy Sangala have been staying at my place since last Tuesday. There was a "situation" at her site, so she came here. She was not prepared to stay this long, but luckily she brought her pup with her. She will be staying with me until Monday. Last week she came with me to a women's group, then our other friend came over to visit and stayed till Sunday. This is when we began making paper beads (p.s. thanks to all those who mailed magazines to me). So we've have been "beading" for about a week straight. It's just one of those things that helps relax you and takes your mind off of things, wine helps too. Prank calling also may or may not have happened. Since I mostly lounged around last week (thanks to Andrea) this week I actually had to do a little work. I went into the office on Monday, then met with the chief and taught at the secondary school yesterday. Today it has been raining on and off so it was a stay at home and bead kind of day.

While Andrea has been here, we have cooked some tamu sana meals! Thus including: pizza, lettus wraps, cinnamon rolls, cookies, pasta, veggie stir fry, and much much more! I love having someone else other than myself to cook for! Kibaibai and Sangala have been loving each others company as well.

Sorry I have not posted in a week. I have had visitors all week and have been busy. My friend Andrea and her pup Sangala have been staying with us. I taught Andrea how to make these:

We have been making paper beads all week, then bought the materials to make bracelets and earings. We get so into it that we don't even notice how many beads we're making until we have hundreds of them. Well while in the process of dipping the paper beads into varnish, a little dripped onto Kibaibai's head. Then this happened:Now I introduce to you, Ki bizzel. Yep I cut out the glue and gave him a mohawk. Now some of you may think this is cruel, but he looks sooooooo cute. The people who work on my compound asked what was wrong with him this morning, so I had to explain the Mohawk, the thought it was funny too.

Other than that nothing new is happening here. Soon I will be teaching the womens groups how to make these paper beads so hopefully they will be able to generate some income.

This weekend I met up with other Western volunteers in Kisumu. AKA Vegas Vacation. We spent all day Saturday at a resort pool right on Lake Victoria. You can see hippos wadding in the water from the lounge chairs. Now on our peace corps salary, we cannot afford to stay at this resort, but for 200 shillings we can lay at the pool all day! We all got burnt to a crisp, even those who did wear sunscreen. Afterwards we went back to our hotel and got ready for the night. Our hotel has a roof top bar (like vegas baby!) Also an Agriculture NGO was throwing a Halloween bash, and invited all Peace Corps Volunteers in the area. It was a good time, with GREAT friends. It's nice to be able to leave site every once in a while and hang out with each other. We all had a great time. I got back to site just in time to get stuck in Eldoret due to a rain storm. I got lunch until the rain died down, then headed home. Kibaibai was sooooooo happy we played for a few hours, then after such a busy weekend, was in bed by 9. This is (from left) Breezie, Andrea, me, Joy, and Henry. Andrea, Henry and I were a zebra, giraffe, and an elephant. Breezie was a baboon and joy was the market place.

27-10-11

Today Anastasia and I traveled far out into the bush to visit 2 women's groups. Luckily they were very grateful we came. There was a gaint rain storm, though we had to stay because a car is not a luxury many people have here. It went really well though the women were very appreciative.

Kibaibai is always very happy when I come home though. He seems to save all of his energy for me. I can't sit and have a peaceful moment, he is always chewing on something or pooping somewhere. He is currently licking his dinner off of the floor because he decided he didn't want to eat it out of his bowl. Did I mention his dinner tonight was omena. Omena are these tiny fish, that the mamas will sun dry and fry. I boil them and feed them with the supu to Kibaibai. So yes if you're thinking, "I bet the kitchen stinks!" You're absolutly right, the kitchen now reeks of fish, thanks Kibaibai. I guess I will go get a mop, and maybe give him a bath........

Going to Kisumu Saturday for Halloween! I can't wait to see my friends!!

This is a picture of Anastasia and I when we were working the HIV testing clinic. I wanted to put a picture up so you know she exists and is not my imaginary Kenyan friend. She's real!And this would be my little angel, do you see his halo!? No? That's because he got it taken away for pooping on the floor and peeing in my bed! Angel? I think not!

So here is my fashion Friday post. I'm either late for last Friday, or early for this Friday! I really suck at this, so I appoligize. Blogging is not so easy when you don't have consistent internet access.This skirt Grandma made for me right before I left the States. I got the sweater at the market in Eldoret 150 shillings. and the scarf on my head I got in Loitocktock. I have this one and a black one. Scarfs are necessary for the Kenyan wardrobe. Women use these scarfs to wrap their head, or wrap around their sholders, to tie the babies to their backs, and to sit on the ground. So many uses for piece of material! Now I will do my best to post another one on Friday!

26-10-11On Sunday, my friend invited Anastasia and I over for lunch. We had chapati, rice, beans, and chicken (Which I killed). Yep slaughtered my second chicken, this time I held it down and everything, I'm pretty much a Kenyan now. Lunch was delicious. However, every time I meet someone new, they always, not really ask me, but tell me how wonderful America is, and how someday they will go. I'm so sick of hearing this! I realized the grass is always greener, but people here in Kenya have the common misconception that if they get to America, they will get a job and make lots of money. This is where I come in as the dream breaker. I explain to them that it's even difficult for college graduates to get jobs, so what makes them think they will be able to find work. Also I explain how in Kenya, one can live off 100 Kenyan shillings a day, 100 shillings is equal to 1 dollar. Now you tell me, in America, can you live off of a dollar a day? I also have to break it to them that there is ALOT of poverty in America. They always tell me that they were taught that there is no poor person in America! Can you believe that! Being poor in America is way worse than being poor in Kenya. Here you can literally build your house out of mud (many people do), you can grow your own food, or buy it for very cheap. In America, if you don't have money, you live in a homeless shelter or sometimes on the streets, you never know when your next meal will be. I hate to be this dream breaker, but someone has to do it. On a brighter note, I tried to post this on Sunday: Does anyone remember those weasel ball toys? It was a battery powered ball with a stuffed weasel attached. Well that is what Kibaibai looks like! It's the cutest thing! He rolls and falls all over the place, he hasn't quite grown into his new legs yet, which are getting so long! I can't believe how fast he is growing! Still my little baby though, and still cute as a button.

This shout out goes out to my 5 am YMCA gang! THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH! You wouldn't beleive the day I had on Wednesday. Anastasia and I were given bad directions to a women's group, there for were left wondering around for over an hour. The second group changed their time without telling the group leader, therefore we were an hour early for the what was supposed to be 2:00 group. We hoped on a matatu and was ready fro the day to be over. Just our luck! At the police stop, I guess the matatu tout didn't pay the police enough, or had a bad rep. I got kicked off the matatu for not sitting in a seat! In case you don't remember from earlier posts, matatus are vans used for transportation and are usually over crowded by many. They seat 12, but usually hold 15 or so. Well I guess its good I only got kicked off and not arrested or fined, however this "enforcing"/ accepting bribes is BS! Anyway after walking to the next town to catch another matatu, I headed to Turbo. And to my surprise..... there was a HUGE package! Not from just anyone, but from my 5am class I used to teach! I absolutly made my day! The yummy goodies helped get my mind off of the matatu situation. Thanks Guys!!! Miss you!

19-10-11So sorry I haven't updated you all in a while. 2 reasons, 1. I don't really have anything to write about, 2. I ran out of internet time. I've been pretty busy with women's groups lately. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and ask myself. . . what am I really doing here, do these women really listen to me? Well today I got the conformation I needed. Not only were the women very thankful and appreciative, but the chair lady of the group and spoke up to the women who were laughing through out the entire session. I was talking about the importance of using condoms, male and female. The ladies were laughing so hard they were crying. The chair lady spoke up "why are you laughing!?" she said, "Our children our having sex, getting AIDS and dying! There is no reason to laugh at condoms!" I was so grateful for this mama. I could care less if the women laugh, sometimes I make jokes and laugh along too, but this mama made an excellent point! Kenyans are losing a generation because of AIDS. Not really because of AIDS, but because of the lack of knowledge to prevent and the denial to get treated. These mamas may not feel that they should use condom because they "are faithful" who knows about their spouses, but their children are having unprotected sex, because they are not educated on how to protect themselves. If they don't teach their children, who will? I am only here for 2 years, and though I plan to teach at every school in my area, there will be some that miss the day, or just won't listen to me. If you remember a few weeks ago, I taught at Atlas Primary school ( I posted a picture of the group). I left an envelope their for them to ask anonymous questions. I picked up the envelope the other day, because I will be returning next week to answer their questions. The envelope was bursting with questions. Some of which, I couldn't believe, were being asked by primary students. This primary school goes up to 8th grade, and the majority of the questions were about STI's and HIV. Basically "babies" asking these questions. The headmaster is only giving me an hour to answer the questions as well as speak about other health topics. NOWAY can I elaborate on all of these questions in 1 hour! It's sad that the schools don't offer better health teachings and even counseling to these students. Hopefully after my session the headmaster will allow me to return for another session.

15/10/11So Thursday I taught at another Secondary School. I taught the girls and boys together, then had a separate session for the girls. I was there for 3 hours! I was amazed at how interactive the kids were. I even got a boy and girl volunteer to do condom demonstrations! It was a great session! Friday was supposed to be super busy but one after another, things were cancelled. So it turned out to be a lazy rainy Friday. Thank god when the girls visited we swapped movies and tv shows on our external hard drives. So I had many episodes of Modern Family to keep me busy. Kibaibai and I walked across the street to Kosachei centre to buy eggs, which there were none of. However we ran into a mama on her way to a JOYWO group. I decided to go. I took the pup home, got my demonstrations ready. I headed to the group, but didn't actually know where it was. I wondered around and found some kids who remembered me from teaching at their school. They walked me all the way to the school where the women's group was. So the kept me busy the rest of the day. I came home and made dengu and chapati. I think I finally have figured the secret to good african chapati.Today, Saturday, I went to an early women's group, brought Kibaibai along to get him out of the house. Afterwards we came home and took a nap, it is a Saturday you know! Saturday also means MARKET DAY! You should all know by now how much I love going to the market and digging through piles of used clothing, then bargaining for a good price. Today all I found was a top. But tomorrow I'm going to Kipkaren, a near by town, to visit my friends family. I've been told Kipkaren has a great market, so we'll see what I can find. After bumming a ride home with the Atlas Secondary school form 4 kids (saved me 20 shillings) I made a jiko oven. For those of you who don't know, a Jiko is the charcoal stove most families use here in Kenya. To make the oven you light the Jiko (yep lit it myself!), and place a very large sufria (aluminum pot) with rocks or sand in the bottom. That way when you place a smaller sufria inside, it is able to bake the food in the smaller sufria like an oven. Today I made coffee cake. It was my first attempt and actually didn't turn out terrible! Then leftover and chapati for dinner. Knowing how to make good chapati could turn out to be a big problem for me. Hello calories, and hello chapati baby! It's good I only make one at a time. I also got to talk to all my roomies from BG, it's BGSU homecoming today, and Im missing it and everyone there! Here's my shout out to all my falcon fabulous friends! Get vertical!

Here is my fashion friday post, I realize it's a day early however I will be super busy tomorrow and will not have time. I had the skirt made by a mama when we visited volunteers during training. The material I bought in Taveta. I love this skirt! And look how big Kibaibai is getting! It makes me want to cry, I wish he could stay little forever!

This is a picture I took during training. In case you didn't know, this is Mt.Kilimanjaro. I got to see this beautiful creation every day! I could see it from my host families back yard! Absolutly breath taking. If you look closely you can see a little bit of snow on the top. The sad thing is that 10 years ago, there was a lot more snow on top. The run off water provides water to alot of the families in Loitockitock, and unfortunately it will soon run out. I hope to get a chance to climb it before I leave Kenya! Any takers want to join?

11/10/11 So I came home today around 2, I had left Kibaibai outside on the gated patio while I went to the office. To my surprise he was NOT there when I got home! I started to panic a pit, after the cat incident, I'm scared of something attacking him. Well wouldn't you know, he was just trotting around in the yard. I started to get upset, and mama Lucy on my farm said it was okay, he is just greeting everyone. I asked if he had been out there all day, she said "even yesterday he was greeting everyone." That little stink butt! He is becoming very clever, too clever for his own good! I gave him a bath (to teach him a lesson) (just kidding) and tried to jerry-rig the fence so he can't get out. We'll see if it works!

So here are a couple pictures of the schools I have taught at in my community. I took pictures from the schools I visited with my friend, but haven't uploaded them yet. The top is Atlas Secondary school, I taught an all girls class. The bottom pictures is Atlas Primary school, I taught grad 2-8 boys and girls together.