So last month through the help of an organization called Kids to Kids, I put on a life skills camp for orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs). 21% of the children in Nyanza are orphans, usually because of HIV/AIDS. Orphans are often cared for by relatives and place an extra economic burden on the guardians; this usually leads to orphans being neglected and not having the money to pay for school fees, books, or uniforms. Sometimes the guardians are elderly or sick and do not have the ability to work in the shamba (garden) and therefore, cannot support themselves or the children they take care of. These children go to school and can be sent back home for school fees or for not having a uniform. A few years ago my organization did a training for OVCs on how to build kitchen gardens. We decided to do a life skills camp to help them be more assertive, and to prepare them for difficult situations they might face since they are more likely to engage in risky behaviors.

We worked with another local organization and invited 30 OVCs from all across our community groups we work with from ages 12-18 years old. My friend, Denae came to help me and we did sessions on communication, team-building, being assertive, decision-making, HIV prevention, condom demonstrations, puberty, gender, and healthy relationships. My coworkers also did sessions on HIV transmission, early marriage, alcohol/drug abuse, rape, and domestic violence.

We incorporated games into our lessons and at first the kids were really shy, but by the end everyone was participating. It was different than the other camps I’ve done since this one had both boys and girls and at the beginning they didn’t want to even be near each other. Whenever we did group work, though, we made sure to have them work together and by the end, they were more comfortable. During the puberty session we played “pin the puberty change on the person,” where they pinned hair, body odor, breast growth, etc to the part of the body with a blindfold. We also taught the girls how to make re-usable sanitary pads. Across the country, lots of girls miss school when they get their periods because they don’t have enough money to buy pads and they are embarrassed to be in school. Because of their absence from school, their performances in school can be affected.

The kids really liked the camp and many didn’t want to leave by the end. In their evaluations of the camp, most of them said their favorite part was “the teachers and how they cared for us.”

human knot in team-building activity

girls making sanitary pads

decision-making activity

I’ve been working with the group that makes the bags and I even designed a new purse and they’ve named it the “nyachula” (my Luo name). So keep an eye out for those. I’ve also been overseeing the building of a honey processing unit that Lynn and Jane donated money towards, I’ll post pictures when it’s done.

Last week we had our Close of Service (COS) conference in Naivasha. It was just the people in my group and some staff members of Peace Corps. It was definitely sad and happy at the same time. It was the first time we have all been together as a group since November 2009, except we’ve lost 10 people from our group since the beginning. We are only 14 now, but I made 8 ½ by 11 cutouts of all the people that have gone home so they could be with us at the conference in spirit. At the conference we talked about resume-writing, how to readjust in the US, and we also shared our experiences from the last two years. We also did medical stuff and luckily I don’t have any diseases, parasites, etc (knock on wood).

Now I’m back and working on a video with my organization to show the projects I’ve worked on while here. I’m also just gonna start to wrap things up and get stuff ready to pass over to the next volunteer that comes to my organization. I can’t believe my time is almost up. I’ve got my plane ticket back home now. It’s official, I’ll be back on August 8th.

So I spent last week in Kilifi (on the coast) doing a girls’ empowerment camp (Camp GLOW) like I had done last year. I had so much fun this year and would definitely say it was one of the highlights of my two years here. It started last Friday when Denae and the two girls she was bringing came to spend the night at my house. We cooked Spanish rice and watched a movie. On Saturday we traveled to Nairobi along with my counterpart, Sophie, who was one of our adult role models we had at the camp, and the girl I was bringing. We got in pretty early to Nairobi so we went to Nakumatt to do some shopping and so the girls could see a mall. Turns out, they got to have their first escalator experience. They told us they were watching people using it so they could figure out how it worked. Sunday we woke up early, along with 12 other PCVs, and girls from our side of the country to travel to Kilifi. It took about 10 hours and we were all sweaty and exhausted when we got there. In total at the camp we had 13 PCVs, 7 counterparts, and 46 girls. That night we made up rules and consequences along with the girls. Here were some of them: -If you lost/misplaced your room key you had to spell out your name using your butt in front of everyone. -If you were late to class you had to sing and dance -If you spoke in mother tongue (as opposed to Swahili or English) you had to sing a song in your mother tongue in front of everyone So, we had lots of singing and dancing throughout the week. I even had to spell my name with my butt since I had forgotten my key on a dinner table. We had 2 separate camps doing the same activities and lessons, but we split them to have a more manageable number of girls in each camp. Most of the time we did the afternoon activities together though. All of us Peace Corps Volunteers were the facilitators and we had divided the sessions so we each had a few. On Monday I gave a session on decision-making, communication, and how to be assertive without being aggressive. I gave the girls real-life situations and had them come up with steps they would take before making a decision, and the possible consequences of the decision. I then did a lesson on how to be assertive since lots of the girls in Kenya are very passive or shy, especially when around boys. I had them write and perform responses in an aggressive, passive, or assertive way to pressure lines that boys might use to get them to have sex with them. In the afternoon both camps played name games and then got to play some sports. We also did team-building games like the human knot game. On Tuesday I did a session on family planning and condoms. We did condom demonstrations and then made water balloons out of condoms afterwards. We also had a bonfire that night, which will definitely be something I remember for a long time. The girls sang and danced and pulled people into the middle of the circle to dance. They wanted us (the PCVs) to sing something so we did the hokey pokey, which they seemed to enjoy. We had also gotten marshmallows and made smores. Most of the girls were 14-20 years old, but there was one girl who was 12. She was shy at the beginning of the camp but she really started coming out of her shell. She was going around feeding all of the PCVs marshmallows whether we wanted them or not, haha. Wednesday we had a talent show and about 30 of the 46 girls participated. They sang, performed poems, danced their traditional dances, and performed skits. We were so happy/proud that the skits all focused on things they had learned in the camp. The counterparts made some shirts out paper and had some of the girls model them. We knew us PCVs were going to have to do something, but we didn’t have enough time to practice anything so we did the Macarena. The girls loved it and came up to join us. Thursday we went on a field trip to an organization that does football clubs for girls and provides them with peer support. At one point while we were waiting for the girls to play football, some of the girls came over and started braiding our hair. Some of us got corn-rows others got French braids, they even braided the hair of the male PCVs and one of their beards! Friday we had some good discussions and questions from the girls on the difference between love and lust. We finished our sessions early so we could go to the beach in the afternoon. Seeing the girls’ faces when we got there and went in the water will be something I will remember forever. Even some of the girls who had come from Nyanza had never even been to the lake, so it was their first time seeing a large body of water. We held hands as we went in and jumped over the waves. Some of the girls spent the whole 3 hours in the water, not coming out. We also made some sandcastles and buried people. That night we had a ceremony to give the girls certificates for participating and then we had a disco. Boy, can those girls dance and shake their booties. They even tried teaching us how to shake our butts like them, not sure how well it worked, though. It was definitely the best week I’ve had since being here, even though it was exhausting. We were up most nights until midnight because we had meetings to coordinate things after the girls went to bed and we were up around 6:30AM/7AM every day. Some of the girls were crying as they said goodbye and it was also really nice to hear them talk about how much fun they had and how much they learned.

Sorry it’s been so long. Let’s see, what’s happened recently? International Women’s Day is March 8th, but since it fell on a market day, we decided to have our Women’s Day celebration on March 9th. We had a women’s health day at Assisi Clinic with people from Marie Stopes (a family planning clinic in Kisii) providing free family planning services. We mobilized the community and had over 65 women and 10 men attend the event. Many of our group members came, along with women who were getting immunizations for their children. We talked about the importance of family planning and other women’s health issues like STIs, breast cancer, and cervical cancer. Assisi’s support group sold their alternative nutrition recipes while people waited for services and they also performed skits on gender relations and the importance of family planning. By the end of the day, the Marie Stopes team had provided 8 depo-provera injections, inserted 9 norplant implants, removed 2 norplants, performed 9 tubal ligations, and 26 cancer screenings. There were still women who wanted services by the end of the day, so we’ll be having another day in May. The day was really successful, and I can’t wait to do another. The next week I was in Nairobi to help plan the pre-service training for the next public health group that arrives in June and then I had a meeting to plan the girl’s empowerment camp I’m attending next week. I had a few days back at the office before I left to go on my last vacation before I go home. I went with some of my girlfriends up to Lake Turkana, which is far up North. It took us a few days with stopovers. We were pleasantly surprised at how much the places up there have grown since my travel book was written. The book made it seem like there wasn’t much there at all, but the supermarket in Lodwar had cheese, meats, and good snacks… We went to Kolokal, a small town on the lake, and stayed at a great place that allowed us to cook our own food. It was really really really hot there and I would have preferred to sleep outside at night if there weren’t bugs. We went to the lake one day to negotiate a boat ride to Central Island, a volcanic island/national park on the lake. After verifying the fuel costs and seeing that the captain wasn’t profiting so much, we gave in and went. The island was beautiful and seemed so untouched by humans. The only problem was, there was no shade. The only trees were ones that were thorny and didn’t have much for leaves. We saw a crocodile that was swimming in a lake in one of the craters and a huge amount of flamingos in another one of the crater lakes. Another day we went to Eliye Springs, which wasn’t that impressive spring-wise, but had beautiful white, sandy beaches with palm trees on the lake. Our taxi was late picking us up because our ride there had caused 2 flat tires (or “punctures” as they’re called here). After he fixed them we went on our way back to Lodwar. Within 30 minutes we got a puncture. The driver quickly put on the spare and we were off. 10 minutes later, we got another puncture. Uh-oh, now we didn’t have another spare. We were out in the middle of nowhere on a road that doesn’t have public transport. Luckily we had cell phone service so the driver called someone in Lodwar to send another spare on a motorbike to reach us. We sat and waited for about 45 minutes when another small taxi drove by us and offered us their spare. Turns out it was the mayor of Lodwar, yay! The driver put it on and we were off! 10 minutes later we got ANOTHER puncture. YES. THREE PUNCTURES!! FIVE, if you count the two we got on the way there. So, we waited yet again for the man to come with the tire from Lodwar. Finally it got to us and we made the driver go really slow so we wouldn’t get another. We made it back to Lodwar alright and vowed to check the tires of any vehicle we ever get in in the future. Oh, the adventures of traveling in Kenya…. We stopped over in Kitale, as we had done on the way there. The first night we were there we searched for an Indian/Chinese restaurant that was listed in my travel book. Turns out it had gone out of business so we asked the waitress. She told us the Sikh Union had food like that, when we asked her where it was she said to just take a taxi. We didn’t feel like taking a taxi so we went to a closer place that was pretty good. On our way back we decided to find a Chinese or Indian place. We asked around and were directed to a place called Pinewood. We went there and they had an amazing-looking Chinese menu. When we ordered, however, they told us they didn’t have any of the food on the menu, that it was from the previous owners. We were really sad so we asked them if they had heard of the Sikh Union. We asked them to call a taxi and in about 10 minutes a guy showed up. Turned out he worked for the Sikh Union and they had sent him to take us (for free). The place was great and not only did they have Indian food, but they actually had all the Chinese food that wasn’t available at the Pinewood place because they were the previous owners. We had a great meal, the waiter recommended me a dish that wasn’t even on the menu and it was really yummy. We asked them to call us a taxi to take us to our hotel and asked how much it should be. He told us 200KSH but they took us out to the same truck we had taken before. When we pulled up to the hotel we said “200KSH is ok?” He hesitated so we worried he was going to ask for more. Instead, he said, “they just told me to drive you and didn’t say anything about money.” We couldn’t believe he refused the money! We were so shocked and happy with our Sikh Union experience, so anyone out there going to Kitale, go to the Sikh Union! After Kitale, we made our way to Naivasha to go to Hell’s Gate National Park. It’s the only park you can bike through because there aren’t so many dangerous animals. We stayed in a cabin and were able to cook food on their stove. We actually cooked our own food pretty much every night to save money and we made friends with the kitchen staff at most of the hotels that way. We rented bikes and probably biked around 20-25 kilometers total on the day we went to the park. The park has gorgeous rock formations and we saw lots of zebras, antelope, and baboons. At one point we hiked through a gorge with a guide and saw lots of cool things, including an area where they filmed with Angelina Jolie for Tomb Raider! I had a great time and it turned out to be more of an adventure than a vacation. But, we have lots of stories now.

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to share the Facebook page I helped Imani (the org I work with) make. I don't have the skills to make a real website and we wouldn't be able to afford the upkeep of a real website either so this is what we came up with:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Imani-Community-Development-Organization/150809771645272

Feel free to send it to anyone else who is interested in seeing what Imani does. There's information about Imani, our activities, and pictures. You don't have to have a Facebook account to see it. If you do have Facebook, click the "like" button on the page.

Happy International Women's Day!

I organized a women's health day for tomorrow. Today is a market day therefore the women wouldn't have been able to come if we had it today.

So a few weekends ago some other PCVs and I went to Kericho, a different city since we’ve been getting sick of Kisumu. Kericho is in Rift Valley and is famous for their tea-growing. We stayed at this nice place that overlooked a river. The lady that owned it was super nice and they had amazing Indian food. A few of us got burgers that we put on garlic naan instead of bread and it was so yummy!

We went to an arboretum and had a picnic lunch. As we were wandering around, we saw some people dancing so we went to check it out. It was a group filming a music video, which is a lot more common than you think. Church groups often film their songs and they are played in matatus or buses on tv screens. The group asked us if we wanted to be in their video, so we obviously accepted. We tried to teach them the electric slide, but they were more interested in having us just sway back and forth and move our arms up and down. We got a little bored after 5 minutes of repeating the same dance move and they kept shushing us since we were cracking up the whole time. But… hopefully we’ll be seen in this music video someday on a matatu.

After Kericho, I went with Denae to our friend Christine’s site to teach for the week. Christine is an education volunteer that teaches at an all girls boarding school outside Migori. There are about 300 students in the school and we taught all of them in their life skills classes that week. We did an activity where they were given tough scenarios and asked to make a decision. We had a scenario where a girl doesn’t have money to support her family and an older man gives her food and money but wants sex in exchange. In the 2nd scenario the girl has a boyfriend she wants to marry who is pressuring her into having sex before she’s ready. The 3rd scenario was a girl who’s failing math and gets extra help from a teacher who then wants sex in return. Sadly these are not uncommon situations at all. Most of the girls made the decision to say no, but a few were willing to have sex to get food. At least most of them put the condition of getting tested first and using a condom. Some of their answers were really creative, too. A few of them pointed out that children have rights in the new constitution and that they should go to the government for help (in the case of the girl not having money for food).

We went through some steps they can take before making difficult decisions and then did an activity saying no to sex. We gave them some lines guys might use to pressure them into sex, like “why not? Everyone else is doing it” or “if you don’t sleep with me I’ll find someone who will.” Then we had them get up and perform their answers, which ended up being really fun for them.

Monday afternoon Christine had practice with her volleyball team so we worked out with them. We did relay races with 3 legged races, wheelbarrows, and crab walks before playing. It has been way too long since I’ve played volleyball and those girls made Denae and I look bad, haha. Tuesday afternoon we met with the Health Club to talk about condoms.

Technically condoms are not supposed to be taught in schools in Kenya, it’s supposed to be abstinence only. However, Christine’s principal is cool and told us to “go around” her and teach the students about it. I never thought I would be putting so much stress on abstinence, but here sex is dealt with differently than in the states. Not that sex doesn’t have consequences in the US, but here if the man doesn’t use a condom (which is common and girls don’t use birth control) not only could they get STIs or HIV, but pregnancy most often means the end of their school career, early marriage, and legal/safe abortions are not available. And like I’ve said before, the girls are especially vulnerable to men who offer to pay their school fees or food.

So with the Health Club we blew up condoms like balloons and put questions inside. We had them pass them around to music and when we stopped the music they had to pop the condom and answer the question. We talked a lot about myths about condoms. One of our true/false was “condoms come in different sizes, colors, and flavors.” A lot of them didn’t believe us, haha. We went over the steps to putting on a condom and I was happy to see that we had 3 girls volunteer to do it in front of the whole club. After, we had the girls line up to throw condoms filled with water back and forth to see who could get the farthest. Who would have guessed, but I won with one of the girls. We did those games to show them how strong condoms are and to show them that when people tell them condoms have holes in them, that it’s a lie.

We also did their guidance and counseling session one afternoon to the whole school. We talked about rape and what to do if they are raped. We had given them a survey the night before to fill out that asked them to circle yes or no. The percentages next to them are how many girls said “yes.”

It’s ok for a man to have sex with you without your permission if…

1. He is your husband 22.2%

2. He plans to marry you 12.6%

3. You have had sex with him before 12.3%

4. You have seduced him 22.2%

5. You have had sex with other men before 5.1%

6. The man was so stimulated he could not control himself 17.4%

7. You were drunk 14.4%

Any of the American high school teachers out there wanna see what the results are there? I want to hope everyone would say “no” but ya never know. I also want to do this survey with boys here because I think the numbers would be way higher. A lot of people, men and women, agree it’s a man’s right to have sex with his wife whenever he wants, thus why number 1 was so high. We talked about number 4 and there were a lot of arguments amongst the girls. We asked them if a girl can kiss a boy but then say no to sex. A lot of them said no, that it’s a bad idea, especially if he becomes “stimulated.” Moving on to number 6: one of the girls told us a boy can die if he becomes stimulated and doesn’t have sex. I couldn’t believe how many of them believed it was true. We promised them, as 2 public health volunteers and a biology teacher, that it was not possible and that boys are lying when they say that.

Then we talked about how to reduce the risk of being raped. Something I thought I’d never say to a girl, but have found myself saying here: not to wear tight clothes or short skirts. Sadly, it’s difficult to convince a man here that a woman wearing those types of clothes does not mean she wants sex. A rape victim here can even be blamed if she was wearing “provocative” clothing. And, clothing styles are dramatically different out in the countryside as opposed to Nairobi. In Nairobi I see short skirts/dresses and skinny jeans but out in the villages, skirts should be at least knee-length and shirts should all have some sort of sleeve. The girls told us that girls in Nairobi all want sex (because of the way they dress). So, until attitudes change about dress, I’m going to continue advising them the dress “appropriately.”

I had a great time and would love to go back to the school. Maybe we’ll do a girls’ empowerment camp there in the near future. Here’s some pictures from the week.

us and the girls

life skills class

condom game with the health club

guidance and counseling

Things are getting so busy! My weeks and some weekends are filling up with work stuff so I’m pretty much booked until the end of April already. Last year a friend of mine/fellow Peace Corps volunteer nicknamed me "Lizzie busy bee" and I find it very appropriate now. Last month I met up with a few of the new PCVs who live near me just to get to know them. They are Math/Science teachers so it’ll be nice to have some new people to collaborate with, especially when we want to do work in schools.

The Oyugis supermarket has upgraded significantly and has been listening to our (the mzungus that live around) requests. There are now 2 liter sodas (one night we had to buy 8 individual sizes to be able to have a reasonable amount to drink), cheese!! , and sandwich beef. I requested some sandwich ham and ground beef so I can make burgers one day. Yay!

Everywhere around here is incredibly dusty nowadays. We had rain for the first time in a few months on last Wednesday. We were in a vehicle with our donors last week and every time a vehicle passed a cloud of dust covered our car and blinded us to the road for a few seconds. It’s gross to see the color of the water once I wash my hair every night. Wednesday it was really nice to get some rain; it wasn’t enough to collect, but it helped with the dust. It also cooled down (enough to shock my body) so I was wearing sweatpants, a fleece sweatshirt, and socks to bed. It was the coldest I’ve felt in awhile and I’m pretty sure it was only around 60 degrees. The rainy season starts in March and I’m sure I’ll be complaining about the mud then. Since it hasn’t been raining, I have to buy my water from a tap in town and have it transported to me. At least it isn’t that expensive for me, it’s 5KSH (or about 6 cents) per 20 liter container.

A few weeks ago, my boss from Peace Corps came to visit my project so we took him to Pendo Letu, the group that does all the beaded jewelry. We showed him how they make the beads out of magazine papers and he even attempted to make one.

After that, some of our donors from the UK came so we spent a few days taking them around to the nursery schools, groups, and some people’s homes. I’ve been to the groups and schools many times before, but the donors also wanted to see some homes of vulnerable people in the community. They are from a church and they wanted to pray for people, which made me feel a little uncomfortable sometimes. However, most people in the communities were asking to be prayed for, so I didn’t feel so bad or feel like the donors were trying to push religion on anyone. In one day we visited 9 homes. One man was living in a tiny house, where the mud walls were falling down, it was only big enough for a bed, and he didn’t have a door. He’s a widower who has 3 young children to take care of, luckily they can stay with their grandmother. Then, we went to a small house for 2 orphans, that also doubles as a kitchen for the grandmother (kitchens here are usually separated from houses because they get filled with smoke when cooking with charcoal or firewood) and the roof had blown off in a sandstorm/mini tornado the day before.

Then we went to visit an elderly blind lady. What really got to me was how happy she was to have someone visit her. She spends a lot of time alone and has gotten sick recently so she had to move in with her sister. After, we went to a child-headed home, meaning the children are orphans and live on their own. This particular house had three sisters (ages 17, 16, and 14) and a 7th grade brother. They can’t always pay for their school, but luckily they have a sympathetic headmaster that doesn’t enforce it sometimes, they can’t even get food sometimes. When we asked the girls how they get pads for when they get their periods, they said embarrassedly that they just use clothes. By then end of the day I was just so emotionally exhausted. I know about how bad the poverty is around here, I’ve certainly been here long enough, but it’s still hard every time I see it. I just worry about those girls especially, because they are so vulnerable. When girls don’t have much money, it’s common for an older man with money to offer to buy food or whatever in exchange for sex. This is a reason why I’m doing a life skills camp for orphans and vulnerable children/teens in April, to try and give them some skills they need to survive and so they can avoid risky behavior. I’m also planning to go to another volunteer’s site next week to teach decision-making, saying no to sex, and about rape to a girls school in their life skills classes.

We also visited a primary school that does a penpal program with a school in the UK. The school is pretty familiar with me since I go to talk to them about what kinds of they should write about in their letters and whatnot. After we showed the donors around the school the kids performed some poems and songs for us. Towards the end, a group of the older girls did a traditional dance and sang in Luo. Everyone in my organization started laughing, they told me they were singing about me. I didn’t know if they meant me, personally, or all of us white people. They said they were singing just about me. I tried to listen for words to that would point this out. Then, the second song they sang actually had “Lizzie” in the lyrics. Apparently they were singing about how beautiful I am, that I make other women jealous, that I am a better dancer than them, but that they have better footwork. I guess when that happens, the person they sing about is supposed to dance with them. It was really embarrassed and didn’t want to, but eventually one of the small girls came right up to me and danced in front of me so I went up with them. I was extremely embarrassed but was really flattered they wrote a song about me.

I went with one of my coworkers to Marie Stopes, an organization in Kisii that provides family planning to women at low costs. I’m trying to collaborate with them for a women’s health day on International Women’s Day (March 8). I also have been checking on the progress of improvements on our nursery school that have been generously donated by a friend of my family’s, Lauren. Mang’ang’a nursery got new doors, better floors, the latrines have been fixed, and it will be painted while Lady Edna nursery got playground equipment. The kids are having so much fun on the slide, swings, see-saw, and merry-go-round. See the pics.

This week I also took a day trip with a coworker and a member of Mang’ang’a youth group to another volunteer’s site. This volunteer, Michael, is a small business volunteer and is doing work with beekeeping. Since Mang’ang’a has been very involved in beekeeping, we wanted to see how a larger organization does it. We especially needed some training in how to process the honey using the centrifuge. Michael’s operation is a bigger scale because they have about 80 hives whereas we have 6 but our group members are planning to get more. My organization has a great opportunity: an Italian NGO that specializes in beekeeping has offered to build us a honey processing unit. To process honey in a legit way, you need a building outside of town that’s airtight (because the bees follow their honey there), with tile floors (to keep it clean), and with all the equipment needed (like a centrifuge and storage tanks). This NGO will be leaving Kenya in a year so they want a local CBO to take over processing for all the farmers in our area that keep bees. They said the total estimate to build this fully-equipped unit will be 350,000KSH (about $4,375) and that they will pay 300,000KSH of it. It’s a great opportunity for our organization and youth group because with a processing unit, we would be able to buy the unprocessed honey (in the combs) from farmers who don’t know how to process it or don’t have a market for their honey, then we would process the honey for them and sell the honey for a profit under our label. This way, our trained group members would be able to make beekeeping into a fulltime job. We just need to find a way to raise the 50,000KSH (about $625) the NGO needs for the unit. So, we’ll see I guess…

This past weekend was the superbowl. A lot of volunteers went to Kisumu to watch it live (it started around 3AM) but I didn’t care enough to want to do that. However, the guys at the house down the street from me had a few people over to watch in as a re-run at 7:30PM on Monday night. We all vowed to not check our emails or facebook so we wouldn’t know who won. They made chili and chicken wings and I made some awesome nachos (with tortilla chips I had bought in Nairobi a while ago) and an onion dip (plain yogurt with a brown onion soup packet, it almost tasted like French onion dip). I ended up eating too many nachos and feeling too full that I fell asleep on their cement floor at the end of the 1st quarter. However, I woke up in time for the half-time, which I was not so impressed with. The game was fun to watch, I was rooting for the packers just because I love cheese so much. Unfortunately we don’t get to see any of the commercials here. So, if anyone has any suggestions for which ones I should youtube, lemme know.

Me dancing with the students

The little girl trying to get me dance with her

more dancing

me and the kids at the nursery school with the new slide

I’m back to Oyugis from a nice vacation with Alex. First, I went to a wedding in Nairobi for one of his aunts on the 18th. We left early in the morning but the bus was delayed so after we got in all dusty and sweaty we went to a friend of Alex’s shop and changed/ cleaned up, got lost finding the church, and finally made it to the church just as the ceremony ended. Alex says I didn’t miss anything, that the reception is what a wedding’s all about, but it would have been interesting to see.

The reception was at the Panafric, a fancy shmancy hotel. They had closed off the pool area just for the reception and it was all decorated with a bridge built over the pool. I went around with Alex meeting all the relatives. I was being introduced as a cousin/family member since everyone assumed Alex and I are married. His grandmother asked why we left our kids at home. Yes, not only did people think we were married, they also thought we had kids (plural, not just one).

After the bridal party took pictures they cut the cake, which to me was interesting since we’re used to that being at the end. Of course there was tea served also. After awhile we moved downstairs into a huge conference room, which was actually 3 rooms but the walls had been removed to make it one big room. There were about 400 people there. They had a huge buffet of every food and pastry/cake you could think of. After the dinner and gifts were given, there was a live band and dancing. Afterwards came the after-party where they had a DJ and nyama choma (barbecued meat) served. It was really fun, especially when one of Alex’s little cousins was breaking it down on the dance floor. The only sad part was how expensive the drinks were: 250KSH for a beer! (to you people who use dollars, that’s about $3, but when I’m used to paying 100KSH or 150KSH max for a beer, it’s a big jump in prices)

The next day I went back to Oyugis and then a few days later went to the coast with Alex to spend a few days with one side of his family then a few days with another side. We were really lucky to get bus tickets since tons of Kenyans travel to the coast for Christmas. We tried the night before and every bus was booked. The day we wanted to travel we left the house really early and lucked out because two people hadn’t shown up for their bus so the company sold us their tickets. You snooze you lose I guess.

We got to Mombasa before the rest of the family so we decided to hang out at Nakumatt and meet them there when they got in. We went to Nakumatt Likoni, near the Mombasa ferry, but as soon as we got there, Alex’s uncle called and said to meet at Nakumatt Nyali. Nyali is a nice section just outside the city center of Mombasa. So after two matatu rides we were told by the driver to get off at Nakumatt Nyali Cinemax that it’s the same thing. Meanwhile, Alex is trying to call his uncle to ask if there’s a difference between Nakumatt Nyali and Nakumatt Nyali Cinemax. Apparently Nyali has 2 Nakumatts and he told us to go to Nakumatt Nyali. So, we take another matatu and the guy told us he was going to Nakumatt Nyali but he ended up dropping us off far away so we had to walk to rest of the way with all our stuff. We finally got to Nakumatt Nyali and sat at a little food place to waste time until we could be picked up. The place had the best sandwich I’ve had in Kenya. I got a ham and cheese sandwich and it was real deli ham. It was so good I got a second one. We waited for 3 hours for the uncle and he told us we were actually meant to go to Nakumatt Nyali Cinemax. Seriously??? Nakumatt needs more original names for their branches to avoid confusion. It’s like in Kisumu there’s Nakumatt Mega City and Nakumatt Mega Plaza, if it’s your first time in the place, how are you supposed to know they are different??

After all the confusion we got to the house where everyone was staying. It was GORGEOUS. It was what I’ll call a mansion. It had a pool, a large yard, a kitchen, a balcony, air conditioning, and 5 bedrooms with bathrooms, bathtubs, and showers. The house also came with a chef who cooked all our meals. Since there were more than 5 bedrooms-worth of people, the family had also gotten an apartment nearby for the extra people to stay. Alex and I, along with a few cousins and an uncle stayed there and then came to the big house for the days.

We spent most of the days swimming in the pool and sitting under the umbrellas/lounge chairs outside since it was so hot. There was also a beach within walking distance. On Christmas, we swam in the pool and had a huge “lunch” (around 5pm) with every food you could think of. Alex and I walked on the beach for the sunset and then the family did some gift-giving later. They gave me a leso (a fabric to wrap around like a skirt), which was really nice since I wasn’t expecting anything. After that we all went swimming in the pool at night, even Alex’s grandma. They made late-night nyama choma too.

When that side of the family left we met up with the other side of the family. We met them at Nakumatt where apparently they had been waiting for hours for the guy who booked our place. The guy had sent us an email of where we had booked and it was a really nice apartment with lots of bedrooms and air conditioning. The guy finally showed up around 6pm and took us to a run-down apartment with no air conditioning and only 3 bedrooms. We had 15 people, there’s no way we would have fit and besides it definitely wasn’t worth the amount of money we paid.

The family was so angry at the man, they demanded our money back or we’d go to the police. The man freaked out and started arranging for us to get our money back. We sat around that apartment waiting for him to fix things and Alex and his brother kept watch over him every time he stepped into one of the rooms because they didn’t want him escaping over the balcony. It took him about 3 hours to get us the money and meanwhile everyone was calling friends of friends of relatives to find a new place to stay. One of the aunts’ cousins hooked us up with a nice place and we got there around 10pm. It wasn’t super fancy but it was clean and there were enough beds for everyone to have their own. The widow who owns it is still fixing it up so it’ll be really nice once it’s finished.

It was fun hanging out playing cards and watching movies with that side of the family. One of the days Alex and I went to Diani Beach (which is on the south coast about an hour or so away). We wanted to go to this place, 40 Thieves, where other volunteers usually hang out but apparently there had been a homicide there a few days before and it was closed. Alex’s friend’s sister (Edna) works at a resort called Pinewood, which is all the way at the end of the beach. We went to visit and the place was really nice and fancy. We got lunch, I got a great seafood pizza with tuna, crab, and shrimp on it and then Alex and I went swimming while Edna went back to work. We learned the place must have been really fancy considering they charged 420Euros to kite surf and 260KSH for a beer. We hung out with Edna at a bar and I taught Alex how to play pool.

The next day we went bowling with the family and had a grand ole time. I was embarrassed since it was most of their first time and even the kids were beating me. The day after we had a “ladies day” so all the women left the kids with the men and we went out shopping and got lunch and ice cream. I bought a bunch of lesos to make into skirts.

For New Years Alex and I went to a resort that had fireworks and bonfires on the beach. We came back the next day and had a little adventure on our bus ride to Nairobi. All of a sudden our bus slammed on its breaks and swerved off the road and I saw a tractor trailer smashed into the back of another tractor trailer. I thought we were just avoiding the accident but apparently our bus was trying to pass a vehicle and was on the wrong side of the road and caused that accident. We dropped off a guy from the bus company to deal with it and kept going on our way. About a half-hour down the road we were stopped at a police checkpoint because they had been informed about the accident. I was worried we’d be there all day, but we got going after only a half hour. The bus ride was long (about 8 hours) but I had brought my travel scrabble and we had brought snack so it was a good way to pass the time.

During the trip I had a coworker taking care of Minnie (the cat) and the kittens. He called me to tell me she had eaten both of them. I was really sad because I was going to give them to people once I got back. They were too big to be eaten; usually cats eat kittens just after birth if they are sick or deformed but these kittens were 2 months old. Otherwise, though, I’m happy to be back.

Thanksgiving. Who would’ve thought I’d have 2 Thanksgivings, in Kenya?? So those guys that live in Oyugis working for the One Acre Fund invited Helen (a PCV that lives nearby) and I to their house for Thanksgiving. Since we all didn’t have enough time to cook on actual thanksgiving because we were working, we did a makeshift Thanksgiving. They made a roasted chicken, homemade mac & cheese, creamed corn, green beans, and an apple crumble. They have satellite tv so we watched the patriots game! Live! I was so excited!

Then on Saturday we had “real” Thanksgiving because we had time to cook during the day. A few other volunteers came and we cooked together. A turkey was slaughtered, Helen and I worked on a pumpkin pie, apple pie, and I made pumpkin soup. We also had green beans, creamed corn and mac & cheese again, stuffing, mashed potatoes, canned cranberry sauce that I had found in Nakumatt a few months ago and had saved, and a pineapple crumble-type dessert. I was most proud of the pumpkin pie, since we made it from scratch: no pre-made crusts, no filling from a can. We cut the pumpkin, dug out the guts, peeled it, boiled it, mashed it, made the filling, made the crust, then baked it. Sooo good.

Cooking in Kenya makes me appreciate food so much more because of how much more of an effort it takes to cook it. Thanksgiving was great and easier than last year since we had access to an oven. I’m still pretty amazed that we cooked a turkey in a jiko oven (a pot inside a pot with sand) over firewood last year.

So I have been busy the past few weeks running around organizing things for the World AIDS Day tournament Helen and I put on with my organization. First, some facts about HIV/AIDS in my area. Nyanza, the province where I live has the highest HIV prevalence in the country at 14.9% (according to the 2009 KAIS). The district I live in has a prevalence of 16%. People have speculated to why Nyanza has such a higher rate than the rest of the country and part of it may be because Luos, the predominant tribe in Nyanza, don't traditionally circumcise boys/men whereas other tribes in the country do. Studies have been done and if a man is circumcised he is 60% less likely to get HIV. Therefore, there are all kinds of campaigns in Luo areas to circumcise. Many of the young men have started getting circumcised before they go away to school for fear of being ridiculed by other tribes who are circumcised. Some tribes look down on people who aren't circumcised. I heard from a friend who was here during the post-election violence, where tribal violence was bad, and he said vehicles were pulled over on the road and men were forced to pull down their pants and if they weren't circumcised, they were shot. Ok sorry went off on a tangent there.

Wednesday (December 1st) was the big day and it went very well. We had 4 teams playing (2 from my region, 1 from Helen’s region, and 1 from an area farther away) in a soccer tournament. Each team donated two tin pales of beans towards their lunch and a local supermarket donated the rest of the food materials including 25kg of rice! We had agreed in a meeting that the teams would have to come on time or forfeit their match, because we had a schedule and various games to be played and we didn’t want the day to go late.

So, on Wednesday we started at 6:45AM when we took all the things from the office like a donated public address system, a donated generator, the beans, a donated tent, prizes, etc and brought them to the field/school where we were having the event. We had a banner at the road to announce the event and we had transportation to get all the equipment and two of the teams who lived too far to walk. We told the teams they needed to be at the field at 9AM to start warming up and the first match would be Kirongo vs Mang’ang’a starting at 10AM. The Mang’ang’a team, even though they live the closest and were walking to the event, was nowhere to be found. We called them multiple times and by the time 10:15AM rolled around we decided to have them forefeit to show them they needed to be serious about time-keeping. There were a few players trickling in but the whole team didn’t show up until 11. We started the second match instead, which went very well.

While the matches were going on we had various organizations and companies set up tents to advertise/sensitize the community. Nyanza Reproductive Health Society is doing a male circumcision campaign in our area so they set up shop in a classroom and circumcised 12 guys. We're trying to help them mobilize other groups in the community because if a man is circumcised he is 60% less likely to get HIV. We also had 3 counselors doing counseling and testing for HIV and 50 people were tested. KCB, a bank in Oyugis, came and 7 people set up bank accounts and others asked them questions about banking. Kenya Women Finance Trust, an organization that gives loans to women, recruited the women in attendance. The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports came and told people about their activities in Oyugis. An organization working on fighting deforestation came to talk to people. One of our women’s groups came with their alternative nutrition recipes and sold their food to the crowd while sensitizing them about the nutritious value of amaranth. Another lady from a youth group we work with sold fruit salad to people.

There were also two groups that did skits during the half-times of the games about the importance of male circumcision and getting tested. We also distributed 1,600 condoms and did a condom demonstration. There were about 300 people there by the time the championship game was going on. Assisi won the tournament and we gave them a trophy/cup to be defended in future World AIDS Day tournaments. I was so happy that things worked out even though the day started out slowly and with a few minor problems.

The most disappointing thing was that our banner was stolen. We think someone or some people took it on their way out while we were busy cleaning up. I don’t even know what someone would do with our banner. I’m just hoping we can ask around and find it. Despite the banner being stolen, the event was definitely a success.

Championship Game

Helen and I with the banner

The crowd watching a skit about male circumcision

Boy did I need a vacation. October was a rough month for me. I was very stressed and it just seemed like everything was going wrong all at once. The icing on the cake was that one of my friends, Denae, was stuck in South Africa for medical reasons. She’s ok, and finally back in Kenya, but not being able to talk to her for emotional support when I was having problems just made things more difficult. We were supposed to go to Lamu together for her birthday mid-october but we had to push it back. We were worried she wouldn’t be able to come to Lamu with us, but everything ended working out.

Last Saturday I went to Kisumu for a halloween party with some other volunteers. I met some volunteers from One Acre fund who live in Oyugis. One of them has been here a year, living right down the road from me, and I’ve never met them or seen them in town. How is that possible? I found out it’s because they work outside Oyugis and have their own vehicles for transportation so they aren’t always around. Let’s just say, I’m excited for the possibility of more friends.

I went to Nairobi on Sunday with Sonya and we had our long-awaited reunion with Denae. Monday we flew out to Lamu. Lamu is an island off the northern coast of Kenya. Google it. It’s gorgeous. Anyways, after our flight being delayed in the Nairobi airport for a few hours we made it to Lamu. We met the guy, Abdul, who owned the eco-lodge we were staying at and went to drop off our stuff. We had to turn our language switches from Luo and Kipsigis to Swahili and we also immediately started sweating like crazy. It’s so easy to forget how hot and humid it is on the coast, but then again, it didn’t seem nearly as bad as last year’s Christmas trip to south coast. After dropping our stuff at Abdul’s, where we each got our own bungalow on stilts, we went to Lamu town to explore.

There aren’t any vehicles on Lamu: all we saw was a three-wheeled ambulance, and one or two pikipikis owned by mzungus. Otherwise it was donkeys and donkey carts. We wandered around and found a place with fresh juices. Then, it started raining. We tried to wait it out but it didn’t stop so we went back in the pouring rain and got absolutely soaked. At least it wasn’t rain like in Nyanza, where you would get cold and it would rain so hard it hurts. People laughed at us as we passed by and they stayed indoors/under cover. One man yelled to us, “it’s a free shower!”

Tuesday we went on a dhow (sailboat) trip. There’s a volunteer that lives near Lamu and he recommended a guy to take us out. We opted for a day-long fishing trip with lunch included. We passed mangroves in the channel between Lamu and the island across from it. It made me think of The Life of Pi, when he happens upon a mangrove island-thingy. You should google mangroves too, they are really interesting in how they can grow in salt water. We went out into the ocean and tried fishing. There were no poles, just fishing line tied to a board with a hook, shrimp for bait, and a nail to weigh it down. We didn’t catch anything, Sonya got a smart fish that took the bait but didn’t get hooked. That was the closest we came, the crew included. I wouldn’t say we tried really hard though. It was hot under the sun and we just had a little space for shade on the boat and we were all feeling pretty queasy.

We went to a beautiful beach on the other island across from Lamu, called Manda beach. The crew made us mini kingfish (they had come prepared in case we didn’t catch anything) with rice and vegetables. We also got fruits and “sea cucumber.” It wasn’t actually sea cucumber, the guy tried to convince us he cooked us sea cucumber (which I’m sure would be slimy and gross), but it was actually bananas they had cut in half length-wise, filled with chocolate and wrapped in foil and cooked over the fire. AMAZING. We stopped at Shela beach on our way back to Lamu.

I’ve never really had a problem with seasickness, especially if I’m out in the fresh air. But, we all still felt the rocking of the boat for the rest of the evening and night. Wednesday was the day we had planned to go to Shela beach, the famous, pretty beach about a 30 minute walk from Lamu town. But, we were sunburned and tired from the day before so we decided to go shopping in the morning. Disappointed by the selection of fabrics and the fact that no one wanted to bargain with us very much, we got frustrated. I guess they have high-end tourists who pay their high prices so they don’t see the need to bargain much. I did find a bead shop. They had lots of African trade beads and already made jewelry. I wanted to buy some stuff but the prices seemed high and he didn’t want to bargain. I also didn’t want to buy jewelry that I would end up restringing on better material, especially if it was expensive. He tried to tell me the string he used was strong, but after working in a bead store in America for so long and restringing all the jewelry that people had brought back from all over Africa, I know better. He wouldn’t let me take a picture inside either. Disappointment. I hope to find somewhere that has trade beads before I leave this continent, my new goal.

We got rained on again so we ran from store to store until it stopped. We finally walked to Shela and hung out in the restaurant at Peponi resort, a fancy shmancy place. Denae had brought back a bottle of wine from South Africa so we drank it to celebrate her belated birthday. The restaurant didn’t even charge us a corking fee. Score! Their lunch was great and not badly priced considering it was a touristy mzungu place.

I think that’s one of my favorite parts of traveling in Kenya: staying at cheaper places and saving money by using our language skills and negotiating, yet still being able to hang out at fancy places when need be. On the plane we met a white lady who has been to Lamu a few times and therefore considered herself an expert on Lamu. The flights land on the island across from Lamu so one needs to take a boat to the other side. She offered to help us get a boat to Lamu but I told her I had talked to people and knew that it should cost 100KSH to get to Lamu so we’d be okay. She told me, “oh no, it’s definitely more than that.” I said, “really? I’ve talked to a few people, including a guy who lives there, so we’ll just negotiate until we get to that price.” She then whispered under her breath to her friend (thinking we didn’t hear her) “it’s definitely not 100.” She laughed like we were stupid. We walked out ahead of her, found a guy near the boats, started talking to him in Swahili, and when I asked the price he told me “mia moja” (100). We didn’t even have to negotiate. We got in the big boat with some locals as we watched all the other mzungus get taken away on high speed motor boats. I wonder how much they paid. I feel like a bad person thinking this, but serves that lady right, if she wants to be so insistent that it costs more, let her pay more. Me, I’ll take the word of locals.

It was a lovely girls’ trip and the perfect length of time. I could see Lamu getting boring after more than a few days. Yes, the beaches were pretty, but I’ve seen pretty beaches other places too. I ate so much fruit and fish, it was crazy. One night we got crab and it was my first experience eating a whole one. Usually I get crab cakes and don’t do the work. It took some serious muscle-power to crack the shell without a cracker and I was worried I’d stab myself with a sharp piece. Luckily no blood was shed and the crab was delicious. It got us wondering how crab meat is obtained in America. Do they have machines? Or are people paid to remove the crab meat from crabs? I looked it up when I got back and it turns out it’s mostly immigrants who “pick” crabs. No wonder crab meat is expensive. Here’s an article I found about it: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bal-te.md.visas06feb06,0,1999591.story

Also, did ya know that most seafood salad and even the “crab” in California roll sushi is usually fake crab? Oh, the answers google can give you…

I thoroughly enjoy Saturdays at site. I can sleep “late,” meaning I sleep until 7:30AM. I usually wake up to roosters crowing (although they crow all the time starting at 4AM) or people opening and closing our gate to the compound. I wake up and usually have to open my window because by 8AM it’s usually starts getting hot and stuffy in the house. I feed the cats and go back to bed where I finish watching the movie I fell asleep to the night before.

Most people around here are Seven Day Adventists so they go to church on Saturdays. This means I get the compound to myself and can do things like sunbathe (ok I only did it once and after 10 minutes I had to go inside because it’s way too hot and there’s no ocean or kiddie pool to jump into) or do my laundry. I like washing my clothes outside my front door on my little slab of cement. The only thing is, the gate to the compound is right in front so if someone leaves the gate door open anyone walking by can see me washing my clothes. I don’t care if people see me washing clothes, but most people when walking by and seeing a mzungu stop to stare, which makes me feel awkward. On Saturdays, however, there aren’t people walking in and out leaving the gate open (because they’re at church) and therefore I can wash my clothes in peace.

My most recent thing is doing yoga in the morning, I’m especially happy I splurged on a yoga mat. I downloaded some classes and yoga exercises when I had free internet in Nairobi so last Saturday I did it in my living room. Now, I never took one of those “hot” yoga classes, but I’m pretty sure it was like that. I was dripping sweat everywhere and the cats kept climbing on me while I was in the cobra pose or lying down on the mat.

I like walking to town just for the heck of it on weekends and there’s a pretty back way I can go, where there’s more shade. It’s also a large hill, so I can see Lake Victoria from the top. Most shops are closed on Saturdays and open on Sundays. This always confuses me when I go to Kisumu or Nairobi because there everything is open on Saturdays and closed on Sundays. The one place that is open every day in Oyugis is the supermarket. The supermarket has upgraded significantly since I got here last year. It now has Ramen, cold Diet Coke!!, ice cream, real coffee (as in non-instant), wine, knock-off Pringles, and even televisions and other electronics. If only they could sell cheese, then I’d never have to go anywhere else.

It’s always fun people-watching on Saturdays. Everyone is really dressed up, including little boys wearing suits and the little girls wearing frilly pink dresses. Most people carry their own chairs to church; even the children carry their kid-sized plastic chairs on their heads all the way to church. Mamas carry their babies in lesos (a piece of cloth) tied on their backs with an umbrella to block the sun.

The best part of the day is bathing midday/early afternoon. It’s so hot and dumping cold water on myself is very enjoyable. Since we’re now in the rainy season, it starts to rain early afternoon and it cools down significantly. I can collect 2 buckets of rainwater in a half an hour, it rains so hard. The other day it hailed the size of quarters! I hope no one was outside then because man, that could have caused some serious bodily harm. Later in the afternoons I have movie marathons or read. The cats usually sleep on top of me and function like a blanket. That’s what I call a good Saturday.

My newest obsessions are masala tea and curry. Masala tea is just a mix of nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and other fall-ish flavors that you can make tea with. I made it every day last week, it makes me think of fall! Now all I need is a pumpkin muffin or pumpkin latte… I also discovered how easy it is to make curry, I made it the other night and then was too lazy to cook rice to go with it, so I just ate it on top of slices of bread. It was still really good.

Last Friday was my turn to cook in the office. I think I’ve said this before, but I started a cooking project with my coworkers where we take turns cooking on our office days (Tuesdays and Fridays). It started as a gender equality thing because my two male coworkers never wanted to help cook. They said that if they went home and cooked, their wives would get angry with them and kick them out of the kitchen. I told them, it didn’t matter what they did at home, but since we all work together as a team, it isn’t fair to have just the women cooking. They’ve totally embraced it (even though they still put on a front of “really? Do I have to today?”) and Erick is a really good cook. Kennedy…. well he can make ugali and tea and… that’s about it. We’re trying to teach him other things. So, this cooking project has turned into a fun project and has become a culture-sharing experience. Most times they’ve never tried what I cook, or if they have, it’s prepared in a different way.

Some examples of things I’ve cooked: burritos (with guacamole and everything), hamburgers, pasta salad, French toast, lentil burgers (like a veggie burger), spaghetti and garlic bread, pizza (that was a pain in the butt), apple pie, Spanish rice, mashed sweet potatoes (with cinnamon), mashed garlic potatoes, and at Thanksgiving last year I made a turkey and stuffing. Everything I’ve made has gone over really well, even though the men are always hesitant to try new things at first.

So, last Friday I made pumpkin soup! As I said earlier, I’ve been missing fall flavors. I’ve always heard people talking about pumpkins here, but I’ve never actually seen them in the market. I decided I would hunt down a pumpkin so I could attempt pumpkin soup. I’ve never made a soup, and just once I observed when Katie made us a “fall soup” in our apartment in Boston. I asked around and pumpkins are out of season right now, of course… But, Lily, my favorite lady at the market found one and saved it for me. I looked up a recipe and figured it wouldn’t be too hard. And, it wasn’t! The soup was delicious (I added sweet potatoes and some nice fall spices too), the only thing that could have made it better would have been a food processor to make it smooth. But even with the bumpiness it was still yummy and I ate leftovers for dinner on Friday and breakfast on Saturday. My coworkers loved it, the cats liked it… what a great success. This means, I’ll have to attempt a pumpkin pie next. Only thing is, I don’t think they have condensed milk here.

I saved the seeds so we can roast them, and now I know I can carve an actual pumpkin (even though it’s green, not orange) for Halloween instead of a watermelon, like I did last year. Another yummy thing I’ve discovered? Pumpkin leaves, you can sautee them and they’re oh so good. That’s what I love about Kenyans, they utilize all parts of a vegetable or animal, no wasting anything. Like sweet potatoes: did you know in addition to eating them boiled and plain, you can mash them up and substitute them for flour in making things like cakes or chapatis? Or that the leaves from the sweet potato plant can be boiled and made into a nice juice? Or sautéed like spinach/kale? I've got recipes if anyone's interested.

Ok now you’re probably hungry, I know I am.

Lastly, I’ve been busy running around getting all the things for the Peace Corps Partnership project and it’s taken longer than I thought. I couldn’t find the jars to sell the honey in Kisii or Kisumu. Luckily I had to go to Nairobi anyways for other reasons a few weeks ago so I was able to fit that in my trip. I found even better containers than before and at less than half the price we had thought they would be!!! The group has been great with contributing their part and even contributing to unforeseen costs that have popped up in the process. I’ll post pictures soon. AND, within 5 days of putting out the new hives, the bees had already started populating them. We didn’t even have to split a hive (which we learned how to do in the beekeeping training). Oh, and I helped design labels for the honey jars so now we look all professional. AND, we’ve had many requests for honey. Things are looking up for Mang’ang’a Youth Group.

First of all, when I was home I was interviewed by the Martha’s Vineyard Times, so check it out if you haven’t yet. I’m hoping it will help boost bead/bag sales for the women’s groups.

http://www.mvtimes.com/marthas-vineyard/article.php?id=2209

A few weeks ago I organized a small football (soccer) tournament with 4 teams: Nyandiwa, Mang’ang’a, God-Agulu, and Assisi. The last three are youth groups my organization works with on a regular basis. My organization sponsored it and we did it as a way to give the youth something to do over their month-long break from school/university, show off their football skills, and to give them some health messages.

It was a one day tournament and we had 2 qualifying matches and 2 final matches. Assisi works with a clinic so they brought someone to test for HIV. We used one of the classrooms at the primary school where we held the tournament as a testing room. Fans came with each team, but we also had a public address system that attracted people from the surrounding area. Some young people were commentating the matches and announced the testing and encouraged people to get tested. Within the first few hours they had tested 22 people, which was above their target for the day. There were over 100 people that showed up just to watch the matches.

My organization cooked lunch for the players. The games were pretty close and it ended up with Assisi winning, Mang’ang’a in second, Nyandiwa in third, and God-Agulu in fourth. Our board members came to watch the tournament and one of them said at the end he had recognized 4 players that were exceptional and that he will work to promote them in their future football careers. I was really happy with how the tournament turned out and I look forward to doing other events like these in the future. Here are some pictures:

After cleaning my house from top to bottom and cleaning out my water supplies I have gotten rid of all the bugs and my rash. I’ve been working with my organization on planning microfinance training for some of the groups we work with in the next few months. I’ve also been purchasing the beekeeping supplies for the PCPP for Mang’ang’a Youth Group and have run into some delays. I was very disappointed that I couldn’t find the containers we need to sell the honey in Kisii or Kisumu, so I’ll have to buy them in Nairobi next week. The hives we bought from an organization were poorly made so I’m waiting for someone to come and fix them before I purchase them. At least we’ve had people requesting honey from me/making orders so once everything gets settled we’ll be able to sell them in our jars and I helped the group design a label for the jars too.

Last weekend I went to my coworker’s house because his in-laws were in town. In Luo culture, it’s a big deal when the wife’s family comes to town, and there’s LOTS of food. As I think I’ve said before, the ladies in my organization have a catering group so Kennedy hired them to cook for the family. He had rented a tent and there were about 10-15 family members plus the random people from the area who show up for the free food. I got there in the morning while everyone was at church so I helped the ladies cook and made some pretty sweet salsa. Lunch included ugali, tilapia, beef stew, fried chicken, cabbage/vegetables, sweet potatoes, peanut soup, salsa, rice, and chapati. The craziest part to me was that even though Kennedy paid and organized for everything, he couldn’t come into the tent and he just ate leftovers in the kitchen. It’s a Luo cultural taboo for him to socialize really, eat, or stay in the same place as his in-laws.

Part of the catering team. Mom, look how awesome they look in the uniforms!

So never mind that last post about the beekeeping group, it’s been fully funded! It only took a month, which is so much quicker than I was anticipating. I’m so excited to get started with everything now.

A few weekends ago I went to Awendo to help a friend of mine photograph a wedding. It was the first Kenyan wedding I’ve gone to so it was very interesting to see. Since I was taking pictures I got to see all the preparations and behind the scenes stuff. I followed the bride and bridesmaids while my friend followed the groom and groomsmen. Before the wedding the bride was in the middle of the room while everyone fussed around with her hair and makeup to help her get ready. One mama would do her makeup then another would come, decide it wasn’t good enough and add another layer, then another mama would come and add more. Then they each messed around with her hair and it ended up looking the same at the beginning and end, haha .

After the bride and bridesmaids were done getting ready, the groom and groomsmen, the flowergirls and little boys to accompany them, and any other close relatives all came to the house. Then they got into a line of cars that were all decorated with huge ribbons, bows, and flowers. The cars formed a kind of motorcade/parade and took everyone to the church, which was filled already with the other guests. There was a long mass (the groom is a pastor) with lots of preaching that took about 2 hours and then the actual marriage ceremony was about 20 minutes. Unfortunately I had to leave after the ceremony to get to Kisumu by dark, so I didn’t see the reception. It was interesting to see and I hope next time I get to see a reception too.

We had a week of training with Peace Corps in Kisumu with our counterparts. We got more language training, which was nice, especially because I got to learn some Kenyan Sign Language in addition to Luo. We got to visit projects around Kisumu and I went to a group called Temak, which is a project supporting teenage mothers. They train the girls in sewing, hairdressing, and computer technology. They also sell crafts and have a nursery so the girls can bring their children with them when they are training. It was really great to see such a successful project, especially because they are self-sustaining and therefore don’t depend on donors.

The hotel we stayed at had a pool so my supervisor asked me to teach her how to swim. Denae and I tried and realized how hard it is to teach an adult to swim. We got her floating and she had a great time, so that’s all that matters. I forget how swimming isn’t something everyone grows up with. Our last night there a bunch of the volunteers and I went out to sing karaoke. It ended up being a lot of “group” songs because not many people wanted to do it by themselves. It was really fun, we sang songs like “sweet home Alabama,” “livin’ on a prayer,” and “I will survive.” I thought it was really funny that 3 times, each by a different Kenyan, the song “drowning” by the Backstreet Boys was sung. I didn’t realize the Backstreet Boys had made such an impact here.

So, I never want to go away for a month again. There are spiders and cobwebs everywhere even though I thought I cleaned them away. Remember that mound of bugs I had last year? Well they have attempted to come back. Last year it took heavy duty chemicals to get them to go away and I’ll probably get cancer in the future because of it. This time, before resorting the chemicals, I used a “dust” which people use on their animals to prevent fleas/ticks etc. I dumped a bunch on the forming mound and around the corners of my house, and it worked! Then I washed my floor and I guess some of the “dust” that was on the floor got mopped all around and now I’ve been finding dead ants and bugs all over the floor. Sweet! I am now an exterminator.

Another sad thing about going away for a month is since being back in Oyugis I have gotten a mysterious rash/hives ALL OVER my body. I can’t figure out what is causing it. I haven’t used new soap or detergent or anything. Other people have suggested it’s my water but I’ve never had a problem with it before. I completely dumped out and cleaned my water tanks and it hasn’t really gone away. It could be my bedding maybe and I finally washed everything the other day, but now I’m ready to re-wash/disinfect EVERYTHING because it isn’t going away and the itching is horrible. I just don’t have time to do all this or have a place to dry everything at once so it stretches into multiple days. I would take benedryl except it makes me so tired and I’m itchy mostly during the day. Gah! It’s so annoying! I wish I knew what it was.

Anyways, now that I’m finally back at site for an extended period of time, I’ve got some projects in the works. This upcoming Thursday my organization and I are putting on a football tournament with 4 youth groups, so that should be fun. Then of course I’ll be working with Mang’ang’a youth group to implement the beekeeping project and I’m excited to start planning April’s Camp GLOW (the girl’s empowerment camp) with other volunteers.

On another note, before going to the US I helped write a proposal with the beekeeping group I work with. I wrote about it on my last post, and I got this project approved. I am trying to fundraise money on the Peace Corps website for the group so they can add value to their honey by getting them some better equipment. I need to fundraise $1857.50 by next April, hopefully earlier, for the project to be implemented. If the money isn’t raised by the time I leave, it gets put into a general Peace Corps Kenya fund and the project can’t be implemented. The money will be used to buy new and improved hives, better beekeeping suits (their current ones have holes in them), jars for the group to sell honey in, and a centrifuge. The centrifuge will be used to extract the honey without destroying the combs, which allows the group to harvest honey more often. The project will be sustainable because the group will be able to re-invest the money from their sales to upkeep their equipment and purchase more jars and eventually hives.

The youth group would appreciate any and all donations you’d be able to give. You can give as little or as much as you want. Even $1 can make a difference. And, it’s tax-deductible. Please let me know if you want any more information. I can also send out the budget so you can see where the money will be spent. This money goes through the Peace Corps and is then given to me to work with the group to implement the project.

Here’s the link to the site where you can donate:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=615-176

and if that doesn’t work, go to http://www.peacecorps.gov/donate and search by the project number, 615-176

Sorry it's been so long.

My big project so far has been a home-based care manual for community health workers (CHWs). All our CHWs have been trained, but it’s been awhile and they don’t have any sort of references so I worked on a manual. I finished the 51 page manual at the end of June and it includes topics on treating water, family planning, caring for people living with HIV/AIDS, recipes on alternative nutrition, and a “how to” section with directions on making a sack garden, a hand-washing device, and re-usable sanitary pads. After it was printed I did a training for all our CHWs with a Luo translator. I think it went really well and found it very interesting that the topics they were most interested in were rabies and HPV.

I started my very long journey from Oyugis at the beginning of July. On the 4th of July I went to a place outside Nairobi for the day for a picnic/goat roast with some friends from Nairobi. It was at a really pretty place that had waterfalls and a little pond. I then went back to Loitokitok (my training site from last year) to help with training the new group of public health volunteers. I visited my family and Esther (the youngest host-sister) is soooo big now! It took her like 15 minutes to recognize me but then she started crawling all over me. I had a great time meeting everyone in the new group and a lot of them will be near my area so that’s nice.

As many of you know, I went back to the States in July. Throughout the 2 weeks I spent time on MV, in Boston, a night in Maine, and a weekend in NYC. It was actually a little stressful for me at the beginning because I was running around trying to see as many people as possible, trying to get a store to sell the beads and bags for the women’s groups, and additionally I was very sick. On one of the plane rides home I had gotten a cough and it turned to bronchitis pretty fast so I spent my first full day in America in the Emergency Room. The antibiotics combined with me getting used to the new food made my stomach not too happy. I sadly vomited my turkey sandwich up on the beach one of the days. I went to Boston for a few days of shopping and visiting people and had a blast. After that and MV, I went to NYC for my friend Caitlin’s wedding and had an amazing reunion with all my friends from Skidmore.

Home was very fun. It was a nice break because I had been really busy and stressed about the manual up until then. I saw a bunch of people and ate sooo much food. My parents were awesome and stocked the fridge with all the yummy things I was missing like turkey and Sam Adams summer ale. I also stocked up on my favorite things like twizzlers, chocolate covered pretzels, chips ahoy cookies, packets of tuna fish, kettlecorn, and taco seasoning…. I even brought back some bagels from New York. So, you would think after being in Kenya for a year and being very conscious of how I get water and conserving it, that I would be super conservative when back in the States. I won’t lie though, I took advantage and took very long showers as often as possible.

I got back to Kenya and we had a “Christmas in July” party because all of the people from my training group were together in Nairobi for mid-service medical exams. We did a secret santa swap, except it was like a Chinese swap so we were able to steal from each other. I put an everything bagel into the pile and it caused quite a stir. People were trying to bribe each other for the bagel and people were yelling at each other, it was pretty hilarious. I ended up with an American flag air freshener that one of the volunteers had gotten out a matatu window during traffic in Nairobi.

Last week Kenya had a referendum to vote for a new constitution. Peace Corps was worried that it might cause an outbreak of violence. After the last elections there was a lot of violence and volunteers were evacuated, so they were very prepared this time. I was with a bunch of other volunteers in Nairobi because we were helping out with some work for the Peace Corps. Luckily the vote happened with no problems and Kenya now has a new constitution! Now I’m finally home in Oyugis after over a month away. I had lots of cobwebs to clean and unpacking to do. I am also excited to get my kitties back tomorrow! Last night I was so happy to hear the rain pouring on my metal roof and to sleep under my mosquito net, which protects me from all the bugs that might want to bite me. It's good to be home.

I have been in Kenya for over a year now. Wow. Last weekend I spent my second birthday in country. This year’s birthday was a lot better than last year’s. This is not to say I had a bad birthday last year, but it was four days after arriving in the country and two days after meeting my host-family, so I didn’t know many people and didn’t really get to celebrate. This year I had a triple birthday with two other volunteers who had birthdays within a couple of days of me.

We went to Kisumu and basically did a lot of eating. On Friday we went to an all-you-can-eat Indian buffet and we ate so much that most of us couldn’t move enough to want to go out dancing, haha. We know this couple who works for Walter Reed and has a nice house/fully equipped kitchen, so they let us cook a Mexican feast there on Saturday. We spent most of the day preparing. It was great, we made tortillas, bean/corn salad, nachos, meat tacos, guacamole, salsa and we had shredded cheese, lettuce, and sour cream to put on top!! A friend of ours baked us a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. Oh, it was soooo good. A few of us went out dancing afterwards too. It was a fun weekend and was nice to have people to celebrate with.

On my actual birthday my coworkers cooked fried chicken, French fries, salsa, and a yummy egg curry thingy. I made brownies from brownie mix mom and dad had brought me, although my jiko oven didn’t cook them very well. They were nice and gooey, and I haven’t gotten Salmonella yet, so that’s good news.

This past week we took some members from our sister organizations to visit some of our groups. For lunch we had aluru (quail). I’ve never had quail before and I felt bad because they were so small and looked like baby chicks. However, they were so tasty, so much better than chicken. People here are used to eating the bones and all (because the bones are soft). I refused to eat the bones and one of my coworkers told me I was a disgrace for not eating the bones, that if any mama walked in and saw the bones on my plate she would be ashamed. Oh well, I ccan deal with being a “disgrace” haha.

Not sure how many people out there care about the World Cup, but it has begun! I don’t usually care, but it’ pretty cool that it’s taking place relatively “close” to here. One of the youth groups we work with has a small TV and a battery/generator to power it (because there’s no electricity there) and are showing the games and charging people to watch it as an income-generating activity. On Friday I went to their “hall” (which is really a nursery school in the mornings) to watch the opening ceremony and the beginning of the first game. I find it kind of ironic that I’ve never watched a world cup game before when I’ve had easy access to televisions and electricity and there I was, out in the bush in Kenya without electricity, watching the game. I could’ve probably found somewhere in town to watch also, but I figured I’d support our youth group and that way I was around familiar faces. So, maybe soccer isn’t so boring after all, I quite enjoyed watching it with a large group of people. I was the only one cheering for Mexico in their game against South Africa. Kenya didn’t make it to the world cup so most Kenyans are cheering for all the African teams. I don’t really care that much, but I will be cheering for Argentina and the US obviously, and I have a feeling Brazil’s gonna take it all.

I’m very impressed by all the work that youth group (mentioned above) has accomplished. They are the same group that does beekeeping. They just harvested honey two weeks ago and have already sold all 30 containers of honey and they used the money to buy the battery to show the world cup games. They also run a nursery school and grow other crops that are good for making a profit (such as sorghum, pineapple, and peanuts). Right now there are some elderly/sick people in their community that are supported by my organization and provided with food support monthly. They, along with salaries of nursery school teachers are paid by the donors, but the youth group is looking to find a more sustainable way to provide that support in the future. The group has received training on beekeeping using a better type of hives (called Langstroth hives) which will allow them to harvest more often and will be better for the bees. They are also hoping to get a centrifuge machine, which lets them get the honey out of the combs without destroying them. This allows them to harvest more honey because the bees don’t have to rebuild the combs each time after harvesting and the honey is also of higher quality and can be sold for more. They would also be able to rent out use of the machine to other bee-keeping groups because there is only one other place in Oyugis that has a machine but they don’t let others use it. I’m hoping to help them get funding for the centrifuge machine so they can increase their income and can better support the nursery school and the vulnerable people in their community. I will be working with my organization on a proposal whether it be through the Peace Corps Partnership Program or some other funding source, so stay tuned…

It’s the rainy season. There has not been a day it has not rained in I don’t know how long, at least 3 weeks. It’s usually sunny and wicked hot in the mornings, and then it decides to rain in the early afternoon. This means, if we’re out in the field we have to hide in someone’s house until the rain stops, then make our way back through the mud. It also rains about every night and sometimes it rains so hard I can’t sleep because of the noise it makes on my iron sheet roof. It also gets “cold” when it rains. I use quotation marks because my definition of “cold” has changed drastically since moving to Kenya. It probably only gets down to 50 or 60 degrees but in comparison to the heat during the day it is cold. My coworkers make fun of me when I get cold because they say “aren’t you from a place that gets snow? How are you cold?” Honestly, I don’t know what’s happened to me, haha. We’ll see how I handle the weather in July when I come back. Thank goodness I didn’t decide to come back when it was winter there. I’d probably turn into an icicle.

The other day I stepped on what looked like solid ground and found my foot sinking into the mud up to my ankle. I rinsed off my foot with my water, only to do the same thing an hour later. I washed off my foot again only to slip in mud another few hours later. Honestly, I just gave up washing my feet. Some roads become impassable so we have to schedule around it. There are a few groups we go to that we need to wait until 11AM so the roads can have dried, but then we need to be back by 2 or 3 to avoid getting rained on in the afternoon. It’s nice that I’ve been able to collect so much water, but I can’t wait until the rainy season is over. Luckily my area isn’t prone to flooding or landslides, but it has become a big problem in certain parts of the country.

A few weeks ago it was my turn to cook in the office so I decided to make spring rolls/my version of a samosa (the Kenyan version of an empanada). I was heating the oil to fry them and went to move the pot with a towel, but it was still too hot so I dropped it and splashed boiling hot oil on my left arm. It was a pretty bad burn and very painful. I got big blisters but I was able to keep them from popping and so now my arm is pretty much back to normal, thank goodness.

Last weekend we had a friendly match between two of the football teams/youth groups we work with. It was fun to watch and hear them talking to each other and planning their future tournaments/outreaches to sensitize their communities on health issues.

Thursday we went with the donors and my coworkers to Kakamega rainforest. It used to stretch all the way down to the Congo but now there’s only small parts left. We left early in the morning so we’d be able to make it there and back in one day. The forest was so green and we saw butterflies, monkeys, birds, and lots of cool plants. There’s a tree that has leaves like sandpaper and has areas to store water for animals. We saw lots of weird looking mushrooms on the sides of the trees and it reminded me a lot of Ferngully.

We walked for a few hours and ended up climbing up a huge steep hill so we could see the tops of the trees of the rainforest. Coming down, however, was not so much fun. We were all very afraid of slipping and falling because there were lots of loose pebbles on the path down. Erick, one of my coworkers let me hold his hand as we went down (many of you know how clumsy I am) so I wouldn’t fall. One of my coworkers had to take off her shoes because she was completely inadequately dressed for hiking. We were teasing her because she came dressed like she was going to church and we were hiking in a rainforest. We also went into a cave and saw fruit bats on our way down the hill. We stopped in Kisumu on the way back and I got pizza. We were so sweaty, smelly, dirty, and tired. We got home before dark, but I bathed and went to bed even though it was early.

Saturday I went to a pre-wedding/giving of dowry event a few towns away from me. It was for the daughter of another volunteer’s supervisor so he invited some of us volunteers in the area. We got there kind of late so we didn’t see the whole event, but at one point the couple was giving out envelopes to relatives of the bride. Apparently, the envelopes had cash in them (and a good chunk of it) because the groom’s family is expected to reward the relatives and people who raised the bride and get their blessings for taking her away (the woman moves from her home to the man’s home when marrying). They had tons of food and people were really dressed up.

I’ve been here almost a year, it’s crazy to think about. I also have my days where I feel I haven’t accomplished much being here a whole year. But I guess quantifying what I’ve done over the past year is difficult and the other volunteers I’ve talked to are feeling the same way. I am looking forward to a lot of things in the close future too so that usually makes up for the “down” days I have.

Hi everyone. It’s been a busy month. Well, life in general has gotten busy here now that I’ve got projects going on and whatnot. A few weeks ago my organization and I went to a training on beekeeping using improved hives. It was really interesting to learn about bees and their behaviors. For example, if the queen bee isn’t doing her job, meaning laying 2,000 eggs per day, the other bees plan to kick her out. But, the queen can figure out they are going to do this and she recruits some of her men to leave the hive and start a new one. Interesting, no? I can’t wait to get the honey from these new hives we’ve gotten. One of the youth groups we work with will be able to harvest more often and make good money from selling the honey.

Last week I went to Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) in Nairobi, which was organized by some other Peace Corps volunteers. It’s a leadership camp focusing on empowerment, self-esteem, decision-making, women’s health, and many other topics. I went along with 2 other volunteers in my group to help facilitate the camp. There were 28 girls and 10 female counterparts from all over Kenya who had been nominated by other volunteer. I went with two of my counterparts and one girl.

The camp took place in a forest right outside Nairobi at a campground facility. We all slept in tents and boy is it cold in Nairobi compared to Oyugis. Luckily it didn’t rain until the last night. We did camp games like figuring out how to get 15 of us over a 4 foot high rope while holding hands or untying knots in a rope without taking our left hand off. We got up every morning at 6AM to exercise and then make breakfast.

We had sessions throughout the week on empowerment, self-esteem, confidence-building, decision-making, rape, domestic violence, and women’s health. One of the days Denae, Amber, and I had an impromptu sex talk with some girls. It was eye-opening to hear these young girls (they’re all in secondary school) talk about sex and their boyfriends. They discussed myths they’ve heard like “condoms can leak and don’t protect against STDs” and “you can’t get pregnant when you have your period.” One of the girls told another that it’s not possible to have a boyfriend and not have sex with him. It was really encouraging though by the end to hear the girls giving each other advice on how to say no to someone pressuring sex.

We had a session on rape and it was interesting to hear the girls listing “wearing short skirts” as something that could cause rape. One of my counterparts then asked the girls if that meant babies who just wear diapers or small children who are naked are then asking to be raped. The girls started to change their minds throughout the session. There are some cultural beliefs though that made it difficult for their thinking to change. For example, there were a few Muslim girls who couldn’t wrap their minds around the idea that a husband could rape a wife. After the session the girls learned how to defend themselves in case anyone ever tried to attack/rape them. The girls did very well, and even a girl who had been raped in the past few months responded well to the session.

One day we did a session on health and circumcision came up. There’s a big campaign in Kenya to encourage male circumcision for the tribes that don’t usually practice it (Luos traditionally do not circumcise) because it reduces the risk of getting HIV/AIDs. I was explaining to the girls how circumcision can reduce the risk of men getting infected but that it doesn’t mean it prevents HIV/AIDs and one of the girls asked about circumcision in the US. We then moved on to birth control methods and we did a condom demonstration with the girls. I had to do it on a cucumber because somebody ate the banana we were gonna use and then a monkey stole the carrot we were gonna use. There were many mischievous monkeys: they figured out how to open the tents and stole cookies from a few people.

On Wednesday the girls did job-shadowing of professional women in the careers they were interested in. Thursday we went to Nairobi Women’s Hospital, where the girls and counterparts got to ask questions regarding women’s health. At one point the doctor was explaining how to do a self-breast exam and all the girls and counterparts practiced. It was a funny image: 50 women and girls sitting in a classroom examining their breasts over their clothing.

I had a lot of fun at the camp and really enjoyed watching the girls gain confidence throughout the week. I’m excited to help plan for next year’s camp. I want to do some more arts and crafts/theater things because the girls were getting really creative. One night after dinner they did creative interpretations of the things they learned that day and they also did lots of dancing and singing throughout the week.

Ok that’s it for now.

Big news: I got electricity in my house last week. I never realized how much I took electricity for granted until I came here. I’ve been at site 8 months (whoa baby) and after all that it only took one day to put in electricity. They dug a trench for the wires to go underground and ripped apart the walls for the wires and then re-cemented them. I was lucky they could just run a line from the office. It’s a whole new world (like in Aladdin). I can now watch my episodes of Sex & the City WHILE cooking dinner under the delightful glow of my energy-saving light bulb, whereas before I would sit in the dark in the office up until 8pm watching these things. It’s not like the electricity was necessary, I had convinced myself it was calming/romantic to do everything by candle-light and lantern-light. But, I’m loving my light-switching, socket-charging abilities now.

I can’t believe I’ve been in Kenya 10 months! I’ve been thinking about how/if I’ve changed since being here. I think I’ve become more cynical, which makes me kind of sad. But I’ve gained more appreciation for the simple things in life. It has definitely made me realize all the things I took for granted back home.

I’ve learned a lot about agriculture since food security is very important here. For example, did you know pineapple can grow without very much water? I always imagined pineapple growing in tropical/rainy areas, but after they germinate they don’t need much water at all. Sarah, another volunteer who lives close to me, has a shamba (farm/garden) where she grows carrots, spinach, and tomatoes. I’m jealous and wish I had space for a garden. That’s one of the things on my “to do before I die” list: have a garden where the plants don’t die.

I’ve definitely realized why things can take so long to accomplish here, things always come up. I’ve been trying to meet with the bead group for weeks to teach them some new techniques. The first week another meeting came up so we couldn’t go, the second week we went but no one in the group was there because there was a funeral in the community. Then, last week there was what I’ll call a “rain day.” Kenya doesn’t have snow days, but there sure are rain days. It had been raining all night long the night before and was still raining pretty hard in the morning. Only one of my coworkers came to the office because when it rains here, the roads are impassable because of the mud. You can’t walk or drive on them. Since my “commute” to the office is walking 15 feet I had no problem going. So, my coworker and I made tea, did a little work and then I had an Indiana Jones movie marathon by myself in my house.

Work-wise, I’ve been working with my organization on creating a manual on home-based care for our community health workers (CHWs) to use as a reference guide when they are out in the community. We’re putting information on basic hygiene, treating water, malaria, tuberculosis, caring for people living with HIV/AIDS, and a “how to” section on making tippy taps (for hand-washing) and sewing reusable sanitary pads for girls. It’s a lot of work but at least we can make it in English because all our CHWs were trained in English. If we had to translate it to Luo, it’d take forever.

So, who would’ve thought that I’d ever be considered an ICT specialist? My organization has gotten laptops and a printer so I’ve been helping them learn Microsoft office and internet searching. One of my coworkers chairs a loans committee so I showed him how to use Excel to make a spreadsheet that does the math for him. He was so excited he didn’t have to add up everything himself.

So, things are still going well here. As I’ve said many times before, I love my organization/coworkers. The ladies act like mamas and make sure I’m taken care of and are training me to become a mama. My cooking project is still going strong, I made lentil burgers last week with guacamole on top, and they went over very well. I was excited I had leftovers and ate them with my Heinz ketchup packets mom and dad brought me. Another week I made spaghetti and garlic bread and one of my male coworkers put the spaghetti and the sauce on a piece of garlic bread and rolled it up to eat it. He said, “it’s like a burrito!” Leave it to him to create an Italian burrito. I tried it and it was very good I’ll have to introduce it to America.

In a few weeks I’ll be going with my supervisor, another one of my coworkers, and an orphan who my supervisor takes care of to Nairobi for Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World). We’ll be meeting up with other volunteers, counterparts, and girls for a week-long camp to empower the girls and focus on leadership skills, self-esteem, decision-making, women’s health, gender violence, and many other topics. I’m so excited!! I’m sure I’ll be writing about it on my next post.

As some of you may have heard already, the ladies in my organization are determined to turn me into a Kenyan mama by the end of my two years here. I’m already well on my way (except for the husband and children part, don’t worry mom). I have already mastered washing my clothes and the floors by hand, Kenyan style (although I prefer to use a mop for the floors instead of bending over dragging a rag across a soapy floor).

A few weeks ago we visited one of our nursery schools to have lunch with the kids. We arrived before lunch was ready so the ladies (who also run a catering group on the weekends) had me help cook lunch. I helped make a huge pot (think same circumference as a tractor trailer truck tire) of mboga (cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, onions). They also showed me the best type of firewood to fetch for cooking.

Last week we went to build a new house for a widow in one of the women’s groups we work with. She’s probably around my age (23) and has 4 kids and is already widowed. They were living in a very small house, I wouldn’t even call it a house, it was a room about 6 feet by 6 feet with a door and a roof. Their new house is much better. I helped chop vegetables for lunch. Like I said in an earlier post, the men build the foundation while the women cook lunch for everyone and then the women make the walls. While we were waiting for the men to finish the foundation I saw some of the women collecting water and bringing it to the side of the house to make the mud for the walls. They were carrying the buckets of water on their heads, which is how women carry most things here. I’ve wanted to carry water on my head since getting here so I went to help. I filled up a bucket and spilled a bunch while I put it on my head but I made it the few hundred yards up to the house without it falling. One of my male coworkers was making fun of me and saying that if he were to carry water on his head he wouldn’t spill and he’d be able to walk without using his hands to hold it (like I was doing). I told him to prove it and dragged him down to the water. He spilled and he had to use his hands. Everyone was laughing because men usually don’t carry water here. I guess he’ll think twice before bragging to me again, haha. I then helped do the mud walls and then gave out condoms to the widow, which made me feel like a good public health volunteer that day.

So, like I said, I’m well on my way to becoming a Kenyan mama. I think the next thing I’ll have to learn is too carry a small child on my back with a leso (piece of fabric).

A couple weekends ago I went to Kisumu with some other volunteers who I hadn’t seen in a long time. I got a sizzling brownie sundae with a corona with lime for dinner one of the nights, yesss. Then we went to a bar where we played pool and danced the night away. We were the only ones on the dance floor that night so we just requested all our favorite songs and had a blast.

Wow it’s been a really long time since I wrote. I’ve been very busy. In January I worked with some of the groups to plan for this year. I also distributed the money from all the beadwork and bags that mom & dad sold for me over the holidays. The groups were so happy they haven’t made this much money since back in 2007. Thanks to everyone who bought things! I’ve taught the bead group some new techniques so we’ll have some new things to sell too.

My parents and Lauren and Jane (friends of ours) came at the end of January to visit. We hung out in Nairobi for a day while they got un-jet-lagged. We went to a giraffe center where you could feed the giraffes right out of your hand! We also went to an Italian restaurant for dinner, which I was really psyched about but according to the rest it was mediocre. Guess my taste buds have suffered since coming to Kenya, I now think any resemblance of pizza is amazing, haha.

We went to Loitokitok and I showed them where I did training and the VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) where mom, Lauren, and Jane (being the medical people they are) were all very interested in how testing for HIV/AIDS is done here. We also visited my host family. It was so good to see them again; I was worried Esta, the 3 year-old, wouldn’t remember me but within 5 minutes it was as if I had never left. We had brought bubbles for the girls and boy, did those go over well. Esta squealed with joy every time we made a bubble and Esta and Winnie (the two eight year-olds) were having a grand-ole time too. Turns out my host family had gotten presents for my family too. We ate dinner together and then went back to our hotel. I’ll definitely have to go back and visit again, they were such a great family to live with.

The next day we went to Amboseli, a park near Loitokitok. Within maybe 300 ft of passing through the gate we saw an elephant walking around. It was so cool to see animals walking around with Mt. Kilimanjaro in the background. We saw elephants, zebras, giraffes, hippos, wildebeests, ostriches, a hyena, and tons of different types of birds. Our hotel was really nice and had monkeys all over the place. One rude monkey was drinking from a tap. The hotel put out food at night to attract animals so we went to see if there were any cool animals. There was a bar overlooking the area, but unfortunately there were no interesting animals to see, just some domestic house cats. I did see a guy who looked like David Hasselhoff with a mullet though. I had stubbed my pinkie toe really badly earlier in the day but since I didn’t want to miss a drink at the bar with Lauren and Jane we brought the medical attention to the bar. I had mom giving me Arnica to stop swelling, Jane elevating and putting ice on my toe, and Lauren buying me a drink. That’s all the medicine I needed, my toe was better the next day.

The next day we traveled through Nairobi (and its horrendous traffic) to get to Lake Naivasha where we took a boat ride. Honestly, the actual boat ride wasn’t that great. We saw a ton of hippos, but the highlight was when we got off at a little peninsula and walked along with the wildlife. We got within feet of a giraffe, zebras, waterbucks, and wildebeests. The best was when dad sneezed really loudly and the herd of zebras started running. He stood still and whispered, “do you think it’s because I sneezed?” Haha, apparently he has a sneeze that can start stampedes. The hotel we stayed at in Naivasha was really nice. We were told we had to get an askari (watchman) to walk with us after dark to get around. We realized the reasoning behind this when a waterbuck scared the crap out of us when it ran right in front of us on our way back to our rooms after dinner. Mom and dad had an interesting adventure with a bat flying into their room, you should ask mom for the story she’d tell it better. The next morning after breakfast we walked around the grounds of the hotel and followed a giraffe for a while.

We went to Lake Nakuru, which is famous for its flamingos. We saw lots of baboons and flamingos of course. We also saw a black rhino and a white rhino. After the park we drove to Maasai Mara (about 7 hours of bumpy dirt roads). The next morning Jane and I woke up at 4AM to go on our hot-air balloon safari (the others are afraid of heights or get motion-sick). We had a driver and an askari taking us to a hotel where the balloon left from. On the way we saw three lions sitting by the side of the road. The askari let me sit in the front seat so I could see them better and take a picture. I noticed he carried a huge AK-47. I asked “so, have you shot many animals with that gun?” He responded “no, it’s for humans.” Apparently there used to be a lot of poachers in the park so the government made it a rule that anyone traveling in the dark have an armed askari. I hope he hasn’t had to shoot any humans… Jane and I met up with 15 other people for the balloon ride. We all fit in one balloon and went up in the air just before sunrise. We watched the sunrise and saw the park and some animals from the air. We were hoping to see more animals but it was still amazing.

After landing we went to a breakfast where we ate in the bush and drank champagne. A large truck then took us back toward the hotel we left from. However, we got a puncture in one of our tires as we were out in the middle of nowhere. We had a spare tire but no jack (it was in Nairobi). We had to wait about ½ hour for the truck with the balloon in it to arrive with a jack. So there I was, stuck in the middle of nowhere, with elephants in the distance, buzzards circling above our heads, perfect cell service and a little tipsy from the champagne. So what did I do? I giggled with Jane, texted my friends about the situation, and peed in the grass with a bunch of German tourists watching me.

We met up with mom, dad, and Lauren and saw some lions and a bunch of other animals. The next day we drove through the park searching for leopards (one of the only animals we didn’t get to see) but unfortunately we didn’t see any. We did see a cheetah stalking a warthog though. We then drove to Oyugis where they stayed for a few days. They met my organization and we took them around to some of the groups and the clinic.

They brought me lots of stuff like chocolate covered pretzels from Trader Joes and parmesan cheese! It was great to see them, I wish Chris could have come though. Since they’ve left I’ve been busy also. I went to a workshop with the Peace Corps for a week and we had some donors visiting last week so I’m just getting back into the swing of things. Guess that’s it for now.

Hi everyone, here's a post from my mom about my parents' trip to visit me. I'll be posting about the safari part soon.

Hello-This is Mary (Lizzie's Mom) posting. Steve and I and friends Lauren and Jane have just returned from a week long Safari and 3 days in Oyugis. I will leave the Safari details for Lizzie to post. It was a big relief for me to see how well Lizzie and her organization are working together. The Imani Community Development Organization is a dedicated, hard-working group that also knows how to laugh. I know Lizzie feels things are not happening fast enough for her usual Lizzie USA speed, but she is definitely making a difference. We were spoiled by being driven to all the sites where Lizzie usually walks to. Jane left her a pedometer for her to get an idea of how much she walks. At all the Imani sites we traveled to in Oyugis we were presented with gifts, serenaded with songs, and entertained with skits and traditional dances. Hopefully, some of the supplies we brought to Oyugis will help out these groups. I know Lizzie is comfortable there when she said "I miss being in my own house" after all her traveling with us.

Since our 11 days in Kenya I have developed a great appreciation for first-Water,water.water! Clean, safe, cold water from the faucet for drinking, bathing cooking and water to keep the dust down on the roads. We had definitely underestimated how much traveling on bumpy, dirt roads we would be doing. I felt like I was in a Toyota commercial several times with our safari Toyota Land Cruiser, especially in Nairobi traffic. We avoided a huge truck backup on the highway driving in and out of a ditch sideways!

Second: electricity-Even in our safari lodges it was available only part time. Electricity for refrigeration: when we got a cold drink (whether water, wine, soda or beer) we felt like we had gone to heaven! Most of the electricity in the national parks was supplied from generators, not power lines.

Third: screens on windows. We had mosquito nets over our beds just about everywhere, but leaving our windows and balcony doors open proved to be an adventure. The temperature went down at night, and we often had a cool breeze. The windows with no screens had to be closed for "security." Little did I realize that also meant protection from wildlife! My nickname became "bat-girl." We are back in the US now with all the comforts of home. Most of all we are so proud of our Vineyard daughter, halfway across the world making a difference.

Sorry it’s been awhile since I’ve written. There wasn’t a whole lot to write about. At the beginning of December my organization and I were working with our community groups to plan for next year so we didn’t do many field visits. I did teach the bead group how to do wire working to make their earrings better quality. They caught on really fast so I was really happy. I’ll be going back soon to teach them some other techniques. Thanks to all of you who bought beads and bags from my mom, the groups are going to be so happy.

So I just got back from the coast of Kenya, where I spent Christmas. I took the overnight train from Nairobi to Mombasa with a few other volunteers from Nyanza. It broke down a few times so we ended up arriving around 6 hours late. But, I pretty much expect that things will go wrong when I travel, so I wasn’t too worried. At one point we were stopped in the middle of nowhere because a pipe burst or something. So there we were, stuck on a train in a desert-type area on Christmas Eve, dripping with sweat, listening to music about chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Kind of funny.

We met up with some of the coast volunteers and took the 15 minute ferry to the south coast. There’s a volunteer in Msambweni who works with an organization that has a campsite right on the beach so we stayed there. It was incredible; we camped and had a beach that was pretty much private right below the site. AND, there were showers and electricity! Kind of funny that I “rough it” more at site. We jumped in the ocean as soon as we got there and watched the sun set.

The next day was Christmas so a bunch of us went to Diani beach, a really touristy area nearby, figuring we’d be able to find a nice restaurant to splurge on for Christmas dinner. The place that had been recommended to us was closed however. We asked around and everyone told us everything would be closed but maybe the Chinese restaurant would be open (I pictured A Christmas Story, “fa ra ra ra ra ra raaaa”). Then we met this middle-aged German man named George who told us we would probably be able to at least get lunch at the resort next door.

We got to his resort, which was right on the beach, and they offered us an all-inclusive price of 4500 ksh (about $50). At first we said no way, but then our friend Edward at the front desk explained it included EVERYTHING: all you can eat lunch and dinner, all you can drink, swimming in their pool, and all their activities they had planned. We decided we could make it worth it so we splurged. It was great; we played beach volleyball and hung out by the pool and on the beach. George the German saved Christmas for us!

The lunch and dinner buffets were amazing; it included kingfish, fishcakes, pasta, salad bar, yummy desserts, steak, roast beef… I’ve never felt so fancy. At one point there was a man selling camel rides along the beach. Riding a camel is on my list of things I want to do before I die, so obviously I did it. My friend Denae and I rode a camel named Ali Baba together. It was so fun, although very scary. The camel sits down so you can get on it but then it gets up with its back legs first meaning you think you’re going to be thrown off the front. Camels are a lot taller than I thought they were. And, I’ve heard they are mean, but Ali Baba was super nice and let us hug him.

A guy who worked at the resort was climbing the palm trees to get coconuts and palm leaves to decorate for dinner and he offered us a coconut to drink out of it. As much as I like coconut flavored things I don’t really like the fresh coconut. A few minutes after we each had a sip though, a monkey snatched the coconut and ran away with it. It didn’t feel like Christmas at all but I have no complaints about how we spent it. While you all had your white Christmas in the snow we had our white sandy beaches.

The coast is very very hot in comparison to Nyanza. There were a few mornings where we woke up early sweating and moved out of the tents onto the beach to finish sleeping. We went snorkeling; I saw Dori from Finding Nemo and some other neat fish and coral. One of the days we went to Mombasa to explore the older part of the city, which has cool architecture. We ate shawarma and got iced coffee.

I went up to Malindi, which is on the north coast, to visit one of my friends and explore around there. Malindi is a huge Italian touristy area, so instead of calling us mzungu everyone said “ciao” to us. I got some yummy pizza, lasagna, and gelato while there. We also explored a few beaches there and made tuna fish sandwiches on the beach one of the days. It was nice to see a different part of the coast.

I went back to Msambweni for a few days and then headed back on New Years Eve on the night train to Nairobi. I was so tired from being in the sun so much that I fell asleep before midnight. I’m now back in Oyugis. It’s crazy to think I spent half of 2009 in Kenya! It’s going by so quickly.

As fun as the coast was, I really like living on this side of the country. I’m excited to get back to work on Monday and start working with the schools and planning for this coming year.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas/Hanukkah/Festivus/New Year.

Yesterday was World AIDS Day. I feel like a bad volunteer because I wasn’t able to organize anything due to lack of funds and time to plan. I did, however, go to the district’s World AIDS Day celebration with the nurse from the clinic I work with and some of the PLWHAs (People Living with HIV/AIDS) in their support group.

We were supposed to meet at the district hospital at 7:30AM and we left at 10:30AM (this is Kenya for you). I’m used to waiting and I can’t be that mad because I spent most of the waiting time making faces at the cutest baby ever. We filled up a bus with people who work at the district hospital and a bunch of community-based organizations and PLWHAs and went to a high school where they were hosting the event.

One thing, which will be a repetitive theme for this blog entry is how frustrated I get with how hierarchical Kenya can be. There were benches and chairs set up under the trees for everyone to sit under. Then, facing those people there were tents with more comfortable chairs and tables with tablecloths for the “important” people to sit at. Since I’m white, I usually get put in that section of meetings/seminars/events which makes me uncomfortable. But, because there were some important politicians from the area, people didn’t seem to be staring at me much, which was a nice change. Maybe I’ll have to travel to events the DC (District Commissioner?) goes to in the future. In between our tents and the trees where everyone else was sitting was a grassy area where people performed.

I felt bad when they brought out sodas for all of us in the tented area and all the rest of the people there were facing us and not getting soda. The event started out great. PLWHAs, orphans, youth group members, and other community-based organizations performed skits, songs, poems, and there was even a guy who rapped. They included themes like wife-inheritance, the importance of getting tested and knowing your HIV status, and medicine vs. remedies from witch doctors. It was very impressive.

After the performances, though, came speeches. Every Kenyan event has speeches, which usually make the events run longer than necessary. Pretty much everyone in the “important people” section got up and talked. Problem is, not many of them actually talked about HIV/AIDS they just talked about their position in their jobs and then introduced everyone they work with. People ended up leaving before it was over because they were hungry. Then it started raining so we all left as it was pretty much wrapping up. I was just so frustrated that the “speeches” took up as much time as the performances, which were the actual important part of the whole day. I will plan something better for next year I’ve decided.

I realized as I was sitting to write this, that I haven’t written very much information about my community or related to HIV/AIDS, which is a huge problem where I am. I forgot the exact percentage but the HIV/AIDS prevalence in Kenya as a country is between 7 and 8%, which is considered very high. The prevalence rate in my district is 18%. The rate among the members of the 9 community groups my organization works with is 34%!!!

When I ask people in my area what their biggest obstacle in lowering the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is, they tell me wife-inheritance. This is a Luo cultural practice where if a woman’s husband dies she can be “inherited” by a husband’s relative, usually a brother. In Luo culture men can have more than one wife, so if that woman is infected with HIV she can pass it to her new husband and then he can pass it to his other wives etc. Changing cultural practices or behaviors is very difficult. It’s just frustrating that people know what the problems are and have the information about safe sex, yet they don’t change. I’m sure it will take a long time to change wife-inheritance, but that isn’t even the complete problem; people just need to be smart and practice safe sex. There are a few women I’ve met who are HIV positive and widows and have refused to remarry. Slowly by slowly, things will change. I hope.

It’s been nice being back in Oyugis. At the beginning of this week my organization and I went on a search for a turkey for the Thanksgiving lunch we were having. We have seen turkeys around but of course now that we actually wanted one we couldn’t find any. My coworkers called friends of friends of friends. I don’t know how many times I heard them say on the phone, “Turkey, adwaro (I want) turkey. Eeee (yes), T-U-R-K-E-YYYY” because turkeys aren't the most sought after creatures here i guess. Eventually we found a guy who knew a guy who knew my coworker who lives 15 km outside of town. During the search I had told my coworkers it wasn’t a big deal if we couldn’t find one, we could just have chicken. But, they insisted, they told me they wanted me to have turkey on my holiday like it should be traditionally. Wednesday night one of my coworkers came to the office with the turkey tied to the handles of the motorbike. We locked it in a room in the office and it met its end on Thursday morning.

I didn’t do the slaughtering, it still freaks me out, but I watched and took pictures. Meanwhile, another volunteer, Denae, had come for Thanksgiving and helped me cook during the morning. We made green bean casserole (which turned out a little soupy but was still good), stuffing (which came out amazing), and an apple pie. My coworkers helped out and made mashed potatoes (not American style though it had hard boiled eggs, cilantro, and carrots, interesting…), ugali, some meat for the people who were afraid to try turkey, and some vegetables. Ugali is a kind of cornmeal that everyone eats in Kenya it’s thick and is usually used to eat and pick up other food with it. When everyone saw our stuffing they started calling it American ugali. The stuffing, turkey, and apple pie went over very well. Almost everyone there had never had turkey before.

I have to say, Thanksgiving in Kenya is way more of a process than in the states. We made our own oven by lighting a fire, then using a HUGE pot where we put sand in the bottom another pot inside that pot with the turkey in it, then covered the whole thing with a metal lid and put hot charcoals on top. We had boiled the turkey beforehand so it didn’t take a ridiculous amount of time to cook. It was really fun because my coworkers love cooking so they were watching us cook and asking us about the recipes.

Even though we were cooking turkey and everything, it only really felt like Thanksgiving at one point. That was when Denae and I were chopping green beans and listening to Christmas music. I have to say, I hadn’t cried from missing family/friends while being in Kenya until the other day when I was explaining to my coworkers about Thanksgiving and how it’s a family holiday. Honestly, I think if I hadn’t been doing this Thanksgiving event I probably would have completely forgotten it was Thanksgiving. I am glad I got to spend it with some other volunteers and my organization, though.

Warning, this will mostly be about food because it was an integral part of being in Nairobi.

I was in Nairobi for the past two weeks at my In-service training (IST). Sunday I traveled with Sarah, the volunteer who lives a few towns away from me to Nairobi. We took a matatu called Premium Shuttle where the seats are bigger and more comfortable and they don’t squish people in or stop on the way. We were really excited at how nice it was and how good their service was. Then, about ½ hour into the ride some sort of liquid splashed onto Sarah and me from outside the window. Then, we realized it smelled gross. Then, we saw the woman sitting in front of us was vomiting out her window and the vomit was coming in our window. Tabia mbaya (bad manners). Luckily it was just a little so we put hand sanitizer all over our arms.

That night I got a bacon guacamole cheeseburger and an iced mocha. AMAZING. It was great to see all the volunteers I haven’t seen in three months. We went out to dinner a bunch of nights. Over the course of the two weeks I got a turkey club sandwich (finally, maybe I’ll stop dreaming about them now), pizza, pad thai (which turned out to not taste like pad thai and it was too spicy for me but it was still good), quesadilla (again, wasn’t too authentic, but good), pesto pasta, a tuna melt sandwich, and SALAD. Yeah, salad. Raw veggies usually shouldn’t be trusted but there are some nice places in Nairobi that make some amazing salads.

Our training was good, we learned some cool games we can play with kids to teach them about stigma and behaviour change regarding HIV/AIDS. The best part was all the informational materials we’ll be getting. PEPFAR has lots of materials we can use, including soccer balls with health messages written in a local language on them! We also found out good places to write proposals to for money for projects.

I was able to sell lots of the bags and jewelry from my women’s groups to other volunteers and to Peace Corps staff too, so that’s exciting. We didn’t have a ton of free time, but I was able to go out one night with some other volunteers. Unfortunately EVERYONE got sick while we were there. There was some sort of flu/bacterial/intestinal sickness going around. I have to say, though, it was so much better being sick in Nairobi than back at site because we all had flush toilets, showers, and medical staff who are awesome. After three days of antibiotics I was back to normal.

My friend Rachel and I had been commenting on how long our hair has gotten (we’ve been in Kenya almost 6 months!) so we decided to cut each others. It was ridiculously scary, which is why people suggested drinking before doing it (which we did not do). We figured since we both have curly hair, even if we make mistakes you won’t really be able to tell because our hair will just curl up anyways. Rachel cut my hair first and did a great job. I was really nervous to do hers, she kept assuring me it would be fine because she wears head scarves at site (she’s in a Muslim area). I ended up cutting it shorter than she wanted but it looked good so she didn’t seem too upset.

We had one of the afternoons free so I went with a Kenyan friend of mine around Nairobi. We went to Kikomba, one of the largest markets in East Africa, although we just went to the belt section because he needed a belt. We also went to an area where they sell sterling silver, I was excited to see clasps and jewelry pieces which maybe I’ll try and get the bead group to use.

We were done with training on Thursday and most people left on Friday. I stayed because I needed to buy beading supplies for the bead group. I was really excited I was able to find everything I needed and more. I got pliers so I’ll be able to teach them to do wire working and improving their earring designs. I also tried Ethiopian food for the first time, it was tasty and affordable.

I’m back in Oyugis now and very happy to be back and cooking for myself. It was really nice coming back yesterday and everyone being excited to see me back and people saying they missed me. I’m also excited, we’re having Thanksgiving dinner with my organization and I think some other volunteers might come too. We’ll see how this cooking a turkey (which we’ll have to slaughter) without an oven works out…

It’s been awhile I guess. I’ve been busy writing my community needs assessment, which is a report that we give to the Peace Corps at our in-service training and will eventually go back to our organizations and help us decide what we want to do as a project. I plan to work in the schools and talk about birth control and especially target the girls. Girls drop out of school more often than boys and teenage pregnancy is pretty bad here, girls as young as 12 get pregnant!

I’ve been working with the bead group and the bag group to come up with some more designs and produce enough so I can sell to the other volunteers and look for a place to sell them in other places in Kenya. There was a holiday in the middle of the week a few weeks ago so I went to Kisumu to pick out fabric and materials for the bags, which was really fun, and also to eat pizza and get iced coffee.

Last weekend I went to Kisumu with some other volunteers in the Nyanza area to celebrate Halloween. We went to Kiboko Bay (Kiboko=hippo in Kiswahili) were there’s a really nice hotel with a pool overlooking Lake Victoria. We swam in the pool, hung out there most of the day. One of the volunteers had met a couple that works for the Clinton Foundation or something and they have a huge amazing house. Even by American standards it’s nice. They let us hang out there and we used their oven (yes a real oven!) to make pizza. We didn’t find any pumpkins, but I carved a watermelon. It actually worked out pretty well, I scraped out the watermelon and we put it in our sangria/jungle juice concoction and then I was able to carve a face pretty easily. Because I hadn’t been planning on carving anything I had no plans, therefore it was a boring face.

After, we went out to a bar that had local music and we were the only mzungus there. They had tables outside on the grass and there was a huge tree next to us with a fruit/nut that looked like huge sausages; therefore, we called it the sausage tree. At one point we saw a drunk man go up to the tree and put his mouth up to one of the sausages like he was trying to drink from it. I dared one of the other volunteers to go up and try to squeeze the sausage, I said maybe there’s alcohol in the tree. She ridiculed me, saying it couldn’t be a “booze tree.” She went up and tried to squeeze it and the drunk man came over to her and explained the tree to us. He said if we take one of the “nuts” and bury it after 3 days we dig it up, cut it open and then squeeze it, we will magically get drunk (we wouldn’t even have to drink it). We took the “magic booze nut” home to try it out. I haven’t buried it yet, but I’ll let you know if I magically get drunk. Haha

We’ve been busy because our donors have been visiting from the UK so we have been taking them around to see our community groups and schools we work with. Yesterday we had a graduation for the pupils of a nursery school we work with. I had designed the children’s caps and gowns for a tailor to make. They turned out really well and the kids were so happy. Many of the children are orphans or vulnerable children, so they really enjoyed the ceremony. They sang and recited poems and we had decorated with balloons and streamers.

Yesterday I asked my counterparts how much my dowry would be in Kenya. Since I’m educated, I should expect 4 “high-yield” cows, which amounts to about 200,000 Kenyan Shillings. Therefore, I think the next time a man proposes to me I’ll ask him if he has those cows and the money to pay for them to be transported to America and to see a vet before they leave Kenya. And, I converted my US debts for college into Kenyan shillings and it’s 1.5MILLION, so if that doesn’t deter them, I don’t know what will, haha.

As I sit here in the office eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and working on my Community Needs Assessment, which I'll hand in to the Peace Corps in a few weeks, I can't help think of spending my weekends in the Skidmore library writing my thesis. I'd pack my lunch and spend all day in the library with Emily. Sadly, I can't run out and grab iced coffee to keep me going like I could then. Closest thing is probably getting a soda at the little shop next door. Is it weird that I miss school? Maybe it's because we've spent so much of our lives in school. I definitely want to go back to school after the Peace Corps, I just don't know for what yet. I change my mind all the time. Last year it was law school, right now it's nursing.

Anyways, since I'm procrastinating (just like I did in college too), I'm putting up one of the many lists I've started in my journal.

Things I would not put up with in the US, but I embrace/deal with in Kenya

-Picking the dead bugs out of my lentils or rocks out of the rice before cooking them

-Allowing an anthill to live in the corner of my room for a few weeks

-Continuing to eat at a restaurant where I watched a cockroach climb out of my friend’s rice

-Considering 7AM “sleeping in”

-Having cows eat my grass instead of using a lawnmower

-Peeing on the side of the house instead of facing dogs which chase me and might have rabies (I only did it once)

-Drinking wine out of a plastic cup with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner alone. Actually, I probably would do this in the US

-Drinking/using rain water as my main water source

-Being weirded out when I see other white people in my town

-Being really excited when children DON’T have “tabia mbaya” (bad manners). For example I get excited when a child says hello and doesn’t ask me for money, chocolate, my watch etc. or when they don’t pinch their noses and say “how are you” in a really annoying/whiney voice. Instead of appreciating the presence of good manners, I just get excited when there is a lack of bad manners.

-Cutting around the mold on foods/vegetables and then eating it

-Considering an hour’s walk “not far”

-Eating meat/chicken that was alive just an hour beforehand

-Being scared of cows. After being headbutted by one and then seeing them fight each other at the market, I’ve become a little scared.

-Being excited when matatus have seat belts and i have a seat to myself and am not squished against other Kenyans or have chickens flapping at my feet. (Finally the police are enforcing seat belts and the capacity limit on matatus)

-Drinking a warm beer or soda (sadly cold ones are not always an option)

-Drinking hot tea while it is 80 degrees out

-Calling bread with blueband (it's like I can't believe it's not butter)lunch

-Using a headlamp/flashlight/or lantern to cook with at night

This weekend I went to my supervisor’s mother’s funeral. My coworkers and I kinda organized it. Friday morning we met at her house in Oyugis and loaded a truck with the catering stuff and some of the catering team. One of the groups we work with has a catering group and they do funerals and other events as an income generating activity. The family and friends went to a church service while we loaded a bus with 100 plastic chairs (not easy or fun) and we had to get a pickup truck to deliver the other 100. We also had event tents, which aren’t the easy to put together plastic ones like we have at home, more catering equipment, 20 live chickens tied by their feet on the floor of the bus, and a live ram (which we put in the luggage compartment under the bus). Some were worried about the ram suffocating on the way, but it was going to be killed later in the day anyways. It survived, was probably traumatized, but we ate it for lunch.

The bus took us and other members of the catering team to my supervisor’s mother’s home, which was in a very remote area about 200 km away. We helped set up the tents and the family/friends arrived with the body soon after. When people are grieving they scream/yell, so everyone was doing that when they arrived with the casket. There was an entertainment crew that played music and did a little bit of singing. They played music all night long on Friday night and people were dancing. Now, I’m used to people staring at me in Oyugis because I’m white, but being in this more remote location pretty much EVERYONE was staring at me, well except all the family members and people who already knew me. I especially noticed at dinner, being watched while you eat is a very weird experience. One of my coworkers told me he was eavesdropping on the children earlier in the day. They were calling me Indian (not even mzungu) because the only people close to my skin color that they’ve seen are people from India. He told me they were talking about me, asking each other why I didn’t yell like everyone else when the body arrived. So for this reason I decided not to dance. Although I’m sure people were wondering why I wasn’t dancing but I’m sure if I did dance they would be wondering why. Oh well. I do have to say, though, the children in that area are way more well-behaved than the children in Oyugis, who see white people all the time. Not once did any of the children ask me for candy/money or anything. They just wanted to shake my hand. And, when I was sitting with two Kenyan women, they shook their hands too, as opposed to children in Oyugis who usually just want to shake my hand.

Oh yeah, let me mention that there was no electricity in this area, but we had two generators (car batteries) to power lights and music. I’m not gonna lie, I feared we would all burst into flames due to the sketchy wiring they had set up. I’m glad to report there were no fires. I stayed up as late as I could on Friday night (a lot of people stayed up all night), took a sleeping pill and put on my headphones to try and block the blaring music out as I slept in a room full of foam mattresses with probably 20 women. I was able to sleep a little. However, Kenyans wake up very early so I was up at 5:30AM on Saturday. The funeral started at 10 and luckily one of my coworkers sat next to me and translated. Although, I was excited because this weekend a lot of people were speaking Kiswahili; there were people from other tribes around so I was able to practice. We realized we wouldn’t be able to pack things up and get back to Oyugis that day so we planned on staying another day.

My supervisor’s mother had about 20 grandchildren, many of whom were close to my age. So, I was happy to make some friends. Many of them live elsewhere or attend universities, but I hope to see some of them again soon. On Saturday a woman came up to me to greet me and then said some things in Luo I didn’t understand. I asked my coworkers what she said. They told me she said I am a beautiful lady and that I should marry her son. My coworkers told her the son should speak for himself and I used a phrase (which I used MANY times this weekend) “ok adwaro dichwa,” or “I don’t want a husband.” Oh yeah, let me add, this lady was drunk, she started a fight later in the night. There were some other men around and they were curious why I didn’t want a husband, when they asked how old I was and I told them, they said “that is OLD.” In Kenya I guess 23 is kinda old not to be married.

They played music all night long on Saturday night too. It was more for security reasons, they didn’t want to turn off the lights/music for fear somebody would try to steal the stuff. I stayed up for awhile sitting around a charcoal jiko (our version of a bonfire) with some of the grandkids. There were two drunk old guys dancing and it was pretty funny to see because at that point they were playing American country music. I wasn’t going to complain because everyone was staring at them instead of me, which was nice. I slept okay and Sunday morning we broke down the tents, stacked chairs, etc. As we were sitting around, a 70 year-old man came over to talk to me. He asked where I was from etc. and then he asked me if I was “coupled” I said no, which was probably a mistake. I told him I am too old to get married and “ok adwaro dichwa” he told me I would change my mind. I told him I am very stubborn and will not change my mind. Then he turned to some of the other people there and asked them to pray for him to be younger so he can marry me. HAHA. He kept coming over to me and asking if I would marry him were he younger. Then, one of the guys there had a digital camera so he asked for a picture with me so he could show his friends the beautiful mzungu he is going to marry. I took the picture with him to humor him.

I learned to eat sugarcane like a Kenyan this weekend too. They eat it like it comes out of the field and just use their teeth to break off the outer shell. The boys cut off the outer layer for me so I could just chew it. I’m amazed at how much sugarcane people can eat here. The only other time I’ve had sugarcane is from the mojitos at Sharky’s.

We got back yesterday around 3 and I was so tired I went to bed at 7:30pm. As sad as the funeral was, it was also pretty fun. I had planned on going to Kisumu to meet up with some other volunteers but when we stayed longer for the funeral, I wasn’t able to go. I’m happy I stayed though, it was a good cultural experience and I was able to meet some other young people.

I forgot to write about house-building when the Belgians were here. We worked with three of our community groups to build three houses in three days for widows. The groups donated the timber for the house and did the labor while my organization, with the help of the donors, donated the iron sheets for the roofs. One of the groups was super organized and had people cooperating from the community in addition to group members.

The men dug holes and build the foundation/walls of the house with the wood. The women all donated food items (eggs, chickens, flour, etc) and cooked. They also fetched water for the cooking and to make the mud for the walls. Children were helping carry the lighter pieces of wood and the teenagers helped “make” the mud by digging up soil, pouring water and then stomping/jumping up and down barefoot to make mud. Once the men have finished creating a frame for the walls, then comes the “women’s work,” which is building the walls. I got to help. I stood on the inside as another women passed me mud which we stacked in between the frame and used our hands/fingers to squish it down. It was like being a kid again, playing in the mud, except we were actually building something real. After the mud dries (usually a week later) they add more mud until the walls are 10 inches thick and then they can plaster of just leave it as it is. At the same time we were doing the walls, the men were building the structure for the roof. The house was done (well except the walls) and ready to be lived in by the end of the day. I absolutely loved helping and also seeing how well the community cooperated to build this widow a new house.

I have gotten my organization hooked on guacamole. They think it’s the best thing since sliced bread. ANYTIME we have some sort of lunch or get-together they ask “are you making guacamole?” I made burritos for them last week and they went over very well. The ladies love cooking and run a catering service outside the group so they wanted to know about American dishes. I told them the only real “American” food is a hamburger so they want to make them sometime. Although I’m not looking forward to grinding the meat by hand, they want to try it.

On Fridays we’ve been contributing and taking turn cooking lunch. I gave the two guys in our organization a hard time because they didn’t want to cook or wash dishes because that’s “women’s work.” After I teased them for a week about them being lazy they gave in and cooked a pretty tasty lunch. They asked me if I still thought they were lazy after they cooked. I told them yes, because it’d be understandable for them not to cook if they didn’t know how, but obviously they do know how, making them lazy. Haha. Slowly, I am working on changing gender roles…

My supervisor’s mother passed away last week. Because my organization works a lot like a family we’ve been doing a lot to organize the funeral, which will take place this weekend. The day after she passed away, we went with Sophie, my supervisor, and some other of her friends to the mortuary. They had the body in a large refrigerator-type chamber with other bodies on bunk bed-type furniture. They were labeled on their foreheads with masking tape. Sophie went to see the body and then we went back to the reception room and everyone started singing to comfort Sophie. It was very intense and sad at the same time. People here sing when really happy or sad, and it’s just interesting to see that as soon as one person starts, everyone joins in, they all know the words and it’s in perfect harmony. It’s like something out of a movie.

Last Friday I was in the market, which was very crowded. I was wearing my backpack and some guy “bumped” into me and then I felt my bag was lighter. I looked and one of my pockets was unzipped and my bag of medical supplies was gone. I was angry, but also relieved that he didn’t steal anything really important. I would have liked to see his face when he realized all he got was an inhaler, tampons, some anti-malarials, bandaids, Tylenol, and pepto pills. But, because I’m me, I only carry half my supplies with me, and have the other half at my house. Therefore, I only really lost out on the inhaler and the Peace Corps will give me a new one.

My loneliness has started to hit me. I only see my coworkers during the day on weekdays, otherwise I’m alone. I don’t have any friends, which makes me sad. It’s not as easy as in Argentina. I haven’t been able to meet up with other volunteers recently. So, on Saturday, I was feeling this way and instead of just sitting at home, I decided to go to Kisii to buy cheese. Yes, I traveled 40 minutes just to get cheese. It made me feel better and I had a pretty hilarious encounter on the matatu ride back that made it worth it.

I jumped in a matatu at the station to leave Kisii not realizing its name was “Terror Squad.” Each matatu has a name and I’ve started writing down the funny ones. For some reason I felt a little scared riding in one called “Terror Squad,” but it was too late I had already paid. So, matatus don’t leave at any specific time, just once they are filled up, which can sometimes take a long time.

I was in the front seat and there are always people trying to sell things (sodas, bottled water, cookies, carrots, watches, wallets, socks, anything you can imagine) through the matatu windows. One guy was trying to sell CDs so he started singing some of the songs on it to me, haha. I told him I didn’t want any. Then, another guy is standing in the window next to him trying to sell me soda. The 1st told the 2nd guy he should speak English to me. The 2nd guy was trying to say he doesn’t know a lot, he kept saying in English “I am almost speaking, almost.” Haha. The 1st guy tried to shoo him away because he wanted to talk to me. He asked my name, I told him, and he told me his name was Dan. Then, he asked when I would come back to Kisii, I said I didn’t know. He asked for my phone number, I told him my phone was just for work so I can’t give out my number. So he told me to take down his number. I told him I didn’t have a pen or paper so he had me memorize it. He would say a few of the numbers and then make me repeat it. Everyone in the matatu, along with me, was cracking up. Dan told me to come back to Kisii and he’d buy me a soda. Then the other vendors were coming to the door to sell things and he told them my name, that I was a “beautiful lady” and that I was coming back to drink a soda with him. Haha.

The volunteer who lives a few towns over has been away but she came back this weekend. So, I went to visit her yesterday. We just hung out, cooked and watched Kathy Griffin stand-up. It made me feel less lonely, thankfully. I also have plans to see some of the other volunteers soon too, so things should get better. Other than the feeling alone thing, everything else is going well.

I would love any comments/advice anyone reading this can give me, either comment or sent me an email please:

I work with two women’s groups here in Oyugis (among others) that make bags/purses and beaded jewelry. Many of the women in the groups are widows so the beadwork/tailoring serve as economic empowerment. These groups also provide home-based care to people who are sick and/or living with HIV/AIDS in their rural communities.

Pendo Letu (means “our love” in Swahili) is the beading group. They make their beads out of recycled magazine pages from the US/UK by rolling the paper and then color coordinating with other beads in between to make necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. I’m putting some pictures up here so you can see. I also am going to teach the ladies some other beading techniques to improve and expand their designs. They are also exploring tailoring, making quilts, and making little cards.

Imani Rural Women Action Group makes the bags. I’ve only seen a few of the designs, but they are nice quality. Any other ideas for designs? Most of these have pockets inside too. I was thinking maybe a laptop carrier/cover or other types of wallets/clutches. Here are some pictures of what they make now:

SO HERE’S WHERE I ASK FOR ADVICE:

These two groups don’t have much of a market for these products. Most Kenyans don’t buy craft items and there aren’t a lot of tourists in this area. I spoke with my supervisor and we brainstormed some ideas but I’d like to see what you all think. On a more local level, I plan to sell to my other Peace Corps friends and any visitors who come to Kenya. I am also looking into finding a space to sell some of the items in more tourist-y areas in Kenya with the help of other volunteers.

But, my other idea is selling in the US. First, do you think people would buy these items? Or is the economy still too poor? Their prices here in Kenya are VERY affordable and we would have to raise them to include shipping and bank fees for money transfers etc. But right now without all that a necklace would about $3.25 and the messenger bag would be about $9.00. What would you be willing to pay for them?

I want to set up a website so maybe people could order from the US and then the groups could ship them. Does anyone know anything about making websites? Or selling things internationally on a website? There’s a lot to think about, like how much the banks would charge us to have the money someone in the US pays with their credit card to get into the groups’ bank accounts in Kenya. I don’t know what kind of laws/regulations there might be. I can research but if anyone knows anything I would love ideas. THANK YOU.

So I don't really have any sort of typical day, but here's an idea for those of you wondering what my life’s like here.

I wake up a few times between 6 and 7:30AM because of roosters crowing and general noise in the compound but usually don't get out of bed until 7:30 (on weekends maybe I'll sleep until 8:30). If there is power, I'll put my computer or phone on charge in our office. Kenya has been rationing electricity so sometimes on Mondays and Thursdays there isn't power during the day. I get dressed (I wear a skirt every day, I never would have thought I’d get sick of skirts but, yes, I am) and make my breakfast. I usually make toast with peanut butter and honey or if I'm feeling ambitious I'll make "egg bread." It's like the bland version of french toast. I beat an egg put a little garlic powder and cumin in it, dip a slice of bread in it then fry it. I also "splurge" once or twice a week and buy a small juice box of Minute Maid apple juice from the supermarket. After breakfast I usually boil water to get warm water to wash the dishes from the day before because doing dishes at night by lantern-light is not fun. I have two 100 liter tanks where I store water in my house and use it for bathing, washing clothes, dishes, and cooking. I get water from a tap of a borehole that turns on randomly every few days or I collect water from the rain. If there is neither, I hire a man on a bodaboda (bicycle taxi) to bring me water from a tap in town at 20 shillings per 20 liters. I brush my teeth, spitting outside the house and using my drinking water to wash off the toothbrush. I then wait around until someone from my organization shows up to the office (which is 20 ft from my house inside the same compound). If it's a Tuesday or a Friday we'll stay in the office and chat/plan what's going on in our community groups. The other days we go to the field or meetings. There isn't really a typical work day, so far I've been meeting the groups we work with or attending trainings given by my coworkers. On office days we'll have tea and bread with "blue band" (a type of margerine/i can't believe it's not butter spread) which everyone here seems to love. I'm not really a big fan but I usually eat it anyways. If we're in the field or at a seminar here there isn't always lunch so I'll munch on some biscuits (crackers/cookies) until I can get home to eat something. Other days we'll get nyama choma (the asado-type beef I talked about) or if I'm near home I'll eat leftovers from the night before.

Tuesdays and Fridays are the market days so I'll walk the kilometer to town (usually takes about 20 minutes) saying hi to the children screaming "mzungu" or "lizzie" (I'm trying to teach them all my name, maybe by the end of two years they'll all know). I walk by various cows and sheep grazing along the side of the "highway" (paved road) and there's this one donkey which is always tied to this one tree and makes noises when people walk by. The other day I saw it fighting another donkey and they were kicking each other, it was pretty intense. At the market I go to my favorite stand, where the lady has a variety of good quality veggies so I buy a carrot, tomatoes, onions, green pepper, green beans, and sometimes an eggplant. The vegetables in kenya are smaller (probably because they aren't on steroids like in the US) which I prefer because I'm just cooking for myself anyways. I make a stop at the avocado stand and say hi to a few of the vendors who I've started to make friends with. On my way home I stop at a little store with a sitting area and buy a cold soda and chat with the mama who owns the shop, who I've made friends with. I get home and am sweaty so I chug a ton of water and then lay on my couch while sticking to it. I'm lazy for awhile mostly because it's hot and my stomach hurts because I drank so much water too fast. I bathe in the afternoons because it's amazing to dump cold water on my head after sweating all day. I read, write in my journal, make lists, draw pictures of household items (I've drawn my radio, lantern, and a pineapple so far), listen to the solar/crank satellite radio which has been the saviour of my sanity, and anything else that will stop me from being bored.

Around 4 it usually starts raining, sometimes hailing and I stay in the house. The children of the neighborhood play in my yard when it’s not raining and sometimes they make me very angry. I don’t care when they are asking me “how are you?” and playing, but when they are looking in my windows trying to see around the closed curtains while I am changing, or trying to peek in the door while I’m bathing, that’s not cool. I’ve yelled at them telling them “bad manners” in three languages (English, Swahili, and Luo). If they don’t start behaving I’m going to their parents.

I make dinner on my gas stove starting around 6:30. Peace Corps gave us an awesome cookbook which I use a lot but I’ve been improvising. I make stir fry and rice probably twice a week, I also make what I call “salsa rice” (rice with tomato, onion, garlic, and cumin), I make guacamole two or three times a week to go along with whatever I’m eating, I also make spaghetti sauce and spaghetti, omelets, or fried rice. Every once in a while I’ll make beans, but you have to soak them overnight and then cook them for a while so I’m too lazy to do that all the time. “Green grams” aka lentils don’t need soaking so I’ll make them more often. I made lentil burgers that were pretty tasty not too long ago. I also have Ramen and box Mac&Cheese for my desperately lazy nights.

After dinner I go to the office to get anything I have charging or to the bathroom, but sometimes I chicken out if the landlord’s dogs are out. They see my light and start barking and chasing me. The other night they chased me and I ran to the choo (bathroom) and stood inside (with the humongous cockroaches that hang out there at night) for 10 minutes waiting until the dogs went back to their house. Then I made a run for it and they chased me again but I made it to my house before them. I fear rabies. I’m happy to see that they protect the compound so well, but I need to make friends with these dogs otherwise I’ll have to have our guard escort me to the bathroom, which could be awkward.

I wash my hands with my home-made "tippy-tap," which I learned about from those BU students doing water and sanitation research near Loitokitok. It's a 10 liter jerrican filled with water that I hung outside my door. I punched a hole the size of a nail in the bottom and then tied the nail to the can to plug the hole when not being used. I also filled a small water bottle with a small hole in the cap with some water and put chunks of soap to make a homemade liquid soap.

Here's a picture.

I brush my teeth and then go to bed. I tuck myself in to my mosquito net with my computer and usually watch one of my dvds, right now I’m watching Grey’s Anatomy again. Or, I'll read or write in my journal using a mini flashlight, which i tied to the top of my mosquito net. I usually end up going to sleep by 9 or 9:30 because there isn’t really anything else to do.

So, my Luo is improving slowly somehow, I'm able to understand a little more of conversations, still it's nowhere near my kiswahili abilities (what they were at least). It's frustrating because I've definitely lost a lot of my kiswahili because no one here likes to speak it. I have to remind myself that it's okay I don't understand Luo I've only been here a month and I'm not getting my 4 hours of language instruction like I got in training with Kiswahili.

2 weeks ago I went bee-keeping with one of my counterparts. One of the youth groups sells honey as an income generating activity. I have to say i never really had much honey in the US but I bought some here and it is great on toast and peanut butter. It's pure honey, nothing added to it. They get the honey at night because the bees will attack more in the daytime. My counterpart told me stories of the bees attacking goats and how the suits they wear aren't 100% effective. My brother is allergic to bees and even though I got tested a while ago to see if I'm allergic (and I'm not) I was still quite worried. Who knows if they tested me for Kenyan bees and people can develop allergies. My counterpart told me it's good to be stung because it can prevent malaria. I told him I'd much rather take my anti-malarial pills and use a mosquito net than be stung thank you very much. I told him I'd look at the hive but then keep my distance. He wasn't going to give me a suit because I wouldn't be near the hive I said I didn't care better to be safe than sorry. He told me my suit had a few "problems," meaning the elastics at the arms weren't there so bees would be free to get inside the suit. awesome. I brought my headlamps for them to use but as we walked towards the hives I saw bees flying at me. I was there long enough to take a picture and then went out to the field. For those of you not familiar with the honey-collecting process: they put smoke in the hive to agitate the bees, they become protective and start eating the honey (which apparently makes them less likely to attack). I didn't see all this but I was probably 25 feet away and I have never heard such a loud buzzing sound. I couldn't decide if it would be better to have my light on which might attract them but I'd be able to see if the bees were coming at me or to have the light off and just hear them buzzing around me. I did not get stung luckily but my counterpart was stung all over his arm and a few times on his face. His suit must have had some "problems" too. Luckily he isn't allergic or anything so he didn't care. After all that there wasn't any honey, it's been dry so there are less flowers and therefore less honey made. I think I'm too much of a wimp to go back the next time they do it. at least I learned about it.

Last week we went to a nursery school that the Belgian donors (who are visiting right now) support. All of our women's groups we work with want to build nursery schools (preschool and kindergarten) because the Kenyan government doesn't support them. Therefore, most children don't go to nursery school before starting primary school. The kids were wicked cute, they sang us songs and showed us what they've learned. These kids know more types of birds than I do. I like how instead of clapping they sing a little song that goes "well done, well done, try again another day, a very good girl (or boy depending on who it's for)." We also visited two child-headed households where the oldest sibling (usually 15 or 16 years old) runs the house because both parents have died (in these two cases the parents died of AIDS). They go to school and still keep gardens/farms for food. They are supported by the women's groups and my organization through donors.

The belgians threw a party for some of the local kids here last Thursday. They hired the ladies of our organization to cook and we had balloons and bubbles (which are always a huge hit with the kids here). I helped cook and I made guacamole because everyone in the group has been asking about it. The guacamole went over well (as it usually does with most Kenyans) and we had it with our chicken, rice, and veggies. I have to say, it was an interesting experience bathing that morning and hearing the sounds of the four chickens being slaughtered for our lunch. Interesting start to the day...

My new favorite thing to do is go for nyama choma for lunch with the guys in my group. Nyama choma is smoked meat (really the only kind of meat I've liked in Kenya) like asado in Argentina. It seems like all the men here are obsessed with it. I cannot eat as much as these Kenyans can. I think it's because Americans are more used to small meals throughout the day where here it's one big meal. The guys told me it's because Kenyans have "chambers" in their stomachs, one for nyama choma, one for ugali (like a cornmeal-type thing they eat here), and one just for Tusker (a brand of beer), haha. They told me I need to construct some chambers, we'll see how that goes...

This past weekend I went to Kisumu with our usual group of other volunteers who are in the area (Nyanza) for Sonya's birthday. We just hung out, ate a lot, drank, and we went dancing one of the nights. I've realized how much happiness is brought to my life by food. Whenever we go to Kisumu we eat lots of cheese and ice cream usually. We also go to Nakumatt and I splurge on things like boxed Mac&Cheese and olive oil. In the big cities you can get most of the popular American food so there isn't a whole lot I'm missing (besides a refrigerator full of cheese). The one thing that is hard to find and that I can't wait to eat when I get back is a sandwich. They don't really exist here, which is probably why I dream of turkey club sandwiches. I am going to buy a charcoal jiko so I can construct a makeshift oven for baking. I have a lot of time on my hands and have a craving for a gooey chocolate chip cookie therefore, I will be baking up a storm.

On a sidenote I am quite brusied right now. I ended up in the aisle seat of my matatu on my way to Kisumu. When I say aisle seat I mean I am sitting IN the aisle between two seats with nothing to hold me up except the fact that a small part of the left side of my butt is on the seat on the left side of the aisle and a small part of my rightside is on the seat on the right and I'm so squished between the two people on those seats that it's kind of like a can of sardines. Luckily the ride was one of the fastest I've taken to Kisumu, but that was still an hour and a half. Towards the end I almost gave up and let my butt sink through and just sit on the metal floor of the matatu. Additionally, I fell on a gravel-y hill and fell going up the stairs to the hotel in Kisumu. Speaking of my clumsiness, it turns out Sonya is quite clumsy too. On our first night together in Philadelphia we realized we are both clumsy and we decided to have a contest. We've lost track we've both fallen so many times, so there hasn't been a winner declared yet. Sonya said I should lose points because I am coordinated and can dance. I guess I just can't walk.

OK everybody's been asking about the mound. It is gone, FINALLY. I, all by myself, knocked down the mound after dooming the visible bugs. It wasn't as fun as a pinata unfortunately, but luckily bugs didn't explode out of the mound and come after me for revenge. Then, I sprayed a type of pesticide recommended by the Agro-Vet all around the corner/edges of my house. This was on Wednesday and there has been no attempts at rebuilding the mound. EUREKA! I just hope I don't get cancer or something from the pesticide.

It was as big as a basketball. gross.

Last weekend I went to Rusinga Island, which is one of the islands on Lake Victoria where my friend Denae lives. We took a motorboat to Mbita, a small town right before getting to the island. There is a "causeway" that connects the island to the mainland, but it's really just a bumpy dirt road with large rocks in it. We took a taxi to her house on the island with a taxi driver named Justice, who was quite the character.

The island was nice although there were even more bugs than at my house. And, there are scorpions to worry about, and Denae has a bat living with her that she hasn't been able to get rid of. Granger, my bat, was only in my house the first night and now hangs out in the abandoned building next door. We hung out with another American volunteer who is with a different organization and wandered around the island. We wanted to go swimming in the lake but Sunday was overcast and we were afraid of being mauled by hippos. instead we just walked along a "beach" (not really like the beaches we're used to in the States) and waded in the water. So, we're pretty sure we have shisto now. For those of you who don't know, Shisto (Bilharzia) is caused by a parasite that lives on snails along the shores of lakes such as Lake Victoria. It enters through the skin and then worms grow in your liver I think. One of our medical officers told us no one who has ever lived near Lake Victoria has ever not gotten Shisto, so we've accepted that we'll get it. We get tested for it every so often and there's medicine.

Something new to me was having to put a sieve under Denae's water supply to strain out mosquito larvae. yeah, they look just like mosquitos but without the wings and they just wiggle around in the water while they are maturing. eww.

On my way back from the island on Monday I took a taxi/car, which they stuff like matatus from Homa Bay to Oyugis. They fit 4 people in the front, 4 in the back seat and usually 3 or 4 in the "boot" (hatchback). It's not super fun, but sometimes it's the only option. I was squished in the back seat with someone else's small child on my lap, and everybody was sweating and stuck to each other. The car broke down on the side of a small mountain because we ran out of gas. The driver just stopped the car and got on a piki piki and rode away. We waited for an hour and he finally came back with gas. I knew it was only a matter of time before something like that happened, luckily I wasn't in a hurry.

Tuesday was declared a national holiday because Kenya is doing their census. I was counted before some of my kenyan counterparts, which is pretty funny. They also asked questions about water supply, latrines, livestock, etc.

I forgot to write it, but my organization gave me a Luo name: Nyachula, it means "daughter of the island." I love my organization. Right now we have one of our donors from Belgium visiting, which is cool because I've been riding with them in their hired car to all the remote locations. I haven't been able to visit many groups up until now because I'm not allowed to ride a pikipiki and we don't have enough money to pay for taxis. I went to a community clinic on Friday, which the donor might expand, and am really excited to work with them. They have an HIV/AIDS support group and a youth group which does skits and events to raise awareness about health issues. They do home-based care and we visited 4 patients, all of which are widows living with AIDS. One of the ladies has problems with her legs and can barely walk yet she still somehow makes it out of her house with a stool and sits in her shamba (farm area) and cultivates her land. She refuses to give up or sit around waiting for handouts. I was impressed.They also have an alternative nutrition program to train PLWAs how to cook nutritious foods with locally available foods. They cooked some for us so we could try it. They made chapati and little donut-type things out of soya and made one juice with sweet potato leaves and the other with avocado. When I fist heard avocado juice I was hesitant, but it was great! They mix avocado with lemon juice and water and a little sugar, it tasted like a smoothie!

Today I went to see two more widows that will have houses built for them because their houses are leaky. Afterwards we went to a small volcanic lake called Lake Simbi near Lake Victoria. It smelled like hard-boiled eggs but was pretty. There were a few flamingoes hanging out there too. According to a folk tale some men were drinking and partying and being rude to their wives so two of the wives decided to leave their homes and as they were leaving it started pouring rain and all the houses that were partying sunk into the ground and the lake formed over it.

First, the bugs are ants, not termites apparently. My male counterparts got rid of it, but within 2 hours they had started rebuilding. After 24 hours the mound was back to the original size! I’m impressed and grossed out at the same time. I started feeling guilty, thinking maybe I shouldn’t kill them, they haven’t bothered me, maybe I’m just being a wimp. But then I thought to myself, this would never be allowed in my room in America so I shouldn’t allow it here. So, I doomed them again and am going to have my counterparts knock it down again and THEN I will spray a pesticide in all the nooks and crannies of my house where they could possibly be entering from.

So it rains A LOT here. I’ve never seen anything like it. It just gets cloudy around 4:30 and starts POURING. It lasts maybe ½ hour and in that time I can collect 60 liters of water then the sun comes back out and sets. Last week we had a storm that another volunteer called an “end of days storm” because the rain was more intense with wind, thunder, lighting, and hail!

So when they tell us that Peace Corps is an emotional rollercoaster, I believe it. 2 weeks ago I went with one of the women in our group to watch her give a session on HIV/AIDS and discordant couples (where one person is HIV positive and the other is negative). It ended up being quite the journey. I got to see Kendu Bay, which is nice (and very dusty, almost as dusty as Loitokitok) and we also passed Obama’s grandfather’s original home on the way, of course they had signs for the tourists. We went to a pretty remote village, met the chief and then had the session under a large tree. I was feeling really happy, to be out actually seeing what my group does, but then during the session (which was given in Luo) I realized I understand almost no Luo. I heard “ayaki” (AIDS) and “chiemo” (food, when they were talking about nutrition for PLWAs) and those were about the only things I got. The facilitators wanted me to contribute, but I didn’t know what had been said already or what people were asking.

Afterwards, we sat on the side of a road for 2 hours waiting for one of the guys we were traveling to show up and then we couldn’t find any transportation. The only vehicles passing by were pikipikis (motorcycles), which we aren’t allowed to ride we can get kicked out of the Peace Corps for riding one. So, we walked a kilometer to another town and finally found a matatu. One of the guys who was at our session knew I needed some sort of non-pikipiki so he rode ahead and stopped a matatu and made it wait for us. It was nice of him, but I was just really frustrated with all the people we talked to who were laughing/not understanding that I can’t ride a pikipiki.

I got home just as the sun was setting and was starving because we didn’t eat lunch. I was not in a good mood at all. Then, because I had taken my antimalarials I couldn’t sleep well, but I did have a crazy dream. I’m sure some of you have been feeling withdrawals from my dreams, so here’s a good one: I was at a Nakumatt (see one of my other posts for description) with another volunteer and Sawyer from the TV show Lost. We were drooling over the idea of just baked cookies in a bakery at Nakumatt (I’m not sure if in reality they have cookies). This other volunteer, Sawyer, and I were planning which types we wanted I was excited about a gooey chocolate chip cookie. They volunteered me to go buy them all and when I went to the bakery all they had were one type of old dry cookies with that icky hard sugary frosting you find on cakes at grocery stores. I told the sales lady I wasn’t going to buy any because they weren’t what I wanted and she told me she wasn’t giving me my money back. I told her I hadn’t paid yet and she started calling me a thief so I ran away with Sawyer and the other volunteer and without any cookies and we escaped because our original car we had come in had been “pimped” like in “pimp my ride” (anyone remember that show?) so it was now a bright green jeep/hummer thing and we got away.

Then another day I went to Kisii, a city around 40 minutes away by matatu, with my supervisor (Sophie) and another woman from my group (Eunice). They were going to do some business for the group and I wanted to buy a gas stove. We shopped around and they helped me find good deals. At one point we were deciding what to do next and Sophie said “we can’t go yet, I haven’t had my ice cream!” I thought to myself, now this is my kinda lady! So, before we got on the matatu to go back we bought ice cream, yumm. As we were sitting on the matatu waiting to leave a guy came by selling cold bottles of water I asked how much and he said 35 shillings. Eunice and Sophie said “no, 20 shillings” so the guy gave it to me for that price. Some other guy in front of us made a comment, probably something along the lines of me being white and having money or should have to pay more and Eunice and Sophie started screaming at him. I didn’t catch a lot of what was being said but they were definitely saying something about being fair and whatnot. I felt a little uncomfortable but mostly happy that those ladies got my back.

I came home, got my cabinet delivered (I hired a carpenter to make me a coffee table, stool, and cabinet to put my clothes in) and had a grand ‘ole time finally finishing unpacking, and eating cheese and crackers! I now know that if I get really desperate, cheese is just a 40 minute ride away. It’s crazy how much happier cheese can make me.

The kids on my street are putting me through an emotional rollercoaster too. I’ve taught them my name so they won’t call me mzungu anymore. It’s kind of exciting every time I come home I have a chorus of “LIZZIE, how are you?” from all the way down the street. They like speaking Kiswahili to me so that’s exciting too because I haven’t spoken it for a while, everyone here wants to speak Luo. But, they also look in my windows and ask for everything they see, like, “Lizzie, give me juice” or “Lizzie, give me biscuits.” I told them it was bad manners and they can hang out with me only if they stop asking for things, we’ll see how that goes. Then, yesterday they picked flowers and gave a bunch to me, which was cute.

sorry that post was all over the place

So, I was fine with the occasional spider, ants, flies (unavoidable in Kenya) hanging around my house. I accepted it and figured there wasn't a way to eradicate all of them and we could live in harmony. Mainly, I freaking love my mosquito net, it is a protective shield from flying and crawling bugs. It comforts me to know that even if there are things that want to crawl on me at night, they can't get to me. I'm seriously thinking about having one in the US when I get back. My friend Denae always likes to remind me that we eat tons of spiders in our sleep because they just crawl into our nice warm, moist mouths and we never know. Yeah, have fun sleeping tonight now.

Anyways, the point of the story is, I had this kind of mound thing on the corner of my walls that I thought was there to keep the walls together. I monitored it because I had a sneaky suspicion it was some sort of nest. But, ignorance is bliss so I tried not to think about it. Yesterday morning, it looked different to me, a little larger, so I look at it with my flashlight and there was a little hole in it and I saw lots of little bodies crawling around. I don't even want to think of how many were inside that mound, it was a mound the size of a basketball. I wanted to vomit a little but also at the same time hit it with a stick pinata-style. You all know how much I like pinatas. I decided not to because I imagined the mound hitting the ground and millions of little bugs exploding out of it and coming after me like those beetle things in the movie the Mummy. I don't even know what kind of bugs they are, we pass mounds like that but up to 6 feet tall in fields and people call them termite mounds. So, maybe they are termites, although I really don't have a lot of wood in my house so I dunno why they wanna hang out there. Although, my house has been uninhabited since the evacuation after post-election violence in 2008...

So, I went to the supermarket and bought Doom. I feared spraying them, thinking maybe their relatives would hear the mass murder and come find me in my sleep. I could sleep with the can of doom under my pillow for protection, but that's probably how you get cancer. In the end I sprayed almost the whole can of Doom all over that mound, it was probably overkill (pun intended) but I wanted to be sure. I saw a few squirm for life and escape out the little hole to just fall onto the floor dead. But, are there still millions inside the mound alive and plotting revenge? I don't know, I have no plans of removing that mound, I'll ask my male counterparts to help remove the mound. Stay tuned folks...

pretty shot of Kilimanjaro back in Loitokitok

my maasai dress

sorry i don't want to use up all my megabytes so that's all i'll do for now

Sorry to those of you who couldn't read my last post, I re-posted it, so maybe it works now? So, last week I met with my organization (it is a small community development organization with 5 people and a team leader) and mostly went around getting stuff for my house. I didn't need much because there was a lot here when I moved in, including various inhabitants (spiders, ants, lizards, and a bat). So, I don't have a confirmed sighting of the bat, but my first night there was squeeking, actually it sounded just like the noise the golden snitch makes in the Harry Potter movies so I named it Granger, after Hermione. Since that first night the noise has been more distant so I think Granger moved to the uninhabited building next to my house.

My friend Denae, who's living on the island in Lake Victoria came and stayed with me on Wednesday and then we went to Kisumu on Thursday. We had a pretty "Kenyan" experience on our matatu ride to Kisumu, meaning there were 15 seats and 22 people and two chickens at one point. Then two guys got in a fight with the matatu driver over price or something and we had to stop while they argued with each other and got a police officer involved.

So, our main objective for the trip was going to Nakumatt, a store like Target, in that they have everything from groceries to bikes to appliances. We bought various food items and spices (yes they have cumin and oregano and whatnot!), I even splurged on some boxed mac & cheese. We met up with two other volunteers from the Nyanza area: Sonya and Jason. The four of us found a great hostel/hotel that was pretty inexpensive and centrally located. We ended up staying two nights.

After buying bikes, Denae and I were wondering how we would get them back to the hotel. Who would have thought that a tok tok would be the answer. Tok toks are everywhere in Kisumu, they are 3-wheeled motorized things that have a little bench for people to sit on and are covered in a vinyl/plastic. bikes hang out the back quite nicely, although we had to hold on as we were driven. After getting everything we went to a restaurant/bar and had amazing burgers/pizza. We also met a crazy/drunk man who told us he spent the last 10 years in the psych ward because he used to have hallucinations that white people were going to kill him. He was causing a ruckus and got kicked out by restaurant/security, yet the restaurant let him take the rest of his beer in a "to go" cup. Interesting...

Friday we hired a motor boat to take us around Lake Victoria (only a small portion, the lake is huge). We saw a hippo! It wasn't actually a huge deal, we just saw it's head pop out of the water a few times, but we were still nervous we've heard scary stories about hippo attacks. The boat driver dropped us off at a fish restaurant on the lake and Jason, Denae and Sonya shared some tilapia. It was a huge fish, and tasted pretty good. So, we've heard that the reason Luo people are smart is because they eat the brains of the fish too. Sonya decided we should try the fish brains and we all just about died laughing as she searched through the fish. We gave up after a while, it's probably better that way.

We had a fun time and we'll definitely go backto Kisumu sometime soon since it's not that far for any of us. On the bus ride home I saw a live goat standing tied on top of the bus in front of us, poor thing must have been terrified, although I found it pretty hilarious.

First off, I had written a whole blog post in Nairobi, but uploading those pictures used up all my megabytes on my modem, so it cut me off.

I was in Nairobi for the end of training and swearing in before heading off to my site on Friday. Two weeks ago, when I was still in Loitokitok, my family and I ate chicken for dinner (which is not NEARLY as common as in the states). It was a “homegrown” chicken from our chicken coop, but I wasn’t home when it was killed. It was tasty and I didn’t feel as bad about it as I thought I would. My mama told me to pick out some pieces so I picked out a few pieces thinking they’d be good. I started trying to eat a piece and there wasn’t a lot of meat and it was very difficult to eat. My mama and baba started laughing: turns out I had grabbed the neck, which is usually one of the last pieces chosen because it isn’t very good. My mama offered to pick out some pieces for me so who knows which body parts I ate.

Then, the day before we left Loitokitok, my friend Mitch decided he wanted to slaughter a chicken. As much as I don’t like seeing animals dying, I went just to have the experience. I went with my friend Rachel and my 9 year-old sister, who had never seen a chicken slaughtered either. (Stop reading if you don’t want any graphic details). After chasing the chicken around the yard the maid caught the chicken and Mitch held it down and cut off its head. The maid helped pluck the feathers and everything. She popped out the eyes and my little sister grabbed the eyeball and crushed it with a rock and it exploded on Rachel and I. We had eyeball juice on our skirts; it was gross and funny at the same time.

On Wednesday my mama surprised me with a Maasai dress with gorgeous beadwork on it. She had wanted it to be a surprise so she hadn’t measured me. It was too small but she had the lady fix it, which I think required hours of extra work. It turned out great and I love it. Sunday we had a family appreciation lunch so I wore it then and a few other girls had dresses made too so we were all decked out. I'll try and put the picture of the dress at the bottom.

I was sad to say goodbye to my family, but was also excited to get to my site. Monday we took our 7 hour bus ride to Nairobi, which turned out being an “epic journey,” as we called it. First of all, on our way out of town one of the trainees’ mama passed her chapati through the bus window as we stopped at a corner. It was like something out of a movie, so cute. We were all pretty crowded on the bus with our luggage piled in the back rows. One of the trainees threw up on the bus so we stopped. A bunch of us got out and another person threw up while others took a bathroom break. A few miles down the road we stopped again and people were sick again. This process of yelling “stop!” and then people rushing for the door continued throughout our trip. It’s kinda funny to think about now but everybody was feeling pretty queasy due to the bumpy road and/or sympathy queasiness.

The day turned out much better because when we arrived in Nairobi the place we are staying at served us lunch with ice cream afterwards!!! I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal to all you people in summer in America, but it was amazing! Then we went exploring a mall, I bought a USB modem, thus I can use the internet off phone services instead of going to a super slow cyber. Rachel, Mitch and I went to get pizza! Oh cheese, how I’ve missed thee… Then a group of us went to a café and I got a coffee milkshake frappacino thingy and THEN we saw Harry Potter. I spent more in 2 hours than I had in the past couple weeks but it was sooooo worth it. One of the days we got Mexican and then went to a fun bar with pool tables. Mexican wasn’t very authentic but I at least got a margarita. So basically we were loving the food there, even if it is “expensive,” although it’s not expensive when you compare to dollars.

Wednesday I met my counterpart who I’ll be working with in my organization. He has a son who was born in November and he named him Barack Obama. Love it. There is a bead group, they make beads with magazines so I’ll definitely be hanging out with those ladies. Friday we made our journey to our sites, with our ridiculous amounts of luggage (it was even more than we came with because Peace Corps had given us mosquito nets and about 15 more pounds of handbooks and informational books). I went with two other volunteers who were traveling to the same area and our counterparts. We left the hotel at 5:30am and got to the bus station, which is in a sketchy part of central Nairobi. People were trying to “help” us with our bags, but we made our own assembly line to get our stuff on the bus. We had been told that our stuff probably wouldn’t be safe in the luggage bins under the bus so we each bought three seats and piled our luggage onto two seats and then sat in the 3rd seat next to everything. Luckily, we had no problems and everyone’s stuff was safe.

I got to my house on Friday and I live near my office, which is convenient. I’m about a 20 minute walk from the town center. I always thought Kenyans were nice, but yesterday blew me away. I went to the hardware store to buy some nails and a hammer to hang some stuff on my walls. The owner asked me what I was building and I told him I just wanted to hang some stuff on my walls. He asked, “so you are going to buy a hammer just to use it once?” I told him, “pretty much,” so he let me borrow the hammer and I returned it today. He could have made money off me, but instead just let me borrow the hammer. And, I’ve been really lucky because all the furniture the last volunteer had (even though she’s been gone for a year and a half) was still here. So, I already had a bed, mattress, mosquito net, couch/second bed, gas stove, plates, cups, utensils, etc. Awesome! I plan on just buying a chair/stool and maybe a little table.

I haven’t had the opportunity to print pictures yet. To those of you asking for my mailing address, I’m planning on setting up a PO Box this week so I’ll send it to you as soon as I can. Ok, well that’s about it for now.

with my two host sisters

a monkey that looks like a skunk

view of Kilimanjaro

First to respond to a couple of you. Cait, yes there is a lot of Tusker here, it's my beer of choice usually. Phred, if you are reading this, I got your postcard. Well, actually it traveled from China to Brookline, then to Martha's Vineyard and my mom read it to me over the phone.

First, we have been getting creative with food here. Last weekend a bunch of us got together to make spring rolls and fried rice. The spring rolls were awesome, the fried rice turned out more like a watery/salty/ cilantro mush and was not too appealing. Then, sunday I had 3 friends over and we made Mexican food for my family. I used the taco seasoning back to flavor some beans, and we made rice, guacamole (which my family loved), salsa, and tortillas. Also, One of the boys made a "dressing" with garlic and ginger and hot peppers. His eyes were watering as he made it, so I didn't even try it. You all know how I do with spicy food... When we set up the table for lunch I told my 8 year-old sister and her friend not to eat the dressing because it was kali sana (really spicey) but of course, being 8 year-olds they did anyways and were running around waving their hands at their mouths.

OK now the fun news. I found out my site on Tuesday. I'll be in Oyugis, which is a semi-large village of 145,000 people in Nyanza province. It's in the west near Lake Victoria (yes, near Obama's relatives). In the Luo language Oyugis means "place of trash," but I've been assured it's not named that because it has a lot of trash, it's named after a person. I'm excited because it's 1 hour away from Kisumu, the 3rd largest city in Kenya and I'll be near a bunch of my fellow volunteers. I don't know a lot about the specific work I'll be doing yet, but I'll probably be training community health workers and working with the community groups for people living with AIDS. 16% of the people living in Nyanza have HIV/AIDS, which is a huge amount. They told me in my community there are 52 households run by children because they have been orphaned by AIDS.

We're almost done with training here in Loitokitok. I started learning the Luo language with the other volunteers who will be going to Nyanza too. We go to Nairobi for a few days before swearing in and going to our sites, so we're hoping to get to see the new Harry Potter movie, which should supposedly be there by then.

I love speaking in Kiswanglish (Kiswahili/English). But I'm not loving that the power keeps going in and it's taking me forever to write this right now. So last week was July 4th: we had a celebration and got permission to stay overnight at the Outward Bound site. Ground meat is not easy to find, and we didn't feel like spending hours upon hours grounding it ourselves so no hamburgers unfortunately. We did make black bean burgers, salsa, guacamole, hand-made chips, stir fry, and new inventions based on kenyan food. The best invention was my friend Rachel's, she took 2 andazi( like little fried doughs) and put peanut butter and honey in between. It was DELICIOUS. So, it wasn't your typical american holiday, although we did have beer, which was nice.

This week we had basically midterms. We're half way through training so we had an oral kiswahili language test, a homestay test, a written technical exam, and safety and security simulations. The language test went really well. By the end of training we all have to reach an Intermediate Low level of Kiswahili. I got Intermediate Medium (a level above what we need by the END of training and we're only halfway through). I'm pretty excited. The homestay test was pretty funny, we had to demonstrate how to wash clothes, mop the floor, chop vegetables, and light a jiko. Thanks to my adventure a couple weeks ago I had no problem lighting the jiko now, haha. The technical exam was on HIV/AIDS info and the health system in Kenya and I did fine on that too. In the afternoon we were put in various situations where we had to demonstrate our kiswahili. Fo, we had to bargain for items at the "market," order food at a "restaurant," report an incident at the "police station," bargain and take a matatu (like a VW van where people crowd into and use as public transportation) safely, and deter sexual advances in the "bar." It was really funny because it was put on by our language trainers. Our brains were pretty fried by the end of the day though.

Tuesday they are announcing our sites, and based on where I'm going, I may start learning a vernacular language in addition to Kiswahili. This past week, we had 3 people from my Friends Fighting AIDS Together group come and speak about the Rights of PLWAs (People Living With AIDS). They shared their stories of how they have been stigmatized and treated when people found out they were HIV positive. One woman was forced to live with livestock with her son and was given barely enough to eat. There are still lots of myths surrounding AIDS and its transmission in Kenya. That woman now, however, is doing much better and is in the beading group I mentioned earlier. A few of us went to their shop and bought some jewelry, so don't be surprised if I come home in two years with lots of beaded jewelry not made by me. I definitely plan on creating some type of beading group for PLWAs in my site as an income generating activity.

Ok thanks for those who wrote about celebrity gossip. So, I heard Sarah Palin resigned so she can run for president, is that true? Eww.

So the other day I was having a happy day so I started writing down things that make me happy right now so if I have a bad day, I'll be able to look at it and remember things aren't so bad. I thought maybe you'd want to read it:

-waking up every day and being able to see Mt. Kilimanjaro

-brushing my teeth outside at night and seeing the stars (we brush our teeth outside because there are no sinks or anything inside, thus we spit outside)

-the spaghetti I had the other night (see below for story)

-my family-my mama is in Nairobi for the week and she calls every other day to check in on me even though my baba (father) and sisters are here with me still

-my language progress- It's going really well!

-my community assignment- All of us were paired with an organization in our town to work with until the end of training. I'm working with an organization called FriFAT (Friends Fighting AIDS Together). It's a support group working with people who have AIDS and they do beadwork to generate income. I met with them this week and they said they are interested to see my beading techniques. yay!

-my group of fellow trainees, they are awesome

There are more but I can't remember right now.

So, spaghetti... last weekend one of my friends made spaghetti for her family. Although it was quite hilarious the process of lighting the jiko (charcoal stove thing). How many people does it take to light a jiiko? 3 Mzungus (white people) and 4 Kenyan children. We've got the techniques down now though. So anyways, my friend made the sauce and had leftovers so we decided to cook dinner for another one of my friends' family that night. Although, we had to get permission to be out after dark and get escorts home from our babas (no elephant sightings though). We decided that the family might not like the sauce because the other girl's family added loads of salt to it earlier that day. So, we made made pasta and put a ton of garlic and butter on it. Then, we added the sauce to ours. Then we made garlic bread toasted over the jiko. SO AMAZING. I'm sure it would have been better if we had spices, but for now, I will just fantasize about the garlic butter noodles.

We're planning a Fourth of July party this weekend. We found out we can't make burgers, you can't find ground meat and it takes forever to grind meat yourself. Therfore, we're gonna make black bean burgers and shish kabobs. I'm excited.

Next week we are having a practice language exam, but if we reach the adequate level then, we won't have to take the test at the end. I'm nervous, but we'll see how it goes. Also, we find out our site assignments next week. So, I'll know where I'll be living and volunteering for the next two years.

So, life is good. PS can people please email me or post comments here with pop culture news (I know about Michael Jackson) or Red Sox updates? I feel so out of the loop and I pay by the minute so I don't bother looking up those things. THANKS!

So, I'm still liking it here a lot, but I'm getting a little sick of having people laugh at me or children saying "give me chocolate" or "give me money." It's hard, because I know I will never be able to blend in here. People are always staring at the "mzungu" (white person). I've just been trying to work on my swahili as much as possible so at least I'll know what people are saying about me when they laugh at me and maybe soon I'll be able to respond. For now, we joke that you can always respond with "labda kesho" if someone wants you to buy something, or if they ask for something. We've been told that we will be proposed to many times while we're here, so a few of us bought rings so we can just tell people we are married. Now, I just need to create a boyfriend...

I'm pretty impressed with how fast we are learning Kiswahili, though. We've only been here three weeks and I'm almost at the level we need to be at by the end of July. In a couple of weeks we'll find out where we'll be living for the two years, and I may start learning a new local language.

Things with my host family are going well. The little little girl has warmed up to me and now repeats my english. she says "yeah, yeah" or "okay" everytime I say it and she loves to run up and give hugs. The weather has been a lot cooler than I thought, although I still just wear my short sleeves and maybe a sweater. Most Kenyans, however wear heavy jackets. One of these days I'll take a picture of the toddler because she is usually wearing a hat, pants, and a sweater with a puffy jacket over it, just around the house. She reminds me of the kid in A Christmas Story, waddling around not really able to move her arms, haha.

Besides sticking out by being a white person, I think I'm adjusting pretty well to the culture here. The food is good, I eat lots of rice, cabbage, beans, and chapati (which is a flat bread similar to tortillas). There's also avocado so a lot of us are planning on making some mexican food. I've learned how to wash clothes by hand, my knuckles are still recovering. I've also gotten used to going to the bathroom in a choo (pronounced cho), which is a shack with a cement floor with a hole in the ground, and also taking "bucket baths."

For anyone who wants to call me (mom and dad take note) go to telephonekenya.com and you can get calling cards for 11cents a minute! email me if you want my phone number. I can text internationally too :)

Thanks to those of you who have written! I just got some stationary so I'll be sending some more letters.

Ok sorry sorry it has taken me so long to write a post. Tomorrow I'll have been in Kenya 2 weeks. It's been a little rough here in the beginning. For those of you not from Martha's Vineyard who don't know, a close family friend passed away at the end of last week, she was only 19. That's been hard for me, being far away from everyone, but luckily I've already made friends in my group so they've helped me a lot. And, I have a cell phone so my parents have been able to call me. Then Monday night I got really sick and I am still recovering. I'll spare you the details. I wasn't the first to get sick, but I think I got it worse than the others so far. Don't worry mom, the nurses keep checking on me as did all of the other Peace Corps staff. I'll be fine. As my host mama says, I'm "building an African stomach" haha.

Ok, how about some happier things: The weather is great, it's their "winter" here so it's about 70 degrees and sunny, so I haven't even been sweating that much. However, it's the dry season, so there's dirt/dust EVERYWHERE (no issues with my allergies yet, though, knock on wood). After staying in Nairobi 2 nights we took a 7-8 hour bus ride to our site now. We saw giraffes (Katie, I tried to take a picture for you), zebras, gazelles, ostriches, and tons of goats on our way. I am living with a great host family, we live in a comparitively big house and have electricity! My only internet access right now is at an internet place that I pay for and is pretty slow. My family is a mother, father, 8 year-old sister, and a 1 year 7 month-old. They also have two older children who are away at boarding school. The toddler is so cute, she repeats everything I say and just laughs all the time.

My family gave me an African name, Makena, which means "happy" or "jolly." We spend most of our days learning Kiswahili, which is going pretty well for me, or attending medical sessions. I've gotten a bunch of shots and so far I haven't had any crazy dreams with the anti-malaria medicine. We finish eveyday around 4 or 5 and we have to be home by dark (6:30pm). We can't go out after dark, not because we might get robbed or anything, but because we might get stampeded by elephants. The elephants have been wandering around eating bananas at night, I have yet to see one though.

Ok, that's all I have time for. I hope everyone's doing well!

So here starts my 2 year-long adventure in Kenya as an HIV/AIDS educator. I have no idea what my internet access will look like, or even if I will have reliable electricity, but I hope to keep you all up to date through this blog. I leave two weeks from today. I'm starting to get very excited about leaving, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous.

My mailing address during my training:

Elizabeth Edwards, Peace Corps Volunteer

PO Box 698-00621

Village Market

Nairobi, Kenya

Please write to me, I'm a good pen pal!