So here in Tindinyo we have a little something called witchcraft. Complete with witch doctors and curses.

Anytime you come across someone who, in the States, would be diagnosed as psychologically unstable, someone will feel the need to tell me that they have been bewitched. Also, drunken men are usually not deemed drunk, but are acting strange because they have been bewitched. Here are just a few curses I have been told about:

Once a man stole someones cows and refused to give them back. The man who was stolen from went to a witch doctor and the thief was cursed. Now the thief lives like a cow, walks on all fours, eats grass, and moos.

A woman who was unfaithful to her husband became cursed and while engaging in inappropriate activities with her lover became stuck to him.

A man stole a chicken and was cursed. After he ate the chicken it began crowing in his stomach and when he would cough feathers would expel from his mouth.

Also, I am not allowed to enter the forest during circumcision. If I do, I will be cursed by the idols they hang in the trees and go crazy and proceed to come running, screaming out of the forest, ripping my clothes off. Good to know.

But the best is yet to come.

Among the bewitched peoples are special individuals called night-runners. I learned about them from my friend Roger when I was complaining to him about a drunk man outside my house being very loud in the middle of the night. He replied "Oh, it was not a drunken man disturbing you, it was a night-runner." What exactly is a night-runner, you might ask...let me enlighten you.

Apparently night-runners are bewitched people that sleep during the day and run about in the night waking people up. They do not know what they are doing, and will run yelling and throwing rocks at your house because it brings them joy to disturb sleeping people. The wife of the night-runner must also stay awake and keep here feet by the kitchen fire or else her husband cannot return home.

It gets better.

They also have miniature-sized pet panthers that run with them in the night. You never see the panthers though, because they sleep during the day in a water jug on the roof of the night-runners house....

So at least now I can rest easy knowing that it is not a drunk man waking me in the night, but a cursed man and his panther.

In other news, I am adding something new to my bucket list, just so I can cross it off:

Dancing at a Tiriki tribal circumcision ceremony. Yup, done and done.

Every five years they do circumcisions in my area and it is quite the celebration. Different tribes do them in different months, for us its August and December. The ceremony took place in my friend Lauren's village so I decided to pay her a visit on the last day before the boys (ages from 4-13) returned from a month in the forest, as "men". The whole village was out, dancing in the roads, following the boys as they walked from the forest to where the ceremony was to take place. And let me tell you, these boys were dressed to impress, decked out in masks and animal hides (pics to come on FB). And it was there that I shook my tail feathers. I only wish my Davis girls could have been there to bust a move with me.

However, two white chicks dancing is apparently more interesting than an entire tribal ceremony, because Lauren and I began to collect quite a large crowd of small children. It didn't matter where we went, the mob of starring children followed. One of them even began to pet me, but since this happens on almost a daily basis I didn't feel too awkward about it. I also met a man there who told me he was Obama's cousin, and then asked me for Obama's phone number so he could call and greet him.

This is my life.

Another week at site has passed…only one more week until Nairobi for IST (in service training). Time has flown.Some highlights for you all:

1.) I have a new roommate. His name is Claude. Claude is a small lizard that eats spiders. Best roommate ever. (Sorry Liz, Alicia, and Kate but Claude doesn’t fart, steal my money and food, or leave his hair in my shower…and none of you ever ate spiders that were terrorizing me.)

2.) A drunken man licked my supervisor. While this was strange, my supervisor’s reaction was perhaps stranger. He just smiled and continued to shake his hand.

3.) A different drunken man asked if I would produce mixed-race babies with him.

4.) I FINALLY HAVE GAS! As in, for my stove : ) Cooked my first official dinner last night all on my own. Marinara sauce from scratch and spaghetti…nom nom nom. Tonight, STIRFRY!5.) I g Got a letter from Kate! In America I hated getting mail. It was always from someone telling me I owed them money. Here my mail consists of loving letters, M&Ms, and photos of my friends eating pizza (which was actually kind of mean).6.) Fin Finally, I met again with the group of Form 4 boys and girls who want to start a theater group promoting HIV/AIDS awareness. They want their group to include not just plays and skits about HIV/AIDS and other issues such as drugs, but also dancing, songs, and poetry to be performed at schools, churches, markets, and other social gatherings. After meeting with the whole group a second time I saw how serious they all are, so I’m officially stoked! Can't wait for our third meeting to help them get registered in December : )

Elly’s final word to them at our meeting: “And don’t get any ideas, boys. She is not going to fall in love with any of you and take you back to America with her so you can become the next Brad Pitt. “

So I had my first week back at site after a week in Mumias with Paige, Jason, and Lauren. As strange as it sounds, I was actually homesick for Tindinyo…crazy. It was such a warm feeling coming home to my sisters and new little niece, Praise. She greeted me, arms out-stretched saying ‘beba’ (carry) and I learned she now calls me Auntie Yanzi (because she can’t say Vuyanzi). So cute!

The referendum went through peacefully (woo!) and Kenya will now have a new constitution. While not everyone seems to be happy about it (especially the churches) a lot of Kenyans are hopeful, saying that while it is not perfect it offers many good changes. Talked to the District Social Development Officer earlier this week, where he told me he feels it will take at least 5 years for it to be fully implemented, but believes that by the end of my two years here I will be seeing a very different Kenya.I got the opportunity to do some home visits this week and learn more about the day to day lives of the people in my village. From what I can see the mamas keep this community going, whether or not they get the credit for it. There are many school age children who are not in school due to inability to pay school fees, and don’t work because there are no jobs. When asked about their income, many of the mamas said they don’t really know what their monthly income was because it changes. Some sell milk and crops from their shamba in the market to get by, and many depend of older children with jobs outside of Tindinyo to send money.

Women’s groups are apparently the most difficult to keep going in this area for many reasons. Often they get started and only last a year or two as the women are too busy taking care of their children and household to meet, or get married and leave the village. I did meet with one women’s group this week, though, which has not only been around since 2006 but has also registered themselves. They are a small loans groups that meets once a month and collectively loan money to not only members, but the community as well. They charge interest in order to earn a small amount of money to keep the group going and are interested in investing their money in a project. I’m trying not to get to excited because PC warns you that many people will want to start a project with you and then lose interest, but these mamas seem pretty serious, so yay!

I also met with a form 4 student who has a group of age mates who want to start an HIV/AIDS awareness drama group. They would like to get together with me in December, following their exams, and see about how to start such a group. Pretty excited about this one too!

I was also able to go on two different HIV/AIDS outreaches this week (and have another in a couple hours) that went surprisingly well. During August, many churches have camps, since the children are on break from school, and so it’s a really good opportunity to meet with groups and congregations for outreaches. The first meeting was with a youth camp and went so smoothly, I didn’t really know what to make of it. First, it started on time…which NEVER happens here. And the kids were so receptive and had so many good questions We were able to dispel such myths as, it you take a shower after sex you don’t get AIDS, that in America we have a cure for AIDS, and that if have AIDS and then have sex with several people who do not have AIDS that you will give a little bit of your virus to each of them and therefore have less of it yourself. So yes, after a really successful meeting I was pretty hopeful for the second one…sometimes I forget that I’m in Kenya, and nothing ever goes how you plan.

The second meet was at another church camp, however with a mixed age group from primary age children to older mamas and msees. This time it was Elly, Collins, myself, and Wilson and Lucy from the VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing center) in Kapsabet. I was pretty excited about Lucy and Wilson being there this time so that people would have the opportunity to get tested and learn their status.

We started out by boarding a packed matatu and heading to Cheptulu just a few villages down the road, and then hiking up-hill for 40 minutes to the church. First lesson of the day: I am out of shape. However, this is the universes doing, since every morning this week I set my alarm to go running and woke up to find it was down-pouring outside. Don’t get me wrong, I like running in a nice drizzle, but when the roads turn to rivers it’s no longer running, it’s long-distance swimming. And I’m not about to wear a bathing suit in a village wear showing your knees is inappropriate.

Okay, so we finally get to the church and set up the testing stations and are told by Henry (a church representative who is also with our organization) that everyone is taking a chai break and we will speak right after at 11:30am. At noon, the chai break finally ends and someone tell us that the guest preacher would like to speak first, so we will now speak at 1pm when he is finished. At 1pm, the guest preacher has finished introducing himself and talking about his childhood in Cheptulu and begins his sermon. I look at Elly next to me and he is asleep.

2pm: guest preacher starts talking about the constitution. Elly is awake, but starts to doze off again. I stare at two lizards chasing each other for about 20 minutes.

3pm: guest preacher it still talking. Elly is now awake, and pacing. Collins is playing a game on his phone. I try to make friends will some children who run away from me every time I ask what their names are.

3:30pm: The preacher is finished with his sermon, but then starts a prayer. Frustrated, Elly declares that this is ridiculous, it is about to rain, and that we will leave in 30 minutes to avoid the rain.

4pm: The preacher has finished his final prayer and excuses everyone for lunch break. Henry tells us we are to speak after lunch, at 4:30pm. So we stay. On the plus side, people finally begin to come and get tested during lunch break.

5pm: Lunch has finished and we get the opportunity to finally talk. It starts to rain. The church hall has a roof made of metal sheets. It starts to pour. And you officially can’t hear a word anyone says in the hall. You can only hear rain. And since life in Kenya comes to a halt when it rains we all just sit in the hall and wait for it to pass. Collins turns to me and says “Welcome to Kenya”.

5:30pm: We finally get to talk, and it goes surprisingly well! (success!!)

One thing about presenting in churches, especially with the older crowd, is you have to be careful about what you say. The trick is to ask a lot of questions and get the audience to bring topics up, that way the preacher can’t get mad because “your congregation brought condoms up, not me”. At 6pm the preacher handed me a paper that said, ’15 minutes’…are you kidding me? You talk for 7 years without hesitation and you’re giving me 45 minutes? Okay buddy, we’ll wrap it up. But all in all, it was worth it. Church members came to us after and thanked us for presenting. What looked initially like a giant failure actually turned out pretty well.

Other small successes I would like to mention, off topic:

I woke up to the biggest, hairiest spider I had ever seen on the INSIDE of my net. But it did not defeat me. I figured since my chucks were already ruined I would use them as a weapon of defense and won the battle. Lesson learned: tuck my net in tighter.

Also, walked home alone, past dark, for the first time and didn’t get lost! Since this is something that I can barely do in the States I was pretty proud.

So yes, it’s good to be home. Where a few people know my name and my mosquito net stays up and actually keeps the mosquitoes out. Off to another outreach…supposed to start at 2pm…maybe I’ll be home by midnight.

So just a small recap of my night last night. Enjoy.

So last night around 2 in the morning my mosquito net fell down. The night before the same thing happened and I was too lazy to fix it and lived to regret it the next morning when I woke up covered in little mosquito kisses. So this time I decided to try and fix it. Fumbling around in the dark trying to re-hang my net, lauren (on the mattress next to me) offers “Need some help?” to which I reply, “No thanks. I got this.”

Feeling quite accomplished with my net back up, I go back to sleep.

Fifteen minutes later, my net falls again. At first I try to trick myself into believing that I am in fact still asleep and do not notice that my net is laying useless over my face and body. However, hearing my little friends buzzing over my head makes me realize I need to take some sort of action. My solution? In my dazed, sleepy state my solution is to hold the net up with one arm and try to fall back asleep. I figured, “hey, I’ve fallen asleep in some pretty awkward positions. This is totally going to work. If you believe, Kaylan, this will work.”

But it did not work.

Because after about 20 minutes my arm started to feel tired and I was still very much awake. So I try laying my arm over my face and holding the net up with my elbow. This worked for a bit, as I periodically swatted at the mosquitoes through my net when I heard them about to land on me. Eventually I was defeated and completely gave up. Lauren recalls waking up in the night and looking over at me seeing the net laying directly on top of my face and body ‘like an unprotective shield'.

This didn't work either, though, because the net laying over my body and rubbing against my already existing bites from the night before was making me itch all over. So my next genius move was to curl up into fetal position and cover my body with my thick wool blanket. If my little friends were going to bite me they were going to have to work through the blanket. This worked, aside from waking up every half hour needing to breathe and sweating like a sumo wrestler in a sauna. At first I was like, "oh no, I have malaria and the fever is starting!" But in reality it was just my body reacting to sleeping swallowed up in a wool blanket and scratching at my bites all night.

The next morning, waking up in a pool of my own sweat, under a pile of blanket and crumpled net, I decide that I desperately need to be comforted and get online to talk to my boyfriend. All I wanted to do was tell him that I love him, but that Africa is slowly eating me alive. About ten minutes into our conversation, however, my internet dies. I go to buy more internet airtime, only to realize I’m one shilling short. I try to send some money to my phone to then buy more airtime, but realize that I can’t remember my own phone number.

Defeated, I crawl out to the porch to join Lauren and share the pathetic mess that is my life. She asks:

“So what happened to you last night? I glanced over at you at some point and saw you trying to sleep with one arm up in the air…”

I tell her my story, and we both laugh to the point of tears, because if you can’t laugh at moments like these then you’re in trouble. When I finish her response to me is simply:

“You want a chair? Here, I’m getting you a chair. You want some cake? Take the cake.” (she hands me her bag of Kenyan cake) “I think you need this more than me.”

Cake makes everything better.

Okay, its been almost long enough for Kate and Alicia to start complaining that I never update again, so here it goes:

I have been at site for a little over a week and, alas, have left already. Due to the upcoming referendum I have left site to stay with Paige at her site in Mumias until the election is over. Since Peace Corps was unprepared in 2007, they are taking extra precautions this time and allowing us to crash together just in-case consolidation has to happen. Not that I’m complaining, since Paige basically lives in the Beverly Hills of Kenya. She has 3G internet, a western toilet, a sink, a shower (though cold, its still a real-life shower), and a sweet porch to chill on while we do laundry and update our blogs. I’ve been here now for 2 full days and 2 nights and so far we have made chapati and guac, in the process of baking cookies in the OVEN that is in the priests house on her compound, watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall, taken and actually enjoyed a cold shower for the first time, and had a couple beers with the priests. Good times. I have also, however, been eaten alive by mosquitoes here. They are much worse here that at my site…and my net falling down in the middle of the night and me being too lazy to put it back up isn’t really helping the situation…I’m starting to look a little bit like the elephant man since I have no self control and can’t stop scratching the bites. It hit a new low when I woke up this morning with a bite on my eye, which I proceeded to rub until my eye was almost swollen shut. Then I put some Benadryl gel on my eyelid to try to make the itching stop, but instead the chemicals just seeped through my skin onto my eyeball and continued to burn through breakfast. I’m so attractive right now, Jerrod, you don’t even know.

Moving on:

Had my first out-of-community weekend in Kakamega this last Saturday for Miranda’s birthday and can I just say it was nothing short of Kenya-epic. Started off okay, with me hopping on a matatu all by my lonesome for the first time since being here. The matatus are meant to hold 14 people…I counted 25 in mine. The door was wide open with the conductor hanging out of it. At one point I called Lauren in frustration yelling “I don’t know where the (eff) I am!” while people on the matatu shouted at me in Kiswahili that I missed my stop. Never-the-less, I eventually made it to Lauren’s house. There she told me a story of how an electrician came to her house and worked for two days and somehow she still doesn’t have electricity. He did however pop a squat in her front yard. Oh Kenya.Eventually we arrived in Kakamega and met up with everyone at Kenya’s version of WalMart called Nakumatt. My purchases included a chocolate bar, a bottle of sangria, and garlic bread. Win. After downing a strawberry milkshake at the Nakumatt restaurant and some discussion we decided we would split up. Some of us would go drop off our luggage at one house and then meet up with Miranda right after. Somewhere between walking to Hayley’s house and back to town, however, a monsoon happened. One second it was sunny and the next we were running through rivers in the road searching for shelter. Fun fact: when it rains in Kenya, life stops. We ended up joining all the locals hiding in the supermarket in town for about an hour. During this hour Mike bought a beer and proceeded to drinking while waundering about the store, Paige bought a red moomoo which later she would change into after bathing in the Nakumatt bathroom, and Lauren wolfed down a can of Texas BBQ Kracks (Kenya’s version of Pringles) and a bottle of yogurt (because they didn’t have Coke Light and naturally yogurt is the next best thing…). Not too much later in the evening Lauren began to not feel so well.

While we stood with the Kenyans watching the rain from the safety of the supermarket we decided to brave the weather and run back to Nakumatt and get dinner. It was only about a five minute jog from where we were but somewhere along the way Hayley fell in a bottomless sink hole and lost her shoe. So for ten minutes we all stood in the monsoon watching Paige and Hayley dig through the mud (and probably sewage) searching for a $10 flipflop. This was less than successful, as Africa had eaten her shoe, and ended with us wrapping a plastic Nakumatt bag around Hayley’s foot and continuing on our journey.

Arriving at Nakumatt for the second time that day, Hayley bought a new flip flop, Paige bathed in the bathroom and changed into her new moomoo, and we all crashed in the restaurant and order some guac burgers. I spent this time waiting for my food to contemplate some of my life decisions.During our little venture, Miranda had been at home eating pizza, getting ready to go to a club, and waiting to meet up with us. Much to her dismay, she arrived at Nakumatt showered and ready to party, only to find the pathetic pile of drenched-mess that we had become.We began to discuss the idea of going to the club. In my jeans that now weighed about 30 lbs from the rain, my chucks that had been swallowed by mud, and my grey T-shirt soaked and plastered to my body, I turn to Bri and affirm, “This is Kenya. We look disgusting. My self-standards have lowered. I’ve given up on life a little bit today. Lets go to the club.”

After coming to our senses, we decided to make our way back to Hayley’s and spend the rest of our tragic evening celebrating Miranda’s birthday in dry clothes. Except in the dark of the night Hayley forgot where she lived. Obviously since I lived to tell this glorious tale, we eventually made it back. I’m going to leave the how a mystery. Overall, first out-of-community weekend: success! The end.

I had a fun realization this week, though. Talking with some people about money and happiness and school debts upon returning to the states...this was my conclusion:

I live in a forest. I have no electricity. I have sheets for walls. I poop in a hole. I get paid $25 American dollars a week. And I'm the happiest I've ever been.”So there ya go. Off to the market now. Quesadillas and sangria tonight <3Khulolane.

The last two weeks have been so crazy! Where to start…Well, I passed my language exam (hooray!)…it must have been me talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kiluyha that did it. So then it was time to say goodbye to Loitokitok and my host family, which was much harder than I thought. But my host mama has called me every night since I left to check on me and tell me they miss me : ) so cute!My family gave me a gorgeous traditional beaded Maasai dress to wear at host family appreciation. It fit me a little bit like a potato sack, but I still loved it. I tried to post pictures on here but the Kenyan internet hates blogspot so you’ll have to visit my facebook for pictures. After saying goodbye to the dustbowl of Loitokitok, we headed to Nairobi for swearing in. On the way we saw more giraffes, this time blocking the road. Can I just say that I love that here ‘giraffe crossing’ road signs are actually necessary?! And also, has anyone ever seen a giraffe run? Because they run in slow motion. True story.Ok, the ceremony was held at the ambassador’s residence where they had lattes, Doritos, and monkeys…because it’s just not a party in Kenya until monkeys show up. And all of us PCTs devoured those Doritos like fat kids on cake. The ambassador gave a speech, of which I heard none of because I was too busy watching the monkeys behind him swing from the trees onto the roof and then back again…but I’m sure whatever he said was inspiring and life changing. I also got to meet my counterpart in Nairobi. His name is Elly and he’s amazing. He started the Angaza Charity Organization all by himself in 2004 helping 17 orphans. He now helps over 1,000. He is basically my hero. He is also a ton of fun and loves to laugh which is a perfect match for me. Oh, and the Peace Corps lied to me, I won’t be living in Kaimosi for the next two years. I actually live in a much smaller community near Kaimosi, called Tindinyo. But no matter what this place is called, I’m in love. This is by far the most beautiful place I’ve ever lived. Everywhere I look is green and lush. The people are so welcoming and the girls who live on my compound with me already feel like sisters. I could not have asked for a better match.Oh! Highlights: there are no holes in my walls! Score! I'm moving up in the world. And we have e a baby cow on my compound! Can’t wait to feed it my banana peels! Wow, the things I do for fun here. Less than exciting: I don't have electricity ::sigh:: and we also have geese, which one of my new sisters told me to watch out for because they are “fierce”. But yeah, still pretty stoked about real walls.For my first day officially on site, I got to meet the 14 mamas who work with my organization. They sang for me and all gave me big bear hugs and presents. Then they slaughtered a chicken for me and we had lunch…nom nom nom. They were all floored when I spoke Kiluhya to them, and laughed with me as I struggled to tell them about myself and my family. Then they gave me an African name, Vuyanzi. It means joyful (yay). Oh, fun fact: when you live by a rainforest…it rains a lot. Buying rain boots tomorrow in Kisumu.

Okay…so maybe I lied about updating more often…my deepest apologies to Alicia Flor and Kate Burrill. But I’m in freaking Kenya sleeping with the crickets so I don’t feel bad! Cut me some slack, ladies!

Umm…where to start…

Machakos

So we went to Machakos shortly after my last post to attend some HIV/AIDS seminars and explore more of the country. To those living in the States, this town might not look like much, but to us in training it might as well have been Hollywood. I mean, there were paved roads and western toilets! The grocery store had aisles and checkout stands for Pete’s sake! It was basically amazing. I had ice cream and what Kenya would call a “cheeseburger” and it was pretty much the best moment of my life until now. I’m realizing that anytime I get to eat cheese nowadays is the best moment of my life…is that sad? I don’t care (that one was for you, Kate).

So just like seminars in America, some of them put me to sleep no matter how much tea I drank, and some of them were extremely informative and entertaining. I learned a bit about starting IGAs which will help me at site, and really enjoyed the sexual health skits put on by the local youth group. And as always, when you get all the PCTs together in one place, good times follow.

The Third of July

In true American fashion, we celebrated the fourth of July on the third. There were no fireworks since, you know, we live in Kenya and our training center where we gathered is in a forest, but whatever…there was a bonfire and beer and we roasted some goat ribs of a goat that had been alive a few hours before so, happy Independence Day to us! Everyone made quasi-American food from spaghetti to chocolate covered bananas. My group made fajitas and they were bomb…best food there, no doubt (go team forest!).

The End is Coming…in more ways than one…

I officially have less than one week before I am done with training and leave Loitokitok for Kaismosi. Part of me is dying to get to site and meet my counterparts and part of me is like, “d*mn, I’m going to be living completely alone…this is terrifying”. But time has flown during training and I’m sure it will be the same as site. I feel like I just got here when already I’ve been here for two months. I had to say goodbye to the kids I’ve been working with at the Ilkisonko High School Health Club and while it was sad, it also got me really excited to meet the kids I’ll be working with for the next couple of years. It also gave me a taste of what it will be like running small health focus groups, since the teacher who runs the program was out of town. For the first time, the kids completely opened up to me and felt free to ask me all kinds of questions about life in America, but more importantly, health. As soon as the first HIV/AIDS related question came up I jumped on the opportunity to have an open discussion with them about sexual health. It was the first time since I’ve been here that I felt like maybe I was actually making a difference, even if it was ridiculously small.

On a side note, I also learned that one of my Maasai students has been bitten by a lion...i thought he was kidding until i saw the scar. He laughed at me when I seemed horrified, because apparently this is not uncommon...

As for my language test…oh goodness. Well, I had a bit of a “linguistic breakdown”, as my instructor Joshua called it, during the practice test last week where the exam ended with me saying “simanya ta” (I don’t know) repeatedly with a side of anger and frustration. But I have since improved so it shouldn’t be too bad. Some of the role plays that may come up during the exam include buying things in the market, ordering food at a restaurant, and declining (or accepting) offers from a hooker in a bar. Yay Peace Corps for preparing us for any and all possible awkward situations! I can now say:

Eywe oli eshilaro. (You are a shoe. – just FYI that is an insult to deter unwanted male attention.)

Sindenya okhutsia ingo nawe. (I don’t want to go home with you.)

Siendi omumalaya ta. (I am not a prostitute.)

And Omuwifi yaiba ipunda wanje. (A thief stole my donkey.)

Win.

I am ready to conquer the world.

Don’t worry mom and dad, I can say other more practical things too, I promise!

So yes, the end of training is coming……but also, the end of the world apparently.We have language class out on a porch at Mama Lucy’s house, and it is usually quite cozy and wonderful. Until last Saturday. When the grasshoppers on steroids decided to take over. Can I just ask, what the heck are these insects eating in Kenya?! There is NO need for them to be so big! And why do they feel the need to jump 700 ft onto my chair when I have done nothing to them?! I swear I was sitting in class just waiting for the next plague to come and the world to end. It was like Hitchcock’s The Birds meets Disney’s A Bugs Life. And call me crazy, but I think they were following me. They can smell the fear.

At least I've finally become friends with the spiders in the little tin box where I take my bucket baths. It's the little victories that count.

So today was fun…

I now have a new definition of what it means to haul-ass.

Went to meet up with the district nutrition officer out in the middle of nowhere to learn about weighing babies and calculating BMIs of some local mama’s, which was actually a lot of fun. Except with 6pm rolled around and we all needed to be home by our oh-so-glorious curfew of 6:30pm. After all ten of us loaded into the land rover ready to go, then all ten of us unloading ourselves from the land rover to take tea with all the mamas, and then reloading back into the land rover we finally started heading home. Let me just say that Ezekiel, our PC driver, is not only the coolest guy I know, he is also the most BA driver I have ever met. If you have ever been on the Disneyland Indiana Jones Ride before, then you know what my drive home was like…except about ten times faster and to the a Miles Davis soundtrack instead of the Indiana theme music, thanks to Mr. Ezekiel.

On a completely unrelated topic, but equally exciting…

My friend Jason got cheese from Nairobi courtesy of his mama, made quesadillas with chapatti, and shared the wealth. Up until two days ago I hadn’t had cheese in a month. It’s been a rough time for us, being separated for that long, but our reunion was full of melted goodness.

Hands down. Best. Quesadilla. Of. My. Life.

Kenya, why don’t you believe in cheese?

::sigh::

Ok, so since more than one person has yelled at me for not updating this at all since I left the country, I will update. It’s going to be painfully long though…unless I get irritated with typing and give up…so I promise now that I have decently reliable internet to update more often so that they won’t take horribly long to read. Where to start…

Africa:

It’s absolutely beautiful. From seeing Mount Kilimanjaro every morning when I wake up, to the very lion king-esque trees, it’s just breathtaking. So far I have seen a few giraffes, a couple ostriches (which are kind of scary), some gazelles, and a few monkeys (who are ridiculously loud and wake me up in the morning and steal the maize from our family’s shama since we live in the forest). The weather is not what I expected, it’s actually better. I was expecting to be dying from the heat, but at night I have actually been quite grateful that I brought a down sleeping bag. At night, when I go behind the house by the cows to brush my teeth, I love to look up at the night sky. I’ve never seen so many stars. In a place where electricity is scarce, you can see every star in the sky…and it makes me think of Jerrod ;) The bugs aren’t horrible…but I am glad to have a mosquito net…it keeps the bugs at bay and makes me feel like a princess in a canopy bed. Win win.

As gorgeous as it is here, though, the poverty is nothing short of shocking. It’s amazing to me, because I thought I knew what to expect, but you just can’t prepare for seeing it firsthand. That is something I will never get used to seeing all around me, even in living here for two years. But it has also reaffirmed all my reasons for coming here in the first place, and motivated me to give everything I have in my time here.

Training:

My fellow PC trainees are all such amazing people. It’s a comforting and strange at the same time being surrounded by 36 other people who all have the same basic ideals, hopes, and fears as you do. It was nice to know that I wasn’t the only one thinking, “Oh holy shit, what did I just sign myself up for…”.

Training itself has been intense. Some days are very structured and exhausting because they have a million things scheduled for us to do, and other days we show up and they hand us a blank sheet of paper and tell us to just go walk around town and then leave. So yeah, karibu (welcome to) peace corps. Having 4 straight hours of language class 5 days a week on top of everything else is sometimes enough to make you want to pull your hair out and feed it to the baby cow mooing behind you every 5 minutes, but at least I am now the novice medium level after two weeks of Kiluhya and two weeks of Kiswahili. Oh, and trying to learn two languages at the same time…yeah. But I’m half way done and can see the light! Learning about the culture and the history has, so far, been my favorite part and the most interesting to me. There are so many different tribes and they all have such fascinating cultures. I can’t wait to get to site and learn so much more from my community!

My homestay:

I’m staying with a family of five “kids”. So I have 5 siblings: Paul (8), Joyce (13 and who I haven’t met yet because she is away at boarding school), Jeremiah (19), Dolphine (23), and Edwin (28). Also staying with us our some cousins, Edda (28) and her ADORABLE daughter Abigail (18 months). I want to take Abigail to Kakamega with me and just play with her for two years. She is the cutest little person on the planet, and already a little diva  I spend most of my time with Dolphine, who has taught me basically everything I know about living on my own when I finally get to site. They laugh at me a lot, mostly because I do ridiculous things like lock myself out of my room and get lost trying to come home. The only thing I’m not a fan of is my 6:30pm. Never thought I would have to be home before dark at the age of 25, but since I get lost even in the daylight here I suppose it’s not such a crazy idea.

Food:

They are also trying to make me fat. And no, I’m not just assuming this because they feed me mostly starches and cook with lard, my mama actually said, “I want you fat. Eat more.” They are constantly feeding me and checking up on me to see if I’ve eaten enough for lunch when I’m not home, and do everything short of force feeding me at dinner to make sure I eat my body weight in rice, meat, and fruit. If I only have one serving my mama says “why do you fear to eat? Do all americans fear to eat?”…and this is after a heaping pile of chapati (which are basically fried tortillas) and meat. One of the PCVs told us that its sort of a competition between all the host families of who is taking the best care of their trainees, and if your trainee isn’t getting fat you must not be feeding them enough of caring for them enough. And to everyone who is wondering, the food is actually pretty good…except for ugali.

I am convinced that ugali was created by someone who hated the sense of taste. It’s made with water and maize meal and has the consistency of stale mashed potatoes. It sucks all taste out of anything you eat it with and sits in your stomach like a brick. It’s a Kenyan staple food (yay) and is very popular in the Kakamega area where I will be for two years (double yay).

Also popular in the Kakamega area is chicken, so when locals find out that I’m going to be posted there some will tell me, “Oh, you will be eating a lot of c*ck there…” . Never tried so hard to keep a straight face in my life.

My Site:

So normally PCTs don’t find out where they are going to be for the next two years until a few days before they are done with training. But we lucked out. Since they are making us learn our local languages we had to get placed earlier.

I’ll be working with Angaza Charity Organization in Kaimosi, which is in the Western Province near Kakamega, the only rainforest in kenya, and Kisumu. It was formed in 2004 and focuses on caring for and supporting OVC (orphans and vunerable children). Some of what they do includes starting IGAs (income generating activities) to raise money, teaching the children self-reliant life skills, and educating them on health and hygiene. I couldn’t be more excited about my project and about working with the youth of my communit

Awkward Moments:

And finally, here are a couple things that have happened that should entertain you…

One. I locked myself out of my room. Not surprising since I do this ALL the time at home. However, at home I simply climb the fence and grab the spare key. Here, I had to get mama and together we hack the padlock open with a small rusty hand saw. Its ok, because she laughed at me just like everyone at home would have.

And two. I walked into a strangers house and sat down in their living room for several minutes. I was supposed to go to mama Lucy’s house, where my fellow PCT Rebecca is staying, but apparently there is more than one mama Lucy in Loitokitok. My host brothe Edwin just took me to the wrong one. He spoke with her for a couple minutes in Kiswahili, but I guess the fact that she had no idea who I was or why I was coming to her house never came up. She invited me into the living room and I asked where Rebecca was…she ignored me and went to the kitched to start making tea. Someone new walks in and says, “you came to visit us from America!” to which I replied, “I’m here for language class…where is Rebecca?”

She stares at me blankly. And says, “Rebecca?” Yeah, right about then I knew I was in the wrong house.

I called Rebecca. Lauren answered, and tried to give me directions to the right house, except faux mama Lucy wouldn’t let me leave…most awkward moment thus far in Africa.

Ok, ALICIA FLOR, I hope this is sufficient for you ;) I promise the next update won’t take up five hours of your time to read! Off to take a bucket bath in my outdoor, tin box…woo.

So its midnight here in Philadelphia and i'm relaxing in my hotel's sleep number bed...yeah peace corps life is starting out rough ;) I met some of the people in my group tonight and they all seem like amazing individuals so far! It calmed my nerves a little bit to talk to everyone and realize we all have the same worries. This week is going to be intense with so much travel and meeting so many new people. Everything is finally starting to feel real...so exciting :)

I know I'm going to miss my family and friends, my love, and of course In N Out grilled cheese sandwiches...but I know that this is a chance of a lifetime and going to be a life changing, priceless experience. It helps, too, that the people who mean the most to me have been so supportive and believe in following your dreams. I feel so lucky right now. Life is good :)

So in 11 days I board a plane headed, ultimately, for Nairobi, Kenya. I am allowed to bring 80 lbs of luggage. I will be gone for two years. This to me seems...disproportionate...

For anyone who knows me, you know that I am incapable of packing lightly, or logically. I'm pretty sure when I packed for a month in Europe I packed enough for two years...so if I pack for 2 years away, I may need my own plane for just me and my luggage. For some reason the Peace Corps won't do this for me. So yes, today is the beginning of a very painful process for me.

Luckily, they provide a list that was compiled by other volunteers who have served in Kenya that is based off of things they were happy they brought and things they wish they had brought. Some of the list makes sense...basics like types of clothing, toiletries, and electronics that will be useful overseas. However, some of the list is a tad confusing...such as...

A tent

A chess board

Musical Instruments

A solar shower

and finally

Text books. Really? Most of my texts books weigh 80 lbs all by themselves...

At least packing is a good distraction from the nervousness of leaving :)