It's all over!!
Finally! Training is officially over, and in about 3 hours, I'll be swearing in as a PCV! Totally unbelievable!
I've managed to upload some new photos, so you can see my homestay Mama, some other trainees (and hello to their family members looking for photos!), and pics of the trip we took to Nzambani Rock, which is about an hour or so outside Kitui. We hiked out there, climbed up the rock (there were stairs, but it's still awful high!), and had some amazing views! And then there is the cooking demo that our language village (Kwa Kalondu) did in cooperation with the Ngenge cluster... there are some cute pictures of people chopping veggies, and while there is a pre- and post-slaughter photo of the chicken (or Kuku in Kiswa), I'm sparing you all the gorey details of the actual slaughter.
Saying goodbye to my homestay was a lot harder than I actually thought it would be! PC had a homestay appreciation ceremony where my Mama was asked to give a speech representing the homestay families. Much to my chagrin (and my fellow trainees' amusement), I was mentioned several times during this speech... apparently I have a lot of discipline... that's the first I've heard of that, but it was incredibly sweet and touching. I know that while I'm excited about having my own place again, I'm definitely going to miss my homestay!
Tonight after swearing in, we're going to keep a time-honored tradition of newly-sworn in PCVs going to a place called Carnivore. It serves loads of different kinds of exotic meats; croc, zebra, etc. I know, I know, long term vegetarian going to a restaurant called Carnivore. I'll let you all know if I end up eating any endangered species...
So now all that's left for me to do is to get my butt and my gear up to Meru! The three of us going up in that direction are going to rent a matatu, and we'll have him stop at this Kenyan version of Wal-Mart called Nakumatt. We'll be able to get mattresses, kerosene stoves & lamps, and other things that we'll need to furnish a completely bare house!
So it's excting, scary, and a little sad to be leaving the training group and finally starting work, but I'm feeling pretty ready. At least we'll get to see each other in November at In-service training... And after that our three-month site lockdown will be over, so maybe we'll even take a vacation together! New PCVs are not allowed to leave site for the 1st 3 months (to help with adjustment), and so after IST it's apparently become another tradition for the PCVs to take a trip to Uganda to go white-water rafting at the source of the Nile river. Yup, *that* Nile. And it really *isn't* just a river in Egypt! That is always cited as a major highlight, so I'm really interested in going.
So I'd better get offline so I can get myself back to the hotel and get dressed for swearing in!
I've managed to upload some new photos, so you can see my homestay Mama, some other trainees (and hello to their family members looking for photos!), and pics of the trip we took to Nzambani Rock, which is about an hour or so outside Kitui. We hiked out there, climbed up the rock (there were stairs, but it's still awful high!), and had some amazing views! And then there is the cooking demo that our language village (Kwa Kalondu) did in cooperation with the Ngenge cluster... there are some cute pictures of people chopping veggies, and while there is a pre- and post-slaughter photo of the chicken (or Kuku in Kiswa), I'm sparing you all the gorey details of the actual slaughter.
Saying goodbye to my homestay was a lot harder than I actually thought it would be! PC had a homestay appreciation ceremony where my Mama was asked to give a speech representing the homestay families. Much to my chagrin (and my fellow trainees' amusement), I was mentioned several times during this speech... apparently I have a lot of discipline... that's the first I've heard of that, but it was incredibly sweet and touching. I know that while I'm excited about having my own place again, I'm definitely going to miss my homestay!
Tonight after swearing in, we're going to keep a time-honored tradition of newly-sworn in PCVs going to a place called Carnivore. It serves loads of different kinds of exotic meats; croc, zebra, etc. I know, I know, long term vegetarian going to a restaurant called Carnivore. I'll let you all know if I end up eating any endangered species...
So now all that's left for me to do is to get my butt and my gear up to Meru! The three of us going up in that direction are going to rent a matatu, and we'll have him stop at this Kenyan version of Wal-Mart called Nakumatt. We'll be able to get mattresses, kerosene stoves & lamps, and other things that we'll need to furnish a completely bare house!
So it's excting, scary, and a little sad to be leaving the training group and finally starting work, but I'm feeling pretty ready. At least we'll get to see each other in November at In-service training... And after that our three-month site lockdown will be over, so maybe we'll even take a vacation together! New PCVs are not allowed to leave site for the 1st 3 months (to help with adjustment), and so after IST it's apparently become another tradition for the PCVs to take a trip to Uganda to go white-water rafting at the source of the Nile river. Yup, *that* Nile. And it really *isn't* just a river in Egypt! That is always cited as a major highlight, so I'm really interested in going.
So I'd better get offline so I can get myself back to the hotel and get dressed for swearing in!
posted by Erin @ 2:45 AM
6 Comments:
At 11:46 AM,
x0lani said…
Congratulations, training is probably the most excruciating part of being in the Peace Corps, but you're in for a great ride for the next two years! Just don't forget to have fun...
If you get medevac'd you'll probably be coming down here (to Pretoria, South Africa). If you do, be sure to post on my blog!
At 3:39 PM,
Anonymous said…
congratulations on reaching the start of your real work. we never had a doubt.naturally your mama gave you stars we have been doing the same thing all along. love grandma poppop
At 10:24 AM,
Laurian said…
congrats, Erin! Hn3ry's right...you've made it through what's usually the hardest bit. Kenya sounds fantastic so far. I wish I had the airfare; I'd definitely try to visit. So, now, that you're getting settled in, any care package cravings?
At 12:40 PM,
lisa said…
Hey Erin,
Congrats! My husband, Russ, and I are headed to Tanzania in September for the PC. Take care and have a wonderful time!
-lisa
http://www.grandgeorge.net/
At 5:03 AM,
Steve said…
yo cant find your email anywhere so here it is
hey dont reply to this...use my other adress if need be.
Jdeanaustin@yahoo.com
okay here are a couple of activities.
*Card Rank*
this first one deals with power relationships and how they make us
feel depending upon the area we fall in. you need a deck of cards.
each child is handed a card or has one basically taped to their
forhead or their back...you figure out what works best for you. The
main point is that the kids cant know what card they have. As the
cards are ranked so is the importance of that child and everyone must
respond as such....basically 2's get ignored and Ace's get praised.
You can do this by just having them go around and talk to each
other...like at a party. What makes this game interesting is that the
children only know how they rank based upon how others treat them and
percieve themselves in relation to them...someone may be a 2 and
treat a 5 like crap before they realize they are below them....see
where I'm going here....self-esteem based upon how you percieve what
others think of you etc...
After you can have a discussion upon how people treated each other
and why...what felt good....what felt bad...
*Role on Wall*
This is helpful when having emotion discussions. Draw a large out
line of a person, a girl for your group....on the outside you write
about things that affect us outwardly...i.e. the things people say or
do or events that occur in our lives....then when they have finished
that you fill the inside of the body with all the emotions that these
things cause. This works really well to help specify the emotions of
children and solidify their own thoughts and its always good for kids
to see things as well as hear them. If you used this for he card rank
game you could have two...one for the nice things people did and
another body for the bad things people did....basically one for low
ards and one for high...but dont split it like that cause even a 4
could get praised by a two and have something positive to say. I hope
this is making sense.
*statue work*
This takes verbalization of emotion into the physical world. Discuss
what a statue is with the kids and have them make some statues of
various benign thins like a football player or a lion...then move to
more obscure ideas to prepare them for making staues of emotions and
always let them know that there is no wrong or right answer. You can
have the group split into two and have each person from each group
pick and emotion they want to do (perhaps from the role on the wall
excersice...see how it can all connect) Have one group stand in a
circle and the other group stand in a circle around that circle...the
inside circle will get into their various staues and the outside
circle will rotate around them and then discuss what they saw....then
they switch. There are a thousand ways to do this....just get
creative.
Another version is molding where one child is the clay and the other
is the artist and the mold the clay into what they want without
talking.
The there is tag out statues where you begin with two people in a
pose and the group discusses that pose...then a person from the group
touches ONE of the statue members and replaces them and changes their
pose....when then see how the picture can be compltly changed by one
person changing the physicality of half the picture....it contiues on
as such.
I have some more if you need something specific...most things can be
molded to be used however you like
At 7:52 AM,
Erin said…
Thanks everyone!
Swearing in was awesome, and I'm all settled here at site!
Anyone who wants to come visit is always welcome, just email or comment on the blog... I live right next to Mt Kenya, so if you want to go climbing, I'm a good pit stop along the way. (And while Mt Kenya is smaller than Kili, I've heard it's a lot harder to climb, so there's that bragging right...
Post a Comment
<< Home