Erin in Africa

Change of Plans!

2006-04-26T09:07:00.000-04:00

Hey there-

I've decided to switch this blog over to a yahoo group, due to a number of reasons, including some brand-new Peace Corps regulations regarding online content written by PC volunteers. Not that I'm doing anything wrong by writing all this online, but I think that by doing things by a yahoo group will circumvent any possible issues that might arise.

So what is a yahoo group (for those of you who might not know already)? It's essentially an email list where I send out an email update, and you can choose to have it delivered to your inbox. To join the group, you can go to this website:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/erin_kenya/

or, you can send an email (you can keep the subject line and body of the email blank) to:

erin_kenya-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

So yeah, anyone who is interested in getting emails from me, go on ahead and sign up- karibuni sana!

Hello!

2006-04-15T04:54:00.000-04:00

So I've again been lazy about updating, probably because not much has been going on! I'm in Nairobi for a little while before going to a training for a Peace Corps Committee that I'm joining- Diversity & Peer Support, or DPS. Basically one of the things that they do is a sort of peer counselor kinda thing... so I'm excited about it! Should be good, and I'm also hoping that being on DPS will allow me to get involved in training, also in working with Kenyan PC staff, in helping them to learn more about the kinds of diversity that exist in America- lots of Kenyans think that all Americans are white- which it is always interesting to see people come to the realization that there are all kinds of Americans- and that they are all really, TRULY AMERICAN. It's a pretty big realization, and sometimes a big concept to wrap your mind around.

Well, I gotta go, I'll try to update more when I come back through Nairobi later this week! Also, I just uploaded a bunch of new photos!

Whee!

2006-03-10T03:34:00.000-05:00

So yeah, again I must offer apologies to all for not being better at keeping in touch, I've been experiencing this bizarre mixture of business and boredom that I'm not sure how to deal with! I'm having my last weekend in Meru for a while before heading off for a much needed vacation! We're finally going to Uganda to raft the source of the Nile river, and then I think I'm going to take a day or two in Kampala, and then maybe round it out with a couple of days in the Sese Islands, a group of islands in Lake Victoria. Then its back to Kenya, and hopefully some work. But I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts!

On Wed, it was International Women's Day, for those of you who weren't aware, and I celebrated the occasion by sitting and listening to speech after speech for FOUR SOLID HOURS! Sounds like fun, huh? What was even more fun was when the organizer asked me to stand and give a speech over the loudspeaker. Nothing prepared? No problem! So yeah, that was a bit harrowing!

So now I'm getting ready for my trip by cleaning my house like a madwoman, doing more laundry than I ever wanted to do at one time- I HATE doing laundry, over here it simply involves two buckets, one for washing and one for rinsing. Your hands can get rubbed raw if you do too much, so I'm taking a break. That and it looks like it's going to rain. Lets hope it holds off until I can get my laundry off the line! And then it can pour down, my garden needs it!

And I was also thinking about possibly listing some of the things that I really enjoy about living here... sometimes things can get tough, and it's good for me to have a list written down to remind me! So I thought I'd share it with y'all:

*Chameleons: They're so cool! They come in big humongous sizes, and teensey-tiny sizes as well. I'm not so good at spotting them in the bushes, I usually see them squished on the side of the road. I may have to ask one of the neighborhood boys to help me find a live one. They like to put them on sticks and then try to scare the girls with them. In the west, its frogs. Here its chameleons. The details may be different, but the motives are universal!

*Birds: There is the coolest kind of bird here, it is gray on top, and has a electric blue belly, and the strangest thing is that there are two magenta circles on each cheek of the bird, kind of like they're wearing badly-applied blusher (or are planning on becoming clowns). I've been trying to find out what kind of bird this is, I seem to remember seeing a similar kind of blusher-spot on birds in a petshop, parakeets maybe? I dont know, any suggestions welcomed!

*Little Kids: They're cute when they're not shouting "HOW ARE YOU" in nasally little voices, and there are a pack of little kids near my house that I just love to death. Some of them have even learned my Kimeru name, Mwendwa, so I no longer get "Mzungu!" from them either! SO exciting! Also when I run into a little one that I don't know, I love seeing the shock on their faces. There is one who literally was so suprised that she fell down when I waved hello to her. And she just couldn't understand why both her mother and the mzungu were laughing at her!

Chapati and Mahindi Choma: Chapati is a kind of flat bread, very greasy and not so good for you, but of course it tastes really good! Also Mahindi Choma is grilled corn. They just set up a charcoal grill on the side of the road, and roast some ears of corn (this is not sweet corn like they have in the US, but a more savory, tough kind). You can get a whole ear for 10 shillings, and it is wonderful. Of course like with all street food (even in the US), the hygenic standards don't really bear thinking about, but hey, I figure that I'm building up my immune system. When I come back, I'm going to have an iron-clad stomach!

So that's about it for now, better sign off before this gets too long!

Next showing of "The Mzungu" in 5 minutes!

2006-02-17T08:06:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I think that the 2nd goal of PC (to help people get to know American culture better) should be rephrased to resemble something like, "you are being sent to this village in the middle of nowhere in order to entertain the locals". Because that is generally what it feels like most of the time. And usually I don't mind it all that much, just because seeing the reactions of people are quite often just too funny-I'm entertained just as much as they are!

When I go walking around (especially in more rural parts), you'll have almost everyone calling to the other people in the compound as you walk by, saying "Hey! Come look at the mzungu!" and of course this happens more or less every single day, several times a day. Those, I've just come to ignore, because they're just annoying.

But my favorite game is when I'm sitting in a cafe, matatu or wherever. Someone comes in, and says either to their companion or as a general announcement to the whole room, "Whoah, a mzungu!" (or some permutation thereof). Of course they're saying this in Kiswahili or Kimeru, and it never occurs to them that the mzungu just might know that they're talking about her. (Never mind that the word 'mzungu' is pretty striking, and even people who don't speak any Kiswa at all know at that point that people are talking about them). So there are a few fun ways of dealing with this scenario. Say I'm in a matatu. Sometimes I'll turn to the person who's talking to me, and tell them that yes, I am a mzungu, and I'm on my way home. I love watching the confused expressions on their faces; A mzungu who speaks Kiswahili!? Who thought of such a thing? Otherwise I'll keep quiet & pretend that I didn't hear, but on my way out of the matatu, I'll tell the tout (the guy who takes the money from people and serves the role of general public menace in other diverse and interesting ways) to let me out at the next road, or something else, just so they realize that I probably knew they were talking about me. Not that they really care- me speaking Kiswahili just serves to liven up the story that they're going to tell the family over dinner. Because a mzungu is interesting, but a mzungu speaking Kiswa is closer to 'circus freak' & deserves repeated retelling to numerous people. And I feel that I am doing a service, in that we're both being entertained.

But now that I've actually started to put some effort into learning Kimeru (a really bizarre language, I've got 2 new unpronouncable vowels to learn!), I've begun to imagine the new, fun possibilities that this could offer! I've already started thanking people when I get off matatu in Kimeru, and it's great watching the people inside nearly pee their pants as the matatu drives away.

So yeah, that is the way that I entertain myself these days. You take what you can get.

Pole Sana...

2006-02-11T02:42:00.000-05:00

So yeah, I am really sorry...

I've been pretty bad about telling people what I'm up to these days, but to be honest, it's not all that exciting. Lets see:

-I got a garden: So yeah, it's a small plot, and I've planted green peppers, carrots, pumpkins and watermelon. I think I'm also going to put some zucchini and eggplant in there as well. So if I can only remember to keep watering it, and get the stupid dogs to stop walking all over my freshly planted seeds, I think I'll be having TONS of fresh veggies in a bit!

-pets: So I've been thinking for a while that I've been wanting a pet, it helps to have another living thing in the house with you, so at least you don't think you're going crazy talking to yourself... as though it's slightly less crazy talking to cats. So my landlady's cat is pregnant and about to have the kittens, and I think I'm going to take one of them. We'll see about names as soon as the thing's born!

-Work: Ok, so work's not been all that hot lately. Not that things are bad, I've actually gotten some new things started. One is an income-generating project (IGA) with my women's group-we're making bead necklaces out of magazine pages (they're pretty cool!), and we've even found some curio shop owners in Nanyuki and Meru who are interested in buying them (and the guy in Nanyuki has even offered *more* than a fair price for them!). The problem? Enthusiasm. When we started, I told the women that if they were not interested in doing this IGA, that they could tell me, I wouldn't be hurt, and we could move on to other IGA ideas that they were interested in. The thing is that in Kenyan culture, saving face is incredibly important, and also people really REALLY do NOT want to hurt other people's feelings. While most of the time I think that this is a really nice impulse, it often results in people telling me what they think I want to hear, which is not always an accurate reflection of the truth. So when I asked them if they were interested in the beaded necklaces, they assured me that they definitely were. Fast forward one month, and I'm having trouble getting people to show up for meetings and getting them to make the stupid things. But things always get off to slow starts around here, so we'll see how it goes. They finished 10 of them, and I'm hoping that we can get them to Nanyuki soon- if they see that the women who showed up and made necklaces are getting money for their efforts, the other members may see that the project is actually working. And maybe not. We shall see

-Languages: I have been losing my Kiswahili at a frightening speed, and Kimeru is still about as understandable as Greek at the moment, so I finally got my act together and hired a language tutor. To be honest I'm not as bothered about learning Kimeru as I am about becoming fluent (ok, conversant is more of a realistic goal!) in Kiswahili. So I've had a couple of language classes so far, and I'm actually getting some stuff I never got before! For instance, in Kiswahili, all nouns are divided into different noun classes. Each noun class has different rules for making words plural, and adjectives and verbs will change their prefixes depending on the noun class in question. Sounds complicated? Yeah, kinda. Most of the noun classes are pretty straightforward, but there is one that is insanely complicated- the Mahali class. This class only has one word in it- Mahali, which means "place". I never understood it, because there are so many agreements, but this lady was actually able to explain it in a way that I at least got the concept. Not that I'm actually able to use it correctly, but at least I get it. Kind of.

So yeah, I'm in Nairobi at the moment, and enjoying myself immensely. Lately I've been what PC people term a "site rat", meaning I almost never leave Meru. While it's good to be hanging out at site, being there for too long without a break isn't too good for your sanity. So a weekend away is pretty much exactly what I needed!

Who let the dogs out?

2006-01-07T05:44:00.000-05:00

Well, actually I did. That's really the most recent trouble that I've been making out here! (Background explanation) My house is on a compound with my landlady's house, and then there are some other houses that share a courtyard with my house. My friend Naomi lives in the house next door, and this whole dumb story begins with her. She had some friends over the house one night, and she ended up driving them all home late in the night. Since the gardner/watchman guy Kimathi was I guess asleep, Naomi had one of the people in the car get out to open the big gate to let the car pass. Well, the main thing of this is that this person was really afraid of dogs (most Kenyans really don't like dogs at all, and I don't blame them. They're usually just used for house protection and aren't treated well, so they're often kind of scary!). The 2 dogs that guard the compound came running at the door, and he really wanted nothing to do with these things, so he just let them run out of the compound! They looked for the stupid things for ages, but they were not coming back inside- they were actually running around the neighborhood for almost 2 days!

So they're eventually caught, and brought back to justice (aka, hanging out under the trees and sleeping all day long). So I'm wandering through the small door that's in the gate one afternoon, and I catch sight of one of the dogs moseying on past me, towards the gate. Well, I had closed the door, so I wasn't too worried. But lo and behold, I hear this crashing, and the dog has managed to open the door and nose his way out!

I start yelling at the dog, but he's long gone. I turn around and Kimathi is standing there with a handful of collard greens just staring at me like I've lost my mind. Kimathi doesn't speak much English, so I try to compose my brain long enough to tell him what just happened in Kiswahili. However the only thing that comes out of my mouth is "Mbwa ametoka! Amepotea!" (The dog has left! He is lost!). Kimathi just starts laughing at me as he heads on out the door to chase the bad dog back into the compound.

So that's how the gardener on my compound came to think that I am a complete idiot. I blame the dogs. Naomi and I have a theory that they both have lady friends in the neighborhood that they visit occasionally. That could also explain the loud howling chorous that takes place late each night. I usually just lie back and pretend that I've got wolves outside my house, as that is the one thing that keeps me from acting on the impulse to go outside and throw things at them.

Supa!

2006-01-04T02:49:00.000-05:00

The past few weeks have been incredible... incredibly busy, but I've had a pretty great holiday season, and now it's back to the hard realities of getting back to work! (and the title actually is a greeting in Samburu, one of the tribal languages where I went last week!)

For New Years, some friends and I went up to Northern Kenya, to a little podunk town called Maralal. It's completely arid, and about a 3 hour drive down a terrible dirt road. And I didn't want to leave. I was even thinking of asking Peace Corps for a site change (just kidding!). It's just so different from the south- northern Kenya is Kenya at its wildest, most rugged-- and I just loved it.

The mix of tribes in Northern Kenya is just so fascinating (and unfortunately PC doesn't put volunteers there, so I never really had a chance! ;) The biggest tribe up there seemed to be the Samburu, which is a tribe really closely related to the Maasai in the southern part of Kenya. They have managed to really hang on to their traditional culture, and remain pastoralist herders in a country where there is a lot of pressure to abandon the more traditional practices. There are also people from the Turkana, Kikuyu, and I think even Pokot tribes milling around up there as well. So when you have such a mix of tribes, cultures and languages, you tend to use Kiswahili quite often, and I really gave mine a workout (which reminds me that I really need to get a tutor here in Meru!).

We took a day-long camel trek through the rural areas outside of town, guided by Samburu Morans (young men who have been initiated into the warrior class in their tribe), one of whom was called 'Balance', and another who went by 'Doctor'. It was really cool to go riding by the herd boys keeping watch over their flocks of sheep & goats, we saw mongoose and zebra, and emerged from the trek completely exhausted but just so happy to be able to be here in Kenya to see & do these things.

The next day we went into town, and as it was still a public holiday, most things were closed, but enough people were about to be able to give you a sense of what the town is like normally. The thing I most liked was seeing the Samburu in full traditional dress riding through the downtown area on their bicycles! We went into this little cafe (Slogan: "Best dishes South of the Sahara, and that's a Fact". With a slogan like that, how can you go wrong?) The 5 of us go into the cramped, crowded room, and ask the manager if there is space. He tells us, "Yes, of course!" And my friend Naomi asks doubtfully, "for 5 people?". He insists that there is room (despite the fact that all tables are already occupied), and tells us that he has a "special place", and that we can sit there as we are "special people". Well, he takes us out the back of the cafe, past the kitchen, into the back and it is obvious, from the playing children and hanging laundry, that people live here. We pass a butchery, and end up going into this small room. It is instantly obvious that this is this guy's living room, and that we are going to be eating our lunch here. It is actually a living room/bedroom, as there are both couches and a bed here. And the wives and daughters of the household are coming in and out as we eat, chasing children or hauling loads of clothing outside to be washed. It was so strange and amazing all at the same time, and it was completely one of those "only in Africa" moments, which I hope to have many more of in the upcoming New Year!

So I hope that everyone had a great holiday season, and know that I'm thinking of all of you and hoping that your new year is very happy indeed!

Merry Christmas!

2005-12-26T03:48:00.000-05:00

Cheetah2
Originally uploaded by PCErin.

So I've been hanging out in Nairobi for Christmas, because it sure beats hanging out alone in Meru! So yesterday after going to Java House for a huuuuge breakfast (cinnamon french toast with strawberries and ice cream! Yup, Peace Corps life can be really rough sometimes!) Then a group of us went to Nairobi National park. On Sundays they have this free bus ride through the park- you just pay the entrance fee (and as a resident of Kenya, I get in to the national parks really cheap!). So for the equivalent of about $5, I got a little safari! We saw wildebeest, buffalo, gazelle, tons of zebra, giraffe and ostrich- and their babies! So that was pretty awesome, but the best, BEST part of the day came later!

After the bus ride through the park, we went over to the animal orphanage,where they have a bunch of hurt or abandoned animals.. lions, monkeys, warthogs, and cheetahs! We got to see the animals eating their lunch, and afterwards we got to go into the cheetah pen and pet the cheetahs, which was just so cool! They have been around people since they were cubs, so they are really tame, they didn't even get excited when we touched them while they were eating. And they are kind of like giant housecats-they really like to be scratched under the chin (which I'm trying to do in the photo!), and seem to spend much of their time either eating or passed out in the shade. I've decided that I want one for my house.

So that was my Christmas, even though I had to spend it away from family and friends, it was still pretty freaking cool.

So the Cheetah and I both hope that y'all had a fantastic holiday (whatever you celebrate), and that you have a great New Year!

Also, if you want to see more photos of my christmas, click on the photos on the side!

The ups and the downs...

2005-12-21T07:31:00.000-05:00

Usually you hope that the ups happen more often than the downs. And at least for the past few weeks, that's how it's been going (mostly). After getting back from my training in Kitui in early December (and I got to see my homestay Mama, which was wonderful!!), I got to work once again. At least at this point I have finally come to terms with the fact that the people I've been assigned to work with don't really want a public health volunteer, they want a business vol. Which I'm not very good at, but at least I'm trying. I've been scrambling to find different income generating projects to suppliment the goat project, and one of the more interesting ones is beekeeping!

Just yesterday, I went over to this place called a Bio-Intensive Agricultural Training Center. They do all sorts of organic and environmentally friendly agro type stuff, including a beekeeping program which I will hopefully be able to help out with, working with the really awesome guy who runs it all. I even got to go out and see the demonstration apiary!

I'm running out of time on my internet card here at the post office, so I'm going to have to give more details when I'm in Nairobi for Christmas. So take care everyone!

Just some stuff...

2005-11-26T04:01:00.000-05:00

Hey there all...

I had a pretty good thanksgiving, ended up having dinner at a local volunteer's house, which was nice, but instead of turkey, we ended up having chili cheese dogs. Oh yes, I see that a holiday tradition has been born!

So I'm now counting down the days till the next thing, which is currently the rescheduled training that I was supposed to have a month ago. So I'll be away from Meru for that, and hopefully I'll be able to do some travel for christmas and new year's. Not sure where I'm going just yet, but I'm sure that it will be fabulous. Or, at least interesting if not so fabulous (having an upper limit of $5 a night on accommodation kind of limits your ability to achieve fabulousness).

Now here are some things that people at home might be able to do for me! If anyone can do the research and see if the new Harry Potter movie is going to be out in Nairobi (and most importantly, when-- will it be there the 1st weekend of December?)

Also, if anyone can send me CDs (mix CDs, regular CDs, etc. If you're not sure what to send but you want to send something, email me!)... And also I'm looking for a CD with the Windows version of Itunes. I'd be forever grateful!

So now on to the crazy Christmas Shopping season! I'm hoping that my first big purchase of the season is going to be a goat! The male goat living at the office is starting to get a little lonely, and I think he'd like a girlfriend for christmas. So I've been spending most of my time at work trying to oblige. We'll see how it works out!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2005-11-23T05:31:00.000-05:00

Hey there everybody!

The past few weeks have been pretty quiet, and what a good thing! Earlier this week, Kenya finally voted on the new constitution, and they voted it down, but the best news of all is that the elections and the announcement of the results were quiet and peaceful! So that's good.

I spent the whole of election day hanging out in my house, doing not a lot of anything. So it was really nice to get out yesterday! I went with a friend of mine to a baby home in Meru. Baby home is basically what they call an orphanage, and this particular one really just is for orphaned and abandoned babies- there were about 25 babies from about 5 mos through maybe 1.5-2 years old. We got there just at lunchtime, so I spent the first half hour force-feeding this toddler named Joy mush. She could pout like a champion! But she must not have been too angry with me, because later on, she stumbled right up to me, dumped about 3 rattles in my lap and waddled away. So it was really great to hang out with all of the babies, and the staff there were just so kind and lovely- they were able to keep their senses of humor (really hard to do when all 25 of the kids are in diapers!), and you could really tell that they cared for these kids. THe best testament to their care is when one of the babies would stumble, loose a toy, or for any other reason start crying, these kids would run straight for their nurses for comfort. So I can definitely see myself going back there to play with the babies, it's a great stress reliever!

So yeah, I hope that everyone has a safe, happy, stuffed-to-the-gills Thanksgiving! I'll be hanging out here in Meru, but I'll be thinking of all of you!

Finally!!!

2005-11-09T02:07:00.000-05:00

Ok, it has been pretty much exactly 3 months that I've been living in the guest house at a high school in Meru. Throughout these 3 mos, I've been told that my house will be finished "soon"... which is Kenyan English for, "I really have no idea"... But miracle of miracles, LAST NIGHT I ACTUALLY SLEPT IN MY VERY OWN HOUSE!!!

And what a lovely house it is! My landlady is the headmistress of the local school, and she seems to have had a lot of input when it came to fixing the place up (you can tell that a woman was walking around, saying "put shelves here, and here..."), and it's just so nice that I'm almost inclined to say that the wait was worth it! It's a small place, but perfect for one person. You walk in and to your left is a shower/bathroom (no room for a door, so it's sectioned off by a curtain, but no worries!). You come into a galley kitchen, with room for my cooker and massive gas canister (way better than cooking over charcoal, I love it!). To the right is my bedroom, where they've built a little table into the corner, and also built in a wardrobe/closet thingy into the wall. I've also got a bookshelf! Then on the other side of the kitchen, I've got a little living room, where my landlady has left me several chairs, and even put in curtains!

So yes, as you might be able to tell, I'm absolutely thrilled at the thought that I'm actually in my very own place!

Nuthin else going on, we've been told to stick to site during the referendum, so I'll be hangin out here in Meru for a while! Not so bad though, I'll just be spending my time fixing up my fantastic new house!

What's up?

2005-11-05T06:20:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!!

According to previous posts here, I should actually be on my way to Kisumu, for a week-long training, and then on to Uganda. Well, not quite. The training has been pushed back until December, just until the referendum over the constitution is over. I think that Peace Corps just wants to be able to know where all of us are, and once all of the excitement is over, making mass travel arrangements (for a huge group of people) will probably be much easier!

So I took a quick trip down to Nairobi to restock on medications and do a little work. I've met up with some people I know here, so it's also been a bit of a relaxing weekend as well! So I'm goin back to site, where I'll be for the next several weeks, including Thanksgiving. So I might as well have a little fun and good food while I can!

Hope all of you are doing well!

"Surviver"

2005-10-30T02:47:00.000-05:00

Yup, yet another matatu... Not sure I want to travel in a matatu called "survivor", especially when the spelling is a bit off...

But at the very least, the dreaded first 3 months are almost over! Thank God! All in all, not terrible, but to be honest, they're not something I want to do over again. I'l\m hoping that everyone else is right when they tell me that everything is downhill from here on...

I'm currently in Nyeri, but not for travel or fun, for work. I've been helping my supervisor out at a workshop for civil servants who ar elearning "River Basin Management", and who deal with River Users Associations. Oh yeah. But there was one really cool thing- we had a field trip! Or more professionally termed, field practice. We went out to this small small place near Naro Moru, which is the twon where lots of people start off at when they climb Mt Kenya. It's a semi-arid (although I think that in certain places semi-arid is being a bit generous!) We heard this River Users Assoc. talk about how tehy got their start, and how they have small time farmers and big commercial farmers, and hotel owners all part of the association. We all piled into land rovers and went waaaay back into this totally wild forest, back to where the river is just kind of there (before it starts getting used for irrigation and other things.) This wasn't just tour safari off-roading, it was serious off-roading! At one point the vehicle was almost at a 45 degree angle... sideways. Even the Kenyans in my car were going "oh! oh!". So that was quite fun. Then we visited this swanky tourist restaraunt called the Trout Tree. It's call this because they serve fresh trout that come from the trout farm in the back. A farm constructed with water from the river! So we got to go behind the scenes and see how the whole trout farm was run, which was very cool! Also we saw loads of wazungu (white people) looking out at us from their expensive drinks- the place is constructed of lots of open-air thatched structures on stilts, so you have a good view of the trout farm and the trees, where there are several colonies of monkeys scampering about. I saw colobus monkeys, and a smaller kind which the people I was with just called "tumbili", which is just the Kiswahili word for monkey, so I'm still not sure what kind of monkey it was!

So all in all, it was a pretty ok trip, I'll be back in Meru for a week, and then I'm off to Kisumu for In-Service Training! I've never been out west before, so I'm really looking forward to seeing new parts of Kenya. Keep yuour fingers crossed for some zebra! Still haven't seen those yet, really I just get baboons by the side of the road eating rubbish. Not really a safari!

Not much to report...

2005-10-13T05:04:00.000-04:00

So yeah, just hanging out, waiting for my first 3 months to just end already! PC pepole say that the 1st 3 mos are the hardest to get through, and they are pretty much on the mark! Not so much because of making living adjustments, but I'm finding adjusting to the working culture to be pretty challenging of late.

But I finally got around to updating my contact info, so now y'all have my address at site!

I haven't been doing anything really interesting, but rest assured, as soon as I do, you will find out about it!

Ndizi au Machungwa?

2005-10-04T10:02:00.000-04:00

The title means "Banana or Orange?" in Kiswahili. Which, believe it or not, is a question you get asked quite often in Kenya these days!

It refers to Kenya's new constitution, which is up for referendum in November. Kenyans were promised a new constitution something like 15 years ago, and when current president Kibaki took office a few years ago, it was one of his promises to get a new consitution put in place. It has taken a loooong time, and a lot of argument, but there is a draft to be voted on. The problem? Not everyone likes this new draft, as you might imagine. A lot of the disagreement goes along tribal lines... Kibaki of course supports the new constitution, and as he is Kikuyu, lots of Kikuyus support it too. The Luo tribe out in the west have typically been the opposition to the government, and they have been against the new draft. So the "Yes" side has taken up the banana as their symbol, and the "no" side has adopted the orange as theirs. So it isn't uncommon these days to be asked whether you are an orange or a banana. As a PCV, I'm not allowed to get involved in local politics, but it is really interesting to be in Kenya right now. I've been trying to get my hands on a copy of the draft, but they're really hard to come by (even here... more so out in places in Luoland like Kisumu where they've taken to burning them).

Not much going on for me, but I thought I'd take the time to tell you about the fun goings-on of other volunteers here in Kenya. One of my friends got to site, she lives in this little cute rural village at a health dispensary. She has an outside bathroom and latrine, called a choo. The first week at site, she apparently discovers that she has not just a choo spider (these are very large and quite common), oh no, she has a choo BAT. And it doesn't just hang out in the rafters of the choo, she actually saw it flying out of the hole in the ground! For the non-choo users out there, the choo is basically a structure with a concrete slab in the floor, that has a smallish hole that leads to a pit. Not to get too graphic, you position your feet on either side of the hole, squat, and do your business. Now having a bat fly out of the hole you are about to squat over is somewhat disconcerting. So many text messages to many people ensued, and my friend found out that she was in fact not alone in having strange pets in her bathroom. Another volunteer (in the same province, no less!) also has choo bats. According to him, it is like some horrible nightmare that you had during potty training.

At least the only 'pets' I've got in my bathroom are spiders! (never thought I'd be glad for that!)

Checking in!

2005-10-01T06:15:00.000-04:00

Hello all!

Just booking along at site, things have been moving about the same as usual. But there have been some new things that have happened... The last time I talked about the little boy that I've been worrying about, well on Thursday someone in my office and I finally got to go out to visit him at his home.

The bad news is, he's really not better. He's still got a pretty active case of TB, and having AIDS, he's just not healing very fast. I'll spare you all the details of the physical problems that this kid is having, because to be honest, they're pretty horrific. On top of all that, he's living with his grandmother in this tiny mud-walled house with dirt floors, and the one interior wall in the house that separates the living quarters from the sleeping is made up of cardboard boxes. As soon as I'm back in the office on Monday and organizations are open again, I'll be calling and visiting around to see what anyone may be able to do for this kid.

But in happier things, some other work-related things have actually been progressing as well as could be expected... I've started working much more with one of the women's groups, the one with the dairy goat project. This next week we're going to be taking a tour of the grounds of a local goat breeder's association to learn more abuout goats, and to see how many more female goats we can buy to start the goat breeding program at the office! SO that's very exciting! Even more exciting is that when I talked to another PCV who has a group doing a similar project, she said that when she went to her local breeder's association, she was actually able to neuter a goat! I'm holding out high hopes for next week, I'll let you know if it all goes according to plan!

Tolerance Baby

2005-09-15T07:52:00.000-04:00

So back again to naming posts after Matatus... the above was one I saw while walking into work this morning.

Nothing much to report of late, I've been settling in to life here pretty well. I finally managed to get gas for my cooker, so now I am able to actually cook dinner for myself! That's probably the most exciting thing that has happened of late. I guess that's a good thing!

The strangest thing about being out here is the random bits and pieces of info that we get about stuff happening back in the states. Supreme court judges, hurricanes, all of it is kind of hit or miss in terms of whether I hear about it. Whenever I use the internet, most of my time is spent doing email and writing in here. THe nature of the beast, I suppose. I didn't really expect to come to Africa and also know all about what was going on in the States.

In other random bits on what's happening around here...

The little boy in the hospital I wrote about a while back was still in teh hospital as of last week, I think. They drained fluid from his lungs, but as with most AIDS patients, he hasn't been healing terribly fast. I'm going to make a point of checking up on him, because I've been thinking about him a lot, but am feeling guilty for not going back to check up on him.

The goat is doing well, he's living in his little house next to my office, and he just spends his time eating, sleeping, pooing, and watching people walk by. My life is a thrill a minute compared to his, so I can't feel too bad. I also have opposable thumbs, which is a huge bonus.

And I've actually seen my permanent house! I've been living in the guest house of a local high school for the past month and a half, so this is exciting to see that it actually exists! It's on a compound with the headmistress of the high school, and it's a little one bedroom house with a tiny kitchen and living room. I don't really need much space, so I think it'll be perfect for me. And the best thing of all is that she's got a HUGE shamba (garden) and she's going to give me a little chunk of it to plant veggies! So hopefully it won't be too long before I'm in there. And it would be nice if it came before the rainy season... the compound is off the tarmac, and when it rains here, the mud is incredible. It's red clay, and it just sucks your feet in and holds them there. Then it sticks to your shoes and legs, so that when you get where you are going, you leave a HUGE mess behind! I'm thinking of getting knee-high wellington boots! The other thing is that the road to my house has a rather steep hill that is just dirt... no gravel or rocks to really give traction. I'm sure once October/November hits, I'll have some fun stories of a road that turns into a mudslide!

Lazy Days

2005-08-27T04:50:00.000-04:00

It's another lazy Saturday here in Meru, and I'm about to sign off the internet and go get a newspaper and a bite to eat in one of my favorite cafes. Sounds strange, right? These are the sorts of things that I used to do when I was living in DC, and here in Kenya, I've been developing the same kind of ritual. There is this great hoteli (any place in Kenya that serves food is called a hoteli, and it is not necessarily a place where people from out of town sleep) in Meru that serves *great* samosas and chapati, some of my favorite Kenyan foods that just so happen to be Indian. Or, rather they are Kenyan takes on Indian food. Samosas are the little fried triangular packages of dough, but instead of potatoes and veg inside, they're more likely to have ground meat in them. And Kenyan chapati is this flat, chewy bread that has been fried over a very hot griddle (you can see photos of my friend Steve making chapatis over a traditional charcoal jiko in my photo album). They're delicious, and as soon as my house is set up, I'm going to teach myself how to make them. Of course being fried, they're terribly healthy, and really good for the figure, but what are you going to do? Most foods made in Kenyan households are really heavy on the oil, and the favorite breakfast in Kenya is bread slathered with this margerine-type stuff called Blue Band. The stuff is pure fat, and can actually upset your stomach because of it.

So that's pretty much what my weekends boil down to: Internet, drawn-out lunches consisting of fried stuff, laundry, and maybe re-reading one of the books I've already read. On that note, I've spent the last few days absolutely BORED OUT OF MY SKULL. That's one of the myths about Peace Corps life. Everyone at home thinks that you're off having a fantastic adventure every second of your time, and meanwhile you're so bored that you're considering holding races between some of the spiders you've seen in your house. At least it'd be something to do that wouldn't be reading your latest copy of Newsweek for the 15th time, and really-- some of those spiders are so big I've considered naming them. Expecially the one that lives in my bathroom. So yeah, Peace Corps adventure, look out!

Fun in Taxis

2005-08-24T08:09:00.001-04:00

I think that when I leave Kenya, my main stories are going to revolve around public transport and livestock. These two things are everywhere in Kenya, quite often the two can be found in the same story (and often those are the best stories), but unfortunately I don't have a combination of the two today, just two separate updates, one on transport, and the other on farm animals.

This morning, I went into town before going to the office, because I needed to pick up my bike-PC had sent my bike to me through a Kenyan courier service, and the thing had been sitting in the office for a few weeks. So I went outside to the street, and tried hailing several matatus, which were all full. I finally got a taxi to stop for me, and while he took a small detour to get petrol, he was *really* interested in chatting... He was a really friendly older man named Erastus, and I got to hear all about the work that he was doing on some committee at his church.

As we got closer in to town, the roads got a lot more crowded, with matatus, taxis, cars and people just all over the place. All of a sudden, as Erastus was trying to do a blind overtake of this people mover with bales of hay piled high on the roof, the whole line of traffic comes to a screeching halt. Erastus just says "Eh, eh! Why stop so unceremoniously?!" It was just the funniest thing I've heard come out of a taxi driver's mouth in ages... it was just so prim and proper... I guess you just had to be there...

And on the livestock front, I've got goats!! Well, not really me, but my office. The women's group that meets at my office (and that I'm going to be working with) is starting an income-generating project involving dairy goats. We built the little goat shelter, and so we were cultivating the garden (for goat food), and waiting for the goat. Well, on Wed, he finally came! We're getting a male goat, and after a while, we'll have saved enough for a female. He's a huge fellow, and he has this kind of creepy way of staring at you if you happen to stop outside his house. Maybe I'll get used to him, but in the meantime, I'm keeping an eye on the thing... my trust has to be earned, at least when it comes to farm animals capable of headbutting me to the ground.

What to say?

2005-08-24T08:09:00.000-04:00

I was going to use this blog entry to talk about some of the more frustrating aspects of living in Kenya, as I had been kind of feeling like I've been focusing on some of the more entertaining things about living here. I was going to spend a bit of time whining about the staring whenever I leave my house, the constant calls of "Mzungu!" and so on...

Well, in the past few days, I've had something so much bigger dropped into my lap, as the universe tends to do when you get too focused on the petty annoyances in life, if only to remind me of exactly why I'm here, and of what really matters. I was hesitant about writing about this, but I think I'm going to do it anyway, if only to give people an idea of what the reality of life in Africa is like, and to help me process the past couple of days.

To start it all off, my community based organization works with a few women's groups in and around the Meru area. In one of these groups, there is this older Mama, a grandmother who started caring for her grandson after he was orphaned, I think, due to AIDS. As if that weren't heartbreaking enough, it turns out that this 10 year old boy was HIV positive himself. When I visited Meru in July, I went out to this group's meeting and met the grandmother, and learned of the boy's condition. He had been ill, but had recently improved, and was doing much better. As a part of my community entry, I was planning on making home visits to the members of the groups I'll be working with, including the home of the grandmother and her boy. However yesterday I was told by a coworker that he had taken a turn for the worse, and that I would be going with her to visit him in hospital.

First of all, if visiting an American hospital is a disconcerting thought for many, then hospitals in Kenya are, well, really hard to cope with (and the hospital I went to yesterday was by Kenyan standards a good one). The wards are just large rooms with rows and rows of beds lined up against the walls, all of them full-in one ward, I saw 3 children in the same bed. And you can easily guess which patients are there for AIDS-related illnesses- most people have seen photos of AIDS patients in Africa on the news, right? Well, don't think that the photos of immobile, skeletal figures are exaggerations... they were certainly there when I went walking through the wards. If you've ever seen a person die from AIDS in the developed world, then you may have a tiny idea of what is happening here... but dying of AIDS in Africa is so, so much worse. Lack of access to treatment and sheer volume of people needing treatment mean that your options are severely limited if you find out that you are HIV-positive.

Getting back to this boy, I said that he was 10, but as I approached his bed, he looked so much younger. As his grandmother helped him into a sitting position, I was shocked to see the size of him-his upper arms seemed smaller than my wrists. I was left completely speechless as I watched this boy being supported by his grandmother- she just sat behind him and allowed him to lean back against her. Here is a woman who by all rights should at this time in her life be taken care of by her children, and she was quietly shouldering a burden that would have broken many others with a grace and dignity that is incredibly humbling.

What can I say? That it's not fair? Of course it isn't. But when I said I wanted to come to Africa, and to do something about the AIDS crisis here, I knew that I was setting myself up for a certain amount of heartbreak. It doesn't make it any easier though.

Running out of....

2005-08-18T07:09:00.000-04:00

time!

Sorry to breeze through like this,I've almost run out of time on the internet, and must be getting back to work! I've been doing a life skills workshop for young girls this week, and have been running around after a group of 30 Kenyan teenagers from the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep, and it's definitely been a learning experience! WHen I've had some time to sleep and de-compress, I'll try to give a better account of it all!

For entertainment purposes, I've realized that I never give any general information on Kenyan culture... so in lieu of doing any kind of work myself, I'm going to send you over to a website to learn about the different tribes (or Kabila in Kiswahili)... they definitely make learning culture here interesting... when I was in training, I lived with the Akamba tribe, and got to learn that culture. Now I'm at square one again, becuase I'm now living with a different tribe, the Meru! New traditions, new culture, new language! (I think I mentioned that each tribe has it's own native language, which is the first language people learn. Then they learn Kiswahili, and then English! Most people who have been to secondary school in Kenya are at least tri-lingual!)

So here is a list of the different tribes in Kenya (whew there are a lot!):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tribes_of_Kenya

And some more general info on Kenya:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya

Read up now, I'll hand out a quiz next time I get online!

Weekend fun!

2005-08-13T03:56:00.000-04:00

At least I don't have to work in the office!

It's been a while since I had to set up a house from scratch, and so I think I've forgotten how much work it can be! Especially in Africa! I bought a stove in NBI, a really nice 2-burner gas stove (it really beats cooking over a charcoal jiko (stove)... you'd think it'd be fun, like BBQing all the time... but no, it's really more of a pain in the you-know-what), but for the past week, I have had no time to go out and get the gas for it (I've been subsisting on PB&J for the past week, and at this point, I am desperate for some vegetables). In Kenya, to get gas, you have to go to a petrol station. I've been wandering around checking prices at various stations around town, and after I finish here, I'm going to stop at one on the way home. Getting the gas canister and gas is just the start of the adventure, however. You see, I have to get it home. So I have this vague idea of getting the 13KG gas canister (and the 13KG is just the weight of the gas. The solid metal container is going to weigh a LOT more), having one of the gas station attendants carry the canister out to the road for me, and then I'll just stand there and try to flag down a matatu that is going out towards my village. We'll see how this one works out! If worse comes to worse, I'll just have to shell out the extra $$ to have a taxi take me directly. It all depends on whether I'm actually able to lift the stupid thing or not!

So backing up to swearing-in weekend, it was a blast, I barely slept at all, and I think I made it up to Meru on sheer adrenaline, I was that tired. The swearing-in ceremony was not as long as I expected, although it was about as exciting as I expected it to be (that is, not very). After that, they gave us lunch and loaded us into vans to take us to the bank to open up our accounts, and then on to the PC office in Nairobi, which is the main office, but it also is going to serve as my regional office (the people out west and on the coast have offices closer to them in Mombasa and Kisumu, but Nairobi is my closest office). So that was good, I tried out my bike, which they'll be sending to me here in Meru (and seeing how I have not ridden a bike since I was about 12, I can tell this will be yet another adventure!!), and I went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

Now as I mentioned, we went to this place called Carnivore. It is a huge buffet kind of place, and these waiters come by with huge skewers of meat, and just slice it off on to your plate. And they keep coming, and coming, and pretty soon, you find that you've gone into a meat-induced coma. Or at least that's what happened to me. I didn't think I would be able to walk after that dinner. But we all went to a club next door to spend the rest of the night dancing the meat off.... All in all, a great night, and it was really good to see the people in my group before we all went off to different corners of the country, and to also see some of the "older" volunteers there as well.

So that's about that, I'm getting to know the area, and some of the places I need to go to get the stuff I need... one of my favorite shops this far has been this carpenter's place... the sign on the side of the bldg says "Ebenezer Furniture Makers: Cofin & Pool Table Specalists". You can get a coffin, you can get a pool table... what more do you need?

Well, I'm off to try to buy cooking gas, wish me luck!

Mugeni!

2005-08-12T07:22:00.000-04:00

Hey there all!

Well, first week at site has been going pretty well, although I'm far busier than I thought I'd be (and busier than I think a lot of other people in my group are!)... my organisation has a life skills workshop at thestart of next week, and I've been looking through resources to try to find activities for teenage girls. So I've been at the office almost all day every day since Monday! I almost feel like I'm playing hooky! And to continue on the school daze theme, I've been staying on the campus of this girl's high school, in this HUGE guest house. There was a conference for most of this week, and I was joined in the house by all of these women attending the conference, but they've all left, and now I have it all to myself. If it weren't for all the steps in the house, I'd really want a pair of roller skates, just for something to do. I've been reading almost non-stop (and a HUUUUGE thank you goes out to my Mom, Grandparents and sister for sending me books! I've benefitted from them, and now you are all making several other new Peace Corps Volunteers very happy, as PCVs here tend to circulate books... Share the joy!)

There's really not a whole lot to report, I'll have to think of some fun stuff that I did over swearing-in weekend (yes, even with my aversion to meat, I did end up eating more of it in that one night than I have in about 15 years put together! ostrich, crocodile and camel were some of the highlights!)... I want to do the story justice, so I'll save it for another time!

It's all over!!

2005-08-05T02:45:00.000-04:00

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!

Travel fun!

2005-07-30T04:53:00.000-04:00

Since I've got internet access again so soon, I thought I'd tell you about some more fun methods of travel in Kenya. I wanted to tell you about the fun that is a tuk-tuk. (for a photo, see this link)

Tuk-tuks are a hybrid of a motorcycle and a car, what amounts to little 3-wheeled carnival rides! They're bumpy, dusty, and the drivers are slightly crazy, which makes for the kind of ride that people in the States wait in line for hours in order to experience.

One day, several of us shoved ourselves in the back of a tuk-tuk to get to our technical session. As we were hurtling downhill on a dirt road, we found ourselves speeding towards this huge tractor pulling a load of bricks. In between us and the tractor, a dog was just kind of trotting along...

One of the other trainees, Brian leans over to me and shouts above the noise of the engine, "Let's see how this one plays out!" At the last minute, the dog jumps off the road, and the tuk-tuk and tractor narrowly miss each other. Makes for an exciting commute!

So that's just one of the little daily thrills that make living in Kenya interesting, to say the least!

Well, the post office is about to close, so I'd better get offline before I'm locked inside for the weekend!

Tired feet and sunburnt noses

2005-07-28T08:50:00.000-04:00

That's pretty much the story these days... training at this point has pretty much wound down, and the lot of us are just trying to survive until swearing in. Which shockingly enough is next week! Kind of hard to believe, but I think I'm actually going to make it through! Today we went to this place near Kitui called Nzambani Rock, which is this huge rock that rises up almost out of nowhere. You can climb it and the view from the top is absolutely amazing. I took photos of that, and just hung out and we did our technical training up there for the day, which was a nice change of scene.

The past couple of weeks have been mainly about survival--survival of training. The days are long, and lots of times they can be physically exhausting as well as mentally exhausting (just the strain of learning a new language in 9 weeks is more than I know I bargained for!). I'm really starting to look forward to getting to site and having a little time to relax and recouperate... at least to be able to go to bed at 9 without feeling guilty that I should be doing homework!

And the excitement about site is growing, especially since I got a phone call from one of the people in admin about a half hour ago! When I went on my future site visit, there was a little confusion about my housing. The house that the organization had shown to PC was actually not available, as it is being inhabited by another PCV who seemed a bit distressed when he found out that he would be getting a roommate! (The org thought he was leaving Kenya a year earlier than he actually was, they didn't actually expect us to be living in the same house together!) So a person from PC admin went up there and looked at some houses, and it looks like they've found a place where they feel it is safe, and I will be living on the same compound as the headmistress of a local school. The house won't be finished until about 2 weeks after I move to Meru (but contractor/builder time works the same all over the world, so that's probably going to be more like a month, 6 weeks? We'll see.) It's a self contained one bedroom house, meaning the bath and toilet are inside, which lead me to believe that I'll actaully have running water, which will be nice (they just don't put latrines inside houses, for obvious reasons. It'll be great to be able to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night again! When your bathroom is outside, after a certain time, you can't go outside because of "robbers" and other "bad people" from what we've been told by many of our homestay families. And I think it will probably have electricity too. WHile I'm waiting for the house to be finished, I'll be living at the Girl's school in a guest house on campus. So that could either be really really cool, or it could be a nightmare, as students take to peering through the windows at the mzungu. Again, we'll see!

Well, I've probably spent more than enough time on the internet, keep up the emails, letters and such, I love getting them! ANd I'll try to update asap on a more direct mailing address in Meru.

Take care everyone!

Matatu name: "Oprah"

2005-07-16T08:15:00.000-04:00

So the second day in a row I have internet! I'm getting spoiled!

Today we went to this mall in NBI called village market. It is this bizarre alternate universe where there are fountains, louis vuitton stores, and Kenyan nannies following around after blonde expat children... it's strange, especially after living in 'regular' Kenyan society for almost 2 months! I really felt out of place, and even a little angry-- these people live in this strange insular world, where they might as well not be in Kenya at all! I went to this giant wal-mart type store called Nakumatt, and in the book section I was looking for a Kiswahili dictionary, because the one that PC gives us is pretty sad... well, they had French dictionaries, German, and Italian... BUT NO KISWAHILI!!! Come on people! It's one of the national langages! I ended up talking to the Kenyan lady who was working in that section a little in English, a little in Kiswa, and she told me to go to another book store, & said that I'd do just fine in learning Kiswa. Ninajaribu, I am trying!

So we left Village Market and just outside, we hopped on to a matatu blaring hip hop music, cheek to jowl with kids, businessmen, and old mamas, and we were suddenly back in Kenya again. And to be honest, I can say that it was a bit of a relief. This Kenya is feeling a lot more real than the artificial expat world here in NBI, and I think that even with all of its frustrations, I'm beginning to prefer the rough and ready world that I've been living in...

I'm staying on one more night here in NBI and it will be great to have an evening with the other trainees, just to hear about their experiences at FSV... some had much better times than I did, but there are a few who had much worse, so I've got that to be grateful for!

I had a funny conversation on a matatu in Meru the past week, which kind of makes me think that I'll be able to handle the site after all... One of the big cash crops in the Meru area is Miraa. Miraa is a plant, and you chew on the twigs and leaves, and the juice has an amphetamine effect. It reportedly has a very bitter taste, and teh texture is pretty nasty, so I'm really in no hurry to give it a try! But the matatu touts and drivers loooove it, and everyone on matatus seem to enjoy showing the mzungu girl the miraa. So this one tout (kind of like a matatu conductor) shows me his miraa and tells me, "This is miraa, you know what this is?" I replied yes, I did know what miraa was. He then offers to let me try it; "Good! Very good for you, good for bad stomachs!" This was news to me, and I thought it was hysterical that he was promoting the supposed health effects of this twig that gives you the shakes and turns your teeth this lovely greenish-brown color...

I thought that as long as I was there, I might as well try out some of my Kiswahili on him, so I answer, "Sipendi miraa!" (I don't like miraa). When he asks why (kwa nini?), I answer "Ninapenda vitu vitamu- Miraa si tamu" (I like sweet/good things, miraa is not sweet), which got a laugh from the entire matatu. As I was dropped off at the office, the tout says to me, "You could have tried!!", and I reply, "Well, that's just more for you then!", which got another laugh from the matatu passengers.

So yeah, things can sometimes be overwhelming and crazy here, but to be honest, I think I'll get to the point where I can handle it, which makes me feel pretty good!

Here's a photo of a meru farm:
http://www.farmafrica.org.uk/upload/diggin_kenya_meru.jpg

And here's a photo of Mt Kenya:

http://www.wildherps.com/travels/Africa2000/images/Mount_Kenya_big.jpg

Big Brother

2005-07-15T12:03:00.000-04:00

I've decided that I'm going to start naming posts after matatus, because some of them are so fun! Big Brother is one that I saw on the way into Nairobi this morning.

All this past week we've been on future site visit, which is a fancy way of saying that after finding out where we're going to be living for the next 2 years, we go and see it for a week. The day of site announcement was cold and rainy, which is bizarre in Kitui. I ended up being placed just outside of a city called Meru. It's right next to the second tallest mountain in Africa, so you can't miss it! My little village is actually called Kaaga. I'll be working with an NGO called Shalem community Educators, and while I wasn't so excited about being placed so close to a city, I am totally excited about this organization and the work I'll be doing. I'll be working with at least 2 women's groups, and most of these women are grandmothers who are caring for their grandkids who have been orphaned, mostly by AIDS. There seems to be a huge AIDS orphan problem in Meru, so at least I feel that tehre is a need for me to be there. There is one group that meets at the office in Kaaga, and they are about to start an income-generating activity involving dairy goats, and the goats will be living right outside the office, so while I may not have many chicken stories for you, I'm sure that I'll have loads of goat stories to entertain you all with!

I will probably have running H2O and electricity, but these are by no means regular or reliable in Africa, so there you go. I have gotten so used to living w/o, so it seems a bit strange and wrong to have these things, but I'm not dumb enough to turn them down! In addition to my women's groups, we're going to be running life skills and HIV/AIDS workshops for kids in the area (mostly young girls, but boys too).

So I'm in Nairobi till Sunday, when I go back to Kitui to finish up training, only 3 or so weeks to go! I'm looking forward to a nice dinner tonight, some bad television, and maybe a movie tomorrow! My life is a crazy one, I know.

I can't remember most of the things I wanted to write here! This is bad, I should start writing drafts so I don't leave anything out! Let's see... I guess I should tell you all more about Meru itself! You've all seen the tourist brochure pics of savannah, the masai mara, etc? Well, I'm not anywhere near that. Where I am is lush, lush, lush. Almost anything grows here, and there are tons of coffee and tea plantations, banana trees everywhere, and it is just mountainous and green, with this deep red clay dirt contrasting with the green.

One of my friends from my group got placed just south of Meru, about an hour by matatu. The cool thing is that I will be living in the northern hemisphere, and she is in the south. Just in the past week, I've passed the equator twice!

I'll try to get access to internet tomorrow before heading out to the wilds of Kitui, so I can give you more info about the area, and stuff....

Take care of yourselves!

Finally!

2005-07-07T06:14:00.000-04:00

I have finally been able to access internet for the first time since Nairobi! Of course it was only last week, but it seems like quite a while!

First order of business, I really can't open my gmail.com email address, so if anyone wants to email me (please do!), then please send it to aphra_01@yahoo.com. Yahoo seems to be a bit more reliable than gmail here in Africa, so let's give that one a go!

I had what PC calls a 'mock ACTFL' this morning. The ACTFL is the test that we get at the end of training, and we have to score at least a Intermediate-Mid level in Kiswahili to be sworn in. I think I did ok, but I feel like I was asked different questions than the other people in my language group! Some were asked to bargain in Kiswahili, others were asked to talk about our families. They asked me what I studied in college. I told them English (Kiingereza) and since I didn't know how to say 'women's studies', I said "Haki za wanawake", or women's rights. So of course they then asked me how women's rights were different in America and Kenya. I was totally not prepaerd for such a philosophical question, so I just said "Katika Amerika, wanawake wanaweza kufanya kazi, na wanaweza kununua nyumba na shamba. (in america, women can work, and buy a house and a farm) Katika Kenya, wanawake hawawezi kununua shamba, lakini wanafanya kazi wingi. (In Kenya, women can't buy a farm, and they do much work.) Then, I think I managed to insult my 2 (male Kenyan) examiners by adding "Katika Kenya, wanaume hawafanya kazi wingi." Which I think translates to "In Kenya, men don't really do much work". THey laughed, but we'll see how well I do when I get the score tomorrow!

And speaking of tomorrow, we finally find out what our sites are! I can tell that I'm nervous about it, since I've had site placement dreams for the last two nights running. The dream last night though, I can chalk up to my malaria medication, since one of the side effects is intense, vivid dreams, and you can usually expect some interesting ones the one night per week after you take it (we all look forward to what we call "Mefloquine Wednesdays"). So I dreamt that I got placed in this telemarketing job for a fundraising company, and I was upset because I had come all the way to Kenya for a job that would be considered a bad one in America. But I don't think that there will be much telemarketing in my real job, seeing as there really aren't any real phone lines here anyway.

Once we find out our sites tomorrow, we are going to be leaving for our Future Site Visit, which will last all next week. I'll try to get online to tell people, but I might not get a chance. Maybe I'll tell my Mom, and she can post my location in a comment or something, ok Mom?

So things are going well, you all can tell everyone that I am the Swahili MASTER now (not true, but I'd like you all to think that, ok?), and I'm just excited to find out where I'm going to be living for the next 2 years, and hoping that I like it!

So in closing, send me letters! I have not gotten any letters since I've gotten here, and I want some! Also, if anyone wants to send care packages, the time to do it is now, since I don't have to pay customs taxes for the first 3 months in country. After that, I have to pay out of pocket every time I get something. And you can reduce the customs tax by lying. If you put down "religious materials" on the customs form instead of food (food is taxed heavily) or clothing, or whatever, you'll save me a bob or two. Also if you write everything in a red sharpie, and put phrases such as "GOD BLESS" or "GOD IS WATCHING YOU", the packages are apparently much less likely to be stolen or to have the contents pilfered.

So take care all, and I am loving the text messages I'm getting from the states, if I have not responded to you, it is because I accidentally deleted the message from my phone in Nairobi-- It always takes me a while to get used to a new phone!

And I am proud to report that I have written a whole entry with absolutely no stories about chickens! Go me!

hey kids!

2005-07-01T08:52:00.000-04:00

Well, after week 5 of training, I've finally made it to Nairobi! We've all been so excited about this trip, and to be honest, I could go back to Kitui a happy girl!

We all got here by matatu, which was an adventure. I was in the back, squished up against the ceiling, and at least once I hit my head on the roof of the van while going over a bump. A Kenyan lady sitting in a fellow trainee's row actually threw up, so I felt pretty good by comparison! The trip took about 4 hours, and true to form, it was pretty rough, but I was just happy to be going, and going by matatu was a good experience at least (when we visit our future sites in 2 weeks, we'll have to figure out the matatus by ourselves, so we need the practice!).

Which reminds me... WE FIND OUT OUR SITES NEXT WEEK!!! If you couldn't tell, I am freaked out, excited, and I can't tell you what else! This is big, because on Thursday, PC will be telling us where we will be living and what we will be doing for the next 2 years, so everybody keep your fingers crossed for an awesome site! Although I am sure that I'll grow to love wherever I am placed, I really want to do work with women's groups and with the orphan population here in Kenya, which due to the AIDS crisis, has been getting really bad. So I think that as long as I am happy with my work, I'll be able to deal with the site. At least that's what I'm telling myself now!

So tonight we get to hang out with some current PCVs tonight (which we also did last night too), and while everyone is really cool (and interested in the new blood-aka us trainees), I feel sort of like we are the freshmen at the high school mixer--it's hysterical! Tomorrow we get to go to the embassy party (we get to wear jeans! We're not allowed to wear jeans at all during training, so this is really special, and I can't believe how excited we all are about it!)

So, I've actually managed to upload some photos as well, so check out the link and the photos on the menu bar... there are some pictures of my whole group, us shoveling chicken poo (also called 'manure') at our field based training in Nyeri, and me with a chicken and some trainees... I'm starting to find it mildly disturbing that most of my pc stories have to do with chickens... I'll have to start branching out to other types of livestock soon!

Another thing that you punks can do is text my cell phone from the internet! A fellow trainee told me about this site, and you can send free text messages to me over the internet... I think you may have to put your name in the body of the text so I know who it's from, but come on people... it's free!

So I'm going to sign off now because internet here, while fast and lovely, is quite expensive, or ghali sana, as I would be forced to say in Kiswahili class...

Take care of yourselves!

Another note

2005-06-24T05:49:00.000-04:00

I finally got a cell phone!

I have been able to get text messages from the states (I dunno which carriers have this capability), and it is free for me to get messages and to get calls (and pretty cheap for me to text the states too), so get in contact!

You can find the # on the "How to find Erin" link to the right... So nobody stalk me in Kenya, ok?

Kidogo Kidogo

2005-06-24T05:28:00.000-04:00

Kidogo kidogo in Kiswahili means 'bit by bit' or 'little by little', which is pretty descriptive of my live at the moment. Things are coming along, sometimes I get the hang of them pretty quickly, and sometimes they take a bit more work!

I got home from Nyeri kind of late Sat night. That evening I was enthusiastically greeted by my Mama who swore up and down that everyone missed me terribly, which felt pretty nice! She then told me that she was going out to get some chicken for dinner. I was fine with that until my host brother walked into the living room and handed me a *live* chicken, telling me he needed to go find the knife.

Uh... so I held this chicken by the feet, and thought a little bit about how I was going to be eating her in just a little while, until that got a little too freaky for me. Fortunately Christopher came along with the knife and led me and the chicken outside to the kitchen. It was dark, and so I was grateful that I didn't actually see the slaughter (kuchinja in Kiswa), and Christopher is apparently pretty good at this, since the chicken didn't make much noise at all. But then he put a pot of water over the fire to heat it up, and once it was hot, we dunked the now headless chicken into the water to make it easier to pluck the feathers. I did help with that, and I am quite proud that I did! I also helped my Mama take out the innards and cut up the chicken to get it ready to cook. So now I have seen my dinner go from pecking at the ground to on my plate, and that is just the way it happens here!

Random things that I can remember, I have not been able to access my gmail account for a while, so if I haven't responded to anything you've sent, that's why! If I continue to have problems getting to it, I'll switch over to another type of email I can get access to!

I should have access to good internet in Nairobi next weekend, so I'll try to think of good things to write! Also if you have any questions at all about life in Kenya, email or comment, and I'll try to answer them!

Livin' it up at the Starbucks Hotel

2005-06-17T11:41:00.000-04:00

At Field based training in Nyeri (Central Province), and I kid you not, I am atcually staying at the Starbucks hotel. It's been a crazy few days, we today we visited a catholic organization that provides services to people liviung with HIV/AIDS, and that was pretty amazing. After opening the meeting with a prayer (all meetings in Kenya start w/ a prayer, very religious country), a lady stood up and just started singing. And this happens all the time- and every time, it is the most amazing music that you have ever heard in your life! It sounds so stereotypical, but just imagine every movie set in Africa that you have ever seen, and then think about the soundtrack. It really honestly is like that. And everyone starts clapping and dancing, and it makes you so incredibly amazed and humbled to have been allowed the chance to come here and experience this.

On Wed, we helped a community group build a well! I had never seen a well dug, and so that was a great experience. I helped pull the bucket of dirt up out of the well, and then I dug holes for fence posts with a machete! One of my friends, Misty took a picture of me, and when and if she uploads it, I'll give you a link! I've got loads of pictures, but I think I'm going to wait for a real high speed connection in Nairobi (I'll be there in a week or two), where it will be easier! My friend and next door neighbor Terika took a photo of me with some neighborhood kids as well, so I'll persuade her to upload that one as well!

Well, it's getting late, and I should be getting to dinner, I really need to write these emails down before I come, becuase there is always something that I forget! Maybe I'll just start posting them as random notes at teh end of every post...

-On the drive from Kitui to Nyeri, we saw BABOONS! They were eating trash by the side of the road... Karibu Kenya!

-The public busses are called Matatus, and they are often brightly painted and given names. Some of the best names I've seen so far are: "Pain!" "Christ Cruiser" "Survivor", and "The Redeemer".

-WHAT IS HAPPENING BACK IN THE US??? Michael Jackson is in jail? We now know who Deep Throat is? Keep me updated people!

-My chicken is still alive, we'll see how long that lasts!

-Still trying to get the time to get a cell phone! I tried to get one here in Nyeri, but the guy was really trying to rip us off, so we're going to get them back in Kitui.

-For the 4th of july, we're going to get to go to the US Embassy party in Nairobi! THis is a very big deal, as most of the currently serving PCVs will be there, as well as otehr gov't and US NGO staff, so we're all very excited about that!

Take care everybody! I've got a 5 hour drive back to Kitui tomorrow, and let's just say that only HALF the way is paved! Travel is not nice or comfortable here, so next time you get in your car and zip to the supermarket that is half a mile away, just think of me, and turn up the air-con!

Erin and the chicken!

2005-06-09T09:35:00.000-04:00

Well, life continues apace here in Kenya...

The other morning before class, I was taking some of the breakfast scraps out to feed the chickens, (yes, I do actually live on a farm- I have several chickens, a turkey and a cow) and on the way I passed by this old mama coming up the path towards the house. I fed the chickens and on my way back to my room to gather my stuff for Kiswahili class, my Mama called me into the main room of the house. The old lady was having tea, and as I shook her hand, my Mama hands me this *live* chicken! The lady is a neighbor, and brought me a present! This was a little strange, as I had never held a live chicken before, so I grabbed it by the feet and hurried back out to the chicken coop to throw it in. My Mama was telling us that we should keep it, as the hen would lay eggs for us, while outside Titus the cook was teaching me the Kiswahili word for 'to slaughter', and illustrating the language lesson with throat slashing motions... So the chicken is still alive, but we'll see how long she gets to continue laying eggs!

Training is pretty intense, our training is almost completely community based, so we spend a lot of time sitting on the ground underneath mango trees... Kiswahili is coming along pretty well for a language I have absolutely no experience with and that bears no resemblance to any language I've seen before. I wrote a paragraph in Kiswa the other day, I'll post it for you if I get time later on!

I'm adjusting, there are hard days, and then there are days when being here and walking down the road is even a great experience. The public busses (called Matatu) are pretty scary, they tend to play chicken with bicycles and pedestrians quite a lot.

--I eat almost a whole fresh papaya every day, my host family is really trying to fatten me up as much as they can, and they've realized that I like the fruit, so they're shoving as much as they can into me. I can't wait till mango season!

Well, I've got to get going, I've got other people waiting behind me, and they want to get online!

Take care of yourselves!

Kitui!

2005-06-04T03:29:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone! I am emailing from the Post office (Posta) here in Kitui. The past week has been exhausting physically, mentally and emotionally, but the downs are pretty equally balanced out with these amazing "I can't believe I am in Africa" moments.

After flying into Nairobi and staying for a few days at a guest house there, we went on to Kitui. Since we had been confined to the guest house in Nairobi, the ride to Kitui was the first we had really seen of Kenya. The land was just so incrediblly beautiful that despite not having slept well the night before, I couldn't keep my eyes off the scenery. Whatever you have seen or thought about what Africa and Kenya would be like, that was it.

In Kitui, we stayed at the training center for a while before meeting our homestay families. My family is just my Mama (mama is a term of respect for all middle-aged women here) and some men who work on the shamba (farm). We do not have running water or electricity, so I take my baths in a bucket, and study at night by parrafin lamp. My Mama lived in the UK for a while, so she speaks very good English, but the men who work on her shamba don't really speak english, so they are really eager to help me learn kiswahili, and I am very glad for that.

I have found that my name is very hard for many Kenyans to pronounce, so my Mama gave me a name in Kikamba (the local language for Kitui, and the first for many people here, kiswahili is the 2nd), so people here are calling me Mwende, which means 'loved one'... she gave me that name because as we walk through town, everyone wants to stop to greet me. I have learned enough Kiswa to greet people, tell them what my name is, where I am from and to ask the same of them, but beyond that, when they start rattling off in Kiswa or Kikamba (I can't tell the difference yet!), I just have to shrug my shoulders and say "sijui" (I don't know).

Training is going to be overwhelming for a little while, I can tell. THey've given us loads of work, which is hard to do when you're just trying to adjust to everything being so different. But I am sure that as I become more comfortable here, I will cope better with the work load. At least I have really wonderful co-trainees, and we have already been helping each other through the rough parts, and I can tell that they will soon be like family to me.

I should get off the computer so I have some time left on my card to use later! I think I may be getting a cell phone some time next week, so I will put the number here so that you can call me! It will cost you money, so pole ('sorry' in Kiswahili), but I can get calls and text messages for free, so feel free to call just to say hi!

Also, feel free to write me, I promise that I will write back, as I get lots of free time! I usually go to bed around 9 (with no electricity, there's not much to do after dark!), and get up around 6, so in the evenings, there is not much to do but study my Kiswa and write!

Kwaherini!

Hello from Arlington!

2005-05-24T21:15:00.000-04:00

Staging has been intense, with very long days, but it has definitely been lots of fun. There are about 37 people in my group, and so far everyone seems really great- very smart, excited, fun people, and I'm really looking forward to getting to know everyone in the next few weeks!

Tonight, I have to totally re-pack my bags, since one bag will be going into storage for the entirety of pre-service training. We'll be able to get to it, but it won't be easy, so we'll need to have everything we'll need for the next 10 weeks in one bag. This bag will go with us to our homestays. Tomorrow, we have to be in the hotel lobby and ready to go at the brutal hour of 7 AM. From there, we go to the health clinic for our shots, and then we check out of the hotel and go to the airport for our 24 or so hour flight!

In Nairobi, we'll be staying at a guest house for a couple of nights, and then we'll move on to the town where we'll be doing our training, Kitui. After a few days there, we'll be sent off to our homestay familys! That's definitely nervewracking, but I'm expecting it to be interesting, and hopefully fun. I've told them that I really like kids, so hopefully I'll get a family with some kiddies to hang out with.

In training, we'll be doing mostly community-based training, where apparently a lot of training, even language classes, will be happening out in markets, clinics, and other places outside of a classroom. I think this suits my learning style really well, so I'm excited about that.

We've been told that we will probably not have internet or phone access for a while, so I'll try to get online and on a phone as soon as I can, but if you don't hear from me immediately, don't worry! Know that I'll be fine, and that I'm thinking about all of you and hoping that you are all well!

Here we go...

2005-05-22T20:55:00.000-04:00

Ok guys, it's all about to get underway!

After over a year of planning and preparation, I'm finally heading off to staging tomorrow morning! I've got everything (mostly) packed, and I'm probably about as ready as I'll ever be.

Some notes and links:

To make my week, you can send me a letter- here's my address!

I've got a digital camera, and will try to upload photos here whenever I can.

I'll be pretty busy during training, and so I can't guarantee frequent internet access, but I'll try to update as much as possible. If you want to get an email update whenever I've updated this site (so you don't have to keep checking back here), you can scroll down to the little box below the "Subscribe" title. Enter your email address in the little box, and you'll get an email when I update. Even better you can take yourself off the list whenever you want, and you don't have to wait for me to get around to it!

So yeah, off into the great unknown... I'm very excited, but I can't express just how much I am going to miss everyone from home. All of your love and support has meant the world to me, and I would never have had the courage to do this without it. And even though I will be on the other side of the world, becoming learned in the ways of pit latrines and the extra-large variety insects, nothing would make me happier than to hear from you. And I promise I'll write back!

Well, I'm off to see how much more stuff I can cram into my already overflowing pack!

Packing

2005-05-20T09:01:00.000-04:00

Packing
Originally uploaded by PCErin.

I've been running around like a crazy person for the past few days, trying to tie up loose ends, do the last bits of shopping, and do the usual things one needs to do before a trip.

The photo is meant to illustrate what packing for two years looks like. It isn't pretty, but what you see there is (most of) what I'll be taking with me. Notice the huge roll of duct tape in the lower right hand corner.

So now I'm off to a doctor's appointment to get the last of my prescriptions (I need to show up at staging with a 3 month supply of any medications I take).

Then later on tonight, I'm going to a party that is being put together by my lovely friends! Hopefully the weather will pull itself together so we can grill. Then tomorrow, I get to see most of my extended family for another get-together!

So parties and packing, that pretty much sums up my life at the moment! I do like the parties, but I could do without the packing!

How much stuff can you fit into a car and a truck?

2005-05-03T09:45:00.000-04:00

Well, after an exhausting weekend, I am now offficially moved out of my Washington, DC place! In the weeks leading up to the move, I had managed to take a few carloads of stuff back up to Baltimore just to make it easier. However I seriously underestimated the amount of stuff that I was able to pack into that one little room!

But thanks to the tireless work of my Mom and John, their living room is now strewn with all of my furniture and random boxes of books and papers. Lucky them! I'll be able to take care of that for them in a few days.

In other news, I got my staging kit in the mail from Peace Corps! This is a huge relief, as I have a pretty dismal track record when it comes to getting PC mail. Included is an itinerary for staging and for my flights! I report to staging on the 23rd, and from then till the 25th, we'll be in meetings pretty much all day long. There is a layover in Amsterdam, but the Amsterdam - Nairobi leg of the flight will go from 7AM Amsterdam time to 8PM Nairobi time. Ugh.

Excellent!

2005-04-19T22:32:00.000-04:00

I sent in my remaining dental information to PC via FedEx on Friday, and they got it on Monday. They must have started working on it immediately, because I got an update telling me that I've been dentally cleared!

So that's the last clearance that I need in order to go to Kenya, and it came not a second too soon! I needed to be dentally cleared 30 days before departure, and that is this Saturday!

Way to cut it close, Erin!

Communications in Kenya

2005-04-19T10:19:00.000-04:00

This was just sent to me by the Kenya desk at Peace Corps:
______________________________________________________________
Dear Prospective Volunteer: Please give this letter to your family and ask them to hold on to it for as long as you are in Kenya.
______________________________________________________________

Dear Families,
Greetings from the Kenya Desk in Washington, D.C. It is with great pleasure that we welcome your family member to Peace Corps. During the past year we have received many requests from Volunteers and family members alike regarding travel plans, sending money, relaying messages and mail, etc. As we are unable to involve ourselves in the personal arrangements of Volunteers, we would like to offer you advice and assistance in advance by providing specific examples of situations and how we suggest they be handled.

Irregular Communication
The mail service in Kenya is not as efficient as the U.S. Postal Service. Thus, it is important to be patient. It can take three to four weeks for mail coming from Kenya to arrive in the United States via the Kenyan postal system. From a Volunteer's post, mail might take 1-2 months to reach the United States. Sometimes mail is hand carried to the States by a traveler and then mailed through the US postal system. This leg of the trip can take another several weeks, as it is also dependent on the frequency of travelers to the U.S.We suggest that in your first letters, you ask your Volunteer family member to give an estimate of how long it takes for him/her to receive your letters and then try to establish a predictable pattern of how often you will write to each other. We would also like to suggest that you consider the use of "aerograms," generally a blue sheet of paper which folds into an envelope. These are available in most stationary stores or at post offices. Volunteers have had good success in receiving their mail in this form. Also, try numbering your letters so that the Volunteer knows if he/she has missed one. Postcards should be sent in envelopes--otherwise they may be found on the wall of the local post office!

Volunteers often enjoy telling their "war" stories when they write home. Letters might describe recent illnesses, lack of good food, isolation, etc. While the subject matter is good reading material, it is often misinterpreted on the home front. Please do not assume that if your family member has been ill that he or she has been unattended. Peace Corps has a doctor and two physician's assistants on staff in Nairobi. Through regular contact, they monitor the health of the Volunteers. In the event of a serious illness, the Volunteer comes to Nairobi and is cared for by our medical staff. If the Volunteer requires medical care that is not available in Kenya, he/she will be medically evacuated to South Africa or the United States, depending on the medical care required. Fortunately, these are rare circumstances.If, for some reason, your communication pattern is broken and you do not hear from your family member for three months, you should contact the Office of Special Services (OSS) at Peace Corps Washington at 1-800-424-8580, extension 1470. OSS will then contact the Peace Corps Director and ask her/him to check up on the Volunteer. Also, in the case of an emergency at home (death in the family, sudden illness, etc.), please do not hesitate to call OSS or our weekend and off hours Duty Officer (202) 638-2574 immediately so that the Volunteer will be informed as soon as possible.

Telephone Calls
The telephone system in Kenya is relatively good. Service to the United States is somewhat reliable, phones exist in most larger towns and Volunteers can often plan to be at a phone on a certain date to receive calls from home. This usually works, but there are also innumerable factors that can make the best-laid plans fall apart.The Kenya Desk communicates the Peace Corps office in Nairobi daily. However, these calls are reserved for business only and we cannot relay personal messages over the phone. All communication between family members and the Volunteer must be done via international mail.

Sending mail during Pre Service Training (PST)

Erin Patterson, Peace Corps Trainee
P.O. Box 30518
Nairobi, Kenya

Sending packages

Both parents and Volunteers like to send and receive care packages through the mail. Unfortunately, sending packages can be a frustrating experience for all involved due to the possible theft and heavy customs taxes. You may want to try to send inexpensive items through the mail, but there is no guarantee that these items will arrive. We do not recommend, however, that costly items be sent through the mail. Even though Volunteers choose to get local post office boxes, you may use the following address to send letters to your family member at any time during his or her service:

Erin Patterson, PCV
U.S. Peace Corps
P.O. Box 30518
Village Market, 00621
Nairobi, Kenya

We recommend that packages be sent in padded envelopes if possible, as boxes tend to be taxed more frequently. Custom fees can be quite expensive. For lightweight but important items (e.g. airline tickets), several services, such as DHL, FedEx, TNT, and UPS operate in Kenya. These services however, are very expensive, and can cost as much as $70 for a letter. If you do choose to send items through them, you must address the package to the Country Director, c/o Peace Corps, Nairobi, Kenya. (The street address of the Peace Corps office in Nairobi is: Grivellia Groove, Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya). If you send the item to the Country Director, no liability can be assumed.Sending airplane tickets and/or cash is not recommended. Certain airlines will allow you to buy a pre-paid ticket in the States; they will telex their Nairobi office to have the ticket ready. Unfortunately, this system is not always reliable. Several European carriers fly to Kenya. Please call the airline of your choice for more information. You could also send tickets via mail services as mentioned previously. However, Peace Corps will assume no liability in the event of a lost/stolen airline ticket.Trying to send cash or checks is very risky and is discouraged. If your Volunteer family member requests money from you, it is his/her responsibility to arrange for its receipt. There is Western Union service available in Nairobi, although there are many charges involved in the sending and exchange of money. Bear in mind that Volunteers will be aware of people visiting the States and can request that they call the Volunteers' families when they arrive in the States should airline tickets or cash need to be sent back to Kenya.We hope this information is helpful to you during the time your family member is serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kenya. We understand how frustrating communication difficulties can be when your family member is overseas. and we appreciate your using this information as a guide. Please feel free to contact us at the Kenya Desk in Washington, D.C. if you have any further questions. Our phone number is 1-800-424-8580, ext. 2324/2323 or locally, 202-692-2324/202-692-2302

Finally!

2005-04-13T10:19:00.000-04:00

After waiting for about a week for the FedEx containing my invitation to arrive, my PO has finally sent a replacement! I was getting extremely nervous due to the impending departure, and my PO was kind enough to humor me. She also emailed me a copy of the assignment description, so now I have something in my possession that states that I am definitely going to Kenya!

Dealing with Peace Corps bureaucracy is a long, frustrating process that does require boatloads of patience. But I am glad that I was the squeaky wheel in this case, because with so little time left, I don't know that I could have waited another week in order to start all of the things I needed to do!

I've told the people at work that I'll be leaving in early May, and in about a week or so, I'll give the the definite date. Then I move out of my place here in DC, and will soon after move back into my Mom's place in Baltimore.

I have so much packing to do, I don't even know where to start! Once I pack for Baltimore, I'm going to have to start packing for Kenya almost immediately. Someday, several months from now, I'll actually get to unpack for good when I get to my site in Kenya-- I'm looking forward to it already!

So why aren't you married?

2005-04-08T10:34:00.000-04:00

One thing that Peace Corps Volunteers have noted is that a lot of people in their communities have a hard time understanding why adult women volunteers are still not married. However that's one area in which I think I'm already getting some experience!

Earlier this morning, I was sitting out on my porch reading a book. One of my older neighbors ambled past, walking his aged labrador. We exchanged a few pleasantries, and I heard about how he was going to the dentist so that he could have a few of his remaining teeth pulled (at this point, I was reminded about the importance of 'saving' my teeth...), and his impending retirement. As he was walking off, he made the following comment:

"I thought you'd be married at this point."

Ever on the ball, I replied. "Huh?"

He repeated, "I thought you'd be gettin' married, get outta this neighborhood."

I was taken aback for a moment, but this kind of personal attention isn't out of place in my neighborhood. I struggled for a moment to find a response that would be acceptable to him, but failed. And I hate the whole "Just haven't found the right person yet" excuse, because that just invites lots of offers of dodgy fix-ups.

So unfortunately, my well-intentioned neighbor was left unsatisfied as to my reasons for remaining single. He left muttering that I was 'just like his daughter'. And I was left wondering just how often I was going to have to fend off that question in the coming months.

So what exactly are you going to be doing?

2005-04-06T00:27:00.000-04:00

One of the things that has happened in the past year is that I have become completely immersed in the Peace Corps application process. In this process, I believe I have forgotten that not a whole lot of people know exactly how this whole Peace Corps thing works. So here's my (not so) abbreviated PC101:

You submit your application, and soon afterwards, you're contacted by one of your regional recruiters. You get a packet in the mail, containing 3 reference forms (THANK YOU Sam, Michael and Rick!), and other miscellaneous paperwork.
You then have your interview with your recruiter. They ask you some of the standard job interview questions, and then it starts getting oddly personal. You'll get asked about your relationship status, religious and dietary restrictions (I had to fill out an additional form because I was vegetarian), and whether you'll be willing to alter your behavior and/or appearance to fit in with local customs.
After the interview, you'll get what is called a nomination. That is an assignment with a general region and departure date. My original nomination was Health Extension in Africa with an April 2nd departure.
Then you start in on the medical and dental paperwork. I can't begin to describe all of this, but suffice it to say that I had the most thorough physical of my life in order to get this all done. This is by far the most time consuming and frustrating part of the PC application process. This step took me two months to complete.
After submitting your medical and dental forms, you wait. I waited 10 weeks before I got notice that I was medically cleared.
Once you're medically cleared, your file goes on to Placement. You are assigned a Placement Officer (PO), who is responsible for filling program spots in a designated reigon. Your PO then reviews your file and your qualifications (taking into account any restrictions that may have popped up during medical clearance, as it did with me), and based on all of these things balanced with the program needs at the time, issues an invitation to serve in a particular program in a particular country. Note that up until this point, you only have a region, so this part is especially exciting.
Once you have your invitation, you fill out yet more paperwork for visas and your PC passport.
Then comes departure! About 3 days before you get on the plane, you gather together in a city somewhere in the US (Kenya stagings are usually in DC) for an orientation program called 'Staging'. There, you meet your fellow trainees (there will be about 35 people in my group), get program and safety information, and you get lots and lots of shots!
For the first 2-3 months you are in-country, you are not actually a Peace Corps Volunteer, you are a trainee. Training covers intensive language training (I'll be learning Swahili!), technical training (public health work for me), and more extensive info on how to maintain your health and safety while in country. Halfway through training is also when you get your permanent site assignment-- the place where you will be living and working for your 2 years.
Once you complete training, pass the language tests, and are officially sworn in as a PCV, your 2 years start ticking down. You go to your site and start setting up!

I hope that this gives people some idea of what I've been doing, and what I'll be going through in the next 3-5 months. For some kind of timeline, I submitted my application on May 5, 2004, and I will show up for staging on May 23. 2005. So this whole thing has taken me just over a year to complete. (At times, a very loooong year!)

Waiting...

2005-03-31T22:54:00.000-05:00

So last Wednesday, I spoke with my placement officer at Peace Corps, and she told me that she would send out an invitation to the Kenya program, and that it should get to me by the beginning of this week. Well, I think we were both underestimating the DC-area postal service. Because it's now a week later, and it still hasn't come. And I'm going crazy waiting for it!

She did say that she was putting me into a slot in the program, so I'm trusting that I did get a spot and that my anxiety about this is completely unfounded. However after having my last invitation switch around on me, I'm having difficulty believing them without having this confirmed in writing!

Hopefully it will come tomorrow, and I won't have to call my placement officer back!

Changes...

2005-03-24T23:16:00.000-05:00

Oh, what can happen in a month! Or more precisely, what can happen in the course of a week!

This Monday, I was going about my business, beginning to think about the things I needed to do in order to go to Swaziland. And then everything turned upside-down.

I have ADD, and I take medication for it (not Ritalin, but something similar). I wasn't able to make my original nomination becuase my medication was apparently illegal in that country. So I got cleared for Swaziland because it was apparently on the list of approved countries for my medication.

So the drama all started when I sent my screening nurse an email asking her how I should go about getting the 6 month supply required by the PC. I got the following email in response:

I cleared you to Swaziland because they can handle Adderral there and dexedrine is closely related. In thinking about it after receiving your e-mail, I decided I better take the precaution of making sure that Dexedrine itself is legal in that country. I will hear back from the PCMO in a day or two. In the mean time, check with your doctor about Adderral as an option if Dexedrine itself turns out to be illegal in Swaziland.

So that was somewhat worrying, but I thought that if necessary, I could switch to a different ADD drug.

Well, that was all not to be, because today I got this:

Well, there are changes in the air. As it turns out, there are some real legal problems with getting your needed medication in Swaziland. I don't know why they were on our list of "OK" countries, which is why I cleared you for that assignment). So we cannot send you to Swaziland. THE GOOD NEWS IS that there is a program that Placement would like to invite you to in KENYA. I hope you think that is good news.

So the long and the short of it is, I'm now going to Kenya!

Peace Corps has always stressed the importance of staying flexible, and I feel like I'm getting a real education in this before I even get on the plane. In the end, I've just decided that wherever I end up is where I'm meant to be, and to fight it would be stupid.

And besides, I'll be living in Kenya!

Things I gotta do

2005-02-25T12:11:00.000-05:00

When I finally got the invitation in the mail (after days of waiting, might I add), there were several additional things I needed to do. First, I had to re-format my resume to the format given to me. Secondly, I had to write an aspiration statement. This aspiration statement was to cover my "expectations for service", "cultural adaptation strategies", and "Personal and Professional Goals". After weeks of procrastination, I finally sent it in a week or so ago.

When emailing the resume and statement to my country desk at PC Headquarters in DC, I snuck in a few questions about the size of my group and the city that we'd be meeting up in prior to departure (this 3-day orientation period in the US is called Staging)... I guess I got lucky, becuase they were nice enough to answer my questions! (PC is often known for saying "You'll find that out later!")

So I'll be one in a group of 35 people whom I will meet for the first time in Philly!

That's pretty exciting! I still haven't found any other Swaziland invitees on the internet message boards I've been reading, but it's still early days. Hopefully a couple of them will surface before I head out for staging.

The Language!

2005-02-23T12:40:00.000-05:00

I just found a website on the internet that gives an overview of SiSwati, the language that I'll be learning in Swaziland.

Uh Oh.

Apparently SiSwati is very closely related to Zulu, and according to this site, there are not only clicks in the language, but there are THREE DISTINCT CLICKS. Now I've heard that the Peace Corps language program is one of the best in the world, but I'm still somewhat skeptical of my own ability to make my tongue distinguish between a dental click, a lateral click, and a palatal click.

Now that's Zulu, maybe there are fewer kinds of clicks in SiSwati? One can only hope...

SiSwati website

New Swaziland Country Director

2005-02-06T10:49:00.000-05:00

Just found this on the PC website:

Several new Country Directors were just sworn in recently, and among them was the new CD for Swaziland!

"Swaziland – Patricia Austin

Patricia (Pattie) Austin is returning to Peace Corps service and Sub-Saharan Africa after a seven year absence. Austin was a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi from 1995 to 1997, where she worked with the Ministry of Health to improve the nursing and administrative services at Lilongwe Central Hospital. Following her tour in the Peace Corps, Austin did project work in photojournalism in Washington, D.C. Her professional life began as a registered nurse with a BSN from Cornell University. After completing her master’s degree from Columbia University, she became the Assistant of Nursing at Bridgeport Hospital in Connecticut, and later Director of Nursing at the Wilmer Institute at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Following her nursing career, Austin completed pilot training in Dallas, Texas, and became an airline pilot. She piloted for Air Midwest out of St. Louis International and for United Airlines based at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport."

Wow, she sounds pretty interesting-- RPCV, photojournalist, nurse, airline pilot?!

My Job

2005-02-02T22:55:00.000-05:00

So here's a little bit about what I'll be doing while in Swaziland.

As with most things in Peace Corps, this is always subject to change; in fact, what I actually end up doing will almost definitely look different from what I put down here!

"Volunteers entering this project can expect to work in the area of HIV/AIDS education and programming in partnership with the people of Swaziland... It is possible that volunteers will be assigned to work on a variety of levels with a range of stakeholders (i.e. youth, community groups, schools, clinics, non-governmental organizations, etc.)

As a Peace Corps Volunteer you will be among the third group of Volunteers invited to Swaziland to help deal with different stakeholders in fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic. You will do this by engaging in the following activities:

1. You will assist teachers and non-formal educators in educating the youth on reducing the risk of HIV/AIDS infection.

2. You will support community health motivators and local health clinics in their efforts to fight the pandemic.

3. You will assist groups working with orphans and vulnerable children in conducting needs assessments, providing guidance to destitute children, assessing services... and identifying educational needs for vulnerable children.

4. You will help establish youth groups and build the capacity of existing groups to address HIV/AIDS issues.

5. You will empower girls to reduce the risk of contracting HIV and to encourage them to be contributing citizens.

6. You will help people living with HIV/AIDS to live productively and to assist in removing the stigma against HIV/AIDS.

7. You will work with NGOs to build their capacity on HIV/AIDS work."

Whew, that's a lot! I think this is more of an overview of the potential directions that my work could take, as opposed to a more standard job description that outlines all expected responsibilities.

Since this program is so new, I think they're casting the net a bit wide, so that the program (and the role of volunteers within it) has room to shift and move as it settles into a more mature program.

So it should be interesting!

Welcome to my new Blog!

2005-02-02T11:46:00.000-05:00

This is hopefully going to be a place where I can keep friends and family up to date on what's going on with me in the Peace Corps. I have been invited (PC lingo for accepted) to serve in Swaziland as a Community Health HIV/AIDS educator.

Swaziland is apparently the smallest country in the Southern Hemisphere, so it is understandable that not many people know where it is! So I've stolen a map from another website to show y'all where you'll be able to find me come June 6th: