I sh*t in a hole....

Hey everyone! It's good to get on the internet and update this blog because so much has already happened. I'm now officially living in LOitokitok with my host family and I can't begin to tell you how humbling it is to have someone take you into your home and basically show you everything you need to know to survive here. My mama is the strongest woman I've ever met. For one, she can touch hot coals with her bare hands. She teaches me to cook Kenyan food, clean the Kenyan way and ya...I sh*t in a hole (this is something I will never get use to). Us PC Volunteers have become very comfortable about talking about pee/poo considering we had a 2 hour session on diarrhea haha! My room at home is very small, but so cute! It is filled with lace all along the walls and the ceiling. My mama heats me up bath water over the fire and I shower out of a bucket. I'm actually quite proud of myself at how good at it I am. I've also become very brave at getting shots. They don't give you any prewarning about getting shots. You show up at a session and all the sudden they are like "oh hey you are getting a Rabies shot today"...great.

I have 2 kakas (brothers) and 1 dada (sister) that live with me too. I showed them how to play "Ring around the rosie", "london bridges falling down" and "patty cake" and now it's all they want to do. It is crazy how different childhood is here. I let them use my pen the other day and a huge fight broke out about who got to use it. I felt so bad because it was just a pen. So the next day I brought them another one and another fight just ended up happening. It makes me think about how at my law office Andrew will always ask me to email Henry for the super-duper crafty pen and all I have to do is shoot him an email and a week later the nicest pen you've ever seen shows up. Ya...they practically cut eachothers throat here for a paper mate haha!

Something I know Sean will be happy to hear, I've seen every single Bay Area sports team represented here so far. They get second hand clothes from the Salvation Army and Goodwill so I've seen the 49ers, Sharks, Raiders and THE OAKLAND A'S (ya baby!) all represented! The funny thing is that they have no idea that they are even American teams, let alone sports at all.

The other day I traveled with a couple of other volunteers to a neighboring village to speak to the Minister of Heath and the Chief Elder about what they do. I learned that right now they are focusing on getting all the families in the area an adequate place to defecate. The problem is many people do not want to use a choo (their form of a toilet which is basically a hole in the ground a mile deep) because they think the people who know vodoo will scoop out their poop and curse them so if they go in the bush they won't be able to tell whose poop is whose...crazy, I know. But these are issues that I will have to deal with as a volunteer in the field and so learning about them early will be good practice. Besides this, we have language practice every day and I'm learning a lot of Swahili, probably one year of high school Spanish and I've only been here a week. We also have cultural training and heath training. I had to administer myself a malaria test the other day and actually draw my own blood. I seriously almost fainted, but once again I surprised myself at how capable I really am and got through it.

I haven't felt that I made the wrong decision in doing this what so ever, in fact I feel like I'm exactly where I am suppose to be. The food is decent, the people kind and I feel so lucky to be able to have an experience like this. Of course, I do miss home a lot and often dream about what I might be missing out on (due to my malaria medication having the side effect of vivid dreams), but at the same time, I am so busy during the week I have little time to think of the sadness that is associated with these feelings. When I get home at night I am beyond tired, and before I know it, it is 6am and my day is getting started again.

Anyway, I am available through email on my phone. It is not easy for me to respond to email on the phone, but even just getting a hello feels good. If you comment on these blog posts it goes to my email too so you can always say hi that way, otherwise my email is aflynnschneider@gmail.com and I look forward to hearing from each and every one of you. I have no pictures to show just yet because we were advised not to take out anything expensive for our first few weeks and although my camera is crappy for American standards, here is is an unimaginable luxury.

Love and miss you all!
Andrea

Yo guys! I'm in Kenya!!!!

6/8/11

I have arrived in Kenya! It was a long long long trip, but I’m finally here...pretty much in tact (although I did cut my foot at the airport). My computer is not agreeing with me already and the converter I hoped would work that I used in South Africa does not work here in Kenya so I’m pretty much out of commission after the 84% of battery on my computer runs out. I’ll be out of an alarm clock too since I can’t charge my iphone, but oh well it’s all in the challenge of being a PC volunteer.

Back in Philly we learned PC core values and other stuff like that. I think there’s gonna be a lot of skit work so after all the theater experience I’ve had, I’m very excited for that. I was able to have a famous Philly cheese steak at Genos and we went out to the bars both nights. My body is hating me currently.

So far I really like everyone! It’s nice to be around people who have the same ambitions as me and are humanitarians. We all share a love of helping people and I think it will go far in this country. There were 56 of us to start, but one has already unfortunately dropped out due to health issues. I was really sad because he was sitting with me on the flight to Brussels, but when we got there he had a seizure and couldn’t go on. I’m pretty sure they won’t let him make it to Kenya now. But 55 of us made it and are waking up bright and early to start training.

6/9/11

I have the internet! And I was able to barrow a converter from someone so my computer is up and running! Today we had our first day of training in the compound in Nairobi. I got four shots in the arm so it’s super sore, but I was proud of myself because I took ‘em like a man...well you know what I mean, I was brave. We learned about safety and security and did skits on the PC 10 commandments. My skit was about a girl getting pregnant because she didn’t use protection and she got sent home. Guess who was the pregnant girl?! Haha! Told you my acting skills would come into handy!

Then we had our first language class which actually went better than I was expecting. We learned simple kiSwahili greetings and I wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. The language sounds like it reads too that helps. After, a few of us played soccer out in the yard and it felt great to get some exercise.

I just got off skype with Sean and gchatted a little with Morgan and my cousin Rose so it was nice to hear from home. 30 years ago people in PC had to stand in a line at a post office for hours if they wanted to reach home, but now we are all sitting on a PC facebook chat room chatting each other from our rooms haha! It won’t be like this the whole time though, just while I’m in the city, which is only a few more days. I should be getting a cell phone though in the next few days and will post the number on my blog when I can.

On Saturday we pack up from Nairobi and leave for Loitokitok for our training and then on Sunday we move in with our host families. They are not allowed to speak English to us even if they know it, so this should be interesting. They will be teaching me everything from language to cooking to washing my clothes and fetching water. I cannot wait!

By the way if you send me a package within my first 3 months, it is duty free! So get on sending haha! Remember, it takes over a monthish to get to me though. The address is on the left. We have a special guy who will bring it down to us from Nairobi to our site in Loitokitok. Don’t send anything of value, but I’m asking for soccer balls at this time, peanut butter, gushers, ketchup and other goodies! yay!

Anyway, miss you all and will blog again when I can!

All my love!

Had to do one more post before I go

I know I said the last post was going to be my last post in America, but after today I had to write one more thing. This weekend was my final goodbyes. Friday night I spent one last night out in my favorite city in the world, San Francisco and then Saturday my wonderful friends and family came together to throw me a going away BBQ. I can't begin to tell you how humbling it is to know that people care about me so much. I love when experiences like this bring people together. I'm beyond blessed in my life. So I just wanted to write one last time and just say thank you and I love you to all the amazing people who are supporting me. It truly means the world.

OH! AND I'M FINALLY PACKED!

Last blog post in America

I'm sitting in my bed thinking about how I only have a few more nights in it. Oh how I've loved this bed. And now I embark to sleep on much less than a temprapedic and ikea bedding.

Only a few days ago I was off camping and trying out all my new gear with Sean. It was so peaceful and serene. Our camp was literally right on the ocean at the bottom of Mt. Tamalpais. In a way I wish I was still back there sitting next to the campfire, but at the same time I know I have a great journey ahead of me.

I've done most of my packing at this point and I've said some goodbyes. My final goodbye party is on Saturday. We are going to BBQ at the Lafayette Reservoir if it doesn't get rained out. It's been extremely hard saying goodbye to people. I mean I've always been a pretty emotional person, but this is way harder than I thought it would be. I've become so close with my friends here and as I've grown older I've realized how important family can be, so leaving all this behind literally feels like I'm leaving some of myself behind.

But I am looking forward to the future and all the good that it will hold. I can't wait to meet my fellow volunteers and start this journey together. Most of all, I look forward to meeting the people of Kenya and being welcomed into their country so I can someday call it home as well.

I just wanted to say one final thank you to everyone for your support along the way and I'm going to miss everyone so much. Please make an effort to stay in touch with me and I will promise I will do my best to respond to all emails etc when I am able to. And follow this blog to keep up with what I'm doing during my service.

Lots of Love! ya Fatah!

I will see you all in 27 months!