Christmas in Kenya

Christmas was such a blast! Sangala and I made the 8 hour trip to El Doret with our friend Cassidy and her puppy Jua. In total there were 3 dogs so Sangala had a great time playing with his other puppy friends. In total there were about 11 people there and we partied way too hard haha! We had an ugly christmas sweater party and did a white elephant gift exchange. Hannah lives near a river so we went down to the river on Christmas Day and tanned and swam. We also spent a day at a hotel pool in El Doret where we also got to ride a camel! It was so fun, but scary when the camel was standing up and sitting down because you felt like you were going to fly off. After the pool we went out to the bars and danced the night away. I met a cool half Canadian half Kenyan skateboarder who showed us all around the city and took us to a beautiful resort and treated us to beers.

Overall it was amazing, but the party isn't even close to being finished. Today I went up to Bongoma to meet with two of my girlfriends and tomorrow we are heading to the island tomorrow on Rusinga in the middle of Lake Victoria. There should be about 11 people there for New Years too and we are renting a boat to another island nearby. I'll post again after!

Missed you all during Christmas time! Hope yours was as good as mine!

Back at Site, but not for Long!

I’ve been back at site now from Inner Service Training for about a week and man…IT IS BORING out here! The rural can really make you go crazy, I’m tellin ya. Most of the week I’ve been walking walking walking. I have to walk 2 hours to get to the bank. So I walk the 2 hours to Bomet just to find out I’ve lost not only my Peace Corps debit card, but my American one so I have no access to cash. So since I didn’t have the money to pay for transportation, I walked the 2 hours back! I’m sure getting in some kind of shape! The next day I had to make an hour long walk to my “closest” town to go on the internet and deal with ordering new cards. But the internet is soooo slow so it took me almost an hour to send one email! I’m having to get use to this life all over again it feels.

Thursday was a productive day and I wrote out an outline for my maternity ward project proposal. We also have a clinic for pregnant women and newborns that day so I gave the women a condom demonstration and helped weigh babies. The rest of the week I’ve just been working on integrating. I’ve been getting to know the shortcut paths through the bush and meeting lots of people. I had dinner at my supervisors the other night and met his two oldest daughters who are home for the holidays. They are very modern and speak English so it’s nice to have some people to talk to way out here. My supervisor’s son, Larry, is in “hiding” because he just got circumcised. When boys get circumcised here (around the age of 14), they have to be separated from women for a month before they can have a “coming of age” party and join society again. It’s an interesting tradition.

Anyway, well I’m trying to get adjusted back to site again, I actually will be leaving shortly. I’m planning on going to Hannah’s for x-mas. We are going to have a white elephant gift exchange with all of our friends and make amazing food! Then New Years, I’m heading to my friend Elizabeth’s site on Rusinga Island in the middle of Lake Victoria. So it will be nice to be on the beach and hang with the girls!

Thinking of everyone back home during the holidays and missing you more than ever!

Inner Service Training

Training has been so much fun and it's been so good to see everyone! Our first week we learned about everything from creating sustainable income generating activities to community led sanitation techniques. It's been really interesting and I've been learning a ton, getting some great ideas for projects to implement at site, and feeling more motivated than ever in being a volunteer here in Kenya.

This weekend we were allowed to go into Nairobi and explore, which was quite the treat because we usually are not allowed in the city due to security issues. Saturday we shopped around and I bought a solar powered netbook! I'm so excited about it because my old computer only lasted unplugged for 20 minutes and now that I don't have electricity the solar power will be vital and I'll be able to stay connected. I also did some touristy shopping and bought some really beautiful local crafts and jewelery. For lunch we had amazing Italian food (definitely not bush food). At night we went to a 2 for 1 happy hour at Brew Bistro and it seriously did not feel like we were in Africa anymore. There were so many white people and live music and more importantly lots and lots of beer! Sunday we woke up early again to get a full day in Nairobi. We went to the Kenya Wildlife Service and checked out the animal orphanage. I got to pet a giraffe, had monkeys groom me and fed an ostrich! It was so cool and we saw some amazing animals like a cheetah! After, we went to KFC for lunch haha! Kenya just got it's first KFC in Nairobi and we had to test it out. Sufficient to say, it passed! I was sooo full after having the "Fully Loaded Box"consisting of a chicken burger, chicken wing, mashed potatoes, fries and a soda...ouch. We walked around the mall and I sat on a black Santa's lap haha! After we went to the Brew Bistro again for another round of happy hour!

Overall training has just been a nice escape from the bush. This week our counterparts have come out to participate as well. My new supervisor has joined me and we are mainly going to learn about nutrition and gardening as well as writing grant proposals. It should be an information packed week. I'm not gonna lie, it's going to be difficult to go back to the rural after such a fun filled 2 weeks!