Bomet and Beyond

Sooo much to catch up on since my announcement of moving sites. I have now been at my new site for almost 2 weeks, but let’s start somewhat before the move.

Hannah’s house was so much fun and I’m so lucky to have a friend like her to let me stay there so long. We had a blast in a glass! She lives close to a city so one day to celebrate we went into El Doret and bar hoped! During the days when we had no work to do, we just made paper beads and were super crafty. She has hot showers, western toilets and electricity! Plus she has a tv, so we watched Grey’s Anatomy! It felt like I was in America! Anyway, sufficient to say, I was reluctant to leave considering the unknown that lay ahead with my move.

Anyway, Peace Corps finally picked me up after a long, but fun, two weeks at Hannahs late on a Monday afternoon. We didn’t arrive to my old site Matayos until 8pm and they were making me leave by 11am the next morning! So I was a frantic mess packing everything, trying to say my goodbyes…Unfortunately when I got there, all the electronics I had left at my house were stolen. My house wasn’t broken into, so it was one of the 2 people I had trusted with a spare key and I have a feeling I know which one. But everyone denied denied denied so what was I suppose to do? Plus, I had to leave for my new site. It was so hard to say goodbye to all my students especially. All the teachers told me how much the kids loved me and my classes so I really felt like I was letting them down. I promised that I would visit in the future, but now Peace Corps is telling me I cannot even go back and visit the community because it’s not safe, etc. I’m really bummed, but understand it’s probably for the best.

So after the car was packed, Sangala and I headed 6 hours to my new community in the Peace Corps car. When we arrived, I was quite shocked. I was told I was going to be going to a community with electricity, atms, etc, but instead I showed up in the rural of the rural! My new home has no electricity in the entire village so if I want to charge my phone, I have to do it on a car battery! I think this is what I originally expected of what I was getting myself into when I joined Peace Corps, but then to be moved to a place with electricity before, I got use to having the luxury. Now, it’s hard to go back and adjust! My computer is so old it doesn’t really work unless it’s plugged in so I can’t do any work on my computer. There’s an internet café about an hour walk away, but I went there the other day and it took almost 30 minutes to load 2 emails!

So, it’s going to be an adjustment, but my new supervisor is really nice and has been showing me all the ropes. He took me into Bomet and showed me the post office. There’s also a library in the market town which is awesome. The only problem is that these are all a 2 hour walk for me so when I go into town I’ll have to make a big day of it and get things done. There’s not even public transportation that comes out to my house. Speaking of my house, it’s small, but cozy and I really like it (besides the electricity thing). I have a small bedroom, which basically only fits a bed, a living room and another small room I’ve made into a kitchen. My supervisor took me to buy a couch and some book shelves to it’s all coming together nicely. My water comes from the rain and I can just collect it right outside so that’s not too bad either. It rains pretty much 24/7 lately so walking to work is so muddy, I’m always praying I don’t fall on my butt.

I am now attached to a dispensary for my primary project. It’s so small and we maybe get 4 patients a day so I just basically have been sitting there reading and trying to get to know people. On Thursdays we have a clinic for pregnant mothers and newborns so things pick up somewhat. I’ve started teaching the mothers each week about different issues such as malaria, HIV, nutrition etc. At the clinic we also weigh babies and give injections. It’s so fun to weigh the babies because all we have is a hanging scale so we have to tie the babies up in a cloth and hang them from the scale. It’s so cute seeing them hang there haha! I’ll have to take some pictures. I also take this time to learn some of the local language. Everyone is excited to teach me Calingen and I’m trying, although it sounds like Chinese to me.

I think Sangala is liking the new site because there’s some other dogs there. They are sorta vicious African dogs though and sometimes attack him so that scares his mommy a lot! I always run out and pick him up. It probably discredits him in front of the other dogs, but I can’t help it, he’s my baby! I’m having major separation anxiety because I’ve had to leave him for a little over 2 week! I’m having the mama on my compound take care of him. He cried so hard when I left :(

Anyway, so I’m away from site. First was Thanksgiving. I went to my friends Cassidy and JoJo’s site which is only a few hours away from my new place. We slaughtered a chicken, made fish, mashed potatoes, squash soup, pumpkin break, honey glazed carrots, and even had an apple pie! It was delicious. The problem is, I’m not use to eating like this, so Sunday, when we all left to go to our training together in Nairobi, I got sick…on the driver. I had a little 24 hour bug and couldn’t travel on with the rest of the group so I stayed in a hotel to recover for the night. In the morning I felt better and headed up to training to meet up with everyone else.

Now I’m in Limuru at a nice hotel getting to catch up with all my Peace Corps friends for Inner-Service Training. We are learning about income generating activities, tree planting and sharing experiences from the last 3 months at site. It’s weird for me because now I’m at a new site and have only been there for 2 weeks so I don’t have a lot to contribute. But it’s great seeing everyone and we are having a blast. The food is good, there are hot showers, western toilets and, best of all, internet! It’s good to be connected again.

I’ve updated my new address to the left so feel free to keep the goods coming! I’ll try to stay in touch as much as I can, but now with my new living situation, I’ll be somewhat cut off. Letter work really well and I’m happy to write now that I have all this time at night without electricity. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and I was thinking of home. It was good to talk on the phone with my family! K well I’m off for now, but if you email me within the next 2 weeks I’ll be available!

Tutuonana!

Kwaherini Matayos

These last few weeks have been such a hectic and stressful time for me. In fact, I’ve probably been the worst off I’ve been since I arrived in Kenya. Let me recap:

I went to Kisumu for Halloween and had an amazing time. I was a zebra, my friend was a giraffe and my other friend was an elephant. I was walking around bucking my foot like a horse and making people hand feed me carrots. It was a great time! I had candy, pizza and amazing food. Kisumu is always a great escape from the village.

Anyway, so after a high weekend, I began a VERY low week. I arrived back to a strange man hanging around my site. For security reasons I cannot tell the entire story, but basically he ended up telling people I had “fallen in love with him” was “begging him” to marry me and it was causing problems with him and his wife. For one, this guy wasn’t even from my village and two, I knew him for a day before he was saying this. So because of this and some other security threats, I had to leave site and go stay with my friend Hannah.

I’ve been at Hannah’s now for about a week and half and I’ve finally received news on what my future holds. Peace Corps has informed me that I have to leave my site…I have to leave everything I have started, all my health clubs, students, friends, organization and completely start over in a new village hours away from my original home. It has been devastating information to receive. I was finally beginning to feel apart of my community and making some real connections. I was finally getting real work done, but now I have to pick up everything I know and move to a village that is not even in the same providence let alone speaks the same language.

I’ve been trying to take this in stride, it’s been extremely difficult to accept, but I’m trying to remain positive. On Monday I will be moving to Bomet, Kenya which is in the Lower Rift Valley. They speak Kallengin and are located in the highlands so life will be colder than I’m use to. One positive about this is that it is located near the Maasi Mara which is a tourist hot spot here in Kenya. Also, I’m thinking about it as another chance to explore more of Kenya. It is not going to be easy, and I’m defiantly nervous to start over, but if I could do it before, I can do it again.

I do not know the new address just yet, but I will post it as soon as I do. I travel back to Matayos on Monday to collect my things and then Peace Corps will be helping me move into my new home in Bomet. I’m asking for all your prayers in this difficult transition. Thank you again for all the support. I truly am blessed.