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!
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Sunday, December 4, 2011
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!
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
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!
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!
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
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.
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.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Gettin Jiggy With It
I haven’t written a blog update in awhile because I felt like not much was happening in my life, or at least nothing important enough to share. Until today when I started to reflect on my last few months here and realized how much I really have done in such a short amount of time. Although there is a lot of down time, when I do get out and about I like to think I’m really making a difference.
My health clubs are going great! I’ve got 2 going strong and another 2 in the works so by next week I should have 4 functioning health clubs. So far we’ve talked about assessing our values and how our behavior reflects on those values, we’ve learned about risky behaviors and their consequences and we’ve played a lot of fun games. One day we played “AIDS Attacker” where one person is AIDS and everyone else has a card that says either “has many sexual partners”, “uses condoms every time”, “abstains, says no to sex”, “is faithful to uninfected partner”, “has STD”, or “uses condoms occasionally”. When the “AIDS Attacker” tags someone then everyone has to decide if that person would be vulnerable for HIV depending on what their card read. It was really fun and the kids had a great time running around and tagging each other. I’ve gotten to know the teachers pretty well too and have even had dinner at one of their homes. They are really supportive and it’s nice to be making friends. One of the schools, Emprizza, is a non-profit school that completely supports the children who go there. If you’d like to consider being a donor please contact me and I will give you their information. They are a great organization and not only help vulnerable children attend school, they also have community outreach projects. Another project they are working on is creating a community library so if you would like to donate any books, please send them my way!
I attended World Food Day on October 14th in a village called Nesewa. There were all these different booths set up which were advertising different information to farmers and villagers such as food productivity, livestock keeping and energy efficient cooking methods. They had all this amazing food that I had never tried and some staple Kenyan dishes with twists to make them healthier and tastier. There was dancing from local school children, singing and even acting. The village chief gave a really inspiring speech about how lucky we are here in Matayos to have stable food resources when our neighbors up in the northeast are starving daily. It really makes me feel grateful.
I also attended another event this month for World Hand Washing Day. It was held at a local school in the village of Muyafwa. We taught the children how to properly wash their hands and the importance of using soap. We also showed people how to build affordable hand washing stations out of sticks, a jerry can and some rope. Finally, we treated people who were infected by Jiggers. No, “getting jiggy with it” is not a good thing here in Kenya! In fact, Jiggers affect 10% of the households here in Matayos and only 40% of those infected have been treated due to lack of disinfect chemicals needed to treat them. If you don’t know what Jiggers are, they are tiny bugs about the size of flees that live in dust and lay eggs in your skin. When they grow they are incredibly painful and cause people to loose their limbs. They can easily spread to the hands and other body parts as well. So we went to a few local homes to treat the worst cases and the rest of the people made their way to the school where we had a mass treatment center. I cleaned between the nastiest feet I’ve ever seen.
I went to the Chief’s Baraza about a week ago. A Baraza is a community meeting where people can get together and discuss issues with the leaders. Basically I learned that there are women doing illegal brewing of alcohol in the villages in order to support themselves and the Chief wants to get them away from that by creating some other income generating activities (IGAs). So I’ve come up with an idea to teach the women how to make bracelets with the Kenyan flag on them. I learned how to make them when I did the site shadowing with PCV Louis Vayo. Anyway, the women were really interested so with their help, I’m going to buy the beads this next time I’m in Nairobi, and then I’m going to set up a class to teach them.
Besides that I have been traveling on the weekends when I can. I’ve visited a few other volunteers’ sites and have seen how they live and what they are doing. It always feels good to hang out with Americans because I don’t have to speak slowly or in broken English. My friend Hannah literally lives in a mansion. She has a puppy too so I brought Sangala up to visit and we had a great time pretending we weren’t in Africa in her mansion. I don’t know how Peace Corps set her up with that, but all I know is she’s one lucky volunteer. She even has hot showers! I’ll be back to visit her for sure ;)
Since then, I’ve been trying to stay in site more on the weekends. This coming weekend will be my third straight weekend in site. I’m going a little stir crazy, but staying the weekend really makes a difference. I go to church with local friends and play soccer with some of my students. The weekend is a time when I can really spend quality time with community members and I’m trying to make the most of it. I’ve been running again and that feels good. Oh and I finally bought a full length mirror, which I have to say is an essential item for an only child and I have missed it so. I got a virus on my computer which really freaked me out, although I have to say it is a miracle that the same computer that I’ve had since Freshman year of college is STILL working. Luckily, another computer savvy PCV named Daniel talked me through how to fix in on the phone and it’s working again so I’m soooo relieved. I watch a lot of movies on my computer and also have work related activities, so it would have been a bummer if it could not have been fixed.
Anyway, thank you for those of you who have written or sent me a package here in Matayos! Note to everyone, if you send smaller items in padded envelopes they come quicker. Also, on the customs form where it asks how much the items you are sending cost, lie! The more they cost, the more I have to spend to pick them up. Either way though, keep them coming. Special thanks to Sharron and Sarah for the toys, candy, roach trap, magazines, etc. I practically cried when I opened it! If you are thinking of things to send me, any magazines, old or new, would be great because I want to teach the women headed households how to make paper beads and sell them for profit. Oh and since Thanksgiving is coming up, if you want to send a dried gravy mix, that would be awesome too!
Love and miss you all and hope everything is going well back in the States.
<3, Nekesa
My health clubs are going great! I’ve got 2 going strong and another 2 in the works so by next week I should have 4 functioning health clubs. So far we’ve talked about assessing our values and how our behavior reflects on those values, we’ve learned about risky behaviors and their consequences and we’ve played a lot of fun games. One day we played “AIDS Attacker” where one person is AIDS and everyone else has a card that says either “has many sexual partners”, “uses condoms every time”, “abstains, says no to sex”, “is faithful to uninfected partner”, “has STD”, or “uses condoms occasionally”. When the “AIDS Attacker” tags someone then everyone has to decide if that person would be vulnerable for HIV depending on what their card read. It was really fun and the kids had a great time running around and tagging each other. I’ve gotten to know the teachers pretty well too and have even had dinner at one of their homes. They are really supportive and it’s nice to be making friends. One of the schools, Emprizza, is a non-profit school that completely supports the children who go there. If you’d like to consider being a donor please contact me and I will give you their information. They are a great organization and not only help vulnerable children attend school, they also have community outreach projects. Another project they are working on is creating a community library so if you would like to donate any books, please send them my way!
I attended World Food Day on October 14th in a village called Nesewa. There were all these different booths set up which were advertising different information to farmers and villagers such as food productivity, livestock keeping and energy efficient cooking methods. They had all this amazing food that I had never tried and some staple Kenyan dishes with twists to make them healthier and tastier. There was dancing from local school children, singing and even acting. The village chief gave a really inspiring speech about how lucky we are here in Matayos to have stable food resources when our neighbors up in the northeast are starving daily. It really makes me feel grateful.
I also attended another event this month for World Hand Washing Day. It was held at a local school in the village of Muyafwa. We taught the children how to properly wash their hands and the importance of using soap. We also showed people how to build affordable hand washing stations out of sticks, a jerry can and some rope. Finally, we treated people who were infected by Jiggers. No, “getting jiggy with it” is not a good thing here in Kenya! In fact, Jiggers affect 10% of the households here in Matayos and only 40% of those infected have been treated due to lack of disinfect chemicals needed to treat them. If you don’t know what Jiggers are, they are tiny bugs about the size of flees that live in dust and lay eggs in your skin. When they grow they are incredibly painful and cause people to loose their limbs. They can easily spread to the hands and other body parts as well. So we went to a few local homes to treat the worst cases and the rest of the people made their way to the school where we had a mass treatment center. I cleaned between the nastiest feet I’ve ever seen.
I went to the Chief’s Baraza about a week ago. A Baraza is a community meeting where people can get together and discuss issues with the leaders. Basically I learned that there are women doing illegal brewing of alcohol in the villages in order to support themselves and the Chief wants to get them away from that by creating some other income generating activities (IGAs). So I’ve come up with an idea to teach the women how to make bracelets with the Kenyan flag on them. I learned how to make them when I did the site shadowing with PCV Louis Vayo. Anyway, the women were really interested so with their help, I’m going to buy the beads this next time I’m in Nairobi, and then I’m going to set up a class to teach them.
Besides that I have been traveling on the weekends when I can. I’ve visited a few other volunteers’ sites and have seen how they live and what they are doing. It always feels good to hang out with Americans because I don’t have to speak slowly or in broken English. My friend Hannah literally lives in a mansion. She has a puppy too so I brought Sangala up to visit and we had a great time pretending we weren’t in Africa in her mansion. I don’t know how Peace Corps set her up with that, but all I know is she’s one lucky volunteer. She even has hot showers! I’ll be back to visit her for sure ;)
Since then, I’ve been trying to stay in site more on the weekends. This coming weekend will be my third straight weekend in site. I’m going a little stir crazy, but staying the weekend really makes a difference. I go to church with local friends and play soccer with some of my students. The weekend is a time when I can really spend quality time with community members and I’m trying to make the most of it. I’ve been running again and that feels good. Oh and I finally bought a full length mirror, which I have to say is an essential item for an only child and I have missed it so. I got a virus on my computer which really freaked me out, although I have to say it is a miracle that the same computer that I’ve had since Freshman year of college is STILL working. Luckily, another computer savvy PCV named Daniel talked me through how to fix in on the phone and it’s working again so I’m soooo relieved. I watch a lot of movies on my computer and also have work related activities, so it would have been a bummer if it could not have been fixed.
Anyway, thank you for those of you who have written or sent me a package here in Matayos! Note to everyone, if you send smaller items in padded envelopes they come quicker. Also, on the customs form where it asks how much the items you are sending cost, lie! The more they cost, the more I have to spend to pick them up. Either way though, keep them coming. Special thanks to Sharron and Sarah for the toys, candy, roach trap, magazines, etc. I practically cried when I opened it! If you are thinking of things to send me, any magazines, old or new, would be great because I want to teach the women headed households how to make paper beads and sell them for profit. Oh and since Thanksgiving is coming up, if you want to send a dried gravy mix, that would be awesome too!
Love and miss you all and hope everything is going well back in the States.
<3, Nekesa
Friday, September 16, 2011
Introducing Nekesa!
That’s me! My new KiLuyah name is Nekesa. It means the harvest. They gave me the name Nekesa because I came to Kenya around the time of the harvest. Most children are named after the season or time of day they are born. I was born in January and that name means “hunger” or something so I told them I’d prefer to be named after the time I was born a Kenyan. So here I am, Nekesa, just a typical village girl who baths in a bucket, hand washes her clothes and catches her water from the rain. Yup, that’s me now haha. I’m getting use to it and life is very calming here. I have so much time to reflect on myself and who I am, what my values are, who I want to be, what demons I need to face…it really has been a personal journey more than anything else. It’s not always easy being in my mind, but when there’s not much else to do I might as well take the time to reflect I suppose.
The last week has been overall good. Besides the usual malaria sessions I perform with Pembe Tatu, I was able to go see the World Food Program hand out food to those most vulnerable in a local village. The community members vote on the people in their village who are most in need of the food and then those people get to come once a month and collect corn, beans and cooking oil. WFP has sponsors from all over the world and each bag of food is printed with the country donor that sponsored it. It’s good to see America’s flag on a number of the bags. It shows people we really do care. I’m not necessarily for handouts, but I think it’s better than going to bed hungry.
I got in a pretty bad bicycle accident the other day. Don’t worry, I’m ok, but it defiantly gave me a reality shock and I may not be riding my bike for awhile. I live on a main highway, but people bike on it all the time too. So I was following another biker when out of no where a huge bus came by, hit me on the side and I went flying off the side of the road! They didn’t even stop to see if I was ok! Luckily some of the villagers ran to my rescue. I got the wind knocked out of me so I couldn’t even speak. They threw me into their car and rushed me to the Health Center (the same one I work at, which was a little embarrassing). By the time I got there, I was fine except my hand was really messed up. It’s been swollen for about a week now and badly bruised, but honestly I was lucky I just wasn’t more hurt. I really feel like God is watching over me here.
Life is hard here, much more difficult than the typical Americans. I went to a house the other day to pass my condolences on to some parents who had lost their 3 day old baby. I saw the baby’s lifeless little body. It was so hard not to cry right there and then. The parents didn’t know why she had even died. I couldn’t help but think that if this was America, this might not have happened. People don’t have access to the same medical luxuries here. When I got in my accident all they did was put iodine on my scratches and feel my hand to make sure it wasn’t broken. They don’t even have access to x-ray. Anyway, the father said to me, “Everybody says this is all a part of God’s plan, but I don’t understand why God would take my child from me. She didn’t even get to know I exist.” It was truly tragic.
Speaking of the medical system, I went to help deliver a baby the other day and was so excited, but the mother was having trouble dilating (they don’t have drugs to induce that here or even pain medication), so she had to be referred to the nearest city. They didn’t have a personal vehicle so they had to take the local transport! The matatu is the local transport and it’s so crowded there are people sitting on top of one another, the drivers drive like they are high on glue and it always smells like armpit and fish in there…I can’t imagine being in labor on one. Anyway, I don’t want to hear any complaining out of American mothers in labor ever again…just imagine giving birth in Africa. There’s one labor room and a bunk room for the new mothers. The babies don’t even have cribs!
So on the bright side I have began plans to start my Health Club at the local girls boarding high school and I’m really excited! The Guidance Counselor there is going to help me. Next week I’m going in to promote the club and hopefully girls will sign up. I’ll be teaching them everything from HIV/AIDS and STI awareness to the importance of having self-esteem, goal setting, time management, relationships, reproductive health and many more important topics. I’m planning on doing a lot of creative learning through art and theater because they don’t get a lot of that in school. Schools here are very exam centered and they don’t get anytime to do any fun activities. This is also where I’m hoping to start my soccer team. I think it will be a good way to have fun and also incorporate health. I’m really looking forward to this because I think it will give me something to do that will hopefully really make a difference in these girls lives.
Anywhoooo, miss you all back home! Thank you to all of you who have been reading my blog. I also want to say to my Cousin Logan, congratulations again! Love and miss you!
Sincerely,
Nekesa
xo
The last week has been overall good. Besides the usual malaria sessions I perform with Pembe Tatu, I was able to go see the World Food Program hand out food to those most vulnerable in a local village. The community members vote on the people in their village who are most in need of the food and then those people get to come once a month and collect corn, beans and cooking oil. WFP has sponsors from all over the world and each bag of food is printed with the country donor that sponsored it. It’s good to see America’s flag on a number of the bags. It shows people we really do care. I’m not necessarily for handouts, but I think it’s better than going to bed hungry.
I got in a pretty bad bicycle accident the other day. Don’t worry, I’m ok, but it defiantly gave me a reality shock and I may not be riding my bike for awhile. I live on a main highway, but people bike on it all the time too. So I was following another biker when out of no where a huge bus came by, hit me on the side and I went flying off the side of the road! They didn’t even stop to see if I was ok! Luckily some of the villagers ran to my rescue. I got the wind knocked out of me so I couldn’t even speak. They threw me into their car and rushed me to the Health Center (the same one I work at, which was a little embarrassing). By the time I got there, I was fine except my hand was really messed up. It’s been swollen for about a week now and badly bruised, but honestly I was lucky I just wasn’t more hurt. I really feel like God is watching over me here.
Life is hard here, much more difficult than the typical Americans. I went to a house the other day to pass my condolences on to some parents who had lost their 3 day old baby. I saw the baby’s lifeless little body. It was so hard not to cry right there and then. The parents didn’t know why she had even died. I couldn’t help but think that if this was America, this might not have happened. People don’t have access to the same medical luxuries here. When I got in my accident all they did was put iodine on my scratches and feel my hand to make sure it wasn’t broken. They don’t even have access to x-ray. Anyway, the father said to me, “Everybody says this is all a part of God’s plan, but I don’t understand why God would take my child from me. She didn’t even get to know I exist.” It was truly tragic.
Speaking of the medical system, I went to help deliver a baby the other day and was so excited, but the mother was having trouble dilating (they don’t have drugs to induce that here or even pain medication), so she had to be referred to the nearest city. They didn’t have a personal vehicle so they had to take the local transport! The matatu is the local transport and it’s so crowded there are people sitting on top of one another, the drivers drive like they are high on glue and it always smells like armpit and fish in there…I can’t imagine being in labor on one. Anyway, I don’t want to hear any complaining out of American mothers in labor ever again…just imagine giving birth in Africa. There’s one labor room and a bunk room for the new mothers. The babies don’t even have cribs!
So on the bright side I have began plans to start my Health Club at the local girls boarding high school and I’m really excited! The Guidance Counselor there is going to help me. Next week I’m going in to promote the club and hopefully girls will sign up. I’ll be teaching them everything from HIV/AIDS and STI awareness to the importance of having self-esteem, goal setting, time management, relationships, reproductive health and many more important topics. I’m planning on doing a lot of creative learning through art and theater because they don’t get a lot of that in school. Schools here are very exam centered and they don’t get anytime to do any fun activities. This is also where I’m hoping to start my soccer team. I think it will be a good way to have fun and also incorporate health. I’m really looking forward to this because I think it will give me something to do that will hopefully really make a difference in these girls lives.
Anywhoooo, miss you all back home! Thank you to all of you who have been reading my blog. I also want to say to my Cousin Logan, congratulations again! Love and miss you!
Sincerely,
Nekesa
xo
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Village Life
Life in the village is slow, but good. I've been trying to keep myself busy, but then other days i just laze around and do nothing absolutely nothing, which feels amazing. My puppy, Sangala is good and healthy. The vet came and gave him a vaccine for rabbies and deworming. He'll be the healthiest dog here that’s for sure. Whenever I’m busy out doing work, my new friend Millie watches him for me. She even feeds him! He’s stopped crying so much at night too so that makes me happy. We are making progress in our little life here in Matayos.
Anyway, the other day I ran into a bunch of American missionaries that were about my age so I asked them if I could go out with them for the day. We walked way back into the villages and I heard some really sad stories from families that are struggling. One house we went to had a child with a horrible skin disease. She was only 10 months old and the mother could not even afford soap. I think the disease could be prevented with just basic hygiene, but when there is lack of water and money, families have to make priorities and food is number one. It’s hard to see suffering like that because it makes me just want to do something immediately, like take the child home with me and care for her. Anyway, at another house there was this old man who couldn't walk. He told us that sometimes when it rains he gets stuck outside and rained on because no one will be home to carry him inside. His wife has to predict when to go to the markets based on the rains so she can be there to help him, but predicting the weather is not the easiest thing, so he sometimes gets rained on or else they will starve. Anyway I told them I live here and to come to the clinic if they can and I will talk to a doctor with them. I oddly have a lot of authority here, sadly I think because I'm white. They think I'm like a doctor myself or something. I was telling the nurse the other day that the reason why I'm in health is because of experience I've had with San Francisco Aids Foundation and she couldn't believe I didn't even study medicine in university.
I've been volunteering a little at the VCT too (voluntary counseling and testing) and helping out with the HIV testing. It's intense because you can see the fear in someone’s eyes when they come to get tested and the whole time I'm just praying please don't test positive. I sat in on an HIV support group the other day too. It was really interesting, but also made me concerned because I’m not sure how I can really help. I mean these people already KNOW about HIV etc, so I can’t teach them anything new really. What it seems like they need most is funding for their group so they can expand their farm and make more money for their families. Well money is something I don’t have, and even if I did, I don’t want to just give it out because it’s not sustainable. So I said maybe I could show them some income generating activities or something. It feels like a heavy burden on my shoulders because they expect so much from me. I just hope I can help at least a little.
I've also began work with my primary organization, Pembe Tatu. We go way out into the villages and do talks about malaria and show people the amount of money they will lose getting malaria instead of just spending a little money on a net to sleep under. Then we demonstrate how to tie and hang the net. It's all in Kiswahili and I try, but I can't really help too much due to lack of language skills on my part. People are so shocked to see a white person. Unfortunately when they see me they automatically think I'm rich, have money and will give it to them. It's sad and racist. I wasn't even rich in America! But I mean when I go out to these villages it makes me think how lucky I really am. I complain about the cockroaches and whatnot, but in retrospect, these houses have far worse conditions and the people have little to nothing. They live that way their entire lives, whereas I only have to deal for 2 years. It gives me strength actually.
Anyway, I’m missing home and missing Americans in general now that I’ve been at site for awhile. While it’s nice to have down time, I think I might begin to go a little stir crazy soon haha! I made my neighbor come over and play cards with me today because I was so bored and had no electricity. I guess I’m just feeling like I don’t quite know what to do with myself. It will come though and soon enough I’m sure I’ll get busy once I find my place here. Tomorrow I’m buying a bicycle so hopefully I can start exploring even further!
Anyway, the other day I ran into a bunch of American missionaries that were about my age so I asked them if I could go out with them for the day. We walked way back into the villages and I heard some really sad stories from families that are struggling. One house we went to had a child with a horrible skin disease. She was only 10 months old and the mother could not even afford soap. I think the disease could be prevented with just basic hygiene, but when there is lack of water and money, families have to make priorities and food is number one. It’s hard to see suffering like that because it makes me just want to do something immediately, like take the child home with me and care for her. Anyway, at another house there was this old man who couldn't walk. He told us that sometimes when it rains he gets stuck outside and rained on because no one will be home to carry him inside. His wife has to predict when to go to the markets based on the rains so she can be there to help him, but predicting the weather is not the easiest thing, so he sometimes gets rained on or else they will starve. Anyway I told them I live here and to come to the clinic if they can and I will talk to a doctor with them. I oddly have a lot of authority here, sadly I think because I'm white. They think I'm like a doctor myself or something. I was telling the nurse the other day that the reason why I'm in health is because of experience I've had with San Francisco Aids Foundation and she couldn't believe I didn't even study medicine in university.
I've been volunteering a little at the VCT too (voluntary counseling and testing) and helping out with the HIV testing. It's intense because you can see the fear in someone’s eyes when they come to get tested and the whole time I'm just praying please don't test positive. I sat in on an HIV support group the other day too. It was really interesting, but also made me concerned because I’m not sure how I can really help. I mean these people already KNOW about HIV etc, so I can’t teach them anything new really. What it seems like they need most is funding for their group so they can expand their farm and make more money for their families. Well money is something I don’t have, and even if I did, I don’t want to just give it out because it’s not sustainable. So I said maybe I could show them some income generating activities or something. It feels like a heavy burden on my shoulders because they expect so much from me. I just hope I can help at least a little.
I've also began work with my primary organization, Pembe Tatu. We go way out into the villages and do talks about malaria and show people the amount of money they will lose getting malaria instead of just spending a little money on a net to sleep under. Then we demonstrate how to tie and hang the net. It's all in Kiswahili and I try, but I can't really help too much due to lack of language skills on my part. People are so shocked to see a white person. Unfortunately when they see me they automatically think I'm rich, have money and will give it to them. It's sad and racist. I wasn't even rich in America! But I mean when I go out to these villages it makes me think how lucky I really am. I complain about the cockroaches and whatnot, but in retrospect, these houses have far worse conditions and the people have little to nothing. They live that way their entire lives, whereas I only have to deal for 2 years. It gives me strength actually.
Anyway, I’m missing home and missing Americans in general now that I’ve been at site for awhile. While it’s nice to have down time, I think I might begin to go a little stir crazy soon haha! I made my neighbor come over and play cards with me today because I was so bored and had no electricity. I guess I’m just feeling like I don’t quite know what to do with myself. It will come though and soon enough I’m sure I’ll get busy once I find my place here. Tomorrow I’m buying a bicycle so hopefully I can start exploring even further!
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