Vegas Vaca for Halloween

This weekend I met up with other Western volunteers in Kisumu. AKA Vegas Vacation. We spent all day Saturday at a resort pool right on Lake Victoria. You can see hippos wadding in the water from the lounge chairs. Now on our peace corps salary, we cannot afford to stay at this resort, but for 200 shillings we can lay at the pool all day! We all got burnt to a crisp, even those who did wear sunscreen. Afterwards we went back to our hotel and got ready for the night. Our hotel has a roof top bar (like vegas baby!) Also an Agriculture NGO was throwing a Halloween bash, and invited all Peace Corps Volunteers in the area. It was a good time, with GREAT friends. It's nice to be able to leave site every once in a while and hang out with each other. We all had a great time. I got back to site just in time to get stuck in Eldoret due to a rain storm.  I got lunch until the rain died down, then headed home. Kibaibai was sooooooo happy we played for a few hours, then after such a busy weekend, was in bed by 9. 

This is (from left) Breezie, Andrea, me, Joy, and Henry. Andrea, Henry and I were a zebra, giraffe, and an elephant. Breezie was a baboon and joy was the market place. 

out in the bush

27-10-11
Today Anastasia and I traveled far out into the bush to visit 2 women's groups.  Luckily they were very grateful we came. There was a gaint rain storm, though we had to stay because a car is not a luxury many people have here. It went really well though the women were very appreciative.
Kibaibai is always very happy when I come home though. He seems to save all of his energy for me. I can't sit and have a peaceful moment, he is always chewing on something or pooping somewhere. He is currently licking his dinner off of the floor because he decided he didn't want to eat it out of his bowl. Did I mention his dinner tonight was omena. Omena are these tiny fish, that the mamas will sun dry and fry. I boil them and feed them with the supu to Kibaibai. So yes if you're thinking, "I bet the kitchen stinks!" You're absolutly right, the kitchen now reeks of fish, thanks Kibaibai. I guess I will go get a mop, and maybe give him a bath........
Going to Kisumu Saturday for Halloween! I can't wait to see my friends!!

This is a picture of Anastasia and I when we were working the HIV testing clinic. I wanted to put a picture up so you know she exists and is not my imaginary Kenyan friend. She's real!

And this would be my little angel, do you see his halo!? No? That's because he got it taken away for pooping on the floor and peeing in my bed! Angel? I think not!

fashion friday on tuesda

So here is my fashion Friday post. I'm either late for last Friday, or early for this Friday! I really suck at this, so I appoligize. Blogging is not so easy when you don't have consistent internet access.This skirt Grandma made for me right before I left the States. I got the sweater at the market in Eldoret 150 shillings. and the scarf on my head I got in Loitocktock. I have this one and a black one. Scarfs are necessary for the Kenyan wardrobe. Women use these scarfs to wrap their head, or wrap around their sholders, to tie the babies to their backs, and to sit on the ground. So many uses for piece of material! 

Now I will do my best to post another one on Friday! 

dream breaker

26-10-11

On Sunday, my friend invited Anastasia and I over for lunch. We had chapati, rice, beans, and chicken (Which I killed). Yep slaughtered my second chicken, this time I held it down and everything, I'm pretty much a Kenyan now. Lunch was delicious. However, every time I meet someone new, they always, not really ask me, but tell me how wonderful America is, and how someday they will go.  I'm so sick of hearing this! I realized the grass is always greener, but people here in Kenya have the common misconception that if they get to America, they will get  a job and make lots of money. This is where I come in as the dream breaker. I explain to them that it's even difficult for college graduates to get jobs, so what makes them think they will be able to find work. Also I explain how in Kenya, one can live off 100 Kenyan shillings a day, 100 shillings is equal to 1 dollar. Now you tell me, in America, can you live off of a dollar a day? I also have to break it to them that there is ALOT of poverty in America. They always tell me that they were taught that there is no poor person in America! Can you believe that! Being poor in America is way worse than being poor in Kenya. Here you can literally build your house out of mud (many people do), you can grow your own food, or buy it for very cheap. In America, if you don't have money, you live in a homeless shelter or sometimes on the streets, you never know when your next meal will be.  I hate to be this dream breaker, but someone has to do it. 

On a brighter note, I tried to post this on Sunday: Does anyone remember those weasel ball toys? It was a battery powered ball with a stuffed weasel attached. Well that is what Kibaibai looks like! It's the cutest thing! He rolls and falls all over the place, he hasn't quite grown into his new legs yet, which are getting so long! I can't believe how fast he is growing! Still my little baby though, and still cute as a button. 

corruption what!?

This shout out goes out to my 5 am YMCA gang! THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH! You wouldn't beleive the day I had on Wednesday. Anastasia and I were given bad directions to a women's group, there for were left wondering around for over an hour. The second group changed their time without telling the group leader, therefore we were an hour early for the what was supposed to be 2:00 group. We hoped on a matatu and was ready fro the day to be over. Just our luck! At the police stop, I guess the matatu tout didn't pay the police enough, or had a bad rep. I got kicked off the matatu for not sitting in a seat! In case you don't remember from earlier posts, matatus are vans used for transportation and are usually over crowded by many. They seat 12, but usually hold 15 or so. Well I guess its good I only got kicked off and not arrested or fined, however this "enforcing"/ accepting bribes is BS! Anyway after walking to the next town to catch another matatu, I headed to Turbo. And to my surprise..... there was a HUGE package! Not from just anyone, but from my 5am class I used to teach! I absolutly made my day! The yummy goodies helped get my mind off of the matatu situation. Thanks Guys!!! Miss you!

19-10-11

So sorry I haven't updated you all in a while. 2 reasons, 1. I don't really have anything to write about, 2. I ran out of internet time. 

I've been pretty busy with women's groups lately. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and ask myself. . . what am I really doing here, do these women really listen to me? Well today I got the conformation I needed. Not only were the women very thankful and appreciative, but the chair lady of the group and spoke up to the women who were laughing through out the entire session. I was talking about the importance of using condoms, male and female. The ladies were laughing so hard they were crying. The chair lady spoke up "why are you laughing!?" she said, "Our children our having sex, getting AIDS and dying! There is no reason to laugh at condoms!" I was so grateful for this mama. I could care less if the women laugh, sometimes I make jokes and laugh along too, but this mama made an excellent point! Kenyans are losing a generation because of AIDS. Not really because of AIDS, but because of the lack of knowledge to prevent and the denial to get treated. These mamas may not feel that they should use condom because they "are faithful" who knows about their spouses, but their children are having unprotected sex, because they are not educated on how to protect themselves. If they don't teach their children, who will? I am only here for 2 years, and though I plan to teach at every school in my area, there will be some that miss the day, or just won't listen to me. 

If you remember a few weeks ago, I taught at Atlas Primary school ( I posted a picture of the group). I left an envelope their for them to ask anonymous questions. I picked up the envelope the other day, because I will be returning next week to answer their questions. The envelope was bursting with questions. Some of which, I couldn't believe, were being asked by primary students. This primary school goes up to 8th grade, and the majority of the questions were about STI's and HIV. Basically "babies" asking these questions. The headmaster is only giving me an hour to answer the questions as well as speak about other health topics. NOWAY can I elaborate on all of these questions in 1 hour! It's sad that the schools don't offer better health teachings and even counseling to these students. Hopefully after my session the headmaster will allow me to return for another session. 

15/10/11

So Thursday I taught at another Secondary School. I taught the girls and boys together, then had a separate session for the girls. I was there for 3 hours! I was amazed at how interactive the kids were. I even got a boy and girl volunteer to do condom demonstrations! It was a great session! 

Friday was supposed to be super busy but one after another, things were cancelled. So it turned out to be a lazy rainy Friday.  Thank god when the girls visited we swapped movies and tv shows on our external hard drives. So I had many episodes of Modern Family to keep me busy.  Kibaibai and I walked across the street to Kosachei centre to buy eggs, which there were none of. However we ran  into a mama on her way to a JOYWO group. I decided to go. I took the pup home, got my  demonstrations ready. I headed to the group, but didn't actually know where it was. I wondered around and found some kids who remembered me from teaching at their school. They walked me all the way to the school where the women's group was. So the kept me busy the rest of the day. I came home and made dengu and chapati. I think I finally have figured the secret to good african chapati.

Today, Saturday, I went to an early women's group, brought Kibaibai along to get him out of the house. Afterwards we came home and took a nap, it is a Saturday you know! Saturday also means MARKET DAY! You should all know by now how much I love going to the market and digging through piles of used clothing, then bargaining for a good price. Today all I found was a top. But tomorrow I'm going to Kipkaren, a near by town, to visit my friends family. I've been told Kipkaren has a great market, so we'll see what I can find. After bumming a ride home with the Atlas Secondary school form 4 kids (saved me 20 shillings) I made a jiko oven. For those of you who don't know, a Jiko is the charcoal stove most families use here in Kenya.  To make the oven you light the Jiko (yep lit it myself!), and place a very large sufria (aluminum pot) with rocks or sand in the bottom. That way when you place a smaller sufria inside, it is able to bake the food in the smaller sufria like an oven.  Today I made coffee cake. It was my first attempt and actually didn't turn out terrible! Then leftover and chapati for dinner. Knowing how to make good chapati could turn out to be a big problem for me. Hello calories, and hello chapati baby! It's good I only make one at a time.  I also got to talk to all my roomies from BG, it's BGSU homecoming today, and Im missing it and everyone there! Here's my shout out to all my falcon fabulous friends! Get vertical!

Fashion Thursday?

Here is my fashion friday post, I realize it's a day early  however I will be super busy tomorrow and will not have time.  I had the skirt made by a mama when we visited volunteers during training. The material I bought in Taveta. I love this skirt! And look how big Kibaibai is getting! It makes me want to cry, I wish he could stay little forever!

This is a picture I took during training. In case you didn't know, this is Mt.Kilimanjaro. I got to see this beautiful creation every day! I could see it from my host families back yard! Absolutly breath taking. If you look closely you can see a little bit of snow on the top. The sad thing is that 10 years ago, there was a lot more snow on top.  The run off water provides water to alot of the families in Loitockitock, and unfortunately it will soon run out. I hope to get a chance to climb it before I leave Kenya! Any takers want to join?

11/10/11

 So I came home today around 2, I had left Kibaibai outside on the gated patio while I went to the office. To my surprise he was NOT there when I got home! I started to panic a pit, after the cat incident, I'm scared of something attacking him.  Well wouldn't you know, he was just trotting around in the yard.  I started to get upset, and mama Lucy on my farm said it was okay, he is just greeting everyone. I asked if he had been out there all day, she said "even yesterday he was greeting everyone." That little stink butt! He is becoming very clever, too clever for his own good! I gave him a bath (to teach him a lesson) (just kidding) and tried to jerry-rig the fence so he can't get out. We'll see if it works! 

So here are a couple pictures of the schools I have taught at in my community. I took pictures from the schools I visited with my friend, but haven't uploaded them yet. The top is Atlas Secondary school, I taught an all girls class. The bottom pictures is Atlas Primary school, I taught grad 2-8 boys and girls together.  

Good Morning everyone! I am very sorry for not updating in a week, Kibaibai and I have been traveling and that makes it very difficult to blog. So to start Tuesday morning we set off on our journey to visit another volunteer near the coast. I went to help him with health education in the schools. So we left the house by 6 and were on our way to Nairobi by 7. First mishap of the day started at the rest stop between Nairobi and Eldoret. A HUGE cat attacked Kibaibai. It must have thought he was a rat! I was so scared, but not as scared as Kibaibai, he peed all over me when I swoooped him up. The cat enede up getting his claws into Kibaibai. I bandaged him up, and he is healing well. Thank god I just got his rabies shot! So next leg of the trip went well, I even sat next to a guy who held Kibaibai the whole time. Now I understand what it's like to have a baby and basically throwing him to the person offering to hold him. We got to Voi where my friend met us and we took a matatu up the mountain. He lives in a very small town on top of the mountain, no electricity and not running water. It seems I got very lucky with my house.  The trip seemed to stress Kibaibai out a little, he peed and pooped in the house the moment we got there, then proceded to throw up on my friend. He's lucky he's so cute.   I was there for 4 days. We taught at 3 different schools and he is planning on returning to all of them to continue teaching health. On Saturday morning the only matatu leaving did leave until 11. We didn't get to Nairobi till 6pm, which means we had to stay over night. Luckily my sense of direction is getting awesome (not to brag) I picked a hotel that was right across the street from the shuttle I needed to take in the morning! Perfect because I was able to leave Nairobi by 8.
Now let me tell you why I have a love hate  relationship with traveling in Kenya. I love it because on this trip alone I got to see baboons (literally walking along the side of the road), gazelle, storks, and zebras! Didn't even have to pay for a game drive! Also on my way home from Nairobi I was able to get some produce shopping done without even leaving my seat! People bring fresh fruits and vegetables right up to your window! (America needs to get on board!) Now how could I hate traveling in Kenya you ask? I've said it before and I'll say it again, the conductors and drives try to cheat you and lie to your face. They will tell you it's express with no stops but it's not. They will up the price because you're white, and they ask you to buy them sodas and other snacks. But if you can get past these always annoying problems, then travelling can be somewhat enjoyable. You just have to know where to go and who to travel with.
Another friend of mine came to visit on Sunday. We met with AMPATH, which is an NGO yesterday, then proceded to return to Eldoret and do some major damage shopping in the market! We bargined our butts off and got some great deals. We had a delicious greek dinner last night which consisted of fatoush salad, hummus, carrots, crackers and mangos. I made the hummus from scratch, and the salad Elise made a delicious dressing for. I have now prepared mexican, chinese, greek and african foods since moving into my site! No wonder I'm not losing any weight!
So that is all for now, thanks for you patience with my lack of blogging!

So I had an AWESOME day today! It started out a bit frustrating though.  On Wednesday I went into the office where my supervisor told me that JOYWO was putting on an HIV mobil testing clinic next week. I had already made plans to visit another volunteer to help out with a project. It's annoying that Kenyans don't like to plan ahead, for anything. So anyway I was able to help today. It was supposed to start at 9 am.  The truck with the tent didn't show up until 10, it took over an hour to set up and start to get the inside ready. We ran out of fabric to separate the tent into small rooms. It was just one thing after another. Finally when everything was ready oh around 11.  My original job was to teach about HIV/AIDS while people waited to get tested. Well first off people kept badgering me about getting free t shirts. I literally said " where does it say free shirts?! It's free testing! Do I look like the free shirt lady!?" Anyway when I went to teach, people were acting rude and asking stupid questions and being way inappropriate.  After the first group I was burnt out!  My counter part and I decided we would do the testing. Well as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I am not supposed to come into contact with body fluids. So she did the pricking and I did the counseling. It worked great! I felt that I was getting through to people more, one on one than in that huge group. 

After lunch my APCD (aka boss) from peace corps stopped by for a check up. I knew this ahead of time, but boy did he pick a good day! Anyway that went great as well! He met with me and my supervisor. He said he is very impressed at how much I have already done in a month, and to keep up the good work! I know the I'm doing good things, but it feels good to hear it from my superior. So all in all GREAT DAY!

So this weekend the girls came to visit! We're taking turns visiting each other. We had girls night in. Here in Kenya, unless we're in a tourist area we can't really go out the way we would in America, it's a little more dangerous, plus you don't want people in your community seeing you party like a rockstar.  So we had a weekend full of wine drinking, mexican eating, dance party, hair party, chinese food, prank calling, baked goods eating, and 2 rascal pups! It was a blast. It's times like these that you forget you're in Kenya because your having fun like you would in America. So the girls came over, I made mexican on Friday night which consisted of refried beans ( I smashed and refried myself) homemade mango salsa, guac, and homemade tortillas. We sat around and chatted, it feels good to catch up on each others lives at site. The next day we went into Eldoret to do a little touristing. I showed them some great souvenir  shops! Saturday night I made chinese for dinner: I made vegetable lowmane and homemade sweet and sour sauce.  I told you I like to cook! And it was so great to have someone to cook for! Like I said there was some prank calling, dance party fun happening. My friend brought her pup as well. At first Kibaibai didn't know what to think and my friends pup is about 3 times the size of Kibaibai. But after a bit, they became best friends! They got into mischief and peed and pooped everywhere, but they were sad when they had to say good bye this morning. All in all it was a FANTASTIC weekend!