whoa!

Time is freaking flying by! My family will be here in 12 days, and my Health Day is in 21 days! I just can't believe it! I've been doing a lot of work, trying to get things ready!
This past weekend was busy. I had a group of Indiana Univ. students Friday morning, so I showed them around Eldoret, and their teacher introduced me to a whole sale fabric store! (bad idea, as if I wasn't broke enough already!) Then Saturday night I took a bunch of us out to a club in Eldoret! Who knew Kenya would have such a night life!? We spent Sunday at the pool then back to my house for a Jersey shore theme party (fist pump, pushup, chapstick!) it was a little out of control...... Everyone left Monday and I spent the day recovering.
Today I'm in Eldoret, meeting with the District health members that are helping me with my health day. They have been so helpful to me! I'm really grateful, I just hope they actually show up on the day of the event.
Tomorrow JOYWO is doing a mobile VCT (HIV testing and counseling) so I get to go help with the counseling! Should be a good time!
Other than that and my delicious chicken ceaser salad i had for lunch, I have no news to report!
Hope you all are having a good week!
And here's a shout out to my brother Ben who graduated High School on Sunday! Im so proud of him!
Also a shout out to my cousin Michael who is also graduating from High School in 2 weeks.
May you both enjoy your college years (like I did), make mistakes and learn from them (like I did), learn the difference between hard work and hardly workin, and finish with the knowledge and power to do great things! I love you both!

some quality family time

I had an awesome day yesterday!
It started out with a little morning wog (walkjog) with kibaibai. On our way home we stopped at my neighbors. A couple days ago I was visiting my neighbor when the little girl Kosi, started crying cause she wanted to come to my house. I told her she could come over on Saturday. So this morning I picked her up and we went to my house. She didn't talk the entire way. We got to my house and began our morning of baking. We baked 2 cakes and a banana bread!

 We were busy girls. And Kosi stopped being shy, and started chatting away. Did I mention she doesn't speak english. So all morning we were attempting to converse in Kiswahili.  It was a lot of fun, and she was a huge help! I had to teach her how to use the western toilet too, at her house, the babies just go in the yard.
When we finished, we packed up the cakes and headed back to her house.  We made cake for her family and their neighbors, who is my other favorite family to stay with. I spent the rest of the day with both families. Helping to prepare food, feeding the baby, and bathing the watoto (kids).  I know it doesn't sound like a lot of fun, but it was some MUCH needed family time.
I cannot wait for my families to meet each other!

To end my really great day, I treated myself to some home spa time. Soaked my feet and gave myself a pedi. Also did a home made face mask with cucumbers on my eyes. The face mask is super easy!
      Egg face mask
         1 egg yolk, mixed with lemon juice. It makes a pasty goo, you spread on your face and leave for a few hours. It makes your face soooo smooth and if you have any redness or blotchiness, it helps that too! Try it!

Not so small anymore

here is kibaibai the first week i got him, i thought he was going to be a small pup

and here he is now! almost a year old, not so small anymore :)  

This morning I took him for a jog/walk. I've been trying to take him at least once or twice a week, but i'm going to try harder to make it everyday. I'm also going to try harder at my getting back into shape, but I need some MOTIVATION! Any ideas? I was thinking about trying the raw food fast, to get a jump start. Any thoughts? I think I will start with one meal a day, for a couple days, then move to an entire day. We will see how it goes. But as most of you know, there is a lot of down time, out here in Kenya, and down time leads to bored eating. I will appreciate any ideas, suggestions and motivational tips. 

Today I'm going to visit my favorite family here ( the one with all the kids that love me!) That should brighten my day, after my stressful day yesterday. 

Yesterday I had the district head of the AIDS support program, ask me for donations of bookshelves, desks and other furniture, for the resource center they are putting in here in Kosachei. Now, I have lived here for almost a year, and have come to expect people to ask me for money, food, etc. But I would have never expected it from the DISTRICT! Needless to say he got an earful! I don't think he will make that mistake in asking me again. Donor dependency syndrome is a HUGE problem here in Kenya.  There have been so many occasions where organizations and donors, come here and simply give people and programs money. They don't have to do anything for it. Which has turned the people of Kenya to come to expect handouts, and simply do nothing for them. This is why on a daily basis I get asked to buy a soda for someone, or to give them whatever it is I am carrying.  I have definitely learned to brush it off, but sometime I just can't.  Mom, dad, be prepared! You're a new, white foreigner, you WILL be asked for things. 28 DAYS! (not that I'm counting)

food for thought

Ive been here in Kenya for almost a year! It will be exactly a year on June 8th. I cannot believe how fast the time has gone. But as my friend Breezie puts it, "the months go by fast, but the days pass soooooooo slow" 

Being here in Kenya I have definitely learned to appreciate a lot, so I have created a list of things I will never take for granted again! 

Here it is: (in no particular order, just off the top of my head)

high speed internet

personal transportation

washing machine and dryer

coffee maker

oven

vacuum cleaner

hot shower

beer on tap

frozen chicken

deli meat

any restaurant that has everything on their menu

salad

drinkable tap water (mine water comes from the tap, but has worms)

the gym

sidewalks

new clothes

I just thought of all these things. Now I'm not saying that I miss all of this stuff all of the time, but there are times when I miss what I had back home. 

We adapt to survive, so I have certainly "learned" to live without these luxuries. But would you, as someone living in America, call them all luxuries? How many times do you use one of these items during the day. When you use them, do you realize there are billions of people who don't even have the option of using these? 

Just some food for thought while you go about your day. :) 

First thing I want to talk about. I just got home from a pretty extended weekend. I stopped in Kakamega to visit my friend Lindsay on the way home. She made me a fresh salad for dinner. Yep a SALAD! That's something we don't get very often around here. She also sent me home with a whole bag of fresh picked salad greens! Since I do not have a refrigerator I had to eat all the lettuces tonight for dinner. I mixed it with some fresh tomatoes, onions, and green peppers. I made a homemade fruit vinaigrette (fruit jam mixed with a red wine vinegar), and topped it off with raisins and soy pieces. Can you say A- MAZING! I actually ate the entire thing, and can't even feel guilty because its a salad. Yum!

So on Friday I traveled to Russinga Island, to meet up with a few other volunteers. We were there to help our friend Izzy with a Girls Health Day. Of course did not go quite as planned, but it was still a success. We taught 100 girls how to make re useable sanitary pads!

It was a lot of work, but definitely worth it. A few other teachings on other health issues, then we ended the day with a dance party. This may or may not have included teaching all the girls the macaraina! 

Going to the island also gave us the excuse to get all together and spend an extra day here:

Yep our little private island. We lucked out with only a 30 minute rain storm, then sunny the rest of the day. It was a great way to end the weekend.

Nothing else is going on this week, just talking to more people about coming to talk at my family health day. Im hoping to get some HIV testing and counseling available as well. 

My family comes in 34 days! whoooooooo! I can not freakin wait!