I had an awesome weekend! I went to Kakamega to visit my friend Lindsay, and we had a much need girls wine night. On Saturday we met up with a couple other volunteers for a perfect pool day. Then Linds came back to my place. On Sunday morning (and I mean bright and early) we headed to Mt. Elgon. I am currently working on a proposal with my Kenyan friend Remmy, to get funding to build a childrens home out in Mt. Elgon. There are no childrens homes in that area, and there are a lot of orphans. So on Sunday we went out to visit the children and get to know their stories.  It is always hard to see children that are sturggeling and not be able to do anything about it. Most of the kids live with their grandmothers and other relatives. However these guardians have little to no work, so even though the children have a roof over their head, it doesn't mean they are getting fed.  The public primary schools here in Kenya have free admission. But you much buy your own uniform and they do not provide lunch for the children. So even though these orphans have family and house, they are only getting one meal or less a day. And that one meal is usually chai, or ugali. So we are really hoping that we get some funding and are able to start constructing soon.
Now I am at the office. I am teaching on Saturday to all of the JOYWO mobilizers. These are the women who are in charge of all of the groups in their areas. Since I am not getting another counterpart, I thought it would be easiest to teach the mobilizers, then they can teach the womens groups.
Tomorrow and Wednesday I am starting my new volunteering job with the Living Room. It is a rehabilitation nursing home and hospice. I am going to being working with the community outreach part of the program. Im excited to finally have something to do!
So my week is pretty full. I'm hoping to have time on Thursday to work in my garden, it needs it pretty bad. I'm pretty sure the farm workers on my compound probably are talking some smack about what a bad farmer I am. This would be because my garden looks more like a jungle, with a few green peppers popping out! hahahaha

Until next time......

If I never get on another matatu again, it would be to soon! Well unfortunately this is my only mode of transportation, so I guess I will have to. I have just been having some bad luck with them lately. twice last week my matatu's engine overheated and we all had to get out and wait for it to cool, as they poor water over it. "Why not use engine coolant?" you ask. I ask myself the same thing every day! Im thinking about starting to carry some with me and sell it to the drivers whenever this happens. ( which is more often than not in this country).

On another happier note. I just got back on Thursday from my language training. A few of my friends and I (Andrea, Jojo and Cassidy) Decided we all wanted to learn more of our local language, which is Kalenjin. We went to Andrea's site, which is very rural, and did our classes at the local dispensary. I am really impressed how much we learned in just a short 3 days of class! My community is soooooo impressed with me now, (as if they weren't before :). We got to celebrate Cassidy's birthday while we were all together. She had just came back from America, so she brought a box cake mix and a can of icing. I had forgotten how yummy cake in America is. It was so delicious, we made ourselves sick from eating the whole thing! We only shared 1 piece!

Now I am back at my site for the duration. Well at least until Halloween ;) On Wednesday I am going to Kipkaren (a near by town) and starting to volunteer with the social workers at the rehab center that a women from America started. I am so excited to have something more to do!

Me, Andrea, Breezie, and yep that's a hippo right behind us! We lucked out at Kiboko Bay pool and saw a hippo and her baby come up to shore to eat

And you all know this guy. Kibaibai and I realxing, he loves his stuffed animals

Well, that's all I have to say for now. But I want to leave you with a few picutres: 

WOW ! Im finally back to site, without visitors, so I will finally update you on the past few weeks. Starting with 3 weeks ago, I had a student from Seattle stay with me for a few days. Natalie, she had been volunteering with another volunteer in Rongo, and decided she wanted to see Eldoret.  We had a great time. We also visited a clinic that is big on fistula repairs. Google it if you don't know what a fistula is, it's a little too graphic for me to write about here.
After her visit, I headed to Bomet, to visit 2 volunteers, Cassidy and Johanna. I stayed with them for 2 days, then we all headed to Nairobi. Cassidy was flying home, and Johanna and I had our mid service medical exam.  Well wouldn't you know, but peace corps messed up the dates and told us to be in Nairobi on Sunday, when Monday was a holiday. Go figure, so our medical exam couldn't start until Tuesday, which means we had to stay until Friday! So I spent a (very expensive) week in Nairobi. No wonder peace corps calls in Nai-robbery.  It's such a culture shock, compared to being in the village. I spend on one meal in Nairobi what I would spend in an entire week at my site. But I will not lie to you and tell you that I hated it. It was really nice to get out of the village, and get to see my friends. And best of all TB free! hahah that's pretty much all they were worried about at the medical exam.
After Nairobi, we headed to Kisumu. I got to spend my birthday laying by the pool, and going out dancing. It was, to say the least, an AWESOME birthday! Made possible by my great group of friends!
We all enjoyed our night out in Kisumu before going up to a Pastorial Center (aka, convent) to spend the week in a PEPFAR HIV/AIDS training.
 We have had PEPFAR trainings before, and am usually unimpressed by the content of the training. Each volunteer brings 2 counter parts (or co workers) with them from their community. I really feel this is a great learning experience for the counter parts. But for us as volunteers, its mostly a refresher course. But again, it's a great excuse to get away from site, and spend time with some volunteers we never get to see. 
The first 2 days of training, I got to learn more of my local language: Kalenjin. We learned so much in 2 days, that we decided to apply for a language immersion. Which will happen next week. I will travel to Andrea's site, along with Cassidy and Johanna (we are all Kalenjin) and we will spend 3 days learning more of the language. Look out resume! here comes language number 3!
The rest of the training, like I said was a lot of what I already know. But it was good to see the counterparts getting involved in the discussions. We also got to get to know the counterparts a lot better. One night andrea and I had dinner in Kisumu, when we cam back, there was music playing. We ran into the hall, and found all the counterparts sitting and watching a couple people dance. Well with that, we ran and started dancing right along with them! After a couple songs, we got some more volunteers in to help, and eventually got everyone out of their seats and dancing! Im sure there are some pretty funny pictures floating around there some where. 
I got home on Saturday, completely exhausted, with my voice almost gone. I had a great "vacation" but am really happy to get back home. I think I might have been more happy to see kibaibai then he was to see me. Now I'm ready to buckle down and get some real work done in my community.