First dinner party a success!

Happy Turkey Day! I will celebrating Thanksgiving on Saturday with Lindsay, Anastasia and a couple of my farm workers. So tonight it's me and Kibaibai! But I am thankful that I have Kibaibai! I am thankful for my education and that I have been given this opportunity to be in Kenya and teaching about important health issues. I am grateful for the wonderful friends I have made here. I am thankful for my family and friends back in America and for all their love and support they give me.  I could definitely go on, but I don't want to hear (day by day by day by day) (Meet the Fockers anyone?) I am very sad to miss this holiday with my family back home, but I know there are many more Thanksgivings in America to come, and I am grateful that I will get to teach my Kenyan friends a little about our culture. Hope everyone has a great day, stuff's your belly, and remember to be thankful. 

27/11/11

So my first dinner party in Kenya went off almost with out a problem. At 11 am my propane stove ran out of gas, I sent someone to refill it, guess what..... all of Turbo was out of propane! So we cooked the entire dinner on 2 charcoal stoves! We killed a male chicken ( I had anastasia's boyfriend do it, I was to busy cooking other stuff) I made green bean casserole (With fresh french beans) pumpkin and banana casserole, home baked bread, mashed potatoes and gravey (they tasted like KFC I swear!) and fruit salad.  For desert I made fresh pumpkin spice donuts, and Lindsay made a carrot cake! I am so happy that everything went so well! Now I am on my way to a 2 week training. I may or may not have cried this morning when leaving Kibaibai. 

almost turkey time

Just a quick update, boring weekend, consisted of a lot of reading, beading, and playing with Kibaibai (he was happy).  Today I'm in the office in Eldoret, and the rest of the week I will be going to more groups. School is on holiday now, so I will not be teaching anymore the rest of the year. Thanksgiving is just around the corner! I am very sad to be away from my family and friends, however this year I will be cooking along with my friend (another volunteer) Lindsay, and we have invited some Kenyans to join in this American tradition. My counterpart and friend Anastasia and her boyfriend, my grounds keeper, one of my farm workers, and Lindsay is bringing her friend from her site. I am excited to have this cross cultural exchange. We will not be having the traditional turkey seeing as 1: they are not available, and 2: even if they were, I have no oven to cook it in, so on the menu: chicken (we will of course slaughter our selves) mashed potatoes (I am teaching Anastasia how to make them) green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, bread, fruit salad, and dessert. If you recall, I have 1 gas burner, and a charcoal jiko, so I guess we will use my fireplace if necessary. We are having Thanksgiving on Saturday instead of Thursday. I will be sure to let you know how it goes!  

After this, bright and early Sunday morning, Lindsay and I will be heading to Limuru for our inservice training.  We get to spend 2 weeks in Limuru, not cooking or cleaning, just learning and hanging out! It will be quite the vacation.  

I have to talk a bit about Kibaibai. He is growing up sooooo fast! He is getting so big, and has gone all week with only 1 accident! He is such a character, I swear if dogs could talk......... 

breaks over, back to work

This week I have been very busy (catching up) going to 5 women groups! On Monday, Andrea had to leave. Luckily she is only about 2 hours from me. On Tuesday I went to 2 groups, Wednesday I went to 1 group, and yesterday I went to 2.  Yesterdays groups were in Kipkaren, which is where Anastasia's family lives, so her mom prepared lunch for us! It was so nice to finally see where she lives. I also got to meet 4 for her 8 brothers and sisters. Yep there's 9 children total! The oldest is my age, and the youngest is almost 2. Talk about a large family! There was a lot of traveling yesterday so today we decided to stay home and work. 

Anastasia came over to work on kiswahili with me.  Before she arrived, a farm worker on my farm told her that he had found many opened condoms and empty glass alcohol bottles in the trash burn pile! He asked her "why does Ann (me) need so many condoms and drink so much alcohol!?" She defended my honor.  When Anastasia told me what happened, I could barely control my laughter! First of all: the farm workers are not aware that I do condom demonstrations for the women's groups, second of all: I have not thrown the ones used for demonstrations, away so I can keep count, therefore there are no opened condoms coming from my trash can, and third of all: I purposely buy boxed wine, so I don't have to worry about getting rid of the glass bottles! When I confronted the worker that said this, I asked to see the condoms and bottles. He replied that he had already burned them. Well it seems to me that they are either trying to black mail me, or someone else on the farm doesn't want to admit that they're there's. All I can say...... at least they're using a condom! hahah This little incident made my day! 

After kiswahili, we had lunch at mama Eusila's hoteli, then I came home and gave Kibaibai a bath. Boy did he need it! I guess I will just have to deal with the stink eye he is giving me, for the rest of the evening. 

vegas.....attempt

So yesterday Andrea and I went into Eldoret, we were planning on going to the casino, however just our luck, it was closed (aka vegas attempt). Instead we went on a small "bar crawl" (I PROMISE I actually do work in Kenya, but it's the WEEKEND!) We had a good time, we shopped in the market, found some good buys, got more bead to make jewelry. Came home and made pizza, definitely a Great day!

 Today Anastacia and her friends took us on a hike. We climbed Mt. Tapsugoi. It was a perfect day for a climb not to hot and no rain (first day in  a while that it hasn't rained).  The mountain, is more like a big hill, but has great rock faces to climb! All we need is some rope anchors, ropes and a harness and we'd be set! (I'll work on it) Then we had a Kenyan lunch at her Aunt's house, mmmmmmm Ugali and Sukuma wiki (the traditional Kenyan meal). Now were home, kicking back and resting for the night. Andrea leaves tomorrow :( nitalia (I will cry). The peace corps car will move her into her new site on Tuesday. Luckily or in service training is in 2 weeks!  Anyway GREAT DAY!

Here is Andrea, Anastasia and I on the mountain

This is me and Andrea on the Mountain

And this is our attempted day in Vegas which turned into and Eldoret Bar Crawl. Si mbaya :)

I promise it's not a sweat shop

I told you how busy Andrea and I have been making paper bead jewelry. Well here is most (not all) of our finished products. There's something tranquil about rolling paper beads.  We only just started making these on Saturday

And you should recognize this smart young man.....he's just so cute I can't resist taking pictures :)

9-11-11

Good afternoon family and friends. My mother katika America tells me that I am not writing enough on my blogs. POLE! (sorry!) So.... here is what has been going on. My friend Andrea and her puppy Sangala have been staying at my place since last Tuesday. There was a "situation" at her site, so she came here. She was not prepared to stay this long, but luckily she brought her pup with her.  She will be staying with me until Monday. Last week she came with me to a women's group, then our other friend came over to visit and stayed till Sunday. This is when we began making paper beads (p.s. thanks to all those who mailed magazines to me). So we've have been "beading" for about a week straight. It's just one of those things that helps relax you and takes your mind off of things, wine helps too. Prank calling also may or may not have happened. 

Since I mostly lounged around last week (thanks to Andrea) this week I actually had to do a little work. I went into the office on Monday, then met with the chief and taught at the secondary school yesterday. Today it has been raining on and off so it was a stay at home and bead kind of day. 

While Andrea has been here, we have cooked some tamu sana meals! Thus including: pizza, lettus wraps, cinnamon rolls, cookies, pasta, veggie stir fry, and much much more! I love having someone else other than myself to cook for! Kibaibai and Sangala have been loving each others company as well. 

Introducing Ki bizzel

Sorry I have not posted in a week. I have had visitors all week and have been busy. My friend Andrea and her pup Sangala have been staying with us.  I taught Andrea how to make these:

We have been making paper beads all week, then bought the materials to make bracelets and earings. We get so into it that we don't even notice how many beads we're making until we have hundreds of them. Well while in the process of dipping the paper beads into varnish, a little dripped onto Kibaibai's head. Then this happened:

Now I introduce to you, Ki bizzel. Yep I cut out the glue and gave him a mohawk. Now some of you may think this is cruel, but he looks sooooooo cute. The people who work on my compound asked what was wrong with him this morning, so I had to explain the Mohawk, the thought it was funny too. 

Other than that nothing new is happening here. Soon I will be teaching the womens groups how to make these paper beads so hopefully they will be able to generate some income.