Now I am up to date

Whoa! I am so sorry it has been almost a month since my last blog entry! Time has literally been flying by! So here is a little recap of what has been happening here. (I also just posted 2 entries I had saved on my computer)

As mentioned in the blog below I have been working with community members on building a resource center. Of course it is not going as smoothly as I had hoped. I have been shooting down their ideas (in the nicest way possible of course.) But because we are applying for this grant, based on donations from donors in america, they think we can build this her (church size) resource center, that only costs about a million shillings! Thats around a hundred thousand american dollars! Now you see why I have been shooting down their ideas. There is also the problem of them asking me for things, such as a refrigerator for their health center, and pens and paper and notebooks for the meetings, as well as personal loans and what not. It is starting to get old, when people look at me and all they see is a white girl with a lot of money! What money?! Hello...... I am a volunteer! I usually just brush it off, but when it happens several times a day, it becomes hard to just brush off. 

With JOYWO like mentioned below, I have been working everyday, going out to new areas and training new women's groups. It is actually exhausting to travel so far. The roads here are not like roads in America, so if you tend to get car sick (like me) the trip seems very long.

 I actually have this whole week off!  Of course I have everyday booked with other things to do. No sitting around doing nothing for this girl anymore, for now anyway. Today I am at the fancy hotel using their super highspeed internet, then I am meeting with district health officers about my family health day.  Tomorrow doing a ton (literally) of laundry and cleaning my house (which always seems to be dirty........kibaibai).  Wednesday I am going over to my favorite families house to teach them how to bake a cake in a jiko oven. Then this weekend going to visit my friend Lindsay for a relaxing pool and market shopping day. 

Now about my Easter vacation! It was AMAZING, to say the least. A whole group of us volunteers went to Uganda (our neighboring country) and stayed in Jinga. What is in Jinga you might ask? Oh.... only the NILE RIVER! Which we went white water rafting down! 

I went ahead and added all the pictures so you could get the whole effect!

It was actually a lot scarier than I thought, the falling out of the raft part. But it was a lot of fun.  Our first rapid was a class 5 with a 15 foot waterfall at the end, we went down backwards. 

Then at the place we stayed ( the cutest little campsite and hostel) they had a bungee jumping platform. So yes I did jump 145 feet into the Nile River as well! That was probably my one and only time I will ever bungee jump in my life, it was actually terrifying! My friend took a video of me so when I get it I will try to post it! 

Then a few of us took some 4 wheelers out into the bush. We had a guide so we wouldn't get lost, but he was a local, so pretty much let us do whatever we wanted. We were out there for 2 hours. It started out sunny and dry, then started to rain and get muddy, we came back looking like this.....

From left to right: Henry, John, Matt, Aaron
Andrea, me and Izzy. This was also the same crew for our white water rafting! Team war birds !

So as I said the trip was freaking AMAZING to say the least!

Now to the most current updates. Yesterday I got up and went straight to the chamba (farm) A few of the farm boys helped me re cultivate my little garden, then proceeded to help me make 3 seed beds and plant all my seeds. Im going to tell you the truth, if they hadn't gone out there with me, I would not have re cultivated or made seed beds, probably resulting in nothing growing. So needless to say I was so grateful for their help, and baked them banana bread to show my appreciation. 

my new seed beds! Farming is alot of work, no wonder I didn't do it in america!

Afterwards I had to go buy bananas to make the bread, when someone stopped me and told me that they saw Kibaibai tied up at someones house! I was furious! They took me to the house, whoever tied him up wasn't there, lucky for him! So now I guess I have to keep kibaibai tied up at all times. Which makes me sad because I know how much he likes to run around and explore. He is getting so big now I thought he would be okay, I guess I can't trust anyone around here. 

My little stinker butt. I can never stay mad at this cute little face!

Kibaibai and I went to our favorite families for some R &R. I love going there, the babies don't fear me or kibaibai, and they treat us like family. So it was a good way to end the day. 

So that is all for now, sorry it is so long. I'll try to update next week! 

2 weeks ago

26-3-12

This morning I had a meeting with my village chief (again) but this time the assistant chief and over 30 community members, youth and village elders were there as well. We were all together so I could talk about my idea for the community resource center and library, as well as the my family health day. The meeting went great!!!! I was so impressed by the input and suggestions.  There is already a plot of land (actually given to us by the government in 1972) specifically for a social center! Which is perfect, so now we don't have to pay for land. During the meeting we put together a committee board for the project. I had to stress many times that this is not MY project but the communities, if I do this all by myself how will it be sustainable after I leave? They all agreed, so the board is meeting on Monday to discuss where to begin, as well as to start getting details on my family health day. They also agreed that we will hold the family health day in June when my family is here, so they can attend as well! Im really really excited. So I will let everyone know how it goes on Monday. 

 Yesterday I met up with a couple of my friends (other volunteers) in Webuye for the day. It was a much needed break and getaway for all of us. There is a hotel with a pool there so we just lounged by the pool all day. It was wonderful, needless to say we got burnt, again,... we even put on sunscreen this time! Jua kali sana hapa! ( the sun is hot here.) But no complaints, it was a great day. 

28-3-12

This week and all of next week I am busy with JOYWO stuff. Everyday me, Juilet( my supervisor), and mama Lydia are going out to new places and they talk about the importance of table banking while I talk about the importance of family planning, condom use, and general health practices. We have a really good time together, so it is work, but fun too.  On Sunday Breezie and Lindsay are coming over for the night. We plan to relax and lay out on my patio (lesso's up for sure, so the farm boys don't see us in our bikini's :) Then after my meeting monday, Lindsay and I are going to Eldoret to do a little shopping. I also am meeting with the Board Secretary of JOYWO on Monday. I met with her yesterday and she proposed an idea. She wants me to go along with her to Nairobi for a conference type thing. She wants to start a small shop here in Eldoret to sell goods made by our women. The conference is about making quality goods then how to market them. She wants me to go as the designer, since she like the jewelry I have made. Im hoping Peace Corps lets me go!! fingers crossed. It will be nice to do something other than health stuff for a change. 

way way overdue

22-3-12

I am sooooooo sorry for not updating in a LONG time! internet has been pretty sketchy, as well as the electricity ALWAYS going out in the middle of something important! Right now im at a nice hotel in Eldoret paying 2 shillings a miunte for the wi fi. but it's way faster than the internet cafe and i can use my own computer, so I guess I have to suck it up. 

Right now, there is not a lot going on. Same ol same ol with JOYWO. Planning my families visit for June and trying to keep up kibaibai, whom Im pretty sure has sundowners syndrome! hahahah im serious he literally goes crazy after dinner, bitting and barking! Anyway here are some posts from the last couple weeks as well as some pictures. 

14/3/10

Well.. the chief approved it! So now I am planning a family health day! it will be in May hopefully I can make it the 15th, which is international day of families.  I'm planning for it to be pretty big. I want to have different tables for different topics. Some of my volunteer friends will come and help, as well as district health officials. Im going to be announcing the building of my community resource center and library! The chief approved that too! Im super excited! These 2 projects will definitely keep me busy for the next year!. 

My mom says I should start putting some of my recipes up. So here is the recipe for my favorite breakfast: Banana Bread Oatmeal!

1cup milk

1 banana

cinnamon

nutmeg

vanilla

quick cooking oats

mash banana in a small sufria (pot) add cinnamon, nutmeg, and dash of vanilla. Bring to a boil, then add oats. Cook for a few minutes. When finished transfer to bowl and I add brown sugar and raisins. It is TAMU SANA! (delicious!)

I eat this almost every day!

13/3/12

Today I didn't have work, other than meeting with the chief, so I told my friend Suzi I would come see here and bring her lunch. She works at the chemist (pharmacy) in Turbo. I thought I had a boring job when I was working at the bookstore, back in college, well her job is like 10 time more boring, and she had to go to college to work there! Anyway I made Gnocchi with a vegetable marinara sauce, and green beans with carrots. I should first mention, that most people (everyone) in Kenya eat mainly 3 things, ugali, sukuma wiki, and githeri. So when she opened the container she looked at the food then looked at me and gave me the "what the heck is this" look.  I laughed and told her to just try it. She said she liked it, then yelled for her friends who were outside to come try it. They all assumed it was chapati. After about the 10th time of explaining what it was, I gave up and just said it's NOT chapati. Then they didn't understand why I didn't bring enough for them. 

That is another thing I've noticed here. No one brings there lunch (most don't even eat lunch). So when I bring my lunch I have to be sneaky when I eat it. 

Anyway it was a good cross cultural exchange, next time I bring something for Suzi, I will be sure to bring extras! 2 weeks ago

On Wednesday I traveled to Bomet to stay with Andrea and help her with her international women's day event. A few other volunteers joined us. The event included a booth about business and tips to success, a booth on family planning, a booth on malaria prevention, water treatment and my booth on how to make re useable sanitary pads.  If you don't know what a reusable sanitary pad is, they are really a great idea! They are easy to make out of cotton fabrics such as old sheets, then you cut towels and put inside depending on how absorbent you need it to be. It is best to make a few of them that way you don't have to worry about running out during that time of the month.  Then you just wash and reuse! What is really great about these is that once you spend the money (maybe 40 shillings per pad) you never have to buy them from the store. There are still a lot of girls who miss school here in Kenya, because they cannot afford pads, so this is a great alternative! 

      We were all a little skeptical at first, because the event was supposed to start at 10 and no one had showed up by then. But by around 12 the women started trickling in. It ended up being a success! Over 200 women showed up plus local community and government officials! At the end of the program (which lasted over 4 hours) the mayor asked for donations for Andrea, because she is building a maternity ward onto her dispensary.  Andrea raised over 10,000 shillings and the mayor had a birthing bed donated! The success of this event definitely inspired me to go through with an event for my community! 

Other than starting to make plans for my family health day event, everything is pretty same ol same ol.  Hopefully I can get a meeting set up with the chief and community officials so we can all be on the same page. 

this is me "smearing" my neighboors house, i talked about it a few blogs ago but wasn't able to upload the pic. better late than never! 

Kibaibai! Hes getting sooooo huge, this is him looking all innocent but really is covered in mud and just tracked it through my house! 

bad picture, but this is me and my supervisor juliette teaching at a womens group training. I even made posters! ha

Sorry I have not updated in a while, I have actually been pretty busy. On Friday last week I spent the entire day with a family near my home. I help them "smear" their new house. Smearing is when you take much (sometimes mixed with cow dung) and literally smear it against the walls. I was a natural..... or so they told me! It was really fun, it was like being in a homestay all over again... only BETTER!  Saturday was a bust, was supposed to teach some groups, but no one showed up. 
Sunday Kibaibai and I went to visit my friend Lindsay in Kakamega.  Yep I brought the pup with me, only he is about the size of a full grown DOG! Seriously he is huge, so traveling on a matatu (those mini vans over stuffed with people) was not an easy task, but we did survive!
 She was given a room at her dispencary and she is turning it into a community resource room. So I went to help her paint. She wanted the world map painted on one wall, so we began to sketch it. Well she wanted it 5 times bigger than the picture we had, so we had to multiply all the measurements by 5. Those of you who know me, know math is NOT my strong suit..... uh hello social worker.... So after completed the entire continent of Africa, Lindsay says.. "that looks small compared to South America" and in fact, it was 12 cm to small. So after wasting all that time drawing it, Lindsay had to go back and re draw..... to be fair, I tried to tell her drawing free hand was not my best area, and especially when you add math to that. But all turned out fine, we didn't finish, so I will be going back to help some more. 
Next week I am going to visit Andrea at her site, she is having an event to celebrate, International Womens Day. It will be a few of us health volunteers, so I know it will be a good time!

Now that I'm reading back through this, I know it seems that I am not doing much at my site. Well the truth is.... I am but just not large scale as I had hoped. With JOYWO I already have groups set up for me, and my main job here is to teach all of them about health and sanitation. Well there are over 400 groups and we are still growing, so I definitely have my work cut out for me. In my community, it is hard to find things to do. I have recently come in contact with our local AIDS resource center, so I am going to be volunteering there more often. And as you already know I started a women's exercise group. We meet on Tuesdays, at the moment I have about 4 women who usually come every week. So I just wanted you to know, I am actually doing work and not just traveling all of the time!

no doubt about it.

I was going to write a serious blog. I was listening to BBC the other day and it was a whole segment about the homeless and poverty in America. I was going to compare poverty in america to poverty in Kenya. I know I have said this before, but every Kenyan thinks every American is rich and happy. Well we know thats not true.... but did you know that everyday in America there are children going with out food, and families moving out of their nice houses in suburbia and moving into tents along with other families who can no longer afford their old lifestyles.  I have to tell Kenyans all the time that in America, having a job does not mean that you have a good life. A growing number of the population has jobs but are still living at or below the poverty line....... 

But I don't want to discuss this serious topic... instead I want to talk about hats. Yep hats, the ones you wear on your heads.... In the states, think about it, on a daily basis, what kind of hats do people wear.  Well I think most people back home wear baseball hats, maybe golf hats? beanies in the winter..?  Well here in Kenya, on a daily basis, you can see a plethera of hats. Just the other day I was on the matatu, we drove past a market where I saw a mama wearing a Dr. Suess hat, and another mama wearing a santa clause hat (which I actually see pretty often)!  The motor bike drivers usually wear all different types of winter hats and beanies. Whats funny is, anything goes here. You can pretty much wear anything, and not one person will question what your wearing. I.e. on our vacation Andrea rocked the fanny pack! So when we are market shopping, we look for crazy things we wouldn't wear in America, and totally rock it here! 

wearing a santa hat...  

rocking the zebra print cowboy hat!

my west african adventure

Well I am back from my most recent adventure. My friend Andrea and I travelled to Ghana and Togo. Now for those of you who don't or didn't know..... Ghana and Togo are in West Africa. So take a map of africa.... find Kenya... now go all the way across the continent to the West... and you will find Togo and Ghana! Now that you know where these countries are you may be wondering... " why did you go to west africa?" Well the answer is, I have always wanted to travel, if you know me at all, you know that, and Andrea has travelled but has always wanted to go to West Africa, so we make the perfect pair!  Our adventure started Thursday January 26th, our flight out of Nairobi heading to Lome, Togo. Our flight wasn't until 3 in the morning (random time I know) we enjoyed our last few Kenyan beers and waited to board the plane. Our layover was in Ethiopia, now that was a diverse airport if I ever saw one! We wished we had had more time so we could have actually explored the country a bit,.... but it will have to be another time. After sleeping in the airport for several hours we boarded and were bound for Lome, Togo.  We arrived around noon, and our first dilemma began,..... Togo was colonized by the french... and neither of us spoke a lick of french! I racked my brain for anything I learned from my 2 years of high school french.... but couldn't remember a lick.  Once outside we needed to get a ride to a hotel. Thinking ahead we asked a security guard how much it should cost to get to hotel Ibis, he tells us 2,000 francs. So we go up to the driver thinking we are oh so smart and tell him we won't pay more! Come to find out later, we got sooooo ripped off, the people in Togo help each other out by lying to travelers!  

Next we go in search of the hostel I had found prior, online. The chez mammy, we walk around for about an hour (with our backpacks, luckily we packed pretty light) asking for Chez mammy. No one had heard of it until finally someone said "Oh you mean Chez mammy (shay ma mi)! She gone, Chez mammy died" and in fact she had. The hostel had been abandoned for what seemed like a long time.  By this time we were exhausted, hot (West africa coast is VERY hot and humid) and ready to give up, so we decided to treat ourselves and stay at a not so peace corps budget hotel for the night. We enjoyed it thoroughly!  Hot shower, pool, and air conditioning. Air conditioning meant we were able to put on make up with out sweating it off! This is me and Andrea before dinner.  

The next morning we headed to the Togo Peace Corps office. There we were treated like family, the head of safety and security gave us names of hostels in Ghana and booked us a room in Togo at a local french hotel. They also had the peace corps car drive us to get our stuff! The Hotel Gallion became our home base in Togo. That night we met a girl who is a teacher in Lome and had done peace corps Macedonia.  We spent the night dancing and to regge music and playing in the band! She invited us to stay with her and her son for free, remembering what it was like as a volunteer. She welcomed us with op en arms and it was nice to be in a home. While in Togo we hit up the grand market, the beach and many different pizza places!  After 3 days we decided it was time to visit Ghana. We were able to walk across the boarder! At the coast of Togo, it is only about 26 miles across!. 

So we walked into Ghana having no plans and no idea what to expect. We hopped a trotro (like a matatu) to Accra, the capital.  Peace Corps had recommended the Salvation Army as cheap safe place to stay. Cheap it was, with 6 beds to a room and only 7 cedis a night (a little less than 5 bucks a night) we couldn't beat it.  Not knowing what to do in Accra, we headed to Jamestown which was a port for shipping and holding slaves back during the slave trade. Well now its not much more than a lot of shanty towns.

 Definitely a cultural experience. That night we decided to get up early the next morning and head to Cape Coast which we were told is where the beautiful beaches were. We got salad and sandwiches at a recommended place, and ended the night sipping wine and chatting with some German girls staying at the same hostel. Well at around 1 a.m. I woke up throwing up, an hour later Andrea woke up sick as well.... this continued until past 7 in the morning. So much for getting an early start to Cape Coast. We both decided we needed to get to the beach to relax, so we struggled to get on a trotro (no air conditioning) trash bags in hand just in case, and headed to the coast. Again with no plan, we arrived and took the word of a taxi driver and went to a hostel called The Oasis, and an oasis it was. Right on the beach, a cute little hotel, dorm style beds and only 10 cedis a night, we were in heaven. 

Still feeling sick we were not able to party the way the other Americans, that we met, were. But we still had a nice time. The next morning we got up early and headed to Kookum National Forest for a canopy walk.  It consisted of 7 rope bridges hanging 100 meters over the forest floor. It was absolutely beautiful! 

Afterwards we visited the Cape Coast castle, walking distance from our hotel. The castle used to hold hundreds of male and female slaves before shipping them off fro selling. It was a compelling and emotional tour, we learned a lot. 

 Afterwards we watched some cultural dancing and drumming at a local bar. To conclude this loooooong day, we fell asleep on the beach to the mesmerizing sound of the waves. While at the Oasis,  we met a PCV who's site was near by. He had told us about the super bowl party that the marines at the U.S. embassy were having and invited us. So Friday morning we headed back to Accra to watch some good ol' American football. He had also told us of a "better" place to stay. We searched for over an hour, again with our backpacks, but to no avail, so settled back in to the Salvation Army. Since the party was supposed to be at midnight, we thought it would be a good idea to go early just to make sure of the time. We were told the embassy was not far so we walked. Well it turned out to be "not far" just around 5 kilometers. By the time we got there, again hot and exhausted, we learned that that party was not until Sunday..... DUH that would be why it's called super bowl SUNDAY! We broke down laughing so hard we cried! The marines invited us in anyway, they were having a BBQ and there were other PCV's there. We enjoyed a cold beer, chatting with PCV's and a few games of volleyball. We left making plans to possibly meet up later for beers at a local pub where they only cost 1 cedis (less than a buck!). Andrea and I were resting at the hostel, when one of the volunteer's we had met, Steve, busted in and said "get up we're going out!" We met a handful of other PCV's and enjoyed the local atmosphere. Our stomachs were still not back to 100% so we left early and headed back. 

We decided we had had enough of Accra, and didn't want to wait around for Sunday, so we went back to Togo the next morning and hopped a trotro to Kpalime. Just 2 and half hours north of Lome.  By this time we were ready to relax, so the next day spent the entire day at the pool, of a luxury hotel that we weren't staying at, but enjoyed the peace and quiet. The next day we went to a beautiful waterfall in the village of Wome, and spent the day wadding and relaxing in the pool beneath the falls.

We headed back to Lome the next day and stayed with Meg for the next 2 nights before heading back to Kenya. 

We had an AMAZING trip! But it is definitely good to be home in Kenya. I missed Kibaibai like crazy! and when I got home yesterday i barley recognized him, he grew sooooooo much! Now it's time to get back to work, but will never forget our adventures in West Africa!  

Here are just a couple more pictures:

Andrea and I on the rope bridge above the rainforest

At the beach in front of the hostel The Oasis

A girl selling water near the Cape Coast Castle. 

Im baaaaaaack!

Hey everyone, i'm back from my most recent adventure! I actually typed up an entire story about it, but since the internet in my office isn't working Im in an internet cafe and do not feel like re typing the entire thing. So therefore you will hear about it later :).  But I just wanted to let everyone know I'm home safe and sound! Ill update soon!