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!

boring week

Not a lot went on this week. I spent an afternoon on Thursday teaching a mama how to make jewelry, well mostly how to design better looking jewelry. But it was a really great craft day. Other than that I mostly spent time in Turbo.  Im getting pretty known in Turbo. Which is good, so hopefully when my family comes to visit, it won't freak everyone out (as much) that there are "mzungu"in town.  On Saturday I went with Anastasia to her church for some Baptisms. They were done in the river right there in Turbo!
Then today (Sunday) I went to visit Suzi's sister.  I went alone since Suzi had to work. I thought I was going because her sister was sick, but really I think they tricked me into coming just to visit. I ended up sitting in church for over 3 hours, and I arrived late!

Religion is a huge part of peoples lives here. Almost everyone is in church on Sunday or Saturday, depending on their religion. I have still have not been to a catholic church here ( I know mom! dont be mad) But me going to church here is a little different than going back home. First off they always make me introduce myself to the entire congregation. Also since i'm usually the only white person, everyone comes up to me and asks me a billion of the exact same questions. And it's not just the first time I go, but EVERY time.  Also the services are mostly in Kiswahili, and although I do understand Kiswahili, it's hard to catch the entire thing. I know these are just excuses, but thats what I am going with.
 The church I went to today, was a pentecostal church. There was alot of yelling and screaming and it ended with them removing satan or demons from a girls body. It was actually kinda of horrific, but an experience nevertheless.

At the office tomorrow, then thinking about going to Kakamega for the day to go to the pool with Linds, sometime this week. Then Friday I am heading to Rusinga Island with the girls to help Izzy put on a girls empowerment camp! It will be a really good weekend.

Well my week "off" flew by, like I knew it would. I was busy visiting and catching up with my friends and "family" in my village. I had a meeting on Tuesday with the committee about the family health day.  Its pretty much all planned, along with a menu. Here's the funny thing, its a day about how to live a healthy lifestyle, yet when it came to planning the menu, everyone but the community health workers and myself, didn't understand why we can't cook the traditional food in the traditional way. Well it's because the traditional way of cooking is cooking with a ton of salt and animal fat! How can we have a health day and then at the end serve foods fried in fat! After much arguing and reasoning, we came to an agreement. We will be doing beans and rice, and chai to top it off. The Chairman also thought since there will be visitors (my family) we should slaughter a goat for them.Well the chairman seems to think we have unlimited funds for this event, when in reality we're paying for this out of our own pockets, as well as a large "donation" from a unknown sponsor (myself).  I know my family will be happy with rice and beans! haha.

I also went to visit my friend in Kakamega for the day. We went to the pool and laid out and ate yummy food that we don't get very often. It was a good way to end the week.
Now I am back to work, the next month and a half are going to fly by and my family will be here before I know it! I hope they know how excited I am to get to share this huge part of my life with them! 

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.