This blog post is one I wrote last week but haven't really had a chance to post it yet so here it is! I'll have another one up about Machakos and everything :)
I am currently in class listening to a lecture about all of the different tribes in Kenya. The tribe I was assigned to research, which is the tribe of the majority of the population in Kitale where my site is, just so happens to be the tribe of my favorite bartender in Kenya. So obviously I got pretty lucky and didn't have to do much research, just talked to him! This week has been pretty boring, I think we are all getting demotivated. PST is quite a tiring experience.
On the other hand, my host mama is pretty awesom. I'm not sure if I have really explained her that much and I am too lazy to go back and look but she used to be a public health advisor, and now she leads women's & youth groups and HIV/AIDS support groups. Her youth group invited me last week to be a part of their group, and they had just begun to build a greenhouse and a drip line irrigation system in a plot of land in front of our boma. It is so cool! The project has been completely funded by Amref and this specific loan program that insures everything too. Last night the group finished the majority of the building process and installation and so obviously there was a celebration and they killed a goat for the party. It was... smelly. I'm not much of a meat eater here at all, even in the U.S. I was on and off with it. However, I tried to be open because I knew it was a big deal for everyone as far as the project goes and killing a goat is a pretty big deal so I tried some... stuff. I don't really want to talk about it... haha to be honest it was all fine but they did all of the cleaning and everything right outside of the house and I could smell it allllll night long.
So anyway right now my host mama is in America at the National HIV/AIDS Conference in Washington D.C. giving a presentation on HIV in the Maasai community of Loitokitok. The Maasai are one of the largest tribes in Kenya, and specifically occupy the area around LTK, so we see them a lot during training. Traditionally the Maasai wear very elaborate beads they make themselves that usually includes a lot of red. They wear beads around their neck (a lot) and in the form of very elaborate earrings, sometimes resulting in a look similar to someone in the U.S. who gauges their ears. I bought myself a Maasai cape that I love... though I'm constantly asked if I can fly people to class.
We just had an Outward Bound party last night (Sat, July 21). It was pretty fun. We had a keg and everyone brought food. Me and Dave made chili, it was supposed to be vegetarian but then we found meat in the githeri which was okay- we just picked out the big fatty pieces. We had other people who made spicy peanut butter noodles, spaghetti, chicken, salsa, guacamole, fruit salad, and chipati! It was all pretty stinking delicious. The keg was done by like 10, no real surprises there. Luckily most everyone brought extra alcohol to supplement. We even found a whole bottle of gin this morning, though no one really wanted to dive into it right away.. hah.
Tomorrow, July 22 we are leaving for Machakos for our HIV/AIDS training and we are staying in a hotel and we get to go out to nice restaurants for dinner! We are there until next Friday (July 27) then we come back to LTK. Next we have the LPI, the language exam for real this time, the next Friday (Aug 3), then a week and we head to Nairobi to swear in! It's scarier the more I think about it, leaving all of my friends here... it will definitely be hard to be away from them and not talk as much, but I am really excited for Machakos.
That's all for now kids :)
<3
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