One Mountain to Another

A lot can change in a month… and even more can change in 10. When I first arrived in Kenya I was living at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro and I was still seriously homesick. I was barely even appreciative of the opportunity to live in a third world country, let alone to know what it is like to feel at home in one. Kenyans judge how well you know Kenya by the amount of time you have stayed here. If you have only stayed in Kenya a month or a few weeks, you are like a child in their eyes and they say, “Oh, you have not yet known Kenya.” Once you have lived in Kenya for more than 4 months, then they acknowledge that you might have begun to truly know Kenya.

I arrived June 6^th in Nairobi. Today is March 14. 253 days. Getting close to an entire year living in Kenya. When in the hell did that happen? We all have our days where we don’t want to leave our homes, we just want to stay inside and watch endless amounts of TV shows and movies and pretend like we’re not in a foreign place. And other days, it’s not foreign at all. Lately I’ve had more of the latter, where I appreciate the pure beauty of the fact that there AREN’T any other white people in my village. I am the only person doing this, living right here alone, helping these people. Today I woke up, had chai, went into Kitale and ran a few errands, came back into my village to greet some of my friends in the market, checked in at my dispensary to discuss continuing my work now that I’ve returned, met with the principal of my secondary school to continue teaching lessons, came home and did Insanity, then went to the edge of my family’s shamba to check on the trees my friend Racheal and I planted and sat in the sun with my calf, two kittens, and Simba and enjoyed the view of Mt. Elgon for the rest of the afternoon. Now I’m still procrastinating on unpacking/reorganizing all of my crap that we had to pack up for consolidation… but I’m back. I’m here… for another year and a half. And I’m inspired. I’m motivated. Thank GOD, because if my mental state in PST had continued until this point, I wouldn’t have made it. Like I said, every day can be a roller coaster… but ladies and gentlemen, it is almost avocado season and my family has like 7 avocado trees soooo LET’S DO THIS! As hard as it’s been, and as many obstacles as there will surely be in the future, if the past 10 months are any indicator, I’m very intrigued to see what the next 18 have in store. 

The Ninth Month

     I can't believe I have actually been back in my village for an entire month. It does not seem like it has been 4 weeks since I returned from the beach. It seems even crazier that it's been over 2 months since Jarred was here! I guess the main reason why it is so crazy is because it really doesn't seem like I have done enough to dignify that much time having passed. Especially since I have been back in my village.

     I have initiated my Community Nutrition Garden project. I am still in the very beginning stages, and, in Kenya, so... let's not hold our breath until its completion, but it will probably end up being the biggest project of my Peace Corps service. I've met with my organization twice and today they held a meeting with the CHWs in my village to discuss how we are going to develop the groups that will run and therefore benefit from the gardens. I'm curious to see how it went and if anything was decided. One reason why this will be a tedious process is because my village doesn't have a village-like population. Namanjalala has 30k+ inhabitants scattered throughout 18 different subvillages. My suggestion was to see how many people wanted to participate in each subvillage and try to combine neighboring villages based on the amount of people and size of land available. So, now we have to find people, see if we have access to land, form the groups, have each group write an individual constitution, THEN, and only then, start writing the grant proposal. Obviously, I'll be doing research on estimates while the groups are doing their logistical processes, but it's really important that they show commitment to the project before we start funneling money out for it to fail in the beginning stages.

    I guess that will be a lot of work, if it all goes as planned, but right now most of the work it requires from me is mental. In fact, I think that most of the work we do in Kenya is just thinking. Thinking about projects, about what work is good and will actually be effective and beneficial. Doing things here is not easy. Just because life in Kenya is simpler does not mean that it is easier. You have to start from scratch and do everything yourself, or wait a loooong time for someone else to do. Maybe that's why time passes so quickly; I'm stuck in my own head a lot. Maybe that's the beauty of Peace Corps... while you're out here alone most of the time, you learn to shut up and just listen to your head. Maybe.

Warning: This Post Might Contain PG-13 Material (Or is that just normal?)

            Once again I’ve gotten distracted… big surprise. The months of November and December are a crazy, intense, amazing, once-in-a-lifetime blur to me now.

            I got engaged. Engaged. Something at one point in my life I wasn’t sure I would ever do; Not for fear that I wouldn’t find someone, but because marriage is a very complicated concept to me. I have lived a life unlike anyone else (just like everyone else), and it wasn’t always because of my good decisions… and yet somehow still managed to find a man who doesn’t think any part of me is crazy because of it. It’s a miracle. I think I’ll keep him. 

            So he was here November 15-27. We were in Nairobi a bit, visited Loitokitok, spent some times with friends near Nakuru, then stayed in my village until he had to leave. I think he would agree that it’s not really something you can fully explain; you have to experience it yourself. But he’s also pretty easy-going, I’m not sure others would be as patient and open-minded.

            After he left I stayed in Nairobi for a dentist appointment and luckily there were other PCVs staying there at the same time for various reasons so I wasn’t alone (that would not have been good for my psyche- it was good to have a distraction) until our In-Service Training in Nairobi December 2. That was a week and a half of being all back together after our first 3 months at site. It was great to compare stories and be comforted by similar experiences; but we also learned how different Peace Corps services can be.

            Regardless, being back together was really fun. I also got to meet the new volunteer that is now living in Kitale- and he’s not a loser! Yay! So after training a small group of us went on safari in the Maasai Mara. It was AWESOME. We saw everything! A pride of lions eating a water buffalo, cheetahs eating a gazelle, leopards and leopard cubs, elephants, zebras, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles! The only thing we didn’t see was a black rhino because the damn poachers nearly extinct them all! But seriously, I think we had the best possible safari luck you could have! Except we didn’t see any birthing… always a disappointment.

            Finally, I made my way back to my village. For a week. Then I went to Diani Beach for Christmas and New Years! There was a group of 12 of us in total and it was a really great group, although missing some key people who were home in the US. I think I can safely say it was unlike any vacation I’ve ever been on. I’ve never been on Spring Break but I guess it might be like that in Kenya without 18 year-olds. We did what we could with what we had: Body Painting! After being assured it would wash off (they had done it before), having an all out way and subsequently covering ourselves head to toe we found out it was oil-based wall paint… Some scrubbed themselves with gasoline, others with animal cooking fat. It’s still in the tips of my hair. Some pretty funny pictures came out of it though so I can’t say I regret my decision.

            Met people from all over the world. Opened my eyes to the awesomeness of hostels and backpackers. Swam in the Indian Ocean. Oh yeah- and CAMELS! That happened! We were tourists for two weeks, It was great. I mean, obviously I want to go back. But now it’s time to be responsible J I’m back in my village doing mobile clinics with my dispensary thanks to some donations for ample medical supplies! Also meeting with my counterpart and supervisor today to discuss trying to start community nutrition gardens (like, for the mom whose daughter I helped, perhaps?) using the information we learned at Real Impact during training. I’m really excited for it, I think that it will work in my community pretty easily… but keep your expectations low.

            Otherwise I hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Years… While we were on the beach, we all agreed that it was only good because it made us forget it was really the holidays without our families. Miss you all!