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 6th 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.
