PC is an emotional roller coaster full of extreme highs and extreme lows. Thankfully, I haven't reached an extreme low yet but an extreme high is def site placement. You wouldn't believe all of the anxiety and stress that settled among the 11 of us in 2 days because of the stress of not knowing the placement of our future homes. The PC staff got a kick of holding the info from us until we about to burst or kill someone, the night before I found out I slept for like 3 hours...rough!Anywho my site is *Drumroll please*...
Esageri School for the Deaf in Mogotio Kenya. That name and location means just as much to you as it does to me right now. All I really know is that I will be in a Small rural area in the lower part of the rift valley. The school is pretty new, opened in 2009. I am their 1st PCV(which means I can set the bar, pretty high I hope) but I was told they asked for 4 so they will prob try to work me like a dog. It is a coed school, yay! I was terrified to be placed in an all girl school. It has around 100 students(most classes have around 15) and no class 8 which means no one is stressing about testing right now just focusing on learning. My PC boss told me they offered him 3 houses to look at and choose which one to put me in which I thought was super nice. I will have electricity, water and a toilet inside my house!!!! what more could i ask for?!? A few of my fellow trainees are not so lucky:(
With that being said about 7 of us are all in the same little cluster in the rift valley/western kenya area. Then 2 are in the center and the other 2 deaf ed are at the coast. Im glad to be around most of the others and in what has been said to be a beautiful place with lots of forest and rolling hills. Thats about all I have right now. I called my school headteacher(principal) the day after I was assigned to the area, since then he has called me 3x just to make sure Im doing ok. I'm really not sure how to feel about this lol. Im flattered he's so excited to get a volunteer and make sure Im taking care of but I feel him smoothering me just a bit.
I found a cute little article about the school in this
http://www.awcfs.org/dmdocuments/reject/Reject_042.pdf check out page 18 on the left side if you want to know as much about the school as I know lol.
So yeah im happy with it. No reason to be otherwise.
In other news KSL(Kenyan Sign Language) is coming along just fine. I had a giant doughnut today for 45 shillings(45 cents) BALLER! We had a few scares this week with Kenyan going into war and a few bombings in the capital there was talk among volunteers of being sent home but our Country Director assured us that he is doing all he can to keep us here. No worries we are 100% safe. Shadowing this weekend.Updates to follow
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Bubbles
Kids are amazing ya know? They have strengths and abilities that adults will never have. Ive seen kids here carrying large jugs of water on their back so they can take care of their daily activities. I've watched how the older kids take care of the younger students at the deaf school and become their family, mentor and friends which most of the students dont have anywhere else because no one seems to understand the deaf community here. Everyday I see kids(both hearing and deaf) who are so happy despite their life and conditions.
There's a little girl here, Jambi is her name. She's 6.5 yrs old but is barely bigger than my 3 year old brother here. Her mother and father were addicted to drugs and wanted to throw her away but luckily her grandmother took her in(my host mom says when she first came there are belly was huge because of some disorder she had and her head was full of wingworms but she got her medicine and now she is much better). And by took her in I mean they now live in the local slum 2seconds by my house. They along with her aunt, uncle and 2 cousins do most of their business outside:laundry,bathroom, and cooking on a ... I cant remember the name but its basically 3 stones set up so you can put the pot or pan on top and the sticks to create fire under it. The little girl really wanted to go to school(they start class one here at 5 years old) and no one had any intention of putting her in it. She came to my host mother and asked her so my mother now saves 250 shillings($2.50 USD) and pays for her schooling each month.
Well all of this to say that this girl is as happy as any child that has it all in the States. Which reminded me of how much I love the innocence of children. Before they realize the expectations of the world and how their lives somehow dont measure up they simply enjoy life. i gave my brother and Jambi a container of bubbles that i got from target before I left.Simple halloween bubble necklace, 3 in a pack for one dollar. these kids laughed and scream EVERY single time the bubbles came out the wand.This uncontrollable laughter lasted a good 30 mins. It was amazing and after a day of uncomfortable heat, constant confusion that went along with attending the deaf church, and a little pms this is what I needed to turn my day around. I dont want to sound like the typical american that goes abroad and realizes how much they have because I would like to think Ive always been pretty thankful for the things l was given growing up but looking at these children and knowing their lives and their futures and seeing them happy despite all of this. I truly believe that we have very little to complain about.
I just want to love all of these kids so much haha. Esp Jambi ahhh she makes my heart melt. Dont be surprised if I bring a little person back with me to the states. Ill leave all of my clothes and stuff them in my duffle bag:)
On another note we find out our site in 2 days, one day earlier than we expected and next weekend we actually get to visit current PC volunteers in the field for a week. Im so excited to leave Machakos and just feel like an adult again as well as see what I will be doing for the next 2 years. Yay!
There's a little girl here, Jambi is her name. She's 6.5 yrs old but is barely bigger than my 3 year old brother here. Her mother and father were addicted to drugs and wanted to throw her away but luckily her grandmother took her in(my host mom says when she first came there are belly was huge because of some disorder she had and her head was full of wingworms but she got her medicine and now she is much better). And by took her in I mean they now live in the local slum 2seconds by my house. They along with her aunt, uncle and 2 cousins do most of their business outside:laundry,bathroom, and cooking on a ... I cant remember the name but its basically 3 stones set up so you can put the pot or pan on top and the sticks to create fire under it. The little girl really wanted to go to school(they start class one here at 5 years old) and no one had any intention of putting her in it. She came to my host mother and asked her so my mother now saves 250 shillings($2.50 USD) and pays for her schooling each month.
Well all of this to say that this girl is as happy as any child that has it all in the States. Which reminded me of how much I love the innocence of children. Before they realize the expectations of the world and how their lives somehow dont measure up they simply enjoy life. i gave my brother and Jambi a container of bubbles that i got from target before I left.Simple halloween bubble necklace, 3 in a pack for one dollar. these kids laughed and scream EVERY single time the bubbles came out the wand.This uncontrollable laughter lasted a good 30 mins. It was amazing and after a day of uncomfortable heat, constant confusion that went along with attending the deaf church, and a little pms this is what I needed to turn my day around. I dont want to sound like the typical american that goes abroad and realizes how much they have because I would like to think Ive always been pretty thankful for the things l was given growing up but looking at these children and knowing their lives and their futures and seeing them happy despite all of this. I truly believe that we have very little to complain about.
I just want to love all of these kids so much haha. Esp Jambi ahhh she makes my heart melt. Dont be surprised if I bring a little person back with me to the states. Ill leave all of my clothes and stuff them in my duffle bag:)
On another note we find out our site in 2 days, one day earlier than we expected and next weekend we actually get to visit current PC volunteers in the field for a week. Im so excited to leave Machakos and just feel like an adult again as well as see what I will be doing for the next 2 years. Yay!
Sunday, October 16, 2011
My first weekend "home"
So I made it through my first weekend at home and I must say it was a rather uneventful one.We have been going nonstop since Oct 3rd so we were all dying for a weekend of rest. We agreed that because this is our 1st weekend it should be spent with our new families, lets just say that many of us take that back now haha. My saturday began with my little brother banging on my door shouting 'Wikia, Wikia can come out(only in Swahili)' So I slowly make my way out to breakfast. Shortly after breakfast my host mama suggest we start washing clothes, I guess she knew it would take me forever. I bring out my load(4 skirts, 2 pants, 6 dress shirts, 2 tshirts, 2 sweatpants, many underwear and a towel) which is pretty much all the clothes I have in Kenya because we haven't been able to wash since we left. She showed me how to set up 4 basins and use the first for applying the bar soap and a little powder(lots of scrubbing the clothing against itself),the 2nd for more powder and what seem to be a spin cycle(more scrubbing), the next a rinse just a little scrub and squeeze water out and finally a rinse bucket to get rid of all the extra suds. After each set of clothing you poor the 1st bucket out-as it contain the dirtiest water and then you move each basin of water in the one before-filling up the rinse bucket with clean water each time. This took 2 long hours,let me just say we are very lazy people in America lol.
After I hung all my clothes up I went in to help prepare lunch and to 'take tea'. After lunch I simply wanted to nap because honestly my body isnt used to this much action. But I decided to clean my room 1st and hang up pictures on home to make my room feel like my room, then I purify my water to make sure I have enough next week.
Then the technician came to fix the socket in my room-fine I appreciate having a working socket. After this my host mother's sister comes over and my host mother tells me she is about to go to town with my baba, ok fine. I go back into my room and theres a knock and wikia wikia over and over. I go to the door and my brother and his cousin(the sister's 5 year old son is at the door). I explain that I am trying to nap and I will play later. 10 Mins later they are back so I figured theyd leave me alone if I give them candy...ha yeah right. The 5 year old is telling my brother to knock on my door and say things including 'chocolate' in attempt to get more candy. So I turn up my ipod and shut out the world. This kid comes to my window and starts knocking so yeah Im about to lose it!haha.I shut my window and try to sleep again but it has been about 45 mins since 1st tried to nap so I say forget it and go into the living room. When I come in the sister says to me 'were you trying to sleep?' ahhhhhh I wanted to blow something up at that moment. So sortly afterward my mom comes home, they leave, we cook dinner, and I go to my room feeling some kind of way. This is the first day that I have been unhappy so I need sometime to just reflect and get it together. After watching finding nemo I think for a sec how I miss home but then I tell myself that I shouldn't be upset with Africa or my host family because my real family and siblings make me this upset sometimes. Plus it just gets annoying when no one naturally speaks your language, you just get tired from wondering what they are saying. But I just have to remind myself what I came for and all is well. So yeah after watching many movies I go to bed.
Today I woke up around 9 to my baba saying my water has been prepared(usually I take my bath at night but I didnt really do much on sat so I saw no need to). So I take my water in the washroom and take my bucketbath expecting to have to go to church or something because of the rush to bathe. Nope no church just breakfast. Then my baba comes in and talks to me-he really is a great guy but a little too much for me sometimes. He ask me why I don't each much, am i sick, stressed, missing home. Now don't you worry I eat a decent amount but these guys can really eat so it seems like I'm eating nothing I guess. After breakfast I help clean the living room and my mom goes to the market across the road. She comes back and I help her prepare lunch and she tells me she saw a fellow Trainee's mom at the store.She tells me all about the trainee(as if I dont speak to her everyday)and suggest I go see her today-I think she was just tired of seeing me around the house. I say ok maybe. After lunch she's like are you ready and Im like sure bc i guess I have no choice.
She walks me to Sandy's house which is about 5 mins away. Sandy is an older lady prob late 40s and the only other black trainee so we have a weird little bond. she sometimes reminds me of my real mom because shes older but silly as ever. Anywho I spend about 3 hours over Sandy's-trying to get her modem to work, talking about our 5min cases of homesickness, talking about the church she went to today and explaining to her brother the concept of purchasing a 20thous dollar car haha. I must admit it was good to get away from home for a bit. I return around 4:30 to see the 5 year old demon child is at the house. At about 5 I help my mom with dinner which legit took about 2.5hrs to make on those 2 little charcoal and gas stoves, we made chapati for the 1st time which is abs delish and a cabbage stew! She said it was going to rain bc I ate so much but really it was prob the best meal Ive had so far here I prob overate. After that I ironed my clothes for the week, took my bath and here I am in the bed tucked away in my mosquito net at 9:15pm lol. We will start our 1st day at the deaf school(tomorrow we attend the assembly which begins at 8) and it is a 40 min walk so I will leave here around 7 to meet with my friend at 710.Well thats my weekend play for play, it really was uneventful I guess im just feeling a little wordy haha.
I'm still working on the pics-I have a few good ones of my place and me washing clothes and such that I want to show.
After I hung all my clothes up I went in to help prepare lunch and to 'take tea'. After lunch I simply wanted to nap because honestly my body isnt used to this much action. But I decided to clean my room 1st and hang up pictures on home to make my room feel like my room, then I purify my water to make sure I have enough next week.
Then the technician came to fix the socket in my room-fine I appreciate having a working socket. After this my host mother's sister comes over and my host mother tells me she is about to go to town with my baba, ok fine. I go back into my room and theres a knock and wikia wikia over and over. I go to the door and my brother and his cousin(the sister's 5 year old son is at the door). I explain that I am trying to nap and I will play later. 10 Mins later they are back so I figured theyd leave me alone if I give them candy...ha yeah right. The 5 year old is telling my brother to knock on my door and say things including 'chocolate' in attempt to get more candy. So I turn up my ipod and shut out the world. This kid comes to my window and starts knocking so yeah Im about to lose it!haha.I shut my window and try to sleep again but it has been about 45 mins since 1st tried to nap so I say forget it and go into the living room. When I come in the sister says to me 'were you trying to sleep?' ahhhhhh I wanted to blow something up at that moment. So sortly afterward my mom comes home, they leave, we cook dinner, and I go to my room feeling some kind of way. This is the first day that I have been unhappy so I need sometime to just reflect and get it together. After watching finding nemo I think for a sec how I miss home but then I tell myself that I shouldn't be upset with Africa or my host family because my real family and siblings make me this upset sometimes. Plus it just gets annoying when no one naturally speaks your language, you just get tired from wondering what they are saying. But I just have to remind myself what I came for and all is well. So yeah after watching many movies I go to bed.
Today I woke up around 9 to my baba saying my water has been prepared(usually I take my bath at night but I didnt really do much on sat so I saw no need to). So I take my water in the washroom and take my bucketbath expecting to have to go to church or something because of the rush to bathe. Nope no church just breakfast. Then my baba comes in and talks to me-he really is a great guy but a little too much for me sometimes. He ask me why I don't each much, am i sick, stressed, missing home. Now don't you worry I eat a decent amount but these guys can really eat so it seems like I'm eating nothing I guess. After breakfast I help clean the living room and my mom goes to the market across the road. She comes back and I help her prepare lunch and she tells me she saw a fellow Trainee's mom at the store.She tells me all about the trainee(as if I dont speak to her everyday)and suggest I go see her today-I think she was just tired of seeing me around the house. I say ok maybe. After lunch she's like are you ready and Im like sure bc i guess I have no choice.
She walks me to Sandy's house which is about 5 mins away. Sandy is an older lady prob late 40s and the only other black trainee so we have a weird little bond. she sometimes reminds me of my real mom because shes older but silly as ever. Anywho I spend about 3 hours over Sandy's-trying to get her modem to work, talking about our 5min cases of homesickness, talking about the church she went to today and explaining to her brother the concept of purchasing a 20thous dollar car haha. I must admit it was good to get away from home for a bit. I return around 4:30 to see the 5 year old demon child is at the house. At about 5 I help my mom with dinner which legit took about 2.5hrs to make on those 2 little charcoal and gas stoves, we made chapati for the 1st time which is abs delish and a cabbage stew! She said it was going to rain bc I ate so much but really it was prob the best meal Ive had so far here I prob overate. After that I ironed my clothes for the week, took my bath and here I am in the bed tucked away in my mosquito net at 9:15pm lol. We will start our 1st day at the deaf school(tomorrow we attend the assembly which begins at 8) and it is a 40 min walk so I will leave here around 7 to meet with my friend at 710.Well thats my weekend play for play, it really was uneventful I guess im just feeling a little wordy haha.
I'm still working on the pics-I have a few good ones of my place and me washing clothes and such that I want to show.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
1 week!
7days. 7 tiny American days is at least 60 Kenyan days...ok ok maybe 30. Regardless its been one heck of a ride thus far. I would like to put up pictures but the internet connection on this modem is worst than dial up when it first came out. I have to wait until I am in town oh and until I find my camera. Ha yup I think I misplaced it already.Oh well it will show up eventually.
Anywho, these past 7 days has consisted of lots of traveling,food, and pretty scary moments but I am in one piece and that's all that matters. So we stayed in Nairobi for 3 nights then went to Machakos which is my home for the next 10 weeks. After 2 nights in the hotel of Machakos we were shipped off to our homestay families. Let me just say this is a nerve wrecking experience. After we finished language for that day all of our families began to arrive at the hotel. We were given a notecard with our name and our family name on them and we were supposed to go into the conference room and find the notecard that matched ours. Sooo we all walk in and guess who's family is one of the 2 that aren't there yet...haha yup mine. So I sit in the front of the room along with Cindy, one of my 10 new friends:). We look like the orphans who weren't adopted everyone was hugging their families and having a cup of chai tea and pitying us all at the same time.
After about 30 mins or so our families arrive. There was one woman and one child and I could tell I wasn't what she expected, we all have to go around and tell our names and introduce our new families. She introduced me as her Black American daughter lol. We didn't have much to say to each other haha forcing conversation is rough when there is already a language barrier. So after much awkward silence we are sent to lunch as a group and her sister arrives with another child who I soon find out is her son and the kid who initially came with her is her nephew. So we have an awkward meal, consisting of me scarfing down my food because I have nothing to say and her asking me am I bored. We eventually make it to my new home which is not far from town, maybe a 25 min walk. The house is a 2 bed room house, one room for me and one for her and my kaka(brother) and baba(dad) when he arrives-he is away on work right now. I was pleasantly surprised to see we had electricity(which goes out only a few times a day) and water(I like to call it walking water instead of running water because this too goes out a few times a day-I know I know I'm funny). We also have a indoor western toilet but we are only supposed to use at night. The choo(google it then laugh at me) is for day time use- I have yet to use one. We also have a chicken-yup just one, she sold the rest, and a dog. There are many goats and cows next door-I really want to milk a cow before I go. My room is a decent size and I'm happy to finally unpack my things and have a place that I can scatter my things around-PC requires us to get a lock on our door so I don't worry about anything stolen or anything like that.
When we first arrived home my mama told me she had to wash my kaka's clothes. So I sat outside and watched as she washed everything by hand then hung it out to dry. She's very funny always saying things like you Americans use machines for this dontcha, how about this? I'm like yup we're very lazy-which is true.Then we went out to by dinner-meat from a cow that I probably walked by the day before(which I won't lie I almost vomited when I saw all the flies at this outdoor butcher shop) and veggies from off the street. I won't lie I was super nervous about dinner but I kept reminding myself to keep an open mind. We get home she has me chop the meat-with the world's most dull knife lol and I want to vomit. She chops the veggies and then goes to work cooking on one kerosene stove and one charcoal-showing me how to work both. In the end was a delish meal with no fly eggs or anything gross. I must say it was the most informative day I have had so far.The local kids came over to see the Mzungo-the term Kenyans use for white people. Let's just say they were slightly confused and very disappointed. But they were cute nonetheless; smiling and afraid to talk to me as if I was some alien. Oh and on that note- being an African American is unheard of here. I get many weird stares when I walk with my fellow PCTrainees, all of which are white but one. When I'm walking alone I get weird stares too because I'm a little lighter than most here so they are usually wondering what I am or what tribe I'm in. The white PCT are looked at like aliens. It's funny, the kids want to say hi and the adults are like wtf. It sucks for them because they associate white with American and America with $$ so they are more likely targeted for crime.But once I open my mouth they know I'm American so I guess we are all targets.Blahhh back to my story
Since then I have had nothing but good times and great convos with my family. My 3year old host brother, name is Jo. He is super cute and always trying to play with me but I never know what he's saying so the only thing we say back and forth to each other is sawa sawa which means okay lol. Its ok we have lots of fun.My daily routine consist of me going to language at 8(a group of 4 of us meet at one of our houses-not mine its too small) then around 10 we walk into town meet with the other 7 people and have techincal, medical, safety, or cultural mettings. We spend a lot of our time inside. We go somewhere local to eat around 1- an average lunch is 2 bucks max, drink included.Then we go back to meeting until around 4 or 5 and have to be in the house at 630 because it isn't safe to be out after dark for anyone PCTs or Kenyans. Once I'm home I have chai of course, play with my brother for a bit, talk to my mama, watch the other kids come over and get lots of love from my mama, get help on my homework eat yummy dinners, take a bucket bath and I say goodnight around 830. I read, write in my journal, watch a movie from my external hard drive or just lay there listening to my mama and kaka be super cute and sing nursery rhymes in their native tounge until around 1030 then I wake up have breakfast-chai included. So yeah there's my new life for the next 10 weeks. We start at the deaf school next week and we swear in on Dec. 14th. My internet comes and goes so I hope that's enough info for a bit. Is there anything else hmmm let's see...
One girl left so far so we are 11 before we were 12.
Large avocados are 30 cent.yum
We drink chai 20x a day-full of whole milk...I'm gaining like 1000lbs from it
I'm still having an amazing time and I'm in a constant state of shock from the fact that I am really here and doing this. I am thankful for every single thing that happens throughout the day good and bad. PC calls this time our peak-everything is still fresh, we are happy, no culture shock yet haha. They said it goes away after a few weeks haha we shall see i guess.
The roads here are awful, the driving is ridic and there are no speed limits haha
I didn't spell or grammar check this because it is 1051 and therefore pass my bedtime so I hope its ok
We find out our site placements in about 2 weeks-wish me luck!
Thanks for reading what could possibly be my longest blog ever. Well until next time...
Anywho, these past 7 days has consisted of lots of traveling,food, and pretty scary moments but I am in one piece and that's all that matters. So we stayed in Nairobi for 3 nights then went to Machakos which is my home for the next 10 weeks. After 2 nights in the hotel of Machakos we were shipped off to our homestay families. Let me just say this is a nerve wrecking experience. After we finished language for that day all of our families began to arrive at the hotel. We were given a notecard with our name and our family name on them and we were supposed to go into the conference room and find the notecard that matched ours. Sooo we all walk in and guess who's family is one of the 2 that aren't there yet...haha yup mine. So I sit in the front of the room along with Cindy, one of my 10 new friends:). We look like the orphans who weren't adopted everyone was hugging their families and having a cup of chai tea and pitying us all at the same time.
After about 30 mins or so our families arrive. There was one woman and one child and I could tell I wasn't what she expected, we all have to go around and tell our names and introduce our new families. She introduced me as her Black American daughter lol. We didn't have much to say to each other haha forcing conversation is rough when there is already a language barrier. So after much awkward silence we are sent to lunch as a group and her sister arrives with another child who I soon find out is her son and the kid who initially came with her is her nephew. So we have an awkward meal, consisting of me scarfing down my food because I have nothing to say and her asking me am I bored. We eventually make it to my new home which is not far from town, maybe a 25 min walk. The house is a 2 bed room house, one room for me and one for her and my kaka(brother) and baba(dad) when he arrives-he is away on work right now. I was pleasantly surprised to see we had electricity(which goes out only a few times a day) and water(I like to call it walking water instead of running water because this too goes out a few times a day-I know I know I'm funny). We also have a indoor western toilet but we are only supposed to use at night. The choo(google it then laugh at me) is for day time use- I have yet to use one. We also have a chicken-yup just one, she sold the rest, and a dog. There are many goats and cows next door-I really want to milk a cow before I go. My room is a decent size and I'm happy to finally unpack my things and have a place that I can scatter my things around-PC requires us to get a lock on our door so I don't worry about anything stolen or anything like that.
When we first arrived home my mama told me she had to wash my kaka's clothes. So I sat outside and watched as she washed everything by hand then hung it out to dry. She's very funny always saying things like you Americans use machines for this dontcha, how about this? I'm like yup we're very lazy-which is true.Then we went out to by dinner-meat from a cow that I probably walked by the day before(which I won't lie I almost vomited when I saw all the flies at this outdoor butcher shop) and veggies from off the street. I won't lie I was super nervous about dinner but I kept reminding myself to keep an open mind. We get home she has me chop the meat-with the world's most dull knife lol and I want to vomit. She chops the veggies and then goes to work cooking on one kerosene stove and one charcoal-showing me how to work both. In the end was a delish meal with no fly eggs or anything gross. I must say it was the most informative day I have had so far.The local kids came over to see the Mzungo-the term Kenyans use for white people. Let's just say they were slightly confused and very disappointed. But they were cute nonetheless; smiling and afraid to talk to me as if I was some alien. Oh and on that note- being an African American is unheard of here. I get many weird stares when I walk with my fellow PCTrainees, all of which are white but one. When I'm walking alone I get weird stares too because I'm a little lighter than most here so they are usually wondering what I am or what tribe I'm in. The white PCT are looked at like aliens. It's funny, the kids want to say hi and the adults are like wtf. It sucks for them because they associate white with American and America with $$ so they are more likely targeted for crime.But once I open my mouth they know I'm American so I guess we are all targets.Blahhh back to my story
Since then I have had nothing but good times and great convos with my family. My 3year old host brother, name is Jo. He is super cute and always trying to play with me but I never know what he's saying so the only thing we say back and forth to each other is sawa sawa which means okay lol. Its ok we have lots of fun.My daily routine consist of me going to language at 8(a group of 4 of us meet at one of our houses-not mine its too small) then around 10 we walk into town meet with the other 7 people and have techincal, medical, safety, or cultural mettings. We spend a lot of our time inside. We go somewhere local to eat around 1- an average lunch is 2 bucks max, drink included.Then we go back to meeting until around 4 or 5 and have to be in the house at 630 because it isn't safe to be out after dark for anyone PCTs or Kenyans. Once I'm home I have chai of course, play with my brother for a bit, talk to my mama, watch the other kids come over and get lots of love from my mama, get help on my homework eat yummy dinners, take a bucket bath and I say goodnight around 830. I read, write in my journal, watch a movie from my external hard drive or just lay there listening to my mama and kaka be super cute and sing nursery rhymes in their native tounge until around 1030 then I wake up have breakfast-chai included. So yeah there's my new life for the next 10 weeks. We start at the deaf school next week and we swear in on Dec. 14th. My internet comes and goes so I hope that's enough info for a bit. Is there anything else hmmm let's see...
One girl left so far so we are 11 before we were 12.
Large avocados are 30 cent.yum
We drink chai 20x a day-full of whole milk...I'm gaining like 1000lbs from it
I'm still having an amazing time and I'm in a constant state of shock from the fact that I am really here and doing this. I am thankful for every single thing that happens throughout the day good and bad. PC calls this time our peak-everything is still fresh, we are happy, no culture shock yet haha. They said it goes away after a few weeks haha we shall see i guess.
The roads here are awful, the driving is ridic and there are no speed limits haha
I didn't spell or grammar check this because it is 1051 and therefore pass my bedtime so I hope its ok
We find out our site placements in about 2 weeks-wish me luck!
Thanks for reading what could possibly be my longest blog ever. Well until next time...
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Kenya Believe it?
Cheesy I know but I can't believe it...at all haha.I'm in freaking Africa!For two years!
I will attempt to make this blog a little more exciting with PICTURES of my adventure. Yay! So here's a few of my new buddies with our carry-ons. Yes there are a ton of bike helmets attached to our bags.
We are very happy to be off a plane and crammed on a bus!
I will attempt to make this blog a little more exciting with PICTURES of my adventure. Yay! So here's a few of my new buddies with our carry-ons. Yes there are a ton of bike helmets attached to our bags.
Here's our first plane to Johannesburg,SA.
Time to go to Kenya!
Sara with all her carry-ons attached to her carry on.
You may not be able to tell but this plane had Nelson Mandella on it.
This sign was the 1st thing I saw when we got through customs.Made me so happy:) Prob because it's as cheesy as me.
We are very happy to be off a plane and crammed on a bus!
Our hostel...little blurry
and finally my 1st meal in Kenya
yummy.
There you have it ladies and gents my 1st 36 or so hours in the pc.its been great! PC treats you great! andddd
I'm off to bed because I'm exhausted.Later
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
If you're happy and you know it...
hahaha that song makes me think of camp...and my sister(I miss both of them so much already:) but really I'm happy.So happy:) This has been such a great day, exhausting but great nonetheless. I have 28 people in my staging group, 10 in the Deaf Educators section. Great people, we talked a lot about PC and what to expect and then we had dinner. The people are cool, philly is great, life is good-that's for sure. 2:15am we head to the bus then we are off to NY for a 11:15 flight to South Africa(15hours) then a flight to Kenya(4.5hrs). I'm running off of 2 hours of sleep and there isn't much more to say until something more exciting happens...Peace
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)