It's the little things.

I absolutely love it here. Overwhelming heat, language barrier, constant heckling, and all. Two years of all of that and more and I may not love it as much as I do now but either way, I'm pretty content with my decision.

Andrea and I went into Nairobi last week to do some work. Meaning I had to get a letter from Peace Corps to send to my student loan company. Spent an arm and a leg DHL-ing it to Texas but hopefully that satisfies them so I can defer it for the two years I'm here. Aside from that, Andrea blew out her flip flop in the middle of downtown Nairobi so she bought some replacement flip flops that most Kenyans wear as shower shoes. Needless to say, she felt as though every Kenyan was staring at her feet (which they probably were) so we quickly found her a shoe repair guy and an hour later all was well again. From there we went to a place called the Kenya Book Foundation which was quite an adventure to find. We were told this place was on the basement level of the building we went into but really it was in a parallel universe through a maze of dimly light hallways, parking garages, and eight foot tall stacks of office furniture from the 1970's. When we finally found the place it was mainly (entirely) textbooks for all grade levels but no novels. So while it wasn't a complete waste of time, it wasn't all we had hoped it to be. But the iced coffee, chicken pita, ice cream brownie cookie sundae, and Mountain Dew at the movie theatre (!!!!) were all I expected them to be and more.

The next day we began our journey to Jill's for the weekend. It's incredible that she and Clare live in the same province as Andrea and me because their part of Eastern is almost entirely green while ours portion is incredibly brown. On the drive up we saw fields upon fields of rice paddies and banana trees in every direction. Unfortunately, we couldn't see Mt. Kenya but I've got a little less that two years so I'll see it eventually. Jill lives in a town called Maua (Ma-ooo-a) which isn't exactly the most pleasant place to visit. There is an overwhelming number of men in the town and very few of them have anything nice to say. On top of that, there is a large number of boys ageing from about 7 to 13 who walk around huffing glue all day and when you walk along the streets they run up to you and ask you for money while they hold their bottle of glue in their hand. Thankfully Jill lives on a Methodist hospital compound and once you walk through the gates it's like a completely different world where everyone is nice and no one bothers you. And Jill's apartment is fantastic but the best part is the kitchen which has a fridge, stove, and oven and is where we spent a good majority of our weekend. On the menu was BBQ meatballs, baked potatoes, peanut butter cookies, banana pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs, vegetarian chili, butternut squash au gratin, brownies, stuffed bell peppers, and some more baked potatoes. Not to mention cold milk to go with the cookies and brownies. We also made ice cubes which Andrea almost cried over (it's the little things that make us happy).

We stayed for one day longer than we had originally planned because we went and met up with an education volunteer who lives nearby. His name is Matt and he is working on starting a library for the school he works at and asked if we would come help him sort through the boxes and boxes of books he got. Since I am interested in do the same I thought it would be a great opportunity to pick his brain about the logistics of the whole ordeal. This is where I learned almost everything there is to know about an organization called Books for Africa. It's pretty awesome really. What they do is pack a huge shipping container full of books, throw it on a boat, and ship it this way. All of the books are donated and the only input of money that is required is the shipping costs. Now that number is a bit high but Matt did this project with three other volunteers and between all of them, their communities, and friends and family back home, they were able to make the amount needed. Clare and I are going to team up and try and do this. We're hoping to enlist one or two other volunteers from our class who either live on a school compound like Clare does or are involving themselves with the schools like myself. Now I realize I've already sent out a request to all of my readers to start gathering books to possibly send my Mom's way BUT with this new development I don't know if I'll be having you do that. Instead Matt informed us that there was a large amount of empty space in the container when it arrived and said that Books for Africa allows you to ship items to them to be put in the container. So once we get the ball rolling on this project any of you that were planning on sending books can just send them directly to their company and they will thrown them in the container and they will all get here at once. I'm really excited about this and I have yet to talk with the principal about everything but I've discussed it with my supervisor and she thought it was a great idea.

Speaking of my supervisor...SHE'S ALIVE! And talking to me again! Wednesday was Kenya's independence day. It was previously called Kenyatta Day but the new constitution changed the name of it to MashujaaMashujaa Day with her on Wednesday where my DO, chief, and some other big-wigs were in attendance. Of course, in typical Kenyan fashion, they had me get up and introduce myself to the crowd. My chief prefaced my introduction with about five minutes of talking about me which only increased my anxiety but I finally got up there, rambled off my name, where I was from, etc. and then quickly returned to my seat. Aside from my brief moment of humiliation, overall, the day was pretty cool. It was no 4th of July but still pretty neat to see how they celebrate their independence (and I got free lunch!).

I met up with my supervisor again the next day and even though we just sat in the office all day, I'd still call it a success. I looked up places we could send proposals to and we had quite a few good talks. Highlight of the day was when one of the village crazy men tried to steal our office's broom so my supervisor told him to take her phone to go have it charged and when he walked towards her to get it she stood up and he turned around, dropped the broom, and ran away in fear. Pretty awesome. She's got some serious authority in my village and many of the areas around it.

Most exciting part of the week though was it rained yesterday. A lot. It started raining around 5pm and didn't stop until the early hours of the morning. The rain on my tin roof sounds slightly like there's a hurricane outside but I loved it. Although, I quickly realized that my roof has more than a few leaks and I may need to invest in a couple more buckets before the rainy season is in full swing. Downside to the rain is that when I opened my door this morning there was about a billion ants marching in a line around the perimeter of my house. They weren't entering my house, thankfully, but no matter how many times I've swept them away, they still return. Upside to the rain was I was able to walk into town today without getting my feet covered in dust. Remember, it's the little things.

Well, here were are again with not much to discuss.

It's still been pretty slow moving since I've gotten back to site. And I mean slow moving in every way possible. The temperature has increased by about 20 degrees since before IST so now I be sure to take my time when I walk into town or anywhere for that matter. It's really the Kenyan way to walk incredibly slow so no one judges me for moving at a snail's pace. In addition to the heat that rolls in around 10am and sticks around until about 10pm, the sun seems to be a bit more harsh than I remember. It doesn't take any longer than 10 minutes in direct sunlight for me to notice substantial progress on my farmer's tan and an increase in the number of freckles on my face. Honestly though, I thank the Lord that I'm semi-required to wear skirts every day. It's like environmentally friendly air conditioning.

Mango season is right around the corner. 

 Still have yet to sit down in a meeting with my supervisor and counterpart to discuss what the h-e-double hockey sticks I'm supposed to be doing right now. I've tried telling my supervisor I would like to meet with her on more than one occasion but she always seems to be doing something out in the field or needing me to type up something for her like I'm her personal secretary. Regardless, I'm trying to keep myself busy. I visited one of the secondary schools in the next town over, Kakuswi, and spoke with the principal there. He's slowly becoming one of my favorite people in this area. I talked with him about teaching a class on life skills and picked up the text book from him so I could look it over and also discussed teaching a computer course. He was thrilled that I was willing to do this. I was thrilled at the thought of having something to do one or two days out of the week so all in all, it was a good day for the both of us. I also threw it in there that a lot of the adults in my town, including my supervisor and counterpart, are very interested in learning how to use a computer and was wondering if I could start a class for them sometime when the computer lab was available. He also thought this was an excellent idea and agreed to allow me to do this and also to let the adults do this free of charge. He then told me I was now one of the staff and they were going to make a spot for me in the time table. Then he took me into the teachers' lounge and told me to sit and have tea with the teachers and have them designate a desk for me. Due to my love of Kenyan tea, I was more than happy to stay and chat with the teachers although it's becoming increasingly more difficult to slurp down a scalding hot cup of tea when it's 90 degrees outside. On a previous visit to this school, I told the principal and a couple of the teachers that I studied Biology and Psychology in college, so they also want me to help teach Biology but I'm thinking I'm going to try and get out of that one. I'm happy to teach the life skills and computer classes because they don't exist yet so I'll be the one making up the syllabus, lesson plans, etc. whereas if I was to assist in teaching Biology, that wouldn't be the case and I think I might end up pulling my hair out.

My two favorite ladies on the compound, (from left) Stella and Gladys. 

Another thing the principal and my counterpart, who's the chairman of the PTA at this school, discussed with me is that they would like to start a school library. The principal is asking every PTA member to donate at least one novel that they have lying around. Naturally, they asked me if I had any books I would be willing to donate. Unfortunately, I don't think any of my books would 1) interest a Kenyan high school student and 2) be at a reading level suitable for a high school student who's first language isn't English. But I would also like to see Kenyans read for leisure more often and it's better to have them start now while they are in school rather than expect them to pick it up on their own after they're done. So, I'm going to Nairobi this Thursday to visit the Kenya Book Foundation. Supposedly they have many books to look through and they sell them for a pretty low rate. I mainly just want to go and see what they have to offer and how the school would go about registering with them. Hopefully it's a trip well worth the money I'll be paying for travel, food, etc. In addition, I've sent an e-mail to the superintendent of good ole Meridian C.U.S.D. #223 to see if he can perhaps put the word out there and possibly throw together a care package of old books from any of the schools or libraries in the district to send to the school. Which brings me to my next point, I'm willing to accept any donations of even just one old novel that would be suitable for a high-school aged student or younger. The book doesn't have to be in mint condition, by any means, but having all of its pages and covers intact would be greatly appreciated. If this is something you would be willing to do, please shoot me an e-mail at ljrippe@gmail.com first because if I get enough offers to help, I'll just have them sent to my wonderful Mom's house and then her and I can work out the details on shipping (hope that's OK, Mom!).

How people in my community get water.  

This last Sunday I moseyed on over to Andrea's side of the river for the day. Neither of us had anything going on so I figured I'd pay her a well-deserved visit since she's always coming my way. I got all tourist-y on my walk over there and took a handful of pictures until my camera died and once I arrived she handed me quite possibly the greatest thing anyone has ever given me since I arrived in Kenya. A plate full of no bake cookies and a glass of milk. I savored every bite and then wept slightly when there was nothing but crumbs left on the plate. On our stroll through the bush over to her supervisors house we were initially greeted/yelled at by a man who could clearly see us because he was yelling "mzungu" over and over but we could not see him at all and then shortly thereafter we were not so pleasantly surprised to run into a 3 foot long snake. In traditional American way, we stopped dead in our tracks, screamed, grabbed onto each other, and then quickly walked/ran away. In traditional snake way, immediately upon realizing it was not alone it slithered away into the bush before we were even done shrieking. Upon arriving at our destination, we found her supervisor's husband at the gate of the compound explaining that he heard us scream and thought we were in trouble so he was about to come save us. Being the smart cookies we are, Andrea and I both carried a stick with us on our walk home as a weapon of defense against any other reptiles that we might encounter. Thankfully, we made it home without having to use them.

On my way to Andrea's...

As I said before, I'm heading back into Nairobi on Thursday to run some errands (nothing like taking a 3+ hour bus ride and booking a hotel room solely to run errands) but on Friday, Andrea and I are heading up to the other part of Eastern Province where our friends Jill and Clare live to spend the weekend with them. It's another 5 hour bus ride to Jill's but she's got a posh apartment complete with stove and refrigerator so I'm willing to make the trip if I get to have cold beverages all weekend.

Back at site...

…and feeling a bit out of sorts. After making a short pit stop in Machakos for a bit after leaving Nairobi, I returned to site earlier this week. It’s been a rough couple days back. Speaking real English for two weeks did absolutely nothing for my Kikamba and my community is making me very aware that I’ve forgotten a great deal of it over that short amount of time. On top of that, I haven’t seen or talked to my supervisor since I’ve returned and my counterpart is MIA more often than not. And the icing on the cake is, I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing right now. Before IST I was constantly trying to put together information for my needs assessment and while I realize I still have plenty of information to gather on those matters, I’m quickly realizing it’s a little hard to find my footing and get back on track.

Oh yes, Nairobi. That place I went on and on about for blog post after blog post. Aside from the formal training, I had a blast. Not to say training wasn’t interesting…well, no, that’s exactly what I’m saying. Training was incredibly boring and out of 9 full days of it, I can safely say 2 ½ of those days actually presented useful information. It’s not that Peace Corps didn’t try, because they did. Each and every day was packed with speakers from some organization or field trips to places in and outside of the city but it’s the type of training that was endured that was most painful. Most/all of the speakers came in with a very well thought out, formal lecture on what their organization does and some of them even attempted to involve us in activities in order to learn specific things. Unfortunately for them, this isn’t what we were expecting or wanted. The majority of these activities involved teaching us things we already learned during our two months of training and the lectures were more often than not incredibly dry and hard to pay attention to for longer than 10 minutes. There was a glimmer of hope when we told one of the organizations that we really wanted an informal discussion on specific and culturally appropriate ways to talk to women and girls about sex and STIs. Everything was going great and then after lunch break they went right back into having us diagram the causes and results of teenage pregnancy on a problem tree. Not helpful. So this is how the days went. But the nights and the weekends, well they were the best part.

There were so many pizzas, sushi rolls, burritos, toasted sandwiches, iced coffees, and drinks in combination with good conversations and great company during those nights and weekends. The creative people in our training class got together and organized a toga party and a mock-prom, complete with a prom king and queen, during those two weeks. It’s difficult to put into words exactly how much fun it was to be with all of those people again and also sad to think that it may be the last time I see some of them before we end our service in two years. Regardless, plans have been put into motion for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. There’s discussion of renting out a house on an island off the coast for New Years…that would pretty much top any and all previous New Years celebrations I’ve attended.

In other news, I received a glorious package from my Mom, Michael, and Kait on Wednesday. Hot Cheetos, Chili Cheese Fritos, Cherry Sours, granola bars, Clif bars, Maple and Brown Sugar oatmeal, clothes, nail polish, makeup, and pictures from when Kait and I were youngins. I felt as though it were Christmas in September. I’m taking extreme caution to ration my binges as I need this to last me for some time but surprisingly enough, I’ve ate more of the Clif bars than anything else. Most likely because I haven’t gotten a decent amount of protein in my diet since I left the states. Also, when I got back to site, my counterpart informed me that the electricity at the main house on the compound was disconnected at some point last week and they were working with the power company to get it turned back on. On top of that, he failed to mention till 8:30pm on Wednesday that “they” (whoever they is) announced the entire district would be without power for all of Thursday. So needless to say, my phone died around 9am Thursday and I restricted my time on my computer to the bare minimum so as I could watch an episode of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” before I went to bed last night. Thankfully, power was back on in town today (still not at the main house) so I paid a whole 10 shillings (that’s 8 cents) to get my phone charged and I’m currently sitting in our CBO’s office charging my computer. I may be able to watch two episodes of Sunny tonight.

As a final note, at IST I was able to swap out some of the books I had read for books from other volunteers (mostly my friend Clare) and one of the books I got was The Art of Racing in the Rain. Now we sold this book for months while I worked at Starbucks and even though there’s a cute dog on the cover, I never thought to pick it up and read it. But it rained here Wednesday morning so I cracked it open…and I read the entire book before 5pm. Now, I’m a dog/animal lover, we all know that but this book was like reading our late golden retriever’s mind. I laughed. I cried. It was a great book and if you have some free time on your hands (if you’re anything like me you’ll only need one rainy day), I highly suggest reading this book, especially if you are an avid animal lover. And yes, it’s ok to cry.