"And what do you do?" "...business."

Alright, so its been a while. I realize this and I'd like to extend my most sincere apologies for keeping all of you wondering what I'm doing. Let me start by saying, not much has changed. Although, ...the new supermarket in Machakos claims to have gotten Wi-Fi so that's now on my list of things to check out in the near future. I had big plans to go terrorize the new group of trainees when they came to Machakos for their HIV/AIDS workshop but alas, Peace Corps has ruined my plans and moved the workshop to somewhere near Voi (which is in Coast Province).

I'm willing to risk my street cred and officially announce I have discovered I do in fact have a small amount of maternal instinct somewhere in my body. Maybe its the fact I have become entirely too attached to the cat I got back at the start of the year or maybe its because I live with seven children but either way I found myself incredibly depressed when I thought Gus Gus, my cat, was dying about a month ago and also began crying when I saw that Lucky, my little buddy, had the mumps. Both instances turned out to be quite minor and unnecessary of my erratic emotions but my mom was exceptionally happy to discover I may give her grandchildren sometime in the distant, very distant, future. In my defense to Lucky getting the mumps though, I had no idea what was wrong with her. All I knew was her cheeks were HUGE and that was definitely not normal. And due to the fact we are vaccinated for it, I was under the impression it was actually serious and not just a viral infection of the salivary glands that will eventually go away on its own. America confuses me more than Kenya sometimes. Why are we vaccinated for something as minor as the chicken pox? You get it, you suffer through a couple days, and then you have immunity from getting it again for the rest of your life.

On a completely unrelated note, we had some other Americans (and two New Zealanders) in the area about two weeks ago now. They were all missionaries from an organization called World Servants. My supervisor had been arranging for them to come here and do some work since before I ever arrived last year. There was 18 of them and only 2 of them were male. Which was incredibly shocking to the people in my village when they saw not only Americans but American women doing manual labor. I'll admit I was terrified for them to come here. My social skills and ability to speak proper English are far below normal after living in a Kenyan village for almost a year. Not that they were that impressive to begin with but if you can believe it, they've gotten worse. Luckily, they were all incredibly friendly and very surprised to see another American that didn't belong to their group. Although, I did kind of latch on to the women and tended to avoid the younger girls because I have no idea what we would talk about. I mean, I look like a frumpy hillbilly who watches movies and listens to music from about 2 years ago. Honestly, I had no idea what I would talk about with the younger crowd. I kind of regret that though because about 4 of them were from IL which is more than I can say for Peace Corps volunteers.

The 21^st of this month will mark my completion of one year of service. Although I don't have much to show for it, I'm pretty proud of myself. I'm working on getting some stuff done though. I'm finally not so concerned about stepping on peoples toes and willing to be a bit more forward with a few people in the community who have become a kind of road block. In celebration of competing a year of service, I think I'll finally work on getting some furniture in my house. I know that when my dad and aunt come to visit in October they would probably appreciate having somewhere to sleep besides a couch or sharing a bed with me. Andrea tells me I live like a bachelor. I agree with this but also blame it on the fact that I lived in three furnished apartments before Peace Corps service so not only do I have no knowledge of buying furniture in America, doing that in Kenya is quite intimidating. So I'll work on that next month.

Recently I've been contemplating the different varieties of weaves I can get next. There's a lady in my village that runs a salon and every time I walk by she asks when I'm going to let her braid my hair. Give me another week and I'll probably just go in and let her do what she wants. I'm itching for some cornrows “just like Sean Paul” which is what Andrea said when I told her. And speaking of salons, Andrea and I have considered opening our own Muzungu (Westerner) salon. Perhaps a traveling one. But this is just a far-fetched dream created by two girls who have entirely too much time on there hands. Which is also how we discovered you can see the ridiculously bright flashlight at her house from my house all the way across the river. Now this proves two things: 1.) Andrea's “mama” is right as she continually proclaims “it's like stima (electricity)” and shines this 50-some LED flashlight the size of brick in your face and 2.) The lack of light pollution in the village allows for endless hours of entertainment.

Oh, finally, it's winter time here now. And I think I've officially adjusted to the climate because I'm freezing cold for the first hour or so after I wake up in the morning. And winter means its around 70 something everyday and a couple days of the week its pretty overcast but remember, I live in a desert and I have a 12-inch gap between my wall and roof so when it's 50 some degrees at night...it's 50 some degrees in my house and that's cold for me now. Unfortunately, the last rainy season came and went without hardly a drop of rain so almost everyones maize crops failed and the price to buy maize from the shop is steadily climbing. Even worse, I know that people are struggling to feed their families and there's nothing I can do. I keep hearing about relief food going to the Coast, where they're still getting rain, or going other places but I have yet to hear of any coming to my area of lower Eastern. While its incredibly sad and difficult to know this is going on all around me I will say its amazing how it really doesn't change the day-to-day life of the people I see every day. Their strength and ability to persevere during difficult times is amazing.

One last thing, if you didn't see my last blog post, facebook statues, or article in the Ogle County Life, you should check out this awesome library project I'm working on with two other volunteers, Clare and Megan. Once all the money is raised we'll be getting an enormous shipment of textbooks, novels, and even some desktop computers that will end up benefiting around 5,000+ students and community members, not to mention the countless numbers of people it will benefit in the future. It's through a US-based organization called Books for Africa and our project is title Kenya Read Me A Story? Even if you yourself can't donate anything, you can still help by passing the word along to someone that you know who might be able to. Whether it be your friend, parent, employer, it doesn't matter. Any donation, large or small, will ultimately help to get the container here. And it's tax deductible!

Alright, I'm off like a prom dress. Gonna go get some cuddle time in with my feline companion before the children get home from school and start circling my house demanding for a variety of items. Thanks for reading.

White Girl + Weave = Coolest Kid in Town

My dearest friends and family, my apologies for being the ultimate procrastinator in writing a new blog post. I have started new posts on multiple occasions and then decided I have nothing to talk about and giving up. But alas, I know you are all on the edge of your seat just waiting to hear about my adventures so I decided to be nice and write a new post.

As most of you know, I was back in The Valley from March 22nd through the 28th for my Grandpa Rip's funeral. I still can't believe he's gone but I'm glad my Dad is an expert penny pincher and was able to fly me home. I don't know what I would've done had I not been able to attend. I'll miss hearing my Dad tell me that Grandpa says hello and to stay safe but I know that he will still be thinking that on a daily basis and at least this way he can keep a close eye on me. Gonna have to name my first dog Shep in his honor one of these days. I'll miss you and think of you always, Grandpa.

Plus side to coming home was obviously all the delicious food that I got to consume. As well as seeing my family. And even if Mom says it's not true, I know Oliver has gotten more obese since I left but to be positive about his weight gain, at least he's more fun to cuddle with now. Jack still remembers me and still hates Kait, so that's pretty hilarious. And the Nugget, ohhhh the Nugget, although I was only able to take you for a short stroll down Woodburn, it was the happiest moment of my life. But although the circumstances under which I went home were far from ideal, I'm so happy I got to spend time with my family and friends even if it was only for a couple days. Hopefully the incredible amount of questions I answered will hold you all over for another year or so. If not, you know how to reach me and I'm always happy to answer them. For those of you I wasn't able to see or even talk to, please accept my apologies and know that if I had more time I would've seen all of you.

You can't tell me he's not obese.

But back to Kenya. Currently it's a lovely  79 degrees Fahrenheit and I know you're all jealous. As you should be. Currently, and for the last couple weeks, I've been working with a group of other volunteers to coordinate a girls empowerment camp called Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) that will take place over the course of next week. We will teach the girls all about health and hygiene issues, creating goals (both career and personal) for the future, and other assorted topics about gender equality, sex, and other fun stuff. We will travel with the girls to the coast town of Kilifi and stay on a university campus for the entire week. Each day they will have lessons on the above topics taught by myself and the other volunteers and then in the afternoon they will have the opportunity to play games and relax before dinner. We have a talent show, photo shoot, and a dance planned for them too which I know they will be ecstatic about. Most of these girls have never left their communities so taking them all the way to the coast will be an incredibly memorable experience for all of them. Plus, they get T-shirts! Nothing is official in Kenya until you get a T-shirt for it!  :)

I got a cat. Andrea and I named him Gus Gus. He is insane and has been given many things that Kenyan cats aren't used to. Such as actual cat food, cat nip, toys, and a laser pointer. And yes, I did make the children I live with chase the laser pointer after they watched Gus chase it. It was hilarious.

Aside from this I've been busy styling my new hair. Because, yes, I did indeed get my hair braided and now that it's no longer insanely itchy, I'm kind of in love with it. Andrea has declared I now look so much like a hippie. I embrace this comment. And all of the children I live with (as well as the majority of my community) have decided I am officially Kamba now. They all tell me how smart I look every day (which means I look awesome) and they keep touching my hair. I can't say I don't love the attention for something other than my skin color.

Before I take it out I promise to post a picture of it down.

Anywho, the library project is still in the works. We have it posted online now but the total amount we need to raise is not finalized and is likely to increase quite a bit more. But if you'd like to check it out and donate a little something (**cough cough**), we would all greatly appreciate it. Plus, if you could put the word out there to anyone else that you think might want to throw a little dough our way, that would also be greatly appreciated. Kenya Read Me A Story?

Once the camp is over and done with I'm going to try and get some other stuff going at my site. I'm pretty sick of just sitting around but due to situations generally out of my control, that seems to be what I end up doing more often than not. I love the Kamba people but I swear you have to light a fire under each and every one of them before they want to do anything. 

Dear Almighty Creator,

When you were assembling me from various tissues, genes, and other assorted ingredients, did you laugh to yourself as you decided to leave out any sort of grace from my overall makeup? Another question, do you still get a kick out of it today when you see me trip and run into stationary objects on a daily basis? Well, I hope you do. Because today, after busting my THIRD pair of flip flops beyond repair, I walked back home wearing only one shoe. Now, you know that can be risky to do in America but come on, I'm in Kenya and I swear to You, if I get a jigger, you're to blame.

Sincerely,
Laken J. Rippentrop

P.S. Do you think you could send us some rain over here? Things are starting to get a little anxiety-provoking...

...

In other news, everything is continuing on as usual. Still being awoken at early hours by drunks and various livestock...and then again a couple hours later by a small herd of adorable children. In addition, my sinues and eyes have been under attack by various environmental elements for about two weeks now. Having allergies, wearing glasses, being clumsy, getting excited about science and math...yeah, I know I'm a nerd. Judge me.
Sadly, there is discussion of switching my malaria meds because it is thought that the kind I am on may be the reason for my issues with sleeping. This upsets me because I was actually looking forward to the long-term effects of Mephaquin and the stories I would be able to tell people in years to come. Not that living in a Kenyan village for two years won't provide me with enough ammunition to make everyone from the SVHS class of '05 admire my innate ability to be awesome, the thought of being able to discuss the hallucinations I endured as a result of my malaria meds really would have been the icing on the cake. But alas, I suppose this is for the best. Sleep is relatively important and I do miss it something serious so I guess I will just have to suffer through a hallucination-free year and a half.

Oh yeah, speaking of a year and a half, I turned 6 months old today. It still freaks me out that I've been here for that long. I just wish that I had something to show for it. Hopefully I will do something productive soon because this is getting ridiculous.

Anywho, I hope you're all enjoying the snow, ice, and freezing weather (Cassie, you are excluded from this) because I'm currently trying to convince myself to walk the 600 meters to my house but I'm having a hard time with this because I don't want to start sweating. I know, I lead a rough life. Later gators.

Christmas in Kenya

After spending a week and a half on the beach, I returned to my village to find not much had changed. The small children I live with were beyond thrilled when I got home. Lucky and Carol, the two little girls who are pretty much my best friends, had attended their first day of nursery school that morning and they were so excited to tell me all about it. Oh how I missed them.

There were a few things that did change. First, the wire mesh was put up around my house to keep out bats and other small critters. This has caused a significant decrease in the amount of lizard poop I find in my house but it surprisingly blocks a great deal of the air flow so my house doesn't actually cool down until about 11 pm now. But I'm willing to sacrifice an hour outside of my blanket at night if it means bats will no longer be visiting me. Second, one of the dogs on my compound had four puppies. Now, I was planning on getting a kitten after the first of the year but with four puppies readily available, why would I not just take one and call it mine? I check on them everyday to make sure all four are still alive. So far so good. I'm just excited that my mom and sister will not be able to tell me, "No, Laken, we're not naming this dog Atticus." The only other thing that changed was the rain has stopped and people are getting concerned that drought and famine are around the corner. Crossing my fingers and saying more than a few prayers that that doesn't happen.

Oh yeah, the beach. It was glorious. I truly did absolutely nothing for a week and a half besides wake up, eat, take a nap, eat, go to the beach, shower, go out dancing, sleep, repeat. The food was incredible. I had fresh fish, fresh calamari, and at least 3 giant burgers (yes, I ate hamburgers) but Lee Ann and I still found ourselves craving traditional Kenyan food every now and then. Christmas was strange without snow or even cold weather. It was hard to even grasp that it was in fact December 25th. New Years Eve, on the other hand, was not as strange given that there were parties up and down the beach but it was a lot different than last years New Years when I was freezing my butt off in Chicago. Regardless, it was still a lot of fun.

 Sadly, I'm drawing a blank on anymore entertaining stories or witty comments. So I suppose I will leave it at that. But as a side note, the 21st of January marks six months at site meaning I only have a year and a half left in Kenya. Crazy that I've been away from good ole SV for almost a year...