As promised, a bit more detail.

I realized that in my first blog post I recapped the last two and a half months here but I didn't really say what I have been doing on a day-to-day basis or too much about my site which is where I will be living for the next two years. Sorry if I repeat things...my memory is failing me in my old age.


So, let's start with my site...

I know I already mentioned that I'm located in the midst of a bit of a mountain range but I feel the need to emphasize this fact. It's incredibly beautiful to see the green, tree-covered hills in every direction whenever I step outside but again and at the same time it's a complete and total mind trip being that I am from northern Illinois where everything is flat and covered in corn and soybeans. I don't know if it will ever get old and I'm positive I will have at least 100 pictures of the same mountain from different directions and distances before my time here comes to an end.

The infamous hill that I already have 20 pictures of.

My town is a quaint little place that consists of a little over twenty small shops (in the local language they are called dukas), bars, butchers, hotels, my CBO, salons/barbershops, and a welder. I think my CBO is the only actual business located in my town which makes it pretty easy when the locals ask me where I am working because they have all heard of it. Unfortunately, my town does not have a weekly market but there are two towns located about seven kilometers (4.3 miles) in opposite directions from mine that do. I haven't gotten a chance to visit them yet because my CBO has been keeping me very busy but soon enough I'm sure it will be a weekly trip for me. The markets are where I will be able to get almost anything I need from fresh fruits and vegetables, various household items, and secondhand clothing. The fun (and sometimes not-so-fun) part about the markets is absolutely nothing has a set price. The not-so-fun part is they see a white person and they double the price so I have to go with a prior knowledge of about how much things should cost (which I get from my counterpart or supervisor) and then the fun part is bartering with the people.

My house is much larger than I expected it to be. I have a spare bedroom and I can't wait to have visitors! But furnishing the house is going to be quite the process. All of my furniture will have to be ordered and made by the local carpenter but with time, it will feel like home. Again, for the time being, my counterpart lent me a bed so don't worry, I'm not sleeping on the floor. I don't have electricity but one of the houses on the compound I'm on does so I am trying to talk my counterpart into getting it put in my house. If anything, I just want one outlet in order to charge my phone, laptop, camera, etc. I can do without the overhead lights since I'm normally in bed around 9 pm every night anyway. Plus, using a lantern is actually kind of fun...for now, at least. What makes for interesting nights is that the top of the wall isn't flush to the ceiling/roof. There is about a six inch gap between the two which on the plus side, allows for a lovely breeze every night but on the other hand, it also allows small visitors such as reptiles and not so small spiders to come and go as they please. It also doesn't provide much of a sound barrier from the things that go bump in the night which, in turn, made my first few nights alone in my house quite laden with anxiety. It rained for the first time Saturday night and thankfully, everything in my house stayed dry and it was actually pretty incredible to wake up to the sound and smell of the rain.

One of those not-so-small spiders.

I can't believe I failed to mention the children in my first post. Oh the children. Since the day I arrived in Kenya I have been a pretty obvious distraction for all of the kids around me. The younger they are, the more entertaining it is to interact with them because they are less likely to have ever seen a white person. Their reactions range from extreme joy and excitement to absolute terror. And the majority of them know one (and only one) English phrase which is "HOW ARE YOU?" Or even better, "HOW ARE YOU, MZUNGU?" (Mzungu literally translates to westerner but is loosely applied to anyone with lighter skin than the average Kenyan). This is cute for the first couple times you hear it but then you quickly realize that when you say, "I'm fine, how are you?" back to them, they have absolutely no idea how to respond and either say absolutely nothing and stare at you blankly or once you give up and walk away they say "HOW ARE YOU?" over and over again until they can't see you anymore. Fortunately (but sometimes unfortunately) children learn English in school so the older the child, the more likely they are to be able to communicate with you but that doesn't mean they will have nice things to say. Now that I'm out of training and there aren't 35 other Americans to distract the children, I'm more likely to be the first white person some of the really young children have ever seen and this is entertaining to them. They follow me in packs and if they fall behind a few feet they quickly speed up in order to catch up to me. Sometimes they say things to me and other times they just giggle amongst themselves. From my perspective, it's either adorable or incredibly annoying, depending on the day of the week. But it's my life. The children that live on my compound frequently circle my house and yell my name repeatedly and more often than not they will pause to peer in my windows to see what I'm doing. Luckily, the ones on my compound are adorable and pretty easy to put up with. Hopefully that lasts longer than I expect it to.

Two of the children who do laps around my house.

There is one other downfall to not having electricity or running water and that is washing clothes is a bit of a task. Especially pants (or trousers in Kenya, pants are underwear), jeans, sweatshirts, and worst of all, bed sheets. Luckily, my Mama and our house lady during training were excellent teachers (even though the concept of hand washing clothes isn't rocket science) and I've been steadily increasing my speed and ability over the past two months. Not having running water means that my daily (yes, daily) showers consist of me heating water and them pouring it in a basin and splashing myself with water, soaping up, and then repeating the splashing to rinse. It's actually pretty refreshing. Oh and my toilet, well, it's a pit latrine. Very similar to what we all use when we go to a camp site, minus the seat. It's literally a hole that you squat over and pray that you have good aim that day. Luckily, my many camping trips/house parties with incredibly disgusting bathrooms turned out to be incredible training for this part of the my day-to-day life.

A I previously mentioned, I haven't been doing much real work (Peace Corps orders). But my CBO has eight different groups that are affiliated with it and for the last two weeks I have been trekking to these groups bright and early, but not before I've had at least two cups of tea (six last Friday!). At each group I introduce myself and tell them why I'm here in Kikamba and all of the mamas laugh and laugh. Once the initial entertainment subsides, they tell me about their group. When they started, how many members there are, and what they do. All of the groups have their own tree nursery which is the site at which they meet on a weekly basis. They are all located near one of the two rivers that my town is located between and they all take trips to fetch water to "feed" the seedlings. Then they organize and sweep the nursery because all the groups are in direct competition with each other to have the cleanest work area. All of them eventually sell the seedlings to schools, churches, or environmentally-focused organizations within Kenya and this works as an income generating activity (IGA) for the group. Many of the groups also give a portion of their profit to orphans within the community and they all help to build sand dams for the CBO. They all seem pretty organized and business oriented so I'm just hoping I can actually serve a purpose here and teach them something over the next two years.

One of the tree nurseries.