PB & J, buttered noodles, and Ramen

First things first, I sadly had to change the background of my blog because I unknowingly copied my friend Porter's blog, to a tee, so since he made his first, I opted to change mine. Also, the photos in this post are simply there because I promised photos. They have no relation to the written content of the post.

In comparison with the last two weeks, this one was incredibly productive. Needless to say, accomplishing something has left me quite pleased with myself and gives me hope that I will actually be able to accomplish something in my two years here. Unfortunately, I can only assume that this coming week will be a bit of a let down and I will hit another road block. But in the famous words of Chumbawamba, "I get knocked down, but I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down." ... oh nostalgia. You know I've been practically alone in Kenya for over a month when I begin quoting songs from fifth grade.

If you read the post about the greenhouse, then this photo speaks for itself.

Now when I say this week was productive, I mean Tuesday and Thursday of this week were productive. I honestly cannot remember what I did on Monday so clearly, it's irrelevant. Wednesday my counterpart and half his family (also half my compound) when to a funeral for the entire day. I didn't have enough water to wash my clothes. My phone was dead and my laptop was trailing close behind and there was no electricity until 8pm so I twiddled my thumbs for a good portion of the day. Mixed in with a little sudoku and some light reading. And Friday was recently declared a national holiday because it was the promulgation day for the new constitution. So everyone was either glued to the TV or radio for approximately 5 hours out of the day.

So now for the "productive" part of my week. I do remember that on Monday I sat down with my supervisor and showed her exactly what I needed to accomplish in these next three weeks before IST and that seemed to help move things along because she picked up her phone, called my counterpart and said I needed to go meet the chief and the District Officer (DO) this week. My counterpart claimed he was unable to take me but he volunteered one of the village elders, who can't speak a word of English, to be my escort. That evening I discussed with my counterpart how Tuesday was going to work and he informed me that he had forgotten to call the woman who was supposed to take me so he would just call her in the morning. Surprise, surprise. So the next morning, I again asked if he had gotten ahold of this woman and he proceeded to tell me her phone was off and he couldn't get through to her. Fantastic. At this point, it can be assumed I was a bit irritated so I simply asked if he would be able to take me later in the week since he had things to do today. He danced around the topic for about five minutes by rambling about absolutely nothing. Finally, I just said I'm going to my house. You can find me there if you figure something out. Twenty minutes later he showed up in different clothes and said, "Let's go." Glorious. I didn't even know I was quilt-tripping him but somehow I did.

Checking out a tree nursery with people from Nairobi and our donor.

We arrived at the chief and DO's office, breifly met with them, then walked next door to the hospital, met with the Public Health Officer (PHO), then walked back past the chief's office and met the commanding officer at the police station, and then strolled down to Tawa Market to stop by the post office and get some lunch. We did all of this in about two and a half hours but I still felt quilty about pulling my counterpart away from whatever it was he had planned for the day, so I bought him lunch. But wait, he was the one who was guilt-tripped into taking me so why did I feel guilty, you ask? Oh because he made me pay for his bus ride there and back so then I felt as though I was really inconveniencing him by having him escort me. Basically, it works both ways. Good to know. While Tuesday was more of a meet and greet, I did get everyones phone numbers and my DO told me to give him a call anytime I needed to get any information, so on Thursday, I did just that. Now my counterpart and supervisor tend to keep me on a pretty short leash and don't like me going places by myself unless it's to Machakos for the day but I told my counterpart I was going to the DO's office and he said, "Ok, see you this evening." So I made my way there, listened to my DO ramble about nonsense for quite some time, sat through a meeting with him and the people from the town social hall, listened to him ramble some more but this time the topics were a bit more interesting, then he took me to lunch, then when we got back I explained to him what I needed and 10 minutes later I was holding the population statistics for the area in my hand. Success! Please cherish this moment as I did because it was the highlight of my week. Actual cold, hard, data, in my hands. It was a glorious feeling. Then I listened to my DO ramble some more and then began my journey back home. As a side note, in the ramblings of my DO, he used the phrase, "They don't just give them away to any Tom, Dick, or Harry" and also reminded me I am in the same country and the Tsavo Maneaters and actually about a two to three hour drive from the Tsavo National Park where these "maneaters" reside. Ultimately, my DO is a pretty cool guy, he just likes to talk a lot which gives me a break because we all know how much I like talking.

From and outsiders POV, I realize you may be wondering how I could call this week successful just because I got population statistics and met a few "big-wigs" in the community. Well all I can tell you is to go back and read over my previous posts and it should all make sense.

My new best friend and biggest enemy.

In other news, I finally got a 100 liter water tank for my house to store water for washing clothes, bathing, and most other activities involving water and last weekend when I was in Machakos I finally purchased a 24 liter container that filters my drinking water so I no longer have to use the PUR packets Peace Corps provided us with. The last two days I've spent basically staring at both of the containers because I don't know what to do with this much water but today I washed all my clothes without having to make any trips to refill my water "can" as I previously did and let me tell you, that was a good feeling. Also, I would like to add that it's incredibly beneficial to my health that I was two weeks out of college before I moved to Kenya because since I moved to site, I have been living off of cereal, peanut butter, and noodles. Recently I acquired some honey so I have been able to switch up the usual PB&J for a PB&H which is a nice change of pace. For dinner I often eat spaghetti coated in butter and garlic which raises my cholesterol and keeps people from invading my personal space due to the stench of garlic seeping out of my pores. But the best part about my Kenyan dinners is the "Ramen" noodles that are here. They are all either from the middle east or Vietnam and they put the Ramen noodles in the U.S. to shame. Last night I dined on some chicken curry flavored noodles. My taste buds were practically dancing they were so pleased. If I ever actually get a kitchen, or what I would call a kitchen here, I think I will react how I did with the water tanks. Just stare for a couple days and then actually start cooking but I will most likely still eat the Ramen noodles a couple times a week.