So I finally broke down and created a blog...

Where to begin...

I have now been in Kenya for two and a half months and so much has happened. First off, let me start by saying I am still incredibly happy with my decision to do this and I'm having an incredible experience, meeting great people, eating tons of food, and learning so much about a new culture. The purpose of creating this blog was mainly for people other than my Mom, Dad, Kait, and Michael. I talk to them almost weekly and I know it's a little difficult to recap an hour long telephone conversation when someone asks them, "How is Laken?" "What is she doing over there?" "How in the hell is she even handling it?!" So to the rest of you, this is for you. I hope you enjoy it.

The two months of training went by so fast. I was in Loitokitok, Kenya, right at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro and near the border of Kenya and Tanzania. It was beautiful...besides all the dust. The dirt roads were a constant source of irritation because when they weren't staining everything you owned a lovely shade of reddish-brown (including your skin), the dust was making you cough or rub your eyes over and over. But besides that, Loitokitok quickly became my home away from home. My host family was incredible. My host Mama was young(er) and spoke English quite well. I had a three-year-old sister, Mary, and a four-month-old brother, Freddy. My Mama stayed home and took care of the kids during the day and my host Baba was a carpenter and worked every day of the week but I saw him almost every night for dinner. My Mama made sure I never went hungry. There was always plenty of food and especially fruit for me to eat and when I told her I needed to lay off the avocados because I was struggling to fit into some of my clothes, she responded with, "Well then, I'm doing a good job."  Besides learning about the culture from my host family, I also had a more formal training Monday through Friday (and a lot of the time Saturday as well) during which myself and the thirty-five other trainees had long days of language, cross-culture, and technical training. At the end of these two months, we had a small, verbal language exam in which we were to reach intermediate-low proficiency. Which basically means, you must know how to say your name, your family's names, where you're from, greetings, and a few other random things. As easy as that sounds, it was incredibly anxiety-provoking. Luckily, I was able to pull off a score of intermediate-mid. That day was a good day.

Training came to a close a week later and we had a host-family appreciation day. My Mama and I wore matching outfits. Everyone loved it. My little sister threw a tantrum in front of everyone while I was holding her. The other trainees found it quite entertaining. And then I had to say goodbye to my Mama. It was sad and I started to tear up a bit and I may have let a couple tears fall. My Mama laughed at me and slapped me on the back and told me everything would be ok. The next day, all of us trainees boarded the matatus (basically mini-van taxis) and headed to Nairobi.

While in Nairobi, we continued with more training, of course and then we were sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers at the U.S. Ambassador's residence. The highlight of that experience was not so much being at the Ambassador's house, or the monkey that joined the ceremony, the most memorable part was that there were bowls of Doritos scattered about the lawn on tables and if a bowl went empty, it got refilled. My group of friends and I ate a good 2-3 bowls in about 5 minutes flat. It's pretty rough being deprived of American food. The next day we all shipped out to our respective sites across the country. It was sad saying goodbye to everyone and hopefully you all know me well enough to know I was crying like a baby. It was pretty entertaining for everyone else.

The other Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) that's close to me is a good friend of mine and her name is Andrea. We rode to our sites together along with her supervisor and my counterpart. (A counterpart is basically the person assigned to me in order to help me get acclimated to my community. We are basically each other's shadows. My counterpart's name is Emmanuel.) After arriving at my site, I met my supervisor, Milcah, and I was given my Kamba name (Kamba is one of the many tribes found in Kenya. They are mainly located in Eastern Province, where my site is.) My Kamba name is Mutheu, pronounced Mo-they-u. I was then taken to my house where I got to see that it wasn't quite ready for me. For the first couple days I stayed in an extra bedroom in my counterpart's parents house and then I was finally able to move into my house. Thankfully, they lent me a bed, a couch and a chair to temporarily furnish my house with so I kind of feel like I live here. Someday, hopefully soon, I will no longer be living out of a suitcase.

The community-based organization (CBO) I'm working (volunteering) for is a pretty incredible CBO. They currently are working on environmental conservation within the community by building sand dams in the two rivers that surround my area, creating tree nurseries, greenhouses, and fish ponds. On top of that, they are provide many of the primary and secondary schools in the area with large water tanks and energy-saving JIKOs (a JIKO is a type of charcoal or wood-fueled stove that the majority of Kenyans use to cook every meal). In addition, my CBO also provides hygiene, water sanitation, and HIV/AIDS and STI awareness within the community. The first two weeks at site have been a whirlwind. The CBO has kept me busy almost every single day by going out into the field to meet the different groups associated with the CBO. I walk an average of 4-5 kilometers every day (which is about 3 miles) and next week I will be getting my bike so I'll be able to get places much quicker. The weather here is incredible. It's about 70 degrees every day with absolutely no humidity and I'm in the middle of a mountain range which is mind trip for someone from northern Illinois. This is apparently the coldest time of the year though so all of the people are wearing long sleeves, pants, and the children wear little beanies everyday and they think I'm crazy when I don't bring a pullover with me everywhere. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to explain that I think it's hot outside and I'm not cold but it never makes sense to them.

Over the next four weeks at site, I'm supposed to continue getting to know my community and not really doing much real work. The only thing I absolutely have to do is a Community Needs Assessment (CNA) so I can try to determine what I might be doing for the next two years. After that four weeks, all of us new PCV's head back to Nairobi for almost 2 weeks for some in-service training (IST).

I've tried my best to recap two and a half months as clearly and quickly as possible and hopefully future posts will be a bit more detailed on what exactly I've been up to. Again, I hope you all enjoy and I look forward to hearing what you have to say.   :)