IST

Warning, this will mostly be about food because it was an integral part of being in Nairobi.
I was in Nairobi for the past two weeks at my In-service training (IST). Sunday I traveled with Sarah, the volunteer who lives a few towns away from me to Nairobi. We took a matatu called Premium Shuttle where the seats are bigger and more comfortable and they don’t squish people in or stop on the way. We were really excited at how nice it was and how good their service was. Then, about ½ hour into the ride some sort of liquid splashed onto Sarah and me from outside the window. Then, we realized it smelled gross. Then, we saw the woman sitting in front of us was vomiting out her window and the vomit was coming in our window. Tabia mbaya (bad manners). Luckily it was just a little so we put hand sanitizer all over our arms.

That night I got a bacon guacamole cheeseburger and an iced mocha. AMAZING. It was great to see all the volunteers I haven’t seen in three months. We went out to dinner a bunch of nights. Over the course of the two weeks I got a turkey club sandwich (finally, maybe I’ll stop dreaming about them now), pizza, pad thai (which turned out to not taste like pad thai and it was too spicy for me but it was still good), quesadilla (again, wasn’t too authentic, but good), pesto pasta, a tuna melt sandwich, and SALAD. Yeah, salad. Raw veggies usually shouldn’t be trusted but there are some nice places in Nairobi that make some amazing salads.

Our training was good, we learned some cool games we can play with kids to teach them about stigma and behaviour change regarding HIV/AIDS. The best part was all the informational materials we’ll be getting. PEPFAR has lots of materials we can use, including soccer balls with health messages written in a local language on them! We also found out good places to write proposals to for money for projects.

I was able to sell lots of the bags and jewelry from my women’s groups to other volunteers and to Peace Corps staff too, so that’s exciting. We didn’t have a ton of free time, but I was able to go out one night with some other volunteers. Unfortunately EVERYONE got sick while we were there. There was some sort of flu/bacterial/intestinal sickness going around. I have to say, though, it was so much better being sick in Nairobi than back at site because we all had flush toilets, showers, and medical staff who are awesome. After three days of antibiotics I was back to normal.

My friend Rachel and I had been commenting on how long our hair has gotten (we’ve been in Kenya almost 6 months!) so we decided to cut each others. It was ridiculously scary, which is why people suggested drinking before doing it (which we did not do). We figured since we both have curly hair, even if we make mistakes you won’t really be able to tell because our hair will just curl up anyways. Rachel cut my hair first and did a great job. I was really nervous to do hers, she kept assuring me it would be fine because she wears head scarves at site (she’s in a Muslim area). I ended up cutting it shorter than she wanted but it looked good so she didn’t seem too upset.

We had one of the afternoons free so I went with a Kenyan friend of mine around Nairobi. We went to Kikomba, one of the largest markets in East Africa, although we just went to the belt section because he needed a belt. We also went to an area where they sell sterling silver, I was excited to see clasps and jewelry pieces which maybe I’ll try and get the bead group to use.

We were done with training on Thursday and most people left on Friday. I stayed because I needed to buy beading supplies for the bead group. I was really excited I was able to find everything I needed and more. I got pliers so I’ll be able to teach them to do wire working and improving their earring designs. I also tried Ethiopian food for the first time, it was tasty and affordable.

I’m back in Oyugis now and very happy to be back and cooking for myself. It was really nice coming back yesterday and everyone being excited to see me back and people saying they missed me. I’m also excited, we’re having Thanksgiving dinner with my organization and I think some other volunteers might come too. We’ll see how this cooking a turkey (which we’ll have to slaughter) without an oven works out…