Big news: I got electricity in my house last week. I never realized how much I took electricity for granted until I came here. I’ve been at site 8 months (whoa baby) and after all that it only took one day to put in electricity. They dug a trench for the wires to go underground and ripped apart the walls for the wires and then re-cemented them. I was lucky they could just run a line from the office. It’s a whole new world (like in Aladdin). I can now watch my episodes of Sex & the City WHILE cooking dinner under the delightful glow of my energy-saving light bulb, whereas before I would sit in the dark in the office up until 8pm watching these things. It’s not like the electricity was necessary, I had convinced myself it was calming/romantic to do everything by candle-light and lantern-light. But, I’m loving my light-switching, socket-charging abilities now.
I can’t believe I’ve been in Kenya 10 months! I’ve been thinking about how/if I’ve changed since being here. I think I’ve become more cynical, which makes me kind of sad. But I’ve gained more appreciation for the simple things in life. It has definitely made me realize all the things I took for granted back home.
I’ve learned a lot about agriculture since food security is very important here. For example, did you know pineapple can grow without very much water? I always imagined pineapple growing in tropical/rainy areas, but after they germinate they don’t need much water at all. Sarah, another volunteer who lives close to me, has a shamba (farm/garden) where she grows carrots, spinach, and tomatoes. I’m jealous and wish I had space for a garden. That’s one of the things on my “to do before I die” list: have a garden where the plants don’t die.
I’ve definitely realized why things can take so long to accomplish here, things always come up. I’ve been trying to meet with the bead group for weeks to teach them some new techniques. The first week another meeting came up so we couldn’t go, the second week we went but no one in the group was there because there was a funeral in the community. Then, last week there was what I’ll call a “rain day.” Kenya doesn’t have snow days, but there sure are rain days. It had been raining all night long the night before and was still raining pretty hard in the morning. Only one of my coworkers came to the office because when it rains here, the roads are impassable because of the mud. You can’t walk or drive on them. Since my “commute” to the office is walking 15 feet I had no problem going. So, my coworker and I made tea, did a little work and then I had an Indiana Jones movie marathon by myself in my house.
Work-wise, I’ve been working with my organization on creating a manual on home-based care for our community health workers (CHWs) to use as a reference guide when they are out in the community. We’re putting information on basic hygiene, treating water, malaria, tuberculosis, caring for people living with HIV/AIDS, and a “how to” section on making tippy taps (for hand-washing) and sewing reusable sanitary pads for girls. It’s a lot of work but at least we can make it in English because all our CHWs were trained in English. If we had to translate it to Luo, it’d take forever.
So, who would’ve thought that I’d ever be considered an ICT specialist? My organization has gotten laptops and a printer so I’ve been helping them learn Microsoft office and internet searching. One of my coworkers chairs a loans committee so I showed him how to use Excel to make a spreadsheet that does the math for him. He was so excited he didn’t have to add up everything himself.
So, things are still going well here. As I’ve said many times before, I love my organization/coworkers. The ladies act like mamas and make sure I’m taken care of and are training me to become a mama. My cooking project is still going strong, I made lentil burgers last week with guacamole on top, and they went over very well. I was excited I had leftovers and ate them with my Heinz ketchup packets mom and dad brought me. Another week I made spaghetti and garlic bread and one of my male coworkers put the spaghetti and the sauce on a piece of garlic bread and rolled it up to eat it. He said, “it’s like a burrito!” Leave it to him to create an Italian burrito. I tried it and it was very good I’ll have to introduce it to America.
In a few weeks I’ll be going with my supervisor, another one of my coworkers, and an orphan who my supervisor takes care of to Nairobi for Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World). We’ll be meeting up with other volunteers, counterparts, and girls for a week-long camp to empower the girls and focus on leadership skills, self-esteem, decision-making, women’s health, gender violence, and many other topics. I’m so excited!! I’m sure I’ll be writing about it on my next post.
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