Rain, Go Away

It’s the rainy season. There has not been a day it has not rained in I don’t know how long, at least 3 weeks. It’s usually sunny and wicked hot in the mornings, and then it decides to rain in the early afternoon. This means, if we’re out in the field we have to hide in someone’s house until the rain stops, then make our way back through the mud. It also rains about every night and sometimes it rains so hard I can’t sleep because of the noise it makes on my iron sheet roof. It also gets “cold” when it rains. I use quotation marks because my definition of “cold” has changed drastically since moving to Kenya. It probably only gets down to 50 or 60 degrees but in comparison to the heat during the day it is cold. My coworkers make fun of me when I get cold because they say “aren’t you from a place that gets snow? How are you cold?” Honestly, I don’t know what’s happened to me, haha. We’ll see how I handle the weather in July when I come back. Thank goodness I didn’t decide to come back when it was winter there. I’d probably turn into an icicle.

The other day I stepped on what looked like solid ground and found my foot sinking into the mud up to my ankle. I rinsed off my foot with my water, only to do the same thing an hour later. I washed off my foot again only to slip in mud another few hours later. Honestly, I just gave up washing my feet. Some roads become impassable so we have to schedule around it. There are a few groups we go to that we need to wait until 11AM so the roads can have dried, but then we need to be back by 2 or 3 to avoid getting rained on in the afternoon. It’s nice that I’ve been able to collect so much water, but I can’t wait until the rainy season is over. Luckily my area isn’t prone to flooding or landslides, but it has become a big problem in certain parts of the country.

A few weeks ago it was my turn to cook in the office so I decided to make spring rolls/my version of a samosa (the Kenyan version of an empanada). I was heating the oil to fry them and went to move the pot with a towel, but it was still too hot so I dropped it and splashed boiling hot oil on my left arm. It was a pretty bad burn and very painful. I got big blisters but I was able to keep them from popping and so now my arm is pretty much back to normal, thank goodness.

Last weekend we had a friendly match between two of the football teams/youth groups we work with. It was fun to watch and hear them talking to each other and planning their future tournaments/outreaches to sensitize their communities on health issues.

Thursday we went with the donors and my coworkers to Kakamega rainforest. It used to stretch all the way down to the Congo but now there’s only small parts left. We left early in the morning so we’d be able to make it there and back in one day. The forest was so green and we saw butterflies, monkeys, birds, and lots of cool plants. There’s a tree that has leaves like sandpaper and has areas to store water for animals. We saw lots of weird looking mushrooms on the sides of the trees and it reminded me a lot of Ferngully.

We walked for a few hours and ended up climbing up a huge steep hill so we could see the tops of the trees of the rainforest. Coming down, however, was not so much fun. We were all very afraid of slipping and falling because there were lots of loose pebbles on the path down. Erick, one of my coworkers let me hold his hand as we went down (many of you know how clumsy I am) so I wouldn’t fall. One of my coworkers had to take off her shoes because she was completely inadequately dressed for hiking. We were teasing her because she came dressed like she was going to church and we were hiking in a rainforest. We also went into a cave and saw fruit bats on our way down the hill. We stopped in Kisumu on the way back and I got pizza. We were so sweaty, smelly, dirty, and tired. We got home before dark, but I bathed and went to bed even though it was early.

Saturday I went to a pre-wedding/giving of dowry event a few towns away from me. It was for the daughter of another volunteer’s supervisor so he invited some of us volunteers in the area. We got there kind of late so we didn’t see the whole event, but at one point the couple was giving out envelopes to relatives of the bride. Apparently, the envelopes had cash in them (and a good chunk of it) because the groom’s family is expected to reward the relatives and people who raised the bride and get their blessings for taking her away (the woman moves from her home to the man’s home when marrying). They had tons of food and people were really dressed up.

I’ve been here almost a year, it’s crazy to think about. I also have my days where I feel I haven’t accomplished much being here a whole year. But I guess quantifying what I’ve done over the past year is difficult and the other volunteers I’ve talked to are feeling the same way. I am looking forward to a lot of things in the close future too so that usually makes up for the “down” days I have.