I'm in KENYA!

WOOOHOOO!!! Guess who is officially in Kenya?! This girl!! J I met up with a group of 27 other PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) in Philly on Monday afternoon, woke up 2am to drive 2 hours to JFK, only to have to wait in the airport for a long time before our flight left at 11:15am. We arrived after who knows how long (if youre calculating with time differences and flight time its difficult to do) in Kenya on Wednesday afternoon. Some of the Peace Corps Staff met us there and brought us to Nairobi where we are staying until Sunday morning.

Our first day of training was today and we have already learned so much information! It’s crazyness!! We had introductions (sooo many Kenyan names to remember already), a lesson on safety and security, lots of paperwork (yayyy! After a year+ of application paperwork it would’ve been crazy if we didn’t have some), got our first little bit of walk-around money and learned a lot about medical policies here. We even got the beginning of our vaccinations!

The other volunteers are soo great and I think we have a really good group. We are mostly in our twenties although there are a few older people in the group as well and the ladies definitely outnumber the men. We are split into 2 groups with 11 of us doing Deaf Education (like me) and the rest teaching science/math in secondary schools. Starting on Sunday we will travel to our training cities and be split up for the rest of the 10 weeks. It kinds stinks because we are all becoming friends but soon we’ll be split up.

Tomorrow we are going on a small excursion through Nairobi to the Peace Corps Headquarters so that we can become acquainted with it. They are also taking us to a market I believe so we can buy a few items or at least see what the city is like. I’m excited to see what the city is like since all we’ve seen of it so far is driving in traffic from the airport to our hostel.

My first impression of it reminded me a little bit of India and that definitely made me smile sensing a little familiarity with the city even though I’ve never been in Africa at all before. I’m not sure how similar it’ll feel outside of here or even after I’ve been here longer than a day and a half but here and now it does. The buses are colorful and packed, the men are thin and wear business-type clothing, the smell is of dirt roads-flowers-BO-exhaust and food-similar things, and there is chai or coffee every 2ish hours J The British have definitely influenced their fair share of things and the chai is a delicious aspect of that. I also have taken advantage of the fact that here in the hostel they have hot chocolate you can mix in with the hot water they serve for the tea-yum!!

Things are good here though I did wake up this morning surprised at where I was. That never happens to me but today waking up at 7am to loud birds and animals and in KENYA-that was wild.

So I don’t know when I’ll write again but we are very lucky to have wifi here at the hostel in some areas so I thought I’d take advantage of that and tell you all that I made it and am alive and well.

Also, gooooood luck to my Solanco chums, Cooper and Dietrich running the Ragner Relay tomorrow and Saturday-I’m cheering for you all A LOT and hope to hear updates!!!!!! Race hard and be strong!!

Lots of Kenyan Kisses,

Elizabeth