Wow! So this time last week I was in Machakos sitting around
with my host family pondering what site would be like and super excited for the
new adventure. On Wednesday we left Machakos after a fun host family
appreciation luncheon and headed for Nairobi. In Nairobi we were with the
Math/Science group once again and had a fabulous time! We had sessions all day
on Thursday going over stuff that our supervisors and stuff that we needed to
know before we headed out into the real peace corps life. They also gave us a
little bit of free time each evening to go to the mall area…mind blown. We
visited the Westgate Mall, which has sooo many stores it was like America. It
was packed with so many foreigners along with Kenyans and so many things that
we hadn’t seen in 10 weeks! I ate a sub: amazing!, chocolate gelato: expensive
but worth it if I only have it once/twice every year and then at the Nakumatt
(basically their version of Walmart) I saw so much stuff I hadn’t seen in a
long time! Nakumatt is part of the mall and packed with stuff. Now granted we
are now living on Peace Corps stipend which means not very much at all and
since most ‘Americanized’ items available are very expensive, you have to
choose wisely when special trips to Nairobi or other large cities are made. I
invested in some quality face wash, laughing cow cheese and the gelato.
Wednesday when I went with some of the other Deaf Ed volunteers it was very
funny thinking about our experience in retrospect because we walked around for
one hour before we had to head back and the entire time our jaws were dropped
and we were walking sooooooo slowly! We just hadn’t seen anything like it in 2
months and I at least didn’t think I would see something like that for the 27
months I was in Kenya. Eye opening for sure.
Friday was swearing in-such a fun day!!! We drove to the USA Embassy with our
supervisors and had a nice ceremony followed by a picnic sort of
lunch-fantastic! They had arranged for a dance group of about 6 ladies and 2-3
drummers to come and play/dance for us and they were awesome and got everyone
involved at some point. It just felt very surreal to actually be sworn in as an
official Peace Corps Volunteer. I’m no longer a trainee! Say whatttt?! Post
swearing-in we all headed back to AFRALTI, our hotel place and I got my head
shaved as a buzz cut! I’d been thinking about it before leaving saying that I
wanted dreadlocks for a year and then I’d shave them off so I could experience
that and what a shaved head was like all while being away from America. Sadly
there is a negative connotation associated with dreadlocks in my community so I
just went for the shaved head look now. Another girl in the Math/Science group
also wanted to do it and Jocelyn, Deaf Ed, later decided to that evening. I was
kinda nervous beforehand but pretty ready for it and now I love it. It’s sooooo
easy to wash/not mess with in the morning/run with and not have to worry if I
don’t have a hair band! The only thing I’m worried about now is what it’ll look
like when it grows out because I don’t have any sort of barber who has dealt
with ‘mizungu’ hair before. Oh well, I’ll get to that when my hair is long
enough. After my hair was shaved I headed out to the mall with Jocelyn and
Mackenzie because they both wanted ear piercings and I was on the fence it but
went along anyways. I soon found out it wouldn’t cost very much at all and I
was feeling pretty bold at this point since I was a new volunteer with a newly
shaved head, so why not make the trifecta? I now have an ear piercing at the
top of my left ear! Friday was full of highs with the finale just being
everyone hanging out and trying to soak in all the volunteer time they could
before we’d all become separated from one another.
Saturday was a different story. I woke up after not much
sleep pretty early to start saying good byes as everyone left at different
times. My matatu left at about 8 stuffed to the brim with my stuff, Vince’s
stuff, Vince, our 2 supervisors and me. His supervisor called ahead about a
matatu to pick us up at the hotel but didn’t think about all of our stuff and
so there wasn’t enough room for him to come in the same matatu as us. He caught
the next one and met us in Nyahururu 45 minutes after we arrived. After my
stuff was taken from the matatu and put onto a cart that some man pulled for us
to the next matatu stage we boarded the 2nd matatu of the day to
head to Sipili. Vince and his supervisor left us there as they boarded a
different matatu to Marlal. It was during this ride that I started to fully
realize that I was on my own now. I didn’t know of any volunteers sharing my
banking town and I knew there wasn’t another volunteer in Sipili since the
Math/Science volunteer didn’t get replaced. I started to get really nervous
after we got to Sipili and allllll of my stuff was put on the back of a piki
piki (motorcycle) to be driven while we walked to my school compound, my new
home and I saw the tons and tons of people everywhere since it was market day!
Eeeeek!!! Thankfully lunch calmed me down.
I am currently staying in a small house in the compound but
across from the actual house I’ll be living in. It still needs to be painted
and some other stuff is still being worked on as well. The hope is that I can
move in once I get back from my small trip for Christmas. Fingers crossed!
Sunday was a dream come true/an odd day. All of the stores
were closed and we’d gotten to Sipili around maybe 4:30 on Saturday, eaten
lunch and then I just relaxed-didn’t buy anything. I got a nice 30 min run in
and then with the exception of walking around/exploring the town to see if
anything was open, I stayed in my house literally just watching movies on my
laptop and eating the chocolate my parents had sent me that I’d wanted to save
until I got to site. WIN!
These past few days have been good. I’ve gotten a lot of
relaxing in, read a book, watched some movies and am trying to learn my way
around town. I explored my banking town, Nyahururu, a 2 hour matatu ride away,
for the first time today. I was pretty scared because it’s sooo much bigger
than Sipili and I didn’t know if I was ready to go or not. I don’t go to cities
in America very often and after being with 8 other Americans and told not to go
anywhere by ourselves in Machakos I was a little nervous. Hakuna matata, I made
it safely through my journey and got everything I wanted: food, money (the main
reason I had to go since I have to pay for all of my furniture but I didn’t
have any money to order/buy it), a sweeeet mask I’m excited about and paint so
I can spruce up my house with a little color once I’m allowed to move in!!
Overall, things in Sipili are going well. This weekend I’m
traveling with a fellow volunteer, Britni, down to the coast to stay with
Deirdre and 2 other volunteers who live on the coast to celebrate Christmas! It
is going to be a loooooong travel day since the average it takes me to get to
Nairobi is 5-6 hours and then after I meet up with Britni and we take a bus
together that they say averages at least 10 hours…yay? But its totally going to
be worth the time and money because it means I wont be alone on Christmas. It’s
going to be really strange I have a feeling but it’ll be nice to see familiar
faces, watch Christmas movies with other Americans, eat delicious food and
spend time together before the school year starts!
I’m sending all of you lots and lots of love and Merry
Christmas’s!!!!!
Love and kisses,
Zabet
(not sure if I wrote about this in a blog yet but this is my
new nickname here, pronounced ‘Zah-bet’) J
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