Lost in the Dust....an incredible experience.

Yesterday I accomplished something that I didn’t know was possible a month ago or at least I didn’t think I’d be able to do for quite some time here…I ran a race in Kenya and it was quite the experience J

I had seen the advertisements for the race just a few days after being in Machokos but I didn’t get my hopes up because I didn’t know if I’d have the time or be allowed to run here at all. A few weeks later I found out from my Mama that I could run in the mornings but I wasn’t allowed out of the house until 5:50 which meant my training consisted of maybe 3 miles 3-4 times/week with a 4 miler thrown in there on occasional Sundays for a total of 3 weeks prior to the race. I didn’t care though because at least I was running! The day after I started running I asked the people at the booth how much, where and when the race was. I like how race signing up works because they set up booths outside of the supermarket that was sponsoring the race and then from Friday-Monday each week they’d be ready to sign people up. They were there for multiple weeks leading up the race and then the entire week before the race. The cause was educating HIV/AIDS orphans and the cost was 850 shillings. Not too shabby.

Yesterday was race day and I left my house at 5:45 (since I have morning curfew as well as an evening one) and headed out. I had finally coaxed the answer out of the booth people as to when the race started (they kept telling me it was early in the morning. What does that mean? I didn’t want to miss the race and they told me I wouldn’t –I should just get there early). The final answer I got was 7am and that it was at the Golf Club (which also took some coaxing). I headed out with Jocelyn, one of my PC volunteer neighbors and we arrived there around 6:20. There was maybe 30 other people there and they all looked sooooo legit. Suffice to say, I thought I was not only going to come in last, but I was going to be last by maybe 10 minutes! Jocelyn and I were joking around and she was taking pictures of my competition when a man came up and started chatting with us. He was super nice and asked where we were from and he told us where he was from and then got a little into his training that he does. He’s from Turkana (wayyyy up north) but trains in Rift Valley. He is working on his half marathon right now but next year he plans on starting up with full marathons. He’s been running is whole life (he’s mid-late twenties I’d guess) but seriously began training in 2006. The place in Rift Valley where he trains he said is full of foreigners training and that it is the perfect place for it. They do tempo, fartleks, hills, long distance and it’s at elevation. I felt cool knowing the lingo haha. So we’re just chatting along and I know he must be decent because of what he’s said already when Joceyln asks him where he got his shoes. We were curious because we wanted to know where we would be able to get them. He looks down and says ‘Oh, these are my racing shoes, my friend won Boston and gave them to me”. Well dang. He then follows this up by asking my 10k time (he was running the 21k but had been running 10k’s before starting with 21ks). He says, ya know, a good time for a lady is 33, 34, 35ish…yeah my time isn’t quite there haha.  My best time-when I was highly in shape and training more than the 15 miles/week was 43 something! He was supportive and happy I was running and told me I should try and beat 50 minutes today. I found out his 10k PR is a solid 28:18, nothing big with a 1:04 half marathon time…find a super fast Kenyan runner: check!

He ran off then, never did catch his name though he told us it was on the internet seeing as he’e been in the top 10 in races in Tanzania, Mombasa, Nairobi.

So it’s nearing 7am by this point and I still don’t have a chest number because the officials aren’t anywhere to be seen. They pull in around 6:50 and have the table set up by 7. I make it to the line but forgot my registration receipt because in America, you don’t need it. Well I had a new destination for my warm up and I just crossed my fingers I’d get back in time. I ran 10-15 minutes to town, grabbed an autorickshaw (they only go on one road in Machakos so I couldn’t get one the whole way) and had my Mama meet me on the road by our house with my receipt where I got it and rode/ran back. 30 minutes later I was in the line and very thankful for Kenyan time! The race started around 7:50 and it was crazy!! I was doing the 10k which was the first race and there was maybe 35 women with maybe triple the men. They gave the directions all in Kiswahili and then the gun went off. They sprinted dead out. I was lost in the dust. Honestly, it was nuts. So there I am singing to myself and just amazed that I’m in Kenya running a race when I realized I wasn’t last and I was getting to see a lot of Machakos that I’d never seen before. It was almost an out and back course with a small loop near the end; one water stop and when we passed the mark to turn around you dipped your finger in paint so that you couldn’t cheat by turning around early. A nice course minus the fact that the was lots of pollution from the vehicles driving by.

Overall, I ended up finishing 22^nd out of 35 women and beating a few men-some of them were even running-not just walking! Yahooo! Jocelyn, Carla and Jay came to watch and cheer me and it was great! I also got a lot of ‘Ayyy Mizungu’ (Mizungu being foreigner) while running since it was totally on the highway and plenty of people were out walking to church. I think that because I went in there knowing that I wasn’t going to PR or win, I could just take in the scenery and people; it was really neat! However, the competitor in me after running XC for 8 years can’t wait to actually train while I’m at site so I’m more prepared and confident.

Also, just throwing it out there but as more motivation for people to come visit me…if you do, then maybe we can run a race together! ;) Hahaha think about it! 

Sipili Shadowing...I know my site!!

Hello friends! I have very exciting news!!!! We were recently told where our sites will be for the next 2 years AND I was lucky and got to see my site during our volunteer shadowing last week!! I will be at Sipili School for the Deaf J

Last Sunday to Thursday we all shadowed various volunteers who are currently doing Deaf Education or Secondary Math/Science depending on what we’re here to do. It was so educational, interesting and helpful!

Sunday I traveled and it was a long day-I left my house at 8 am and arrived at Jenny’s house at 7:30 pm! I started my journey by riding on my first Kenyan bus. The buses and matatus (14-16 passenger vans) are main sources of transportation here but can be tough sometimes because you have to wait for them to fill up before they’ll leave. Therefore, it can take you much longer to travel because you have an infinite amount of waiting time to add in wherever you want to go. My experience also included someone standing in the front of the bus preaching in Kiswahili the whole 30 minutes because they figure they have a whole group of people who can’t go anywhere and have to listen to you. That’s one to do it.

I also traveled on 2 matatus and while on the one going from Nairobi to Nyahururu I saw my first herd of zebras in the wild!!! It was soooo coool! Sadly, I didn’t get to snap any photos because I was in the middle of the back row and first off, I didn’t want to just whip my camera out but also, no one else was fazed by the sight of them. Oh well, it was exciting!!

So my town of Sipili is 56 km (2 hour matatu ride) from the city where I have to go for my banking (Nyahururu) with the last 8 km (from my post office in Kinamba to Sipili) being pretty much off the road. The trip to my post office can take anywhere from 35 min to an hour even though it is only 8km…looks like I might be running there occasionally since I’d probably get there faster J

Jenny, the volunteer who I will be replacing and shadowed all week, and Jessica, the Secondary Math/Science volunteer who is done in December as well, met us (myself, Vince and Madeline-2 math/science trainees) in Nyahururu and took us to Sipili. On Monday I got to go to the school where I will be teaching next year! It is a boarding school with 75 students enrolled currently and 7 teachers I believe. There are 2 teachers for the little ones (K-3^rd grade) and then 5 teachers for the 4^th-8^th graders. They teach KSL, English, Math, Science, CRE (Christian Religious Ed.), P.E. and Social Studies, which they split among all the teachers. Each class is 40 minutes with a little more than an hour for lunch and a break in the morning.

The students are so funny, bright and happy! I know I still have a lot of KSL to learn but communicating with them just a little bit was great! Every time I didn’t know a word they would fingerspell, point to things, get a dictionary out, ask an older student or make wild gestures trying to get their point across while being extremely patient with me the whole time!

After classes were over I had one of the coolest experiences ever! Jenny had started a running club at their school and so now three times a week they all go out and run this loop. The loop is 3km long. Monday we ran it twice and Tuesday once. All the kids got changed and were laughing and loving my outfit. I wear these crazy striped capri pants underneath purple or green soccer shorts with a t-shirt on top and if it’s raining, my BRIGHT pink/yellow/blue rain jacket. Now, I have to wear the spandex because my shorts are too short (even though they basically go to my knee-don’t wanna be too risqué and the jacket (in case I get pneumonia or malaria or some other disease that is contagious? If caught running in the rain w/o it). The kids loved it. We did maybe 3 minutes of stretching and then probably 20-30 students with Jenny and me all took off together. It was FANTASTIC!!! The kids were just smiling and having a good time-I had runners high for sure-and not even just because we were at a higher elevation ;)

The other interesting part was that the Peace Corps had told us beforehand that we should cover any tattoo we had before the community got acclimated to us in case they didn’t like it. I asked Jenny if I should before school and she said the kids would enjoy it and the staff wouldn’t even notice it. She was absolutely right! The kids ate it up and I was glad because running + love are 2 signs I know well J They were so excited to run with me after seeing it! The best was on Wednesday though when we were about to leave and one of the Standard (grade) 6 boys, Patrick, came up to me and showed me his leg. He had drawn on a runner tattoo on his leg like mine!!! He had a huge smile and just stood there with his leg next to mine. I feel so lucky that I’m with these kids for the next 2 years and I plan on getting plenty of kilometers in with them before I leave.

Our last day of shadowing we celebrated Halloween by carving a pumpkin! We all drew one aspect of the face on it and then Madeline and I carved it with a leatherman; I only cut myself once! We also made guacamole (which with fresh-off-the-tree avocados is delicious!! And I’m pretty sure will become a staple food while I’m at site) with fried eggs & onions and then we put it all on a chapatti=yum! The cherry on top of our dinner was mac and cheese. Cheese is really only available if you buy it processed and even that can be really tricky to find apparently. We were able to have this rare and scrumptious delicacy because Jenny found it in one of the larger cities grocery stores and had saved it until now. Score!

My trip ended on a high note when I got to see more zebras and gazelles for the first time! Still no pictures were captured but I’m sure in the next 2 years I’ll be able to take some, no worries J It was a great experience overall and it has made me super excited to go and teach these kids! I’m still uber-nervous as well but after seeing the kids and my town, I’m more thrilled than scared, yay!

I hope everyone is having a great beginning of November-there was a meteor shower last night (Monday) so maybe you can catch the ending of it tonight. Also, don’t forget that Kenya doesn’t do daylight savings time so we are now at 8 hours difference. 

Love to all and don’t forget to send me updates of your lives since none of you have blog updates I can check out…

Lots of Kisses from Kenya,

Elizabeth

p.s. I’ll update my address next week and that’ll be the one to send things to from then on out! 

Church, Milkshakes, Life Skills and Exercising :)

Well I don’t know where to start because I feel like I’ve seen and learned so much this week but I’ll try to hit the highlights.

Let’s see, sessions have been really good. This week we had a lot of KSL (Kenyan Sign Language) as well classes about lesson plans and schemes of work. There was also some on coping skills and learning about the Deaf culture. Interesting stuff!

And speaking of interesting, I went to church for the first time here with my Host Mama! It was pretty great-an experience for sure. Parts of it were longer than I was expecting but overall good. It was 2.5 hours but thankfully she took me to the English service. Most churches here have one service in English and then another in Kiswahili and sometimes one in Mother Tongue. It was a protestant church called African Inland Church and there was a full congregation! The singing was uplifting, loud and powerful! The preacher was similar with a real passion for the Lord and just a love of his church and everything around him!

The only weird part came at the end. The preacher kept talking about a visitor that was coming, this professor, who was running late (Kenyan time for sure) and showed up near the end of the service. So after the benediction the preacher introduced him, his wife and the 5-6 other people that came with them. I think his wife had gone to university in Machakos and they loved the place. They talked about how they weren’t asking for money but that they had come because they wanted to greet everyone and see how they worshipped. Well that was fine until he subtly put in there that he was a presidential candidate! Say whattttt?! I’m pretty sure everyone else in church already knew that he was but it took me by surprise. The kicker was when he asked if everyone believed in their prayers being answered by God, naturally everyone raised their hands with a yes. Then he said that they should ask God about whom to vote for and said that if they ask, he is sure that God will say him! Talk about culture shock for me. After church I asked my Mama about him coming and she said that politics aren’t allowed in the church but because that wasn’t his main reason (his main reason being that he loved God and wanted to experience the fellowship of the church) it was all ok! Oy, I have so much to learn.

On another note, I tried a milkshake here for the first time...but it was a bust-sadly but not surprisingly. They didn’t have chocolate and so I opted for the strawberry. I ended up getting cold strawberry milk….though I’m not positive it was all actually milk. No ice cream or even ice was involved in the making of the so-called-shake and it reminded me of those cheap wafer cookies haha oh well. Whoever finds a way to send milkshakes to Africa-hit me up, I’ll be a test rat for your invention ;)

This past weekend I learned & worked on some solid life skills, which I feel, is always a good thing…especially since we are working on being able to live alone in Kenya. So I hand washed my own clothes successfully; purified my own water; learned how to tie a tie and watched how to make: ugali, masala chai, sukuma (kale dish) and a chicken dish. The chicken was from our front yard and I saw everything except for when Kelly (the house help who lets me watch everything she does and then explains it to me) killed it. She called me outside and there is a chicken with no head in a bucket. For the first time, (which was odd since I come from a farm that sells poultry pre-plucked) I saw a chicken be plucked then broken up into pieces and then put in a stew. I don’t know at what point in my service here that I’ll be able to kill-pluck-eat a chicken for dinner but we shall see, maybe by the time I come back I’ll be so pro at it, I can set up a butcher shop at home and help out in a different way with the family business? ;)

Sunday was a great but full day! I was able to RUN for the first time IN KENYA!!! I got a solid 40 minutes in at 6 a.m. J I had been worried about if I’d be allowed/it would be safe and then this weekend I got the a-ok! I’m glad I waited for 2 weeks of being in Machakos, a total of 21 days since I’ve been with the Peace Corps before embarking on a run because I felt safer knowing my way around. My body felt out of shape and I was definitely dehydrated but it was just so good to be running…and doing it in Kenya!!

Lastly, on Sunday I went on a crazy hike to the top of this giant hill/almost mountain with Jocelyn and Carla. It started off with a bang when we saw a shiny green old VW bug (my 2^nd since being here) and only got better! We weren’t really told which path to take but we knew we wanted to go up. So we started and going up we took a shorter path but it was steep. We met this guy who was walking up the path with a little girl on his back…the people who live up the mountain impress me so much with their strength! He told us that if we went over this little mound and took a short detour we could see some tribal dancing. The next part was surreal!!! I felt like I was in the National Geographic for Kenya. We were in this dome hut thing and they were having lessons for either drum or dance and gave us a show! Three elderly women, Joseph, a man in his 40s who was the teacher and a bunch of super cute kids got dressed in some of their garb, got their drums going and danced a traditional dance for us! Then when they were getting in the groove, they pulled me up to dance with them! Carla joined in the fun and Joselyn sadly didn’t get to because she was too busy videoing it all. It was crazy awesome and they got to see how much I can’t dance J We stayed there for maybe 20-30 minutes and then kept going on our way. From there we got a tour guide, a girl in 8^th grade who offered to show us the way to the top! It was quite the hike, especially after my first run in 3 weeks, but so incredible. The view was fantastic and I felt like I could see forever at the top!! I could basically see all of you in the States ;) Incredible!!

Overall, this week has been really good and I’m excited for what’s next! Please keep me updated on what’s happening with you all from back home! I want to be in the know… even if I’m the last to know ;)

Many many kisses from Kenya,

Elizabeth

p.s. Here is some Kiswahili for you!!

Lala poa! [La-la poe-ah]

(sleep well!)

Home Pictures :)

 Chickens in our backyard :)

 My brother, he's soo cute :)

My bedroom: always tuck in your mosquito net-not only to keep out mosquitos but ANY sort of creature! Once that was said...done. Nothing else needs to be said.

She's my sister! She lives with her Grandma (my mama) so she can go to a better school-she knows English and helped me with learn how to clean my room this past weekend

This is the avocado tree that my host family has in their backyard. So legit.

My home :)

Week One of Official Training: Check!

Habari ya asubuhi? (How is your (singular) morning? Ha-bar-ee/yah/ah-sue-boo-hi) I hope awesome! Things here are going well and the level of intensity is rising already. We found out last Friday when our language final is, our HIV/AIDS workshop, shadowing another volunteer and also when we have to do ‘model school’. That’s teaching at a deaf primary school for an entire week. After actually putting everything down on my calendar it became a bit overwhelming because there I just so much I have to learn and do in the next 9 weeks! This week we start extreme KSL language instruction-2-4 hours daily and then teaching instruction during our afternoons where we’ll learn how to make lesson plans and whatnot. The trainers here are all excellent and I know I’m in good hands…and they keep telling us not to worry; that they will prepare us the best that they can so we’re capable of teaching Deaf kids at the primary level (K-8) but worrying still most definitely happens!

Luckily, as overwhelming as it can be, emotions are a finicky thing and I soon find myself super excited to have this opportunity. I can’t wait to learn KSL and know more than a few words. I’m hoping my forgetful memory will kick in and start forgetting my limited ASL knowledge so I don’t mix the two languages up. I’m also excited/nervous to start learning how to actually teach. Ohhh my!

Ok, so, here’s an interesting tidbit I heard from my Host Mama:  She said that people from Tanzania are, (as a big generalization) seen as lazy by Kenyans and that Tanzanian people think that Kenyans rush around all the time and hurry everywhere!! Who knew that to some people, Kenyans ‘rush’! Hahaha Everything is relative J

Lastly, yesterday, we talked with the man in charge of placing us and we will officially know where we will be stationed by the end of next week! Whoa!! I have no idea where I will end up-it could be a town like Machakos or it could be as remote a town that they have to literally fly you there because the roads aren’t safe! I don’t have any big preferences on where I want to end up but I did try to mention that I’d love to be able to run if possible so we’ll see if that happens. I still need to figure out if I can run here/who will run with me…especially because there is a race in November I’d love to participate in if possible! Basically by the end of our chat, the verdict was that I’m pretty flexible and easy-going and I feel confident that he’ll place me in a place that he thinks is right for me.

Well, that’s my update as of now J And if there is something you’re curious about, just comment and I’ll try and answer in either another blog post or in the comment section but now I gotta roll because the kids want to plait my hair while they watch cartoons…works for me! J

p.s. Here are some pictures of my home for the next 9 weeks! I love it!

Week One in Machakos

Sasa? Poa au fiti? I hope so J Sasa (saa-saa) is slang for how is it going, or “Wazzzup?” As Jos, our awesome Kiswahili trainer put it. Fiti (fee-tee) and poa (poe-ah) are the slang answers for good! Now you, like me, can be cool in Kenya ;)

Speaking of cool, I think it’s possible that my fashion is even looked at with suspicion across the globe. Hard to believe, I know. On Monday evening, after being with my host family for more than 24 hours, I had come home with them on Sunday afternoon and then saw them before I left for sessions on Monday morning as well as all Monday evening. Nothing said about my outfit. Then right before bed my Mama asked me if I knew that there was a mirror in my wardrobe J Hahahaha yep, always looking good. This morning in fact, she had to chase me down as I was leaving the gate because I had walked out in my shower slippers and had forgotten to change and ohhh, that would have been so so bad she said! (Slippers are plastic Old Navy-esque flip-flops that you wear whenever you are in your house-during your bath/shower and then the rest of the time too. I learned that the reason is so that you don’t track dust/mud (depending on the season) into the house after work or school and you wear them all morning because the floor is too cold otherwise.)

My host family, whom I will be with until I swear in come late December, is wonderful!! Edith is my Mama and she lives with her mom who is 80!! That alone is incredible considering they told us the average life expectancy is 45-55. She mostly just sits in the dining room watching everything happen and smiles basically the whole day. I have yet to see her not smiling. She has some sort of dementia and gets confused often but only speaks Kiswahili, which I have yet to master, and therefore I have only been able to greet her and smile back at her. Edith also lives with her middle daughter and her son who is only 4. He is soo cute but also only speaks Kiswahili so I’m hoping he’ll help me learn more. Her daughter is in Uganda now until Friday so I haven’t met her yet but I am excited to! She also has another grandchild who sometimes lives with her and she is only 11 but soo nice! She speaks excellent English and has helped correct all of my Kiswahili homework so far.

The food is great here because it reminds me of India and home J Ugali is Kenya’s staple food and is a thick, pretty tasteless porridge-y type of thing. I have only had it once so far so I can’t describe it very well but I know that I will probably eat a lot by the time I leave. So besides that, I have eaten a lot of rice, chapatti and potatoes as well as beef, chicken and cooked veggies. There are not any spices like India which is how it reminds me of home with our meat, potatoes and veggies but the chapatti, masala chai and fruit reminds me of India. I just found out Mango season is December/January! Yum!!

Classes are going well and we have them in this one hotel where we stayed our first night and so that means that I will be able to get Internet once a week when I venture out with my computer early before sessions start so I can write to you wonderful people J Score!

Sessions here are good and even though we have only had a few days thus far, they seem to be doing a good job: the security and medical people are so nice but are doing a terrific job at scaring all of us pretty well so that we take our malaria pills-stay alert-are cautious-and know that we all will probably get diarrhea-yayyy, how does that sound? ;) Our language facilitators are doing their best but we only get a crash course (one week) on Kiswahili and then next week we start learning KSL (Kenyan Sign Language). The rest of our trainers who are teaching us about teaching, development, volunteer roles and more are also doing a good job and the sessions are more interesting because you know that everything you learn is basically useful in some way. It’s great not having to take gen. ed’s here!

Time for Kiswahili class J Here is one last Kiswahili phrase to learn:

My Name is Elizabeth

“Jina langu ni Elizabeth”

Pronounced: “Gee-new laang-gu nee Elizabeth”

Lots of Kenyan Kisses,

Elizabeth

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