Me cooking my lunch on my jiko
One year ago election violence broke out in Kenya. I spent the days after Christmas waiting for things to calm down so I could travel back to the village and begin the school year. Only teaching for two weeks before being sent back to America because of the political tension in Kenya I was not satisfied or finished with my Peace Corps experience so here I am again back in Kenya, this year with a much happier end to the year.
Since it has been a long time since I have updated I will start in September. September began term three at school. I taught form 1 and 2 and physics plus 7am physics to make sure they covered their syllabus. It was a busy month of teaching and brick making in the community. I also went on a weekend trip to Kitui to visit my host family again.
Me, Jessica, Mary Beth, and Heather at the Equator
October was a very funny month at school. My students defiantly kept me laughing during October. I will just share one story today to keep it short. I usually attend CU which is the protestant devotions at school on Friday. The students were trying so hard to sing an English song for me. So they sang "Winner, Winner Jesus is the winner, oh yes Jesus you are my winner" but instead of pronouncing it winner they were pronouncing it wiener. During my school mid term break I went to a training in Nanyuki which is at the equator and the base of Mt. Kenya. The spent three days at Mt. Kenya Organic Farming training site. I learned about permaculture and organic farming at a beautiful farm at the foothills of Mt. Kenya. My favorite part of the training was composting and natural pesticides. After the training I went on a weekend vacation with a few other volunteers to Lake Nakuru National Park. Lake Nakuru was one of the most beautiful places I have seen in Kenya. We hiked to the top of Menengai crater. Lake Nakuru had over 100,000 flamingos and wildlife everywhere. It makes me sad that due to deforestation the lake probably will not be there much longer. October was a month of extreme water shortage for me but I made it through the month. We were also busy in the shambas in October cutting down the pea trees and corn stalks trying to get the fields ready for planting when the rains come. Working in the shamba here is all done by hand.
My Matungi (water can): The amount of water for one week (20 liters)
November was suppose to be the month of rain but unfortunately we only had one weekend of rain. As soon as it rained we all went into our shambas and started to plant our mahindi (corn), Ndengu (green grams), Ntho (chickpeas), Marahagwe (beans), kitungu (onion), Nyanya (tomato), and green peas. Unfortunately the rain never came and we lost almost everything in the fields. In my area we usually only get rain October-December which means this year we only received around 4 days of hard rain and maybe 10 days of light showers. The place is very dry and I am sure in the upcoming months I will see the affects of drought. People will not have school fees so children will not be in school, young children and elders will die due to lack of food, and animals will also die. There are food banks and relief food in the country right now due to the food crisis but the problem is the food is distributed in the towns and never reaches the villages. In November Obama won the elections and Kenyans celebrated. There is now a national holiday called Obama Day. Still almost 2 months later people come up to me and tell me they are Obama's cousin, everyone here thinks they are Obama's cousin now. Schools closed November 19th. The end of the year was great. My students performed well, especially my girls. The girls had an amazing improvement, it really is amazing what a little encouragement can do to a students grades. Because schools closed so early I spent a few weeks in the shamba, visiting people in the community, and visiting my students at their houses. At the end of November I travelled to Lamu Island for a vacation with my Peace Corps friends. Lamu is an island that has true Swahili culture and amazing fresh fruit juices. We went on a dhow trip and snorkeling one day and basically just relaxed for the weekend.
Everlyne and Me working in the Shamba
Now it is the end of December and it is hard to believe the year has come to an end. The first week of December I spent in the village trying to save the pea plants in the shamba since it is the only thing that had not dried up. I worked on my chicken shed and did little projects around the house. I baked a few cakes and visited my friends in the village. The second week of December I was in Nairobi for Peace Corps training. Last week I spent the week on vacation with a few other volunteers. We started our vacation by climbing to the top of Mount Longonot. The Mountain is a crater in the middle of the great rift valley. We hiked the entire rim of the crater. After our hike we went on a bike trip through Hell's Gate National Park. It was amazing to be so close to all the animals on a bike instead of in a car. The geological formations in Hell's gate were amazing. We also hiked through Hell's Gate Gorge which was pretty amazing. We camped at Top Camp which is a beautiful place up a hill with a great view of Lake Nivasha. We went on a boat trip on Lake Nivasha and saw hippos and lots of birds really close. After we spent a few days in the Naivasha/Rift Valley area we headed to western Kenya. We pasted through all the tea and coffee plantations on our way to Kakamega. In Kakamega we stayed at Kakamega Environmental Education Program bandas. We did a sunrise hike to the hill in the center of the forest and went on a bird hike through the rain forest. It was an amazing vacation and Christmas. Now I am in Nairobi and on my way down to Loitoktok which is at the base of Mt. Kilamanjaro. I will spend a week down there training the new volunteers and getting them prepared to go to their sites. School starts January 6th, it is amazing how filled my 6 weeks of vacation were. I am defiantly excited to see my students and start teaching again. I am sure in April, our next school holiday, I will take another adventure somewhere, maybe this time out of Kenya.
Me biking with the zebra in Hell's Gate
I hope all of you have a wonderful New Year! It is hard to believe it is going to be 2009, the year I return back home. I know it will be sad to leave but I will be happy to see all of you!
Me, Heather, Kristy, Avery, and Jessica with Santa
Me cooking my lunch on my jiko