Training Part 1

Hey readers!

I suppose this post is coming at about my usual schedule, but since I'm not writing every few days, it feels weird, and also things have been pretty whirlwindish.

I am in Nairobi for Peace Corps training (and there's no wireless! WTF! Don't they know that we need our fix?!?) and it's been pretty low-key. Good to see all of the other volunteers and catch up and swap war stories. I've only talked to about a third of them in my first three months at site, so there was a lot of catching up.

I have a lot to update on, but I won't get too detailed. It all starts with visitors from Ethiopia:

Liz (a friend from IDDS) came to my site and we set up a drip irrigation kit from IDE at my school. Should be a good demonstration plot. We also planted some moringa trees with the students (free moringa seeds from the Agriculture Business Development branch of the DANish International Development Association. Yay Danish people and random networking connections). I hope we did that right. I guess I'll know in a few weeks, and I have some extra seeds just in case. No jatropha yet, but I'm planning to start that as soon as I get back from training. After that, we met up with Jackie (from D-Lab Ghana). There was a photo shoot (Liz has lots of pictures, so after your 5 long months of waiting, there will be at least the start of pictures. I also have pictures. Still sitting on my flash disk. I will take care of this. Eventually. I'm sorry :-( .), nicknames were given out, games were taught and learned, water bottles were dented (big time), frisbees were thrown, cooking was done and some really awesome people were met (sorry if you don't like passive voice). In Nairobi, I finally got pizza. It was amazing. A lot. Also, I have learned about two new languages: Espahili and Frahili. Apparently I now intersperse Swahili into my Spanish. And then I met a Kenyan who adds Swahili to his French.

Liz and Jackie got to meet a bunch of volunteers as we got settled in for training. Then Liz went off to continue her travels. Jackie is still in Nairobi working at a Plastics Recycling Sacco. Emily (she went to Harvard with Jackie and is now in Peace Corps with me) apparently finds the phrase "Plastic Sacco" hilarious. I won't comment on that.

Training has had its ups and downs so far. Joseph (the Training Manager) has laid some pretty good logistics, and I always love seeing Joseph. Louis (the Associate Peace Corps Director for Small Enterprise Development and an all around great guy) has led some really great sessions. He even started quoting Schumacher during one of his sessions. Our country director also led a good session. There were other sessions too. One of the most interesting sessions was a fieldtrip to see a beekeeping project. Unfortunately, education volunteers didn't get to go to that. We sat in a completely unplanned session on classroom management that wound up being rather useless. When I went to discuss this with a person, I was told that that is what teachers had requested. I tried to politely explain that my request form included beekeeping as one of my top priorities and did not even touch on classroom management. Sometimes I fail at politely explaining things. Shortly after that, I failed at politely explaining something else to that same person. I should probably work on that.

Catching up with the other volunteers has been really great. One of the business volunteers named Jeff has a potential for a really great charcoal project. I would really like to help him get that under way. Unfortunately, certain Peace Corps policies might make that incredibly difficult. Apparently, we are not allowed to take vacation days during the school term. Certainly a fair policy. However, it sounds like missing two days of school (though leaving assignments and lessons for the time while I'm absent) to work on a community project that I am well suited to work on and has a very high probability of success is usually labelled as vacation. They have maize cobs and coconut husks and cassava. If this doesn't happen it will make me seriously consider what I am doing here in Kenya. Especially since I think that there are several other projects that I could successfully collaborate on. Mmmmmm, vacation policy.

Also, since I'm in Nairobi, I bought myself an Economist. Too bad they don't sell that at the newsstands in Mwakitau. I hear I can also find Cherry Coke here. If that rumor turns out to be untrue, it will be a very sad day.