Nairobi again

Primary reason for this trip was my follow-up appointment to see how my mental health is doing. I travelled on Thursday to Nairobi. Pretty uneventful bus ride, which I was grateful for. I was coughing a bit the whole way, which hopefully didn't make anyone else sick. I arrived earlier than expected so I decided to head over to the Peace Corps office and see the staff.

I greeted the staff and caught up with people a little bit. I met with Serah, who is our Volunteer Support Assistant and when our APCD (the Peace Corps staff member who is supposed to support us) is not around to help us, she is the one we can go to for help. I told her about my exam issue (submitting those agriculture papers was the secondary reason for the Nairobi trip) and she got on the phone trying to figure out how to help me. She even helped me to meet the new country director.

I went in to meet Steve and we had a nice, frank conversation. I had to start off by apologizing for something that I had posted on my blog (sound familiar?) and then we talked a lot about issues. We discussed reforming Peace Corps (I even brought up this campaign, which has some pretty interesting ideas) and he told me about getting settled in Kenya (he arrived here about a month ago). We discussed a lot of issues for volunteers related to training and service (he seemed pretty surprised by some of the things that we endure). Then he had to take a call, so I went back to the hotel.

I found a few other volunteers on the guest list, so I was glad to have some company for the trip. I also felt slightly under the weather, but that didn't stop me from grabbing dinner with another volunteer in town for mental health. Then we found a third volunteer who was also in Nairobi for mental health and grabbed second dinner, which was two-for-one burgers at a fast food joint near the hotel. We hung out a bit and then crashed early.

I spent most of the night coughing and woke up with almost no voice (not a good recipe just before an appointment to talk with someone) so I made sure to head to the office early to grab some cough drops from medical. They also put me on antibiotics and double strength advil (I wasn't entirely sure that antibiotics were the right thing for a sore throat, especially with a pretty cursory examination). Then I went back and found Serah, and she had sorted out all of my issues with the exams (which I am very grateful for). Then I ran over to say hi to Louis, and discuss bio-gas and peanut shellers before he had to leave for another meeting.

I went to my appointment, which went pretty smooth aside from having to suck cough drops the whole time. It sounds like I won't need another session, which is nice to hear. Then, I went to the Peace Corps office where they were having a reception for our new country director. I hung out with the volunteers a bit more before having to run across town to put a signature on the exams and pick up a receipt (pretty painless, except it was quite a ride to get there and back).

All the exhaust in Nairobi kinda aggravated my throat so I was ready for an exciting Friday night of doing laundry and waiting for the advil to kick in. One of the volunteers invited me to dinner, but I was pretty down for the count, so he was stuck eating on his own (sorry, man). When the advil kicked in, I found myself flying through the laundry (had to stop when I ran out of hangers) and worked up quite an appetite. I ran out to dinner at the nearby Indian restaurant with another volunteer. He ordered the chilli naan thinking of Southwestern food. He gave me a piece of it and I did not manage it very well (the spice was pretty intense).

Saturday morning was pretty unpleasant. I wanted to grab some apples (so happy they have those in Nairobi) so I went to the ATM to take some cash. Peace Corps deposits our money into a bank which only has branches in Nairobi, Mombasa and one town near Mount Kenya (in other words, completely inconvenient for the vast majority of volunteers). Whenever I'm in Nairobi or Mombasa, I try to withdraw for lower surcharges. Unfortunately, the ATM decided to steal all of my money (it took 75% of my monthly salary, leaving me with $7 in my account). So I spent the rest of the morning sitting at the ATM waiting for the manager arrive to learn that they would correct the transaction on Monday (I'm betting the stupid bank is not going to refund my ATM fees, though; I found it ironic that their slogan is "what stress-free banking is all about").

I went to lunch with a bunch of volunteers and we had delicious sushi. We realized that most of us were having money problems and bonded over our common experience. I was grateful that my friend Jackie showed up halfway through lunch (Hi Jackie, I missed you, can you spot me for lunch?). During our travels in Ghana, I borrowed money from her the whole time (also due to ATM issues), so it felt like old times. The other highlight of the afternoon was when one of the deaf education volunteers showed up with no voice, so we lamented that she needed some kind of language that didn't require a voice. Something with gestures, maybe. A kind of sign language, if you will.

Then we went back to the hotel to watch The Lion King (you know, when in Kenya...). We only watched about 2/3 of the movie before the sound cut out (now I want to see the ending). Then we went out to Java House for the dinner (Hey Jackie, put it on my tab) and went out for a little dancing. I wound up dragging down the party, since I decided to head out with my sore throat and everyone came back with me (it was pretty late anyway and we had to travel the next day).

Aside from the ATM, Nairobi was much better this time. Volunteers are pretty amazing. I hope that everyone who I saw there has a complete and speedy recovery.