When I first arrived in Arusha, I was sharing my house with Laura and Michael. They had arrived in Tanzania a week and a half before me. Laura worked in D-Lab at MIT, so I got to know her pretty well my senior year. Michael joined D-Lab after I left MIT, but we had a lot of friends in common.
My first interaction with Michael was in the barber shop right outside our house. A lot of the kids in the area were calling him Bruce Lee (he is Asian and a lot of the kids like kung-fu movies and don't have a whole lot of other exposure to Asians), so he was going for a new look. They convinced the barber to let Laura use the shaver in order to get the look right. When I came back twenty minutes later, I was pretty sure that he wouldn't be called Bruce Lee anymore. He was sporting a huge mohawk. For the rest of his time in Tanzania, people were calling him Jogoo (kiswahili for rooster). He definitely embraced the name.
Laura and Michael really helped me get settled in the house. They got along with Mike and Mass really well, which helped me feel more comfortable. They managed the kitchen really well (kept it stocked and organized, washed dishes, prepared meals) and didn't complain about my experimental cooking ventures (I still need a bit more practice). They were also much better at keeping the house clean than I (Michael is a squeegee-wizard). Most importantly, we could hang out and talk late at night, which I didn't get to do very often last year.
They also worked really hard while they were here. It was always funny to listen to them as their brains were whirring. More importantly, they were very adventurous, so their presence definitely helped whether we were going to a club or going on a massive hike (I'll talk more about this soon too). They helped us with driving the pick-up (an old truck with the gearshift on the other side was an adventure to learn), they prepared lots of amazing vegan meals, and we could stay up and have really intense games of Taboo.
Now, Laura is back in UAE where she is working on her masters and Michael is back at Tufts finishing up his last year. I wish them both the best of luck and hope I get to see them both soon. I'm going to add Laura's blog to my sidebar soon.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Mike and Mass (a.k.a. the B-Boys)
I live in a quiet area of Arusha up on one of the hills. The building where I stay is divided into three small houses. Our next door neighbors are some of the coolest people that I have ever met.
Mike and Mass are both 24 and they are professional break-dancers in a group called Contagious. I've seen their group live and it's a pretty amazing show. They mostly perform in Arusha, but they have a good reputation and are sometimes invited to other parts of Tanzania for big shows.
They keep incredibly different hours from us. On Saturday, we can hear them waking up around midnight and heading out to the club (there's a pretty nice club right at the bottom of our hill) and then coming back around sunrise. They always say they are going out to "church" and if the music is no good, they complain about the "pastor".
They are way serious about what they do and spend hours exercising and practicing everyday. Sometimes they even do crazy stretches on our porch. They don't use any drugs or drink or smoke. Their show is break-dancing, but I've also seen them fire-dance and I'm pretty sure that they can do some ridiculous gymnastics too.
They hang out at our house if they are awake at the same time as us. They speak really good English (not always the case in Tanzania) but they also let us work on our Kiswahili with them and they help us a bit and ask us for help with their English. Their house doesn't have electricity (that'll probably be fixed soon), so they come over to charge phones and iPods and sometimes they bring food for us or they'll help us finish the extra food that we've made.
They sometimes buy movies from street vendors and we all watch them over here. One time they were watching a kung-fu film (Heroes Shed No Tears) and some of the neighbor hood children came over to watch too. All of a sudden, there was a sex scene in the movie and we all frantically tried to fast-forward. Let's just hope this hasn't gotten us in trouble with the neighborhood parents.
Mike and Mass are both 24 and they are professional break-dancers in a group called Contagious. I've seen their group live and it's a pretty amazing show. They mostly perform in Arusha, but they have a good reputation and are sometimes invited to other parts of Tanzania for big shows.
They keep incredibly different hours from us. On Saturday, we can hear them waking up around midnight and heading out to the club (there's a pretty nice club right at the bottom of our hill) and then coming back around sunrise. They always say they are going out to "church" and if the music is no good, they complain about the "pastor".
They are way serious about what they do and spend hours exercising and practicing everyday. Sometimes they even do crazy stretches on our porch. They don't use any drugs or drink or smoke. Their show is break-dancing, but I've also seen them fire-dance and I'm pretty sure that they can do some ridiculous gymnastics too.
They hang out at our house if they are awake at the same time as us. They speak really good English (not always the case in Tanzania) but they also let us work on our Kiswahili with them and they help us a bit and ask us for help with their English. Their house doesn't have electricity (that'll probably be fixed soon), so they come over to charge phones and iPods and sometimes they bring food for us or they'll help us finish the extra food that we've made.
They sometimes buy movies from street vendors and we all watch them over here. One time they were watching a kung-fu film (Heroes Shed No Tears) and some of the neighbor hood children came over to watch too. All of a sudden, there was a sex scene in the movie and we all frantically tried to fast-forward. Let's just hope this hasn't gotten us in trouble with the neighborhood parents.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Yesterday was awesome
Yesterday was a big day here in Tanzania. It was my friend Jodie's birthday, it's Michael and Laura's last day over here (I'll write more about them soon, but they really helped me get settled here) and it was the last binary day (1/11/10) for almost nine months (I was not the one who made this observation).
The morning was a standard day of trying to be productive (I would even say I was pretty successful in those efforts). Then in the afternoon I had a lot of small errands, most of which involved procuring food items for the dinner party (Laura and Michael sent me to a really cool spice store which is probably my new favorite place in town). As is always the case, errands took a lot longer than I hoped (shops closed for lunch, me trying to find places with correct prices, etc). The most entertaining part was definitely my endeavors to get business cards for a colleague. Apparently the place I went to has a little trouble cutting their business cards all the same size. We all had a pretty good laugh over the final product (all perfectly readable and everything, just a bit odd with the variety of sizes and shapes).
I got home at the same time as Michael, Laura and Jodie, so three of us set to cooking while we left the birthday girl to play with her new soccer ball (that attracted a lot of neighborhood kids). We made a big pot of guacamole and beans and tried a mango salsa recipe from my Peace Corps cookbook. The salsa recipe was supposed to be Mexican, but our modifications (didn't have the exact spices and Michael modified some proportions) definitely made it Indian. While Michael and Laura worked on that, I set to work on desserts. I made some banana bread the other day, so I was feeling pretty confident that I could pull that one off under these conditions (no measuring devices, cooking on a stove top and one or two missing ingredients). I was pretty happy with how well it came out (and surprised that maybe I've finally developed the ability to estimate). The next challenge was the brownies, which I haven't made over here. Also, Laura is a vegan, so I wanted to make a dessert she could eat (banana bread has eggs). This was my first time making brownies from scratch, there were still no measuring devices and I was trying a bold experiment (substituting bananas for eggs in the recipe). Calling them delicious would be far too charitable, but I certainly wasn't the only one who enjoyed eating them (texture wasn't quite right, but at least they were extra chocolate-y).
We invited the neighbors (super-awesome people, more info on them coming soon too) over and had a very festive dinner. Jodie brought home a case of soda for the party (I think my soda addiction may be claiming a new victim). Well, after we ate too many chapati burritos and sang to Jodie and ate dessert, all that was left was the entertainment. Michael and Laura are both fire-dancers, so they pulled out their kit and lit up. They put on a pretty good show. Then our neighbors asked if they could give it a try (they are professional performers). Michael and Laura were skeptical at first, but then the neighbors showed using unlit wicks that they knew what they were doing. So after a pretty sweet act from them, I asked if I could give them a go. Thanks to a wonderful sister and cousin (love you, Ade and Suzanne) I had learned a few basic maneuvers. I never actually mentioned that this was my first time doing this with fire. Oh well, no one seemed to notice. I didn't light myself on fire and the consensus seemed to be that it was not bad for a novice. I'll definitely take it.
I know, I know, I'm missing a lot of the meat of my life over the past month. Know that I'm really busy, but healthy and absolutely missing my new life, and I'm hoping to pick this back up real soon.
The morning was a standard day of trying to be productive (I would even say I was pretty successful in those efforts). Then in the afternoon I had a lot of small errands, most of which involved procuring food items for the dinner party (Laura and Michael sent me to a really cool spice store which is probably my new favorite place in town). As is always the case, errands took a lot longer than I hoped (shops closed for lunch, me trying to find places with correct prices, etc). The most entertaining part was definitely my endeavors to get business cards for a colleague. Apparently the place I went to has a little trouble cutting their business cards all the same size. We all had a pretty good laugh over the final product (all perfectly readable and everything, just a bit odd with the variety of sizes and shapes).
I got home at the same time as Michael, Laura and Jodie, so three of us set to cooking while we left the birthday girl to play with her new soccer ball (that attracted a lot of neighborhood kids). We made a big pot of guacamole and beans and tried a mango salsa recipe from my Peace Corps cookbook. The salsa recipe was supposed to be Mexican, but our modifications (didn't have the exact spices and Michael modified some proportions) definitely made it Indian. While Michael and Laura worked on that, I set to work on desserts. I made some banana bread the other day, so I was feeling pretty confident that I could pull that one off under these conditions (no measuring devices, cooking on a stove top and one or two missing ingredients). I was pretty happy with how well it came out (and surprised that maybe I've finally developed the ability to estimate). The next challenge was the brownies, which I haven't made over here. Also, Laura is a vegan, so I wanted to make a dessert she could eat (banana bread has eggs). This was my first time making brownies from scratch, there were still no measuring devices and I was trying a bold experiment (substituting bananas for eggs in the recipe). Calling them delicious would be far too charitable, but I certainly wasn't the only one who enjoyed eating them (texture wasn't quite right, but at least they were extra chocolate-y).
We invited the neighbors (super-awesome people, more info on them coming soon too) over and had a very festive dinner. Jodie brought home a case of soda for the party (I think my soda addiction may be claiming a new victim). Well, after we ate too many chapati burritos and sang to Jodie and ate dessert, all that was left was the entertainment. Michael and Laura are both fire-dancers, so they pulled out their kit and lit up. They put on a pretty good show. Then our neighbors asked if they could give it a try (they are professional performers). Michael and Laura were skeptical at first, but then the neighbors showed using unlit wicks that they knew what they were doing. So after a pretty sweet act from them, I asked if I could give them a go. Thanks to a wonderful sister and cousin (love you, Ade and Suzanne) I had learned a few basic maneuvers. I never actually mentioned that this was my first time doing this with fire. Oh well, no one seemed to notice. I didn't light myself on fire and the consensus seemed to be that it was not bad for a novice. I'll definitely take it.
I know, I know, I'm missing a lot of the meat of my life over the past month. Know that I'm really busy, but healthy and absolutely missing my new life, and I'm hoping to pick this back up real soon.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
The Night Bus
Well, I should be packing up my house right now, but I wanted to write about tonight first.
One of the most serious infractions in Peace Corps Kenya is traveling at night. If you are staying within a village or town, it is kosher as long as you take safety precautions (e.g. in a town, you should be traveling in a taxi or other approved vehicle), but going town to town is strictly verboten. One volunteer was administratively separated from the program earlier this year and although the reasons were never clearly explained, we got the impression that it was primarily on account of traveling on the night bus (though there were other infractions in there too).
Well, sure enough, one day out of the Peace Corps and I am riding the night bus. I took a bus to Voi, which arrived around 5:30 PM. I said my good-byes in Voi and bought my ticket at 6:00. I hopped onto the bus where a few people were sitting, glanced around filled with dread for how cramped this vehicle was and pulled out my book. Two hours later the other passengers started making a big fuss and I looked up and realized that there was no driver or conductor. I was a little worked up over this, and spent the next hour trying to get a refund even though they'd disappeared with our money. I thought about taking my sharpie and writing "wezi" (thieves) on the window of the bus, but decided against it (MY REVENGE: Dear readers, if you are ever traveling from Voi to Taveta do NOT travel with the crooked people at Taveta Coach). I had to find another bus, buy another ticket and wait another hour before we finally got on our way. So that was 4 hours of waiting and then a 2 hour ride.
Honestly, this wasn't the first time that I had traveled at night in Kenya. Admin told us that the restriction was in place on the embassy's recommendation and that it was on account of our safety. True, some volunteers have disturbing horror stories about trips on the night bus in Kenya. But there are just as many horror stories from volunteers about trips on the day bus or matatu. On the Voi-Taveta road, I feel just as safe traveling at night as I do during the day and it's usually a whole lot more comfortable on the vehicles that go at night (no loud music, more leg room and a lot fewer stops). One of the first things Enos told me when he visited my site in March was how rough the ride was. If that's his comment after a trip in the land cruiser, I think that I should be allowed to prioritize comfort a little bit.
There are roads that I would absolutely avoid traveling on at night, but Peace Corps doesn't trust volunteers to make those judgments for themselves. This is one of many examples of the parental attitude (a pretty insulting one, at that) I encountered at Peace Corps. Had I followed that rule, it would have interfered with my ability to be an effective volunteer. Sometimes I was breaking it because I had left site for personal reasons (a.k.a. to unwind), but other times it was because I was on Peace Corps business and it didn't make any sense to prolong my travel schedule. Some volunteers told me that they are scared to break the rule not because they fear their safety, but because they fear Peace Corps finding out. It would have been nice if Peace Corps would equip volunteers to make decisions concerning our safety, but they prefer to convey the sense that they do not trust volunteers to make most decisions for themselves.
One of the most serious infractions in Peace Corps Kenya is traveling at night. If you are staying within a village or town, it is kosher as long as you take safety precautions (e.g. in a town, you should be traveling in a taxi or other approved vehicle), but going town to town is strictly verboten. One volunteer was administratively separated from the program earlier this year and although the reasons were never clearly explained, we got the impression that it was primarily on account of traveling on the night bus (though there were other infractions in there too).
Well, sure enough, one day out of the Peace Corps and I am riding the night bus. I took a bus to Voi, which arrived around 5:30 PM. I said my good-byes in Voi and bought my ticket at 6:00. I hopped onto the bus where a few people were sitting, glanced around filled with dread for how cramped this vehicle was and pulled out my book. Two hours later the other passengers started making a big fuss and I looked up and realized that there was no driver or conductor. I was a little worked up over this, and spent the next hour trying to get a refund even though they'd disappeared with our money. I thought about taking my sharpie and writing "wezi" (thieves) on the window of the bus, but decided against it (MY REVENGE: Dear readers, if you are ever traveling from Voi to Taveta do NOT travel with the crooked people at Taveta Coach). I had to find another bus, buy another ticket and wait another hour before we finally got on our way. So that was 4 hours of waiting and then a 2 hour ride.
Honestly, this wasn't the first time that I had traveled at night in Kenya. Admin told us that the restriction was in place on the embassy's recommendation and that it was on account of our safety. True, some volunteers have disturbing horror stories about trips on the night bus in Kenya. But there are just as many horror stories from volunteers about trips on the day bus or matatu. On the Voi-Taveta road, I feel just as safe traveling at night as I do during the day and it's usually a whole lot more comfortable on the vehicles that go at night (no loud music, more leg room and a lot fewer stops). One of the first things Enos told me when he visited my site in March was how rough the ride was. If that's his comment after a trip in the land cruiser, I think that I should be allowed to prioritize comfort a little bit.
There are roads that I would absolutely avoid traveling on at night, but Peace Corps doesn't trust volunteers to make those judgments for themselves. This is one of many examples of the parental attitude (a pretty insulting one, at that) I encountered at Peace Corps. Had I followed that rule, it would have interfered with my ability to be an effective volunteer. Sometimes I was breaking it because I had left site for personal reasons (a.k.a. to unwind), but other times it was because I was on Peace Corps business and it didn't make any sense to prolong my travel schedule. Some volunteers told me that they are scared to break the rule not because they fear their safety, but because they fear Peace Corps finding out. It would have been nice if Peace Corps would equip volunteers to make decisions concerning our safety, but they prefer to convey the sense that they do not trust volunteers to make most decisions for themselves.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Exiting Triumphantly
Long version will come later, but here's the short version:
I am no longer a Peace Corps volunteer. I have exited triumphantly or ET'ed (okay, so maybe it stands for Early Termination, but I like my acronym better). I am happier than I have felt for most of this year and I just feel a wonderful sense of freedom flowing through my body.
I should still have a pretty action packed life, so I intend to keep the blog going. Also, I am thinking of putting up my Blogposten Verboten (forbidden blog posts) which I would not have been able to put online while serving as a volunteer. Like the part before our swearing-in ceremony where I asked if Peace Corps would tell us when volunteers were leaving the program and I was told that volunteers were smart enough to figure out for themselves when people were sent home. Yep, I got lots to talk about...
Anyway, I missed the countdown while I was away from my blog, so:
29, 28 and with my departure, 27 remain out of the original 42 (over 1/3 gone). For math/science teachers, 6 out of 13 remain (over 1/2 gone). Not so triumphant...
I am no longer a Peace Corps volunteer. I have exited triumphantly or ET'ed (okay, so maybe it stands for Early Termination, but I like my acronym better). I am happier than I have felt for most of this year and I just feel a wonderful sense of freedom flowing through my body.
I should still have a pretty action packed life, so I intend to keep the blog going. Also, I am thinking of putting up my Blogposten Verboten (forbidden blog posts) which I would not have been able to put online while serving as a volunteer. Like the part before our swearing-in ceremony where I asked if Peace Corps would tell us when volunteers were leaving the program and I was told that volunteers were smart enough to figure out for themselves when people were sent home. Yep, I got lots to talk about...
Anyway, I missed the countdown while I was away from my blog, so:
29, 28 and with my departure, 27 remain out of the original 42 (over 1/3 gone). For math/science teachers, 6 out of 13 remain (over 1/2 gone). Not so triumphant...
December
I'm still alive! Just in case you were worried.
In fact, the primary reason for the lack of posts is not that my life has been boring but that soooooo much has happened. I'm going to try to get lots of updates up here soon about job searches, Tanzanian safaris, pedal-powered drill presses, finding Cherry Coke, family visiting, meeting a long lost relative, touring a flower farm, biking through Hell's Gate (it's a national park here), taking a Kenyan safari, going to Mombasa, Christmas at Nick's site and the future (Dun! Dun! DUN!!!)
There's a secondary reason that you'll see too.
In fact, the primary reason for the lack of posts is not that my life has been boring but that soooooo much has happened. I'm going to try to get lots of updates up here soon about job searches, Tanzanian safaris, pedal-powered drill presses, finding Cherry Coke, family visiting, meeting a long lost relative, touring a flower farm, biking through Hell's Gate (it's a national park here), taking a Kenyan safari, going to Mombasa, Christmas at Nick's site and the future (Dun! Dun! DUN!!!)
There's a secondary reason that you'll see too.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Thanksgiving done right
In spite of the increased risk in Nairobi this time of year, several of us volunteers wanted to meet there and cook a proper Thanksgiving dinner. I was incredibly drained after all of the issues with exams, so I was thrilled for this kind of pick-me-up. Erin (the business volunteer) arranged for an RPCV (returned peace corps volunteer) who lives in Nairobi to host us. Martha now works for the Carter Foundation in procurement and was an excellent hostess. We were particularly impressed with her ability to procure cranberry sauce to really complete the dinner.
On Wednesday morning, I traveled to Voi and met up with Greg (public health volunteer near me) and we hopped on a bus for the six hour ride to Nairobi. The ride is a whole lot more pleasant when there is someone to share it with. Fortunately, it was generally uneventful and we were able to talk the whole bus ride. We hopped off in Nairobi and after my frustrating struggle to figure out where to catch the matatu we needed (I should really know this by now), headed to Westlands for some grocery shopping.
We met up with Erin and Paula (another business volunteer) at the store and split up the shopping list. We struggled a bit figuring out how to convert some of the quantities needed for recipes (1 1/2 cups of butter is how many grams?) but it was lots of fun to do a huge grocery run. We made a quick trip to the food court where Greg assured me there were amazing tacos and they certainly lived up to his descriptions. Then we wheeled the groceries out to the street to grab a taxi (Erin tipped over the shopping cart along the way and there was a moment of panic as we checked the eggs and saw that miraculously none of them had broken). The taxi ride was very slow (Nairobi rush hour is atrocious) but we finally pulled up to Martha’s apartment and marveled at everything at our disposal: stove and oven, microwave, refrigerator and lots and lots of kitchen tools. It was fantastic.
Greg and I were planning to meet some of the public health volunteers who are in Nairobi currently, but were not able to come for Thanksgiving. Paula opened the wine and offered us a glass. Turned out that was enough to keep us there the whole night. We missed the public health volunteers (I was sad, since I still haven’t met half of them), but had a wonderful time. We enjoyed a gourmet dinner of popcorn and apples as the wine kept flowing. Erin arranged for Greg and I to spend the night, since it would be easy to start cooking right off the bat the next day.
In spite of the fact that we were up until after 1 (I’ve been doing that a lot lately) I was the last one awake at 8:00 (much later than I’ve been waking up lately, actually). We started cooking at 8:30 and pushed on through the day. Paula and Erin were running the scene on tubers (yep, we had potatoes, yams and sweet potatoes, all of which were a pretty similar hue of off-white) and I was assisting. Greg went to visit one of the public health volunteers who suffered a pretty nasty attack in Nairobi. During low intensity parts of the cooking, we got hot showers. (Amazing!) David aka Mr. Gourmet (an ICT volunteer) showed up a bit later and started the great pie crusade. He threw together some pretty amazing pie crusts from scratch and invited me to roll out two of them (he believes in beginners’ luck). We made pecan pie, pumpkin pie and apple pie. We had to get them done early while the turkey thawed so that we could cook that for a long time.
Carly (another science teacher) arrived around noon, and she and I ran to the grocery store (only ten minutes walk from Martha’s apartment) where we ran into Alex (business volunteer). We picked up a few more supplies and grabbed a fantastic lunch at Java House and all caught up a bit. Erin called me three times while we were there to make two additional requests from the grocery store and to accuse me of stealing the peanut butter (I was completely innocent). As we were heading back to the apartment, we made a detour to a gas station where Alex wanted to fill his football (American football to complete the Thanksgiving experience). The attendant asked if we had a needle, which we didn’t. We were about to leave and come up with a plan B when he decided to try forcing the compressed air against the valve. We stood there chuckling about this ridiculous idea only to have our jaws drop as the ball inflated. Pretty amazing.
When we got back to the apartment, Nik (another public health volunteer) was mulling some wine (I kept hearing him say mold wine instead of mulled wine, which was pretty confusing). The turkey was in the oven and we were just waiting at this point, so we enjoyed celery (first time I’ve seen that in Kenya), raisins, mango gummies, devilled eggs and chips and salsa. All of the business volunteers received a text message from Louis (their APCD or Peace Corps supervisor) wishing them a happy thanksgiving. I was excited to also receive a text from Louis and gloated to the other education volunteers (Louis is pretty amazing).
The last bit of preparation was making the gravy and carving the turkey. I was really impressed that all the food was out of the oven by 4:00. Fortunately, Tom (another science teacher) arrived and we crowned him the Gravy King. The Gravy King lived up to his name. Nik became the carving king. He also did a pretty impressive job. At this point, it seemed like the mulled wine was setting in. We had a delicious thanksgiving feast. After eating, we ran outside to catch the last bit of daylight and throw the football around a bit. This was my chance to talk to Matt (the only deaf education volunteer who was able to attend) and catch up a bunch. Then we came in and ate pie. Alex whipped some cream and all three pies were amazing. I guess David was right about beginner’s luck; I’ll probably never be able to roll them out like that again.
Kristy (one of the science teachers who has finished her service and will be leaving in December) arrived after most of the food was gone, but lots of turkey remained. This was unfortunate for her, since Kristy is a vegetarian. Still, she seemed pretty thrilled about the pie, so it wasn’t so bad.
After all the food, we lounged in front of the TV a bit (stumbled on an episode of The Office and part of Paris Je T’aime, though some people were disappointed that we couldn’t find the parade or football; I was thrilled to see satellite TV). I made sure to corner Nik and Paula at different points throughout the night to talk about doing a charcoal project in their villages. Paula and I have been talking about this for a while, and I’ve been too busy to organize the details, but we finally ironed everything out, I believe. Nik’s is a pretty funny story. I was trying to download Amy Smith’s talk on TED about charcoal when I noticed on the comments page that one of the most recent comments was from a volunteer based in Kenya. I had been trying to meet with Nik to talk more about this, so Thanksgiving wound up being a pretty golden opportunity. It was especially funny, since most of my training group knows me as (or makes fun of me as) The Charcoal Guy. The public health volunteers never had to deal with my incessant discussions on the topic, so they didn’t even know how excited I get about it. It sounds like I may have a few charcoal projects in my future.
One of the high points of the evening was when Nik stood up and regaled us with a poem, which was fantastic. Apparently people had a bet about when I would start talking about tryptophan during the night (I never used the word). As we lounged in front of the TV, we watched people slowly drop off. Alex fell asleep on the floor, lying down with one leg crossed over his knee and his shoes still on. Nik laid on the floor and when we asked him if he needed a blanket he replied “No thanks, I’ve got my iPod.” The rest of us went to bed again shortly after midnight and had another fantastic night’s sleep.
In the morning I woke up to find Paula mopping the kitchen floor. Paula had also done the largest share of the cooking. And washed the lion’s share of the dishes. And probably paid the largest portion for the groceries. She is an absolute angel and we all love her dearly. David and I had to drag Nik out the door and after three matatus and a bit of walking, we arrived at the Peace Corps office. I greeted a few staff members and then went to see Enos (my Peace Corps supervisor). It was the first time I’d seen him in over six months. Carly and Tom were both already in there, so I had to wait a bit before he had time for me. Fortunately, he quickly approved my plans to travel to Tanzania (to see Jodie and Jackie!) and Loitoktok (to meet the new education volunteers). This’ll be my first time using vacation days. We also quickly caught up (he knows most of what’s going on at my site because of my monthly reports) and quickly discussed food security (a passion of our new country director), upcoming audit’s by Peace Corps’ Inspector General, and he gave me a USB stick since Peace Corps is now issuing them to volunteers.
I ran over to talk to Tim (the public health APCD) quickly about the USBs. Since he is a fantastic resource on trees, I was trying to convince him to put some materials on the flash drives for new volunteers so that volunteers can might be able to access info quickly on trees (for example, lots of education volunteers find themselves involved with tree planting projects in their communities). It seems like he’s pretty enthusiastic about the idea. After that, we grabbed a quick pizza lunch in Nairobi (the trick to affordable stays in Nairobi is to find the places that have 2-for-1 specials on certain days of the week) we hurried to the bus station to head back to site. I was excited as we traveled that Greg actually understood one of my jokes when I referenced South Ossetia and Abkhazia (I promise, this one was hilarious). Greg and I rode the bus with Erin and Paula and it was a really nice trip. We even got to see Janet (she is Erin’s boss at her site) who I adore.
It’s nice to be back at site, although I don’t see getting a full night’s sleep for a bit longer…
On Wednesday morning, I traveled to Voi and met up with Greg (public health volunteer near me) and we hopped on a bus for the six hour ride to Nairobi. The ride is a whole lot more pleasant when there is someone to share it with. Fortunately, it was generally uneventful and we were able to talk the whole bus ride. We hopped off in Nairobi and after my frustrating struggle to figure out where to catch the matatu we needed (I should really know this by now), headed to Westlands for some grocery shopping.
We met up with Erin and Paula (another business volunteer) at the store and split up the shopping list. We struggled a bit figuring out how to convert some of the quantities needed for recipes (1 1/2 cups of butter is how many grams?) but it was lots of fun to do a huge grocery run. We made a quick trip to the food court where Greg assured me there were amazing tacos and they certainly lived up to his descriptions. Then we wheeled the groceries out to the street to grab a taxi (Erin tipped over the shopping cart along the way and there was a moment of panic as we checked the eggs and saw that miraculously none of them had broken). The taxi ride was very slow (Nairobi rush hour is atrocious) but we finally pulled up to Martha’s apartment and marveled at everything at our disposal: stove and oven, microwave, refrigerator and lots and lots of kitchen tools. It was fantastic.
Greg and I were planning to meet some of the public health volunteers who are in Nairobi currently, but were not able to come for Thanksgiving. Paula opened the wine and offered us a glass. Turned out that was enough to keep us there the whole night. We missed the public health volunteers (I was sad, since I still haven’t met half of them), but had a wonderful time. We enjoyed a gourmet dinner of popcorn and apples as the wine kept flowing. Erin arranged for Greg and I to spend the night, since it would be easy to start cooking right off the bat the next day.
In spite of the fact that we were up until after 1 (I’ve been doing that a lot lately) I was the last one awake at 8:00 (much later than I’ve been waking up lately, actually). We started cooking at 8:30 and pushed on through the day. Paula and Erin were running the scene on tubers (yep, we had potatoes, yams and sweet potatoes, all of which were a pretty similar hue of off-white) and I was assisting. Greg went to visit one of the public health volunteers who suffered a pretty nasty attack in Nairobi. During low intensity parts of the cooking, we got hot showers. (Amazing!) David aka Mr. Gourmet (an ICT volunteer) showed up a bit later and started the great pie crusade. He threw together some pretty amazing pie crusts from scratch and invited me to roll out two of them (he believes in beginners’ luck). We made pecan pie, pumpkin pie and apple pie. We had to get them done early while the turkey thawed so that we could cook that for a long time.
Carly (another science teacher) arrived around noon, and she and I ran to the grocery store (only ten minutes walk from Martha’s apartment) where we ran into Alex (business volunteer). We picked up a few more supplies and grabbed a fantastic lunch at Java House and all caught up a bit. Erin called me three times while we were there to make two additional requests from the grocery store and to accuse me of stealing the peanut butter (I was completely innocent). As we were heading back to the apartment, we made a detour to a gas station where Alex wanted to fill his football (American football to complete the Thanksgiving experience). The attendant asked if we had a needle, which we didn’t. We were about to leave and come up with a plan B when he decided to try forcing the compressed air against the valve. We stood there chuckling about this ridiculous idea only to have our jaws drop as the ball inflated. Pretty amazing.
When we got back to the apartment, Nik (another public health volunteer) was mulling some wine (I kept hearing him say mold wine instead of mulled wine, which was pretty confusing). The turkey was in the oven and we were just waiting at this point, so we enjoyed celery (first time I’ve seen that in Kenya), raisins, mango gummies, devilled eggs and chips and salsa. All of the business volunteers received a text message from Louis (their APCD or Peace Corps supervisor) wishing them a happy thanksgiving. I was excited to also receive a text from Louis and gloated to the other education volunteers (Louis is pretty amazing).
The last bit of preparation was making the gravy and carving the turkey. I was really impressed that all the food was out of the oven by 4:00. Fortunately, Tom (another science teacher) arrived and we crowned him the Gravy King. The Gravy King lived up to his name. Nik became the carving king. He also did a pretty impressive job. At this point, it seemed like the mulled wine was setting in. We had a delicious thanksgiving feast. After eating, we ran outside to catch the last bit of daylight and throw the football around a bit. This was my chance to talk to Matt (the only deaf education volunteer who was able to attend) and catch up a bunch. Then we came in and ate pie. Alex whipped some cream and all three pies were amazing. I guess David was right about beginner’s luck; I’ll probably never be able to roll them out like that again.
Kristy (one of the science teachers who has finished her service and will be leaving in December) arrived after most of the food was gone, but lots of turkey remained. This was unfortunate for her, since Kristy is a vegetarian. Still, she seemed pretty thrilled about the pie, so it wasn’t so bad.
After all the food, we lounged in front of the TV a bit (stumbled on an episode of The Office and part of Paris Je T’aime, though some people were disappointed that we couldn’t find the parade or football; I was thrilled to see satellite TV). I made sure to corner Nik and Paula at different points throughout the night to talk about doing a charcoal project in their villages. Paula and I have been talking about this for a while, and I’ve been too busy to organize the details, but we finally ironed everything out, I believe. Nik’s is a pretty funny story. I was trying to download Amy Smith’s talk on TED about charcoal when I noticed on the comments page that one of the most recent comments was from a volunteer based in Kenya. I had been trying to meet with Nik to talk more about this, so Thanksgiving wound up being a pretty golden opportunity. It was especially funny, since most of my training group knows me as (or makes fun of me as) The Charcoal Guy. The public health volunteers never had to deal with my incessant discussions on the topic, so they didn’t even know how excited I get about it. It sounds like I may have a few charcoal projects in my future.
One of the high points of the evening was when Nik stood up and regaled us with a poem, which was fantastic. Apparently people had a bet about when I would start talking about tryptophan during the night (I never used the word). As we lounged in front of the TV, we watched people slowly drop off. Alex fell asleep on the floor, lying down with one leg crossed over his knee and his shoes still on. Nik laid on the floor and when we asked him if he needed a blanket he replied “No thanks, I’ve got my iPod.” The rest of us went to bed again shortly after midnight and had another fantastic night’s sleep.
In the morning I woke up to find Paula mopping the kitchen floor. Paula had also done the largest share of the cooking. And washed the lion’s share of the dishes. And probably paid the largest portion for the groceries. She is an absolute angel and we all love her dearly. David and I had to drag Nik out the door and after three matatus and a bit of walking, we arrived at the Peace Corps office. I greeted a few staff members and then went to see Enos (my Peace Corps supervisor). It was the first time I’d seen him in over six months. Carly and Tom were both already in there, so I had to wait a bit before he had time for me. Fortunately, he quickly approved my plans to travel to Tanzania (to see Jodie and Jackie!) and Loitoktok (to meet the new education volunteers). This’ll be my first time using vacation days. We also quickly caught up (he knows most of what’s going on at my site because of my monthly reports) and quickly discussed food security (a passion of our new country director), upcoming audit’s by Peace Corps’ Inspector General, and he gave me a USB stick since Peace Corps is now issuing them to volunteers.
I ran over to talk to Tim (the public health APCD) quickly about the USBs. Since he is a fantastic resource on trees, I was trying to convince him to put some materials on the flash drives for new volunteers so that volunteers can might be able to access info quickly on trees (for example, lots of education volunteers find themselves involved with tree planting projects in their communities). It seems like he’s pretty enthusiastic about the idea. After that, we grabbed a quick pizza lunch in Nairobi (the trick to affordable stays in Nairobi is to find the places that have 2-for-1 specials on certain days of the week) we hurried to the bus station to head back to site. I was excited as we traveled that Greg actually understood one of my jokes when I referenced South Ossetia and Abkhazia (I promise, this one was hilarious). Greg and I rode the bus with Erin and Paula and it was a really nice trip. We even got to see Janet (she is Erin’s boss at her site) who I adore.
It’s nice to be back at site, although I don’t see getting a full night’s sleep for a bit longer…
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