Christmas in Kenya!

Hey All!
First: I'm a real Peace Corps Volunteer now!  Got sworn in December 15th by the Vice-Ambassador. He has a nice house.  Then went into Nairobi town for some good food and Harry Potter!  Accio Hamburger!

Finally moved into my new house!  It's a beautiful part of the country.  I sit on a hill overlooking lake Victoria.  Absolutely gorgeous.  Hope to get pictures up soon.  House is nice too, but smells like bat guano.  Oh!  And I have new spider friends!  They're a bit bigger and meaner looking than the Loitokitok pair, so I call them Shelob and Aragog. Due to comments regarding previous spider pictures, they're photos will not be posted.

Anyways, things are going great here so far.  Had a few volunteers over for Christmas!  We had burgers with guacamole and pineapple.  Crazy delicious.  Then we played hide and seek in my Haunted House, since we never actually celebrated Halloween.  It was a good time for all.  But alas, they have all returned to their sites.  Sigh. 

Classes 'start' January 7th, so I have a bit of time to try and figure things out, but there really isn't all that much to do.  Lots of reading and stuff.  And playing soccer down the road.  Rocks make things interesting. 

That's all for now.  Hope to have a meatier update in the next few days, but you never can tell.  It's a couple hour ride (Did you know you can fit 14 people in a 5 seater station wagon?  With luggage too!) to the banking and internets, so we shall see.

Have a Merry Holiday All!  And Welcome to '11!

Also, Go Blue!  Beat the Bulldogs!

Loitokitok by the Numbers: Now With Pictures!

Hamjambo All!  Things in Loitokitok are going really well.  I don't have much time to write and stuff, so here are some pictures!  Ready.  1.



It's Julio!  My spider friend who lives in my room.  He completely harmless, mostly.  I've been trying to set him up with the cute spider in the choo (Gladice).  I think they'd be so cute together.

The clouds in Loitokitok are absolutely amazing.  It's like a Renaissance painting every day.  During the mornings this flat area is sometimes filled with fog/clouds.  Gorgeous. 

It's hard to tell that this is a river.  It used to be a road.  I forded it.  My oxen died.  Sadness.

This is my house.  It's very nice.  Although it doesn't always have electricity.  Dang elephants. 

Welcome to Loitokitok!  This is the view coming into town.

And from the other side.

This is the walk I have to training every day.  Very pretty.

Saki!  It's one of the popular sites for PCTs to get chai after the day is over.

That's all I got for now.  I'll try and have a more in depth update later, but it's difficult for now.  I will be getting a better internet option at some point, so the updates should flow better then.  Until then: Go Blue!  Beat the Buckeyes!

The Kenyabetical: Or, Everything I Need to Know about Kiswahili I Learned from the Lion King.

Greetings all from beautiful Loitokitok, Kenya!  It's been an incredibly busy couple of weeks and so much has happened in such a short period of time.  So, rather than write everything out long form, I figured some form of organization would be helpful.  In this case, alphabetically.  Because everything's better with letters!

P.S.  I hope to get more pictures up eventually, but the internet in Loitokitok is slow as molasses in January (July for those of you in the Southern hemisphere) and it would take a day and a half to get all the good ones up.  So, that's going to have to wait til Nairobi.

A is for Africa

Well, of course.  Incidentally, TIA (This is Africa) is a very useful phrase to have in the back of mind.  Because it for sure isn't Kansas.

If you're feeling a little more local, there's the always popular Karibu Kenya! 

B is for Bathroom (NSFW)

The preferred method of self relief here in Kenya is the choo.  It's a hole in the ground.  You squat.  The hole is very deep.  (Roughly 10-11 m, if I timed the drop right.)

C is for Cosmopolitan

Well, maybe that's not quite the right word for the place, but there is a mild international flavor to the place.  Besides the all 'mericans running about the place there's a pretty big Chinese presence in the community.  They're building a road that runs from the main highway into Loitokitok and probably will continue to Tanzania.  From what I understand, they're using Chinese equipment and manpower, so local construction firms aren't to keen on it, though.

Besides the Chinese, there's a guy from Boston who lives here.  Married a local, evidently. Also, a couple of missions and an Italian aid agency down the slopes somewhere.  Also a couple of Dutch volunteers from VSO are in the area.  I met them today.  Very nice chaps.

There's also a mosque (largely Somali ex-pats, I'm told) and the call to prayer echoing across Loitokitok is actually really cool.  Adds to the flavor of being in a new place.

D is for Doin’  it by Hand

How do you wash without a shower?  With a basin of course!  Warm up the water on the Jiko (stove) and pour it over yourself!  You can get surprisingly clean, although washing hair for the ladies can be a little rough.  Still better than G-West in January, though.

E is for Electricity

We do have stima (electricity) here, although it can be... tempermental.  For instance, no one in town had any for a couple days earlier this week.  Apparently an elephant knocked out a transmission line.  TIA.

F is for Food

Omnomnom.  The most popular food here is ugali, which is maize flower (stripped white) and cooked into some sort of brick.  It's pretty much empty calories, but it sits in your stomach and keeps you full.  But that's not all! There's also wali (rice), spaghetti, viazi (potatoes), viazi  vitamu(sweet potatoes), maharagwe (beans), ndizi (bananas), makote (unripe banana stew with potatoes), meat stew, sukumo wiki (spinach, translated as "Push the week."), kabichi (cabbage), and other things.  The current favorite for PSTs eating at the local cafes is Chips na mayay (Chips and eggs.)  It's like an omelette. 

But what they don't have here that I miss most of all?  Whole grain anything.  Brown rice.  And cheese.  There isn't any unless you travel to one city on the west side.

G is for Guardia

And all sorts of other fun little friends.  It's important to make sure I purify my water like whoa or things get real fun.  (For those interested, the official PST water treatment is Pur. It coagulates all the stuff together for easy filtering.  It's really cool to watch, actually.)

H  is for How are you?

Walking home is always fun, since there are loads of little kids who come running out to see the Wazungu (White person/traveller) and constantly chant “How are you How are you?”  as they follow you down the road.  Sometimes they get high fives or fist pounds.

Yesterday I tried to teach a couple of them how to moonwalk (They were wearing one glove, it seemed appropriate).  It doesn't look like dance is in these kids' futures...

K is for Kilimanjaro

I may have mentioned it, but Loitokitok sits on the north face of Mount Kilimanjaro.  It looks something like this:

This is taken from the exit to our driveway into the house I'm staying.  I see this everyday.  Woo!

L is for Language Acquisition (Secondary)

Much of the time for training has been spent learning Kiswahili.  It's actually a real fun language to learn, which is good, because it's going to get crammed into my brain for the next six weeks.  Of course, this is a good thing, seeing as that's all the time we have to get formal language training.  Incidentally, the language trainers the Peace Corps has are really, really good. 

But you know what's really awesome? Getting to say “Hakuna Matata” in regular conversation.

P.S.  I also find myself silently mouthing “Squashed Banana” every time I say “Asante Sana.”  I wonder if that urge ever goes away?

M is for Meph Dreams

We live in a malarial zone and so that means I get to take malaria prophylaxis!  For most volunteers, this means mephaquin.  And mephaquin means meph dreams!  Now, apparently this sometimes means really horrible night terrors with blood and axes and stuff.  Also, apparently you sometimes go crazy? 

I don't know much about that though, since I'm batting about 50% on dreams being pretty normal and 50% on them featuring showstopping Broadway numbers before I wake up.  Seriously.  It's like an episode of Glee every time I go to bed.

N is for Nets

Also joining in the fight against malaria: Mosquito Nets.  I sleep under one.  It's actually pretty comforting.  Like sleeping in a blanket fort.

Incidentally, yesterday I woke up to a mosquito stuck in the net trying to get out.  I think I'm did something wrong...

O is for Oh!  Chai!

Chai is the national drink here.  Not a chai latte from Starbucks mind you.  It's teaa, whole milk, and a mess of sugar.  It gets drunk all the time.  I usually go for Chai Strungi (strong or black tea).  Mimi si mkenya, ni mwamerika, I guess.

P is for PikiPiki

Or motorcycle, that is.  I wish I had a picture of some of the crazy things I've seen people carrying on the back of motorcycles around here.  Ladders, stacks of chairs, families.  I wouldn't at all be surprised to see someone carrying a couch or another motorcycle on the back of one of these Piki Pikis. 

Q is for Not in the Kiswahili Alphabet.  And Neither is X.

So there.

R is for Rafiki

It's the rainy season, and although it has been pretty dry (la Nina, I'm told), the rains we do have are pretty hardy.  More importantly, though, they tend to turn the Kenyan dust, which is unbelievably fine and into-everything-getting into Kenyan mud, which is something special all on its own.  I probably should have brought higher boots.

S is for Simba

Ok you jokers, I haven't been eaten by a lion yet.  Haven't even seen one.  But I have seen giraffes!  A mess of giraffes on the way over from Nairobi.  I about plotzed right there in the matatu.  Also, there's a bunch of colobus monkeys that live around the area we're staying. 

Speaking of animals.  My mama (katika Kenya) has a cow and chickens.  Baller.

T is for Time Dilation

Maybe it's the long days or the lack of the internet, but these past few weeks seem really, really long in hindsight.  That's not a bad thing at all!  So much has happened in the last few weeks it seems like I've been gone for three months instead. 

Speaking of the internet, I haven't the slightest idea what's going on back home.  Not sure I miss the news that much...

U is for Um, nimesheba?

That is, I'm full.  (Have become full, technically.)  My host family is absolutely fantastic.  There's only a mama and baba.  The three kids are off at university in Uganda, although I should have an opportunity to meet them.  My Kenyan mama is fantastic.  She's very understanding of all my American oddities and is more than willing to help me learn kiswahili and how to do things around the house.  For example, cooking!  And laundry by hand! 

V is for Very High

We're sitting about 1700 m above sea level here.  My first run at altitude could best be described as “rough” and more accurately as “borderline vomitous.”  All I could think while bending over on the side of the road was “where's the air gone?” 

Note to self: Pole pole.  (Slowly slowly)

W  is for Washing Machines

Once you get the callouses going, it's actually kind of fun to wash your clothes by hand.  Until then though, did you know that bleeding on your clothes when washing them is not helpful? 

Y is for Yogurt

My family here makes their own yogurt!  I am going to learn how this is done.  It is crazy tasty, yo. 

Z is for Zip?

Ok, I'm running out of good words.  This is hard, ok?  But to end this entry, here's a bit of info on my next stop.  I did get my site placement, which is going to be on the south side of Lake Victoria, near the Tanzanian border.  I'll be teaching physics and chemistry.  Apparently the school sits on a hill and overlooks the lake.  And apparently my house will be “on the brink” of Lake Victoria.  So, that sounds promising, yes? 

Unfortunately, swimming is out of the question on account of all the schisto, but hey, I get easy access to fish everyday!  Samaki Chapati's anyone?  (Taco is a poor word choice in swahili...)

Well, that's all I got for now.  I'll probably be going more in depth on a lot of this stuff later.  Especially the food.  Until then: tutaonana!

Placeholdr Update

Training is going very well.  It is a very lovely place we are in.  I hope to have a real update sooner, but an elephant knocked out electricity and I've been very busy.  Tomorrow, mayhaps?

Kenya!

So... I'm in Kenya now!  Also, it seems that hotel we're at has wireless.  But only on one side of the building.  Fortunately, I'm on that side.  So, hello from Nairobi  It's been quite the whirlwind last couple (?) of days.  I don't actually know how long it's been.  Three maybe?  Anyway, it was a long flight from JFK-->Amsterdam-->Nairobi, but we're here now! 

We got into Nairobi about 9 PM last night, and got to our hotel about 10:30.  There was simply a mountain of luggage!  Getting all that sorted and loaded proved to be quite the challenge.  It was pretty much zip in, grab dinner, run my luggage up to my room, and then go to sleep. And sleep I did.

Today was very busy and very tedious.  There's a lot of stuff to go over, and a lot of paperwork to sign.  Also, inoculations!  Got two shots today, plus my first dose of malaria medication.  (Mephadoxin I think.) I don't recall if this is the one that gives you sunburn or nightmares.  I guess I'll take A?  But for the most part, it was a long day talking about the next couple of days, how not to get robbed, and how to take care of yourself.  For the most part, common sense stuff.  On the plus side, though, tea time!  The were several breaks for tea during the day, and for some reason tea time is great fun.  Maybe it's the tea or the excuse to step outside for a change, but it's pretty baller.  I think I'm going to enjoy this part of Kenya.  After the day was over we headed down to a store area to buy a few useful items, like toilet paper.  Also, ginger-lemon tea.  Delicious. 

Tomorrow we head down to Loitokitok (Low-ee-Toke-Toke) where we will meet our host families and start our Pre-service training!  It's a bit of a drive, but we're headed down towards Kilimanjaro.  Needless to say, much excite!
'

Greetings (and Farewell) from Philly

Howdy!

I arrived in Philedelphia this morning for Peace Corps staging.  After a brief (yet strangely comical) series of events where I took an airport shuttle to the next town over and the completely wrong hotel I made it safe and sound to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Philly. 

There I had the pleasure of meeting a simply fantastic group of people.  To give you an idea of how awesome, nearly everyone believes that Lion King sing-a-longs are the proper way to get pumped for Peace Corps service in Kenya.  I'm just sayin'.  The group is about 70-30 Science/Math Teachers and Deaf Educators.  Lots of different backgrounds and origins.  People from all over the country!  (And a few from Big Ten country.  There may be some smack talk.  Just sayin')

There's not a lot to say about staging.  It's mostly examining why we joined the PeaceCorps, what our goals are, and a brief discussion of the challenges we expect to face.  Most of the detail work goes on in country, so here's a picture of Travel Gnome Steve!  

 

 Unfortunately, I haven't the foggiest when I'll have the time or internets to update this thing properly for the next couple months, so here's what's going down:

1.  Depart from JFK, fly through Amsterdam and arrive in Nairobi.  

2.  Spend a couple days in Nairobi doing more in-depth preparations and final vaccinations.  

3.  Travel to Loitokitok (It turns out I've been mispronouncing it all this time!  I still don't know how to say it right) and move in with our host families.

4.  Language and technical training.  Will be learning Swahili, possibly KSL.  Much excite.

5.  December 15 - Get sworn in.  Get assignment.  Woo!

It's a long day tomorrow, so that's all I got.  Go Blue! 

Habari! (And Business)

Hey Everyone. 

So, by now you've probably heard that I'm going to Kenya with the Peace Corps.  I'll be doing secondary science education. For the first couple of months I'll be in Pre-Service training in Loitokitok, on the north face of Kilimanjaro.  (PST is where I learn Swahili, how to be a teacher, and cultural norms.)  That will last until December 15th, when I'll be sworn in as a volunteer and given my teaching assignment. 

I don't have a lot of information right now, so instead I'm going to copy and paste all the relevant contact information for the next couple months. 

E-mail:  bcrispin@gmail.com 
From what I understand, there is internet access in Loitokitok.  However, it can be... spotty.  I'll try and do my best to check it semi-regularly, but no promises.

Telephone: TBA
I anticipate picking up a cell-phone in country.  I'll post a number once I have it, for those interested. 

PST Mailing Address:  I'm just going to copy and paste the package/mail recommendations. 

Brennan Crispin, PCV
U.S. Peace Corps
P.O. Box 698-00621
Village Market
Nairobi, Kenya 
 

We recommend that packages be sent in padded envelopes if possible, as boxes tend to be taxed more frequently.  Custom fees can be quite expensive.  For lightweight but important items (e.g. airline tickets), several services, such as DHL, FedEx, TNT, and UPS operate in Kenya.  These services however, are very expensive, and can cost as much as $70 for a letter.  If you do choose to send items through them, you must address the package to the Country Director, c/o Peace Corps, Nairobi, Kenya. (The street address of the Peace Corps office in Nairobi is:  Grevellia Groove, Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya).  If you send the item to the Country Director, no liability can be assumed.

  

Note: If you're a letter writing type, letters can generally take 1-2 months to arrive in Kenya, if at all.  It's recommended that letters be numbered so I can tell if I missed any.  Also, postcards should be sent in envelopes.  Apparently they'll end up on the Post Office wall otherwise. 

Ok.  That's all the information for now.  I'm sure the next update will be far more entertaining and about you know, Kenya and the Peace Corps.