Blood. Sweat. Tears. And pooping in a hole.

100 bottles of hot sauce.  A ton of potatoes.  70 lbs of ugali.  A bazillion calories of chapati.  1200 bananas.  Countless hot bus rides.  Too many inappropriate marriage proposals I’m still trying to forget.  786 explanations that I am not a doctor nor do I have money.  534 requests for the shirt of my back.  A million liters of rain water caught. 

 728 bucket baths.  90 laundry days with buckets.  30 nights hiding from rogue bats in my house.  23,000 high 5’s from kids.  Malaria. A hospital stay.  An IV drip. Costochondritis. Strep. Allergies to the dust.  2 months of coughing. 5 eye infections.  Jiggers.  2 sprained ankles.  3 thorns stuck in my foot.  A viral infection.  Numerous, but never enough remarkable sunsets.  500 household visits.  1749 cups of chai with enough sugar to kill a person.  2 broken external hard drives.  A cracked kindle screen.  A broken laptop.  61 books read.  394 hours of training.  Nearly 3,000 insecticide-treated nets distributed.  350 hours spent at the school. 9,999 hours waiting for meetings to start. Zebra. Giraffe. Lions. Leopards.  Cheetahs. Elephants.  Impala.  Wildebeest.  Ostrich. Hippos.  Rhinos.  Monkeys.  Baboons.

104 weeks. 728 days.  17,472 hours. 1,048,320 minutes.   

Blood. Sweat. Tears.  And pooping in a hole.  

 All of this adds up to my PC life in Kenya for 2 years.  Now that this day is here it seems it has gone by fast even though there were many times, even 2 weeks ago, that it felt like time had stopped. 

10 bottles of hot sauce.  60 bucket baths.  8 laundry days.  931 high 5’s from kids.  32 hours at the school.  8 Thursdays.  59 days.  1,416 hours.  84,960 minutes.

 Or in other words 2 months until I am done with my PC service in Kenya.

You could say I am eager to finish.  Or to just be done with doing my business in a hole and shoo-ing away lizards and spiders from the choo. Or to have water from a tap again.  Or to have endless varieties of food.  Or to leave behind the awkward relationship conversations with people who barely know your name if at all.  (seriously this is a conversation I had.  Well really I was just present.  Dude had his mom pull me aside and with her there he pulled out a picture of himself and a girl.  He told me she was his Filipino fiancé and she had died so he needed a new marriage partner.  His mom then tells me she has chosen me.  We had just met an hour earlier.)

Or to have ac/heat.   Or electricity that isn’t out 12 hours a day. 

So yes, it seems clear that I am ready to continue on, but this is not to say that I’m not starting to become sentimental.  Or that I am even regretting my decision to be here.  I am glad that I did this.  I am well aware that I only have 24 softball practices left with my girls. 

 Dwindling opportunities to visit with the friends I have made.  Kenyans and other volunteers.

Because I have my remaining time down to the minute this post may read that I’m too eager to get out of here.  This is not how I meant it but in the last 3 months of our service our focus is to wrap up our projects and make sure they are sustainable.  I have had several projects and started many things during these 2 years but threw the ones to the side that weren’t working or didn’t seem they would continue when I left.  My projects that I’ve been focusing on that seemed to promise sustainability are doing great and well you can consider them wrapped with a nice little bow.  They don’t need me anymore.  Which is every volunteer’s dream.  It’s great, but it leaves me with a wide-open schedule.  Thus, my eagerness to reach August 6.  Oh and because this cute boy lives in America, and so, I want to be there.

With my remaining 1,416 hours in Kenya I am making it a point to take everything in.  On walks through the village. 

 Hugs from dirt covered children in tattered clothes.  Every conversation with a mama.  Hanging out with the girls at the bore hole or under a tree to stay cool.  The air.  The sun.  The sky.  The village.  Because this has been my life for the past 2 years.  Blood. Sweat. Tears.  And pooping in a hole.

And as much as I yearn for my family.  Food.  Amenities.  Normalcy.  I know in a short while there will be times I yearn for my Nambo life.

Weekend Schmeekend

I woke up this morning and my first thought was ‘what day is it?’

‘I think it’s Friday.’

‘aw man. It is.  It’s Friday.’

Then I thought about how I would spend my time…getting through the weekend.

I know this is quite the opposite for my fellow Americans back home.  Everyone just wants to make it thru the week to get to the weekend.

I’ve been traveling lately and haven’t had the weekend dilemma in a while.  In fact it’s been awhile since I’ve spent this much time alone.  Free time and alone time are great.  Especially for the introvert that I am, but in 2 years of PC service there is A LOT I mean TONS, ‘more than you know what to do with, that you become really weird’ alone time.  Just trust me its ALOT.  It’s an unhealthy amount for society is what it is.

I’ve never dreaded weekends like I have in PC.

Its just weekends are different here. 

I live ridiculous amounts of potholes, over crowded, hot, and broken down bus rides, and hours away from my friends.  And we are now in the period of our service that we can’t use vacation days (not that I had any left).  But with the amount of time we were on standfast, had travel restrictions, or were consolidated it really isn’t that different from the past 2 years.

Not being able to use vacay days any longer means one beautiful thing: we are in the home stretch.  Only 2 . 5 months! 

Don’t get me wrong though weekends out of the village or with friends have been something to always look forward to, and a crucial part of making it in PC.

But weekends at site are another thing.

One thing that makes weekends different here is it isn’t safe for me to be outside my house after dark.  So really, what weekend fun can I find before 7 pm.

Here are a few examples of the weekend fun I have had at my site:

Sometimes I will make popcorn and watch a movie and pretend it’s a normal Friday.

(My electricity has been out since last night so I came to a hotel this afternoon so I could charge the laptop just in case I want to watch a movie, but lets be real…I’m hanging out with Spencer Reed, JJ, Penelope, and Derek Morgan tonight…it’s gonna be a Criminal Minds marathon kinda night.  Or at least until my battery dies if the electricity decides to stay out like a jerk.)  Electricity messes with my sweet weekend marathon watching plans.

One weekend I made a piñata.

Another weekend I ripped apart a little girls dress that I mistakenly bought as a shirt for me and sewed it into a bag.  30 cent bag right there, what!

Oh the weekends are usually when I take the time to update blog posts.

One Friday night I watched spider vs grasshopper.  This wasn’t a discovery channel special that I had ripped, but it was taking place in my house.  This was actually crazy Friday night entertainment that I started recording it.  Unfortunately, for you readers, my computer broke last year and I lost all my vids, so I can’t post it for you and your Friday night. 

The grasshopper won by the way.

When I return to America I might still be entertained by this, welcoming weird glances from onlookers when I stop to stare at ants and take pictures.

(Seriously though what is this bubble they have created?)

Now that I’m thinking about this I have no idea how I have made it through nearly 2 years of weekends.

10 more.

Happy Weekend, my friends! 

I hope the critters are plentiful for your weekend entertainment.  

This ones for you, Franklin.

***This was written for a publication in Kenya, but this is your story, Franklin.***

This is a story about kids, kids in America and kids in Kenya.  These kids have never met but they know of each other and are part of a bigger story.

In June 2012, children from Franklin, Kentucky learned about malaria during vacation bible schools at Franklin First United Methodist Church and Calvary Baptist Church.  The children decided to help kids living in areas with malaria and raised money to purchase long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets for orphans living in western Kenya.  Two teenage church members, Kaylee Searcy and Madison Holloway, decided to forgo their birthday presents last summer and instead, asked their family and friends to donate money to purchase more nets.

As a result of the kids’ efforts in Franklin, Kentucky, 1200 nets have been purchased and distributed in western Kenya.  The nets have been distributed with the help of Odiado Tumaini Orphan and Vulnerable Children (OVC) Association located in Busia County, Kenya.  Odiado OVC was established in 2010 to provide assistance to children who have lost parents to HIV/AIDS.   Many of the children have HIV infection, which makes them more susceptible to severe malaria.  Therefore, it is important that this group of vulnerable children sleep under a net every night to prevent malaria infections. 

What is the connection between Franklin, Kentucky and Busia County, Kenya?  A Peace Corps volunteer named Sarah Kaufmann, who is part of the Stomping Out Malaria in Africa Initiative.  Sarah lived in Kentucky and worked with children and youth at Franklin First United Methodist Church for 4 years and is now serving a 2-year assignment in Kenya.  Sarah works with the Odiado OVC on a range of issues with a focus on malaria prevention activities.  Along with Odiado OVC fieldworkers, Sarah makes household visits to ensure the nets are hanging and being used properly to prevent malaria in this community.

In January 2013, 15 homes were visited and every household had their nets hanging.  In February, 13 homes were visited.  The households that had nets for every family member reported no malaria cases since they received nets in 2012.  Unfortunately, some households did not have nets to cover everyone, and these households reported malaria cases.  The Odiado OVC is now selling subsidized nets at a price families can afford because of donors.  Community members can now purchase nets locally to ensure everyone in the family can sleep under a net to prevent malaria.

In Kenya, over 75% of the population is at risk of malaria, and malaria kills 34,000 children less than 5 years of the age every year.  Malaria was eradicated in the United States in the early 1950s.  No matter which country a child is born into, every child deserves to celebrate a 5^th birthday.  Ensuring every child in a malaria-endemic area sleeps under a net every night is a simple, inexpensive way to increase the odds.  Joining forces from Kentucky to Kenya to fight malaria is a start to ensuring every child celebrates a 5^th birthday.   

Because life is strange and now, so am I

With the majority of my service behind me, and 6 months left, it is hard not to already be thinking about how life will be back in America. 

Things you will (probably) not hear me say in the States:

“Ugh, I have to get up to change my CLEAN, FRESH smelling clothes from one MACHINE to another one that will DRY your clothes for you in an hour!”

-----Seriously the chore of laundry here is the cousin of a Witch.  It’s Sunday and I should’ve done laundry today, but I don’t have enough water.  Dry season is a killer. Can’t wait to have a faucet that spits the stuff out at me whenever I want/NEED it.

“I don’t have any leg room in your car.” (Because I probably won’t have a car for a while.  And Peace Corps Volunteers have a rep for being moochers, because we are poor.  So get ready to hook me up with rides, peeps.)

-----Not ever going to be a problem ever again after being stuffed in matatus with your feet resting on luggage under you while hugging your own luggage in your lap, as you try to hold your own with the people next to you to keep a bubble of personal space, which this is a battle you will always lose, while there are goats, chickens, and dead fish somewhere in your vicinity.   Ya, matatus are just as jampacked as that last sentence…and then some.  NOT an exaggeration.  I’m serious.  It’s like a game of Twister but in a vehicle with strangers.  And I didn’t even mention the puking and peeing babies.  I have definitely gotten out of a matatu with wet pants and I didn’t wet myself, people!

“This trip is taking too long.”

-----I have spent way toooooooo many hours waiting on buses to arrive or for vehicles to get full (which again is double the amount of seatbelts).   The worst is when you pay for a seat in the vehicle and they hand you a 2x4 to rest on the seats in between the aisle.  Only to arrive to another stop to wait for another vehicle to fill before we can leave.  Oh and there are hawkers here who try to sell you anything from fruit to socks, to razors.  One woman slapped me in the face with a bottle of water because I wouldn’t pay her jacked up white person price.  Roads are horrible or even non existent and what should take 5 hours takes 15.  Traveling is going to be a breeze when I can walk outside hop into a vehicle just outside my door, turn the key and Vroom on. 

“So what’s your water situation?”

----- This is a real question we ask when we visit a PC volunteer’s site.  Everyone has a different set up for how they bathe, use the restroom, wash dishes, and get drinkable water.

I catch most of my water from the rain.  Dry season is not a friend of mine.  The water here would clog your Brita filter in an hour.  So upon my return and hearing rain I will most likely grab buckets and head outside.  It’s like Pavlov’s dogs.  BUCKETS, BUCKETS, where are my buckets!  It’s something I’m just gonna do. 

“There is nothing to eat.”

-----I was guilty of saying this A LOT before I left 20 months ago.  There really is nothing to eat here.  You can only do so much with kale, tomatoes, onions, rice and flour.  The possibilities are going to be endless with a stocked kitchen that comes with a refrigerator, oven, stove, and microwave.  We volunteers love to torment ourselves by talking about food that we will devour when we return.  Sometimes I curse Pinterest (and you for posting pics of food) that is out of my grasp. 

Things you will (most definitely) hear me say in the States:

“This one time in Kenya….”

-----Please feel free to slap me if I turn into that person.

“Wait, you mean I have to show up to a 9-5 job.  When are the tea breaks?”

“There is a machine here for EVERYTHING!  What do you call this fabulous place!?”

"Can't wait for dinner tomorrow night.  Should I bring anything?  Maybe chicken?"

----- Don't be alarmed when I show up with a live chicken in a plastic bag.  This has happened to me 3 times now, where Kenyan friends show up for lunch at my house with a chicken still clucking.  Ummm a bag of rice would've been perfect, really.  But ya, let's spend the next 3 hours preparing this in time for dinner. 

“Could you hold the ice?  I’m not used to cold drinks anymore.”

-----I don’t even know what ice cream is going to do to me when I get brain freeze from refrigerated water these days.  When I was home for the holidays all I drank was Gatorade and my family kept putting it in the fridge.  So nice and thoughtful, but I take my drinks room temperature these days.  Besides mayonnaise and ranch dressing I don’t know why anyone needs a fridge. 

“Do you sleep under your mosquito net?”  “Malaria this…..  Malaria that….”

-----I am glad malaria is no longer a problem in the States, and hasn’t been for a while, but my mosquito net has become like a security blanket for me.  If I’m staying at your house don’t be surprised if I show up with my net and not a sleeping bag.

“OhhhEmmmmGeee.  That is sooooo Good.  I LOVE FOOD.  Just give me a moment.”

-----And I may cry.  I’ve cried over cheese and sweet tea here.  It happens. 

“Wait, are you throwing that TRASH away?  Do you know the possibilities for that?”

----- I’m probably going to be a hoarder of the weirdest crap.

Since joining the Peace Corps, I'm just like:

And I'm Back...

Back to a life of buckets.  Back to the world where when a dinner turns out bad and I can’t force the fork to my mouth any longer, it’s popcorn for dinner.  (No pizza huts around here to save dinner fiascos.)  Back to being shoved in matatus with goats behind me, chickens underneath my feet, mamas breastfeeding their babies on my shoulder and people asking for the clothes off my back.

I’m also back to sitting under trees with students, laughing and telling stories, to pass the afternoon heat.  I’m back to softball, health club, malaria work, and helping out at the local dispensary.

It may be too early to say this, but I’m back to blogging.  (Maybe.)

In December, I was feeling senioritis setting in.  Besides the ungodly heat, I love where I am living and working.  I enjoy and believe in the work I am doing (most days).  But motivation was almost nowhere to be found. 

So I took a break and gave myself the wonderful gift of family and home.  AND delicious FOOD!

Besides my dad no one else knew I was coming home.  It was thanksgiving when I had a weak moment and told my dad of my plans to come home for a visit.  Plus I needed a ride from the airport.

(I had a great video, to post, of surprising my family but my computer broke and in the transferring of everything I lost a bunch of videos and pics.)

BUT I had a great time with my family and got the chance to see many great friends and people very dear to me.  

I was hoping when I got back I would be rejuvenated and ready to work like crazy in my final leg of my Peace Corps service.  Coming back to Kenya managed to be harder than I thought.  I locked myself in my house for 3 days missing my family and thinking about all the food that I didn’t get to eat while in America (just not enough meals in the day.)  Oh and I was still searching for the ever evasive motivation.

I finally got myself out the door and working again.  I have had great workday after great workday with some noisy political rallies in between.  I have been trying my best to avoid them but with an election in less than 5 weeks it is getting more difficult to avoid. 

Last year, much of my time was spent distributing nets.  This year I am making household visits to ensure the nets are hanging over sleeping areas and being properly used.  In the beginning of the month, every house that we visited had their nets hanging!   

In the middle of January, I had a meeting with USAID at the U.S. Embassy to talk about the malaria work I have been doing in the last quarter.  They were very encouraging and supportive with excellent feedback on how to remedy some problems I have been running into.  The meeting kicked me into high gear and there was the motivation I had been missing. 

Last week, I met with the regional net supplier for my area.  He has promised that he will personally deliver nets to me next week… that I have been waiting months to receive.  I also have finally managed to open communication lines between net supplier and OVC (Orphans and Vulnerable Children Association) to have an ongoing supply of nets delivered each month.   87 phone calls, many meetings, and endless conversations with people all over Kenya, and I have finally got this worked out.  It only took 10 months.  It’s the small things that are the huge successes here.  But this truly is a big deal.  I live in an endemic area for malaria and yet nets aren’t available to the community except for pregnant mothers and children under 1.  If my work ended tomorrow I would be satisfied knowing that anyone in the community now has access to mosquito nets for an incredibly low subsidized cost.  Oh and the OVC that will be selling them gets a profit.  It’s a win win. 

And I’m back…