Fetching water at Kadzinuni

Today's topic is fetching water. Now, since I am such a princess, I only have to walk outside with a bucket, go about 15 yards, and turn on a faucet. The water I get is rain water stored in a large tank. I treat the water with a product called "PUR" and it is truly amazing to see all the stuff that settles to the bottom after treatment. The water looks so clean coming out of the tap! I have only been sick once, a brief one day thing, but I am very careful in how I treat my drinking water and also VERY careful to always have my own drinking water with me wherever I go.

So - the photos here show my new friend, Clara, and how she fetchs water, EVERYDAY! She has told me that young girls, by the age of 5 or 6, begin training in carrying just about anything and everything on their heads. I have tried several times, with different items, draws lots of laughter from the women!

Here are a few snipets from my life here:

I have been invited to a dinner of roasted field mice. Can you guess my response?
I saw several women with plastic 50 gallon drums on their heads, WALKING UP HILL.
Today I was asked over 20 times, "Where are you going?"
There is something alive in my house that sort of looks like a small lizard.
I went to a very upscale Kenyan wedding and the wedding party consisted on 19 people,not counting the bride and groom.

I will close for now. Next time I may even include a video of the inside of my house. Also, hope to have a shot of the Kenyan men climbing the coconut trees to collect the coconuts for their disgusting coconot wine.

A day in my life at Kadzinuni

I will give you an idea of what my daily routine looks like for now. The sun rises over the Indian Ocean and I get up around 6:30 and have a great cup of coffee (coffee sent to me from Stellar Brew in Mammoth, it may have originally come from Kenya, who knows - have finally found great coffee I can purchase here). I fix breakfast on my trusty kerosene stove - clean up - and then head next door to the health clinic. I am currently assisting with weighing babies. People begin lining up on the clinic porch around 7am. The clinic serves the 20 villages in Kadzinuni, with a population of around 7000. If the day isn't busy, I wander around the villages meeting people or I wash my clothes (by hand in cold water) or I study more kiswahili. I have a Community Needs Assessment report to complete by the end of October and to be ready to turn into Peace Corps. So, I am beginning to think about getting started on that project. I take a vigorous walk from around 5 - 6:30 and then return home. The sun sets around 6:45 and since no one has electricity up here, it gets dark quickly. I fire up my kerosene lantern, cook dinner and then e-mail if my laptop battery is charged up. I read some and then call it a day!

I attended a Kenyan funeral this weekend and here are some photos. You can get a clear idea of what the houses look like from these photos. It was so weird at the funeral - some family members came in cars and they just drove right on the dirt paths ----there are no real roads, except the one to the health clinic. The 20 villages are just connected by foot paths. It is rather charming! Now at night I can hear traffic on the tarmac road below where I live. So when I go into Mombasa, I walk for about 1/2 hour downhill and then get a matatu. I will describe this mode of transportation another time, just let me say for now that they don't use seat belts in Kenay! Pray for me please!

Here are photos!

Well, I think I forgot how to enter photos - hope I am successful this time. Am including a few from my time in Loittokitok.

News Update as of August 4th

Dear Friends, After two rather long and arduous months of Peace Corps training, I am now all settled into my work site. First a few words on Peace Corps training ------it was tedious being with so many young people just out of college. They would interrupt the instructors, laugh outragiously at things that really weren't that funny and drink beer every night (OK, that last comment isn't really a complaint! I DID occassionally join them for a Kenyan Tusker brew).
There were six of us "seniors" in the group and only one of them was a beer drinker, so I did have to join the youngsters at times.

The training itself was good but long and gosh, it had been so long since I had to attend classes! We were in class from 8am till 4 or 5pm everyday. The language instruction was so intense - I finally did pass. I am now speaking kiswahili everyday ----had to stand in front of hundreds of school kids and introduce myself. They understood me!! I need to greatly improve my kiswahili but am hoping it will come along as I have to use it constanty. I can tell you a lot about HIV in kiswahili.

The training was in a "town" at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro. That view was spectacular but the town itself is covered in plastic bags stuck in bushes and other trash everywhere. Some PC volunteer needs to have a town clean up day for them. I lived with a host family that was interesting but, like being in class all day with younger people, living with a family is something I hadn't done in years. I was thrilled when the two months ended.

I am now living at my permanent work site for the next two years. Pity me ---I am right on the coast of Eastern Kenya, slightly north of Mombasa (of pirate fame). I live up a "sort of" dirt road, about 2.5 miles off of a paved road. I live in a cement block house, no electricity or running water, but the house is just fine. The roof is metal and doesn't leak! I am right next to a health clinic that I work with. But other than these two buildings, I am surrounded by mud huts. The villagers are quite poor but extremely friendly and happy to see me. As I walk around the villages (there are several separate villages up here but within sight of eachother - most of the villagers are from the same tribe) the children scream out my name. I am teaching them to call me Mary rather than the ubiquitious chat of "Mzungu" - white person.

It is incredibly beautiful here. I am surrounded by baobob trees, coconut palms, a huge sisal plantation, banana trees, and a spectacular view of the Indian Ocean. The down side is that the two professional people who work at the clinic live outside the area. After 5pm everyday, it is just me and the villagers. It gets dark every night (year round) by 7pm - it is a good thing I can recharge my laptop at the clinic---blogging could become a big past time for me! I have a kerosene lantern and cook stove and am very glad I brought my solar shower. It is so hot (and it is winter here) that I don't even heat the water but it does allow me to shower.

I will close for now but check again in another week or so for pictures from my new home. For now, enjoy these few shots from around Loittokitok. Yes, that is me in the traditional Maasi dress - a gift from my host family. EVERY American said I looked like Pocohontas!