One Year Down

I've officially been in Kenya for a year* The time for the most part seems to have flown by* A lot has happened during my time here, the majority wasn't what I had expected, granted Peace Corps told all of us not to have expectations* When I boarded the plane in Chicago in a sleep-deprived haze I thought I would be heading to a small, rural community where no English was spoken and food and water were hard to come by* A community like Gatunga that Women's Global worked with* I thought I would learn Swahili an be able to speak with the locals confidently* I thought I would struggle with dressing like a mama* I looked forward to learning to play the guitar* I had ideas of the food I would be eating (focused around millet and goat)* I thought I would miss the internet, a virtually unlimited calling plan & other technology I had come to take for granted* Coming from a fairly urban environment I worried about life in a small village and the lack of 24 hour anything* I wondered what illnesses I would contract* I had no ides what kind of work I would be doing* I thought I would live in my village for my entire service* My first site was in a large town and I lived in an office* My current site is a village where I live in a house made of mud and poop (the cow manure helps the mud stick, we use it to make charcoal balls for the same reason)* A decent amount of the villagers speak English which is helpful because I was not taught Swahili* I am trying to teach myself but it's going a bit slower than I would like* My village is lucky* We ave two sizeable rainy seasons which means we can grow a lot of food to eat and sugar cane to sell* We also do not have severe water shortages like other parts of Kenya, our wells rarely dry up* I was worried about dressing like a Kenyan woman* I have never enjoyed wearing long skirts and as I over heat easily I was concerned about a ban on tank tops* Initially I resisted, but over the course of the year I have assimilated, perhaps too much* In the village I frequently wear a head scarf* I have once again become a fan of big, baggy tee shirts that I pair with three long skirts* I have only worn pants in Nairobi since moving to my village* I bought a slip yesterday after some ladies I work with pointed out that my skirts were showing a wear* I can't remember ever voluntarily wearing a slip* I bought a dress to wear in Kisumu a few weeks ago, a dress I would have worn in Chicago during the summer, and freaked out and ended up wearing a shawl over it because my shoulders weren't covered and the dress was knee length* I also haven't had a good hair day since our wearing in ceremony, but then again I have no desire to wear my hair down due to the heat as well as all of the people who want to touch it* I bought a guitar in Nairobi and I have learned to play it, hopefully the right way as I'm primarily self-taught although I did have Lorenzo's help with chords and my brother talked me though bar chords in a rather expensive phone call* I love my guitar, it helps keep me sane* My diet was a bit varied when I had my roommate Magan but now it's less exciting* I live off fresh produce supplemented with oatmeal, soya, popcorn, ugali (made from corn meal and water kind of like polenta) & the occasional pasta or rice* I am essentially a vegetarian, which people in my village think is a bit odd* We don't grow millet here* I have eaten goat twice* I can use my phone for internet sometimes, but there will be weeks where I have no access and have to go to town to use it and then hope that there is power* I only seem to want the internet to check email, I am ok with not being able to do that often* I don't use my phone much, I send some texts and make a few calls* Sometimes I only make one call in a week* While the cost of airtime is small in terms of $ it seems like a lot on a Peace Corps budget* I love living in a small village, I feel safe here* Recently I've started freaking out a bit when I go to my market town* There's too many people* Large grocery stores that I am unfamiliar with can be overwhelming* The malls in Nairobi are intimidating* It will be interesting to see how I react to Chicago when I've had another year in Kenya* I thought I woul get some kind of freaky illness, I did have an ameba which I guess qualifies* I had a lot of issues that I hadn't anticipated* I drank over twice the daily recommended amount of water and developed cysts due to matatus* I also have been having lots of flash backs to oregon trail fyi dysentry is not fun* I'm still figuring out what my job is here* I work with a variety of community groups and at a local dipensary (CLINIC)* A lot of the work I do is farming related, I really didn't expect to spend my time digging in shambas, making charcoal and rollling balls of charcoal dust and cow manure with my bare hands but I actually seem to enjoy it more than my time at the dispensary* I love my village and neighbors* I have no idea of what to expect this year, but I'm looking forward to what's coming because I know Kenya will keep me on my toes*