More Day in the Life of...

Here is what I did at work today: reviewed the PC emergency action plan, read the job descriptions of the five employees at our headquarters, went to lunch with a coworker, read the newspaper, and failed miserably at a soduku puzzle. It is only the first week, however, and thinking back on it, that’s pretty much how I started at Oakwood too. An office that was being used for storage got cleaned out this afternoon (while I read the paper) so I’m hoping that soon I’ll be in there and that will make things feel a little more official.

After work I went for a short walk down my road away from town, just to see what I could see. Well, actually we’re supposed to draw a map of our house for PC to keep on file in case they need to find us, so I was also looking for landmarks for that. It is absolutely beautiful here. I think I said that the town where we trained reminded me in some ways of home because there were rolling green hills and cornfields everywhere. This town is more of the green fields, though the hills are a lot more volcanic looking since I’m at the base of Mt Kenya. I can see the mountain if I look behind me on the walk to work and it’s great. Not quite as majestic looking as Kilimanjaro, but still pretty incredible. Like Kilimanjaro it is usually only visible in the early morning (6-7:30ish) and in the evening (5:30-7ish). The rest of the day it’s blocked by clouds. The rest of the landscape is just sharp hills and valleys and everything is green despite the lack of rain this year. It’s sort of bizarre because I look one way and I see a clump of banana trees and I flash back to Hawaii and then I look the other way and see rows of corn and flash back to New York. The climate is absolutely ideal as well, at least for now. It’s pretty hot at midday; the sun is strong because we’re on the equator and it feels like the sun in Hawaii with none of the humidity. The mornings are pleasantly cool and the evenings keep the warmth of the day so I’ve been sleeping just with a sheet. January and February are the hot months, and then I don’t know about March but April and May are the rainy season, then June and July are the cold months, not sure about August, then another rainy season in November and December.

According to the paper, last year and this year have had much less rain than normal and it is being attributed to La Nina. I know where we trained the farmers were very concerned about the lack of rain and much fewer crops they were able to produce. Two dry seasons in a row plus the election violence last year (tons of maize in storage was burned and farmers’ planting schedules were disrupted) plus high costs for things like fertilizer has really hurt the food supply here and the government is expected to declare a national emergency due to the food shortage. That plus corruption in the government are two huge issues at the moment and all over the newspapers that I’ve been reading this week and since I got here in November. I have the security of knowing that the PC will give me what I need to survive or send me home if it feels it can’t, so the issues aren’t anything I need to worry about, but it’s heartbreaking for the people who live here and have no other options. It’s even tougher because there don’t seem to be any immediate viable solutions.

Oh, back to my walk, I desperately want to take pictures of everything, but flashing my camera around is not something I want to do this early on. In such a communal culture, everything that I have I am expected to share with anyone who asks, so a camera is fair game for anyone going to a wedding or event or who just wants “snaps” of their family. I am going to try to sneak out at first light on Sunday morning when I think most people will be still in the house to try to get the mountain and some of the immediate scenery. Where we were training I had a much more isolated walk to town and I managed to get a few pictures, intending to get more just before we finished training. However, my camera batteries picked the day before we left to die and the rechargeable ones I had ready to replace them had lost their charge as well, so no batteries and no pictures. A lot of the other trainees took pictures, so I will try to canvass their collections for some to grab. I can take a couple pics of the inside of my house, but (1) I still have no furniture other than my bed and (2) my supervisor told me I’ll probably be moving at the end of February. So we’ll see.

I cooked a real dinner for the first time since I’ve been here. I enjoy cooking and the added challenge of a kitchen with no workspace, no stovetop, and such different staple foods makes it even more fun. I bought a gas burner to cook on (and heat water for baths and dishes and things) and a charcoal stove specifically to use as a makeshift oven so I can bake. The banana bread I made the other day was delicious, as was the chocolate cake we made during training. I’m even going to try making my own bread when I can figure out where to buy yeast.

I’ve been meaning to cook for a few days, but then I got sick and I haven’t actually had much of an appetite since I got here. It’s one of the really cool ways my body responds to stress, which I guess is better than overeating, but no fun. Those protein bars that I received have been a lifesaver because I can manage to get one down and know I’m getting some sort of nutrition. For the past three days I’ve lived on banana bread, protein bars, and fries (at lunch…the smallest thing on the menu). Even tonight I wasn’t actually hungry, but I didn’t want the produce I bought at the beginning of the week to go bad, so I lit my gas burner and made spaghetti. Since there is no tomato sauce in town, I improvised by sautéing garlic, onions, and fresh tomatoes with a little Blue Band (margarine, but the major brand, like how we call tissues Kleenex). There’s a supermarket in the next town that sells both Prego tomato sauce ($$) and tomato paste, so I will stock up when I can get there. Once that was done, I realized that I don’t actually have any forks yet. The only utensils I have are two spoons my homestay mama gave me as a going-away present (along with two bowls and two cups, which was super sweet). So I cut everything up into tiny pieces and ate it with a spoon. Which is, oddly enough, exactly how Kenyans eat spaghetti. They serve the pasta plain as a side dish and they cut it up into pieces because they’re not very adept at twirling it around their forks. Actually, Kenyans rarely use forks. Anything eaten with ugali is eaten with your hands because the ugali makes an excellent scoop. For stews and things they use spoons. I’m pretty sure the restaurants in town only keep forks around for the occasional wazungus (white people) passing through. So I ate my spaghetti with a spoon on the floor of my living room (see above about still no furniture) wearing a skirt/wrap called a leso (lay-so) that all the Kenyan mamas wear and felt that I was really adapting. Lesos are amazing. I can wear shorts underneath and then wrap this piece of fabric around me and be decent to go outside. They’re probably even greater at the coast where it’s so hot and humid, but even here they’re like the Kenyan equivalent of sweatpants. You don’t really wear them out and about, but you can definitely get away with a quick trip to the market in one. However, once it gets cold, I think I will probably trade it for a real pair of sweatpants, which I also love.

Well, this was going to be a short, just-checking-in post, but it has turned out to be pretty extensive. More to follow, but not sure when. Miss you all!

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