to continue the safari post: it was fabulous. our driver peter was literally the best ever and managed to get us up close and personal with every animal that was hard to spot. it just was so different than i expected...i guess because i just didn't know much about safaris so i didn't know what to expect in the first place. the best way to describe the masai mara safari is to compare it to a treasure hunt. we are the pirates on the hunt and the animals are the treasure. the best part is that we all get to share in the find! the drivers of all the cars each have a walkie talkie and can chat with each other about major finds in the animal kingdom and then they all get to share the prize of seeing the animal. for example: peter would get a call on the radio in swahili and it would be something along the lines of "we found a leopard" or whatever and then we would literally FLY there in our safari mobile and there would be fifty cars waiting for it to come out of the bushes! hilarious. it still feels surreal to think that i was five feet away from a lion. with a real live mane. woah.
another fab find we have discovered is this restaurant called Twitters (which they pronounce tweeters) which is the bomb. we go almost every single day for lunch because it's right across the street from FAIR and our meal is 100 kenyan shillings = $1! hell yeah! it's delish and cheap as mcdonald's but you get a TON of food. however, the kenyans have severe issues with my pickiness. they do not enjoy the fact that i am not the most adventuresome eater and choose to call me out/scold me blatantly every single day. can't catch a break.
so every tuesday night our house looses power from 6:30-9:30. strange, yes. we don't know why but it's like clockwork! so this past week we ate dinner early before it was time to bust out the flashlights (which they call torches...) and then went to this great bar/restaurant/dance club called Taidy's which is like five minutes from our house. we chilled and drank Redds, which are like girly wine coolers, and talked around the table because they had power! it was so nice. i love nights like that.
this work week was great, specifically yesterday. amanda and i got to go to this monthly meeting that FAIR hosts for about 100 sex workers in the nakuru area. i don't know how to describe it, but i just love being around these groups because the women are just sweet. it's sad too, but sweet all the more because they are SO loving and kind to me. they all remembered me from meetings and made me feel so good! i'm so lucky to be working here and working with them. i wish you could see these women! so beautiful.
tonight we're going dancing. duh. hopefully we won't get malled by the kenyans who literally swarm and pretend like they are taking pictures with invisible cameras of us. whatever. miss you guys. thanks for reading this randomness!
Friday, September 30, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
failure to blog
it's been ten days since i've written! i suck at blogging. dang it.
so i'll start kinda far back...like last weekend: so friday night i got home from work and had ants in my pants to go out on the town in nakuru! one of my favorite friends at work, kendi, invited me to go to this hotel in town with her and then go dancing later. we met at waterbuck hotel which had a super posh little pub in the back of it and drank tusker (the kenyan beer)! then we moved to this club called Enigma where we literally flailed until 3am! it was hilarious because i told rosemary i was going to be back around midnight or one and when she came to unlock the door for me at three, she was like, "i knew this would happen. i knew you would have too much fun at the kenyan clubs!"...which i totally did. luckily she goes out a lot too so she wasn't mad :) the clubs play a mix of swahili and american music and EVERYONE dances. like people go crazy...especially the men, which is so fun to watch! that was the night i fell in love with kenyan music. obsessed.
the other volunteers and i trotted around town during the day on saturday and met up with these danish volunteers that are working at the hospital at night time. we went to this nyama choma (barbeque) place that has a live band and turns into a dance club after dark. SO HILARIOUS. the kenyan men have a fascination with white women, so they were like so bizarre when we were dancing on the dance floor. i walked back to the table and this guy called me over and was like, "i'll pay ten cows for you to be my wife." they literally are like sharks and they are RELENTLESS when they spot you. sometimes you have to say enda! which is go away in swahili! it's kind of fun :)
last week went by pretty quickly. oh yeah! we got two new roommates that are american and from virginia! they're 22 and childhood friends and adorable. also one of them works with me at FAIR. her name is amanda and i'm a huge fan. our two bosses were out of the office last week so we basically did paperwork and filing and stuff to help out. we got to bond over hole punching. how cute.
on to the exciting part: SAFARI! we finally went on safari to the Masai Mara (southern kenya, close to tanzania) from friday to sunday! it was sooo cool oh my gosh. what a once in a lifetime opportunity! however, one disclaimer: if you get carsick, a safari is your worst nightmare. dead serious. thankfully i do not have that issue, i just wanted to state this fact.
shoot have to go to dinner. i'll write more in a little bit! :)
Thursday, September 15, 2011
today is friday! yay! this has been such a great week at work with FAIR! yesterday i went to an alcoholics anonymous meeting for the female sex workers that one of my bosses runs. i really enjoyed getting to be there and the we all went around in a circle and our names and how long we have been sober. i looked like a disaster obviously when i said "i'm valen and i've been sober for one week" because we drank last weekend at dinner! oops!
this weekend we are going to these waterfalls near nakuru and it's going to be gorgeous. the weather here has been awesome and not too hot at all so walking around outside is lovely. i feel so comfortable here!
this morning i saw a man wearing an ohio state hat! he had no idea what it was, but i forced him to take a picture with me. he then proceeded to request 50 shillings for allowing me to get a picture with him. i looked at my motor bike driver and we laughed and just drove away :)
this weekend we are going to these waterfalls near nakuru and it's going to be gorgeous. the weather here has been awesome and not too hot at all so walking around outside is lovely. i feel so comfortable here!
this morning i saw a man wearing an ohio state hat! he had no idea what it was, but i forced him to take a picture with me. he then proceeded to request 50 shillings for allowing me to get a picture with him. i looked at my motor bike driver and we laughed and just drove away :)
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
some interesting things
fyi, i have not died in the gasoline fire in nairobi. if you haven't heard about it, there was a gas leak/spill in nairobi yesterday morning and somehow it caught an entire slum on fire killing nearly 100 and wounding a bunch more. people were freaking out and it's literally all over the newspapers. it's really sad :( luckily neither rosemary nor any of my coworkers have any relatives or anyone that was involved.
yesterday i got the schedule of what i will be doing each day with FAIR. they have been so considerate of me and don't want me to get bored so they asked me to create an ideal outline of what my weeks would look like. awesome. so this is the plan:
-one day will be spent at the farm, where we will harvest and deliver the massive amounts of food to the drop in centers in nakuru
-two days will be spent running group counseling sessions with the commercial sex workers
-one day will be spent working in the Red Cross drop in center that has partnered with fair where we will be making home visits and meeting with families to check up on their home lives
-on fridays i will come to the office and help them with data entry and play with my fun new coworkers!
i'm really excited that each day will be different and that i get to interact with so many people! woohoo!
so this afternoon i had my first session with the sex workers. i was freaking out because they were so quiet in the beginning and looked like they were going to be mute the entire time. when you enter a room in kenya, you go around and shake the hand of each and every person, so i did the same when i got to the meeting. however, i felt so embarrassed because i was introducing myself and asking their names and they spoke so quietly and mumbly that i had to ask them to repeat themselves multiple times. perhaps i have a hearing problem...either way i felt like salt. one of the girls had a child in the meeting so i asked the rest of them if they had kids as well and then the conversation exploded! they loveeee their children. like obsessed with them and wanted to talk all about their names and ages and how smart they were. it was great to see them so happy! they all wanted to know if i was married or have kids, so they all freaked out when i told them i had a boyfriend! they were like "will you find me a white man to marry too?" and i was like...that's going to be pretty challenging to do in africa!
so these women sell sexual favors near truck stops, clubs, and bars at night time. this means that they leave their children at home a lot and therefore the kids have a lot of psychosocial trauma and issues. obviously they don't like seeing their moms do this work, but at the same time, if they didn't, the family LITERALLY would not eat. knowing this, i asked this super chatty girl named Julie (who is 21 as well) how much money you make in a night as a sex worker. i wanted to sob when she said they make around $5-$15 for an entire night. that is far too little to support a family. the craziest part is that the ages of the sex workers range from 15-60 years old. some of them have been impoverished and selling sexual favors for twenty years. wow i really don't know how i'm supposed to be able to relate to that, but the good thing is that they just want someone to listen. good thing i can do that. also, they love when i try and speak swahili. literally they laughed so hard when i said "asante sana" which is thank you very much because i sound really american apparently! i told them my birthday is a week from today and they were SO excited and asked if they could throw me a birthday party because i will be seeing them on the actual day. i ADORE working with these women.
shout out to aunt annette: the social worker i am shadowing at the kenyan red cross here reminds me SO much of you!! her name is Anne (funny right!) and she is a dream to be around. the first time i met her she gave me a massive hug, which is very rare for women to do here. she is brilliant and incredibly kind, just like you! i think you guys have similar laughs and temperaments... love it.
i can't believe i can write so much in these posts! i guess there's a lot to see so there must be a lot to report?
yesterday i got the schedule of what i will be doing each day with FAIR. they have been so considerate of me and don't want me to get bored so they asked me to create an ideal outline of what my weeks would look like. awesome. so this is the plan:
-one day will be spent at the farm, where we will harvest and deliver the massive amounts of food to the drop in centers in nakuru
-two days will be spent running group counseling sessions with the commercial sex workers
-one day will be spent working in the Red Cross drop in center that has partnered with fair where we will be making home visits and meeting with families to check up on their home lives
-on fridays i will come to the office and help them with data entry and play with my fun new coworkers!
i'm really excited that each day will be different and that i get to interact with so many people! woohoo!
so this afternoon i had my first session with the sex workers. i was freaking out because they were so quiet in the beginning and looked like they were going to be mute the entire time. when you enter a room in kenya, you go around and shake the hand of each and every person, so i did the same when i got to the meeting. however, i felt so embarrassed because i was introducing myself and asking their names and they spoke so quietly and mumbly that i had to ask them to repeat themselves multiple times. perhaps i have a hearing problem...either way i felt like salt. one of the girls had a child in the meeting so i asked the rest of them if they had kids as well and then the conversation exploded! they loveeee their children. like obsessed with them and wanted to talk all about their names and ages and how smart they were. it was great to see them so happy! they all wanted to know if i was married or have kids, so they all freaked out when i told them i had a boyfriend! they were like "will you find me a white man to marry too?" and i was like...that's going to be pretty challenging to do in africa!
so these women sell sexual favors near truck stops, clubs, and bars at night time. this means that they leave their children at home a lot and therefore the kids have a lot of psychosocial trauma and issues. obviously they don't like seeing their moms do this work, but at the same time, if they didn't, the family LITERALLY would not eat. knowing this, i asked this super chatty girl named Julie (who is 21 as well) how much money you make in a night as a sex worker. i wanted to sob when she said they make around $5-$15 for an entire night. that is far too little to support a family. the craziest part is that the ages of the sex workers range from 15-60 years old. some of them have been impoverished and selling sexual favors for twenty years. wow i really don't know how i'm supposed to be able to relate to that, but the good thing is that they just want someone to listen. good thing i can do that. also, they love when i try and speak swahili. literally they laughed so hard when i said "asante sana" which is thank you very much because i sound really american apparently! i told them my birthday is a week from today and they were SO excited and asked if they could throw me a birthday party because i will be seeing them on the actual day. i ADORE working with these women.
shout out to aunt annette: the social worker i am shadowing at the kenyan red cross here reminds me SO much of you!! her name is Anne (funny right!) and she is a dream to be around. the first time i met her she gave me a massive hug, which is very rare for women to do here. she is brilliant and incredibly kind, just like you! i think you guys have similar laughs and temperaments... love it.
i can't believe i can write so much in these posts! i guess there's a lot to see so there must be a lot to report?
Monday, September 12, 2011
the start of week 2!
mooching the internet at work again, oops!
So this was such a wonderful weekend here! We took our first "trip" which i will describe more in detail in a little bit, but it was just so exciting to get to travel with all the fun people here! when i finished work on friday afternoon, we all went to dinner at this really cool place called the summit. it was a restaurant/sports bar/disco dance floor and they brought out a whole chicken for each person as our meal! i went with my norwegian roommate penny and the 3 other 60-year old female volunteers that are staying with Rosemary (two of which are australian and funny as hell). we got to sit around and enjoy the night after our meal and then danced after that!
on saturday we went to a pool in downtown nakuru called the Merica hotel where you get to lay by the pool and relax for FREE! but if you even stick your foot in, a man comes over and says, that will be 300 kenyan shillings. haha. there are pictures on facebook, but just to reiterate, it was GORGEOUS. the rest of nakuru is dusty and pretty brown, but the pool area was lush and green! such a treat.
after the pool, i begged penny to come with me to this concert called kenyans for kenya. one of the guys i work with at FAIR was on the planning committee and invited me so i really wanted to check it out. it was sponsored by the red cross and cost 100 shillings ($1) to get in and you could listen to like a billion kenyan musicians sing. the proceeds went to the people in northern kenya who are experiencing severe famine at this moment. it was SO neat and so african. when i say there were no other white people there, i mean there were ZERO other white people there. it's so hilarious because wherever you walk, you get called to and swarmed and people want to take pictures with you because lots of them have never seen another white person. HAHA so the concert was no different. penny wouldn't let me dance because she said it would make us "targets for bad stuff" but i really wanted to dance like they do. the young kenyan boys dance like their legs are caving in and broken. i'll demonstrate when i get back to america, but it's pretty funny to witness! i want to learn...
side note about the concert: it was kind of sad because when you went to the entrance gate, there were hundreds of families (kids and adults) who were listening to the music outside the stadium because they couldn't pay the 100 shillings to get in. that is how poor it is. i feel like a spoiled brat.
on sunday we got up early and traveled two hours to lakes bogoria and baringo! if you're ever in kenya, these spots are a must. here are some of the animals i got to see: ostrich, giant tortoise, flamingo, scorpion, snake, crocodile (or alligator i forget which), monkeys, giant storks, etc. Best part about seeing these animals is that they are in the wild so you can get as close to them as they will let you! great for photo ops.
life in kenya is easy if you're american because it is so relaxed and slow moving. i feel really calm here because i'm never in a hurry or "have some place to be" because the kenyans don't care about being late or not. i think i belong here because i'm late to everything!
moquito bite count: 2
So this was such a wonderful weekend here! We took our first "trip" which i will describe more in detail in a little bit, but it was just so exciting to get to travel with all the fun people here! when i finished work on friday afternoon, we all went to dinner at this really cool place called the summit. it was a restaurant/sports bar/disco dance floor and they brought out a whole chicken for each person as our meal! i went with my norwegian roommate penny and the 3 other 60-year old female volunteers that are staying with Rosemary (two of which are australian and funny as hell). we got to sit around and enjoy the night after our meal and then danced after that!
on saturday we went to a pool in downtown nakuru called the Merica hotel where you get to lay by the pool and relax for FREE! but if you even stick your foot in, a man comes over and says, that will be 300 kenyan shillings. haha. there are pictures on facebook, but just to reiterate, it was GORGEOUS. the rest of nakuru is dusty and pretty brown, but the pool area was lush and green! such a treat.
after the pool, i begged penny to come with me to this concert called kenyans for kenya. one of the guys i work with at FAIR was on the planning committee and invited me so i really wanted to check it out. it was sponsored by the red cross and cost 100 shillings ($1) to get in and you could listen to like a billion kenyan musicians sing. the proceeds went to the people in northern kenya who are experiencing severe famine at this moment. it was SO neat and so african. when i say there were no other white people there, i mean there were ZERO other white people there. it's so hilarious because wherever you walk, you get called to and swarmed and people want to take pictures with you because lots of them have never seen another white person. HAHA so the concert was no different. penny wouldn't let me dance because she said it would make us "targets for bad stuff" but i really wanted to dance like they do. the young kenyan boys dance like their legs are caving in and broken. i'll demonstrate when i get back to america, but it's pretty funny to witness! i want to learn...
side note about the concert: it was kind of sad because when you went to the entrance gate, there were hundreds of families (kids and adults) who were listening to the music outside the stadium because they couldn't pay the 100 shillings to get in. that is how poor it is. i feel like a spoiled brat.
on sunday we got up early and traveled two hours to lakes bogoria and baringo! if you're ever in kenya, these spots are a must. here are some of the animals i got to see: ostrich, giant tortoise, flamingo, scorpion, snake, crocodile (or alligator i forget which), monkeys, giant storks, etc. Best part about seeing these animals is that they are in the wild so you can get as close to them as they will let you! great for photo ops.
life in kenya is easy if you're american because it is so relaxed and slow moving. i feel really calm here because i'm never in a hurry or "have some place to be" because the kenyans don't care about being late or not. i think i belong here because i'm late to everything!
moquito bite count: 2
Friday, September 9, 2011
i can't believe i'm just now posting!
Hiii! I am so sorry it has taken me this long to post about the trip so far! i tried to write something on my first night in Kenya when i was at the hotel in Nairobi, but the internet kept cutting in and out. Luckily for me, the place where I'm working has wireless and I get to use my computer when we enter data!
First and formost, i am safe and sound in Nakuru with my wonderful host-mom Rosemary! The trip was sooo long but so worth it because this is literally one of the coolest places i've ever seen. Even the three hour drive from Nairobi to Nakuru was SWEET because there were zebras, antelope, and baboons on the land on the side of the highways. obviously i freaked out because i was so excited to see all these animals in real life (not in zoo-life) and my driver thought it was so funny that i was loving it so much! Rosemary's house is really beautiful and big, which is good because she is housing 5 other interns. It is a five minute walk from "town" where all the shops and activities are which is really convenient for me.
the kenyan people are SO friendly and say "hello, how are you mzungu (white person)" all the time because there are literally no white people here ha! it's crazy how smart this country is because almost everyone can speak swahili, english, and the language of their specific tribes. so talking and getting around has been super easy...the only thing is that they speak their english so fast!
i think one of my favorite parts about being here is my job. i'm working at a kenyan non-profit called FAIR (family AIDS initiative response) that supports families, orphaned/vulnerable children, and commercial sex workers in the Nakuru community. the employees are all angels...like they are SO passionate about working at FAIR and changing their community and the stigma of HIV. also, they are all young and fun, which i like too :) FAIR's number one donor is the US government...so they love me and treat me like i am the one that writes them the checks hahah!
I'm so happy to be here. it is so different than i imagined...for example:
-i ride to work on the back of a motor bike called a "boda boda"
-the billboards are square, not rectangular like ours
-it is SO much cheaper than i thought it would be (we went out for an "expensive" dinner and it was $3.50 in american money)
-i feel really safe here...despite the fact that i got my kenyan cell phone stolen directly out of my hand! hahah
-they drink chai tea like three times a day
longest post ever, but i had to make up for four days of being here! this weekend we're going to two lakes called bogoria and beringo to see animals and hike around. hopefully i'll get tan like the kenyans :)
LOVE YOU ALL!
p.s. thanks for sending me here mom and dad!
First and formost, i am safe and sound in Nakuru with my wonderful host-mom Rosemary! The trip was sooo long but so worth it because this is literally one of the coolest places i've ever seen. Even the three hour drive from Nairobi to Nakuru was SWEET because there were zebras, antelope, and baboons on the land on the side of the highways. obviously i freaked out because i was so excited to see all these animals in real life (not in zoo-life) and my driver thought it was so funny that i was loving it so much! Rosemary's house is really beautiful and big, which is good because she is housing 5 other interns. It is a five minute walk from "town" where all the shops and activities are which is really convenient for me.
the kenyan people are SO friendly and say "hello, how are you mzungu (white person)" all the time because there are literally no white people here ha! it's crazy how smart this country is because almost everyone can speak swahili, english, and the language of their specific tribes. so talking and getting around has been super easy...the only thing is that they speak their english so fast!
i think one of my favorite parts about being here is my job. i'm working at a kenyan non-profit called FAIR (family AIDS initiative response) that supports families, orphaned/vulnerable children, and commercial sex workers in the Nakuru community. the employees are all angels...like they are SO passionate about working at FAIR and changing their community and the stigma of HIV. also, they are all young and fun, which i like too :) FAIR's number one donor is the US government...so they love me and treat me like i am the one that writes them the checks hahah!
I'm so happy to be here. it is so different than i imagined...for example:
-i ride to work on the back of a motor bike called a "boda boda"
-the billboards are square, not rectangular like ours
-it is SO much cheaper than i thought it would be (we went out for an "expensive" dinner and it was $3.50 in american money)
-i feel really safe here...despite the fact that i got my kenyan cell phone stolen directly out of my hand! hahah
-they drink chai tea like three times a day
longest post ever, but i had to make up for four days of being here! this weekend we're going to two lakes called bogoria and beringo to see animals and hike around. hopefully i'll get tan like the kenyans :)
LOVE YOU ALL!
p.s. thanks for sending me here mom and dad!
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