I am going to take one more email to just get some of the nitty gritty details out and then, hopefully, i will be able to start writing some substantive emails. I just want to all to have a base understanding of what the day to day is for me- and it involves a whole hell of a lot of peace corps- the good and the bad. first let me just say, that last email, was me incredibly giddy to just get on the internet(having time, electricity, shillings etc.) and letting my fingers dance across a keyboard once again-it was pure excitement to feel connected. What made my day, following my lesson the afternoon i wrote the email, i went to collect my mail and had an outstanding letter from one ms. frances ruth lessman which closed by saying "I am just dying for your first letter/email... I cant wait to get everything in scattered great detail! The Rachel way!" it made me laugh and know that this email will be along the same lines, nothing poetic, so skip it if you so desire.
Peace Corps...I have now finished week 5 of my training, and you would not believe what an accomplishment that feels like for some. structure- we spent 3 days in Nairobi doing admin junk and a crash course in kiswahili, and on our first Sunday in country, we headed to kitui where we are currently enduring 10 weeks of Peace Corps Training. throughout this time we are doing language anywhere from 2- 6 hours a day, technical training on issues such as healthy diets for positive people, solar cookers, water purification etc., medical training on volunteer health and personal issues (these sessions can be mighty scary(the mango fly is sooo much scarier than even imagined...if you are interested in vomiting, go on google and find a picture of the eggs as they hatch in your skin bleck!!!), absolutely entertaining (the sex discussion was a riot!!!), or positively boring (what is HIV and ARV's etc and how can you as a volunteer protect yourselves...) yeah.) In addition, each volunteer has a primary project and a secondary project. for me, i have been working on a sub surface dam with a community group, and my secondary project is working on income generating projects with a womens group. all in all, i love these projects and am learning a lot from them. So evenings and weekends are spent studying, reading, hiking, playing/watching ultimate with friends and spending time with the family which means cooking or church going. needless to say, we are crazy busy and exhausted and in some cases, we are just plain tired of dealing with PC and cant wait to get the heck to site!
so, this brings me to the FSV(future site visit (everything in PC is an acronym, it can get a little tiresome, even for me) FSV what has been this guiding light for the last 5 weeks, whenever we are sick and tired of kitui town and PC bullshit is piling up, we look at the calender and count the days to FSV. This is in week 6(YES TOMORROW!! AHHHHHHHHH) and all 48 of us travel to Nairobi, party hardy Sunday, and Monday, WE ARE TOLD THE LOCATION IN WHICH WE WILL SPEND THE NEXT 2 YEARS!!!! and on Wednesday after some workshops, we travel to this future site and kind of do an assessment of the local, living conditions, apparent community needs and our counterparts. The decision of where we will be placed lies almost entirely in the hands of 2 people whom have our resumes, aspirations statements and our wish list and whom we have all had brief interviews with. I really do not know how to articulate the magnitude of this information. so much lies in the hands of so few- it is a matter of being somewhere where kiswahili is actually spoken(coastal/eastern) as opposed to the majority of the country where vernacular languages dominate the majority of the conversation. this is important because most volunteers not on the coast do not learn another language, instead, they communicate in english...that just sucks. this decision dictates whether i will continue to live in produce heaven or whether i will possibly get scurvy as a current volunteer did (HAH!!). Finally, this decision outlines my relationships with fellow volunteers for the next few years. will i be placed near those incredible people whose conversations and alternative thought processes i cherish, who i have been waiting to meet for years, and who i have come to depend on - or will it be near those incredibly obnoxious people who are so lost and out of touch with themselves that they join the PC and say things like, "when im drinking, i sleep where i fall!" and think they have won the non-existent popularity contest. yeah, these are just a few of the things running through my head right now. needless to say, i cannot wait for tomorrow, when i will be in Nairobi, eating cheesy everythings and drinking passion fruit mojitos an wine and then Monday, when my future is handed to me.
Ok, briefly, Peace Corps review time. I am going to start by saying that there are days when i am glowing and cannot imagine any other organization i would rather move to Africa with this early in my career. I am impressed by the extent of medical coverage, access, information, and care - our nurses hug people for gawds sake, they are like our mamas. I am impressed by the massive amount of materials that is given us so that we will succeed when on our own. we really have access to anything we could think of pertaining in any way to our projects. we are surface trained for everything in the public health spectrum from needs assessments to HIV/AIDS to water catchments to solar cooker construction to income generating activities, its really damn awesome. i feel as though so much of what i am learning now and am being trained in now is sooooo applicable to my future career and once again, i am full of this energy that tells me i am doing what i am supposed to be doing at this moment in my life. its really quite phenomenal. Additionally, i have met some wonderful people who are beginning to occupy a very special place in my heart. I wont go into the details of the people, but just know they rock big time, and ill share as these years unfold-we've got nothin but time.
Ok, now that i feel i have sufficiently talked up peace corps, let me tell you, sometimes i just want to scream at the bureaucracy. it is truly amazing some of the ridiculous hoops we have to jump through all so that PC Washington can cover their ass. there are days where i feel i am getting dumber and am in utter need for mental stimulation. days like this, at least we have eachother and our plethora of development/Africa books we all have brought along. right now though, i am on a peace corps high so i dont want to search for the negative just to explain to you how much it sucks sometimes, just trust me - kweli kabisa!
Kiswahili rocks, i love it, i just sat down on a one on one with my instructor and spoke for a full hour...it felt pretty incredible and i had this goofy glow about me because i just spoke in another language for a solid hour.
the generator is running out of fuel and i am losing your attention i am sure, but know that i am well, fulfilled and happy to be here. I miss the heck out of all of you and love hearing from you. please send letters. also, if you are sending food, do not mark that in the customs slip, just lie and try and conceal it. also do not send alch or sexually explicit material. everything gets opened.
love you all,
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