Déjà Vu

The golf tournament on Friday was a good success. We had 101 people to register and play and we were expecting 100 so that was good. We also got a good bit of donations. It was a good day for Junior Church. I must say that I have never seen so many black people that play golf in one place in my life! Lol. We had great weather and people really enjoyed themselves. It was a 12 hour work day for me but it was good. I got to see lots of monkeys which were on the golf course! It was so crazy to see all the monkeys running around! At one point there were like 50 monkeys at the last hole and then in the picnic area! I am really going to miss seeing monkeys in ordinary places outside of the zoo once returning home!

Saturday I and some of the other volunteers got to go to the Fifa World Cup Tour Kenya vs. Nigeria game! It was so exciting and so much fun! I knew that the tour was stopping in this past weekend but I didn’t think I would be able to make it but I did! We had some pretty awesome seats as well! Although we lost 3-2 it was still a good game. Soccer games in other countries tend to be a lot more fun anyway lol. It did, however, get a little crazy close to the end when we were losing! People started throwing water bottle and this is no exaggeration, planks onto the field. Sure the ref was terrible but this was crazy! Being in the stands was safe, but for anyone on the field, it was a little wild.

On Monday we (the volunteers) had our first bimonthly meeting, which took place at Zen Garden. It was so beautiful and peaceful. I felt an automatic calm once stepping on the grounds! Later that night we went to Phyllis’ for dinner. It was just a good eating day, oriental and burgers! We were split into different groups and Josh and I were together. I had to get something from my house before going so we did that and then caught a matatu to her house. Upon getting into this matatu, I noticed that the tout gave me a little arm grab and I wasn’t really sure why until we got in and took off. It was the same guy from last Tuesday! My fiancé! I was so glad to have Josh with me. Lol. We decided that we should hold hands where he could see so that he would know that “my person” that was far is now near. He saw us and his eyes got really wide and then he motioned for me to come sit near him. When we got out of the matatu I could not stop laughing! First of all I could not believe that in the big city of Nairobi, and with so many matatus that run from Lavington to Westlands, that I would get on a matatu with this same man. Second, I couldn’t believe that even though he saw that the someone I made up from home was now here, he still wanted me to come closer! He is just an all around bold man!




On Tuesday and tomorrow we are having our final planning meetings before camp which starts on Tuesday! Oh me, oh my, oh moo! It is getting really close! Keep me in your prayers! Although I am excited, I am also nervous. It will be a good experience I know and I will learn a lot. Once again, after having a terrifying dream of a circumcision ceremony, I am glad that that will take place somewhere completely different and done by a completely different group! With this coming up, it may be another two weeks before I write to you all again to let you know of the adventures. Try not to cry too much because I know how you enjoy my weekly posts. I may try to post in between boys and girls camp weeks but I’m not making any promises! I’m sure they are going to be full of fun stories, adventures and excitement!

This has been Whitney in the Motherland saying take care and God Bless.

Habari Home!

What a week this has been!  On Friday I went, with the rest of the leadership team for the Ropes Camp, to the camp site in Sagana.  Let me tell you, if I wasn’t nervous and a little scared about it before seeing the actually place, then this visit just helped it along!  I don’t even do camping at home and now I am doing it in Kenya!  The closest I’ve come to camping is Montreat and I don’t believe you can call living in a house with electricity, showers, toilets, etc camping.  Even though I am nervous about this, I am also very excited.  We are just 12 days away.  We were told by the manager of this site that there are snakes that are poisonous in the area but don’t worry because they are afraid of people and do not come around.  My boss also reassured me that he has never seen one in all of his years of doing the camp, but he also told me that the buffalos would not come around at Mt. Kilima Mbogo because they were afraid of people.  Let’s just hope that he isn’t wrong about this as well because my history of not liking snakes goes way back to flipping over a bookshelf in kindergarten because I didn’t want to pet my classmate’s pet snake that he brought in for show and tell.  I don’t like them and I am a little afraid, especially if they are POISONOUS!     Please people pray for me not only for enduring living in the bush but also for my sanity of worrying if a snake is always on the prowl to eat me!

The services on Sunday that I helped planned were so much fun!  The children led all three of the services (Swahili, Youth and Main) and we had a good time.  There are some little characters in this group.  It was group of about 65 children leading the services, singing songs, etc.  They had a good time and I think that the congregation had a good time as well.  There was lots of singing and dancing.  This service was to raise awareness of what happens in the Junior Church and promote the golf tournament that is happening tomorrow to raise money for the Junior Church. 

At the end of last week I fought my way on to a matatu for the first time!  I looked like a real Kenyan with this first come first serve service.  There many who did not make it, but I was one of the ones who did.  How sad when you have to watch the matatu you need drive away and have to wait for another!  That was not me this time.  Although, there were 18 people in this 14 passenger van!  I was at one point sitting on this man and woman whom I have never seen before and will probably never see again!  I will take this any day over an empty matatu which I mistakenly took on Tuesday!

I thought wow this is great!  I don’t have to be squished or worry about keeping my pockets and bag protected because I am the only one besides the driver and conductor so I would know if something is happening.  Well well well well let me just tell you! I will not be getting on anymore empty matatus!

 I GOT PROPOSED TO BY THE CONDUCTOR ALL THE WAY FROM WESTLANDS TO LAVI! 

There were points when we weren’t moving which made it worse!  I was so happy when I got to my stop!  I should have gotten off earlier and just walked to where I needed to go!  This man found out that I was from America which started the “you are rich and should help someone out.”  Then he went on to say that he is single and needed just one wife and asked if I could do that for him.  I told him no, which was not good enough for him because he kept going so I lied about having someone at home.  After telling him this he said that I shattered his heart into many pieces! Then he went on to say that they are far and he is here and I could have someone here and back at home.  He said that he can fall in love with me and I can learn to fall in love with him.  What made this even worse was the fact that he at one point had his hand on my shoulder which I quickly moved away from!  He told me that it would be so good if a rich person like me married him a poor man and took him to America.  As tempting as this offer was, I kept declining several times!  This would not work on so many levels!  He also said that I needed someone to help me with my Kiswahili and he could do that.  This all happened because he talked just a little bit too much where I couldn’t get by.  I was fine up until a point, but he just had to go one sentence past my understanding!  Before getting out, he asked if he could have my number and I said no without feeling bad at all!
 
Don’t worry people, I’m still not getting married and not coming back home as some of you are worried about!

After this crazy day, Wednesday and today paled in comparison.  I did however finally get to visit the slum area where the church I am based at also works.  I will have a chance to work there soon now that I have settled into this Kenyan life according to the pastor of my church.  There were some guys here from The States that are making a documentary for the Billy Grahm Library and they were doing some filming in Gatina, which is the slum area, and I will be in part of iTomorrow is the golf tournament for the Junior Church which should be a lot of fun.  I have never been to a golf tournament or even played golf unless you count putt putt. 

This has been Whitney in the Motherland saying take care and God bless.

  What a good week this has been since I last wrote!  This weekend we had a birthday celebration for Lauren at Phyllis’ which included lasagna!! CHEESE!  Kenyans do not believe in cheese, so it was go great to have it!  On Saturday there was a Halloween party put on by the US embassy so we (the volunteers) thought we’d drop in for a bit to check it out.  It was a little funny being in Kenya around a bunch of Americans celebrating Halloween with Kenyans hosting.  We got to see some really cool Kenyan acrobats perform while there.  They were really good and strong.  They also did some double-dutch. 

I also got to experience Kenyans enjoying rock music at the Carnivore.  I have never seen so many black people enjoying rock and dressed in the punk style clothing!  It was a little bizarre to see this and even more bizarre that we were in Kenya witnessing this, but it was a lot of fun!  One of the bands that was performing in the live music sessions was from one of the churches that a volunteer works at so we went to support them.  In the DJ section were many jumping Kenyans to Linkin Park, Green Day, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Relient K etc…  They were jumping and screaming the lyrics to every song!  It was kind of amusing.  It was Roctoberfest at The Carnivore. 

Aside from the cheese, the carnival, and rock concerts the highlight of this past week was definitely seeing Michael Jackson’s This is It!  That concert would have been amazing had MJ survived.  R.I.P. MJ R.I.P.  This movie took me back to the days of watching the Jackson 5 movie and his music videos over and over as a child!  My mother was not the only one to grow up with him!  Before going to see this I met one of my host sisters to see Fame at another theatre which was also really good.  On the way to the theatre I got to experience some El Nino rains which have been dangerous in some parts of Kenya, but not too bad in Nairobi.  We have been getting a good bit of rain but not deadly floods like in the coastal areas.  I got soaked by this down pour and even splashed by some cars!  It was worth it.

Work has been really busy these past few days.  Just when I start to finally adapt to the Kenyan way of slowing down we have lots of work to do that needs to get done in regular time.  Coming up is the Sunday School Sunday in which all three services are lead by the kids and we also have a golf tournament coming up next weekend.  This is on top of the highly anticipated Ropes camp (rights of passage) that will commence in a few weeks.  The more I hear about this program, the more nervous I get!  At least killing a chicken here at home has helped a little with that part of the camp.  I’m still not sure if I’m ready for the goat.  I learned what the mysterious cutting ceremony was this week and I am thanking God that it will be done away from the camp that we are doing because I do not think I could handle circumcision.  This is why the boys camp is the first week because they want to get the first part over so that they can get to the cutting ceremony. 

That last paragraph was a little much heh?  Well I can’t wait until it happens!  We are going to check out the camp grounds Friday! 

With more exciting adventures to come, this has been Whitney in the Motherland saying take care and God bless.

This first part is rated PG-13 for violence and graphic imagery.  Content in this first section may not be suitable for children under the age of 13.  Parental guidance is advised.

So now I truly know where the phrase running around like a chicken with its head cut off comes from.  I mean I knew that when you cut off a chicken’s head, it would still flap and run around frantically, but I actually got to see it in person!  On Friday I got to be a part of a chicken slaughtering!  Let me tell you it was crazy!  I have never done anything like that before.  We took a big ponga (huge knife, machete thing) and just cut off the head and then after it finally stopped flapping around, we put it in a bucket of really hot water when plucked the feathers off and cleaned out the insides.  I will never look at a chicken the same way again! This was quite the experience.  I hate to say it, but I wished it was that rooster that wakes me up at 4 am and then 7 am!  When it comes time for that one to go I would love to do the honors.

On to a lighter note!  Now that I’m a true African woman for having taken part in such an event as mentioned in the PG-13 section, I really need to work on my Kiswahili!  Ok imagine with me that The Bee Bee’s “Stayin’ Alive” is playing as my theme music and I am walking with this Kenyan swag of I am one of you, doing my thang, walking with direction and purpose, saying a few phrases here and there, shopping in the store and all of a sudden it’s like in the movies or a tv show when the record just goes eerrrk and cuts out the music all abruptly when the bag boy says this whole phrase in Kiswahili and I’m like ¿Que?  Well it wasn’t so dramatic but it did trip me up when I was feeling really confident after talking to the clerk.  Lol. Anyway…my Kiswahili is progressing daily but some people just talk so fast!

I have decided to make Saturday my laundry day and that way I will not be swamped with as much clothes to wash as I did last week and that way if it rains, I will not be down to a few things.  It did not take me nearly as long this time and my little sister did not laugh at me in my attempt to wash my clothes.  I will say that I am going to have to slowly just phase out my white things because it is just too much of a hassle to wash one thing for 30 minutes trying to get it snow white!

Projections on Sunday are still going well.  This week was a little hectic because we were still waiting on songs from the choirs on Friday at 5 but we still were able to get it all done and prepared nicely for Sunday!  I am feeling less like the Wizard, but I am still enjoying being behind the “mysterical magical box!”

After church on Sunday I had the pleasure of taking one of THE craziest matatus I’ve ever been on!  That is a story for a later time when I have made it home safely and you can all laugh along with me and not be like come home now!  Don’t worry it’s not that bad.  Two of the other volunteers and I went to the market to see if we could make some additions to our wardrobe.  We were good little bargainers!  For 22 US dollars I got a pair of brown linen trousers, a pair of jeans, and three nice shirts!  I am really going to miss shopping in this place!  One thing that is absolutely crazy is trying on trousers in a market.  The man that I bought them from magically made a “dressing room” appear i.e. a curtain and kept bringing me trousers for me to try on!  It was out of control!  After literally trying on 15 pairs of trousers I found two pair that I liked and that fit nicely.  Lauren and Nicole were having a field day laughing at me being thrown a pair of trousers one after another while I was yelling make it stop!  I will say though that the man was a lot of fun and he gave us good prices so we will definitely have to do business again!

Today I will conduct my first meeting! It is for the services coming up on the second Sunday all lead by the children.  I hope all goes well and they do not fire me from this position!

This has been Whitney in the Motherland saying take care and God Bless!

 

This past week has been an interesting and exciting one.  First I just want to mention something that my boss told me on Thursday that I thought huh that’s interesting.  After imitating my accent which is hilarious he told me that Kenyan’s have the best accent in Africa because it is so clean.  It is an interesting one that has kind of a British sound to it.  He then said that we Americans are very poor because we only speak one language.  I informed him that I know 2 others and working on a third (Kiswahili) and he said yes but they are not yours.  They are borrowed.  He said me, I speak 4 languages, my mother tongue, father tongue, Kiswahili and English.  I said well you are just such an accomplished man and he said I know.  He is a funny man and a lot of fun to work with.  So I learned that we are poor because we only have one language that is ours.  Interesting huh?

After almost two weeks straight of working until 5 and then having meeting until 7 or 8, I finally got to go home at 5 on Friday!  It was strange but felt good!  Lots of you have responded to my last post by the way and I am starting to slow down.  I am trying to grasp this concept of pole pole ndio mwendo, slowly slowly is the pace or little by little.  I just want to let you all know that I’m working on it.  I have already attempted doing the slide shows for Sunday little by little.  This is partly because I didn’t have all I needed for them but I made the outline of what I had.  So little by little by default.  This was not done on purpose but it will help to me slow down.

On Saturday I did laundry for the first time.  I know you say how in the world could you be somewhere for almost 2 months and not do laundry?!  Well it was a stretch but I did it.  It wasn’t too much though because I didn’t bring very many clothes with me.  It just got to where I didn’t need to wear that shirt one more time. Thank God and the person who invented the quick dry wilderness underwear because that is also how I have been getting by. TMI I know! Pole sana! Sorry sorry!  Well I started this hand washing excursion around 12.  My little sister came to watch and laugh at me as I attempted to do this.  I thought I was doing a great job but it was not up to her standards.  She is 8.  After laughing at me for a bit, she helped me wash.   Our maid also helped me some with it.  Let me just tell you, after an hour and a half of just hand washing, taking a lunch break and coming back to finish, I am definitely not going to take for granted washers and dryers.  After almost 2 hours of just washing, I hung my clothes out on the line and then it proceeded to rain for the rest of the day and all of Sunday!  My clothes did not get dry until Tuesday! 

I got to have an extra long weekend because I already get Mondays off because I work on Sunday, but I also got Tuesday off because it was a national holiday (Kenyatta Day).  Kenya has only had 2 presidents before the current one and they both have a holiday along with the millions of others they have.  On Tuesday I got to go to City Park, with two of the other volunteers I met up with, which is not too far from downtown Nairobi and let me just tell you there were monkeys everywhere!  This was not a monkey park but a regular park where there were monkeys everywhere like squirrels! More than squirrels!  I got some peanuts and fed and played with the monkeys!  It is amazing how smart and humanlike these animals are!  I had to keep the pack of peanuts in my pocket or they would snatch it and some of knew that they were in my pocket!  It was so crazy having them just take a peanut from me or jump on my shoulder.  At one point I had 3 monkeys on my shoulders!  I made one monkey friend that just stayed on my shoulder even when I wasn’t giving it peanuts.  It took a liking to me!  I have always wanted a pet monkey and this park made me want to take a few with me! 

I also got to go to the Maasai market again and do some haggling, which was fun and experienced yet another matatu with a tv playing music videos.  It was a good Kenyatta Day.  Then it was back to work on Wednesday where I started my first day of little by little.  I have also added a picasa link on my picture page of the blog so you can check them out.  I have taken a lot but I limited them for this first album.

This has been Whitney in the Motherland saying take care and God bless.

 

If you read last week’s post, then you know that there is a story on a hike to a Mt. Kilima Mbogo.  Let’s back it up a few weeks shall we.  When getting ready to start the planning and registration for this hike, my boss told me that this place has buffalo but not to worry because they don’t really like being around people, but we were going to have a ranger anyway.  Ok fast forward to Saturday.  The day started off at 6:45 at the church with check-in and kids still coming in and paying.  We ended up with 46 children for this hike.  The journey started 11:15ish.  About 1 km in, I’m all excited and taking pictures as always (I probably have about 100 before we get going! They are coming soon don’t worry) and I look directly across from me and I see this huge black thing in the woods.  Thinking nothing of it, I’m about to snap a pic and then I hear some heavy grunts or breathing and then a gunshot and heavy tromping deeper into the woods!  Our ranger was quick!  As soon as he heard the noise he turned and shot!  It was a buffalo or as everyone started screaming BOOOFAHLOW! I was the only one that saw it, but I didn’t know what to do or if they were dangerous so I just thought maybe I should stand still. This is where the quote of the day comes in.  My boss looked at me and said “Don’t pray. Run! Run then pray! Pray while you run!”  I had to laugh out loud at this and the fact that he took off running when we heard the sounds of the buffalo and the gunshot. 

This did not stop our journey up this mountain, which was 11.6 km to the top so 23.2 round trip!  After the buffalo scare, we continue on and about another km later we see a big black snake.  I am not a fan of snakes at all, poisonous or not big or small, they will all eat me!  The ranger didn’t shoot at it, we just let it past and continue on.  At this point I’m thinking what in the world have I gotten my self into not knowing how long the hike was at this point either.  The hike was fine for about the first 6 or so km but the altitude keep getting higher and higher, not to mention this mountain was starting to go straight up.  It got so steep in the last 3 km!  It was also a very hot day.  With the altitude, heat and steepness of this mountain, I started feeling sick.  I pressed my way on and with some stops and throwing up a few times, I made it to the top! The top was a little disappointing because it had no few and there were a bunch of satellite stations and towers for internet and phone service but we made it.  Some took naps (me being one of them), some ate snacks, and some just hung out. 

When we got back down to where we started there was a baboon chillin out with us trying to get our food.  This was one animal I didn’t mind in this crazy day!  I didn’t mind him at all actually and tried to play with it!

What an adventure huh? Well coming back to the office on Tuesday could not compare.  It was actually a pretty slow day, but boy did Wednesday pick up!  That is the crazy thing about this place, one day you might not have much or anything to do and the next day be loaded with work.  Well apparently I was not supposed to be loaded.  Once I get started on something I have to see it through.  My boss said “Whitney you know, in Africa we believe in doing things little by little.  We don’t sit down and do things all in one sitting.  We take some days, not one hour.”  I am going to try my hardest to live by this, but it is hard for me to just put something off and not finish it all in one sitting if I can.  I spent the entire day working on letters thanking all who participated in the hike and doing the slide shows for two of the services.  Now that means that today might be a slow day.  My boss said that he is not going to give me any work because I don’t know how to stop and take a break.  I know how to take a break, I just have to get finished with my work first. lol.  There are also lots of meetings after work which means even if I didn’t have much to do that day, I will probably be going until 7 and even sometimes 8:30.  I have had some almost 12 hour days.  Needless to say, I am enjoying work and I really love the people I work with.  It is such a great staff.  We are indeed learning a lot from one another.  People have been trying to copy my accent around work which has been a lot of fun and funny!  

Here is a little peek into the future.  I have been on a planning team for Ropes Camp 2009 which is rights of passage.  From everything that they talk about, it sounds like quite the to do!  Some of the things involved are a hike, fast, and slaughtering of an animal!  This happens at the end of November so stay tuned!

This has been Whitney in the Motherland saying take care and God bless.

 

 

Since my last post, I have been on a train ride, worked three Sunday services, and been on the job for a week!  Exciting times here my friends, exciting times.

Since I am free on Saturdays, I decided to go on a little school field trip for my site coordinator to Naivasha.  This is one of the places that inspired a scene in The Lion King, you know when Simba is running back home to take out Scar.  This place is also known for its beautiful flamingos.  I did not get to see any of this!  Train ride field trip for primary schoolers means have a fun time doing whatever on a train for 4 hours there eating all the junk you can buy, stopping in a random place and getting box lunches, then turning around to do it all in reverse.  The kids had a ball.  I know it's not the destination it's the ride, I am all about that philosophy.  I live it, I love it, but this is one time where I was excited about the destination more than the ride. I will make it back there to see the beautiful Naivasha that I missed.

Sunday was my first day of running the show.  Even though I got there at 7:15 and was at the church until about 2:15, I had a great time.  I felt like the Wizzard of Oz behind the booth for all three services projecting the slides.  There were some times when I had to scrounge up some things to add to the show, but no one knew what the wizzard was doing behind the magical wooden box.  One thing that tripped me up was the first service which was in Kiswahili.  Sometimes they would be speaking so fast that I didn't know whether I was on the right slide or not.  I was good for most of the service and even picked up on a few words here and there.  I think I'm going to enjoy doing this job on Sunday even though it is early and long.

The beautiful thing about working on Sunday is that I get Mondays off, so I never have to get the case of the Mondays!  I got to relax and explore this town that I live in.  I have really enjoyed walking down the street and being Kenyan as long as I don't open my mouth, but I'm working on perfecting my accent and learning more words and short phrases to say.  I have been pretty good so far if someone says something to me on the street.  Poa or nzuri is always a good back-up if I get tripped up.  As Tyra says, "Fake it til' you make it." 

Work on Tuesday started out a little slow.  I work from 9 to 5.  On Wednesday things picked up because the Junior Church is preparing for a hike on Saturday at Mt. Kilima Mbogo.  I have been collecting money and doing registration for that, along with creating a data base for the Junior Church teachers which has kept me quite busy.  I have also gotten to experience two long days in a row going from about 8:45 (because I like to be early even though this is not exactly an early or on time culture) to 7:30 because of meetings after I am off at 5.  By the way, when they say you work until 5, they mean it.  Everyone stops and the day is over.  There are tea breaks, take your time with whatever you're doing, and stopping when you're supposed to.  What a culture!  I was told by my boss that Americans just go go gob and don't take breaks, so he is going to slow me down and we will take breaks besides the 2 tea and 1 hour lunch breaks.  I am a get it done kind of person and when I start on a project I like to work until it's finished, so this is going to be a test of my ability to be flexible. 

Well folks, that was truly a long one.  Thank you for sticking it out if you are still reading.  Of course there will be more to come.  Hopefully exciting stuff since I am going on a hike with 100 kids meeting at 7 in the morning on a Saturday!  Hopefully there will be more pictures as well.

This has been Whitney in the Motherland saying take care and God bless.

I am now a month old in Kenya! I can't believe a month has already gone by, but it also feels like I have been here a lot longer.  We all parted ways last Wednesday headed to our various placements.  I had a brief orientation in which I was told all the things I will be doing for the year and met lots of people I will be working with.  so many names and cool people.  I am very excited to get to know them more.  At the church, I will be making the programs for the three services, making the slide shows for the three services, typing and filing random things, visiting the school occasionally and working with the social services program as well.  One of the services is in Kiswahili so I was told that I will have to learn the language.  I was hoping too anyway, so I am excited about that!  Sounds like a lot huh? Don't worry friends, I can handle it! I was also told that I will have internet, so I will not suffer.  This means I should be able to update my blog as I have committed to! After my very quick "orientation," I went and moved into my house, then headed to Meru for the week.

Meru is a beautiful and great place, but I really missed the city while I was there.  I have come to find a home in Nairobi.  Sadly enough while in Meru and headed to Nanyuki, I did not get to see Mt. Kenya because it was so cloudy!  Twice I went this way and did not get to see it!  I know that day will come and I hope that day will also be the day I climb it.  The Kenyans have been saying that it is a painful hike, but I have also heard them say that they do not like to hike.  That is why we say run like Kenyans and not hike like Kenyans.  Oye Oye Oye...that was a bad one. Forgive me! Anyway, while in Meru, I got to meet some friends that I made when I went there before which was wonderful.  It was almost like going home, coming to a familiar place.  It was a great week of learning more about how different parts of this country lives and meeting more cool people.

One of the culture shocks that still seems to be a challenge for me would definitely have to be the food and the eating of this culture.  I have been picked on so much by the Kenyans for not taking a lot when I eat.  I have been told several times "We EAT in Kenya! You will learn to eat a lot!"  I am not really sure that I can quite handle most of the food all the time, much less is large amounts.  The food does not always seem to like me and it is a bit touch when you have people, as one of my host sisters here said, "bullying" you to eat more.  I have had to learn to politely say i can't take anymore without feeling bad because as I learned in self-care in orientation, you have to do what is best for you.  I thought that by a month I would be used to the food, but it is taking a little while.  It is good but isn't good to me yet.

I finally got to start work on Thursday of this week.  My first day was a lot of being as they put it in our YAV interviewing process.  I love that this culture is a take your time culture.  I was given the task of putting the slide for the main service on Sunday and I had three days to do it.  One hour later, it was done.  I have been given a good bit of things to type, and it has all gotten finished pretty fast and the people I work with here were not expecting for me to complete them so quickly.  This either means that I will have even more time to just chill and be with the people, which mostly happens anyway, or I will be given even mroe tasks which will still not take me as long as they think.  According to them I type really fast so there you go.  Since "I know so much about computers," I may be even doing some graphic design making flyers and such.  That will be fun and I like getting creative. I am loving my work so far, even though it has only been two days.  I did, however, get to me the staff before these two days and they are so much fun! I am going to enjoy my year here so much! 

This has been Whitney in the Motherland land saying take care and God Bless

We are now coming to the end of our orientation.  It has been a good run but now it is time to get to work!  We are all happy to finally get to our sites, but sad to part ways.  This past week has been quite adventurous for us.  Since my last post we have become residents of Kenya, had three more Kiswahili lessons that have sadly come to an end, heard an awesome lecture on church history by this wonderful man named Doug Waruta, shopped in the markets and haggled, cooked our first meal together and took matatus.  I guess you could now call us experienced Kenyans!

After just six short lessons in Kiswahili, we are all fluent and some of us are even speaking the mother tongue of our host families!  If only that were true.  We are, however, able to pick out words and phrases by listening to people and watching local tv.  We had a great teacher named Vincent who we absolutely fell in love with.  He taught us a good bit in the little time we were given.  We learned random words and phrases as they came to us or to him which broadened what we would have learned if we had just stuck with the lessons, which was many and no time to get through even half.  Like others we have met, we got his number and are planning on going to visit him soon.

On our archeological exploration day we journeyed to the Rift Valley which was gorgeous.  On the way about an hour and a half outside the city we saw our first wildlife.  It was amazing to see herds of zebras, baboons, warthogs, and gazelles just hanging out on the side of the road and not on a safari!  While stopped on the side of the road to take pictures, a baboon came up to our van!  I was most excited about the baboons because I am a huge primate fan!  On this trip to the Rift Valley we went to Nakuru to a couple of different sites then to the top of a mountain in the crater of a volcano (Menengai) in Milimani!  What amazing views these places had. 
 
We can now call ourselves true Kenyans because we got our visas of residency which is good for three years!  Watch out my people, I might stay or come back!  We have taken matatus from the city which means we know routes and can get places.  Well some of us got it down and some of us might just stay in the same place all year (Nicole).  I am pretty good with direction and once I go somewhere once I am good to go and can make it there again but we’ll see how it goes in this confusing city with its crazy streets!  We have also shopped in the markets and bargained with the locals.  Some of us started off a little rough with this process because of conversion issues, but we got the hang out if a little bit.  As time goes on, we will learn what a good price is and what is the tourist price which we are not.  On Saturday we got to cook with our host mother, who is a Kiswahili teacher.  We did all of our cooking in Kiswahili which started off a little intimidating but got easier as the cooking went on.  We cut up and skinned chicken (nyama kuku), cracked open and shaved coconuts (nazi), made an amazing salsa, cut up and cleaned spinach (sukuma wiki), cinnamon sweet potatoes (viazi vitam), and ugali.  It was an amazing meal if I must say so myself.   Not only can we call ourselves Kenyans, but we can also say we can cook at least one Kenyan meal!

Today we went shopping for our homes which we will start going to tomorrow.  Orientation has come to an end and we are all about to go our separate ways to our placements only to meet every six to eight weeks.  We will visit each other on weekends and see each other before then, especially the three of us who are going to be in Nairobi, but we will not all come together for a spell.  We will miss each other, but we are ready to go!  I know that I am very excited to get to the school to meet the kids and get going in the social services program.  The adventure is really about to begin!

  This has been Whitney in the Motherland saying take care and God Bless!