I am officially (still) a Peace Corps Volunteer

Last Wednesday, August 15th, I was amongst thirty Americans sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers at the US Ambassador's residence in Nairobi. Of course, I have been a volunteer for almost two years now, so this was a bit anticlimactic. But what it did mean is that the following day, I was able to head out to my new site of Budalang'i, just North of Lake Victoria along the Ugandan border to start getting acquainted with the community and the work that I will be doing for the next year.

Pictured above are all the members of our training class, along with the US Charge d'Affairs and the Country Director of Peace Corps Kenya. We have a great group, and I've enjoyed getting to know them all over the past two months.

The Last from Loitokitok

A view of Mount Kilimanjaro (right) and a nearer mountain as seen from downtown Loitokitok, home for the past nine weeks.

The guys of our training class during a hike to a nearby waterfall, dubbed ‘51’ by the locals. We've got a great group here, and we've really gotten tight over the two months of training.

The girls of our training class during that same hike.

Different Issues, Same Approach

Going through Pre-Service Training a second time around has not necessarily been easy. Sure, I’ve enjoyed learning a new language again, bonding with my training class, and spending time with my host-family, but there is too much repetition, and the general sense of ‘been there, done that,’ to not suffer at times from boredom.

This past week, we had some training that did not fit that mold. On Monday, my training class took a three-hour ‘matatu’ ride north of Loitokitok to the city of Machakos. There, we found ourselves in rather posh accommodations as we spent a week in training sessions dedicated to HIV/Aids and PEPFAR (The United States President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief). Because HIV/Aids is not widespread in Mali, our training there did not address the issue, nor is PEPFAR present within Mali.

On Tuesday we toured the local Level 5 District Hospital. Specifically, we interviewed workers within each department of the Comprehensive Care Clinic, a center set up in 2003 in order to provide comprehensive care for HIV/Aids-afflicted individuals under one roof. The center is efficiently run, and the men and women whom we spoke to were both intelligent and proud of their work. PEPFAR and the United States Government heavily fund most of the HIV/Aids-related services found in Kenya, including this clinic.

On Wednesday, we were treated to performances by a couple of local advocate groups. The first was a support group for HIV/Aids individuals made up of older adults, primarily women. They performed song, dance, and poetry meant to educate people on HIV/Aids prevention, the importance of getting tested, and the support available to afflicted individuals.

The second was a mixed-gender youth group started at a nearby church. They performed a skit that told of a vulture problem in a community. The vultures proved to be a nuisance to the community and brought with them only death. The community struggled to find a solution to the problem.

Facilitation, Family, and Faith

A picture with my Kenyan family. From left to right, my host brother James, myself, my sister Susan, father John, and mother Jen.

I am now going on six weeks in Kenya, my fifth week with my host family. Homestay and training here in Loitokitok has certainly been a much different experience than in Mali.

During the week, we are generally in language class, learning Kiswahili, each morning. The afternoons are reserved for technical, medical, or safety and security training.

The center of Loitokitok town on an average, non-market day morning.

Dave, my fellow Mali evacuee, and I have been able to skip out on some of the afternoon sessions, either for additional language classes or to prepare to lead water and sanitation-related training sessions with the trainees.

A Dramatic Turn...

On Wednesday, June 27th, all of the 31 members of our Peace Corps Kenya training class received our site announcements. We received a packet in a brown envelope, with the region and our name written in marker. Going into the day, Dave, my fellow Mali evacuee, and I fully expected our sites to be the most inaccessible, water deficient sites. But we soon found that this would not be the case.

My packet said ‘WESTERN.’ I opened it to find that I will be attached with an organization working in Bunyala and Samia districts in Western Kenya. A Peace Corps Kenya staff member helped me to locate my new home of Bunyala Port on the map. It is very close to the Uganda border, right on, or seemingly in, Lake Victoria. The strip of land upon which the port town is situated is apparently so thin that it entirely falls within the blue area of the map.

At the moment we all quickly glazed over our respective documents, more anxious to compare sites and see where our colleagues were placed. The organizational description was fairly vague, and the item that most caught my eye was under ‘cultural norms/practices to be noted,’ it said ‘Sports (Boat Racing, Tug of War, Wrestling, and Traditional Dances).’ That sounds kinda awesome.

As for Dave, well he was placed at a site to the East along the largest wildlife preserve in the country where he will work with ecotourism, conservation, and tree nurseries. So our expectations of placement turned out to be very wrong.

But it wasn’t until later that I read my packet in full, and found this:

Views from a Sunday Stroll with 'Baba Yangu' (My Host-Father)

A view of Mount Kilimanjaro from the town of Loitokitok as seen with clear skies early in the morning.

Acacia trees line farmland in Loitokitok.

John, my host-father, is the construction supervisor for a three-story supermarket currently being constructed within the town.

And my Kenyan adventure begins...

On Monday, June 4th I flew into Philadelphia for staging. There, I met the 30 other men and women headed down to Kenya for Peace Corps service. 29 of them are embarking on their first service, while one other volunteer, Dave, joins me in transferring from service in Mali.

After a day of orientation, we took a bus up to New York City and flew out of JFK Airport Tuesday evening. After transferring in Zurich, we arrived at the Nairobi airport the evening of Wednesday, June 6th.

Right from the start, I could tell that this would be a completely different experience. For one, Nairobi is very developed. Skyscrapers line the streets downtown, and amongst many large office and retail buildings are several full-scale malls! The roads are just as crowded and cumbersome as those in Bamako. But instead of cheap motorcycles and ragged bush-taxis, cars and newer, relatively spacious mini-buses fill the streets.

We stayed at a hostel just outside of Nairobi until Saturday morning. There, we attended several general classes and began our Kiswahili language training. The training facility was fully equipped with electricity and plumbing, and we each even had our own rooms with full bathrooms!

It didn’t take long for our first African wildlife sighting! Pictured above are a couple of giraffes seen feeding on the side of the road from our bus as we traveled from Nairobi to Loitokitok.