A Small Jubilee of my Own

Well it’s been one whole day haha. But I did promise cows, and a bit of an update on this week. So as you have now seen my home, for the past couple of weeks, since I have arrived at site, I’ve just been setting up my home, and “relaxing”. Which as I have mentioned can take its toll. However, I did have a few things planned for this past week, which was definitely a good thing.

On Tuesday, I traveled with one of the sisters, and the parish priest to the town of Kakamega, where a celebration would be held in honor of seven nuns. Six of them were celebrating their Golden Jubilee, which is the anniversary of their fiftieth year as a nun, and one was celebrating her Silver Jubilee, which is 25 years as a nun. This has been planned for quite some time, and the reason I was included on this venture was that one of the nuns celebrating her Golden Jubilee resides here on the compound in Chebukaka, and I still had not met her. Now my first thought on this celebration is, HOLY CRAP. These women have been nuns for half of a century. Which means they are a bit older than that, pretty much overcoming the Kenyan life expectancy by default because it is somewhere around the age of 60-63 the last time I checked. We entered the church, and of course I was the only mzungu present, which most definitely got some stares. But all of the nuns we were around were very welcoming. All the while, during the three-hour church service, which although some of the speaking was in English, all of the singing was in Kiswahili, I was just in awe of these women.  They have devoted their entire lives to serving God, and of the ones I have met they are some of the happiest, hard working people I’ve met. Afterwards, I finally got to meet the sister who stays on the compound, and her face just LIT UP when she saw that the “visitor” had come to celebrate with her. I had been feeling a bit out of place, but her reaction to my presence, just made the entire day worth it. It is those small victories that I will consider my own personal jubilees. I think that as a Peace Corps Volunteer, although they may be few and far between, these are the moments you remember, and they make the whole experience worth it. I am so sorry I don’t have any photos from this day to share. We left home so early I completely forgot to throw my camera into my bag.

The very next morning I was also able to experience another small jubilee, accompanying some public health workers on the last day of the polio vaccine campaign. This was the tail end of the campaign, so we were assigned to an area, and were “mopping up”, making sure that every child under five had been vaccinated for the disease. This door-to-door campaign is exactly the type of community health work I imagined, so I was very happy just to tag along. The workers whom I accompanied were very accommodating, answering my many questions about the area, their lives, and health issues of my area. We discussed jiggers, and malnutrition, HIV/AIDS, and several other topics. It was so nice to have some real conversation with people interested in the same activities as myself. We walked around for over four hours, canvassing areas that may have already been seen but making sure to ask if every child had been vaccinated. We vaccinated 8 children that morning, and although that was a small number, that is eight more children protected from polio in my area. The workers said they vaccinated hundreds of children in the previous days. The grassroots campaigns are what make 100% coverage of children’s immunizations a possibility.

Here is a picture of the public health worker giving out the vaccine. The polio vaccine is just an oral vaccination that is two small drops into the child’s mouth. This is easy for the child and health worker because many of the kids immediately begin to cry.

This is what we were carrying around with the vaccine in it, because it is temperature sensitive and must be kept cold. If it gets left in the sun for too long the color of the vaccine changes so that the worker knows it no longer is effective.

This is one of the workers with some of the children we just immunized! The man has a marker and a piece of chalk in his hand, because once a child is immunized, they mark their right pinky nail in order to make sure it does not get duplicated. The chalk is used to write on the doors of the homes, with symbols marking that they have given out a vaccine there, and what team of people did it, and how many children were vaccinated. There were eight teams in my area, and these are just two people who canvas areas for children that require the vaccination. 

Okay, so that was the fun public health item I got to do for the week. To change the topic completely, I promised some pictures of cows. Well here goes. This is outside my house everyday. And a little baby one was just born two days ago! I think I may name her Daisy just to be super stereotypical.

 As you can see they graze on the compound quite frequently, there is also a pasture they go to, but sometimes its just right outside my house.

 Right out side the window haha. Now it has seemed to happen a little less frequently, but its definitely an interesting site in the morning. Hope you're all getting a little bit of a feel for my area, and life here. Missing you all a bunch!

Nyumbani Yangu

This is my home now. Slowly but surely the house that was provided for me is becoming a home. I have a bed frame, a coffee table and some seating, and I will hopefully soon be acquiring a kitchen table, bookshelf and some sort of shelving unit for my clothing. Until then, I will continue to live out of my suitcase, which has become something that I’ve almost gotten used to during my time so far here in Africa, seeing as I have been moving from place to place so often. But hopefully now when I am able to fully unpack, I can really begin to see myself in this place as my home.

To explain the pictures:

This is a view of my front room as you enter into the house. It’s a really long room, so there are a couple of angles to show. The sink in the corner is basically a decoration, since I don’t have running water, but I’ve come to use it as a storage spot for now. The large empty area next to it is where I’d like to have a kitchen table(more of one to work on) made and put up.

The opposite angle is the sitting area of my house. I had already bought the plastic chairs, so when I finally found a fundi (carpenter) I just got the sofa and coffee table made. Overall the room is a pretty large space, so it has several uses for me.

Next is a view of my corridor, which is sort of awkward, but serves its purposes. You can see here how the rooms all attach now.

Here is my bathroom. Used for going to the bathroom as well as bucket bathing. Yes, you are correct that is a western toilet! But again, no running water, so you have to fill up the tank. No big deal, makes you realize how much water you actually use to flush the toilet. It’s kind of ridiculous.  Notice though that there is no light in the bathroom. Therefore I usually just leave that door open.  The beginnings of being a person who lives alone right? Haha.

Move a few feet to your right, and you see the random area that was supposed to be deemed my kitchen area. Well there are no windows, or a light, so I would not want to cook in there. And now that I eat with the nuns, hey why bother. So it is now dubbed the storage area.

Turn 90 degrees and you have now entered my bedroom. My bed is one of my favorite things in my house, now that I have a quality mattress, and an awesome bed frame. It may not be noticeable in the photo but the headboard area has small shelves, and a lock bock in it. Awesome!

Change your perspective on the room and you now see where I am living out of the suitcase. This is where I’d like a shelving/dresser unit to be placed.

Last but not least, here is a photo of a view from the outside, as you can see, its made of concrete, and is sealed up pretty nicely. Sometimes at night, you hear interesting noises on the roof. Sometimes there are flies and other creepy crawlies inside. But overall its pretty bug free, and its a nice place to live.

Anyways, that's all for now, mostly because my electricity is out, and my computer is going to die soon. Hope you all get a better feel for where I'm at now! Soon to come: pictures of my MANY cow friends here on the compound and the few activities I got to do this past week.

African Address!

Hi everyone! I'll be keeping this one short, but I just want you all to have access to my new address here in Kenya! So feel free to send letters, goodies, ect. I want to hear from you!

Lindsey Jackson
P.O. Box 357-50202
Chwele, Kenya

Asanta Sana! Amani =)

Better Late Than Never Right?

Well, true to my personality, I’ve procrastinated starting this blog. First things first, I am in Kenya. Most of you already know that, but just throwing it out there. If you’re reading this back in the states, you may be thinking the title of this blog is a bit interesting. Well the reasoning behind it is because first of all I am not creative enough to think up a pun dealing with Africa or Kenya that hasn’t been used a million times already, and secondly, because many of my friends have come to call me Rae here, which has grown into a plethora of nicknames. So I’ve decided to play along and in this blog write my reactions to my time here as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

It’s closing in on being in Africa for three months now, and training has finally come to an end, we have been sworn in as volunteers and have all be shipped out to our sites. Alone. We have all gone from being together as a group of 30, everyday, to being completely on our own, some of us hours from our closest friends. As one of the younger volunteers in our class, this is my first time to be living alone, let alone living alone halfway across the world. Even though this is a daunting reality, I am so grateful for everything I have encountered so far on my journey.

I am living in a small village called Chebukaka, in the Western province of Kenya. It is located close to the base of Mt. Elgon, and relatively close to the border of Uganda. It rains almost everyday at around 4/430 pm (except November-February which is the dry season). The village is small, and although I have not done too much exploring I know it does not have its own posta and you must go to the next town over for mail, in Chwele. I have been partnered with a faith-based organization, called Our Lady of Peace Dispensary, located on a catholic compound. I live on the same compound, about 3-5 minutes away from the dispensary, and in my own home next to the convent where the nuns reside. My supervisor is one of the nuns, who also is a nurse and works at the dispensary.  The compound is also only about 5 minutes walk from the main road, which is a very lucky thing up here in my area. I have also been blessed with the amenities of electricity and a western style toilet! Although I do not have running water, I can easily fill bucks and manually flush the toilet, bathe and wash clothes and dishes. The compound also houses its own maize farm, several cows and a large chicken coup.

The nuns have also invited me to eat with all my meals with them, which I have chosen to do so far, because I’m not much for cooking, particularly for just myself. I did purchase a small gas burner and some essentials though for times when I may need it, but it is nice to have balanced meals, and have company. They are so helpful, and have helped me set up my house, taking me into town to purchase items for my house, and make sure I am getting good prices on things I’ve had made, like my bed frame and coffee table. They have been really kind and I think I’ve lucked out with such great people to work with and live for the next couple of years.

Speaking of work, I have also met my counterpart, who is a Community Health Worker in my area, and in reality I sort of have two counterparts, because one her other CHW friends is always with her, which is totally awesome for me!

Besides moving into my new home, doing some shopping and going to my first Kenyan Catholic mass, I haven’t done too much since being at site.  It has been a lot of reading, writing, and communicating with friends and family both here in Kenya, and back in the United States. I am excited for things to start happening though, because as much as one can relax, it can start to make one a bit stir crazy having absolutely nothing to do. But that can sometimes be the life of a volunteer, and it is something we have to learn to deal with. These next three months of integration into the community will I’m sure be difficult, but will hopefully help us to strengthen our abilities as volunteers.  Two thirds of the Peace Corps goals are cultural exchange and that happens by default if you put yourself out there in the community and learn about the people around you, and they in turn learn about you and your background.

I’m not sure what will happen next but I’m excited to find out! If you’ve actually read this entire post, thank you, and know that I won’t always subject you to novels, but I think it is okay since it is my introductory post. Also, know that I’m by no means eloquent so please bear with my writing style if you actually chose to follow my ranting and ravings. Hopefully soon I will have some small interesting anecdotes about life here at site to share, once I have been introduced further and explored more with my supervisor and counterpart. Until then, thanks for reading! Amani. (Peace)

Our Training Class! =)