Still Traveling!

So it’s almost week 4 of PST and I’m STILL traveling. After our beginning stay in Nairobi I was in Machakos for a week, then moved to my new training site in Loitokitok for a week. Just spent a week in Kilifi (coincidentally my site) shadowing a current volunteer, and I’m currently sitting in some Sikh Temple in a town called Makindu that is putting us up for the night. Peace Corps has this rule that we are not allowed to travel after dark. And it gets dark REALLY quick on the equator. So we had to hop off the bus we were on and find a place to stay. Luckily these people are very hassle-free and the room and food is all free as well. Who knows, maybe I’ll come back!

On the up-side, I really love Kilifi. There are palm trees and coconuts, and lots of good pineapple. The house I will be living in is rather decent as well. It’s got 2 bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, walk-in pantry, and even a flush toilet. The running water and electricity are not the most reliable things, but at least they’re there :). I will be cleaning the crap out of the house when I move in, and decorating like crazy. If this is home for the next two years, I want it to look as home-y as possible. The house is on the compound for the deaf primary school, so it’s very safe and there are always children to play with. It’s a boarding school so the kids all live on the same compound.

The school I will be teaching in is a one building, 4 room school-house about a 3 minute walk from the primary compound. There is nothing except their classrooms, so the secondary students live on the primary compound. I lucked out in having my shadow week be at my actual site. Now I’ve met the staff at my school, met the staff at the primary school, and even met some of the students I will have. They are awesome. They are all so thirsty for information and so eager to have things properly explained to them. They have so many questions about America, and love to hear about what it’s like there, and about Obama. They already know my sign name and know that I will be back at the end of the season. I am probably going to be teaching some sort of Biology and Math, but maybe English as well. It all depends on how meetings go when I move in in December.

The week in Kilifi was spent at school watching Beau teach, but we also got to do a little sight-seeing. Unfortunately the internet connection I have now is slower than dirt so I can't upload the great pictures of the Indian Ocean I took :( My house in Kilifi is about a 30 minute walk from the beach, but it's easily accessible and absolutely beautiful once you get there. The sand is white, the water is blue, and the beer is cold. I suppose things could be going a lot worse right now.

I will be back in Loitokitok tomorrow, only to leave again in another week for our HIV/AIDS week. Officially I have made it through three weeks of training, I have 6 more left, and I swear in as a real Peace Corps Volunteer on December 15th. As fun as it is, all of us are itching to be done with training so we can actually start doin stuff! Swear-in day is going to be one big party.

Hope everyone at home is doing well, and hope America hasn't changed too much. I've been reading in the Kenyan newspapers about the Obama polls, but it has little effect on how much the Kenyans still love him. Oh well.

I miss everyone SO much. I miss being able to text and chat with people at a moment's notice. I miss being able to get in the car when I needed something and go get it. I miss bagels and cream cheese, and really cold cereal. I miss fish tacos and spinach dip, and my Terrapin on sesame with muenster. But in two years I'm probably only going to be thinking about how much I'll miss Kenya.

Ok. Love you all!

~ Shub :)