One-upping myself

So I know it's been A LONG time since I've last posted, and I sincerely apologize, but I've been traveling like crazy doing all sorts of fun stuff. So this will be a nice big post :)

Just after school finished at the end of March (and after I finished grading a million papers and a million more because I'm the class teacher for Form 2 and didn't realize that meant calculating all the kids' final grades for the term) I met up with another volunteer Alli on the coast and we traveled north to Lamu. It's about a 6-hour bus ride up north coast, and definitely one of the bumpiest ones I've ever been on. But we made it and met up with Alyssa (another volunteer and my partner-in-crime on the coast) and after visiting her school in Mokowe for a little bit, made our way over to Lamu island. Peace Corps has this thing where anytime within the first year of service if you have 4 volunteers or more, they will pay for 5 days of intensive language immersion. So that's why we went to Lamu.

First off, as far as the language goes, I think I only learned just a little bit. My pre-service training was entirely focused on KSL, so the Kiswahili I knew before is just what I had picked up. But what the non-deaf-ed part of my group learned in the 8 weeks of training is what was smushed into 5 days in Lamu. So "intensive" was certainly the name of the game. I tried as hard I could to smash it all into my brain but I really think I didn't pick up much more. But it did give me a good basis of sentence structure and all that, so I can introduce myself and say where I'm from and tell people the correct words in Kiswahili for 'deaf' and so on. When I get back to site I'm gonna try to study a little harder on my own and we'll see where that goes. It's funny because there are actually some words and phrases that are really hard for me to say in English. The Kiswahili is what comes out first. Maybe that's a good thing? Who knows.

Ok, moving on to Lamu. Lamu is about as far north as PCV's are allowed to go because of the proximity with the Somali border. But because of the Somali influence the vast majority of Lamu and the surrounding islands is Muslim. Lamu island itself is sort of a cross between Kenya and Venice. Buildings are like 12 inches away from each other, it's just a maze of cement alleyways, there are zero cars, only boats, TONS of donkeys and stray cats, and lots of awesome people. Peace Corps doesn't pay for room and board during language immersion so we stayed with some friends on the island and many nights only had banana juice for dinner. Language class every day was on the rooftop of our trainer's hotel, which made for some beautiful views. Check it out!

And here's our rooftop classroom

After Lamu we made our way back down the coast to Kilifi. I had to see my kids one last time before I left for the month, and since they were in Mombasa for the for the National Deaf Games we went back and forth from Kilifi to Mombasa about 3 days in a row. It was a lot of un-fun matatu rides and shillings but it was worth it to spend time with my kiddos before leaving. Never in a million years did I dream I could get this attached to so many people so different from me so quickly. I didn't want to leave the coast because I knew how much I'd miss them. They are the best part of Peace Corps, and probably the best thing that's ever happened to me. Here's a bunch being their normal goofy selves:

Solomon, Amir, and John

Solomon, John, Jamal (another teacher), and Julius

Clearly I'm a gangster

Also, my wonderful fantastic host family from Loitokitok had to go to court for a few days in Mombasa so I had the amazing opportunity to see them :) I didn't realize how much I actually missed them until I saw them again. Surrounded by my kids and my host Mama and brother Paul, I could not have been happier. I only wish all 7 in the family could have come.

Alyssa, Mama, cousin Gladwell, Paul, and me.

I then had to tear myself from my kids' sides to head back to Kilifi one last night. Alyssa and I caught an early matatu on a Saturday morning to Mombasa and from there jumped on a bus to Nairobi. Mombasa to Nairobi is about 8 or 9 hours, and if you don't pay enough for a decent bus, it'll take 11 or 12. Fortunately we got a good bus and made it to Nairobi safe and sound. There we met up with two other volunteers for 2 nights and left for Kisumu to pick up even more friends. I had never been west of Nairobi before so it was pretty cool seeing how different the landscape can be from one end of the country to the other. I will forever be partial to the coast but I do have to admit that western Kenya is beautiful.

Then after a night in Kisumu we continued west into Uganda. With only some minor issues at the border, we crossed over and hopped off the bus in Jinja, a town before Kampala where the Adrift Rafting company is located. If you ever get a chance to go to Uganda, you MUST go to this place. It's an awesome location right on the Nile with a bar overlooking the water, the bungee tower close by, and rafting trips that leave just about every day. We even got discounts because Peace Corps volunteers have been using the company for so long. They have all kinds of lodging situations and we (being very poor) picked the cheapest dorm-style one we could find. It worked out quite well. The food at Adrift was delicious, the beer was even better, and the late-night dance parties were the cherry on top. Not to mention the actual rafting and bungee jumping parts.

So all 10 of us got up the next day, had a $5 buffet breakfast, and hopped in the bus for rafting. Thankfully 10 was the maximum number of people allowed in one raft, so we just made the cut. Our guide was a hilarious Canadian named Josh, who was patient enough to deal with my group's redonkulous antics the whole way down the river. At this spot on the Nile they used to raft 11 rapids in one day, but with the new damming they lost 3, so we did 8 total; 4 before lunch, and 4 after. White water rapids are classed on a scaled of 1-6, and we did all 4's and 5's I think. It was absolutely terrifying and the coolest thing ever. Here's proof!

Well here's the view from the bar at Adrift

Here we all are, very happy about the rapids coming up

And here we are very UNhappy about the 15-ft

waterfall we're about to plummet down

And for my final performance, I went bungee jumping. I knew that if I had the opportunity to bungee jump over the Nile in Uganda and didn't, I'd kill myself. So I did. And it was, by far, the most terrifying thing I have ever done. Before it was just joining the Peace Corps, but I've definitely one-upped myself with this. The jump is 44 meters, about 135 feet, straight over the Nile. The bungee master Tony spent the last 5 minutes before I jumped telling me that bungee jumping and thinking do not go well together, the best thing to think about is nothing, oh and also, DON'T LOOK DOWN. Apparently I screamed too, but I don't remember anything coming out of my mouth at all. The screaming in the video is from the girl who's taking it.

First here's the guys who kept me from dying: Isaac and Tony

And here's the real deal:

So I think that should just about wrap up all the major travels this month. We are back in Nairobi now for our two-week In-Service Training, and we'll all head back to site at the end of the month. It's great to be with all my other volunteers again, but it will also be good to go home to Kilifi. I hope everyone in America is doing wonderful and hope you all have a happy Easter/Passover holiday.

Miss you A LOT.

~ Shub :)