The adventure begins

August 1, 2001

On July 2nd I accepted my invitation letter to a Small Enterprise Development post in Kenya. Now I'm awaiting further mailings from HQ as to what I should pack.

I leave on or around September 26, 2001. I will fly to Washington D.C. for a Staging Event. There I will meet the other trainees (you're not officially called a Volunteer until after you successfully complete your training), get my passport, shots, and finish up any administrative paperwork.<p>I believe I'm scheduled to begin training on September 29 and complete it, hopefully successfully, on December 8, 2001. Not sure where the training will be in Kenya - most likely Nairobi.

I will not find out where I'll be living for my 2-year service term until halfway through training. This is so my skills and adaptability can be assessed and matched with a host village. I'm assuming the worst - that I'll be living in a mud hut without running water or electricity. I will not be working in the same village as I'll be living. I think I'll be given a mountain bike for transportation. Pretty cool, huh?

That's the update for now - more when I have new info to share.

August 21, 2001

The Peace Corps HQ and Travel Office were supposed to send me packets of information about my staging event and itinerary as well as provide me with country info and a recommended packing list. Well, nothing has come yet and others in my program have received both so I'm starting to take it personally.<

I have been in email contact with a woman who is also in my program, Kerry, and we spoke on the phone today. She is going to have her father fax me the essential information in case my second mailings take too long to reach me. She read off some of the critical packing suggestions like: duct tape, at least 12 passport-sized photos and a solar calculator. Other recommended, but non-essential, items include: knives (apparently sharp ones can't be easily found there - wonder how I'll get this through the airport security systems...), sleeping bag and pad, and potholders. Oh and a 2-year supply of underwear. Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) have all stated that the underwear suck in Kenya so bring enough to last you! They also say to ship yourself condiments like mayo, packaged mixes and seasonings, etc. before you leave so you don't have to pack it with you.

Found out that I will fly out of Seattle on 9/23 to arrive in Washington D.C. for staging on the 24th. We then do administrative stuff all day and then leave bright and early the next morning to get our immunizations. We then fly out via NW Airlines the evening of the 25th and arrive in Amsterdam the morning of the 26th. We then switch to KLM and fly out to Nairobi and arrive the evening of the 26th. Not sure what happens after that.

Once I actually receive my missing packets I'll have more info to share.

September 7, 2001

Finally got my packets last week. Feel much more prepared now. I've been busy shopping for supplies and checking things off my list of to do's. Haven't started packing up my apartment yet but I still have 15 days to go - no problem, right?.<p>I made my reservations to get to my staging event in D.C. I fly out of Seattle at 7:30a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 23rd. The staging begins the next afternoon and it'll be then when I'll meet my fellow trainees. We do administrative stuff all day and get briefed on what will be facing us upon our arrival. The next morning we get all our immunizations and then we're off to the airport for our flight out. We fly to Amsterdam at 5:30p.m. on the 25th and arrive at 7:05a.m. local time on the 26th. Our flight to Nairobi leaves at 11:00a.m. and we arrive at 8:15p.m. that evening.

I believe we spend the night in Nairobi and then get transported to Naivasha the next day, which is where our training will take place. We'll be assigned a family to "homestay" with for our 10 weeks of training - one volunteer per family. This is to give us total immersion into the culture and language. Should be interesting. I hear that training is pretty tough - long hours with your education continuing when you get back to your "family" at night. I'll be taking breakfast and dinner with my family and lunch at the training facility. Returned volunteers have told me that Naivasha has similar weather to Nairobi (I think it's about 5 hours NW of Nairobi) which is fairly cool this time of year. Highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s. It's a fairly big town with a great used-clothing market. I might just find some old t-shirts I donated to the Salvation Army 10 years ago!

Not really nervous yet but getting excited. It still hasn't "hit" me that I'm going. Once I'm on the plane to D.C. it'll become real to me. Today was my last day at work. I've been temping for an advertising company, Publicis, and while sad to be leaving behind some great new friends, I'm excited to get down to the nitty gritty of my preparations. The next two weeks I'll be packing up my apartment and moving my stuff to my parents' house for storage.

That's the gist of my latest news. I'll update this once more, at least, before I head out

September 16, 2001

In light of the terrorists attacks on the WTC and Pentagon, the Peace Corps has delayed some staging events in D.C. Mine was set to begin on 9/24 and according to the PC website, I will be contacted the week of 9/17 and told whether or not my staging event is affected.

As far as I know, no PC volunteers are being pulled out of their countries of service. They are all being contacted and made aware of the events and the PC is helping those volunteers who may have had family in NY or D.C. contact one another. You can keep abreast of the situation by going to the http://www.peacecorps.gov home page and clicking on the news bulletins.

I have to keep packing up my stuff as if I were still leaving Seattle on 9/23. I've taken one load over to my parents' house already and hope to take another soon. I've been shopping for supplies and have been so blessed by wonderful friends helping out - donating clothes, a backpack, CD player and music CD's. I had a great going away dinner with some friends on Friday night and then we went bowling and had a blast - I won't be sharing my score as it was undoubtedly negatively influenced by the enormous quantity of wine I had with dinner. Saturday night some of us went to Golden Gardens park in Shilshole and had a bonfire on the beach. It was a magnificent sunset and calming time spent with good friends.

Thanks to all my friends who have spent time with me crossing off my "fun list" items this summer. I appreciate your friendship so much and am truly blessed to have you all in my life.

September 17, 2001

The Peace Corps' website states that my staging, and all staging through September 30, will be postponed. I am supposedly going to be contacted in the next few days and given more information and I can only assume that I'll get my new date for staging at that time. My past encounters with Peace Corps' Administration have left me skeptical that I'll be contacted any time soon.

Once I have a new date, I'll post it here. I'm hoping it won't be a long postponement as I've geared up for my departure and said a lot of my goodbyes already. I left my job and currently have no health insurance as the Peace Corps was to cover me beginning with my staging. I ask for your prayers that my situation resolves itself quickly and that the Peace Corps is guided by wisdom when making their decisions regarding currently serving volunteers and those of us waiting to leave for service.

September 18, 2001

Much to my surprise, I was contacted by a Peace Corps representative this morning. I wasn't given specific information about a new departure date but was told that I would be contacted again during the first week of October.

They are considering having Staging somewhere other than Washington D.C. I suggested Hawaii. The main problem and reason for the postponement is simply logistics. Trying to get a block of seats on planes for all invitees (remember, I'm not considered a Volunteer until after I complete training) at the same time is proving to be difficult. The gentleman I spoke with didn't want to speculate on when we'd leave and I can only hope it's early October. For those of you who are worried about my safety if we go to war or have a "holy war" declared upon us, thank you for your concern but I don't feel that I'd be in any more danger in Kenya vs. the U.S.

Kenya is predominately a Christian country, not Muslim. Here are the stats: Protestant 38%, Roman Catholic 28%, indigenous beliefs 26%, Muslim 7%, other 1%. I believe Osama Bin Laden is a Shiite Fundamentalist, born in Saudi Arabia. According to the CIA's fact file on Kenya, 'Shiite fundamentalism has been almost unknown among Africans.' Islam as a religion does not advocate terrorism - only a handful of extreme fundamentalists are causing this scourge. Just as we should not assume all Muslims are fanatics that are against Americans, neither should we assume Muslims in other countries share the fundamentalist's viewpoint. One of the main reasons I'm joining the Peace Corps is to dispel stereotypes that others hold against Americans as well as to share with Americans back home how incorrect their stereotypes may be of Africans. This is needed now more than ever. I won't say I'm not anxious, but I'm not willing to let the happenings of last week affect my life's dream. I ask for your support in my decision and your prayers for peace, as this situation affects us all - here in the U.S. and abroad.

September 22, 2001

Found out my new departure date! Looks like I will need to fly out of Seattle on October 6th to attend staging, in Washington D.C., on the 7th and 8th. We'll leave for Nairobi the evening of the 8th and should arrive the evening of the 9th, local time. Not sure if we're still connecting through Amsterdam as I didn't actually speak to the Peace Corps directly. They called on Friday afternoon but I wasn't home. By the time I got the message, it was too late to return it. I was so crushed thinking I'd have to wait until Monday to learn of my impending fate. Thankfully I have been in contact with a woman who will be in my program. Her name is Kerry (I've mentioned her before) and she lives in Connecticut. I immediately called her house but she wasn't home. Her father, hearing the desperation in my voice, called out to his wife to go get the information so he could tell me then and there as he didn't know when Kerry would be home. Bless his soul!

Sounds like our itinerary is the same except for the date changes. I'll find out the specifics of my flights on Monday when I get a chance to call the Peace Corps back. I can only assume that my training will now run until December 22nd. Originally it was set for 9/29-12/8. I'm hoping I'll get more concrete info like that during staging, or certainly once I arrive and begin training. I will get started again on my packing and errands/shopping. Not too much to do and I feel so much less pressure now. More time to spend with friends and family too! I'm very excited and relieved to be only delayed 2 weeks. I'm so ready emotionally to go. Can't wait to get there and begin the adventure. Special thanks for all of you who were sending your thoughts and prayers my way.

October 10, 2001

Hi all! I'm currently in Amsterdam's airport on a 4-hour layover, en route to Nairobi. We ended up spending an extra day in D.C. due to the holiday and all Federal Buildings being closed (we were to get our shots in a Federal Building on Monday). D'oh. My flight out of Seattle on Saturday the 6th was delayed due to a mechanical problem. I was sitting in my seat, my First Class seat, thanks to my mom knowing the gate agent, and drinking a few Jack Daniel's and Cokes. Had to deplane an hour later and wait to board another flight about an hour after that. I therefore didn't get in to D.C. until after 11pm. Made it to the hotel after sharing a cab with a really nice woman who refused to let me pay more than 1/3 of the fare. Had some frustrating moments at the hotel trying to convince the pimply 16-year old night clerk that I really was staying at this hotel. He even picked up paperwork with my name on it and would still say he couldn't find any record of me. Took all my self control not to launch myself over the counter and pummel him. I was too tired, although he wouldn't have put up much of a fight. I had a roommate but she wasn't in the room. It was 12:30am by this time. Cool, I had a partying roommate. Turns out she had friends in D.C. and was out with them. I settled in and crashed.

Talked more with Darcy, my roommate, in the morning. Turns out she grew up in Redmond, Washington. She later moved to Montana in high school and then went to college there. We had registration and orientation at 1:30-5:30. It was just your basic 'Welcome to the Peace Corps' kind of stuff. We all started to get to know each other better. There are 35 of us. Originally we were supposed to be 40 but 2 cancelled after the September 11 attacks and 3 were just no-shows. Can't imagine going through the whole application process, medical reviews, etc. and then just bailing without telling anyone. Most of us are women and I think we range in ages from 22 to 67. There are 3 retired ladies, including one named Robin. She said she wanted to join in 1961 when it was first created but she put it off for the love of a man. Her desire to do the Peace Corps outlasted the man apparently. More than half of us are Business Advisors/Computer Science people and the others are Education folks. We have a Special Ed group that will teach deaf education and half of them are deaf themselves. The others are all Math or Science people. There is one other woman from Seattle but I'm not sure of her whole story yet. It's been interesting trying to get to know everyone. We're all still trying to remember each others' names. There is one married couple, about age 31. Most of the others are in their low 20s and a few in their 40s and then of course the 60-somethings.

Oh, forgot to mention my fabulous experience getting my shots back in D.C.. Only had to get 1 of 3 shots here in the U.S. I was immunized when going to China in 1999 for many things, but not Yellow Fever. We'll get other shots in Kenya over the course of several weeks. We also started our Malaria pills. We'll take one pill every week for the next 2+ years. Anyway, we also had to have blood drawn. I don't mind needles but I always have problems giving blood for samples as no one seems able to find my veins. This lady was no exception. She stuck me two times, once in each arm and didn't find one. She was trying to find some in my legs but couldn't do that either. When she said she'd have to do my hand, that's when I asked her to call for help. They finally found some really small needles and she stuck me in the upper arm and fiddled around a while until she got a good flow. Luckily, she only needed to fill one small vial as I bruised immediately. My arms look like I have been doing heroin now.

Back to the present. Sorry if this is jumbled and misspelled (no time to spell check on another program) as I'm really tired. I didn't sleep much on my D.C. to Amsterdam flight. Don't want to sleep on this next leg as we'll get into Nairobi at 8:15pm local time on Wednesday the 10th. I want to be able to just go straight to bed. We'll be taken to a hotel and given a welcome and a snack and then off to bed. The next morning we board a bus for Naivasha which is 2 hours away. We'll have lunch and then a Medical session where I believe we go over our medical history with the medical team and get more shots. We then get booked into the Kenya Wildlife Services Training Institute which is in walking distance to our PC training center. The in-country team will take us on a lakeside hike, for those interested. On October 12th we'll have our first Language session with survival Kiswahili. We'll also get orientation as to what the homestay program is all about. The 13th we'll have another Language session and then move into our homestay homes and meet our families. The 14th, Sunday, we'll spend with our families. Monday our training starts at 8am sharp and we're to get there on our own using public transportation or walking, depending upon where our respective homes are. After that, I'm not sure what'll be the program. We've been told that training is very difficult but very worthwhile. We'll also get a chance to bond as a group as we'll spend the next 10-weeks together.

Whew, that's about all I can think of to pass along. My flight to Nairobi leaves in about 2 hours and I'm going to maybe hit the airport casino.....I'll see who else in the group is interested. Doing well and am pretty excited about my arrival into Kenya. Less than 11 hours now!!!

October 18, 2001

Yesterday marked one week in Kenya! What a week it was. We all arrived fine and after spending the night in Nairobi, we were bused to Naivasha, an hour and a half away to the NW. We spent 2 nights near our training center and en route there we walked around near Lake Naivasha, escorted by an armed wildlife guard. We walked right up to a dozen or so giraffe and saw a couple small herds of zebra, water buck, gazelle and antelope. I couldn't contain my awe and excitement. I think I took 2 dozen pictures.

I was prepared to write a whole bunch but I've been disconnected 3 times now and each time it takes 10 minutes to reconnect and I'm paying for all this time! So, I'll be very brief. Moved into my homestay family's house on Saturday the 13th. I really like it. I have electricity but no running water. I'm getting used to it. I take a bath in a bucket and splash the water on me and use a cup to wash my hair. Not everyone has electricity so I'm pretty lucky. There are 2 trainees that have running water and flush toilets - we all hate them. Most of us use a squat toilet called a choo (rhymes with dough). Basically it's a hole in the ground. You miss, you make a mess. My legs will be very strong after 2 years of this kind of squatting.

I find out Nov. 9 where I'll be posted. My training ends on December 4 and I'll be sworn in, hopefully, on December 5. They are speeding up the training to accommodate our 2-week delay. Email will not be a great way to communicate with me as the connection speed is slow and only 1 computer in town has access and there are 35 trainees plus all the locals who want to use it. Please write me using snail mail. My address is on the Contact Me page. I'll try and write more later. All is well with me - no illness and I'm enjoying myself very much. Hope all is well with everyone at home.