November 24, 2014
Sorry
to be lacking on the posts in the last month, but I have been very busy working
and traveling. It has just become very quiet in the Village, as only 1
volunteer remains and he will be leaving this week. We will have some groups
visiting for a day or so in December, but other than that, it will remain
quiet. In addition, our schools closed last week after final exams. The Kenyan
school calendar is different to that in the USA because the school year ends in
November and restarts in January as opposed to ending in June and beginning in
September. Many of the Village children will go visit relatives during the
break or spend their break in the Village, farming, playing, and doing various
chores/organized activities. Right before the schools closed, I carried out
hand washing/oral hygiene presentations in all three schools. Some of our
Spanish volunteers from this summer launched a fundraising campaign in Spain to
collect toothbrushes and toothpaste for everyone in the Village. One condition
of the donation however, was that educational presentations are given to all
the children about oral hygiene before the distribution of the brushes. I took
this opportunity to also continue last year’s PiAf fellow’s project on hand
sanitation, thus combining both sanitation concerns (oral and hand) to create
one presentation. For the younger children we used their teachers for help with
translating and did in depth demonstrations where the children were involved. It
went much smoother than I thought it would, and I really hope everyone
understood the lesson and use what they learned in everyday life. Below are
some pictures of our lessons with the primary school students.
On another note, the rainy season is in full force in the
Village. Every couple days, the rains will come and downpour all day long. The
roads become flooded (making travel outside the Village difficult) and the bugs
come out in masses. Massive amounts of beetles, mosquitoes, crickets etc have
hatched in the last couple weeks. The children run around during the day
collecting the bugs in bottles and if you are near any light source at night,
you will be surrounded and dive-bombed by all sorts of creatures. I love the
greenness that the rain has brought to vegetation, however I could deal without
the bugs and flooding.
Bugs on the movie projector screen we set up at the high school
The
highlight of the last couple weeks was the Fall East African PiAf Fellow’s
Retreat to Zanzibar, Tanzania. Twice throughout the fellowship year, there are
regional meet-ups for the fellows. I have already been to Zanzibar, but I was
thrilled to be going back to meet up with 15 of my fellow fellows! I flew
directly from Nairobi to Zanzibar with my friend Sally on the night of the 13th.
I was afraid I was going to miss my flight because heavy rains in the Village
had delayed my morning departure and forced me to take a longer route to
Nairobi. Luckily though everything worked out and we made it to Stone Town (the
biggest town in Zanzibar) in time for dinner. After checking into our hostel we
ventured to the town square where there is a nightly food market called Foradhani. At this market they sell all
sorts of fish, fruits, meat, local starches, juice etc. You pick and sample
small bits from each stand. We enjoyed fresh fish, sweet potatoes, falafel,
sweet rice cakes, salted mango and fresh sugarcane ginger juice.
Foradhani Market
The
next morning we explored the narrow allies of the city before we had to meet
our friends at the airport. We had breakfast at the famous Zanzibar Coffee
House (Zanzibar is famous for the coffee) and explored the waterfront. Next, we
picked up three other fellows, who had flown in that morning from Nairobi, and
headed up to our resort on the Northwest coast. It took us about an hour to
reach Kendwa Rocks, our home for the next 3 days.
View from table at Zanzibar Coffee House
The
word paradise doesn’t even do the place justice. We stayed in bandas (small
cottages) situated just above the white sand beach. Friday was filled with
swimming, lounging, good food and happy hour. After a group dinner that night,
there was dancing and entertainment at our resort. Saturday was our
stereotypical day at the beach. We lounged, swam some more and relaxed. That
night we had arranged a sunset cruise from our hotel up the coast and back. It
was amazing and the sunsets there are some of the best I have ever seen. That
night at the hotel there was more entertainment in the form of traditional
dancers, acrobats, and huge snakes. It was a very interesting night.
View from our sunset cruise
Sunday,
Sally and myself both woke up feeling sick (we later decided it was from tap
water we had drank in Stone Town). We were scheduled however to do an all day
snorkeling/diving trip beginning right after breakfast. We sucked it up and got
on the boat anyway (despite having just thrown up the contents of my
breakfast). We traveled about 2 hours up the coast to Pemba Island, one the
best places to snorkel/dive in the world. After feeling seasick for two hours,
it felt refreshing to jump into the water for an hour or two. The snorkeling
was amazing and we were surrounded by tropical fish. We broke for lunch then
went snorkeling one more time in a different location before heading back to
the hotel. It was a long day (8:30am-4pm), especially as I was feeling sick, but
was an amazing experience. I took my GoPro in the water with me and got some
amazing footage.
That
night, everyone was pretty tired and after a group dinner at a neighboring
hotel, I went to bed early. Monday morning after diving in the ocean one more
time, we headed back to Stone Town for lunch before we had to catch our flights
home. It was raining by the time we reached Stone Town so we bunkered down in
Coffee Shop and took turns going out exploring/shopping. Finally, it was time to head back and
with sadness we boarded out plane back to Nairobi. It was an amazing weekend in
paradise though and it was so great to catch up with many fellows that I had
not seen since orientation in June.
I have included many pictures so you hopefully get an idea
of what a beautiful place it is!
Enjoy!
A huge centipede outside my room!
