updatz

May 28 2010

Hamjambo! Following a long day of staging and two days of traveling, all the official Peace Corps Trainees arrived in Nairobi on Wednesday night. The flights were...long, but we hung in there. It was an amazing feeling to touch down in Kenya, and after years of anticipation I felt like we've been given a world of support. I have to be honest, I was pretty nervous the first day, but the people I'm with are an absolutely amazing support group. Just the fact that we are all going through it together has given us such a strong bond in a few days time. We've been at a hostel in Nairobi the past few days, going over safety, health, and language training. This place is amazing (note the internet hook-up, although we all have to sit outside by the router to get it--it's cold out, I can see my breath)! We have our own rooms with flushing toilets and TVs, but we don't spend much time in them. Sessions start at 8 AM (oh and all the food is very good, pretty much Westernized though). We could not ask for better people teaching us the language. The class I'm in now has about 5 people and the teacher is incrediably thorough, and he can definetly tell when I am lost. Funny side-note: I accidentally said my sister's name was Bill. He wrote it down and slowly backed away from the board as if it was contaigous yelling "hapana hapana! (no no!) I am so excited about all the training we're going to be receiving, we have been given such a great opportunity here, and it's much more organized and better than I imagined. We actually had some active volunteers meet us at the airport and stay with us these first few days, so we were able to ask them about a billion and one questions about their experiences. We started vaccinations yesterday and will continue onto more in a few days once the pain goes away :) Also got my malaria profylaxis...Doxycycline. Yeah, you can do your own research on that. Today I had my interview with the assistant country director and the man who will be training us in our technical skills, so they can figure out where to place me. Here's the cool news: We'll be learning Kiswahili until Wednesday of next week, at which time we'll get our site placements and start to learn the vernacular of where ever we're placed. Usually PCT get their placements about 2 weeks before they go to their site, which gives them little time to learn the language. So obviously we think this is an awesome change and we are so excited to hear about where we'll be living and what we'll be doing for the next two years. So: crash course in Kiswahili, then off to new language. Here, I wake up to a rooster each morning, although we've been waking up around 4 AM b/c of jetlag. For the first time today I wasn't dead tired mid-morning. Tomorrow we move onto our training site, which is in the slopes of Mt. Kilamanjaro, and apparently very cold. Yikes! I'll have to layer up, good thing I brought those smartwool socks. Then Sunday we meet and move in with our host family. Everyone is pretty nervous/excited about this transition, so it should be interesting. We actually spent most of the morning talking about what to expect from our host family, so I think that eased us a bit. pictures to follow, I'm too lazy to go back up to my room...

Also, I have 3 months where I can receive packages w/o having to pay to get them out. I have a list going, but I have a feeling I've forgotten an important item. But once I get the list finalized Mom, or someone else, can you please send me some items?

Sending my love to all,

-H