No Thanks, I'm Full.

Week One

I'm not exactly sure where I left off last time, but I'm now at home. I am a part of the Wambua Justus Iluti Willy family. He is my Baba (father). I also have a Mama and 7 brothers and sisters. We've got a pretty sweet pad: 3 cows, a goat, a dog, lots of chickens. And we do have electricity; it is run off the car battery. We have a black and white TV. It really is a pretty swanky place compared to other places. Maybe I can get pictures some time.

The Choo

A.K.A. The Hole in the Ground A.K.A The Toilet. Apparently compared to all the other volunteers I am the choo master. I've got the squat down to a science already. It takes a little getting used to. Some time I'll show a picture and take people through the steps. Beware of going at night though, because the place is crawling with cockroaches. I call it the night club.

Food

The hardest part thus far has been the food. Not the taste, not the lack of food, but the abundance of food. Kenyans like people to be fat. It is a compliment to be called fat. It means you are healthy. So I get these ridiculously large portions of food and am expected to eat all of it or it would be considered rude. So every night I basically feel like I'm going to vomit because I'm trying to stuff so much food down my throat. It's the running joke that if you get in trouble in Kenya the punishment isn't going to bed without supper it is going to bed with double supper. The first night I thought my plate was the serving plate because there was so much food on it. So nobody needs to worry about me getting thin.

And the beat goes on...

Forget Norway ... Come to Kenya!!

First off, sorry for the last post. I wanted to give you something. But moving on...

Detroit to Philadelphia and staging:

When I arrived in Philly I called a bus to take me to the airport. There was another girl waiting who appeared to have her whole life packed in bags sitting in front of her. It turns out she was another Peace Corps (PC) person and apparently we were on the same flight. She was from Ann Arbor and so we shared the bus to the hotel and had a grand old time.

Staging was fun. It reminded me of my days with the orientation program. Skits, easel boards and markers, meeting some impressive individuals, and lots of fun. I also got my first three shots (to my relief in my arm).

Flight to Kenya:

Agony. Our flight left JFK at 8:30 PM so basically everybody was planning on sleeping. That was my plan also. I can honestly say that I did not sleep for 1 minute. It was impossible. I tried every position in the book, some of them were pretty creative. But to no avail. However, even thought the movie selection was less than appealing, the radio choices were quality. My brother will like this: a radio station that played some of AFI's top movie themes. Lots of John Williams.

The flight to Kenya was better. I was so drained from the first flight that I was knocked out for a few hours. I also liked this flight because it was British. Ahhh, the Brits. They offered you tea constantly. And then we landed...

Kenya:

Jomo Kenyatta Airport was much nicer than JFK. We grabbed our bags and took a bus ride to our hotel. Everyone was glued to the windows during the ride. The trouble was that it was night so we really didn't get to see much of the city and Kenya at all. They had dinner waiting for us at the hotel and then we all crashed the night.

You might think that we had the next day to recover. Incorrect, I got up about 8:00 and we were greeted by the country director, met staff, and went over medical issues. We also received three more shots (running tally of shots: 6). We began language training and had some one on ones with the director of education. A pretty busy first day.

What's in store:

We leave tomorrow for Kitui. This is where I will be staying for training with my host family. It is a few hours east of Nairobi fairly close to the desert. Hot. Dry.

I'm having a great time, the people are solid, I'm diggin' the language, its good. The adventure is just beginning.

Not much, but...

Yes, I'm safe, I'm leaving Philadelphia and heading to New York to head overseas.

They told us the internet connection is pretty limited so 'no news is good news'.

I have no time, but things are great, the people are incredible, I need to take my first malaria pill. Life is good.

More next time.

Matttttttt

Twas the Night Before Staging

It was over two years ago that I first gave any thought to the Peace Corps. Good ol' John Johnstone mentioned it to me while we were having one of those deep 'What are your passions?' type of conversations (Yes John, it was you). After a year of learning about the Corps and a year of applications, interviews, and physicals it's unreal to believe that the day is finally here.

The buildup to the departure day has been crazy. It's been a summer of anticipation as I awaited each correspondence with the PC. Then came the goodbye party, the trip to Kalamazoo (where I wasn't able to see everyone, but had a nice relaxful time), and the endless goodbyes. Honestly, I can't wait to leave so I can stop saying the goodbyes. There's nothing fun in saying goodbye. And there is almost always a hint of guilt with each goodbye. You feel guilty for leaving, for wanting to have this adventure, for leaving your family for 2 years. It's hard to convey to someone why I would want to give up everything familiar and comfortable just because I want to and need to. Sometimes you just feel convicted to do something and you have the determination to see it through.

So tomorrow begins the journey, the adventure. Am I prepared? I have no idea. Probably not. Am I excited? Yes, in a laidback sort of way. We call it passive enthusiasm. Am I nervous? I probably will be. I can't wait to meet people.

The flight leaves for Philadelphia at 8:30 AM. That means we need to be in Detroit by 7:00, which means we need to leave home by 6:15, which means I'll get up at ... 6:00. Yippee.

And...

MUCH love to my family.

3-2-1 Contact ... Information

Information people have been persistently requesting:

e-mail:

mwpriest@gmail.com

Address:

Matt Priest, Peace Corps Trainee
P.O. Box 30518
Nairobi, Kenya

The address is good for the first few months as I go through training and then I probably will have a new one as I move on. I do welcome letters, but I would not recomment putting anything important or valuable in with the letters. Its pretty common to find mail already opened by the time it gets to the intended recipient.

On a related note, I was reading the other day that Nairobi has a nickname: Nai-robbery. Yes, it has now surpassed Johannesburg as the most crime-ridden city in all of Africa. Yes, it is the winner in all the crime categories. It should be noted that most of these crimes take place in the 'shantytowns', but one should still be careful. Its alright, I'm a trained ninja. And by trained ninja I mean that I have seen a few Jackie Chan fims. But I digress...

As for the e-mail, go ahead and use this option to tell me what's going on with yourself. Chances are more likely you will get a personal response from me if you send an e-mail (no guarantees). I do enjoy reading the comments on the entries so keep those coming too.

Basically for the next two years I'm going to have to rely on these forms of communication to stay in touch with everybody, so if you don't correspond how will I know if you got that wart removed, received a new tattoo, or lowered your cholesterol? I need to know these things.

So I know this post was mostly technical and businessy so I promise a more emotion-filled, heart-tugging episode in the next couple days. 4 days and counting...