Tarzan, Pumpkin Seeds, Sport Legs

If this photo looks familiar to you I'm guessing you might be older than me :) This is where the old Tarzan movies were filmed. It is 14 Falls located just outside of Thika about 1.5 hours from where I live. A couple of volunteers, Martha and I went a few weeks ago for the afternoon. It's not as tall as Niagara Falls but there are 14 of them!

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My last language lesson was a bit of a bust. We went to a restaurant after work so I could practice ordering food. We asked for a menu, they didn't have one. We asked what food they had, they didn't have any. My intrepid language teacher was unfazed and had the waitress go to another restaurant and bring us back some fries. Sadly, the waitress kept talking to us in Kikuyu even though it was a Swahili day. Oh well, I'm making definite progress and this is word for word an actual text sent to me by my language teacher that day after a lesson:

Good morning, congratulations you performed excellent in Kikuyu language practice in the market i was very happy thank you 4ua hardwork n wishing u success as we continue our lesson. Have a blesed day.

With enthusiasm like that it's hard not to improve :) At least I've stopped trying to use Spanish when I don't know the word in Swahili or Kikuyu...

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I'm blowing people's minds with pumpkin seeds of late. People here eat pumpkin all the time but they never eat the seeds. When I was at my friend Grace's house she made mukimo (mashed pumpkin and potatoes with corn and beans mixed in) and I toasted the seeds for her kids. They all went absolutely nuts over them. Last night I decided to make some mukimo of my own and after wrestling with the pumpkin for an hour or so (something I've decided is not worth it for one person) I had my mukimo and a jar of pumpkin seeds to take to work. Everyone who came in today got to try a handful and you would never guess people would be so easy to impress! I think everyone asked for instructions on how to make them. I have requests to make more applesauce, more pumpkin seeds, and a few adventurous souls even want to try my banana pancakes :) After being fed by every mama in the district it's nice to be able to offer something back!

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Today I wore a skirt. I did not bring any skirts with me to Kenya as I don't wear them often and all the skirts I own are above the knee (inappropriate). However, MANY people have commented that I never wear skirts and one of my co-workers even suggested I should buy one so I finally took the hint. Unfortunately clothes shopping here is not what I'm used to so it wasn't as simple as I'd hoped. But this morning all 3 pairs of pants were dirty and there is no water again so I can't do laundry. Ever resourceful I pulled out a piece of material I'd bought in Mombasa with the intention of using as a curtain or tablecloth, wrapped it around my waist, and headed to work. This may sound strange but it is called a leso and it is the traditional clothing here.
The skirts may or may not have elicited the following comments I received today but I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

Erin, you are a gutha (a complete woman)!

You are so glamorous!

Turn around. You have sport legs! Your legs are so smart! You have such a nice shape! See what Stephen likes!

Erin, you do everything perfectly.

Erin, you'll soon be like Margaret Thatcher!

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No electricity again today so I'm using part of my precious laptop battery for this post...how did my uncle Duffy do the Peace Corps with no internet? Now that's hardcore!

New Address (again!)

So we now have our own PO Box so I have yet another new address. In fact, I'm rather surprised I was getting any mail at all as the PO Box we were using wasn't even the one Francis thought it was so the post lady was just holding all my mail for me. I even got a Christmas package just the other day that had the wrong town, zip code, and PO# so don't worry if you've sent me something recently. It will get here eventually :)

Gatanga Kiiga Home-Based Care
c/o Erin Bresnan
PO Box 134
Gatura via Thika
Central Province, 1013
KENYA

Happy Birthday!

My Birthday Party

Hillary brought the sound system over and I celebrated with my neighbors and friends...and of course streamers!

The menu included cake (pre-packaged because I don't have an oven), popcorn, applesauce (a North American treat for my guests to try), bananas and plums.

A few of my guests even brought gifts. I got a floating flower from Faith, a photo album from Mama Hillary, and a sugar beet from Julius!

A Day in the Life: Episode 4

This is the final installment in the Day in the Life series. Please vote for your favorite in the sidebar!

Saturday, January 30, 2010

After managing to fall asleep through the racket the local church was making when I went to bed around 10 I was awoken by it at 2am. The most prized possession of most churches here seems to be a POWERFUL sound system. Not necessarily high quality, but loud. So when the local church has any activities I get to hear them without even attending. Apparently this church was having an all night praise-a-thon or something because I was up from 2am until they finished around 5am. I don't know how I slept through the first part but I must have been just that tired. It mostly consisted of a man praying super fast (auctioneer style) into the microphone in Kikuyu. I started praying that he would need a drink of water or get tired himself but it didn't happen.

I dozed off about 5am for a solid hour of sleep before Stephen sent me a text at 6am to get on Skype early. We can't always connect so I'm happy to try anytime we are both awake...or almost awake :) We talked until 7 when I decided I might as well get out of bed as I needed to laundry and clean the floors before my language teacher came at 11am.

I pulled out the buckets, filled them with water, and got to work washing every piece of clothing I own except the ones I was wearing. They would go through a quick wash tomorrow morning as I only have 3 pairs of pants and depending on the amount of mud I encounter during the week, I might need them all. Around 8 I took a break for a peanuut butter and banana sandwich an then pressed on.

 I did 3 "loads". A load means that the water gets too dirty to actually clean more clothes in it. That water gets dumped on the cement along the front of my apartment and swept into the gutter with a traditional hand broom of long twigs tied together. Everyone in my apartment complex does this to keep down the dust so I just try to fit in. The rinse water is usually too soapy to rinse at this point so it gets recycled as mop water or water for flushing the toilet. After another hour I finally I got to stand up straight and hang the clothes on the line!

Next chore was to clean the floors. Again with the twig broom I swept the apartment, careful to also search and destroy any new spiderwebs (and also kill any new spiders that had dared enter since my last killing spree). Next was mopping. Most people here do this with a bucket of dirty water and an old t-shirt but I splurged and got myself a mop and bucket in Thika since it is so dusty here and I knew I'd be mopping at least once a week.

At 11 the house was spotless and the laundry on the line so I sat down to study my Kikuyu before my language teacher arrived. Around 11:30 I got a text that she wouldn't arrive until noon. No problem, more time to study my vegetables and numbers. She arrived at 12:30 and we got started practicing interactions in the market. I would tell her what vegetable I needed and ask how much it costs then she would tell me and I would have to hand her correct change from a bowl on the table. A fantastic lesson really. And since Saturday is market day we headed out for some practical application after she was satisfied that I could remember the three different words for banana in Kikuyu.

We had a great time in the market and I was high entertainment for everyone there. I had been to the market many times before but mostly got by with pointing and showing numbers by hand so the vendors were very excited to hear me speaking Kikuyu. We bought onions, limes, tomatoes, zuchini, carrots and a pot. When someone asked me if I wanted to buy an arrowroot I was actually able to understand what she was saying and reply that I already had one. I was very proud of myself :)

Exhausted from our efforts Martha and I headed back to her apartment for a Coke and a roll, the lunch of convenience here. (I realize this is not a healthy choice but I figure I'm making up for it with my regular diet of organic vegetarian...however, I see why type II diabetes is such a problem with the elder generation here.) Then it was back to my apartment for me to become the teach and Martha the student...Internet lesson. Last time we had set her up with an e-mail account so this time she was to practice sending e-mails and attachments. She doesn't know anyone with an e-mail account so we sent e-mails to some fellow volunteers who had gone to 14 Falls with us last weekend. The biggest challenge was learning how to manuver the built-in mouse but she did a great job.

After Internet lessons we became absorbed in the People magazine my parents had sent me. She didn't know any of the people but was enthralled with the captions and the ads of all things. She absolutely loved it! Obviously she was given the magazine to take home and I'm sure she'll be up all night reading every inch of copy.

By the time Martha left it was 5 and I wasn't sure where the day had gone but we had so much fun and laughed a ton. I brought the laundry in so I'd be ready for my pre-set phone call from Afganastan at 5:30. There were a few botched tries but at 6 we finally got a good connection and I got to have a good conversation with my sister. A very nice end to the day.

And yet again I realized the day had gone by and I hadn`t done any exercise. I did  my own personal mix of yoga and calestinics while preparing dinner but it`s just not the same as a nice long run. For dinner I decided to use the strange yellow squash I had purchased the week before. I wasn't sure how to cook it but I'd been told they were delicious so I was going to give it a try. When I cut into it I realized it was incredibl hard and it smelled like an unripe canteloupe so I wasn't sure if I should be making dinner or desert with it but I forged ahead. I chopped it into small pieces and sauted it for a bit before adding zuchini, onion, tomatoes and fresh thyme to make a pasta sauce. It was actually quite delicious and I will be eating the rest of it tomorrow. I`m really starting to enjoy experimental cooking...except when I`m really hungry and it doesn`t turn out well.

By the time dishes were done it was 8:30 so I wrote a letter, read my book and was in bed by 9:30pm happy knowing the church noise wouldn`t start tomorrow until 8am!