Nimepotea

My Swahili is fast out-pacing Maasai, the local language I spent 8 hours a day learning in training. This is mostly because the family I live with is made up of a Maasai mom and a Kikuyu dad so they teach the daughter (2 years) Swahili. Anyhow, whenever you are gone for more than a couple days and you see someone, they say to you "Umepotea", which means "you have been lost." The first time someone said that to me I was, understandably, confused. No, I haven't been lost- I've known where I was all along! And, usually the other person did too because I have said, Oh I'll be in Nairobi for two weeks so I won't see you for awhile. But, I didn't tell you guys what's been going on for the last three weeks so I guess I really have been nimepotea.

Things at site are the usual up and down. I posted some lyrics from one of my favorite movies, The Wiz, on facebook and they are so relevant to me this week that I'll put them again here...

"Cause there may be times when you think you lost your mind and the steps you're takin' leave you three more steps behind. But the road you're walkin' might be long sometimes, you just keep on steppin' and you'll be just fine"

That pretty much sums up PC life, for me at least. Also, I realize that I have been quite remiss in talking about life in general here. I have talked quite a bit about the work I've been doing and my silence has generally been because of lack of aforementioned work. But you guys don't want to hear about just work work work right? So I will try to infuse a bit more of the everyday in these ramblings, ahem, I mean posts.

Starting with... the ostrich egg party! There is a JAIKA (Japanese equivalent of Peace Corps) volunteer who lives not too far from me. Funny how my worlds collide. We met through a mutual friend when he was on his way to a medical camp. At the medical camp, she bought an ostrich egg from a villager so we thought, why not have a party and cook it? Nia, the director of our donor organization OFDC and her son Giles (also a former Japanese student!) are here for two weeks to check on all of the projects they have funded for my organization. So, after a week of looking at latrines, water wells, and crazy kids, I invited them to come along with me to Sachiko's place. We picked up some chapati and chips and then the fun really began. Our only Kenyan representation, the mutual friend Moses, was the only one of us with ostrich egg cracking experience. Those shells are hard! We had to drill a hole because Sachiko wanted to keep the empty shell and have it decorated with beads. So, there we sat, taking turns drilling a hole with a knife and subsequently blowing out the insides. Best Friday night in a long time (not even being sarcastic!). I cooked up the egg, which is the equivalent of about 2 dozen chicken eggs, and then we all sat around Sachiko's place and just chatted about development, women's rights, why we all love our countries, and other random topics. What does ostrich egg taste like? I thought it was pretty good, but a bit yolky compared to a chicken egg.

Other than that, it has been slow going work wise. I went to a school today and volunteered to teach their business class next term (January) and I am trying to get a dairy goat cooperative going with some of the women's groups. Also, the girls come back in a couple weeks and I want to do a mini holiday camp with them, so we will see how that goes. I know that seems like a lot but most of the things I have to do involve a lot of waiting and then a meeting and then more waiting... I read a whole book on Sunday which I thought I would stretch out to last the week so now I'm blogging and bored!

THANK YOU MELANIE for my birthday package! We made the cake with the frosting as soon as I got it. One of my housemates, Alice, had never had frosting and they ate the whole tube even thought I told them it would make them sick! Also, reading Kaffir Boy (great pick!) rejuvenated my reasons for being here and trying to make a difference, even when I feel I am failing miserably. Love you and miss you!

Even though we lost the game (no surprise) still going to give a shout out to Columbia homecoming. Roar lions roar!!!