Kenya: Week 1 Pre-Service Training
The 5 W’s
Who: Peace Corps Kenya Health & Education Trainees as well as Peace Corps Kenya in-country staff.
What: Learn more about Peace Corps Kenya and the different departments we will be working with during our time as trainees and then as volunteers.
Where: Western Kenya
When: All day, every day! Some of the most important things we are learning as trainees revolve around culture and language. When we aren’t in meetings, we are meeting with our language and culture facilitators to improve our Kiswahili as well as learn about Kenyan culture.
Why: Orient us as trainees with the Peace Corps Kenya in-country staff and the country culture/language.
Weather: It ranges from 60 - 85 Degrees Fahrenheit with mornings, evenings, & nights being the coolest and daytime being the warmest. Right now, you can almost count on there being a heavy rain storm around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, but it comes and goes quickly.
Housing: Think of a typical summer camp set up. We have two houses with various rooms filled with bunk beds. Each house has its own set of showers and toilets and a common area sink. There is another house were the kitchen and sitting area is. At the end of this week we move to our host families which is a different set-up.
Learning Center: Every day, we walk about 10 minutes from our housing location to the learning center where we spend most of our day. The learning center looks like it was an old school. There are 4 main classrooms and smaller offices throughout. These rooms surround a nice courtyard where we can enjoy our chai breaks and lunch.
Daily Activities
Day 1: We started the day off at 8 AM with a welcome session that lasted until 10 AM. From here, we completed a round robin of various tasks in an effort to get us everything we needed to be able to be successful as a Peace Corps Trainee (PCT). This included some basic language and culture instruction, a photograph for a reason I am still unsure about 😊, setting up a Kenyan bank account, a chat with current Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs), a session with IT to organize our devices and access to internet and texts/calling, and a meeting with a cashier because most of us didn’t have a way to pay for anything because cash and mpesa (I’ll do my best to explain this at some point) are the main ways of payment. The most fun part of these sessions was in language and culture where we learned about the origin of Kiswahili, how to use the cho (a pit latrine), and how to use the bafu (a bucket bath). We had a relatively free afternoon today (a very rare occasion), so a group of us walked down the hill to the market street to see what was being sold and what our town looked like. It was about a 40-minute walk round-trip. Dinner was served at our housing site and then it was time to hang-out and rest. While it is very exciting to finally be here and get the information that we’ve been waiting months for, these days are extremely exhausting.
Day 2: It was another 8 AM start to finish the round robin sessions we didn’t get to finish yesterday. We began the day with Kenyan Sign Language (KSL) lessons because a section of Peace Corps Kenya education is deaf education and because this week was International Deaf Awareness Week (which we learned how to sign in KSL). Today I met with the Education Manager for Education, a Peace Corps Medical Officer (PCMO), the Director of Programming and Training, and the Country Director. This afternoon we had our first language class in our small groups. Our groups are organized by the school and/or health center we will be training in for the next three months, so there are about four people in each language class. This class abruptly ended when we saw the rain storm coming in. Most of us did not make it back to our housing in time and ended up drenched, but it was a fun experience being our first Kenyan rain. Towards the end of the storm, it started to hail which wasn’t as fun. In addition to hanging out and resting, I had to patch a hole in my pants because I snagged them on something today. Since I’ve only been here two days, I feel like I have a lot of patching in my future 😊
Day 3: We again had an 8 AM start that began with a KSL lesson. I think I know more KSL than Kiswahili at this point but I’m sure that will be remedied soon. Today was a lot of meetings: expectations, safety & security, IT (we are having trouble understanding how to use our phones and the internet services provided here), and health. The most exciting part of the day was a visit from a diplomat at the US Embassy in Nairobi and he spent time with us at lunch and spent about an hour talking to us and answering questions we had. The most useful part of the day was receiving our medical kits because there’s a lot of things that we didn’t bring with us because of the limited amount we could bring and because there are things here (like malaria) that we don’t have at home that require specific medicines.
Our medical kits included the following: malaria medicine (as discussed with our PCMOs) * COVID tests * mosquito net * water pump * acetaminophen * ibuprofen * bismuth * diphenhydramine * phenylephrine HCl tablets * antacid * anti-diarrheal caplets * motion sickness tablets * sore throat lozenges * cough suppressant lozenges * ointment * hydrocortisone cream * clotrimazole cream * anti-itch gel * oral rehydration salt (ORS) packets * water purification tablets * saline eye drops * saline nasal spray * chlorhexidine detergent * first aid pocket guide * bandages * butterfly skin closures * elastic bandage * sterile gauze pads * adhesive tape * digital thermometer * pulse oximeter * bandage scissors * tweezers * gloves * dental floss * lip balm * sunscreen * insect repellent (the mosquitos haven’t been nearly as bad as I was anticipating) * safety whistle * smoke/carbon monoxide alarm
Day 4: At 8 AM we again started with a KSL lesson before our lecture on diarrhea. Yes, you read that correctly, diarrhea. From as much as everyone has talked about distinguishing between normal and concerning diarrhea as well as preventative and treatment measures, I anticipate this is the most common medical problem for PCVs. After this riveting lesson, we received our first rabies shot (there are two in the series) followed by our meningitis shot. After lunch, we had language class and our group has improved a lot since day one where I knew maybe a couple words of Kiswahili. I spent the rest of the night re-packing my belongings because tomorrow we leave to go to stay with our host families. This also meant that we were able to pick out our sheets, comforter, and pillow that we would bring with us. I got baby blue sheets with a cute floral-patterned comforter and I think it’s going to help make my room with my host family feel a little more like my space. We also received a solar powered light which I anticipate will be very helpful because electricity can go out here for extended periods of time, especially after a heavy rain.
Day 5: It was an easier day to wake up at 8 AM because I was excited to finally meet my host family. We had to start the day with some more training, but at 10:30 AM we had chai time and our introductions to our host families. They handed us a slip of paper with a Kiswahili word and had us find the family that had the same word. When I finally got to my Mama Margaret, she gave me the biggest hug and said, “Welcome home daughter, welcome to Kenya.” We chatted for a long time, had lunch, and chatted some more because I was the last group to be taken to my host home because there are only so many vehicles to shuttle us and our bags around. We left the training hub at 4 PM and we were soon to Mama’s house. My bags were arriving in a different car, so I was able to appreciate my family members and the house from the start. I have a sister named Sheilla who is my age and a brother named Dan who is younger. Everyone was extremely welcoming and helpful. Since my bags hadn’t arrived and I couldn’t settle into my room, we walked across the street to Mama’s friend’s house because another PCT is living there. It was fun to see her room and their house as this was our first time seeing what a typical house looks like. My house has a metal gated entrance with a sturdy fence all around the front, sides, and backyard. This is because we have 2 cows. One is an adult (she is pregnant and due in February) and one is a baby. They are yard cows by day and stable cows by night 😊We also have a black and white cat who didn’t have a name when I arrived, but I have named it “Penguin” because when it’s hungry it stands on its back legs to beg for food and it looks like the way a penguin stands. We also have a lot of chickens that have to be kept in the yard. The house has a large living room to host all of Mama’s friends. We have an indoor kitchen and the ability to cook outside as well depending on what’s being cooked. There are three bedrooms, an indoor bathroom and shower, and an outdoor bathroom. The back yard has the cow stable, water tank (collects rain water), and garden. I haven’t used it yet, but there is the most inviting bench in the yard under a tree and when I finally have a free moment, I am going to read my book there. My room has a large bed, bedside table, and dresser, and it felt so good to unpack all of my things when they arrived because I’d been living out of a suitcase for the last week.
In next week’s blog, I’ll talk more about my amazing host family, teaching training, and language/culture training, so stay tuned for more! If you have questions, feel free to message me and I’ll do my best to answer.
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