PCV in Kenya: Week 14

Monday

I successfully took the shortcut to school today. It was a good thing too because I was again running late because Nala decided to make a game out of escaping from the house 😊 I marked books and worked on paperwork all day in preparation for end of term exams that start tomorrow. I left school after lunch so I could go see Elma for a language lesson. On the way there, I did my shopping in the market. During our language lesson, Elma and I were so tired that we both kept drifting off during the lesson, so we had a shorter lesson than we usually do. When I got home, I swept, fixed one of my shirts that had gotten a rip, made dinner, watched “Yellowstone”, and called Warren. Warren is being deployed in a month so it was fun to hear about his new plans 😊 I ended the night with a warm shower and another episode of “Yellowstone”.

Tuesday

I had a normal morning and walk to school. I am liking this new shortcut path because I am running into more people on my way. School, however, was not normal because everyone was testing today and none of my classes were on the test schedule for today. Because of this, I had time to meet with Baba Charles so we could complete some information for a Peace Corps presentation during our training next month. It was so incredibly hot today. We haven’t had rain for at least three weeks and everyone can feel it. I was still very tired today, so when I went home, I warmed up my dinner and went straight to sleep.

Wednesday

My students had their biology end of term one exam today, so I spent my day monitoring the exam and then marking it. The rest of the day was very normal. I stopped in the market on the way home for a few things and made popcorn, oatmeal and banana pancakes, and more noodles to go with my leftover vegetable mix. Nala climbed (and successfully came down from) her first tree today! I watched “Monk” and “Yellowstone” and snuggled with Nala to end the day😊

Thursday

I was able to wear a new dress from Sarah that I picked up on Monday. Nala again played the “you can’t catch me” game as I was trying to leave. It is mostly funny because she gets so excited. Sammy helped me get her back to the house 😊 At school, I spent the morning marking and then at noon, I went with the principal and our music group to Mahaya. Today was the day for the distribution of bursary money to qualifying students and we were attending this distribution celebration. This celebration provided us lunch and our school got money to support 45 students. This is actually a good thing because it means more parents/guardians submitted the forms this year. We got home around 5:30PM and I went to the market before heading home. At home, I made egg and avocado toast for dinner. I also had time to send Susan a Marco Polo message before ending the day.  

Friday

I spent all morning marking and then spent the afternoon monitoring my students as they took their chemistry end of term one exam. I continued marking until it was time to go home. At home, I called grandpa then Daisy. I continued to mark some papers until about 5PM then cleaned up my house. I made a quick dinner and washed all my dishes. I then crossed a few things off of my to-do list before going to bed.

Saturday

I started my day by cleaning the house and marking the rest of the biology papers. Around 10AM, I walked to Nick’s house where I met up with Caroline and CJ and we spent the afternoon swimming. At 3PM, we rushed home, showered, and piled in the car with my Baba Archer, his two drivers, and Nala to go to Kisumu. When we got to Gladys’, we got dressed to go out then left with Tina. We ate dinner and got drinks at Da Bar and then went to Alleyways. The streets of downtown Kisumu are eerily empty at night, but there are people out everywhere in the outskirts. We ended the night with a bag of bajia and kachumbari.

Sunday

CJ and Caroline left the house right after breakfast. I was working on gathering my things to take Nala to the vet when she got in a scuffle with another (much larger) cat. This traumatized her and it took so long for her to come close enough to me so I could get her in the carrier. When we got to the vet, she was ok until we had to give her the deworming medicine and she freaked out again. This caused the vet to put her in a kitten straight jacket so they could administer her vaccines, a microchip, and her flea/tick medicine. She was screaming and I couldn’t help but cry because I felt so bad that she was so stressed. Thankfully, everything was over very quickly and I took her back to Mama Gladys’ so she could sleep. I then went with Tina on a few errands. We stopped by the Peace Corps office so I could pick up some letters, a package, and medicine. We also went to Chandarana so I could grocery shop. We stopped for boba tea on the way home. Back at the house, I watched “Yellowstone” and snuggled with Nala until dinner. We had pilau tonight with ground beef and it was delicious. Soon after, I washed my face and went to bed. I had left the window cracked a bit so that some air could come in. I woke up in the middle of the night and saw a cat on the nightstand and assumed it was Nala, but when I looked in the bed, Nala was in the bed. So, I had to very sleepily shoo this random cat outside and shut the window for the night 😊

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