PCV in Kenya: Week 27

Monday

We did not have school today because it was a Kenyan National Holiday marking Eid-Al-Adha. It was raining today, so I spent most of the morning inside. I had time to make pancakes then watched “The Mentalist” and “Rizzoli & Isles”. I finished making the shag rug friendship bracelet and I really like the way it turned out. Definitely a great way to use excess string from my previous bracelets. At 11, Sue came over and I did her nails. Sue is one of my neighbors and we are close in age. She then showed me her home and I met her family. After, we went to the market and I purchased my veggies for the week as well as some gloves I can cut so I can start wearing them when I do my nails to reduce my hand exposure to the UV light. Back at home, I made lentil stew for dinner and watched “Sex & The City”. I washed all my dishes from the day before calling it a day.

Tuesday

We went back to school today and I had three lessons. All of them went well. Sophia, a girl from the market that I buy avocadoes from, came to one of my biology lessons to learn today. I believe she is attempting to take the secondary school exams as she did not finish her schooling when she was younger. At school today, there was a parent meeting that lasted almost all day. When the meeting finished, our student music group performed which is always nice. Back at home, I cleaned then collected my laundry from outside.

Wednesday

I got to school early for my morning lesson then marked student books. Principal Richard also gave me most of the budget information so I could input that data into our grant proposal. We are making good progress. This task took me the rest of the day. When I got home, Nala greeted me without her cone on. This was not a good sign because she is supposed to keep the cone on until Friday. I do not know how she got it off, but I put if back on her one notch tighter this time. I then did some yoga and packed for the upcoming week (another training). After dinner, I used my tennis ball to roll out my upper back because for some reason, I am so tense this week.

Thursday

I taught an early Biology lesson followed by a chemistry quiz. It was a normal school day after this. When I got home, Sue came with a fundi and his crew to install my mosquito screens. This took all afternoon and some into the night, but they are installed! Because it took a bit longer than anticipated, I was hurrying my nighttime routine which led to a series of unfortunate and frustrating events. (1) I accidentally let Nala outside with her cone on while I was closing up the house. Thankfully she was so shocked that she made it outside she didn’t get very far and I was able to get her back into the house. (2) I spilled my noodles and the noodle water, covering my coffee table and the floor. (3) Nala peed on the couch because she was upset that I caught her from going outside and she was upset that she still has the cone on. She has never done this before or since, so I am thinking that was her letting me know she was not a fan of her situation. (4) I poured a fork down the toilet after doing my dishes. I do my dishes over a bucket that the dirty water and food goes into. I then dump this dirty water mix down the toilet. This time, I didn’t notice a fork was still in the bucket until it was too late. I had to do a rescue mission, but the fork was recovered.

Friday

Today I was able to take off Nala’s cone. She was so happy and she spent the rest of the next hour cleaning and cleaning and cleaning herself. I finished packing a few things then headed to work. I was running a bit behind this morning, so when an ant bit my foot and I swiped at it with my hand, it wasn’t until I got to work when I realized the ant had horns and my hand was bleeding. Thankfully, the cut was only the width of a papercut, but it was a bit disconcerting that an ant did that to me. I taught my double lesson of biology then finished marking chemistry papers. I was able to leave school a bit earlier than usual so that I could head out for the weekend. I first stopped at home to switch my school backpack for my big red bag for the week. I also moved all of Nala’s things to Sammy’s house because she will be staying with him while I am away. Nala is so happy to be able to play outside. I then walked to the road and took a series of matatus to get to Sophie’s site in Butere. This whole trip took me about 3 hours. By the time I arrived, I was hungrier than usual because I didn’t eat lunch at school. So, I found a nice café in her town and ate rice and beans with a soda. Sophie met me here and then we did some shopping for fresh produce for the weekend. Marissa met up with us here and I found a cute black pair of sandals that I can wear when I go to nicer events. From here, one of Sophie’s host family members picked us up and drove us to her house. There were a lot of tents set up for the funeral. Valentine’s body was already at the home for the burial tomorrow. Valentine was one of Sophie’s host brothers at her site. We mainly stayed inside Sophie’s house for the night, going out once to greet all of her family members and share our condolences. For dinner, we ate green curry with rice. We went to sleep around midnight and the noise of funeral festivities continued throughout the night. At midnight, a group came to give us chai. At 1AM, another group came to give us dinner. At 3AM, a group came seeing if they could sleep in Sophie’s house (they could not). And at 5AM, the music speakers got turned up to full blast. Funerals are multi-day experiences here and it was all of our first times being on a compound during one. 

Saturday

We woke up and made a feast for breakfast so Sophie wouldn’t have to waste any of the food in her house when we leave tomorrow. We made eggs, toast, home fries, pineapple, kachumbari, and café con leche. We then hung out until about 10. I did Sophie’s hair and then she headed out to take part in the funeral. Funerals here take place on the compound of the family, so it was happening right outside the house. Marissa and I started watching “Under Paris” then left at noon to collect Laura from the road. After dropping her things off in the house, we went to the funeral until about 3PM. We were mainly here to support Sophie. There were many speeches and it was a nicely conducted funeral. There were so many people there, a true testament to who Valentine was. After this, we went to the house and made lunch. We had leftover rice and green curry as well as pineapple fried rice. Rikki arrived around this time and soon after, the funeral ended and Sophie joined us as well. Marissa and I finished watching “Under Paris” and then we all caught up and chatted before making dinner. We had potato soup and rice for dinner and it was delicious. We continued chatting until it was time to sleep.

Sunday

We all woke up early and ate breakfast together. Marissa and I left first because we wanted to go to Kisumu. In Kisumu, we found a backpack for Laura and then got fitted for our new kitenge dresses. After our fitting, we went to the movie theater and watched “Inside Out 2”. It was so cute and it was so nice to sit and watch a movie in an actual theater. Marissa and I split caramel popcorn which was also delicious 😊 From here, we headed to Sosa Cottages where our Grass Roots Soccer training would commence tomorrow.

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