this past week was something new and different from the beginning of my trip!

last weekend, i spent both days in the town of kakamega (where i work) which is about a 15-minute matatu ride from my home. matatus have become an integral part of my everyday life here... for better and for worse. most days, i walk from my home to the main road, which takes about 10 minutes. along the way, i pass a lot of neighbors who are out and about - some of whom i know or at least recognize, and some of whom just give me strange looks when i try to greet them in kiluhya, which is the tribal language. (so far, i only know 2 words in this language, and i'm guessing i won't know much more by the time i leave) anyway, i finally arrive at the main road, where i stand and wait for a matatu, which is basically a 14-passenger van. this is how most people get around when they're going long distances. they love to cram as many people as humanly possible into these, so the ride to work in the morning is always interesting. apparently, there are seatbelts on these things, which i only found out about recently. every once in a while, the police will stop the matatus to make sure everyone's wearing their seatbelts. i don't think i've ever actually seen someone wearing one, though. i think there are enough people on the matatu to soften the blow if there ever were to be an accident, though.

anyway, that's my main source of transportation! there are also these things called boda-bodas - bicycles w/ a seat on the back - and the guys who drive them are all over town, so i use them every once in a while. i recently learned how to sit on them w/o holding onto the handles, though, so i feel like i passed some sort of threshold into kenyan-ness or something. i'm becoming local, if only in small ways.

so anyway, last saturday, our group (the 5 of us, interns plus our coordinator) spent the day doing a grant-writing workshop in town. it was a really helpful experience - plus it was good to just see everyone and catch up on life. we are not required to write a grant, but the option is there for us if we see a need. sometimes interns have a great idea for a sustainable project and they just need some funding, so they write a grant - but others are doing different kinds of work that won't really benefit from funding. so, it basically just depends on where you work and what the organization/community needs most.

the next day, i went into town, bought a paper - The Daily Nation - and looked for a spot to read. unfortunately i haven't totally adapted yet, b/c i didn't realize that there might not be a great spot to sit outside and read, but i looked anyway. i ended up sitting in this sort-of park area in town - which was a good idea except for the little kids who kept coming up to me and staring. i definitely never forget that i'm white here. this weekend, we're in kisumu - which is more of a touristy place (though not much more) and we've seen multiple other mzungus (as we're called) and i definitely find it weird to see so many other westerners. the word mzungu techinically means "confused person" - apparently when the british first came here, they looked lost/confused - but it basically just means "white person." my host sister, christine, has informed me that this is very rude, and that i should be mad when people call me that, but so far her opinion hasn't stopped the myriad of neighborhood children who yell "mzungu mzungu" at me every morning when i go to work.

well, the past week at work was an interesting one! i spent a lot of time talking w/ my co-workers, trying to figure out as much as i could about the organization. overall, it was a frustrating week - trying to find a project to do that was big enough to be beneficial, but small enough to be feasible, and realistic enough to be sustainable. that was definitely a much harder task than i anticipated, but i feel like i'm at least learning a lot about NGOs and non-profits. by the end of the week, i had come up w/ a project that i think will work - for now at least! i may have to re-evaluate it later, but for now it's giving me something solid to do. i think i'm going to be working in the bee-keeping aspect of my organization (i know this may come as a surprise - and no, i have no experience/knowledge of that except what i've learned in the past 2 weeks!) but i think it's probably the best way to spend my time in terms of helping the bee-keepers generate income.

well i have much more to say, but i think this is long enough. thanks for reading and please email me and keep me updated w/ everything!!

lauren