IST, Naivasha, and Sweet Potato Training
In Service Training couldn’t have happened at a better time. I was getting pretty tired of the way things had been working out lately and it was fantastic to be able to catch up with my Peace Corps friends and take a break in Nairobi for a week. Also, I managed to start stop being sick about the time that training started, so I’m feeling much better now.
We had our IST at a convent in a really nice part of Nairobi called Karen. Karen is named after the woman who wrote “Out of Africa”, which I thought was a really boring movie. Maybe the book is better. Anyway, while in Karen we walked from the convent to the ritzy colonial lodge Karen stayed at the turn of the century. It’s amazing how much things have changed since then. The area surrounding the lodge was once full of game, and Teddy Roosevelt even stayed there for a hunting safari where he killed hundreds of Elephants, Lions, etc. Now the surrounding area is paved and covered with businesses and large houses. Karen seemed more like a Colorado resort town then a Nairobi suburb. We went out to a bar one night and it was not what I expected at all. There was not a single Kenyan in the place. Instead it was full of wazungu wearing designer clothes and buying plenty of expensive drinks, and there was a DJ mixing bad 80’s music.
Anyway, IST was productive. During this time I got plenty of resources on applying for Grant money to fund small projects, as well as information on HIV/AIDS education, various small projects, and leads for collaborators and facilitators willing to assist with initiatives at our sites. On a side note it’s a bad idea to put 40 PCV’s who have been living in the bush for the past five months in a convent. The compound was beautiful and really relaxing, but the sisters were not too happy with the volunteers. The first night, when several groups of volunteers stayed out past one in the morning, a nun brought everyone together to tell us that we had to be in the compound by 10:00. The next night everyone did as she said and did not go out. Instead we stayed in the Gazebo on the compound but apparently made too much noise. It turns out she didn’t just want us in the compound by 10, but asleep as well. As a result, without any warning or setting any ground rules beforehand the Nun declared that Peace Corps was never allowed to stay at the Convent again. We all found it very unfair because we weren’t out of control or anything. Regardless, we got to hear lectures from the Country Director and several other people about the way we behaved, although they only heard the nun's side of the story and we didn’t know we did anything wrong until it was too late.
So being banned from a convent was an unpleasant part of our training but all in all it went well. To be honest I’m glad we are banned from a place where we have to be as quiet as church mice and in bed by 10. Hopefully Peace Corps admin will do a better job planning where we will stay next time.
After IST concluded nobody went back to site. A lot of people went to the Upper Hill campsite, but I wasn’t up for heavy drinking, which our group has unfortunately become famous for. Instead I went with two volunteer friends to Hell’s Gate National Park. The park is located near Naivasha, which is where the volunteers had training until just one year ago. It’s an incredible place and so much better than Kitui I can’t even put it into words. Regardless, I think Kitui has its high points as well. After staying there for training anywhere else they post us in Kenya is a huge improvement, whereas I could see people being more let down with their site if they trained in Naivasha first.
We arrived in Naivasha from Nairobi in the early afternoon and stayed at a place called Fisherman’s camp. The first thing we did was take a boat across Lake Naivasha to Crater Lake game park. This park and the nearby Hell’s Gate park are the two of only a handful in the country that allow people to walk around without being in a vehicle. Once we made it across the lake to the park we were almost immediately greeted by three giraffes hiding behind trees. I thought this was fantastic and took tons of pictures. However, as we walked past the trees the landscape opened up to broad, open plains teeming with game. It was absolutely incredible and for the first time I felt like I was in the Kenya I’ve seen on National Geographic. Herds of Zebras, Giraffes, Impalas, and Gazelles covered the landscape. There were also huge Antelope looking things (I forgot the name) that are apparently the largest in the world. Beyond all this were monkeys running across the plains and Hippos on the lake shore. I never expected to be so close to such exotic animals and it was amazing to just walk by a Zebra heard or a sleeping giraffe as opposed to snapping pictures out a car window. The park features a large crater, which has a soda lake set in the middle. To be honest it was a huge letdown compared to the game we walked through. The lake was more of a large, stinky puddle than anything scenic or worthwhile. Late in the evening we made our way back to the campsite. The only issue was the boat motor. For quite sometime we could not get it to start, and meanwhile the hippos, which the guide assured us were “f*ing crazy”, saw us in the boat and were slowly swimming closer and closer. Thankfully the motor finally caught and we left the shoreline before being attacked by hungry hungry hippos.
Back at the campsite we slept three deep in a two person tent and I think maybe I pulled off a solid hour of sleep. The next day we rented bikes and went to Hell’s Gate National park. Hell’s Gate was equally amazing. The landscape was beautiful, like a tropical Wyoming or Montana. Huge rock bluffs jutted out of the ground and as we rode our bikes through the parks Zebras, Giraffes, and Baboons watched us curiously from the sweeping green plains.
About a mile into the park we saw people rock climbing and we stopped to watch. It didn’t look to difficult and all the safety gear was there, so after an invitation I ended up climbing a rock face and Adrienne, one of the PCV’s I went to Naivasha with, climbed as well. After the climb we continued on our journey and made our way to a river cut deep into the rocks. We left our bikes and hiked through the river valley. The river was fed by hot springs and we stopped and soaked ourselves under an amazing hot spring water fall. After a long day of hiking and biking we went back to the campsite, and left early the next day for Eldoret. The original plan was to climb nearby Mt. Longinot as well, but we decided to save it for another time. On the way to Eldoret we stopped at a prehistoric site we saw in a travel book that was just off the main road. It was called Hydrax Hill and was basically just a circle of rocks. There was nothing too interesting about it except it was the remains of stone huts from thousands of years ago. We had a picnic at the top of the Hill and had a great view of Lake Nukuru, which is full of pink flamingos, so it was worth the stop.
In Eldoret I had a chance to catch up with the puppy I gave to Adrienne. Adrienne made the mistake of leaving it in the house for the entire week she was gone, and she trusted one of the people at her compound to let let the puppy out and feed it. The puppy appeared to be well fed but it apparently forgot to be housebroken while Adrienne was gone. The house was a mess and it look awhile to get the smell out and everything back in order. The Kenyans on Adrienne’s compound insisted that it become an outside dog and I think Adrienne was inclined to agree.
The next day we met with a recently founded church group of young adults Adrienne has started working with and we tried to convince the group to get tested at a VCT center for HIV/AIDS. VCT’s are all over Kenya and available for free, but the stigma of AIDS is still preventing people from knowing their status and getting tested. We also polled the group for what they are wanting to do together and determined that they are interested in community service work. I’m assisting with getting the group registered as a CBO (community based organization) and we will work with the group to try to get them involved in several of the potential projects we learned about in IST. These include grants available for water sanitation and doctors willing to set up an “eye camp” where free eye care and glasses are provided. I also hope to teach some farming as a business classes with the farmers in the group.
So I made it back to site on Sunday and met with Habakkuk in town. We finalized getting everything together for our Sweet Potato value addition class, which started yesterday. The class is going well and I am in town today getting certificates made for the participants. The Kenyans I have worked with love certificates and I’m certain the majority of them will be hung proudly on walls and kept forever.
So that’s all for now, I need to get going. I’ll write again soon and hope to post some of my pics from the last week in the near future.
We had our IST at a convent in a really nice part of Nairobi called Karen. Karen is named after the woman who wrote “Out of Africa”, which I thought was a really boring movie. Maybe the book is better. Anyway, while in Karen we walked from the convent to the ritzy colonial lodge Karen stayed at the turn of the century. It’s amazing how much things have changed since then. The area surrounding the lodge was once full of game, and Teddy Roosevelt even stayed there for a hunting safari where he killed hundreds of Elephants, Lions, etc. Now the surrounding area is paved and covered with businesses and large houses. Karen seemed more like a Colorado resort town then a Nairobi suburb. We went out to a bar one night and it was not what I expected at all. There was not a single Kenyan in the place. Instead it was full of wazungu wearing designer clothes and buying plenty of expensive drinks, and there was a DJ mixing bad 80’s music.
Anyway, IST was productive. During this time I got plenty of resources on applying for Grant money to fund small projects, as well as information on HIV/AIDS education, various small projects, and leads for collaborators and facilitators willing to assist with initiatives at our sites. On a side note it’s a bad idea to put 40 PCV’s who have been living in the bush for the past five months in a convent. The compound was beautiful and really relaxing, but the sisters were not too happy with the volunteers. The first night, when several groups of volunteers stayed out past one in the morning, a nun brought everyone together to tell us that we had to be in the compound by 10:00. The next night everyone did as she said and did not go out. Instead we stayed in the Gazebo on the compound but apparently made too much noise. It turns out she didn’t just want us in the compound by 10, but asleep as well. As a result, without any warning or setting any ground rules beforehand the Nun declared that Peace Corps was never allowed to stay at the Convent again. We all found it very unfair because we weren’t out of control or anything. Regardless, we got to hear lectures from the Country Director and several other people about the way we behaved, although they only heard the nun's side of the story and we didn’t know we did anything wrong until it was too late.
So being banned from a convent was an unpleasant part of our training but all in all it went well. To be honest I’m glad we are banned from a place where we have to be as quiet as church mice and in bed by 10. Hopefully Peace Corps admin will do a better job planning where we will stay next time.
After IST concluded nobody went back to site. A lot of people went to the Upper Hill campsite, but I wasn’t up for heavy drinking, which our group has unfortunately become famous for. Instead I went with two volunteer friends to Hell’s Gate National Park. The park is located near Naivasha, which is where the volunteers had training until just one year ago. It’s an incredible place and so much better than Kitui I can’t even put it into words. Regardless, I think Kitui has its high points as well. After staying there for training anywhere else they post us in Kenya is a huge improvement, whereas I could see people being more let down with their site if they trained in Naivasha first.
We arrived in Naivasha from Nairobi in the early afternoon and stayed at a place called Fisherman’s camp. The first thing we did was take a boat across Lake Naivasha to Crater Lake game park. This park and the nearby Hell’s Gate park are the two of only a handful in the country that allow people to walk around without being in a vehicle. Once we made it across the lake to the park we were almost immediately greeted by three giraffes hiding behind trees. I thought this was fantastic and took tons of pictures. However, as we walked past the trees the landscape opened up to broad, open plains teeming with game. It was absolutely incredible and for the first time I felt like I was in the Kenya I’ve seen on National Geographic. Herds of Zebras, Giraffes, Impalas, and Gazelles covered the landscape. There were also huge Antelope looking things (I forgot the name) that are apparently the largest in the world. Beyond all this were monkeys running across the plains and Hippos on the lake shore. I never expected to be so close to such exotic animals and it was amazing to just walk by a Zebra heard or a sleeping giraffe as opposed to snapping pictures out a car window. The park features a large crater, which has a soda lake set in the middle. To be honest it was a huge letdown compared to the game we walked through. The lake was more of a large, stinky puddle than anything scenic or worthwhile. Late in the evening we made our way back to the campsite. The only issue was the boat motor. For quite sometime we could not get it to start, and meanwhile the hippos, which the guide assured us were “f*ing crazy”, saw us in the boat and were slowly swimming closer and closer. Thankfully the motor finally caught and we left the shoreline before being attacked by hungry hungry hippos.
Back at the campsite we slept three deep in a two person tent and I think maybe I pulled off a solid hour of sleep. The next day we rented bikes and went to Hell’s Gate National park. Hell’s Gate was equally amazing. The landscape was beautiful, like a tropical Wyoming or Montana. Huge rock bluffs jutted out of the ground and as we rode our bikes through the parks Zebras, Giraffes, and Baboons watched us curiously from the sweeping green plains.
About a mile into the park we saw people rock climbing and we stopped to watch. It didn’t look to difficult and all the safety gear was there, so after an invitation I ended up climbing a rock face and Adrienne, one of the PCV’s I went to Naivasha with, climbed as well. After the climb we continued on our journey and made our way to a river cut deep into the rocks. We left our bikes and hiked through the river valley. The river was fed by hot springs and we stopped and soaked ourselves under an amazing hot spring water fall. After a long day of hiking and biking we went back to the campsite, and left early the next day for Eldoret. The original plan was to climb nearby Mt. Longinot as well, but we decided to save it for another time. On the way to Eldoret we stopped at a prehistoric site we saw in a travel book that was just off the main road. It was called Hydrax Hill and was basically just a circle of rocks. There was nothing too interesting about it except it was the remains of stone huts from thousands of years ago. We had a picnic at the top of the Hill and had a great view of Lake Nukuru, which is full of pink flamingos, so it was worth the stop.
In Eldoret I had a chance to catch up with the puppy I gave to Adrienne. Adrienne made the mistake of leaving it in the house for the entire week she was gone, and she trusted one of the people at her compound to let let the puppy out and feed it. The puppy appeared to be well fed but it apparently forgot to be housebroken while Adrienne was gone. The house was a mess and it look awhile to get the smell out and everything back in order. The Kenyans on Adrienne’s compound insisted that it become an outside dog and I think Adrienne was inclined to agree.
The next day we met with a recently founded church group of young adults Adrienne has started working with and we tried to convince the group to get tested at a VCT center for HIV/AIDS. VCT’s are all over Kenya and available for free, but the stigma of AIDS is still preventing people from knowing their status and getting tested. We also polled the group for what they are wanting to do together and determined that they are interested in community service work. I’m assisting with getting the group registered as a CBO (community based organization) and we will work with the group to try to get them involved in several of the potential projects we learned about in IST. These include grants available for water sanitation and doctors willing to set up an “eye camp” where free eye care and glasses are provided. I also hope to teach some farming as a business classes with the farmers in the group.
So I made it back to site on Sunday and met with Habakkuk in town. We finalized getting everything together for our Sweet Potato value addition class, which started yesterday. The class is going well and I am in town today getting certificates made for the participants. The Kenyans I have worked with love certificates and I’m certain the majority of them will be hung proudly on walls and kept forever.
So that’s all for now, I need to get going. I’ll write again soon and hope to post some of my pics from the last week in the near future.
posted by KenyaJoe at 12:43 AM
<< Home