leaving Kericho

7-11-10

Sitting in the sunshine, listening to the birds and thinking about passing the soccer ball back and forth. We chatter in Kalenjin, Swahili and English, enjoying our day of at the arboretum. Crude jokes are passed around by the younger boys and Anna reads under a tree. We are the only ones here except for a group of three traditionally dressed Kenyan women resting under a tree on the other side of the field. It is peaceful and beautiful and we are happy.

7-13-10

(Eddie and I on a household survey...only took an hour to hike here)

I am sitting in a house on a wooden couch with no cushions, balancing my toosh between the slats. Kids are babbling, sucking on batteries and wandering around with no pants on. There is a cat in the ceiling and I can hear her weight shifting on the reeds above our head. I am reminded of the time Mama Sandro brought me a wild kitten and locked him in my store room “so he would know his home”. He quickly climbed into the ceiling and hid next to the kitchen. I can still see the cat perched on the ceiling boards as I peeked over the walls that don’t reach the roof. He was scared and confused and I wanted to help. Mama Sandro brought me another wild cat and swiftly tossed her over the wall onto into the space between the roof and ceiling, “so she would bring the other one down”. It was such a funny, strange interaction that I can still remember it so clearly. I stood on the table in my kitchen, watching the cats for half a day before they both disappeared.

7-18-10

(our last night together in Kericho...we love serious photos now...don't judge our table, it was our going away party)

Friday (7-16) we packed up and left our home in Kericho after a month. We had some good memories in that town. Turry and one of the cars left for Naiorbi while the other car left with the 4 Emory students and the 3 remaining research assistants for a road trip. Before we parted, they gave the Emory kids presents- the greatest sandals ever made and a card that made me cry. We made a really good team. By lunch on Friday, we were on a boat on Lake Victoria in Kisumu, looking at hippos. We had lunch on the water- the greatest fish ever. I got some new earrings and then we headed to Kakamega. We stayed the night in town and played Kenyan poker, which is no poker I know and I’m pretty sure the boys kept making up the rules. The next morning, we drove to Kakamega forest, the only rainforest in Kenya. There were so many butterflies and birds and you could hear the monkeys jumping around above us. We didn’t walk for too long in the forest, but it was amazing. We made it to Eldoret that evening and visited the guys’ friends. The Emory team decided to cook dinner for our team as our last night together. Desmond’s brother is a doctor and he let us stay at his house and use his kitchen. As per Kenyan usual, about twice as many people came as we were planning for and cooking with one burner took longer than we expected, so we ate about 10 pm. Oops.

I’m also really bad at goodbyes, so I was super grouchy the whole night. Or, as our British English speaking Kenyans say, I had my cranky trousers on. Or my grumpy jumper. Except when they ask me if I have my cranky trousers on, it cracks me up and I get in a much better mood. We are supposed to see them in Nairobi later this week, but it’s still not the same. It’s the end of an era. I don’t want to be doing field work in Kericho anymore, but I don’t want to be in Nairobi. I feel like I have been here forever, but I still have almost a month left. I am at that crossroads again where something is going to change. I am ready. I just wish I knew how things were going to change. When I get home, I’ll have a new roommate, new job, new school. I’m excited about it all!

In Nairobi, we have been put up at a sweet guest house near ILRI and have been working hard at the office. My friend Sean from the Peace Corps has been here doing preliminary research for his PhD. We had dinner and caught up- it has been 3 years since I’ve seen him. I love seeing old friends!

Enough for now…I have to get more work done on the database for our household surveys. If I could write a letter to the makers of Microsoft Access, I would say bad, bad things. Think happy thoughts for data entry!!!

Love,

Amanda Jean

thoughts...

Yesterday, we were driving back to Kericho after another long day of hiking up mountains and hills in Kabinieti and it was just about dusk. We drove past a house that had the charcoal jiko (stove) outside, getting the breeze to make the coals ready to cook dinner and the memories of evenings in Kifumbe nearly consumed me.

I can remember the perfect peace that comes at that time of day, the sun setting, the weather just starting to get a hint of coolness, the sound of dinner preparation starting at the neighbors house. The door to my courtyard was closed and I had said my goodbyes to the village for the day. Voice of America would be playing on the radio and the vegetables would be chopped and ready to be cooked. It was such a peaceful time of day- I could sit on the short stool in the courtyard and watch the sun set over the back wall, between the banana trees. Water would be warming for my bath while I ate dinner by candlelight. My day was completed and I was able to process and compile my thoughts in letters and then read a book until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. I was ready to have another day start soon.

How did everything so quickly vanish when I got back to America? I loved that feeling of peace and completeness, but yet it slipped away so completely when I got home. Life in America should be easier- I have water in my house, my stove turns on when I turn the knob and there are lights all day long. I promised myself I wouldn’t let that feeling slip away, but it did. I blame school, a new life, the American culture, and my incessant need to always be productive. I want to try harder this time. I’m not going to be hard on myself, but I love this feeling of when a day is done, it is done. I don’t like having to worry about the 200 things I have to do tomorrow. Tomorrow will come.

Forth of July!

I wish I even knew where to begin…it has been another one of those times where I have wondered if this is really my life. As I write this, I am in the back of a Land Rover on the top of a mountain in the rain. The terrain here is amazing- it reminds me of the place the old guy goes in “Up”- all sorts of weird plants, crazy animals, beautiful views…it’s surreal. We have been working on identifying points for household questionnaires and some are miles away from any sort of road able to be passed by a vehicle. As some of you know from my facebook page, I fell a couple of weeks ago (in front of a large group of women who saw me sort of flip over, skin my knee, show off my underwear and sprain my ankle). It’s been healing well but I twisted it again yesterday, so I’ve decided not to push it on the longer (10km) hikes into the woods. We have a GPS and a map, a dude from the village and two Kenyan field assistants (who can’t walk faster than a slug in town but put them on a mountain and they run) who lead the way. As of now, we won’t be going on the interview because there might be more bias than there already is. Kinda sad, but we can do data entry and work on our reports while the interviews are being conducted. I’m also glad they won’t be offering me any mursik- milk put into a gourd and left to ferment for 5 to 6 days. It’s chunky and blue and grosses me out, although it tastes ok. I just know where it comes from and what it is.

Eddie, Desomond and Brian are Kalenjins that have just graduated from Egerton University and are some of the smartest kids I know. They have (embarrassingly) been teaching us about US history and all sorts of other random things I should know about, but don’t. They have given us all Kalenjin names- I am Cherop (born in the cooler months). Amanda W is Chelang’at (born in the afternoon) and Anna is Chepkemoi (born in the evening). Shreyas is Kimalel (the brown kid, since he’s the token Indian). Amanda W and I have been on the same team for household identification and when we introduce ourselves as Amanda and Amanda, people ask if we are sisters, which would be incredibly confusing if our mother named us both the same name, but I suppose it could happen.

I just finished reading The White Masaai and the field assistants have been trying to convince me I need to write The White Kalenjin. Eddie has offered to let me marry him (only as the second wife, though) so that we can share in the book’s profits. I’ve been told I’d make a bad Kenyan wife, since I have what they call “a difficult head”…maybe I am a little stubborn. Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been accused of such.

I’ve started reading Monique and the Mango Rains, about a Peace Corps Volunteer and her best friend, Monique. It makes me miss my best friend, Mama Edina so much- I’ve talked to Mama Love, the nurse in Kifumbe and told her I would be coming. She says Mama Edina is well and they can’t wait to see me. I miss them so much it hurts. I hope to see Mariam, too. She was 7 months pregnant when I left, so I can’t wait to meet her little girl! It’s funny how much I think of Kifumbe as my home.

It’s 4^th of July- a huge holiday in my family. I hate not being there, but it turns out no one was going to Black Mountain this year, anyway. My Grandma Sue fell and broke her hip this week, so my aunts are there, helping out, but my cousins and extended family aren’t coming. We almost always go to the Montreat parade, dress in embarrassing, matching outfits and eat until we are stuffed. Boys are usually in charge of the grill in the back yard with a cooler of beer and girls are in the kitchen, reading cookbooks and craft magazines. Kids are relegated to the living room or front yard and dogs roam freely between the masses.

We have decided to have a cookout here in Kericho- we are going the arboretum (apparently there is one) and have ice cream, watermelon, goat and ugali. We can’t exactly make it perfectly American, but it’s close enough. We have been discussing buying an entire goat- the boys want to slaughter and eat it all- I say we just buy a few kilos of already cooked meat. And, as we have learned, “ugali is a must”. Hopefully the rain will stay away for a little bit longer today and we can enjoy our first day off in two weeks.

One of our new favorite things to talk about is “bean pullers”. Last week, we were supposed to have a meeting with the men in the village and no one showed up. We asked the village chief where everyone was and he responded “they are pulling beans”, meaning they were working in the fields, harvesting beans. We waited another hour or two and then left. On our way out of town, about 30 men were sitting by the side of the road, watching the donkeys go by. And that is how we named them “bean pullers”. Now anyone who is doing nothing is called a bean puller, which you can use as a noun or you can use “pulling beans”, depending on your need. Desmond also calls them “pull beaners” on special occasions. There is a bean puller dance and if you are listening to the radio while drinking, you are the king bean puller. It’s been a fascinating anthropological study.

Florence, the housekeeper at the Tea Hotel where we are based, is so sweet. She wants us to stay until December. She is kind of like our den mother…we have a little house with 10 rooms on the grounds of the hotel and 8 of them are occupied by us…I feel badly for the other 2 rooms, since we sort of operate a dorm now. But Florence takes care of us and I just love her.

Overall, I am really good. I’m bruised from the hikes (and numerous falls, mostly into holes and out of cars) and tired, but I really love our team. Turry is our other Field Assistant, although not from the tribe around here. She has been working for ILRI for some time and is really so much fun. The eight of us get along really well and when it is time to work, we work really hard, but when it is time to play, we play. We’ve been too tired to play soccer lately, but maybe some will happen at our 4^th of July party. I’ve never seen a sadder group of people than when Ghana lost to Uruguay. It was so pitiful.

And now, we get back to work. Our household interviews start Monday and we have lots to accomplish before then. It’s going to be fun! I miss you all and can’t wait to hear from you!!!

Love, Amanda Jean