Archive for January 2009
» Older PostsWhat’s In A Name: Mount Kilimanjaro
Friday, January 30, 2009 | 3:40 pmAs I was studying Kiswahili today, I had one of those AHA! moments that was so good I just have to share.
Mount Kilimanjaro is the largest mountain in Africa. It resides in Tanzania, just south of the Kenyan border. For two months I lived at the base of the mountain, in the border [...]
Imagine
Monday, January 26, 2009 | 10:25 pmImagine that you are a tourist in Kenya. You’ve just put down two month’s salary to experience “Coastal Kenya,” where you’ll see the wildlife, enjoy the breathtaking views, sample real Swahili food, snorkel in the bay, and maybe even catch a dhow ride along the beach. You are staying at a very nice [...]
Project Gutenberg
Monday, January 26, 2009 | 12:09 pmA fellow PCV just turned me onto Project Gutenberg, the first and largest collection of free e-books online. There are over 27,000 complete titles available in the catalog, plus access to 100,000 other titles via partner and affiliate sites. You can download these books as small text files and read them on your [...]
New Address
Friday, January 23, 2009 | 11:07 amI have a new address. Don’t worry if you have something in transit to me already; Peace Corps will make sure I get it, eventually. But my site is 10-12 hours from Nairobi, so the truck doesn’t make it out here with mail very often.
You can send all future mail and packages to [...]
Goodbye, Week Two
Thursday, January 22, 2009 | 11:11 pmMy last two weeks at site have flown by. I can’t believe how fast things are moving now. Most volunteers have a hard time knowing what to do with themselves in the first weeks or months at site. Me, I have more work than I know what to do with!
Formality in The [...]
The Inauguration
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 | 10:44 pmA day that will go down in the history books. That’s what the news is saying. And maybe it’s true. I think we all have high hopes for the Obama administration. I know I do. Either way, today was a special day.
I feel very privileged to have experienced the inauguration [...]
A Day In The Life…
Saturday, January 17, 2009 | 7:40 pm…of a Peace Corps Volunteer:
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It’s a tough job, I admit.
And just for kicks:
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That is all for today.
The Difference Between Men And Women
Friday, January 16, 2009 | 2:18 pmToday I was hanging out at KMFRI, trying to learn all I could about mangroves through the process of osmosis. I noticed one of the male researchers working in an office wearing shorts but no shirt (in juxtaposition, the women in this very hot and humid community cover themselves head-to-toe, usually in all black). [...]
Further Adjustment
Friday, January 16, 2009 | 9:56 amI’ve had a few days to settle in to my new site now. I’m working on getting all the things I need for my room (furniture, personal items) and I’m trying to learn my way around the village. In spite of this being a very small place, I’ve still managed to get turned [...]
Home
Saturday, January 10, 2009 | 8:08 pmTraveling to Site
Getting from Nairobi to my new home in Coast Province was quite an adventure. I had five large bags plus two buckets to tow, all of which needed to follow me on public transportation. Luckily, Peace Corps offered to bring my bags to MASH, the depot that runs buses between Nairobi [...]