Has It Really Been Almost a Month Since My Last Post?

Spontanaeity is the Spice of Life. On any given day I could easily end up in a place I never even knew existed. Like today. I am attending a day-long seminar on the topic of Tribal Clashes: Why Communities Should Live in Harmony. The woman at my organization who was originally invited to attend couldn’t go, and neither could her replacement. So at the last minute they sent the low lady on the totem pole – me.

Now I’m not convinced that I’m even an appropriate attendee for this seminar, since its objective is to engage members of various tribes in north Rift Valley in a discussion of how to co-exist peacefully. Not that I’m complaining. I get to be a fly on the wall while Kenyans debate and air all their grievances about their culture, their police, their local administration and their government. It’s not often that I would get to sit among such a large group of vocal, articulate Kenyans sharing their thoughts on an issue that frustrates them even more than it frustrates me – tribalism. Also I get to practice my Kiswahili comprehension skills. Current level: every other word makes sense.

Other Stuff I’ve Been Doing. I spent Thanksgiving with an American family in Nairobi. Adrienne and I miraculously pulled off a successful and widely gossiped-about World AIDS Day boda-boda race with the help of my wonderful organization and some other intrepid PCVs. I went to Iten to help Amber with a small-scale version of Camp GLOW in her community. I’m currently harboring a Peace Corps refugee named Adrienne (same as above) who has been driven out of her community by nervous, power-crazed nuns, until her new site fixes up her house. And I hired my friend Nicholas to teach me Kiswahili, because I’m way too lazy to practice on my own. He is a Luhya, which according to the Kenyan stereotype means he speaks decent Kiswahili, unlike the Nandis.