Three Days into One Day

Hi all! Made it to Nairobi, Kenya, Africa.  The three-day journey through Philadelphia, South Africa and Kenya was almost like merged into a single day.  Had like maybe 5 or less hours of solid sleep in 72 hours. I figure for the three flights, I flew almost 19 hours.  The flight between JFK and South Africa (15 hours) was the longest flight ever in my life, and it was hellish.  I could not sleep for more than 20 minutes with people constantly bumping into me and stuff.

My group of 28 volunteers turned out to be a great group.  Few of them are fluent enough in ASL, with the next few signing "not that bad", and almost all of them knew the manual alphabet.  That made my life easier.  However, I am happy that I have 2 KSL interpreters and 4 Deaf Kenyans working with us during the entire training, so I will be very immersed in KSL.


As expected Internet isn't that good where I am at in Nairobi.  I wanted to write some posts for my blog but there isnt enough hours for me to do that yet.  But I am trying to keep a journal for future stories on the blog.  Actually before I left home, i really thought I would blog quite often, but obviously i am naive ha. I promise my posts will become more interesting and filled with better photos once I settle down (of course depending on the internet access).

Tomorrow will be our last day training in Nairboi before we head down to Machakos and/or Liotokitok for the next 10 weeks of training.  It is also where we will be staying with our home stay families (host families).  I am curious as to what my host family looks like.

Till then... Hakuna Matata.

Picture time!

Kenya!

The look of 5 hours of sleep in 72 hours.  All other volunteers and their bags in the background.

In case you need a better look.

This is my house.

On a shuttle to our Nairobi for two day training.  Find Waldo (me) yet?

Since I suck in the Kitchen and not know much about foods, so dont ask me too much about what the plate contains,  I just eat them.  There is alot of rice, beef (cow and goat), soup, etc.  By the way I have started to try to eat right and have not had any junk or candies thus far.  Remmy the Belt Challenge post below?

2nd day of the Booster Cards.  They were champ!  It lifted my spirits during sad times during my departure.

My bedroom in the Hostel (for two days).  Notice the mosquito net.  I did not even think of opening it up for last night, but I should have.  There is no mosquitos yet until the raining season but we are to use the nets all the time regardless.

No hole in th

No hole in the ground yet.  But I did see one at the airport.  

Front of the Hostel

Side of the Hostel

Better view of the Hostel

First day of the Booster Cards

Second day of the Booster Cards

Me at the training site, at the spot where theres good WiFi coverage (coming out from one of these rooms)

Posing with two fellow Deaf Kenyans who will be part of the KSL instruction team for us. 

Inside Hostel, there is open atrium

This is what our training look like.  Im sure you can guess where my seat is (I am not there as I took the photo)

Kenyans follow the British customs (since they occupied their country until 1967).  We have our tea and biscuit breaks twice a day.  Drinking hot tea in 80's in the afternoon isnt too bad.  I intend to immerse myself into Kenyan's culture so I do whatever they do.

We were doing various skits to learn about health and safety.  We did the water instruction (bottled, boiled, or filtered water, and never tap water)

We all were given our own medical kit -- with like about 1,000 pills and other meds in.  On the top is the malaria daily pills (started today), and later on, they will decide if I get to do them daily or use a different kind that would let me take them on weekly basis instead.  I also had three shots (typhoid, Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B)