I know we’re not supposed to do this, but for the blog’s sake, this is the last time I’ll do the math to figure out prices in Kenya compared to prices in America. If you didn’t already know, American dollars can go a long way here.

Weekly Peace Corps allowance: $32

Cell phone: $32, and I know I got overcharged.

Average restaurant meal: 65 cents

Very expensive restaurant meal: $1.92

1 Large Guinness: $1.50

5 large bananas: 25 cents

Box of 10 biscuits (cookies): 45 cents

Chocolate Cadbury bar: $1.15

Sending 1 letter to America:  65 cents

Other than withdrawing money for the cell phone, I’m trying to stay on the Peace Corps budget It’s pretty generous considering we’re not buying tons of things during training. We supplement our meals with a sufficient amount of bananas, oranges, and cookies (The best ones are called Choco Bisques. I dream about these now.) . Initially, it’s hard not to buy everything because it’s all “so cheap,” but once you get in the Kenyan shilling mindset, you realize you’re getting “mzungu” prices and not Kenyan prices.

I’ve been partnered up with a youth group in town and they told me some pretty astonishing things from a teenage perspective. School girls will sleep with boys for as little as 5 shillings to buy snacks at the market stands. That is roughly 6 cents in American money.  If that doesn’t help put things into perspective, I don’t know what will.

This group does skits at schools and in the community on topics such as AIDS, condom use, drug abuse, staying in school, ect. We’re working with this group to do a skit and focus group at a local coed boarding school. We’ve written the skit already- it’s about boys sneaking into Tanzania to buy bange, which is a hallucinogen drug here that is fairly common.  The skit also touches on rape, unwanted pregnancy, and AIDS- all the fun stuff. We’re performing it in front of the whole school and then conducting focus groups afterwards. I was surprised at how much we’re doing in the community even before we get to our sites. But soon, I’ll be arranging this stuff by myself in my own village in the middle of nowhere, so it’s extremely helpful to get practice now.

Some highlights:

-          The word for “zebra” in Kiswahili directly translates to “striped donkey.” I couldn’t stop smiling the day I learned this.

-          Kids have now started racing me when I run in the morning, which makes me look pathetic because they are much more used to the high altitude than I am. And yes, I’m going to keep using that high altitude excuse for a while.

-          Characters in my dreams are now speaking a Swahili-English mix. None of it makes sense, but I think it’s a good sign.

-          There aren’t as many worship music videos on TV now because of the World Cup. On the flip side, the Shakira theme song is used in every single commercial now on television. It is the single most annoying song to hit Africa because we literally hear the same snippet over and over. My mama keeps asking me what “Saminamina eh eh” means in English and I really don’t know how to answer that question.

-          I tried a tamoko fruit from the market the other day and I almost started crying because it was so good. A Californian volunteer knew it as a custard apple. Seriously, someone needs to start growing those in Nebraska.

One of the grossest things I’ve seen here is how Kenyans eat meat. Kenyans love meat, mostly beef. They live for meat, much like many Americans. But the difference is that here in Kenya, the choicest pieces of meat are the fatty parts- pure fat, the marrow, everything around the bone.  They tend to cut the lean pieces off, leave them out of every dish and throw them to the chickens. Instead, they include chunks of bone that they enjoy breaking apart and sucking on during dinner. They literally lick the bones clean of all meat – they actually give the bones to my baby sister and she sucks on them to get the meat off because she screams for them.  I told my family I didn’t eat meat and it was as if I was telling them I didn’t have a soul. I was willing to try some to be respectful, but watching them eat one meal officially affirmed my vegetarian status.

We talk a lot about small victories in the Peace Corps. You can get very frustrated with the culture differences and small annoyances if you always look at living here as a whole, but It’s the small victories you have throughout your days and weeks that really keep you going. This has really taught me not to discredit the little things. Take last Saturday for example:

My friend Louis and I set out on a mission to do the impossible: to make pizza. American/ Italian pizza.

Do they have ovens in Kenya? No. Do they have cheese in Kenya? No. But these hurdles did not stop us.  I set out to make chapati bread, which is kind of like a tortilla made with wheat flour. We then made a makeshift tomato sauce filled with green peppers, onions, and garlic over the charcoal jiko pot.

Did it resemble pizza at all? No. Did they turn out to be more like tacos? Yes.

Was it incredible no matter what? Yes. Did we lie and tell our Kenyan families that that was what pizza was? Of course.

I had my first Language Proficiency Interview and I tested at a Novice High level, which is only one level below the standard I need to reach before the end of training (WOOOOOOOOOOOOH!).  However, I’m hoping to be almost fluent in a few months, so I’ve still got a long way to go. My next test is a practical. I need to successfully light a kerosene lantern, light a charcoal jiko oven, cut kale leaves in my hand at rapid speed, and mop a floor- without a mop. Studying these next few weeks should be very interesting.

However, studying can wait for now. The World Cup is on -Kombe la Dunia- and I’ve got to go cheer for America!