Kipilefti

I had a bath yesterday, so today I’m wearing my hair down, enjoying its cleanness while it lasts. A strong wind blows it around my face as I walk into town. There’s a storm coming in from over the mountains: I can tell by the wind, and the chill, and by the screen of grey […]

So we finally had a staff meeting yesterday. Nine teachers, six or seven hundred students, ten subjects (I think: physics, chemistry, biology, math[s], geography, civics, history, English, Swahili, and mine, the extra one, computers. I may have forgotten one…). Thankfully all I had to do was sit there and listen, having firmly established that I […]

So here are the steps necessary to get Internet access in my town: Go to stationary store. Ask stationary mama if there’s a chance she’ll be able to let me use the Internet today. Get put off, get stalled, eventually agree on tomorrow. Return tomorrow. Follow stationary mama down the hill and a fair distance. […]

Yesterday I ventured to the post office, motivated by the fact that the Peace Corps had finally deposited our December and January living allowances, only a month late. As soon as I walked into the post office and said hello, the Posta Mama (who’s the sweetest woman!) said “Oh, Maria! You have many packages!” and […]

I woke, slightly disconcerted, to a grey sky. Almost every other day I can remember, the morning sky has been bright and sunny and the greyness has rolled in over the mountains in the afternoon. But soon after I got up the rain started, a long, soaking rain unlike the brief thunderstorms that we get […]

Pretty much since the Christmas festivities ended, I’ve been leading an exceptionally quiet life and barely leaving my house. For two days straight I didn’t go outside at all (the second day I was going to, but then the rain came) and on the first day I didn’t even change out of my pyjamas. It’s […]

Whenever I spend time with PCVs I don’t get enough sleep. Yesterday, exhausted, I didn’t leave the house but did take a four-hour nap. I had grand ambitions as to what I was going to do but accomplished few of them–did do some (but not most) of my laundry, re-boil the too-sticky peanut brittle into […]

Whenever I spend time with PCVs I don’t get enough sleep. Yesterday, exhausted, I didn’t leave the house but did take a four-hour nap. I had grand ambitions as to what I was going to do but accomplished few of them–did do some (but not most) of my laundry, re-boil the too-sticky peanut brittle into […]

So, things that have happened recently… I read, like, ten books and drank innumerable cups of tea while lying in bed until late in the morning every day The power at my school remained out I fainted in the choo after being ill for a day. I cannot think of a less pleasant place to […]

Doing better, needed some time to settle in. Using an NGO computer (I helped the guy to photograph-instead-of-scan a document yesterday after he randomly called me from a stationary store, so I figure it’s reasonable to use his Internet). Going to visit another PCV for Christmas, which I’m really looking forward to, almost as much as I’m […]