Postmarked: 07-05-05...i think
Hi-A out there. It is now July 1st and I am entering my second weekend with the homestay. The family is great. However the one person in the house I got along with best (a 18 year old girl that I danced with) left today. Turns out she is a niece (I think) and as school is out now she went back home! :( Oh well, now it is the mom and pops then 4 (maybe 5) boys all under the age of 12. (I know the 12 year old - a great kid - is a nephew but I don't know if he goes home when his school is over) And then there is a girl that is 15 and I honestly don't know her place. She is either a daughter, Niece or possibly house girl.
As you might be able to tell from my ambiguity of the family, the Swahili is still coming along. Though since I started lessons 2 weeks ago, I think I am doing well. Unlike Spanish or other languages that I am familiar with, Swahili I have never heard before, so I don't understand the accents. So when learning Spanish I could understand by recognizing words, but I did not know what to say back to people, with Swahili, I know What to say, I just can't understand a single spoken word of it!!
So this week was our first technical training. My group of 5 helped build a chicken coup (banda la kookoo) using only locally gathered materials! So a selected family gathered palm leaves for roofing and bamboo type stalks for framing, a few small trees for support and a door and then gathered a bunch of clay mud from around this area. The Peace Corps provided purchased chicken wire (about $2.00 worth) and some nails and hardware (about $.50 worth) and the labor. We also are buying 20 roosters that we will have to maintain, vaccinate and provide feed for. At the end of the 2 months we will divide most of the roosters to the surrounding village to add diversity to the stock here (the roosters are top quality). I REALLY enjoyed it. I put in 100% of the chicken wire myself and worked on "throwing" the clay and tieing the palm roofing. This next week is COMPOSTING WEEK! We are also starting our vegetable garden!
So, the food: rice and ugali (unflavored malt-o-meal that has been microwaved too long - but good - made from sassava flour) then mohicha - a local spinach type green, and then a meat stew. Good stuff. Well, it is actually fairly cold here tonight and I want to go tuck into the covers...that I will check thoroughly before hopping into!!! I miss and love you all. Kwa heri!
Jane
WRITE ME!!!
As you might be able to tell from my ambiguity of the family, the Swahili is still coming along. Though since I started lessons 2 weeks ago, I think I am doing well. Unlike Spanish or other languages that I am familiar with, Swahili I have never heard before, so I don't understand the accents. So when learning Spanish I could understand by recognizing words, but I did not know what to say back to people, with Swahili, I know What to say, I just can't understand a single spoken word of it!!
So this week was our first technical training. My group of 5 helped build a chicken coup (banda la kookoo) using only locally gathered materials! So a selected family gathered palm leaves for roofing and bamboo type stalks for framing, a few small trees for support and a door and then gathered a bunch of clay mud from around this area. The Peace Corps provided purchased chicken wire (about $2.00 worth) and some nails and hardware (about $.50 worth) and the labor. We also are buying 20 roosters that we will have to maintain, vaccinate and provide feed for. At the end of the 2 months we will divide most of the roosters to the surrounding village to add diversity to the stock here (the roosters are top quality). I REALLY enjoyed it. I put in 100% of the chicken wire myself and worked on "throwing" the clay and tieing the palm roofing. This next week is COMPOSTING WEEK! We are also starting our vegetable garden!
So, the food: rice and ugali (unflavored malt-o-meal that has been microwaved too long - but good - made from sassava flour) then mohicha - a local spinach type green, and then a meat stew. Good stuff. Well, it is actually fairly cold here tonight and I want to go tuck into the covers...that I will check thoroughly before hopping into!!! I miss and love you all. Kwa heri!
Jane
WRITE ME!!!
posted by Jane at 5:49 PM
1 Comments:
Oh Jane, the pictures are beautiful. I'm so glad you are in such a wonderful place; in all accounts of the word!
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