Journey to the village

Hello Everyone.....
I made it to the village, and what a village it is. When I told you it was a remote village.........I mean remote! This is definitely an adventure.

I caught the bus from Nairobi to a city in the Western Province called Bungoma. The bus was pretty much like any greyhound bus, but maybe a little older and a little smellier. It was pretty comfortable, so I sat back, relaxed and watched the scenery. The trip was 7 hours, so it was nice to see the scenery change and the towns and villages along the way. I also saw some ZEBRA! I thought it was pretty exciting and the guy beside me thought my reaction was pretty funny. He then proceded to point out everything out the window the entire trip. Some things were funny....like... here is a pipeline, here is a river and here is a market. He was a nice older man though.

After my arrivial in Bungoma, the adventure truely began. I got off the bus, and was met my Maurice, the local director of the program. We grabbed a quick bite and headed to the village.

Heading to the village involves hopping on a matatu (it's almost like a vw van with four rows of seats in the back). When I say 'seats' it's not exactlly what you thing. The matatu won't leave until full,,,,,,, full meaning at least 4 across all seats (including a board between seats for someone to sit on) and up to three people holding onto the outside and ducking their head it. We take the matatu along the main road, swerving around pot holes and bikers. We got off in Harambe, which is the larger market area near the village. After getting off the matatu, I am instructed to hop on the back of a moterbike. YIKES! That's correct, we take a moterbike taxi (called pik pik..i think) to the village. It was then that I learnt that sitting on the back of a moterbike with a huge backpack on is quite the ab workout. So we take the moterbike along a dirt path through fields of sugarcane. It really is quite a pretty trip, there are mut huts tucked away amoung all feilds. We finally arrived at the volunteer house and I attempted to settle in. Soon I will include a picture of the house. It really is a mud hut! It does have a concrete floor and a metal roof though.
It really does feel like camping right now.... There is a pit toilet out back (literally just a concrete stall with hole in the ground) and a 'shower room'. A shower room is really just a room with a slanted floor, since there is no running water it is sponge baths from now on in.

My first day was spent taking a pik pik around the village and seeing the different projects. It was a little overwhelming to see the conditions of the school and some of the homes. I am still not 100% sure what I will be doing day to day, they really don't have very many resources to work with here. But I will learn a lot about life in rural Africa and hopefully help where I can.

This past evening I went into town for a dinner that was organized for all the volunteers in Bungoma. It was very interesting to hear what different people and groups are doing here. I will hopefully be able to meet with them in the future to discuss our work and challenges involved.

One thing that stuck me as really strange is that EVERYONE here has a cell phone. Cell phones are super duper cheap, I had only loaded about $6 on my phone and I've been texting and have called home a couple times. Internet is not as easily availiable, I will have to come into town to update this blog...but I am going to try to update it once a week.

That's it for now, thanks for the comments and the emails! I love hearing from you guys as I continue on my adventure.