What Can I Do For You?

I am now officially a Peace Corps Volunteer. I spent a couple hours on Wednesday in America (at the ambassador's residence), and after I have arrived in Marungu, a small town South-East of Voi. It has been 2 days in my brand new town. I have been so warmly received I feel like a celebrity. Well, I am a celebrity.

My supervisor accompanies me everywhere I go and quickly jabbers off in kiswahili or kitaita (the local language) to everyone around about who I am and what I am doing here. After a minute or two, people's faces light up and then they vigorously shake my hand, as if I had just saved their baby from a mountain lion. Though my kiswahili is improving, it is far from good or even conversational. I feel like my counterpart is telling everyone that I am the second coming of the messiah, or that if they stand shake my hand vigorously enough, money will come out.

Here's the scoop: from the looks of things, my organization is on its own two feet. They have a well-written description of what their purpose is, and they have assessed the needs of the community (which is namely water accessibility), and they are fervently pursuing the relief of that major issue. When I quickly reflect upon my skill-set, I come up with this short list:

1. Swimming
2. Guitar Competency
3. Wooing Women
4. Basic Computer Skills
5. Able to speak and read English

Aside from computer skills and knowledge, I feel like I have precious little to offer my organization, and I'm not sure exactly what they expect. I know it has been just a few days, but I feel like I am fairly worthless thus-far. Nevertheless, here's what is happening in my small town (pop 10,000).

Water is a big issue. The Kenyan government established a baseline water price at 3 shillings for 20 liters, but the price of water in my area is 7 to 8 times that much because demand is high and accessibility is difficult. The town of Marungu is only 7 to 10 kilometers away from the “Mombasa Highway” where huge pipes of water are located, so one project is to divert some of that water to the smaller remote towns such as mine.

Marungu offers beautiful hills, though currently dry, can be lush green during the rainy season. Also, brown elephants are often spotted in the hills, searching for watering holes. One major problem is poachers killing these elephants for their ivory tusks. This is done with bow and poison tipped arrow, and as many as 20 dead elephants were found already this year, up from the 7 elephants from last year. Prices for ivory have increased, giving incentives to slaughter these beautiful creatures.

On a more positive note, I did see a group of 10 wild elephants off the side of the road near the city of Voi. Many camels can be seen in my area as well, and I also saw a buffalo and two eagles. It's ridiculous and wonderful, and I am truly loving every minute of my experience, including the hardships and inconveniences.


Wild Animal Sitings Update: black & white colobus monkey, chimpanzee, black buffalo, brown elephant, camel, giraffe, eagle, superb starling, antelope, ostrich.