July, July!

Friday, July 29th! Where did this month go?
I'll try to recap the highlights before going more into some recent news.

The 4th of July is never as fun in a different country. Never. I know a lot of the interns were missing home quite a bit that day, and I think it really hit me how much I missed it until I was at a 4th (10th) of July potluck party, thinking about how I would have spent the day if I were in MN. I probably would have run the Afton 25k Trail Run again this year (completely hooked after my first time last year), then gone home to shower and nap before finding more outside activities, maybe even a trip up to the cabin for burgers on the grill and corn on the cob. Then home for those 10pm fireworks. Oh, America.

I did opt to stay up uncharacteristically late and watch the final Eurocup game (which started at 10pm local time)... no fireworks though. Waking up the next day was difficult.

Mom arrived in country the next day! It was such a treat to show her around my home here. I develop a greater appreciation for where the home I've made for myself in a foreign place when I can then share it with someone. We made dinner in my house one evening, and had a big breakfast-for-dinner potluck with many of my friends here the other night. She came with me on some intern visits and learned about a couple of their host organizations - plus this meant she got to experience tuk-tuks and piki-pikis, like a true Kenyan. What a trooper.

We met my sister in Nairobi and the next day (after a little luggage drama) took off for Maasai Mara and a few days of game drives in Kenya's most famous park. It. Was. Breathtaking. We managed to see just about every animal I could've hoped to see. When Mom and I were in South Africa at Kruger, we didn't really see any cats, and this trip definitely made up for that. We saw multiple cheetahs and leopards, plus probably a total of seven or eight lions. Amazing. And our driver was SO good that he got us within a couple meters each time. (I do intend to post some of my better photos somewhere, somehow, at some point, but I'm not sure when I'll have bandwidth for it.) The people at the camp sang Maren a very Happy Maasai Birthday song and presented her with a cute little cake that evening too - what a neat way to spend a birthday!

The three of us then headed to Diani Beach, on the coast south of Mombasa for some intense relaxation. We even had our own chef who would game plan meals with us, do the shopping, and then cook a ton of food. We had fresh seafood every night. It was heaven.

Saying goodbye and returning to Kakamega after all of that was really difficult, but even coming home after a really good vacation can be comforting in a way I can definitely appreciate. To be fair, I didn't even have to go straight back to work - the next morning I got up and made my way to the office early to depart with the interns and other members of staff for our midterm retreat. We spent three nights at a neat campsite on Lake Naivasha - more good food, fun activities, and a chance for the interns to get a break from Kakamega (which is really important too!).

Being in Naivasha made me realize how much I miss having a truly active lifestyle. I don't think I'm cut out for desk life. I ran with one of the interns each morning, then one morning we all rented mountain bikes and rode around to another lake and back toward town for lunch. Another day we went on a long hike in a park where lots of safari animals were just roaming around (zebras, buffalo, wildebeest, antelope, giraffes, warthogs...), and up around the perimeter of Crater Lake. The scenery was definitely different from that of Western Kenya. I loved being by lakes again, something I'm realizing I've maybe taken for granted in Minnesota.

That more or less brings us to this week (we all got back from midterm on Sunday afternoon, at which point I washed probably close to 2/3 of the clothes in my closet before falling asleep very early). This is the first week I've spent fully in Kakamega since the beginning of July - sort of strange. I attended one of our intern's workshops about condom use and negotiation, which she and a colleague gave to upwards of 20 community health volunteers who will hopefully then be able to take those skills out into the communities where they work, and enhance knowledge and family planning while also reducing transmission of HIV and STIs. It's been seriously cool to see the interns in these situations since they've been working here for 5-6 weeks now and so their internships are wrapping up. I think I get to go to a different intern's workshop next week, which should also be good.

So then the big news... I still haven't decided if I want to call it good news or bad news. No doubt it's a bit of both. FSD has decided to cut my contract short due to some financial constraints and very low intern numbers for the fall and beyond. Rather than my original departure date of September 27th, I now decide when I want to leave, anytime after August 20th, as that is the last day they will be providing financial support to my position.

Reading the email from the director on Wednesday morning was a little surreal (especially since I had just paid my landlady my last month of rent the morning before). I am still trying to figure out how I feel about it, but in general, I'm not thrilled. I think it's sort of poor to give your volunteer/employees only 24 days notice about unexpected termination. I realize it's not related to anything I've done (or not done), but I still don't especially appreciate it. And to be told in an email. Not the most professional, but it's out of my control now.

I've been applying to jobs off and on while I've been here, hoping to set something up for once I'm done or back in the States. I've not had much luck with it, and even this week, a couple leads I thought I had turned out to be relative dead ends. So... I'm working on being patient. I'm also working on figuring out what exactly it is that I think I want to do, which has proven difficult. I can't figure out if I want to work at home (in the States, likely East Coast) or abroad (East or sub-Saharan Africa). Most international positions would require a commitment of two years, which didn't seem so long for Peace Corps or grad school, but I'm 28 (approaching 29), and two years from now... well, it just seems like a big milestone and I worry I won't have things any more figured out at that point. I don't know what all "settling down" entails, or if I actually want any part of it, but at the very least I'd like to feel like I'm working my way down a career path, rather than bouncing around a handful of (essentially volunteer) positions that end when the organization decides its funding is better directed elsewhere (this is the second summer I've been in this situation). End rant (was that even a rant?)...

On the positive side, I'll get to see my friends and family earlier than expected. I'll get to train for a month at home before the 10-mile in early October (hopefully my running, even a little, at "altitude" this summer will have helped). I'll get to go to a wedding I had thought I would have to miss. Trying to keep the silver lining in sight.

Sending love from a very rainy Kakamega,
K