Happy International Volunteers' Day
Hamjambo!
In honor of the day, I thought I'd talk about my fellow volunteers and our living conditions here.
Our compound is made up of three buildings which are very close together. The main building was originally a house and includes a living room, the office, and one bedroom. The dining hall has no walls except an internal one separating the kitchen area from the dining area. Two long tables end at a shorter one from which we take the food. The third building is the dorm building. Each floor has three rooms with bathrooms en suite. Each room has two bunkbeds and houses up to four volunteers. The property also has a guardhouse on stilts, a small lawn, and a small area with banana plants. Three tortoises live on our property as well as two birds who have taken to flying at our faces on a regular basis, presumably to defend their nest. Today we built a sort of scarecrow to try to fend them off, but it doesn't seem to have worked. : )
There's not really sufficient storage space for four people in each room, but we manage somehow. We have intermittent electricity, although the generator helps fill in the gaps at certain hours, intermittent hot water, and very little water pressure. There are certain rules that I won't go into regarding how to use the (Western) toilet. The mattresses are very comfortable. Each bed is draped with a large mosquito net even though I have seen almost no mosquitoes anywhere and have only gotten one bite in a week and a half.
Breakfast is at 7ish each day, and those of us who go to our placement by van leave around 7:30. We get back around 12:30, and lunch is at 1ish. The people who have been here for more than three weeks then have free time, and we newbies have classes, field trips, and the like. Dinner's at 6:30 and then there's free time for everyone. Everyone tends to be asleep by 10 or so.
The food is good although not quite as healthy or as varied as I'd like. There's plenty of vegetarian food, especially since we alerted the cook to the fact that there are three vegetarians. Since we're not very active, we're all gaining weight. We've tried to ask for whole wheat bread, oatmeal, etc., and they're trying to be responsive. When we need to do laundry, we either do it ourselves or send it out to local women, who end up charging about $1.50 or so for a small load.
A bunch of volunteers just left over the weekend, and now there are about 20 of us left. Countries of origin range from Switzerland to Australia to Ireland, with the majority coming from the US. Everyone is very friendly and nice to each other. At breakfast we ask each other how we slept and tell each other to have a good day. At dinner we ask how the day was at the placement. It's really a pleasant environment. Most people are in their 20's, but a few are 18, a few are in their late 30's/early 40's, and one is 62.
On Sunday night we sent my roommate to the hospital with terrible symptoms. She was doubled over in pain, dehydrated, moaning... She just came back today. Today we sent my placement partner to the hospital, but they ended up just giving her meds and sending her home. In the recent past, people here have had malaria and pink eye and some bacterial things. They've all been treated well and returned to home base promptly.
Tomorrow we have an all-day field trip, so I'm going to sign off with a salute to my fellow volunteers throughout the world.
Kwaheri,
Jenna
In honor of the day, I thought I'd talk about my fellow volunteers and our living conditions here.
Our compound is made up of three buildings which are very close together. The main building was originally a house and includes a living room, the office, and one bedroom. The dining hall has no walls except an internal one separating the kitchen area from the dining area. Two long tables end at a shorter one from which we take the food. The third building is the dorm building. Each floor has three rooms with bathrooms en suite. Each room has two bunkbeds and houses up to four volunteers. The property also has a guardhouse on stilts, a small lawn, and a small area with banana plants. Three tortoises live on our property as well as two birds who have taken to flying at our faces on a regular basis, presumably to defend their nest. Today we built a sort of scarecrow to try to fend them off, but it doesn't seem to have worked. : )
There's not really sufficient storage space for four people in each room, but we manage somehow. We have intermittent electricity, although the generator helps fill in the gaps at certain hours, intermittent hot water, and very little water pressure. There are certain rules that I won't go into regarding how to use the (Western) toilet. The mattresses are very comfortable. Each bed is draped with a large mosquito net even though I have seen almost no mosquitoes anywhere and have only gotten one bite in a week and a half.
Breakfast is at 7ish each day, and those of us who go to our placement by van leave around 7:30. We get back around 12:30, and lunch is at 1ish. The people who have been here for more than three weeks then have free time, and we newbies have classes, field trips, and the like. Dinner's at 6:30 and then there's free time for everyone. Everyone tends to be asleep by 10 or so.
The food is good although not quite as healthy or as varied as I'd like. There's plenty of vegetarian food, especially since we alerted the cook to the fact that there are three vegetarians. Since we're not very active, we're all gaining weight. We've tried to ask for whole wheat bread, oatmeal, etc., and they're trying to be responsive. When we need to do laundry, we either do it ourselves or send it out to local women, who end up charging about $1.50 or so for a small load.
A bunch of volunteers just left over the weekend, and now there are about 20 of us left. Countries of origin range from Switzerland to Australia to Ireland, with the majority coming from the US. Everyone is very friendly and nice to each other. At breakfast we ask each other how we slept and tell each other to have a good day. At dinner we ask how the day was at the placement. It's really a pleasant environment. Most people are in their 20's, but a few are 18, a few are in their late 30's/early 40's, and one is 62.
On Sunday night we sent my roommate to the hospital with terrible symptoms. She was doubled over in pain, dehydrated, moaning... She just came back today. Today we sent my placement partner to the hospital, but they ended up just giving her meds and sending her home. In the recent past, people here have had malaria and pink eye and some bacterial things. They've all been treated well and returned to home base promptly.
Tomorrow we have an all-day field trip, so I'm going to sign off with a salute to my fellow volunteers throughout the world.
Kwaheri,
Jenna
posted by Jenna @ 12:32 PM
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