January 2011
1 post
in TZ
I’m in Tanzania, where I’ve been for just about 3 weeks now. Had an awesome time with the D-Lab team, and was really sad to bring them to the airport yesterday. I’m here for another 2.5 weeks to work on a project… slow starting, we’ll see how it goes. It’s kind of a shock being (mostly) alone after 3 weeks of near constant togetherness. We shared a tent almost...
December 2010
2 posts
and if that’s a bit out of context, here’s what’s going on in my life:
I work at D-Lab at MIT,
I’m leading a team of 6 undergrad students back to TZ (<3) during IAP,
and I’m staying a few weeks longer to work on an innovation center project.
Yesterday we had a design jam at D-Lab for the chlorine dispenser that I worked on in Kenya for 8 months. It was really...
my flights back from TZ in feb?
Kilimanjaro, TZ to Mombasa, Kenya
Mombasa to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Addis Ababa to Rome
Rome to DC
DC to Boston
(oh my!)
July 2010
1 post
at IDDS
we just finished the first IDDS 2010 dance party! in the basement of our dorm. we danced to music from all over the world, got salsa lessons, and ended with savage garden. i’m having a lot of fun so far.. hike on some colorado mountains tomorrow morning! :D
June 2010
21 posts
I’ve been back home in NY for about a day now. I managed to stay up until 10:30 last night (aka 5:30am Kenya time), and it’s already later tonight.. in December my jet lag lasted for at least a week, and I’m trying to get over it faster this time. So far so good.
It’s strange, I can’t decide what place feels right at the moment. It just feels weird not to be in...
Niko Germany.
Yup, in Germany at the moment. Not in Africa any more. I don’t think my sister understands the culture shock that I am going through.
I’m staying with Clara & her boyfriend’s family in Cologne, and his friends are coming over soon for a belated birthday party to watch the World Cup game. We were in the city earlier and it was crazy. German flags and vuvuzelas galore. I take...
It’s kind of funny how much I am updating this in my last days here, but I guess I just have a lot to say/share. At the moment I am waiting at the Kisumu Airport… my day consisted of packing, running errands, saying goodbyes & crying a little. I managed to say goodbye to almost everyone.. the last three were the hardest, though. As I made my way down the hallway I kept waving them...
what the what. my goodbye party is over. lots of people came, including some i had never met (that’s when you know there are more wazungu in busia than usual). i finally succeeded in opening bottles with other bottles (no opener needed!) (it hurts!). bastien broke a wine bottle in a funny spot when trying to demonstrate how i should open a bottle with a running shoe. we danced a bit. my...
texts from.. kenya.
On the most basic phone available here, I can save about 70 texts at a time. Being the pack rat that I am, I have kept some of my faves in my inbox. Below - some that are not too inappropriate ;)
If ur here at 9 ******* get naked. Hurry up (false)
U just got a raise, btw. :) (yay! the start of fun weekend trips..)
What shall we bring you, a live fish or a live man? We miss you here… (when...
oh, no.
It’s ‘becca freaks out’ time. After a really nice weekend trip to the rainforest, (eating really good food; talking to the new ECs; staying up late drinking boxed wine with roomies and sharing secrets; eating more good food; and going for a hike through the rainforest - butterflies! giant furry monkeys! giant trees! mud!), I’ve got only 3 full days left here. I’ve...
days
No weeks left, just days. Today was my last Friday in Busia. After lunch, Sarah, a Kenyan manager on our team, gave me a package with a new kitenge - top and skirt outfit - that she had had made. Yesterday I went to a tailor to get measurements taken, and today I had a new suit! All of the Kenyans told me that I looked “smart.” :)
After work Sarah had a dinner for me at her house,...
Ah yes, this is when I start to get sentimental. In a little over a week, I leave Kenya.
Most of all, I will miss my housemates. When I was coming back from Nairobi last night, I really did feel like I was coming home. We’ve all been a bit scattered recently - traveling, vacationing, working outside of Busia - but when we are together, it’s just so fun(ny) and comfortable. I feel...
“becca this is the scariest email (length wise) i have ever received....”
– from a friend, in response to my final africa update mass email sent earlier today. i hadn’t written one since mid-Feb, so there was a lot to talk about…
another friend told me in response to an earlier email, that he only ‘read’ it by having apple mail read it aloud, lol. i...
Mombasa + Diani Beach
Well, at the moment I am in bed feeling rather sick, but a week ago.. I was on the beach! I finally made it to the coast for vacation, and although it was too short, I had a great time. There ended up being seven of us who went together, but starting from different places, so I traveled the first leg with just my housemate, taking my first night bus from Busia to Nairobi. It was slightly scary but...
I finally got some “modern African...
May 2010
14 posts
Whoops, I guess I haven’t posted in quite a while. I’ve been so so busy with work… But we finally put out the 26-pg report on the redesign last night, so things are slightly less crazy today. I just got back from lunch at this eerily diner-esque place in town that I had never been to before! It was called Hotel Capstone [many restaurants are called hotels here, despite not having...
bah.. we’re all kind of sick at the moment! bast has malaria (again - he got it back in Dec, too); eric is getting over this weird, lengthy chest/cough/sniffle thing; i think i am getting the same, but trying to ward it off by starting cipro, which ‘kills everything,’ earlier today; aleem just came over to get cough medicine; and… yeah. we’re a sad group right now! no...
oh my. one of the things i am going to miss most when i leave here is the SKY. i just walked back from old house and the stars were SO bright and there was lightning in the distance and i kept staring up and almost tripping in my gum boots and making happy noises.
and last night! i went for a run on the airstrip at around.. 6pm. running in one direction, the sun was shining (blindingly!) and the...
I’m going to take a vacation in about 2 weeks! I got the dates approved.. now I just have to decide where to go! Beach or no beach?
“Get a receipt!”
– Mary (Jimmy’s wife) to Jimmy as he takes our 200 shilling bribe to the police officer this afternoon. (We were driving back from Kisumu and were stopped, didn’t all have passports on us. He didn’t get a receipt.)
I’m tucking in the mosquito net extra-tight tonight…
Earlier today we had a green mamba (!) sighting at the house, and when I just went to sit at my desk chair there was a verrrry tiny lizard dude scurrying around the side, and then hiding + peeking out at me for awhile. (One of these scares me, the other does not - but I don’t particularly feel like sharing a bed with either!)
...
on boiling water
yes, all of the hullabaloo in boston re: water is kind of funny to me. people mildly freaking out because they need to boil water for one minute? [ok, there’s no doubt that the fact that i’ve been living in developing countries for many months now has made me a bit jaded about potable water - and working on a clean water project, no less..]. for drinking water here, we boil the water...
becca's first goat slaughter
In about… 2 hours… there will apparently be a goat slaughter at Old House. Today is Andrew’s big Cinco de Mayo celebration - an early going away party featuring many of his favorite things. There will be carne asada, horchata [which I tried for the first time a few weeks ago and loved], sangria, horseshoes, a pinata, and… goat.
When I was still living at Old House, the...
uganda, cont'd
Having spent a few days in Uganda last week, I thought I’d just mention a few of the differences that stood out to me.
The first thing I noticed crossing the border was the road - or should I say roads? They were so good! They had paved intersections! The distance from Busia, Uganda to Jinja is the same as from Busia, Kenya to Kisumu - but those are vastly different drives. From Busia to...
April 2010
13 posts
Well, I’m back in Kenya now!
It was super easy to get a new visa.. yay.
As for Uganda, on Friday I went white water rafting on the NILE RIVER. It was as awesome as it sounds. We went over something like a dozen rapids, including a waterfall where the raft just nosedived [I’m quite bruised up!]… did a ton of paddling… got out and swam a few times… ate ~1/2 a...
pseudo-exile in uganda
SO I’m writing this quickly from an internet cafe in Jinja, Uganda. No, I did not expect to take a trip to Uganda in the middle of the busiest work week in a long time…. But, alas, my Kenya special pass + visa expired yesterday, so it was decided quite last minute that I had to hop over the border to Uganda [it’s literally minutes from Busia, Kenya - the town is named Busia,...
Tonight I finished a CAD model for a new dispenser design for use in pilots in Bangladesh; we already emailed images and they will be presented at a meeting tomorrow. This is exciting, right? My ‘boss,’ Jeff [there is really no reason to put this in quotes as yes he is my boss but I usually call him ‘boss-ish guy’ since, well, we’re friends so it’s just a bit...
Thanksgiving 2!
Ina kuja! [It’s coming!]
Last weekend, I went to Kisumu with a bunch of my coworkers for the main purpose of attending a Bhangra concert by Jassi Sidhu. It was pretty expensive - about $20 for an advance ticket, including a big, delicious Indian buffet dinner - and most of the Indians in Western seemed to be there. Anyway, we had a ton of fun - I tried to remember some of my bhangra moves...
package!!
When I got to work today, I had a lovely pink piece of paper on my desk, telling me that I had a package to pick up at the Posta! After a boda ride there and ~$10 in fees, I got to ponder what my parents had ended up sending for the 15-min ride back to the office. I made a lot of apparently ridiculous noises (go figure) as I opened the box… My parents managed to cram a ton of stuff in -...
[whoops, posted on wrong blog yesterday.. no nifty way to relocate it that i know of?]
my adventures have been slightly relocated.. i am now [officially] a proud member of the msf house! today i managed to pack, transport across the street in a big cart thing, and unpack all of my stuff in just a few hours. when you only have what fits in a couple of suitcases, it’s not so bad. i guess that...