Money, Money, Money!

I got my Kenyan shillings today! I took some pictures so that you could all see what the bills look like.

This first picture is of all the money I received, which is equal to $300.44. It is 17,350 KES.

This picture shows bills equal to about $5.

This picture shows bills equal to about $15.

These bills equal about $30.

These pictures show both sides of the KES 100 and KES 1000 bills.

I can't wait to see what I find to spend all this money on! Apparently, there are a few local crafts available to buy when we're in Wamba. Hopefully I'll be able to visit the big market in Nairobi as well and buy some souvenirs there, too. And, of course, there will be dinner at the Carnivore. Yum!

Online Videos

It's amazing the things you can find on the Internet! I'm stuck close to home today, at least until my Kenyan shillings are delivered (I can't miss that!), so I was just playing around online a bit. I had seen a segment about YouTube.com on the Today show recently, so I thought I'd check it out. Just to see what I'd get, I looked at the Travel & Places section and searched for Kenya. Who would have thought there'd be a video related to my trip?! The video "Moran: Samburu Warrior" is not of the best quality, but it gives you a little bit of a look at the local people where I will be, and the region as well. You can find it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUcWG9zwydU. If you follow the Samburu tag link, there is another video about elephant watching, but it seems to be primarily an advertisement for a safari company. It has some cool music, but it doesn't show much of what I am likely to see.

In the Samburu warrior video, you may notice that the warrior is wearing some beautiful bracelets. Cheryl showed Liz and me pictures of those on Wednesday, and told us that the men make those bracelets to give to their wives to show that the women are taken. Apparently if a woman accepts a bracelet from a man, it means she is his wife. Note to self: Do NOT accept the gift of a bracelet!

Fellow travelers and Kenyan currency

It has been a busy couple of days getting ready for my trip! I know that I still have a week and a half before I leave, but I am keeping myself busy by doing some of the things that need to be done.

Yesterday, I met 2 of my fellow travelers for lunch to talk about the trip. Cheryl Sanderson went to Samburu with Earthwatch 2 years ago and is now going back; she very kindly shared photos and helpful hints with me and Liz Crane. We had so many questions about what to pack, what to expect, the food, the people, etc. It was good to know that I'm mostly on track with my plans for what to pack, but seeing a picture of the very tiny plan we'll take from Nairobi to an area closer to Samburu makes me a little nervous. Cheryl and Liz are both very nice. I think it will be a great trip!

This morning, I decided to spend some time researching where and when I'll be able to get Kenyan currency. I normally wouldn't worry too much, but I will be arriving very late in Kenya before a very early meeting the next morning, so I'm worried about the timing of it all and whether or not the information I have found in guidebooks is accurate. Cheryl said that she changes currency in London, where they do have Kenyan shillings available at the currency exchange bureaus, and suggested that maybe I could get my currency during my long layover in New York or in Brussels. I found the phone numbers for Travelex at JFK and was told that they don't carry Kenyan shillings. I don't really want to call the airport in Brussels to try to find out if they carry shillings there, so I continued my search. It turns out that you can order Kenyan shillings from AAA. I get nervous thinking about carrying that much cash with me for that long, but I have a money belt and other ways to carry cash more safely, and the idea of taking out large amounts of cash from an ATM late at night in a city known for high crime rates makes me even more nervous than just carrying the cash on the airplane does. So, I ordered my Kenyan shillings and won't have to worry about not having money in Samburu. I should get my shillings in a couple of days.

According to the Universal Currency Converter at xe.com, $1 US is equal to about 74 Kenyan shillings, as of this morning. I made a list of a few basic amounts so that I'll be able to judge how much souvenirs and other things cost as I shop. I don't want to have to be dividing things by 74 in my head all the time!

I've been trying to add a picture of Kenyan currency for you all, but I'm having some computer problems. I'll try again later, or I'll take a picture of my money when it arrives and upload that.

I still have a few more errands to do to get ready. I think today I will go use up some gift certificates at REI and Barnes and Noble. I think I need to buy a little more bug spray and a long sleeved shirt, and maybe some Clif bars or something just in case I don't like the field lunches they pack. Cheryl said that some of the lunches got a little weird, like peanut butter and hardboiled egg sandwiches. Blech! Of course, I also have to pack, but I don't want to do that quite yet. I have a growing pile of things to take in my living room, and I've started trying to organize a bit, but if I start packing now, I know I'll forget what I've already packed and pack twice as much as I need. Because we'll be traveling on such a small plane, we're only allowed 10kg of luggage, so I need to avoid overpacking. That should be a challenge!

I'll try to check in at least one more time before I leave to let you all know how the packing goes!

Rainfall

The rain is pouring down today in Hingham, and I can't help but think about how it would probably be viewed much differently in Samburu than many people here are thinking of it today. We have had quite a bit of rain recently, including the recent floods, and so many people in Massachusetts could do without this rain today. (Personally, I'm happy enough with the cooler weather it brings, at least until we get out of school.) However, I learned from Bishop Obare just how severe the drought has been in Kenya. Drought is constantly a problem in the arid parts of the country, but this year's drought was particularly severe, from what I have been told. I know I take water for granted, something that I thought I would never again do after my Peace Corps experience. But even there, I never had to deal with a severe water shortage. There was enough water in all the nearby wells. It will be interesting to visit Kenya in the middle of the dry season and see how it affects the environment, the people, and the animals.

One more article

I found out today that I was mentioned in an article in the Scituate Mariner. The article was also published yesterday. It is a report of the Scituate Rotary Club's meeting that I attended. It can be found online at the TownOnline.com site. One of my colleague's is going to bring me the clipping from the newspaper, because there was also a picture of me, the Kenyan guests, and members of the Rotary Club. The article is as follows:

Kenyan Bishop welcomed to Scituate
By Rev. Robert Schipul/ Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church
Thursday, June 1, 2006

On May 24, Christ Lutheran Church and the Scituate Rotary Club played host to the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kenya and two of his associates. This visit was in response to a visit by 11 New Englanders who traveled to Kenya last August. Eric Foote, David Isbrandt and Pastor Robert Schipul were guests of the Bishop and his church body of 80,000 Lutheran Christians. Bishop Walter Obare,
General Secretary, Rev. John Halake and Treasurer: John Michoro spent two days in Scituate before heading west to Connecticut and Western Massachusetts churches for another week. While in town, they visited the lighthouse and the harbor before traveling to Plymouth to visit the Mayflower and Plimoth Plantation.

Their visit concluded with a dinner meeting with the Rotary
Club at the Scituate Country Club. Bishop Obare spoke of the extreme need for water in the arid areas of Kenya (roughly 1/3 of the country) and the need for clean water in the rest of the country. He encouraged the Rotary Club to find ways of assisting Kenyans in providing water resources for their people in the form of deep bore hole drilling and water purification systems.

Hingham Middle School geography teacher Amanda Wonson was also invited to the dinner. Amanda will study water patterns in some of the most arid areas of Kenya this summer. She will go with a group called Earth Watch Institute. The area Amanda will survey is the home area of Pastor John Halake. They two of them were able to talk and discuss her work. Next fall, Amanda will address the Rotary Club on her experiences. Parting gifts to the three were Red Sox baseball caps that they promised to wear when they visited Connecticut next week.

I am looking forward to sharing my experiences with the Rotary Club when I return in the fall. They were so welcoming, and it was wonderful to be able to meet Kenyans and Americans who have experience in Kenya.

I'm in the Boston Globe!

Last week, I had a phone interview with Paul Kanderian, a reporter at the Boston Globe. He told me that the article he would write about my expedition would be published today, but with all the craziness of preparing for tomorrow's 7th grade Activity Day field trip, I completely forgot about it. This morning, I got an email from a student's mom, congratulating me on the trip and the article. What a nice surprise! I ran down to the library to check to see if Mr. Greenberg had the Globe; we found the article, and during my free period B block I drove up to the grocery store to buy the Globe myself. The article is in the Globe South section, in the People column. For those of you who may not read the Globe, you can also find it online.

The print edition has a picture of me (Thank you Mrs. Shannon for being patient enough to take a good one of me in our classroom!), but you can read the text at least online. Check it out if you get a chance. :-)

Here's the picture that I gave to the Globe to use: