For those of you who don't know me personally, my name is Nicki and I'm Lindsay's younger sister. In her absence I'll be taking over a majority of her blog posts to keep you all updated on her progress in Kenya. She left for her trip on the morning of June 6th. From the Twin Cities she flew to Philadelphia where she was immunized and processed, and from there they drove to New York City to leave out of JFK international airport. From NYC they had a long flight to Europe, and from there the group made the flight into Nairobi, Kenya's capital city. Lindsay made her first call from in country by the 8th. For the first ten weeks of her stay she is operating out of Nairobi. There she is receiving her basic training as well as learning to speak Swahili, the national language of Kenya, though not the only language spoken by its people.
On June 24th Lindsay received what will be her permanent post for her 27 week assignment. She will be working at the Community Clinic in Kakamega, Kenya, which is north of Lake Victoria. Her work will include HIV/AIDS and waterborne illness prevention, as well as hygiene and safe sex education.
Personally, Lindsay is doing very well. She is living with a homestay family and seems to be quite happy staying with them. She has called several times over the past few weeks to check in, and she has inquired about many of you readers personally. Because the cost of sending letters is much more than she had expected (about $1.25 per letter), she may not write as many letters as she had hoped to previously. She only gets about 14 U.S. dollars per week to live on, which includes all of her shopping, so her letters may be sporadic.
Take care, and there will be more to come in the coming weeks.
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