Bebeth and mark
Hi–It’s Bebeth’s mom. We had a brief conversation with Bebeth today. I took notes and she asked me to pass along whatever I could to friends and family back home. Bebeth and Mark have been in Kenya for a little over a week. Things are going well and they are enjoying it. Their trainee group is divided among the villages surrounding Kitui. Kitui is only an hour from Nairobi but it is a very undeveloped area. There are four trainees living in Kabalula (sp?). The four of them have language classes together in the morning in an open yard with a blackboard. They have a one-hour walk to lunch and a one-hour walk back. Bebeth said they are getting lots of exercise. Two other village groups who are also assigned to the Information Technology–Small Entrepreneur group come to their village for training in the afternoon. After classes they have a one-hour walk home and they need to be "home" before dark because no one is out after dark since there are no lights. Twice a week they walk to Kitui where all 54 Peace Corps volunteers are trained together. They enjoy that because they get to see other people. Language classes are slow but they are able to greet people and introduce themselves. The only problem is that while Swahili is the national language and many people speak it, most tribes use a different language. So after they are placed, they may need to learn another language. Bebeth and Mark are living together with a family. They said that theirs is one of the nicest placements. The house is all cement and has solar panels on the roof so there is electricity and running water for awhile each day. They are in bed by 9 p.m. because there is no electricity or light after that and they get up at dawn. Their hosts are well-educated–the mom is a nurse and the dad is a teacher. They have a 12-year old son at home but several children are older and live elsewhere. Bebeth reports that the mom makes "yummy food" and that there is a lot of it. There is no e-mail in the village but they receive mail–it usually comes once a week from Nairobi. The most important news is that Bebeth sounded very happyand reports that Mark is as well.