Saturday, January 12, 2008

Update from Tanzania

I just wanted to write a note to update you all as best I can on what's going down.

We made it to Tanzania (via private jet) on the 4th and have been holed up at a bed and breakfast resort type place on the coast ever since. It is nice here. Very nice. Hot as hell. But, yes. Nice. Do I feel good about being here? No. Am I complaining? No. Well. Not outloud. It's just hard to see Kenya on the news, to talk to my family back in Umer and be...soo...removed.

On a darker (related) note, we met with our country director this morning, who made it pretty clear that it was pretty clear that they would be closing sites in Western, Nyanza and Rift Valley Provinces (my site is in Western). Pause. Pause. Yeah. The group moral was low before he said that outloud (we are all going a bit crazy being in limbo like this). Now my spirit is just.... gasping for life.

The options for us potentially "displaced" volunteers are MANY. We can go back to the states, no questions asked. We can try to get a new site somewhere in Kenya and essentially "start over;" we can try to get a temporary placement with a relief organization in Kenya, helping displaced people (there are over 250,000 reports have said) and then go back to our sites, if situation permits, or back to the US, if situation doesn't permit. We can try to get another assignment in another country. The list, believe it or not, goes on. It's hard to absorb and consider all this, though.... I mean... we don't even know definitely that we won't go back to our sites (it just... really REALLY seems like we won't).

The word is that they are going to try to get us back at least to Kenya by Wednesday or Thursday this week, so that we can be in one big group with all the other volunteers who can't go back to their sites... that way they can talk to us and deal with us all together rather than in many smaller groups. I don't know where in Kenya we'll be kept, but... somewhere. I am ready to be back in Kenya. I miss Kenya.

Anyway, more news to come; I'll share it as I get it. Thank you for all your kind words and thoughts...

Love,
H

1 comment:

Diane Davis said...

Hannah... I have been following your blog and am wondering how you are doing. I cannot even imagine being evacuated without getting your stuff (and more importantly) saying goodbye to your friends at site. My heart really goes out to all of you. Keep posting on your blog... you've got at least one reader! :)

Diane
RPCV Kenya 01-03