Kwaheri Kenya!

Hey all! Just sitting at the internet cafe in Nairobi after printing off my boarding passes. Sorry I have not updated you all in so long. We had no internet while we were on safari and the internet cafe was horrible in Mombasa! Safari was AMAZING! The first day we saw elephants, lions, buffalo, topi, zebra, Masai giraffe, impala,secretary birds, clown cranes, coke heart beastss, ostriches, wart hogs, African sausage trees, buzzards, jackel, tauwney eagles, guinea fowels and plenty of wildebeests. The second day we saw all of those animals and euphoria trees, violet breaded birds, copulating lions, lizards blue ball monkeys, mongoose, hippos and crocodiles. It was amazing. The last day focused on hunting and although we didn't see any cheetahs, we saw lots of mama lions feeding their husbands and young! The accommodations were wonderful and we had the best safari mobile in the reserve!! On Monday we took a nine hour bus ride to Mombasa where we stayed in a beach cottage (ON THE BEACH). It was fantastic!! We had fishermen bring us fresh fish and a cook-for-hire from the neighboring village cook our meals. He made coconut rice with prawns, crab and some fish from the ocean. It was divine! We went on a starfish tour where we collected them and took pictures with them all over our bodies. We learned about (and saw) starfish, clown fish, tiger fish, zebra fish, parrot fish, and many different types of crabs! On our last day we went to a little shop on the beach a two minute walk away from our cottage and got manicures, pedicures and full body massages! Then on Friday we headed back on the LONGEST bus ride ever. Staying at Upper Hill Backpackers Campsite. It is very fun meeting people from other places, doing various volunteer projects in Kenya! Now we are headed to the Masai Market in downtown Nairobi. We will be boarding the plane home at 11:40 tonight, and arriving Sunday afternoon (American time). Will update again once I am home. Heard that the culture shock coming home is worse than traveling here, and heard from missionaries that I should expect one to two months of depression. Hope that knowing about this will help me proactively avoid it! Love you all! Can not wait to see you all again!

Leaving Home

Hi all!
Getting geared up to leave home and go traveling! Very excited for what lies ahead but feeling very holey in the heart! Went to Nairobi to pick up mom. Hated it. Never was a big city girl. The hostile was very nice and I loved the people I got to meet there. We went to a little school in the city. Just as I expected it was much more city like. The kids said their favorite car rather than "present" for role car. Some of the favorite cars were Land Rovers, Mercedes, Lamborghini. It was intense. Tried brushing my teeth one morning. Put my toothbrush in my mouth without toothpaste to hold it. It didn't taste quite right. When I took it out. I found maggots. SWEET! Now I am full of maggots! (Ma says survivor man would be proud! Extreme foods man too!) I now eat five chipatis at one setting...eating for ten now! :D Hoping they make me skinnier after gaining 25 pounds! Made dinner with the family last night. Its going to be rough saying goodbye to my baby girl, Presh! We are trying to get as many pictures as we can. Having Mom here helps, because there are some things that I am just used to by now and she is wanting pictures of them which is good! Two heads are better than one! :D Missing my traveling partner more than I could have ever expected. She was amazing the whole trip. I can not believe we spent every waking minute together and NEVER got sick of one another. I feel as if I have yet another sister. Off to another horrible nine hour bus ride tomorrow morning! Luckily we have more traveling buddies this time. Hopefully we will be able to find an internet cafe on our travels! Will update more later. Off to get Ma a Tusker and buy all the things I still need before I leave. 6 Weeks is just not long enough in this place. Can't wait to see all of you!

All my love,
K

Nearing the end!

Hi all,
I am sorry that it has taken me so long to post again! I have realized that my time is drawing near and I wanted to soak up as much of life as I could! Things have been wonderful lately. I have strengthened many more of my favorite relationships since I have been here. We talked with a lot of the girls about growing up and their bodies changing. Many of these girls have no one to talk to about this kind of thing because their parents do not talk to them about it! They are all very scared and have a lot of scary misconceptions about their bodies! We first met to talk to them with their teachers. We soon found that they do not feel comfortable in this type of situation. Fed and I set up a private meeting where the teachers were not able to come. You would have thought we were giving these girls a brand new car! They were so thankful! We had meetings with the teachers of Epico Jahns and the families of the students that go there. We are working really hard to do away with the practice of caning in the schools. Although this is illegal in Kenya, it is rarely inforced (especially in the small villages). Unfortunately students are caned for bad grades, not dressing according to school uniform and not having shoes. There are so many things that the school preaches from the Bible and then goes against. We tried using this as our main point when talking to the headmaster and deputy (typically the disciplinarians in the school). Not sure how much will stick, although we are working to inform future volunteers of the problem so they will continue the fight! The students are so very grateful. Many are caned so much that they need medical attention, which is not readily available for so many! I spent a lot of time taking children to the local clinic! Many have piki piki burns on their feet from the motor bikes and the burns are never treated. With one student, I treated him every day to find out that his mom was taking off my dressing. I was able to talk to his mom with the help of some of the teachers at the meeting. I feel much better about his care after this!

I am currently in Nairobi waiting for my mother to arrive! I am saying goodbye to Fed and hello to my mom! It is going to be a lot to handle! I am having a hard time saying goodbye to Fed! We have truly been the most effective traveling partners. I love everything about here and practically spend every minute with her every day! It is very hard to internalize the holes that will be created in my heart when I leave this place! I am having a really hard time being in Nairobi, away from the farm for four days. I have called friends back on the farm multiple times a day to make sure my kids are taken care of and farm kids are supported! I know that I will be faced with a very deep depression when I arrive back at home! Kabula has completely changed my life and I am so thankful for even the worst events that caused this change! I have to stop talking about my little farm home before I lose it in the middle of a Nairobi internet cafe! I am very excited about my mother coming to the farm and traveling with us! It should be a blast! Thank you for all of your stories and posts while I am away. I cant wait to talk to everyone at home!

All my love and more,
K

Dowry party!

Hi all! Sorry it has been so long since my last post! I hope everyone is doing fine at home! I went to my first dowry party on Saturday! It was the best time I have had in Kenya so far! I have fallen in love with this adorable family next door. They live on the most amazing little farm. Nanjala invited us to be apart of her big day!! We went over when we woke up to just tell her we were awake! We helped prepare the food, serve her family members and she even made me pray (and those of you in my family know that we don't pray out loud in front of big crowds)! Mom, please tell Gama and Granddad, I know we will get an "ayyy" out of that one! ALSO...tell Gama that I killed a chicken! It was crazy and the whole time I was just thinking, "Your grandma will be proud, Your grandma will be proud!" It was really gross, but definitely made the experience more meaningful! It was really cool how we could eat completely off the land. We decided to make her a cake to celebrate. Because we don't have ovens, we cooked it in a bowl of sand. Beat that Brad! You may be good in the kitchen but can you bake a cake with sand? We watched as the men discussed the dowry (not an easy task). It was a really nice way to get to know the family and learn a load about their culture! Jarson (the brother of the couple) is really good about showing us around Kenya and informing us of the reasons behind all of their cultures! We are so incredibly fortunate to have him.

We took him along to Kisumu yesterday so that we did not get the mzungu price. Because we did this, we were also able to take a matatu. We would have never found out way to the market without him. We saved over half the price because we took a matatu! I can't even begin to count how much money he saved us on souvenirs. It was a really long day. We decided that we are going to take a matatu to Kakamega next weekend to volunteer at a street children school. Hopefully we can check out the rain forest while we are there! Other than that nothing major is going on. I have been eaten alive by mosquitos (or maybe bed bugs). Luckily, non of us have gotten Malaria yet! Tomorrow is Madaraka Day, a national holiday! I am getting very different meanings on what this holiday is for. I have come to a very uncertain conclusion that it is their real independence day from Great Britain. They do not call it their independence day. The day they call their independence day is the day they were named a republic government. Still very confused. I will do more research when I have time! So anywho....we are making pizza (because Nanjala has requested it) and we are decorating it with tomatoes, green pepper and black olive to make the Kenyan flag! We are very excited about it, I hope it turns out well. I will write again when I have more time. We are off to do more errands around Bungoma town.

Lots of love!

Lady's Health

Hi all! I know it hasn't been very long since I wrote last! Life has been pretty typical since.. I am going to try to put up some pictures on here! Today we went with the women's health clinic. It was amazing! Most women around here do not have the slightest clue about their bodies. They listen to what the doctors say without understanding much, which leads to a lot of misconceptions. Today's topic was domestic violence, nutrition while pregnant and menopause. It was very interesting. Domestic violence is a LARGE problem among men and women in this country. It was life changing to hear them tell their stories! I had the weirdest feeling while I was there. Although I love everything about teaching and can not wait to have my own classroom of children, I still have an intense desire to learn about the human body and do some work in the health care field. Maybe I will have to marry rich so I can become a doctor after I teach for twenty or thirty years! I loved being able to tell women about the nutrients they were not getting because they do not eat the correct foods. Maybe I will have to take health classes in the summers! Who knows where life might lead!

Please comment with things going on in America. I am feeling like life is passing me by in the states and I am completely uninformed on things going on at home! I would loooove to hear about all of the things going on with you all. It would make me feel a little bit more normal! Trying to put pictures up.. Will put up my password and such if it works! Love and miss you all!

IM ALIVE!!!

HI ALL!! I miss everyone soo much! I am having a blast! Uganda was the most amazing thing I have ever done. It was absolutely beautiful. Monkeys running above us constantly! All sorts of animals and fun plants! Rafting was so much fun! I fell in on a class two rapid (way to go clumsy girl!) We were able to float down the river and play around in the water for a while. We rafted for 7 HOURS!! :D I applied 80 SPF sunscreen five times that day and STILL got a sun blister on my hand! The last rapid was OUTRAGEOUS! We had to walk around half of it because they say it is "unraftable." We flipped ten seconds into the part we were supposed to raft. I was knocked unconscious and woke up in someone elses boat. He was a very nice man from New Zealand. My eardrum was not punctured, but forced too far into my ear! It was horrid for about a day but now it is much better! Tri says that it will heal itself. I am just taking pain killers and so far it is just a little muffled.

I milked my first cow yesterday and tried my first bit of sugarcane! Both were amazing! The neighbor Jarson is going to take us to a sugarcane factory where they make rock sugar! I made the Kenyan natives open the sugarcane for me. Then I tore off the inside. You chew on it until all of the juice is gone then you spit out the fibers! The flavor is wonderful! I held baby bunnies that Jarson is raising for his family, and they were adorable!

I'm sorry my writing is so quick and messy, we are running off to Mzungu Night (White person specials)! We are running late,but fortunately every African I have met runs late. They call Mzungu time "proper time." So if they tell you it will be 20 minutes they mean an hour unless they say "20 minutes Mzungu time."

Okay, I must be leaving. Hope to get back on sometime soon! I miss you all so very much and can not wait to come home for hugs and kisses!! We have built some major bonds here and I get my daily hugs and kisses although they are nothing like the hugs and kisses from home! Hope all is well!!

All my love!

Slight Speed Bump

Thanks all for your comments! I am having a blast! Homesickness and culture shock have passed and I wish I could bring you all here. I am much more comfortable going into town now and I now know some prices of things so we don't have to pay the Muzungu (white person in swahilli) price. :D I will be putting up pictures as soon as we can get power again (our generator needs oil!) Life is very different taking showers every four days! The food is very carb based and so I am dying!! I did some crunches and things today laying out in the sun which I hope will help.

We went out for the first time last night with all of the volunteers and the farm boys. It was a blast, although it ended early because as we were walking in the dark Fed fell in a ditch (very small bridges here) and sliced her foot. She has a flap now and luckily we had a medic, pharmacist and two nurses with us! We did not suture it, we are waiting to see if it will heal on its own for a day or two and then go from there! They take very good care of us with free medicine. Canceled our trip to Kisumu today but will go tomorrow to see the hippos!

This Thursday we are off to Uganda to white water raft the Nile River, and stay for the night! Hopefully I will get pictures up before then. I will try to stay current with them, although this IS Kenya and breakdowns of all sorts are highly expected!

Hope all is well with everyone at home! I can't wait to share more stories!

All my love!