Givin-Thanks

I found it difficult to try and explain the concept of Thanksgiving to Kenyans. Not because they won't understand it, but because I don't want to tell them it's another American holiday based around gorging ourselves with food and watching television. Luckily, Peace Corps respects this tradition and therefore arranged for us to stay with American families living in Nairobi for a few days. It is sort of like being on another planet because it doesn't quite feel like America and it definitely doesn't feel like Kenya. I went from living in a house with no running water & a charcoal stove to staying in a two-story condo with 5 bathrooms & free internet access in a matter of hours. I would compare it to the Twilight Zone (which, by the way, I watched last night and was surprised to find out it was pure crap... did anyone ever think that was a good show?). Anyhow. The woman that was kind enough to take us in for Thanksgiving has quite an incredible life... which she probably doesn't want me to divulge in this blog. However, I will say she is a civil engineer (coincidence?) and a very gracious hostess. She doesn't cook (because she has better things to do, and who doesn't?), so we went to another family's house for Thanksgiving dinner last night and I ate until I thought I would throw up. It was sweet. I meant to take pictures of the food so that I could look back at them in 6 months and cry myself to sleep, but I was too overwhelmed and besides, I wouldn't have been able to shovel food in quite as fast with a camera in one hand. The picture is of Daphyne (PCT), our hostess, and myself. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and believe me, I gave thanks for having all of you in my life (well, not the people who just randomly found my blog, but I'm sure you're good people, too).

Month Two

Less than 2 weeks left of training and then I'll be on my way to my new home... which is really beautiful! I know a lot of you were expecting a mud hut in the middle of nowhere with a hole and a fire pit, but my house actually has electricity, an indoor toilet, a stove and an oven... yeah, it's nice. Who knew that I would move to Kenya and have better living accomodations than I did in the states! I'm movin on up. Anyhow, I didn't prepare this blog beforehand, so it may be short and sweet. Or just random and pointless. We'll see.

Halloween was a good time. I went with the blood-thirsty mosquito idea, but seeing as there was little blood available, I drank alcohol instead. As for this photo, I had already changed out of my costume, but I needed to show off the present Kat gave me... it's a little flickering jack-o-lantern that she put into my bag just before I left because she knew Halloween was my favorite holiday. It was a big hit and there are many more pictures of it from that night... which I'm not going to post. :) Thanks, Kat!

Then I went to visit my future site for a few days. It is only a few hours north of Nairobi, near Mt. Kenya. On a clear day I can step out onto my porch and see the mountain. It's hard to see in this photo, but those of you who come to visit will get a much better view.I will be living on the school compound, which is built on the side of a hill with lots of beautiful plants and banana trees all around. It's almost tropical looking. The nearest town is Karatina and it has the largest open market in East Africa (or at least that's what the locals tell me). Let's see... this past week we attended a deaf ed workshop held by current PC volunteers. One of the projects was to create a video teaching a life skill or educating kids about HIV/Aids. Now, this stuff isn't actually going to be used... it was just to teach us how to use the equipment, so we made it entertaining. I won't go into details, but one group made a video which listed "playing poker with Libby" as an alternative to doing drugs and having sex. Yes!