A Whitey Christmas

What do you get when you combine 8 volunteers, 2 single beds, a safari, David Hasselhoff, an assortment of spirited beverages, a tree branch, and several rainy days? A very Peace Corps Kenya Christmas! Or at least a lot of dirty, tired people who have had one of the strangest holidays of their lives. And yet, it was still a good one.
Matt, Jeane and Keith decorated the tree branch for our Christmas tree and made snowflakes out of a cell phone manual. Kyle mailed me the Hasselhoff super fantastic activity fun book which provided much entertainment. Keith was temporarily lured away by a promise of cookies, which then turned out to be intestines, which he ate. Erin was eternally dirty and every time she washed something and put it out on the clothesline it started to rain (I blame her for the rain). I gave Matt a "Kill Whitey" tattoo, Jeane took her bra off & pledged to marry a tout*, Ellen scared away the wildlife, Kristen made sure we all remembered to eat and Caitlin recorded it all for future blackmailing opportunities. I even managed to stay up all night Christmas eve playing poker and finally went to bed at 7:30am Christmas day. Then I got up, ate ramen (twice) and was back in bed before dinner. Merry Christmas to me! The day after Christmas we found someone to drive us around Aberdares National Park...
Unfortunately, it was still raining and most of the animals weren't wiling to get wet for the sake of having their pictures taken. Jerks. However, we did see lots of water buffalo, baboons, a hyena, warthogs, cranes and possibly a magical gazelle. And although we have some good footage of a water buffalo charging our vehicle, the drive around the park was much scarier. Steep hills, an enormous amount of mud and a navigator that had very little sleep made for an exciting day. Now all we have to do is rest up and get ready for the New Year! Happy holidays everyone! [*tout: a pushy man, usually dressed in maroon, that is in charge of stuffing people into a small passenger van and collecting the fare.]