Christmas is really coming...

Wow 3 days till Christmas! It doesn't seem like it a bit! Well maybe a little. I did get my picture with a robot Santa..I am on Mombasa right now and it is super hot. I hear back in the states it will be a white Christmas. Part of me misses the snow and the other part loves wearing shorts. I have not blogged in awhile I have been so busy. Earlier this month I had my friend Jeff(a pcv)aka"The Body" come and visit me. We really had a good time we went on a huge forest walk and were both really tired the next day. Jeff and I brained stormed on some eco-tourism ideas for my site. He enjoyed my place so much he is bringing his parents next year.

From Jeff's visit we both headed to Nairobi for a few days for medical. Don't worry my leg is fine. PC has volunteers after one year come in a get checked up. It wasn't a bad deal we had to get check for a few hours but the rest of the day was ours. I got to see the movie couples retreat. It is ok I liked it. I pasted all my tests. I had not weighted myself since coming here and found I lost 25 pounds. I got to see a lot of my friends and caught up a bit.

I had few days back at site and then another friend came to visit. I had met her in South Africa when I was there. We went on another forest walked. There is a trail I wanted to find but couldn't. She really liked the forest as well. We have been in MSA from couple of days and done a lot of fun things: rode a camel, saw a hippo out of water, and went around the city. We also went to this animal park where there were a ton of monkeys, crocs, snakes(caged), giraffes and a bunch of birds. I think one the funniest parts of her coming was when we sat down to watch giraffes get fed and I see this monkey come right by us. I warned my friend but before she can do anything the monkey steals about 15 pieces of her gum! He was nice enough to share it with the other monkeys. So all these monkeys are sitting there chewing gum…It was super funny!

I almost forgot I went to a wedding in the village and enjoyed it a lot. There was a lot of things the same and a lot different. The bride and groom dressed just as you would see in an American wedding. And the wedding was in the church you had your best man ect.. What was different was most of the wedding party was made of little cute children dressed in suits and nice dresses all matching. The marriage certificate was signed during the wedding. The reception was done a lot different than in the U.S. It was held at the groom's house. Going to the house people pretty much sang and danced the whole way there. Some people ( like parents of bride and groom and others) went in a matatu(a van like thing) but were just as slower as the people to walk because they blocked the matatu from going anywhere! I then got to the grooms house and there were 2 palm trees tied together. These were to be broken to welcome the bride to her new house. They pretty much knock down these trees with big mash pit. There a gift presentation were people come up and give the gifts right to the bride and groom(don't unwrap though). In the cake cutting the groom and the bride feed each other AND each others families. They then went and made a bed for the couple and sit on it with the parents. It was a lot of fun there wasn't really a lot of dancing at the end though and the wedding was at 10am(started more like 10 30 or 11) and ended about 6. I have another wedding for my counterpart’s brother soon so that should be really fun!

That is what has been going on with me and I am not slowing down. Another PCV is coming to visit for Christmas and once again we will walk around the forest. So far everyone that I have brought just loves it. Christmas day, we are going a mama's house(in Wongonyi) that lives in Nairobi mostly but is also in Wongonyi from time to time. She is super nice and I always set me use her solar power at her house.

After Christmas I am going to Zambia to see my college friend ,Ut who is from there. I can't wait it will be really fun. A LONG bus ride though (over 30 hours)! I am not sure what is all in store for the trip I figure Ut will know best. I am going to be learning about some fish farming down there as well. I think it will be really good to help me project.

My project is going well we still need bigger fish as well is way for people to work together. In eco tourism I think we will really start the project next year. The first thing that needs to be done is to figure out what we will show the tourist in the forest.

Soon after I get back from Zambia Erica is will coming. I can't wait. It is really unreal that she is coming. It will be really nice to have her around. I am getting a computer that she will bring and it can keep a battery charge for 7 hours so I should get better at blogging when things slow down.

Well it is getting late. I am staying in a hotel room that was used to be a kitchen I think...there is a counter, cooker switch(still don't know what it does) and the light for the room is outside in the hall..I probably will not get a chance to blog until after the holiday so everyone happy and awesome x-mas and a great new year!