A good July

Hey everybody! July has been a pretty eventful month with the 4th of July. Erica leaving and her brother coming to visit. For the 4th of July a brunch of us got together and made hotdogs, played horse and had a bonfire. There was no fire works but it was American enough for me! The place we had the party, well I am kind of jealous of…. It was near Nairobi but still up in the hills and remote like my place, So it was very beautiful like where I stay but here there was also power and high speed internet being so close to Nairobi. So the first night there was only a few of us and we played some cards and ate beans and rice. It was a really good night. The 2nd night more people came and we just more hung out. I started to play horse shoes and just as I thought I was getting used to the game it was getting to dark to play.
So about a week later Erica’s brother came. I love having people from the U.S. visit because they remind to how much different things are in Kenya than America. Like having a sky full of stars, taking a bucket bath, traveling a ton of bad roads. These are things I have come used too. But don’t get me wrong I CAN’T wait to get back and travel on paved roads all the time and have hot showers! I do get hot showers every now and then and wow it is the best way to start a day! So when Erica’s brother, Johnny came the main objective and to reach this island called Lamu with other stops on the way. The first stop was my site where we went on a forest hike and look out from the great view at Chumbololo!
Then they went to see to the park to see animals and I stayed back to go to a meeting that no one came too..So I tell people all the time I don’t care if you cancel on me or are late but PLEASE just let me know. I get the village for the meeting and no one is even in the town itself anywhere. Go to the bar to charge my phone where I meet a fish farmer that should be at the meeting..He asks me to join him for a drink and I tell him I can’t because there is a meeting that even he should be at! He tells me there is a funeral so people probably will not come. So I go to the meeting hall and start reading a book where children soon after start practicing for church choir. I kind of enjoyed watching. I leave 2 hours after the meeting should have been started when I see one of the farmer show up and we talk a bit and even go to his house for tea. I learn to just laugh at days like this…
Ok back to vacation! So I go to Voi the next day run into some PC friends and catch up a bit. Meet back up with Erica and Johnny later that day. They tell me how they had a good safari and saw lions and lots of other animals too. So is there something wrong with me that hearing someone saw a lion is not that cool anymore? What want to see is a lion chase something down! That night we watch the world cup. The game was ok and people were no nearly as excited for the game as when Africa teams would play in the earlier weeks. The world cup in all was really fun to watch here and people getting way more excited than in the US.
The next morning super early we headed to a place called Gede to see this super old city. That I guess was abandoned because it ran out of a water supply. There are alot of little fun things I could tell you about Gede but I have forgotten a lot of them like how there were the interior walls for 1st class farther but still inside for the 2nd class and outside the wall for the 3rd class. So this stuff is always more fun just to see rather than hear someone tell you about.
The next day and now with a friend from Voi Daria(from the U.S) we went to Lamu. It was about 7 or 8 hours to get there with bumpy roads. But Lamu is worth it. It is a beautiful island with a very rich traditional Muslim culture. Everyone rides donkeys there to get around or takes a boat. The first day we went to the beach which was really nice. Erica and Johnny buried me in the sand. This American lady with a 4 year old came up and her daughter helped. She warned the girl to not throw the sand on my month but she still ended up doing that! The next day we when on a dhow ride where we met a European couple. We caught alot of fish and went to the beach as people cooked them for us. It was funny as we were eating we all said how we really didn’t like fish that much but were eating them because we were sailing on the ocean. The next day Daria left and the rest of us just walked around the island. The next day we headed back to Voi. Oh I forgot to tell you my last night in Lamu I ate shark steak, I was ok but cooler just to say I ate it. So we were in Voi for a night and the next day head to Nairobi for Erica and Johnny to catch their plane. Erica and I decided to break up because things weren’t working the best and long distance is never fun… It was very mutual though.
Ok now we are almost caught up to current time! These days I have been trying to work with the fish farmers and basket group on a way forward. I had 2 separate meetings totaling 2 people. One meeting was canceled but I did really ask to make sure they were having it. As for the fish meeting there was 2 people who came…I prepared to teach about fish algae but I guess that will have to wait till next time! The another big project that is new that I want to start and painting(with the community) a big world map. I have a book that shows how to do it. I talked the school last week and they really like the idea. Yesterday I hiked with a Kenyan friend up and down the hills of Taita. We were hoping to see Kilimanjaro from this point but didn’t. I think we hiked like 20 miles. I am so sore today.
Peace Corps has informed me people from Washington will be coming to see my site and the fish farming going on in hopes of trying to bring similar projects in years to come. This will be on Aug. 27. I am pretty excited about that. Well is about it as always thanks for reading!