Saturday, January 12, 2008

Short Update

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Not much to say, although above is a Christmas morning pic of me and Leiha. Christmas was definitely different, and surreal, but thankfully I was in good company and eating good food!

I had the best day before New Years. There was a wedding of one of my neighbors, and I woke up in the morning and spent hours with the Mamas of my village cooking and talking. Then the bride came back from the actual wedding (which is very small, usually) and they were singing these traditional songs to welcome here back. Then, when we had finished cooking, we all went back to clean ourselves up and headed to this huge party with food and dancing and a ton of people. I arrived late (shoutout to my sis Molls) with these Mamas because we were all getting ready together. It reminded me so much of getting ready before going out at home (you girls know what I'm talking about) which is often the most fun part of the evening and apparently a universal thing. At the wedding there were two other Wazungu hat I was introduced to, and they ended up being volunteers from Norway only staying a few more weeks. I invited them and my other neighbor back for food, along with some visiting friends, and it was the strangest, most eclectic dinner-party I have ever hosted, with three languages spoken between six people at any given time.

New Years was also a lot of fun, going to a very high-class party (with a very nice buffet) and dancing a ton to hark in the new year. It was held at a posh hotel in town, and reminded me a lot of my days at Penn for some odd reason...

Although travel is always fun, being back at site has been a relief and I have started developing a routine. The little things are very satisfying, such as teaching a few classes, cooking good food that I didn't think I was capable of (home-made guacamole is the BEST with Chapati) and taking hikes with my besty Jacklyn (americanization of her name) to view the mountains and plains of Kenya. Decorating is also fun, and if anyone wants to send some pics or other wall decorations.....

So life is good. I miss everyone from home, of course, and think of people at various moments in the day. Not extremely homesick, except for my mom's home cooking! Oy, I need to stop right now before I go crazy thinking about it!