Happy Holidays from Africa!

Merry Christmas in January!
Congratulations year on making it another 365 days. We all knew you could do it. Keep up the good work. I think this year you'll keep pace, but the following year you might drag by a day. It's okay, its just fatigue. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger is what I hear. Let's raise our glasses to 2007. Clink.

Christmas has come and gone without any word from yours truly. December was nice. I had two lovely visitors: Morgan and Annie. They got to see my home in a completely different color than any previous visitors: green. Twas wonderful.

Just before Christmas we made our way to the coast, to the island town of Lamu. It's along the northern coast of Kenya, closer to the Somali border. It's one of the most traditional places in Kenya because it's quite remote. It's just now becoming more of a tourist place, but it still has a peaceful, laid-back atmosphere. There are two cars on the entire island, no public transportation (other than boats and mules). The streets are narrow and lined with 3-4 story buildings. We rented a house for a week, and filled it with around 25 people. Miraculously, there were beds for everyone and we had a great time.

I spent my days wearing a skirt (called a kikoi, all the guys where theym here. It's hot, you need some ventilation!), wandering around and getting lost in alleys, eating outrageous amounts of street food (it was awesome! bhajias for 1 shilling?! Street meat for 10?! And these pastries that looked and tasted like Krispy Kreme donut holes), jumping off the old pier with the local kids (until we got in trouble), and window shopping.

We also took a couple dhow trips (basically sail boats) around the island. One trip we went fishing. Not with rods and reels. Just the line and a hook. Throw it in, feel the tug, pull it in with your hands. I was a champion and caught four. I hadn't caught anything for like 10 or 15 minutes and had lost my bait MANY times. Finally I deemed my next bait 'lucky' and announced it to the group. Lo and behold, instantly I caught one...and another...and another...and another! All with THE SAME 'lucky' bait. The fish somehow bit the hook but not the bait. Wonderful. Then we went out to some random island and our captains cooked our haul. They kept telling us that if we didn't catch something we weren't eating. Lucky for us.

The other dhow trip we went snorkeling. It is supposedly the best place in Kenya to go snorkeling. That's great. What's not great was the fact that the boat didn't have any life preservers. Those who know me, know that I learned to swim a bit later in life and didn't have a very good teacher: myself. In an ocean, where I can't touch the bottom, I MUST have a life preserver. I freak out. So I spent my time clinging to the rope between the anchor and the boat, with my one flipper (the other was broken), and when I felt confident would swim off quite a few meters until I managed to get salt water in my snorkel (and from there to my lungs), at which point I would come spluttering up out of the water spitting and thrashing and generally freaking out. Then I would make a frantic dash (crawl) back to the rope, where I would breath heavily and watch enviously at everyone else having nary a qualm with this whole snorkeling business. And then I had to climb back in the boat. I don't want to go into it, but Eric has a nice long couple minute video of me trying to get back in the boat, in which none of the 5 or 6 people in the boat attempt to help me. Brian, you're sitting 3 inches from my hand! These 'friends' were content to sit back and watch the show.

Christmas eve was nice. We had a dance party, recreated the birth of Jesus (I was Mary), and sung some Christmas carols with accompaniement from my roll-up piano. Christmas came, Santa found me and gave me some gum and candy. For dinner we had seafood: lobster, crab, fish, and prawns. We had decorations up around the house: confetti, a Christmas tree, some lights. I wore a hat with a picture of a mistletoe in it.

Lamu was a wonderful place, I had a great time, enjoyed my friends and fellow volunteers immensely, and would recommend the place to anyone coming to Kenya.

From there we went back to Mombasa and Eric and I spent New Years in Nairobi and watched as many movies as possible. In the states I rarely saw movies in the theater, but here I see at least one every time I come to the city.

Anyways, those were a very condensed version of my holidays. Now school is back in session. My schedule has changed a bit: Math Form 3, Pysics Form 1 & 2, Geography Form 1 & 3. No more Biology, which is good for them. I've also become a class teacher in Form 3 and the Staff Room Monitor. Responsibility! It'll be a good year. It's an election year so people expect those running for office to be doling out some money this year. Maybe some will find its way to the school. Here's hoping!

Anyways, I hope everyone's holidays were wonderful and that the new year is treating you right! I'm coming home this year! Not so long. Take it easy!

P.S. The Choo Report: its been over two months and I still am without a toilet. I'm still walking across the market to the public one. The hole is dug as deep as they want I think, so construction should be taking place. Shouldn't be so long. There's nothing like relieving yourself at home, right?