Sunday, August 22, 2010

The Cutest Blog Ever

Written August 19th, 2010

It has been a very busy, but wonderful, two days. Starting at 5:50 on Wednesday morning, we have gone almost non-stop visiting around the community and sharing time with friends.
Wednesday morning we went on a boat ride at Hippo point to do some hippo, bird, and wildlife viewing. We saw some cute and also terrifying hippos, as well as gorgeous scenes of Lake Victoria in the early morning. Annie and I were convinced Molly (Annie’s mom) would fall into the water and be eaten by hippos because she was so excited to take pictures that she sat on the very edge of the boat, halfway in the lake.
After a late breakfast, we headed to the market to visit Dickson, a local craft seller. After buying some treasures to bring home, something awesome happened. The Cutest Band Ever was created. We, The Cutest Band Ever, are composed of a guitarist, Joseph, two drummers, Annie and I, and a lead singer, Winnie. We have our band cover photo taken and our working on our first single which, as Joseph has said “will make you forget your food and fall to sleep because it sounds just like heaven. “
The band then traveled to Kit Mikayi, a huge stone for rock climbing. Annie, Joseph (or the honorable bat chicken orange man jose, as he likes to call himself) and I climbed, in a very Spiderman-like style, to great heights on the rock. This action not only scared Molly but also our guide who said she herself was too scared to follow us – oops! The view was spectacular the only problem came when we discovered that getting down from our perch was going to be much more difficult than actually climbing up; this oversight was rectified when Joseph decided to become a human bridge.
We then got to meet our pen pals, Miriam, Mary, Syrose, and Joyce. Though at first awkard, we pushed through and soon became friends. I was so happy when I realized that our goodbyes were in fact, only “see you laters” as we will get to see them often when we return to Chulaimbo in October. This is why I wanted to come to Kenya for so long, so that we could truly get to know people and build strong friendships.
We then headed to Margaret’s home. We will be living with Margaret for all of October so we wanted to spend a night at her house during our orientation week. Margaret’s home is open to many people in the community and there are always teens and young adults filtering in and out. It was so nice to get to meet so many people around our age and know that we can get to know them even better in just a little while. Our first real “Kenyan life” adventure took place this morning during our trip to the cho (outhouse aka squatty potty). Good times.
After visiting a school in the community (Huma girls’ school) and visiting with some young adults who do a lot of volunteer work in the community, our team departed from Chulaimbo and made the trip to Kakamega to visit with Joseph’s family. Having stayed with them for a week last summer, this was like returning home for me. The Okuyas are such a wonderful family and we had a great time with them. I was declared the head of the kitchen and helped Lucy, 16, make lentils and potatoes for dinner. We laughed and played with Tanzy, 3, and Chesil, 7, for a long time and also got to know Lucy’s friends Valerie and Olivia who will be going to Kakamega rainforest with us tomorrow.
We are now exhausted and ready for a good night’s rest. Annie and I will wake up early in the morning to help Lucy make mandazis for our trek in the rainforest.
Kwaheri!

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