What a fun week. Rwanda is a very interesting place. I visited my friend Tricia , I had met in South Africa. She is PCV in Rwanda. But before I visited her I went to a big town call Butare. I got there pretty late met some PCVs at the pool there but didn't go swimming. That night we when out to the club and I danced with this Rwandan mama. It was fun but that that different then Kenya. The next day I went to the Museum the then headed met up with Tricia. Person here are very crafty. The way they build their houses(or huts) are very different than Kenya. Their baskets are a bit different as well. I saw some cool pictures of the olden days where people would carry the chief as he traveled.

After leaving the museum I went to Tricia's place. On the bus ride we were able to catch up. The next day. We walked to Lake Kivu. It is a very big beautiful lake. On the other side of it was the Congo. If I really wanted to I could have probably swam to the Congo. That night a PCV living next to Tricia and a American couchsurfer staying on Somalia (teaching English) came. The guy, Brandon had some good stories from leaving in Somalia. He said he lived in a pretty safe part of Somalia. On one hand he said he felt safe saying there were lots of police on the area and would even walk around late at night. Then on the other hand he said there were few times were guns were pulled on him(by people in the government) and once even saw shots fired(but no one hit). He said if he leaves his city there must be a police man with him. He give me some Somali money. The biggest bill was 500 and that was worth 10 cents US. If you buy big thing there you buy them in USD. He also told me how women were very much separated from the men in society. Ok enough about Somalia...

The next day I went to Tricia's friend's place (Crista). She lives with a brunch of nuns at a Catholic church. We (Me and Brandon) climbed the bell tower were there was no bell. It was not the safest thing I have ever gone to say the least but really fun. That afternoon I tried banana beer in her village. It was not bad but not that good either.

The follow day Brandon and I moved on see a forest were just at the bottom outside of it was a small village of people that used to live in the forest but they had been moved to protect the forest. In the forest we saw Colobus monkeys. This is the only place in the world where the monkeys travel in packs or (super groups” In the village there were some PCVs there that were very nice and showed us around. Most of the building were being remodeled bc the government is making people make the country look nicer with higher standards. They are told to fix your house or take it down. I think this is hard on the people bc they don't have the money but they work together to find a way. This was a theme in the whole country(ex. motorbike wear helemets ,store only having paper bags and limit or no street food allowed. Well I have a bus to catch 10 hours to Kampala fun stuff....Heading back to Kenya but tonight Kampala.

So I left Uganda the other day to go to Rwanda. The last place I went to was Lake Bunyunyi( not sure if the spelling is right). It was a really nice place. We (Me and 3 other guys) went to the lake to stay on an island. It was so nice and relaxing. There were a ton of birds and really nice views. There were some hills(nothing like what I lived on) around so we climbed one. To get there we had to canoe to the main land it was not far. I even swam to the main land one time. Oh before we went I was able to "watch"(got the words of the play updates) the bears game. I got a guy to open the cyber cafe for me at 12 midnight! What a good game though. If bears had to go out I am glad they went out with respect. Ok enough about football.

I got to Kigali, Rwanda just yesterday. I went to the genocide museum and learn about the very unfortunate recent history of the country. I walked around town after big differences of Rwanda: 1. The city has hills everywhere making it very scenic 2. The city is even safer than Kampala (Point 2 put to make mom fell better :)) 3. They love buffets here, well it is only 1 plate but I am already learning to stack like a Rwandan! 4. The city is very well organized there is no street food(for health reasons) and if you get a ride by motorcycle they have a helmet for you. 5. They eat peas here (I don't think I ever went to a place that served peas in Kenya but you could buy them). 6. The ATMs are not international so I had to get cash when I was in Uganda and that exchange it here( and probably get ripped off...)7. They speak much less English here than Uganda and Kenya. So people speak Swahili or English but some neither so that is fun...

I met some Rwanda PCVs yesterday they are all really nice we went out for dinner and I have also met 2 guys from England. Tomorrow I leave the city(better to do before I go broke) and am going to a town where I PCV has offered to host me. Sunday I go to this really cool forest and Monday I will see a friend(PCV) I met in South Africa. Well, that gets you caught up, thanks for reading Feb 23!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I am in Uganda now. The country is very much similar to Kenya are a few thing different that I have noticed. 1. The street food having meat on a stick you can get meat on a stick for goat, liver, beef or chicken for about 50 cents or less.(in Kenya there is only really beef on a stick ) Talking about food, matoke is more popular. It is mash cooked bananas. It is harder find in Kenya but I like it better there bc they have a good sauce with it. 2. There are many people with sewing machines on the street. I was even surprised how many men I saw. 3. The roads are better here. 4. Kampala is so much more safer then Nairobi(also have to watch yourself there!) So that is all I have to say about the culture for now.

I went bungee jumping and NILE river rafting these last few days. Bungee jumping was really fun but I was really nervous to do it but that was not going to stop me. You are supposed to belly flop off but I just kind jumped(it was still ok). I was the first one to go and it was such a rush! Later that day we went to a brewery tour. It was cool to see how beer was made but that gave us no beer!

Yesterday I went river rafting on the Nile River. It was so much fun. I would say I was more nervous to bungee jump. We(1 PCV and 2 other American friends) were with a group of older people( like 40s). Our group had to choose wild or mild rapids. My group said wild but the other one wanted mild. We did wild! rapids have 6 classes. We were doing class 5s. We flipped the rafts twice. It is a little scary but you have a life vest and people ready to help you on kayaks. I was so tired last night my friends went out last night but I was to bed at about 10.

Today we are going to this lake near Rwanda(Lake Bunyonyi). A lot of people have said the lake is very beautiful. It will be a lot more relaxing then yesterday ( even though yesterday was relaxing too where there was time to swim in the Nile) I will see a PCV friend that is in Rwanda in a few days as well. CAN WAIT TO COME HOME ONE MONTH FROM TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I have been living the life of a homeless man these days. It has been fun. I just got back from Garissa, Kenya. To see the place and visit some friends. It was a pretty big place. The tribe there is a Somalis. They are a very peaceful Muslim people tribe. The place was really hot but I had a great time. I ate camel meat while there. Then I left there to go to Voi. I stopped the trip to sleep at a friend's after 11 hours in a very hot bus! The next day I when to Voi where I am now. Last night I went out with a good friend for dinner and to watch soccer. He was really nice and said I could even stay with him. I really like Voi people are very friendly and I can relate to them a little better than people in the village. Next stop Uganda. I am going river rafting on the Nile and then boungy jumping! Let the games begin!

Hey guys thought I would give to a quick post before I go to bed. I am now out of my village. It is a very bitter sweet kind of thing. I was ready to go but then I had to say good bye to alot of good people. It is still weird that I will not be going back for a while! I just got done climbing Mt Kenya. It was re4ally nice.People say Mt Kenya as harder to climb than MMt Kilimanjaro. We had a group of 9 PCVs, 2 Americans, one Canadian and one Kenyan. They were all fun people and everyone was able to get to the top. Going up and down the scenery was very different in each place. Some more forest, some more plants and some neither.Next I am going to Garisa where there is the culture of Somalis. But don't worry these are the peaceful Somalis not pirates! Well it is late. I am at a friend's house with wireless so I want to put a post. I will try to post more to tell about my time now as a tourist!

I have about 2 more weeks as a Peace Corps Volunteer after December 23. I will just be a tourist with a better than average knowledge about Kenya. I have been pretty busy saying my good byes and finishing things up at my site. It is unreal I am finishing I am excited yet nervous for what adventures a wait in my travels to after Peace Corps. This last weekend we had a kind of last hurrah for the Peace Corps about to finish It was a good time It was right on the beach and the place we stayed even had a kitchen to it. I said a lot of good byes, some I will still see before I go. It still does feel in 2 weeks I leave my village not to come back for a very long time. In Wongonyi I have my focus on painting the world map on the school and the eco tourism project So volunteers are planning to come up this week to see the forest. It will be a fun time but I hope they also help promote the area. So My trip plans are pretty well set and it will happen as follows

1. Finish my service and then go to Loitoktok for Christmas with my host family

2. Climb Mt Kenya- I am going with 11 other people and it will take 6 days to climb. I hear the top is cold and it maybe hard to climb this time of year because of the rains.

3 Hang out for 2 weeks seeing some different parts of Kenya and seeing some friends.

4 Uganda , Rwanda and maybe a very small part of Congo. I am still putting this together but I am going with another PC guy and I think we are going to river raft and bungee jump in the Nile. Then in the Congo ( A safe part of it) I might climb this active volcano. It is not so cheap so still thinking

5. Back to Kenya seeing some friend and the Superbowl

6 Ethiopia with a friend hoping to visit a PCV to see how it is there.

7. Egypt I have a friend of a friend that is down there (native) that will be able to show me around

8. London, I have a friend that volunteered in Voi for there and he is going to show me around and give me a place to stay. Real nice guy!

9 USA USA USA!!!!! Feb 23 I CAN’T WAIT!!!!!!

I will try to blog on trip or at very least blog about all my travels when I get back. Thanks for reading! Miss you all the end is near..

Hey guys so I asked my Dad to write blog of his trip like Erica did when she visited. I like do this because things I take to granted this days are thing others have not seen. I have put a few comments in where it is will say (John:…..) Well I will just let you read it and stop talking making it any bigger since this has to be the longest blog post in 2 years!!

As per John's request following is a blog of the trip that I took to Kenya to see him. I arrived on Tuesday, September 16, 2010 and left on Monday, September 27, 2010. As you will see John did a wonderful job of arranging everything. On this trip, I put my entire safety and well being in his hands. He exceeded my expectations. John seems to enjoy the people there and I see that he has their respect not only for being a Peace Corps volunteer, but for being who he is. Before I get into the trip, I would like to talk about some incites that I got of him and from him while I was there. I was really impressed on how much he had learned about fish farming. He has also helped build some large farms for the fish to be produced in. There is a lot to growing fish the right way. He told me that the biggest thing that the people don't seem to get is that they need to feed the fish well when they are young and growing. Many times they wait until the fish are older. When they are approaching maturity, it is too late to make them grow much. John also expressed to me that it is frustrating to him on how the Kenyans try to do too many things. The attention to detail then gets lost. Where if they concentrated their efforts and attention to one thing (such as fish farming) they could excel in that.

He is also involved in an Eco-tourism project. There is a breathtaking hill (term is used loosely, more like a small mountain) that you will hear about in my blog that John took me to. He has helped clear paths for this, build benches, and is working on a brochure to promote it. My impression, it is a challenging trip up and worth the effort. My only concern is for the safety and well being of the people going on this long hike. There is many opportunities to fall and break a leg or get seriously injured. If that would occur out in the middle of this walk, it would be very difficult to get the person somewhere for medical attention. Other than that, I only have positive things to say about it.

He is also working on a project with the library to get their books organized. He had me bring colored labels so they could categorize their books.

The other project he is working on I think is really cool. He is planning on making a painting of the world globe on the wall of one of the schools in his village. I can't wait to see pictures of it when it is done!

John lives a simple life there and seems to be at peace with it for the most part. There is no power lines in his village, the only people that have power have solar power. He did say however that they are getting regular power soon. Unfortunately he will most likely not be there to see it. He told me that there has been times that he has had more dead time than he would like to have. He has filled this time lately by going to help at the hospital that Erica worked at when she was there. At present, he really looks forward to fantasy football. Sound like he is doing well with it. I am indeed proud of him for his attitude and what he has accomplished.

　

Tuesday 9-16-10. All flights to Kenya were on time. On the flight from Chicago was asked by a man to trade seats so he could sit by his wife. He had a fire exit seat with lots of room, this was a no brainer.

Everything went smooth. Arrived in Amsterdam about 45 minutes early. Had a lot of time before my next flight to check out the airport. There was a lot of interesting shops . I also sampled a apple crisp and coffee which were very good. A woman came up to me asking where the gate for the Nairobi flight was. She was a black woman and wore what looked to be a nun’s habit. As I was directing her, I asked her if she was a nun. She responded "what’s a nun?". Later I found out in talking to John about it that she was a Muslim and that is their traditional dress. It is rather funny how the cigarettes I saw at the airports in Nairobi and Amsterdam said plainly in English "smoking will kill you". I guess they don’t have a surgeon general. On the trip from Amsterdam to Nairobi I also lucked out, no one sat in the middle seat. The person seated by me was a recent Bradley graduate. Going to do mission work in Nairobi. She said her sister graduated in 07. I asked John if he knew her, but he did not.

When I arrived at the airport in Nairobi it was very confusing. I asked one of the employees there what to do. She walked me across the airport and showed me where to go. While waiting for my bags, I texted John on a phone that I got from Erica to tell him I was there. A few minutes later he called me and welcomed me to Kenya. Getting my visa and through customs was very quick. The interesting thing about the visa was that they finger printed all 10 fingers (they re-checked them on one hand on the way out) with an electronic device. I just presented the form to customs, she looked at it for about 10 seconds and told me welcome to Kenya. I then went across the street to the street to the domestic terminal which was very small. We boarded on time but sat on the run way for about a half an hour with no explanation for the delay. I sat next to an African lawyer. He told me that many times they are delayed because they are waiting for someone important. Finally, we took off. When I got to the airport in Mombasa around midnight on the 14th (after traveling about 8,200 miles) I couldn’t wait to see John! I got to the closest spot I could where the bags were coming out and grabbed them as fast as I could and rushed to the exit. Once outside there was a cleared area of the parking lot that people were standing outside of. Pushing my cart, I ran across the parking lot to give John a big hug! I was finally there! John had arranged for a taxi driver to take us to the hotel. The ride to the hotel was driven very fast by the taxi driver swerving to avoid other vehicles, what worried me most was that I saw the gas gauge was on empty, hoping he would not have us stranded at night. Once we got to the hotel I gave John some things he had asked me to bring him and things from others. He said it was like Christmas for him. We stayed up talking until 2 am talking and then decided it was time to get some sleep. The hotel room was interesting to say the least. The lock to get into it was a small padlock in a hasp. Once inside the first thing I noticed were the giraffe curtains, very African looking. John said he was thrilled to have a room with a TV in it. The TV was mounted to the wall enclosed by a medal frame with a padlock on it 3 times the size of the one on the door to enter the room. There were 2 beds in the room, each had a mosquito net on it that hangs from the ceiling to make a tent over us. There were no screens on the windows and some of them couldn’t be closed. I noticed that the toilet had no seat on it. John said to get used to that as most Kenyan toilets don’t have them (at least this one was above floor level!). So no sitting in the bathroom and reading there.

Wednesday 9-15. I got to see part of Kenya. We went there by matatu, which you see many of in Kenya. It is a 14 passenger (sometimes made into 18 passenger) van with a conductor that hangs his head out of the window soliciting riders. It is an economical but crazy way to get around, very interesting. We went to an animal park in Mombasa. One of the first things I noticed that there was several monkeys running around all over the place. One of the main attractions was being able to feed the giraffes. They were behind a wall for safety because they can be prone to kicking. They bent their heads over the wall so you feed them what looked like large rabbit pellets. They ate out of your hand. Nothing like feeling of giraffe slobber on your hands! They have big tongs we got pictures and videos of this. Then two of the 3 giraffes did something totally discussing, of which I will not share you the details.(John: since my dad with not I will..one giraffe told a drink of the others pee while it was coming out!) John cracked me up saying he never saw that before and he exclaimed "There are some things you just don’t want to know!". The giraffe food was in a bin for people to grab. The monkeys kept coming up to it and grabbing as much as they could and stuffing it in their mouth. One had so much, that he couldn’t chew it before spitting most of it out because his month was too full to chew. Quite entertaining. We also saw huge turtles here that were over 100 years old and expected to live to be 250 to 300! Also there was this huge bird there with long legs that walked slowly. I wanted to take a picture but he kept walking away. Upon John’s arguing I followed him asking him to stop. To my surprise, he did! He posed for me while I took his picture. Unreal and funny. The foliage was neat there and we picked up a few neat things for Shreya at the gift shop. One being a book about a hippo there who developed a friendship with one of the big turtles. After that, we went back to the hotel. The trip had caught up with me and I crashed for about an hour before we had pizza for dinner and then attempted to watch a movie on John’s computer. We didn’t finish, we were both too tired. During the evening I heard some chanting on a blaring loud speaker on the street. I asked John what it was and he explained that it was a Muslim call to prayer for Ramadan. Pretty annoying, hard to ignore, and played several times with different messages in Arabic.

On Thursday 9-16. John took me to Fort Jesus. A very interesting place. It was built in 1593 by the Portuguese. When we arrived (it was within walking distance of where we stayed) there was police with semi automatic rifles all over the place. We were initially told we couldn’t see it because some dignitaries from parliament were visiting. Then we were told that we could enter in about an hour. So we went shopping in the area around the fort known as old town. There were many interesting shops with interesting people. I was impressed by John’s bargaining skills for a t-shirt. He told the guy the price he wanted to pay and the guy at the shop kept trying to go higher. So John told him he would look at different shops and if they didn’t do better he would come back. So the guy says to John which shirt do you want for 50 shillings above John’s price? John told him the one that is the price that I want to pay. The guy finally caved and gave John his price. He sure is a good negotiator! We both continued to shop and picked up a few interesting things. Then we went to Ft. Jesus. It was named this because it was built in the shape of a man, Jesus. We had a tour guide that gave us some very interesting history about it. Also while we were out John showed me a huge elephant tusk shaped arch that cars drive though, it was pretty cool. We then had dinner at an Indian buffet that John had eaten at before. It was different, but good. Though out the day we also took opportunities to have fresh mango and passion juice, very good! Though out those days we have also had a lot of time to talk and catch up of things. During the day I also got to sample their corn on the cob. It was very different from ours. They roasted it on open fires the texture and taste was very different. It was not sweet like our corn was, and it was slightly hard (It is the “white corn” rather than the “yellow corn” people eat in the U.S). I would explain it as being somewhere between our corn on the cob and corn nuts in texture. Butter not offered with it.

Friday 9-17 was go snorkeling day! It started with my first ride on a tuktuk which is basically a 3 wheeled economical taxi. It feels like and sounds like an over sized go cart. 2 wheels on back and 1 on the front. The tuktuk took us to a station for matatus where we would get one going to the beach. After about 40 min ride, he dropped us off by this group of small stores. John called our snorkeling guide and in a few minutes he came walking up to us. He took us to his office for supplies; it had 3 locks on the door. John connected with this guy through another guy that is a Peace Corps Volunteer. This was part of an Eco-tourism project. The guide said he would walk us to the beach and would take us the short way . It turned out to be about a 35 min walk. On our way, a young boy came racing down the path on his by cycle. We dodged him but a baby goat was not so lucky. He knocked the goat down, ran over the middle of him, and continued on his way. To our surprise, the goat got up cried (John: I never saw any tears) a bit and went on his way. We passed many houses and mud huts on the way. It was interesting . He guided us through the water to show us the good spots. There were many awesome fish and coral to look at. He was very friendly and knowledgeable; with his long dreadlocks I thought he looked more Jamaican than African to me. John and I proceeded to spend a little time on the beach after snorkeling and after getting sunburned we then took another matatu back to Mombasa. John showed me an area where there was a lot of sidewalk shops, but most of them were clothes. They were narrow ally ways where you had to constantly move out of the way to avoid being run over by vehicles coming through. John wound up bargaining his way to get some Indian spices to bring back to his village. From there we came back to the hotel showered up and had dinner.

Saturday 9-18. I also noticed the towels at the hotel in Mombasa were very course, like sand paper. As we were getting ready to leave the hotel my watch band broke. It was driving me nuts without it on my wrist. Also in Mombasa as it is so hot there, John showed me something that was a treat for him. There was an ATM in a small air conditioned room. He liked being in there and air conditioning is not common in Kenya. Another thing I found interesting was John pointed out that on TV, the news caster stands there and reads the news paper to you. We got our bags packed up to head out towards John’s village, Wongonyi. We took a tuktuk to the stage (this is central meeting place for buses, tuktuks, and matatus) where we would get transportation to Voi. When we got there, even before we could get out of the tuktuk, we were mobbed by a bunch of guys trying to sell us ride. They were like vultures. There was also a guy came up to me saying "let me have breakfast with you" another guy kinda pushed him out of the way telling me "don’t listen to him, he is crazy". John told them we were going to have breakfast 1st and that got rid of them. There was a bakery at the stage we got some breakfast there. We then caught a bus to Voi. John was impressed that they were playing American movies. He has not seen that before and said it was a one up on his fellow volunteer friends. After getting to Voi we brought our bags to a grocery store for storage as John was friends with the owner Jai, and Kenyan-Indian guy. He checked to see when the matatu was leaving for his village and they said 1:30 John felt confident we didn’t have to show up there until after that. Sure enough it left at 2:30. While waiting we went to the vegetable market which was a group of women in boxy like structures. Very interesting. I met a few of John’s friends there in Voi along with his boss also named John. It is a very friendly town. I also had my first Kenyan beer there. It was called "tusker" beer with their logo showing elephant tusks. John pointed out a guy in Voi talking on a cell phone. He told me, I can almost guarantee there is no one on other end of that phone, this guy is crazy. Seems to be a lot of crazy people there, perhaps it is due to the tusker beer (lol). While we were waiting for the matatu to leave Voi, a guy came up the window selling watches, sweet, I bought a cheep one for around $3.00 US. I now had time back on my wrist! The matatu finally left stage point. They stopped for gas. Then a man went fill a tire with air. It looked bad I could see the air gauge and it was at 20. They filled tire to 60. As we started to climb the tire sounded really bad. Then it blew. Fortunately we were going slow enough at the time and the driver did not loose control. They had a jack but had problems with it. Then a car came by and they used his. Still problems finally everyone pushed on the side of the van and they were able to get up and change the tire. John has said he lives on a hill. You climb for about 12 miles to get to his village. I would call it more of a mountain. On the matatu John noticed a guy with a patch on his shirt that said "Proud Home Depot stock holder" I asked him if he knew what Home Depot was, and he had no idea. I told him that I work for the company, and he seemed unimpressed. The ride up was extremely is rough. It’s a hard to describe how much we got bounced and swayed around. I had to position my head carefully as the ride was causing me to bang it on the metal parts of the vehicle to go 24 miles takes 1.5 hours because of the road. I guess I can describe the ride like a very rough roller coaster like when you are being jerked around the curves. We finally made it to Wongonyi. I met a few people after we arrived they were very friendly and welcoming asking, " is this really your father?" Because John had brought a PCVs (Peace Corps volunteers) that were older than me to visit. In the evening we when to John’s friend Joseck’s house and played 500 with him and his wife. John told me that there is one building for bathing which called the "bathroom" and another for going to the toilet called the choo. John's choo consisted of an outhouse with a rectangular hole in the floor that opened to a deep pit down below. There would be no sitting there and enjoying my bathroom reader! As we were playing cards, I said that I need to go to the bathroom and Joseck said, "well I guess we should call it a night then." I didn’t get it until John stepped in and told him I wasn’t looking for a bath, just had to go number 1 (as they call it here for short). John communicates very well with people in his village and I can see the love they have for him. I am very proud of him.

Sunday 9-19. John started the day by taking me for a 2 hour hike. The locals greeted you weather you knew them or not, it was considered rude not to greet people. John did comment that many times that he felt somewhat annoyed by the kids. They are taught to say to a white person (called mzungu in Swahili) "How are you?" many times they would say this and run off laughing or know not know what to say if we asked them the same question. We also encountered a lot of lizards in Kenya, there was actually one in John's house of which he said it was not uncommon. He took me to see a waterfall and a place considered the locals to be setting to respect of those who have lived before us. There were actual human skulls there along with a few food offerings. The terrain traveled to there was very rough and to get there was really rough and steep. I fell a few times, but fortunately I did not hurt myself then we came back and went to the local church service. It was an Anglican church. Service started at 11:00 and got out at 2:15. They had different choirs perform 1st was a group of young kids, following by a woman's group and men's. The music was very enjoyable the people harmonized very well. They also all sung together for the service. After the choirs were done performing, they had a vegetable auction. John explained that this is part of every Sunday’s service to raise money for the church. After that, about a one hour sermon was given by a very loud enthusiastic woman of the village. Unfortunately everything was in Tatia, the local language. I don't know what she said, but she sure was convicted about it! John tried to connect with a woman who he thought had baskets for me to buy, but when we got to her house, she didn't have them. We stayed a while and had tea and bread and then went back to John's place. There he showed me how to do laundry, by hand. John's washing machine consisted of his hands, soap and rinse tub. John has a guy (it is very uncommon for a man to do this but rather a woman) in the village does laundry for him, but he does not do under pants, we had to do those ourselves.

Now it is Sunday 9-19 late afternoon. Trying to journal while John goes to the store, but some kids have come by and walked into John’s house. I talked to them for a while , but wanted to get back to writing. I told them they had to go. They refused so I closed and locked the door. They kept knocking throwing rocks and dirt under the door. I went out to look and they were out of site. I then swept up and they came back and did it again. After that I planned to keep the door open. Then John and I both told them to go away. They are finally gone! John made a good dinner, soaking the vegetables in treated water for about a half hour to make sure that they were bacteria free. He did a good job, food was tasty and didn't upset my stomach. Good Kenya cook! After dinner, we went back over to Joseck's house to play more cards, by flash light again. John's village is like being in a constant power outage(John: hmm to have a power outage don’t you need power lines….?) I kept wanting to turn the lights on, but there weren't any to be had.

Monday 9-20. We are on the top of Chumbololo which is a very tall hill. I would consider it more like a mountain we can see for miles from up here. Getting there I would say was the most physically challenging thing that I have ever done. The view is breath taking. It’s been a long journey up, but worth it! We had to walk for about 6 hours to get here( John: Only because my dad is an old man it takes me much less). Along the way we encountered safari ants. They like to climb on you and bite you. Both of us got these on us which was quite unpleasant. This was part of a project John is working on. They have done some trail marking and path clearing. Along the way we saw some neat sites. I saw a fish farm. A secluded waterfall, and St Paula African Violets growing in the wild. One of the few places in the world you can see this flower. The African Violet spot was hard to get to, it was on a steep hill and John even fell twice. Weather was over cast today kept us from sunburn and over heating. It is just so peaceful up here. You can hear a few faint sounds of roosters and some hammering. John and I had lunch on the hill top, which consisted of bread, boiled eggs, cookies, and bananas. We will make our way back down soon. John says about 2 hours to the village. But that will depend on how fast I can go. The paths are very treacherous and I don’t dare not go too fast on them. My best friend on this journey has been a walking stick(John: I am hurt I was not the best friend…). I found on Sunday. It helps me keep my balance and footing, also to give me something to leverage when climbing steep inclines. I made it back to the village. My energy level started to drop on the way back. Perhaps lunch was not a good energizing combination. John brought along a pedometer and with it is approximating that we walk 12 to 13 miles. 23,420 steps was the count. But John started the count after we walked awhile. In Wongonyi I picked up some hand made souvenirs for family members. John is now making dinner again, veggies and rice. Pasta that he made last night was good. John’s friend has given me a name, Mwami meaning cousin. When we got back today the laundry was washed and hanging on the line. We proceeded to pack for Voi that night.

Tuesday 9-21. Today we traveled back to to Voi. The matatu took a bit of a different route than it did when we came up, plus we were in the front instead of the back, so the ride didn't seem so rough. The drivers seemed to have to have a good feel for the roads to be able to keep them from tipping over, make good time and not wreck the matatu. As we arrived, we checked into a hotel that John was well known at and welcome. He immediately negotiated a discount for us. It was a nice place, the cost was 800 shillings for the night which equated to about $10.00 US. And yes, in the shared facilities they had toilets with seats on them! What a bonus. I really liked the lobby, they had different animal drawings on the walls with bible versus written on them. The hotel also had hot water showers where the water was actually heated at the shower at the shower head by electricity. We did not have this at the hotel in Mombasa, although the water was not too cold. After checking in, John and I got haircuts, his was less than a dollar US and mine was probably close to a dollar because I had a shave too. The barber had to leave the shop to buy another blade for his shaver and tried to charge us more because of it, but John put his foot down with him and would not let him get away with this(John: My favorite poster in the barber shop says, ”Credit will only be given to those 70 or older with both parents present”) . Also, I noticed the butcher shops in town, they had sides of unrefrigerated beef in the windows with a bunch of flies around them. Not the place to have a juicy rare steak! We then went to John's boss's office. He was working on some projects where he was trying to get some video from his camera to a DVD disk. I brought cables from the US for this, but they didn't fit. We then went to animal park, saw elephants in distance and small animals called hedrix (not sure that is the exact spelling) they were fun to watch. He took a lot of pictures of them. There were also some very colorful lizards there. We enjoyed a buffet at the park which was a bit pricey by Kenya standards but very good. This was one place that I could eat the veggies. Usually, I had to refrain from them because they typically had bacteria on the skins which would have disagreed with my stomach. After we were done there we took a tuktuk ride back to Voi, it was very bumpy. In Voi I also met with John's friend Patrick. Bought hand made elephants made out of copper wire and metal beads. Some of the medal was from animal traps that poachers illegally had set up. We also talked about possibly importing these. They are made by people in rural areas, and though Patrick makes some money on them, it also helps support them.

In the evening, we had dinner with John’s friends at restaurant. Some of the music that they were playing was American music. We talked about cultural differences and I told some jokes. One of John's friends said that she works in Nairobi and the traffic to and from is really bad.(John: they REALLY love my dad’s jokes!”

Wednesday 9-22. We traveled to Loitokitok. The bus we took to get there was called the Secret Admirer. On it they played Kenyan and American music videos. People were coming on bus to sell water and food. They also offered their goods from outside of the bus windows, and also tried to sell to people in vehicles at the speed bumps as they slowed down for them. It was really crazy how the bus made many stops along the way and they kept putting stuff on the roof rack. A few times, passengers handed bicycles up to the guy up there, he would start securing them and then bang on the roof of the bus and the driver would start going while he was still up there. It was really strange to see this guy climb down a ladder from the top of the bus and get back in as we were going down the road. Along the way, we made a rest stop, there I saw a guy that had about a 4 foot wide carrier welded to the back of his motorcycle. That would not be street legal in the US. Many things were very different there. As we traveled, the stores had some very funny American names to them. As we approached Loitokiouk, we saw road building in process. Their soil looks to have a lot of red clay in it. It appeared they used this as a base and put cement over it. It was interesting to see that there were Chinese workers and engineers (along with Kenyan workers) building the roads.

One of the first things I noticed was how dry the town was. They had been going through a drought for about 2 months. Walking down the street was like walking in six inches of chocolate milk powder, you could see it poof up as you stepped in it. It was so dry, that even the vegetation was brown from the dust. We then went to the hotel. It was a comical scene, first the ladies there helped us carry our bags up stairs because those rooms had TV's in them. Then we were told that those rooms were more money because of the TV. So after seeing them, we decided to go to the lower level to save money. After seeing the beds down there, we figured that it would be better to spend the extra to go upstairs for a larger bed. So we brought the luggage up a 2nd time. After getting back up there, we were told that we could not share a room and that we had to have separate rooms. The upstairs was no longer a deal, so we wound up going back down to the lower level. The whole thing was pretty comical and the ladies at the hotel were gracious about it and saw the humor in it also. The toilets in the rooms were unlike any hotel I had ever been in. It was a flush toilet just like we have, but the upper edge of the toilet was level with the floor. Could you imagine people’s reaction to checking into a hotel in the US with that being the case? However, they did have a hot water shower in the room like the one in Voi where the water was heated in the shower head. We then took a walk around town and later meet Elijah and have dinner with him Elijah is the father of the family that first took John in when he first came to Kenya. He refers to him as "papa". He struck me as a very intelligent and interesting man who enjoys conversation. After dinner we just went back to the hotel and settled in for the night.

Thursday 9-23. Yesterday, we discussed going to Elijah's home to spend some time with his family. Elijah's wife Joyce was not around during the day as she had other business to attend to. He felt it would be better that we showed up when she was around to make dinner for us. According to John, it does not seem to be part of the culture for the man to cook. The timing seemed to get pushed out as to when we would go. So we just spent most of the day walking around Loitokitok. While we were there I purchased a Kenyan movie DVD, it seems to be in a different format than ours, my DVD player or computer didn't seem to want to recognize it. I will probably take it somewhere to see if I can get it converted. Sounds like it would be entertaining, John says the acting will be hokey, but will show the Kenyan setting well. We also saw one of John's friends with a shirt that said powder puff football on it, John asked him if he knew what that was. He said no and when John explained it was woman's football, the guy seemed somewhat surprised and embarrassed. While walking around we saw Joe who was to be our driver for tomorrow’s safari. He said he could give us a ride to Elijah's house as he just lived down the road from him. We were supposed to meet back up with him but could not find him when we expected to. Finally we connected with Elijah and Joe and went to Elijah's house. There we met his wife Joyce and their two children. They have their Kenyan names (which I do not recall) as well as American names. The daughter went by Michelle (after Michelle Obama) and her older brother was Ken. He showed us around his property and explained that they would be getting electricity soon. John said that when he lived with them that they had solar power, but it went bad and they didn't fix it. Elijah told us that he had several cattle that died in the drought. This is something that I didn't really understand because it sounds like the drought happens every year and he should have anticipated it. Why didn't he thin out his herd before it hit?(John: This last year it was a much bigger drought than most) We had dinner by lantern light, again, it felt similar to being in a power failure around here. Joyce served us and left the room, so it was just us guys eating the meal. John had explained before that when he was living with them, that is the way it was. He and Elijah would eat dinner first with the rest of the family someplace else, they would then eat after we were done. However this was just done for dinner, at lunch, everyone ate together. He said that he brought Erica to meet them once and she was included in dinner with Elijah, but again no other family members, it was just the three of them. It didn't seem that John quite knew why this was, I would guess it is tradition(John: I would say it is more out of respect for the older men/guests). During the evening, I went out to the bushes to go the bathroom, and stepped on a large hard thorn. It went through my shoe and into my foot. It really hurt, but fortunately it didn't get infected. We went to bed right after dinner as it was going to be an early morning.

Friday 9-24. This day was one of the major highlights of the trip. Elijah had made arrangements for us to go on a safari to Amboseli national park. One interesting fact that John had pointed out to me was that safari means to take a journey. So technically whenever you went from one place to another, you were on a safari. On our way to the park, we stopped for a view and to take pictures of Mt. Kilimanjaro, it has two peaks to it and it was a breathtaking site. The pictures of it do not began to do justice to what we saw. When we got to the park, there were elephants everywhere, as a matter of fact, I saw a documentary about Amboseli on the plane trip down and they said that there was about 1500 elephants there. We also saw herds of zebras, hyenas, gazelles, hippos, wildebeest, warthogs, giraffes and several kinds of birds there. The coolest thing was witnessing two lions on the hunt for wildebeest. One of them was crouched down in the grass waiting for them to walk close to her. The other one was on the other side of the road. Lions count on the element of surprise as they can not maintain a good running speed for long. As the wildebeest got close to the one lion, the other made it's way over ever so cautiously as not to scare the animals. We saw the chase take place but they were not successful. John took some really good pictures there. He put his digital camera up to the lens of the binoculars. Many people who have seen them ask me how we got so close to the animals. Bad day for the lions, good day for the wildebeest. Through out this safari, we were in a jeep that had a hatch on the roof so that we could stand up and get a good view. We then had lunch at the restaurant in the park, the food was excellent there, and as this was a tourist area, I was able to enjoy the salad there. For safety, they had the tomatoes peeled. During lunch I made a list of the creatures that we saw during out trip, in addition to those previously mentioned, we saw the following birds (mostly at Amboseli): Marabou Stork, Ginny Foul, King Fisher, Secretary Bird, Purple Heroin, African Jacana, Goosy Ibbis, Crown Eagle, Superb Starling, and Egyptian Geese. Other creatures seen were: Thompson Gazelle, Impala, Grand Gazelle, Water Buffaloes, Monkeys, Baboons, Camels, Chickens, Cows, Goats, Donkeys, Sheep, Snakes, several kinds of fish, and giant turtles. After lunch, we rested a bit and then went to go see Elijah's dad. He is blind and did not speak English, but when it was explained to him who we were, he was very welcoming. Father and son chatted for a while with brief acknowledgments of what each other was saying which I guess was equivalent to our "OK". It sounded very male typical and to the point. We also meet Elijah's brother's family and children there. In this particular tribe, the kids were taught as a sign of respect for the elders, that they stand in front of them and bow their head. To acknowledge them, the adult touch their head briefly. As we were leaving, Elijah explained that they too were being effected by the drought. They did not want the goats to reproduce in these conditions for fear that the mother or baby might not survive. They had birth control devices on them which were plastic flaps attached to the underside of their bellies, which kept them from getting too friendly with each other. From there, we went back to Elijah's home with our driver Joe making some stops on the way back to take care of some business. We again enjoyed visiting with John's Kenyan family and a very tasty dinner made by Joyce. They are a very loving and giving family. John was very fortunate to have been assigned to them through the Peace Corps. Joyce also gave John and I Masi (an Kenyan tribe name) blankets.

Saturday 9-25. This day was mainly taken up by travel. Our destination was a park called Hell's Gate. We traveled through Nairobi to get there. Traffic was heavy, and the city was more modern than the other areas that we had been in to up to this time. One thing that really struck me was some of the huge birds hanging out in the trees. I would estimate them to have weighed around 20 pounds judging by their size. I believe they may have been some kind of stork. The journey was interesting with many unique sights along the way. John had a travel guide book that he was using for information there. He found a camp ground near the park for us. We debated on camping in a tent or in one of the buildings that they had there. We decided on the building to find out that they didn't have any room there. It wound up costing just a little less than a hotel room by the time we paid for the rental of the tent and sleeping mats. They said that there would be a room opening up for the next night, so we reserved it. The staff set up our tent, it was fairly good size made out of canvas supported by wooden poles. Now our main concern was our luggage, we didn't want to leave it unsecured in the tent. They had a bar area at the park that was very modern looking. It had a lot of open space to it and was decorated in a very interesting way, kind of a safari theme. We talked to the people there and they agreed to let us put our stuff in their supply storage room. The camp ground was very lush. It was by a lake that they said you could see hippos in the evening. After settling in we went into the near by town to have dinner and got some wood for a camp fire. While I was getting the fire started, John noticed a woman on the peer at the lake. She seemed to be observing something, John was curious to see what she was looking at, so he went over there. He struck up a conversation with her to find out that she was an artist and photographer. She traveled Africa making paintings and pictures, she was able to sell them for enough money to support herself and had been doing this for about 25 years. I believe that John said that she was from Canada. She was living her dream. There were also monkeys in the park, some right by our tent. There were also some a slight distance away from our tent that were very unique. They looked like they had goatees. They had their own tree and the camp staff put food in it for them. We sat by the camp fire, had some drinks and talked. It was a very enjoyable evening. Little did we know at that time that this would be the last night that we would spend together on my trip to Kenya.(John: Daunt Dun…!)

Sunday 9-26. We got up early in the morning to head to Hell's Gate park. John had arranged for some bicycles for us through the people at the camp ground. We rode into town which was perhaps ¾ of a mile away and had breakfast. We had our bikes right outside of the door, I was very concerned about them being taken so kept a good eye on them from our table. They had a TV at the restaurant and they played Kenyan music videos. They mainly showed people dancing in small groups, all shots were taken outside, many of them by the sea. It was neat to hear and see this. After breakfast, we headed to Hell's Gate. When we got there I noticed that the seat on my bike was loose. A guy there had some wrenches and tightened it. He also pointed out the bar supporting the seat was bent. He recommended that John ride it instead of me. He agreed. The guy asked for a little money for tea after he helped me(John: chi or tea in English can often refer to a bid as well) . This was a common Kenyan way, many people will try to be helpful to you and look for some money in return. We saw thisa lot at the stage areas were guys offered to carry our bags as a way of making money. As went along, the bike seat got worse, so we decided to take a chance and straighten it out. Fortunately it was solid and we were able to fix it. The roads were very uneven with some solid points to them and a lot of loose sand and dirt. Our first neat site was some bluffs that were really interesting looking. We rode to a large hill that had some caves in it. It was very steep and uneven, John climbed to the top but I only went part of the way up. We then decided to go to a look out point. It was a steep climb to get there. As we rode our bikes around we saw many animals. We saw zebras, gazelles, giraffe and other large animals. For the most part they ran away when they saw us coming. It was neat to watch them in motion, some of the animals had like a jumping stride motion as they moved. For the most part especially where there are lions, if an animal is not fast, it will most likely be eaten. We wound up walking our bikes up for a good amount of the way. As we were going up, I commented that the way some of the road looked might be a problem on the way down. John said, yea, I guess we will just need to be careful. When we were almost there, John advised me to go up to the look out point ahead of him while he took some pictures. I did so. We each had cell phones for communication in the event that we were separated. A few minutes later, I got a call from John telling me that he fell of his bike but was OK and would be with me in a little while. When he got to the lookout point, the right side of his face was totally black. He said that he had tried to take a video from the bike when he fell. Looking back on this, I wish I would have been with him at the time to talk him out of doing this(John:look back at this I wish I wouldn’t have been so dumb). The camera also got a lot of dirt in it and John had to scrape the sand out from around the lens, as it would not close. The view from the lookout point was good. We also had some lunch there. As John was not feeling good, we decided to head back to camp. We saw that it was all down hill and we agreed this was to be much easier than the trip up. Going up I was slower than John, but in going down, I many times got ahead of him. Many times I would stop to let him catch up to me to make sure he was OK. The slope down was pretty steep and we had to ride our brakes down so not to go too fast. I remember being concerned and worried about the speed that we were going and the rough terrain. Then it happened, as I was going into a patch of dirt and sand, I was breaking and probably had too much pressure on the front brake. Suddenly I went airborne over the handle bars crashing to the ground. Fortunately John was a safe enough distance behind me where he saw me go down but was able to stop his bike without incident. My first thought on hitting the ground was anger. Oh #$&@(John: I don’t allow words like #$&@ in my blog but I will make an exception because I know Dad was in a lot of pain) I thought to myself, this is really going to be a problem and mess everything up. I felt a shooting pain in my shoulder and rose to a sitting position trying to grasp how badly I was hurt. I told John that I feared that my shoulder was either dislocated or broken.(John: At this point there were 2 zebras on the side of the road watching probably thinking, ”What did that white guy think he was doing riding a bike down these roads, that was dumb, and now he is hurt” I point them out to Dad but he didn’t see much humor) At that time, he joked with me, and said "I guess that is a valid concern Dad, as you know what your track record is with me". He was referring to a few incidents where I had broken bones playing with him as a kid. As I sat there, a Swedish couple (Dawn, Thomas, and their two children) were going by in their land rover stopped to check on me. I told them what had happened, and they had me get into their car and took me to the gate of the park. They told the guys at the gate what happened to me while I sat in the car. They were busy and said they would get to him in a little while. In the mean while, John was left to get back to the gate by himself with both bikes. About the time they were ready to look at him, John got back to the gate. The guys there made a make shift sling for me. Dawn and Thomas told me that they were temporally living in Nairobi, which was about a two hour drive away, and they offered to bring me back home with them so I could get checked out at a Nairobi hospital. Because of the car seats for the kids and the amount of luggage we had, they did not have room for both John and I. So I decided to take them up on their offer as going back to Nairobi on matatu would have been extremely rough and painful at that point. They drove me back to the camp site to get my bags while John was left to get the bikes back to the camp site by himself. I really felt bad for him knowing he was not feeling too good. As we were heading out, Dawn pointed out to me that she saw John riding one bike and guiding the other along with him. I am very thankful that this did not cause him to fall again. (John: and let me tell you riding 2 bikes at the same time is not so easy but I guess I got used to it. Well..until I fell just getting into the campsite scrapping my arm real good) After while when I talked to John about this, he told me that many people were joking with him along the way asking him if he wanted to sell one of them. On the trip to Nairobi, dawn apologized every time she hit a bump. I told her that I was sure that even her worst driving could not began to match what I would be going though in a matatu. They explained to me that they were staying in Nairobi for a few months as they were in the process of adopting a Kenyan child. They also told me that the Swedish government was helping to pay for the adoption process. One of the things that I had heard along the prior to this is that in the Kenyan schools they beat the children in the lower grades (supposedly to build character and discipline). When Dawn told me that they were putting their first adapted 3 year child (Kenyan) in a Kenyan school to experience their culture, I asked her if she knew about the beatings. She said that she did and said they had actually checked out a Christian school on the internet that advertised that they employed corporal punishment. If sent there, they would have been beating this 3 year old child. They were able to find a school where beating was not allowed. John said that they are trying to change this in Kenya.

Dawn and Thomas's apartment was average by US standards, but luxurious by Kenyan standards. They had electricity, a refrigerator, stove, "normal" toilet facilities and hot and cold running water. I had not seen the likes of this since I landed in Kenya. The first thing that I wanted to do when I got there was take a shower. I was so filthy that the dirt that fell off of me and my clothes on the bathroom floor had to be swept up. It felt good to take a shower, but so painful to move around. After that Dawn gave me some dinner and helped me to arrange a taxi to the hospital. It was dark at that time and she didn't want to take me. She said that it is extremely dangerous for a white woman to be out at night there. I was told that this was one of the better hospitals in Kenya. I was able to use my credit card there to pay. They had you pay in stages, first to see the doctor, then for the x rays, then for a sling and then for the medication. The x rays showed that I had not broken or dislocated anything. I was so thankful for that news. The entire bill that I paid for all of this emergency treatment was $92.32 US. I then took a taxi back to Dawn and Thomas's place and called it a night. These people were so welcoming, I kept thanking them for what they had done for me, but they kept insisting that it was no big deal and that anyone would have come to my aid in the same way. I strongly disagree that many people would have gone to the lengths that they did. They even offered to let me stay a few days with them if it became necessary. I know that I will never be able to repay what they did for me! Throughout all of this John and I stayed in touch via cell phone calls and texting.

Monday 9-27. I got up in the morning after a fairly good nights sleep, had breakfast, and took a taxi into downtown Nairobi to meet up with John there. Although he was not staying there, he arranged with a hotel to store our bags for a while and let us use their lobby for a while. There John down loaded the pictures from his camera on my flash drive. We then went for some lunch, and then John brought me to a taxi that he had arranged for me to take me to the airport. Sadly, this was the end of my visit with him. He then caught a matatu to travel to a Peace Corps meeting a few hours outside of Nairobi. I found John to be a excellent tour guide and very good company throughout this trip. After I got back, I found out that John had a painful trip to his meeting, and thought that he might have broken a rib. A few days later, he was back in Nairobi getting checked out at the hospital, and fortunately, his ribs were only badly bruised with nothing broken. Indeed God was watching over both of us, although we got hurt, neither of us were seriously injured.

The trip back to the US went well, everything was on time. I just had to be persistent about having my arm in a sling and carrying a carryon bag with me, they kept wanting me to check it. I had the souvenirs in there and didn't want to have them taken. In Nairobi, even though when I checked in at the gate they said I would not receive assistance, another employee came to my aid and I got to board with help and with the first group of people. On other stops, I was also among the first to board. Kinda got to thinking, if someone really wanted to play the system for preferential treatment, all they would need is a sling. However, I am not planning on bringing it with me the next time I travel.

Hey guys thought I would write a blog since it has been a while. I have been busy with my projects, the clinic, and having fun before I go. So I think I told you all I am done with Peace Corps Dec 23. Then the traveling will begin! I have still not put it all together but soon.. I can't wait to really have a date when I will come home. It is going to be unreal..

Lately I have been doing alot of hiking. This last weekend I climbed MT. Kasigu. It was not that big(1600 m) but a good warm up for Mt Kenya which is a big Mt. The climb was super tough bc the whole way was pretty steep, then having a tent, water, blanket, mat and binoculars on your back makes it 5 times worse. I was so happy to see the top. It was a nice view too. We (a friend from Voi, his friend, and a guide) camped at the top. In the morning the rain started for pretty much the 1st time this season. With the trail being steep I fell like 20 times. I think I could have brought a better pair of shoes(Jenny you taught me better). The climb up I think took like 6 hours and down like less then 4. I feel bad bc I was having the hardest time climbing(which I did not think would be the case living in the hills) and slowing the group down but we were all super tired at the end of the day!

The next day I went the forest and look out point by were I stay. Even though I had 7 Liters of water on my water it was so much easier that Mt Kasigu. The point of the walk was to teach the community about the eco tourism project by show them the trail. Most people who live here have never been to the forest. We wanted 125 people to come but got 25 but I still thought it went well. People really had a goodtime. We sold food, drinks, and pictures to raise money for the project. The only problem when you make food for 125 but get 25 it is hard to make a profit. It think we will have done that but a very little one. I was the one taking the pictures so many people wanted one they were proud they had done. The way back I was leading 2 people from a different village than me. It was funny they were kind of embarrass that the white guy was leading them through their land. The one guy was like,"I have lived here for 45 years and you have for 2 this should not be the case" The way back it started raining again and the trails filling up with water making them look like a stream! I was sore after all this but not as bad as I thought I would be!

I really want to help get the eco tourism project running before I go. I think it can go well if people can really commit to it. It is off to a good start. Well. It is getting late. I have a 45min walk home so I should get going. Thanks for reading!

So I had some time I thought I would type up a quick blog. I have been pretty busy as of late. My dad came to visit for 2 weeks. It was a really fun time. I was so glad I was able to show him Kenya. He will be posting his own blog here in a few weeks telling what he though of Kenya. For me I like others to tell their story when they visit bc for me things that should not be normal for your average American are...After the 2 week with my dad I had a COS(closing of service) conference it was a lot of fun got to see some friends I have probably not seem in about a years time. The place we were was pretty nice. I had a fireplace on my room! I also had a bathtub. Don't judge me I like baths and there is nothing wrong with that! From this conference it is really hitting me time is also most up. My PC service ends Dec. 23. I have been thinking about how I want to travel after service. I will let you all know what I decide. Now I am back in Wongonyi back to the slow lifestyle. I did something yesterday that I never thought I would do here are ever. I gave advice to a man wanting to open a saloon up here. It is just a good example to how random my life can be sometimes. Oh in other big news the rates to call the US have gotten cheaper. So if you want to say hi let me know and I will call you. It is also a way for me to find out how many people are still reading this after 2 years. After all I know I not the best writer.... Well as always thanks for reading!

1. If you come over to some ones house at lunch time you will not be told “just wait here I was just finishing lunch” but you will be invited to share the one helping of food.

2. A mother may ask a complete stranger to help hold her child/baby well she busy with something else (ex sitting down in a matatu).

3. Your mean of transport could be racing another….

4. Your name will become Mzungu( white person)….

5. A stranger may come up to you and ask you where you are going….

6. Having toilet paper in the “bathroom” is very odd because that is the place you bathe not crap..

7. Little kids will shout, “ How are you” repeatedly and when you respond, “ I am fine. How are you?” They will respond nothing back…

8. If people don’t greet you(or vise versa) they are very rude people….

9. School days are not canceled because of snow but rain because you can’t hear anything on the tin roof….

10. You will see people dancing around I fire naked every night….(Just kidding)

11. If you talk about football the person will care what you are talking until you confuse them by the words field goal or touch down….

12. People will be wearing hats of American teams that they cannot name a single player or tell you what city the team comes from….

13. A meeting starting an hour late is making good time…

14. A suit case, chest, food or drink is not carried on your head….

15. When you throw scraps from a meal dogs and chickens will come running….

16. Flashing someone is just a way to give them your number…(calling and hanging up)

17. Eating goat is just as common as beef….

18. If you look one bit tired you will be told pole(sorry)……

19. Your days of reading on the toilet are gone(at least for most)…..

20. Eating pizza, burgers, cheese, turkey will make you extra happy….

21. Monkeys and elephants are not fun circus animal anymore but hated animals because they eat/destroy all your food…..

22. When you visit someone you will come back with some type of gift probably a vegetable….

23. Wearing sandals with dress pants and a button shirt is ok…

24. You understand the grammar in how Hakuna matata means no worries…

25. If you don’t like tea with milk you are strange..

So I am back from my workshop in Mombasa. I am had a great time. The 1st couple of days we did language where I learned a little of the tribal language Kitaita. I want to practice to get a little better at it since I have mainly just been learning Swahili. It was fun learning something outside of Swahili. Another day at the workshop we met with some HIV/AIDS groups and wow they really had some inspiring stories. One women told us how he husband had committed suicide a few weeks later she found out she was HIV positive(and maybe the reason her husband had committed suicide.) She today was able to bounce back and get remarried and her daughter is now pregnant. You could tell she was really happy. It is about 8 percent of all Kenyans are HIV positive. I brought a lady from my village to the workshop that works with the support group here and I am really glad I brought her. She was very vocal and so many people told me they were as glad that she came too. Outside of the workshop was a goodtime all around too. Each meal was buffet with really good food. A mama in my village told me she thought I gained weight the second she saw me! We were also right on the ocean so I was able to go in a couple of times. Just a little ways down the beach as well there was a group giving massages for about $7 an hour. I got 2 they were so relaxing.

Coming back the review team from Washington DC came to my site. It went really well other than the fact they would have wished I would have warned them about the bumpy road up to my site! We met with the basket group, saw a fish pond and some bee hives. One of the men coming up thought I should do a 3rd year in Uganda with fish but I really want to get back to the US and stay there for awhile! The trip was pretty short but sweet. Some of the people that came from Washington were heads of World programs for Peace Corps.

As I got back there was a church rally pretty much right in front of my house. That had like 4 huge speakers and loved yelling on the mike. I missed the first day of a 4 day rally. I think people down here really like it but I was not that much of a fan after a great relaxing week!

My eco tourism project is going pretty well. A few of us went to clear some of the trail as well as a look out point that only dead trees were covering. We plan to have a fundraiser where people from the community will come and see the trail. The first thing I think we want to do with the money is try to make it safer with ropes blocking off spots and other one to help go to some harder spots.

Well thanks for reading guys!

So this last week I had my friend Daniel up visiting me. We had a great time. It was nice having another American around. We did alot of hiking. The 1st day of hiking we went to this big rock with this great view. Well we tried to...After trying to find our way and getting lost a few times we gave up. In the way back we went through this dried up river. It was cool bc there was all these rocks to climb. Coming back the next day I found out the reason we could make it up the rock is bc it is a very sacred protected place that I was not supposed to find. I have heard of the place before but just did know it was right there. I have heard only elder males go there. Before they go up they must take place in many rituals. I think one is not eating meat before you come or not eating at all. Rumor has it a guy did follow one of these rituals and went blind. I have also heard when you enter this sacred place to are not supposed to wear any clothes.

The other days we hiked to the forest, went to Chumbololo(the awesome view point) and when out the waterfall where there are skulls. Daniel to say the least he was pretty tired. I am getting so used to doing so much walking. My legs have probably never been so strong! I really want to climb Mt Kenya or Kilimanjaro before I go. A lot of the other time Daniel and I played ultimate guess who were you have 2 people instead of one.

Yesterday I was back on the forest for a walk for my project to brainstorm the way forward. One guy that came had a tour company and he want to promote us. But first to really start the project of eco tourism we need to talk to people who own the land tourist will go on, talk to all the people that will be involved (homestays, leather group, basket group, tour guides) and get a few people to organize for tourist to come.

I am meeting with the fish farmers tomorrow and hopefully will also be meeting with some others to start talking about making the world map. I am looking forward to this PC workshop for HIV/AID it will be good info but also I will get to see friends. We are going to beach resort for it too! Last year we had the same workshop. So after the day is finished it is pool and sand volleyball time!

Thank as always reading this and writing. It means so much to me!

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!

So I have been staying pretty busy but now that is relative compared to the U.S. Here having a meeting that will last for 2 hours is a busy day. Then on the another hand it can be 3 hours of walking and 2 hours for waiting for the meeting to start so hey that is an 8 hour day(Well 7 opps)! I was at the training in Loitokiktok at the beginning of the month. They were some refreshingly busy days. There was a little bit to doing Swahili with culture and business training. Most of the time I was just sharing about what I was doing here and the challenges that go along with it. I really enjoyed because it was nice meeting the new group and just sharing with them (there are not many times where people are that interested in what I do). Speaking of that Megan if you ever read this let me know… (She is a Peace Corps that found my blog and was reading it way before I ever met her) It was also nice going back to Loitokitok to think about how much things have changed for me since November 2008 when I first came.( You know you have been some where long when you start telling a story with a year with it!) I am hope to go to the swearing in of this new group but it maybe hard to get a seat since they are limited since it is taking place at the U.S. ambassadors house(This is new thing).

I have been following the espn.com updates for the Stanley Cup and nice job Chicago! I thought I might have been able to get the game because there was cable were I was staying in Loitokitok but I could get it…Even the NBA finals they were playing but on there!

As soon as I got back from Loitokitok there was a show for my project. It was showcasing everything the project had done for the last 3 years. It went great . It was the biggest event that I have seem in my village. I was the camera man for the day. I am hoping to get copy of the video to show you all! The only bad part was moving this brick machine and it landing on my toe! It really really hurt, but I think I just popped a blood vassal . It has been sore but ok. People here were so caring to make sure I was ok and I really appreciated that!

The following Monday my friend Jeff and his parents and uncle came to Wongonyi. They were the first 100%(Or pretty close) tourists to come. I had worked with some people in my village to arrange a place to stay, a forest walk and traditional dancing. It was great. I think they really had a good time other than maybe the road coming up. Sometimes it can be really rough depending on which way they take you, what seat you get and who is the driver.

The world cup has started and I am so glad I am In Kenya, Africa for it. People really get into it. They even made a room just to watch the games. People pay money just to watch. There are a game at 9:30 the other night as I was going to bed I could tell when Brazil would score a goal because I could hear the cheering from the bar! U.S. is going pretty good as well. I have become way more of a football(soccer) fan being here. I still don’t understand it all but maybe I will watch more games on the Spanish channel when I get back! I have been watching a following the world cup.

In other BIG news Erica has decided to go back to the U.S. in July. She is going back because of the combination of problems with her visa and few other things that you can read her blog about! I of course will miss having another mazungu(foreigner) a round but I think it is for the best.

Well I think that is about all that is new with me. Thanks for reading!

So I having been meeting lots of Americans lately. There was a group of students from North Carolina that had come up to Wongonyi for 2 weeks. I hung out with them one night it was pretty fun. They came up just to learn mainly about the culture. I hope groups like this can come up more because the groups have fun people here love sharing and it brings someone money to the community. I feel bad for one of the girls she had a fear of birds which means chickens too. Up here chickens ran EVERYWHERE. It is very common for a chicken to join you for lunch in the restaurant to eat crumbs left behind.

I am planning to teach the fish farmers from a book I got in Zambia and I hope to start next month. There is so much about fish farming. The problem is our fish are not big enough and we need to get them bigger. I wish it was as easy as just giving more food....

I am also once a week working with a leather crafts group and a basket group. They pretty much just make things and sell them but they don't have a list of what they sell or where to sell. I am trying to help this by making a catalog but it is very polepole(slow). I feel really bad the other day a lady had a basket they was very different than the other ones. So I ask her if she wanted to make more and I could try to help promote. The next meeting she got everything out of the bag and thought I was going to buy it..I am getting by with my swahili but I wish I was better. Such a love hate relationship me and swahili have!

This past week I had got to Nairobi to meet the new PCVs. I went to the airport to greet them. They are all very excited. This group put Kenya over 100 Peace Corps Volunteers in Kenya. When I had got here there was only about 50. I was with the volunteers for 2 days sharing about how it is to stay with a host family and I also sat in on site placement interviews. I didn't really have much of an interest to do this kind of stuff before but now that I have been doing it, it is really fun to past on new information to a new group. There are 36 of them only 7 business and the rest pubic heath. I will be going to Loituktuk(the training site) in a week to talk and share about business.

I was on my way home and I get a call from a number and I text him back asking who he was and I the music in my bus was too loud to talk. He responds back MERRY CHRISTMAS YOU DON'T HAVE MY NUMBER IN YOUR PHONE? I then knew who it was there is a driver, we always joke wishing happy holidays that are not the right time of year. A lady from Wongonyi was on my bus and told him I was on the bus so I could get a ride with him. I was nice, So many times I have to wait so long to get up the hill but I get a fast hair cut and headed up!

Other news my project is coming to an end in June. I am kind of looking forward to it because it will just mean I can work with the projects to continue and there will not be so many new things in the way. Well thanks for reading! Enjoy summer!

So it seems like I start everything blog saying sorry I haven't blogged in awhile.. I finally have things to write about! I think I have been alittle bored just because my project has been trying figure out how they will be finishing up in June. This does mean I am done, it just means there will be no more money to be helping the project which is not really a bad thing. With my project I have been trying to help figure out how to get the fish bigger here. Maybe when I come back I should get a boat and set sea. I am learning alot about fish farming but that doesn't really have much to do with fishing at sea so maybe that is a bad idea...With eco tourism I think it is finally starting to come together! We have a walking trail marked in the forest and want to bring some guys who run lodges to see the project as well as train tour guides this month. Something I really am trying to push is getting this spotting scope to be able to be used on this huge cliff that looks at an animal park. You might be able to see elephants. I think it could really give the project an edge.

Erica's and my friend, Karla (from Bradley) came up to visit. It was alot of fun. We took her on the hike to the forest and the look out point. I have been there with many people but never saw someone so excited to see the view. From there we went to Mombasa. That started fun.. The first day was raining but we didn't let that stop us from having a goodtime! We when to the park that is kind of half park and half zoo. The coolest part was when we found these giraffes and we able to walk up to them but didn't dare get to close because they do kick. There was this cement plant behind us so that was kind of weird.. There was this crazy ram like thing running like it was on drugs, but it didn’t come to close to us.. The next day was our beach day it started with beach and than we got lunch, Erica got her hair cut (she was very excite) than we went back to beach. This is were we met the thief (I will call my thief although I want to name him by my other things..) We were having a great time swimming in the ocean. We had one person with our bags the whole time. Right as we were ready to get going the thief took Erica's and my bag(they were sitting right next to us) and ran out! I was detracted putting on a towel covering up as my swimming trunks had ripped down the middle. Oh yeah I lost my key earlier in the day too. (I am not really upset at myself anymore because it would have been stolen as anyways) This "thief" got pretty much the same things from Erica and I camera, passports, wallet...What a thief(replaced bad words)! After all of this we tried to not let it mess up our trip too bad. We went to my friend Jeff's site right by the ocean. I swam some more in the ocean that night while I called Erica and Karla chickens for not coming in. That night we made Erica a cake and surprised her(for her birthday) and told her it was Peace Corps stuff and made it seem like Karla didn't know what was going on! She was really surprised. The next day we traveled to Voi and got Indian buffet. There is a place in Mombasa that has a lunch buffet for like $4! This is not cheap compared to my village were I can get a meal for 50 cents but for Mombasa it is a pretty good deal and SO worth it! The day after we went or a safari and saw a ton of animals with some other Peace Corps friends. I love seeing animals but it is crazy how semi normal it is to see them anymore... The next day Karla took and early bus back to the airport with Jeff. I went back to the village to get my other passport and break into my house(I am not sure it that is a good or bad thing it was easy to do...)

Now time for John's random story corner!.......

So I have been working with some eco clubs in the school. The grade schoolers have meeting and are trying to make tree nurseries.

Teacher: What should be do it children do not come to the meeting?

Student: MOD JUSTICE!!

(For those of you who don't know that is beating the crap down of something done sometimes if a crimes a committed)

Teacher: No that is illegal any other suggestions?

There a these very cute kid that I have got to know that have a mama that run a restaurant in my village I got to all the time. The 2 kids come to my house the other day just to say hi to me. They had LOTS of fun with the musical card my sister, Jenny had sent me! The girl is about 8 and the boy is 3. So the girl Sheila was playing with some of my money. I saw her with 20 shillings and playfully take it from her. She started crying say "pasa yangu, pasa yangu" meaning my money. I said, " no Sheila I saw you taking the money right from over her" She kept crying saying the same thing. Her little brother steps in and tries to attract me with a thorn branch! I finally kick them out of my house and tell them to tell there mom on me! About 20 min later I go and talk to the mom and asked,” are Sheila and Louis ok?” She tells me “no they are upset they said you took their money I gave them to get their hair done.. And Louis (the 3 year old) keep telling me that he is going to beat you up!” (Opps I guess they didn't take my money...) I felt so bad and got them some bubble gum. Kids are pretty forgiving I like that!

Thanks for the read peeps

Not a ton to report but I am catching up on some things and I figured out internet is super fast at 1 in the morning! March 25 was Erica and I 2 year anniversary we went to this place for a nice meal and we saw lots of elephants like 30 maybe at one time they were pretty far but I had binoculars. I am looking into seeing if we can get super high power binoculars here for the tourism project bc there is a cliff about a 2 hour walk that you can see the animal park that is about 30 miles away. I think it would be really cool to see. The rest of the weekend I was supposed to go to climb a small mountain but it was too rainy here and a bunch of people couldn’t make it. It was nice a friend let me stay at his place instead.

So I had a good Easter I went to church. I love watch the "children’s choir" these little kids get up and sing and dance. There was men’s choir and women’s choir and these boys even did a skit. The thing I really like about this church is at the end of the service you all come out and start a line greeting after mass. There is always an auction this time with beans and eggs .It was a 2.5 hour service but it was nice. 2.5 hours can be short here. Every Friday they have an all night service in one of the churches. Later that day I had got a call from my family just missing Anthony. Shreya my niece was even there to say hi Uncle John and bye. I hope all of you reading this had a good Easter as well!

Random Story time

So this guy saw me with Erica and later he was talking to me asking about what I am doing here ect. Then he asked if the girl is my wife and I told him she was just my girlfriend. Then he asks me how I am able to commicate....with Erica being from China... I explained to him not all Asian people are from China..

Thanks for reading!!

Sorry it has been awhile once I again, been pretty busy these last few weeks. A few weeks ago I walked with Erica to visit my friend Nick. It was a about a 3 hour walk. On my way down I saw this kid that is about 5 and his name is Gift. He is a curious little boy. I was pretty sweaty and he kept feeling my chest hair...It is my 2nd time going down the hill to see Nick but only the way down , the way up I didn't because well it is up! I will do it one of these days though. After seeing my friend Nick. I took Erica to meet my Kenyian family. It was really nice to be back to see them and have them meet Erica. Erica was very happy my mama had a shop with bracelets and she got a few. Mama is such a good cook and they are so nice when I come to visit. The night before we left there was lot of rain. Only part of the road is paved so 2 trucks got stuck in our way and then my car got stuck. I got super muddy trying to push it out. There has been lot of rain as of late and cars up on my hill have been getting stuck alot too.

The next week after getting back I was busy talking to schools about these environmental clubs. It was lots for walking but it was nice that I have now been here long enough to figure these things out. I ran into my friend Gift again at his school he came up and held my hand his other kid came out and started to hold my hand and he told him not too!

Next next week I was having a Peace Corps friend Bruce come to my site to see the fish farms and then went to his place to see his ponds ,since he is also doing fish farming. It was nice to see some other part of Kenya and see how a different part of the country was doing fish farming. At the end of the week some of my friend, Nick (he is a Peace Corps teacher)and his students came up and we went hiking and camping in the woods. We went out to this really nice view and they helped clear the trail. We played mafia one the nights. They walk UP from my Nick site it is 4 to 5 hours and then they walk to the forest. These scouts are hardcore! They left on Sunday and I rested the whole day it was nice and long weekend!

Monday was my birthday and I kept it pretty low key. Erica took off work and we walked this path that I had never gone on and found these HUGE mango trees. But the mango were all rotten because the season just ended! This made Erica VERY sad. I got this grape things called Zamborau. That night Erica surprised me by having my friend make my favorite Kenyian dish pilau( rice,spices and meat). We played some cards that night and that was fun too! Thank you are for all the nice b day wishes, it really meant alot! I think in the next few weeks we are going to have some people come up with eco tourism to really get the project going. I really hope it takes off!

Hey guys. So things have been fairly busy lately. I have almost finished looking through the books and put them into category for the library. I made a fish survey and waiting for the results. And really really want this eco tourism project to get going. My PCV friend, Nick is coming up soon with some of his students to help make some trails and maybe make a picnic area. I am also planning to visit some other PCVs going fish farming in the area. I went on a little field trip the other day and that was fun I got to see a guy who did butterfly farming very seriously. He was making a good amount selling maybe 50 per week.

So as many of you know I got rid of my beard thank you for all your support in how far I made it with having the beard. Sorry I may have disappointed some of you rooting for the 2 years. It was just getting to big. When things like crumbs, candy, cats and garbage are getting stuck in it you know it is time to go…

I also always like telling about the little things and having Erica here has been making some good little stories. So I have been told I look a lot younger with my goat shorter. I think this might be a good thing…. This old woman stops Erica and I the other day. And she is talks in Swahili says mtoto yangu to me about Erica and baba yangu to Erica about me… This translates to your child and your father! She though Erica was my daughter. A few days later we are eating at dinner and this mama asks how old Erica is and Erica tell her the same as John….24. The mama thought she was 16. Changing my goat has caused some problem too. 2 mamas talking the another day

Mama 1: I have not seen that volunteer lately. Do you know where he went ,maybe back to a America?

Mama 2: No, he is just right over there….

Mama 1 : No the man I am talking about his a long beard.

Well I think that is all for now thanks always for reading and writing it always mean a lot to me.

SO this year I got to watch the superbowl live! I went to a friends place and he has super fast internet.I stayed up all night but it was worth it! I was happy to see the Saints take it!

Hey guys! I am working on a survey for eco tourism here. This is the link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7FPBCTX . If you could fill it out that would be awesome. And if you really want to be helpful you pass it on to your friends! Americas are good and international is even better!

Thanks!

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything. I have been pretty busy since Christmas time. So let’s just start there, Christmas was really fun a PCV friend,David came up to spend it with me. The night before the church had some skits so I went to that, the skits lasted till midnight but I didn’t and end up going home at 11pm. The next morning there was Christmas mass so I was back at the church again. The mass had been going on for about 3 when David and I decided to leave and go to the Christmas party I had been invited to. It was with a family who mainly stays in Nairobi but had come back for the holidays since this is where they were raised. It was really good food and there was more English than I normally get so that was nice too! After that I showed David around Wongonyi. The more people that come to visit me, the more I reaslize how lucky I am to be here. I really like how beautiful it is here and other PCVs are always telling me the same thing. That night we had some wine played x-mas music and played Pente(one of my favorite games). Oh yeah David also brought x-mas decorations that are still in my house and I don’t plan to take down till I leave.

The next day my counterpart, John’s brother was getting married in Voi. The weddding was pretty fun. It was cool to compare the village wedding to the big town wedding. There were little things different but a lot of the same things. So the next day I wanted to get to Mombasa to start my long trip to Zambia the following morning..This was pretty doable if the wedding would have started on time I think it started like 3 hours late…I should have just left after the wedding but…. I didn’t and went to the reception that was also starting very slowing. All I could think about is, “I really need to get to MSA”. So I had to get going and here was my jam. If I leave wit out saying good bye that is very rude and if I say good bye they will not let me leave without eating… I decided to say good bye and they made me eat before EVERYONE. Just when they brought my plate, the father of the groom brought me to the head table with only the bride, grooms and their best person! I was like,”sorry I need to get going.” I quick ate some food away from everyone and was on my way.

The next day I had to leave MSA at 6am to start what end up to be a 3 day bus ride to Zambia to visit my good college friend Ut. It was an adventure to get there. I finally made it to Zambia and stayed with Ut’s family. I kind of thought I would be some huge tourist but I wasn’t which was really nice. I just hang out with Ut and his family a lot. They are really a nice family. Be time I left I really felt like I was part to their family(calling and I myself the favorite son) I want to even try to visit again after I am done with my service. While in Zambia I saw two copper mines. Zambia is one of the biggest producers of copper in the world! Going into the mines I hard to wear a hard hat and all. I also went to a lot of holiday parties that were really fun. So Ut(for those for you who don’t know) is Indian so at these parties and his house I had some really good Indian food, My month is just watering talking about it! I was so spoiled in Zambia! I also got to see the end of the Bears/Vikings game(That is all I saw of the season and that is ok with me too!). After seeing Ut I had gone to visit Peace Corps Zambia since they do lots of fish farming. I talk to a guy who is the adviser for the PCV there. We compared how it was being done there to my project. I learned a lot and got a ton of information I still need to look over. That night I was able to meet some volunteers from PC Zambia. It was really fun to travel across Zambia and Tanzania. I went by bus and train. The train was fun it lasted 2 days. The first day I had the car for 6 people (still not o big of a car) to myself and then in the middle of night it got filled it up. One of the guys was a teacher in Tanzania and was working with a PCV at his school. 2nd day on the train we went through an animal park as well. Doing all of this traveling made me really want to travel some more after service. I am not sure for how long though.

So I got back to Zambia cleaned my house really good. In the process I found ton termites! They ate pretty much ALL of my journal and letters from my mom! I know I had termites but in the past year they have pretty much just stayed to eating my house( I am ok with that). I put kerosene on where they were since I friend here said that would help and so far they have not come back. I am kind of annoyed but then on the other hand it is kind funny too…

I head to Nairobi after that to pick up Erica. Ok so sorry if you are reading my blog and Erica form this point on because we may end up taking about some of same things. My friend Mich was in Nairobi as well and went with me to get her. It was so nice to seeing her again. After being away for so long it was unreal having her here! She just came over to it is kind of weird now talking about her on with her right next to me! We have been spending a lot of time and I have been trying to teach her how things are in the hills. Erica gets things really fast and if I don’t keep up with Swahili she is going to get better than me!

Just this just week another PCV, Pat come up and we along with Erica and counterpart went up to the forest to talk about eco tourism. My project really wants to get started with the eco tourism now. We are going to be defining the trails and clearing them soon! I have also been keeping busy organizing the library. So I have a computer that can keep a super big charge to the plan is to email and blog more. As long as the computer doesn’t crash again I plan to hold to this! Thanks for reading!

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!

Ok super excited to FINALLY share this with all of you. So coming Jan or Feb Erica is MOVING to Kenya!!!! She will be staying in the village next door volunteering at the clinic. So now that I have told you let me flash back a little, well a lot a bit... This all started when in South Africa one day. I had this crazy though..."Erica every once and a while is telling me she wants to do something different so.. .why not see if she would want to come here and volunteer with me". I knew it was crazy thinking but it wasn't so crazy because it seemed like something Erica might think about and who doesn't want a nurse in Kenya! So I brought out the idea to Erica and she was super excited. I kept being like," now Erica I don't want to go any farther unless you really think you want to do this ,because I don't want to get people her excited about getting a nurse and it not happen" But Erica was like" John yeah look into it" So I brought up the idea to a few people some people I work with and the Chief of the village. They thought about it the same way I did of course she should be able to volunteer being a nurse and all. So after Erica come in Sept. I took the last step (at least I think it is the last step) and went to the clinic. The man there told me it is a good idea but it has to be okayed with the head nurse who is on vacation till Oct 20. I didn't not want to wait about 3 weeks but what you going the do… It drove me crazy thinking about it so much! Oct 20 came and I went to the clinic and was told, "well she extended till Nov 5th so come back then" COME ON!! I thought but didn't say.. So waited 2 more weeks. Come Nov 5th and they told me, "well the head nurse is not back yet and I am not sure why "maybe" next week" Pretty annoyed but by now getting used to the drill.. Next week comes and she is still not back but the man sounded more confident to say she would be back next week...Next week I come and ask, "is she back? I am told she is back but busy till next week. So we plan to meet then. Some people would be frustrated to have to wait even more but this time I was very happy to see some light at the end of the tunnel! I come Tuesday at 2pm sharp(time arranged) and the man tells me "so...we have this meeting at 2pm can you come back tomorrow..." He think I had been patent with all of this but this time I got really annoyed. I told him, " I just walked 45min to get here and called your phone to confirm(it was off) I can wait till the meeting it over is that ok"? He told me to sit and wait...Shortly after a man comes out and tells me to follow him. I thought this was weird bc I thought I was meeting with the head nurse(aka "the sister in charge") ,he could not be the sister in charge! But it turned out he was just as high up as her and was married to the head nurse and also work there. So this is what came out of the meeting. Erica has a place to stay provide by the clinic on the clinic's grounds(2 bedrooms ,bathroom, kitchen, and living room with power) The place should be pretty nice! She will be help with mother and baby services ,while also giving meds , shots to people and other thing too. They said she would have lots to freedom to work where and when in the clinic. The meeting pretty much went as well at it could. Talked to Erica that night after and the decision was pretty much made she was coming but the ticket is not booked but It will be soon. So now I think people can see why I kept this a secret at least on my end else I would got tons of "Any news?" and lots of frustrated," nope STILL no news!"

So that of course is the big new with me other than that not a whole ton going on. People are pretty busy with their crops with the rains finally here. So I have been doing little things here and there with my project. I have been writing some stories down that I figure you guys might enjoy:

1. People will wear pretty must any kind of clothes here that will fit. Them I see plenty of boys in pink and this is normal. But the other day I see this guy maybe in this 40s wearing a shirt saying, "It's nice to be a mom isn't it?" I have always wanted a shirt saying " worlds great grandpa" I think that would be awesome!

2. Go to this meeting and there is a school right by so lot of kids. They have been really getting to know me. They yell mwamidi(my taita name) when I come. One day I came and 6(maybe more..) of them come out and start feeling my goatee and my arms. I had to draw the line while one of the kids started poking me in the eye!

3. Ok this one is about the same kids on the next trip to that village. Instead of running away when I come like the 1st time they come up and shook my hand(very much in culture to shake someones hand to say hi). So I shake like 4 kids and hands and the 1st one comes for another shake. I must have shook his hand like 5 time and some of the others 2 or 3... Then my meeting starts and this kid was so cute maybe 4 years comes on completely interrupts the meeting to shake all 10 people hands in the meeting and walks out with his pants half down and his bottom coming out!

4. Some I am always amazed by the cell phone culture here. There have been many meeting I have been at and not only is the person’s cell phone leading the meeting is on but they will answer it in the middle of the meeting as they are speaking!

5. So this was a while ago I was at a funeral and this guy was teaching me to count in Kitaita. I had the numbers up to 5 and I asked him to tell me what 6 is. He tell me but it super quiet about it...I was like why are you being so quiet.(nothing in the surroundings changed) He said well it is kind of bad word. I am thinking" how is 6 a bad word…." Then it hits me he thought I asked him what sex was in Kitaita...

6. So I went the library the other day and there were only a few students because they were doing their tests for 8th grade.(but not in the library) I had some tea with the principal after organizing the books. She asked me if I was coming back tomorrow. I told her I might. She responded tell me not to come. It turns out the 8the graders are taking test to get into good high schools and Kenya to cut down on cheating has someone come up everyday (about 4 days and lot of gas) to bring the tests and collect. So only a few people allowed on the school grounds and I was not one of them.

7. I always have to remember that if I bring food to someone house it will not be shared will me... So the other day I brought tea to my neighbor’s for a thank you for helping me with some stuff. It was hard to communicate bc they only spoke Swahili. I was invited in the house and they poured 2 cups for husband and the wife and gave me 2 bananas. Soon after they pour a 3 cup I figured it was for me but I was wrong they pour it so I could have not container back. I have gone to friends houses trying to bring desert for the meal that doesn't work the desert is put away for another day...So it is American culture to bring food to someone house to have everyone to share but not in Kenya. Still trying to learn this one...

Hope you enjoyed! Miss you guys lots especially the people who read this blog like you!

So I wanted Erica to put the post about the trip because I figured it would be more interesting through her eyes, since I am starting to get used to everything. I think I was right. I think she is a much better writer than me too! I don't even really know if there is anything I can add. With her post and the pictures posted on facebook (by Erica). I think the story is told well. It is was a really nice trip and was so much fun. I was really glad things went pretty much to plan other than the one day I cooked for Erica and the next day she got sick!

There has been lots of fires in Wongonyi lately. These day unfortunately the place is my as beautiful as it was when Erica came. There were lots of government people that came to try to help put the fire out. In the end it was mainly the people in the village that put it out. I did however get a pop and half a loaf in bread from the Kenyan government as a thank you for helping. The people here joke because the government comes up with machine guns. People ask, “ so how do they plan to put out the fire with their guns…?” It was not about putting out the fire as much as it was about containing it. That is pretty much the best you can do went you don’t have water. Wongonyi know who is to blame for one or most of the fires but he has run off to Mombasa. I guess there was talk about arresting his wife just because but I don’t think that happened. They caught 4 others but have not been able to prove anything. These fires happen every year. I think have never to have an action plan before they start not after.

I have been working a lot with eco-tourism and fish farmers. I was at a meeting the other day for tourism. It was ran by the government they were going around to different parts of the country get view on what need to be done to help community based tourism. They will be making a document for all the ideas from all the meeting and it will be emailed to me(and other that were at the meeting). I really will be happy to see it. With the fish farming less people have been coming to the meetings but I think the next meeting the project will be giving them fish net so hopefully that will get there spirits up. I will be getting together with a few members to write the constitution we have been talking about in the last few meetings. So it will also good to get all the ideas on paper.

This last weekend I FINAL saw my host family. It was a pretty long trip to get there 3 buses. I left at 730 and got there about 6 30 or 7. Where I got off was a about a km. too far. I am to walk to the house. My host brother was going to get me but he turned back because he heard there have been some elephants around. It could not have been too bad because I was not the only one on the road walking. It was` really weird to go back to my training site where I was one of about 40 white people in a town to now be the only one! It was good to catch up with my host family. My papa got a promotion and my mama had opened her own shop. My papa’s brother (with the one year old) had moved out and is not working construction. It was fun to see how far my Swahili had come. Saturday I saw mama’s shop and spent the day with Ken(age 13). Then the afternoon Michele (age 10) got home and I played soccer with them. I also was bench pressing the neighbor kids as well. Good times…My host family really made me feel welcome. My mama is a great cook! I also got my room back for the weekend. If all works out they want me to come for Christmas.

I wrote this blog a few days ago but I had to add something to it. I was at my office Friday morning a little after 8am my time so 12am your time. I told people at work it was my Mom’s birthday and they were like we should call her and wish her a happy birthday. I was like it is late but hey this could be fun!

Dad answers: Hello

Me: Can I talk to mom!?

Dad: she is sleeping. Why are you calling ?(in an annoyed voice)

*Also this is all on speaker phone*

Me: I just want to wish Mom a happy birthday..

Dad: Well she is sleeping. (sight pause) Oh is this John! I thought it was Anthony. Next time say who are you are.

Lesson learned: Don’t call your parents out of nowhere and not say it is you at 12am at night..But hey it was fun!

After that I had a nice talk with them and people at the office wished my mom a happy birthday with me.

Hey all of John's fans. He thought it would be a good idea if I wrote the blog about when I visited John in Kenya from 9/5-9/20. This is gonna be a loooooong blog, just to forewarn you!

So the first place we stayed at was Serah and Ronnie's house (Ronnie worked for World Corps and brings volunteers to Wongonyi, his home village). We ate a lot of food, drank yummy chai (pretty much everyone drinks chai after meals, tea + milk, like chai is here I think) and John and Serah talked Kenyan politics. It was interesting how much Serah knew about Kenyan policies, government, etc. Made me want to be more involved in US politics...kinda. The "village" tradition is to eat as much as you want and asking for seconds is considered a compliment to the host. I was pretty happy about that, seeing as how I love seconds or thirds sometimes! Immediately I fell in love with Kenyan food...rice, chapati, stewed green gram (pojo). It was interesting to meet Serah when I first got to Kenya because she's more modern than I could have imagined a Kenyan. When I joked that she needed to teach me Swahili, she said she didn't even speak Swahili very often. I thought all Kenyans spoke Swahili all the time, practiced tribal traditions..that's not the case.

The next day John's host sister, Pyun/Kate (sp??), and her boyfriend, Brian, picked us up for our excursions all over Nairobi. First we went to the elephant/rhino orphanage. We got to see baby elephants being bottle-fed. They walked in a line following the park rangers, so cute. We went to the rhino stalls then a bunch of warthogs crashed the place. Everyone was petting the warthogs, but I kept a safe distance. Then we went to Ranger's for lunch. The patio was pretty cool because it was high up (so monkeys couldn't climb up) and we saw a huge group of baboons and other animals right off the patio. Definitely different getting to spot a bunch of wildlife at lunch. After lunch we went to the giraffe sanctuary. It's open land with fences where the giraffes can come right up to the people. The first thing I saw was an adorable, but huge, baby giraffe. It looked unreal. There was an upstairs where giraffes could stick their heads by to get food from visitors. Suzy was pretty eager for food and if she stopped getting food, she would head butt..there's even sign and it means serious business! Then we went to the Bomas, an auditorium where they showcase a group doing various tribal dances/songs/dress. All the songs/dances were all pretty interesting. Having a culture like that seems so rich and fun. For dinner we ate at Carnivore, a place with all-you-can eat meat carved off a sword. They have some exotic stuff like ostrich and alligator (I passed on the alligator, not John though). Finding that restaurant was quite the ordeal...there are 3 restaurants all connected. We had to pass through each one and figure out if it was the right place or not before we found the right one. Brian, who goes to school in Nairobi and hangs out at one of the places connected, had no idea Carnivore existed. He was pretty happy John discovered it. The thing about Kenya is that there are cats EVERYWHERE. They're all really cute and they're all obsessed with John, haha. The next day we went to Wongonyi, where John lives.

John's village is on top of one of the Taita Hills (they're HUGE, beautiful hills). I honestly can't say how I pictured his village, but I was still surprised by what I saw. Also, John's house surprised me. For some reason I didn't think he had windows and a locked door, but he does so that's good news. The things that stick out in my mind the most about Wongonyi is how beautiful and serene it is and how friendly and welcoming the people there are. Everyone greets each other and asks where each other is going, or they just give that information freely. People were surprised when I spoke what little Swahili I could and delighted when I greeted them in Taita (their tribal language), John taught me well! Kids were also surprised to see another foreigner, aside from John, and would just stare. An older person greets a kid with, "mambo" and the kid replies, "poa", which means cool. I love how Kenyan kids are taught to say that.

To walk around the village I needed hiking shoes or else I'd just tumble down everywhere. Pretty much everywhere walkable has some sort of incline. John and I hiked to/in the Bololo Forest...I think it's known for being a large indigenous forest. That place is gorgeous, really no surprise judging by everywhere else in Wongonyi. There are awesome look out points from along the hillsides; to rolling hills; Tsavo National park. Village mentality/hospitality is great! Everyone wanted us to visit and talk and that entailed sharing chai, food, etc. We met a random man on the hillside and he asked us in for chicken and chatting. They're all very generous and kind. We had dinner made by John's Wongonyi mama, Mama Judy. It was nice to see how much she cares for him, so Mama/Papa Juliano- you don't have to worry about John too much in Kenya because Mama Judy is looking out for him!

After spending Monday- Thursday in Wongonyi, we went to Voi to go on an all-day safari. On the safari, along with seeing elephants, giraffes, water buffalo..we saw lions. We were pretty close to them and they had been feeding on a small elephant...For lunch we went to the Voi Safari Lodge. The view was the best part about this place. Again, patio was raised, but the view was of Tsavo East National Park. They had a watering hole for elephants. You could also go down into this enclosed area to view the animals up close, pretty sweet. We were driving in the park from 7AM to 7PM. We stopped at a few points to see hippos, crocs, and Lugards Falls. I could go back to Lugards Falls anyday, so relaxing and beautiful. We were driving along the river with amazing sunsets. At night we stayed at a gift shop right outside the park owned by Okeno's friend (safari guide). In the morning we went to the river and one of the workers pointed out hippos and crocs hanging out, right there! He said they saw lions a little ways down the river the other day. Crazy!

We drove a few hours to Malindi on the coast to meet up with a few of John's Peace Corps friends. Then we went to Chris' village to go to One Love Island. One Love Island is a little place off the coast of Chris' village. It's rented by people for a day or so, they're the only ones on the island and food is canoed out. We swam in the Indian Ocean and the whole thing was pretty much a sandbar!

Monday we set out for Lamu, another island, but more touristy and developed. When we stepped onto the pier we saw the huge population of donkeys. They're everywhere! They all belong to someone, but until they're needed they just hang out all over the town. Lamu is a great place because we could walk through town in a half hour. Our hotel was along the waterfront, so gorgeous views were inevitable. The hotel was great because they had a baby monkey and spent some real quality time with that monkey! One of the best days at Lamu was on a dhow, an Arabic sailboat. We snorkeled, caught fish, swam and sailed on the Indian Ocean. We saw the town, went to the museums, had fresh juice all the time. Tropical living isn't too shabby! I really kicked into tourist mode here with all the shopping. John got tired of it, but he was a trooper! September is Ramadhan, a Muslim holiday that takes place for about a month. During that month fasting takes place during daylight. Lamu is predominately Muslim, as most coastal regions in Kenya are. So besides having most restaurants closed until 6:30PM, the hotel was next door to the mosque. It's a unique experience to hear the prayers, songs for an hour every night. It's a peaceful loudness. Ali Hippy is one of the attractions on Lamu. He's in Lonely Planet (guide book) and he finds tourists to bring back to his house to cook and sing for his guests. His line to John was, "Hey, I like your beard!" (which a lot of ppl say to John supposedly). The songs they sang were real cute and I couldn't believe he was a legitimate tourist attraction! I could also go back to Lamu anytime with its gorgeous sunsets, beautiful waterfront, small friendly town.

I really like how in the villages traditional Swahili dress and traditions have not changed much. I like how items in museums are still used today by Kenyans. Seems like many Kenyans value their culture and choose to preserve it. Also, when Kenyans didn't know where Illinois is, if "land of Obama" is mentioned, they know exactly where it is! There's Obama stuff everywhere...

If there's anything I forgot, I'm sure John will fill those in :) Thanks for reading!

Hey friends sorry it has been forever since I have wrote a blog. I have been semi busy especially having a great time with Erica coming. Oh I also lost (long story) on phone so my new phone is 732626940 and whatever number were before the 7 before. I also don’t have an internet phone so I maybe slow on e mails(getting one soon). I had a great time with Erica and didn’t want to see her go. It was fun being a tourist for once instead of trying to convince people I am not. OH! We also almost got killed my an elephant on our safari. This is not even I joke the driver did not see it and I had to yell there was an elephant charging us. It was not like the video I posted on facebook! I guess the elephants are mad these days because there is a lack of water.(more to come on her visit) There have been 3 Lithuanians in Wongonyi volunteering the last 3 weeks. They really did a great job. There were teachering in the primary school and organizing our library. I helped with that project. The library was a mess. There were book donated of the U.S. that made no sense to be there like 1990 retail guides to cars( in dollars), book half chewed by dogs and catalogs to books that are almost impossible to find in Kenya! I found a book my brother Anthony and recommended by Dean Koonz that made me happy. I am not really much a reader but I am trying to be one… Reading one book in 10 mos. Not the best start…So there have been lot of fires lately in Wongonyi. I don’t think any homes have burned but one. They have been in the forest. SO much of it has been destroyed. I hear the reason for them is because people want to scare away monkeys that are eating their crops. I have also heard people don’t care so much if the fire burns because they are protected by the government so they don’t benefit them as much. I think my project is working on a way for this to change. I am pretty much a firefighter now. I have helped put out 2 now. This is how it works someone blows a whistle and other come and help. It is a good system but people wait too long and not enough people come and it takes even longer for a good sized group to come. Oh and it is not like firefighting in the U.S. They don’t use water. Both times I have helped we have used branches and started more fire to stop the fire (weird but it works!). Last night I was out till 11pm and with a man from my village it was him, me, a boy and a mama. The man I was will did must of the work. He probably come close to even catching fire himself a couple of times! Don’t worry I am very careful…I was pretty tired by after he invited me to his house for some food and tea. I felt bad he woke up he wife to prepare for us. My number one fan (my mom) asked in a letter about my knee so I guess I will share with all. It is doing well and I think it is getting better. For the most part it doesn’t cause me any problems useless I walk and ton and it is nothing big. I need to be doing exercises more often but the doctor said it will heal either way. Well I hope you enjoy this addition of John’s crazy adventure in Kenya! Hope all is well will everyone and love hearing from you!

So things having been going good since I blogged last. I have been getting back into the swing of things. I went to my first village soccer game it was pretty fun. People get pretty are excited. My village won with a huge come back 3-2.I have also been meeting with my counterpart a good amount this last week catching up and taking about the way forward. Eco-tourism should be taking off. We are hoping this to talk about training the some of the people to do tours. Next week I will be part of a meeting were the woman will show their traditional dancing and I will talk about eco-tourism(this will be when Erica is here!). I think people need to know what is going on in the project more so I trying to help with that. I found this place that used to be a bible college. It had a pool(very small) and a fire place even and lodging. Long story short it has not been used for over 10 years. I guess they trying to get it running. I am hoping maybe for tourism but we will be. This last weekend I was in Voi for my friend's (PVC) going away party. I am really going to miss her see was always super nice and would let me stay in her extra room. The party was super fun lots of Kenyans, Europeans and PCVs.I met new pcvs in my area too. I did some good networking. Coming back up I went to a driver at 10:40 and asked, "what time will the car go up?" He replied ,"11".He told me I would have enough time to go to lunch. I went to lunch then went shopping and took my time saying good byes. It was about 12:30 and the car as I figured did go up yet...at 3 o clock it goes up. It was a long day of doing nothing! Then today I had a meeting with the fish farmers to make a Constitution for the group and that started an hour late. With them is is good we agreed you can only be 30 min late or else you will be fined. So I had another meeting today at 2 with some ladies that want help selling produce. I got there are 2:20 thinking I am maybe late....Nope! No one has come....I go have lunch and then go sit but a tree and wait. One lady comes up any asks about the meeting and I tell her no one has come. About 4:15 the lady who organized the meeting comes. I go and greet her and she is a little surprised not to see anyone. She says to me ,"these ladies are not very serious I think we will have to reschedule." I love Kenya!

So today is a great day it started off a little boring hearing about potatoes in Swahili (didn't really understand much), but right now for the FIRST TIME I am in my village using a laptop! I still don't have any power in my house. But after asking for over a month to try to use solar power from someones house from a person who stays in Nairobi but has a house here. Today after using fewer middlemen to ask for me (since I have never met the lady) I got the ok to use the solar! I think this will make my life a little easier and I can do American like things like type up reports! I really have missed my computer...

Anyways I am back from my workshops. They were both pretty good. The first talked about farming which was interesting but alot of things they wanted to get PCVs to introduced to their villages took lots of time and money as well. Things that people really don't have. My project keeps them busy and most people don't have the money for start up but who know I got some information I might end up using. I can always learn more about farming being a city boy! Oh I almost forgot I went to the equator! There was a sign there said a exact point the equator was! I also burned my nose but we will not talk about that....

The 2nd workshop was on the coast. This workshop was nice because our counterparts came and I had invited the ast. chief( I hope I spelled that right)who is not my counterpart but I do alot of work with. The 1st day was Swahili and being in SA for 3 weeks did not help it but it was good to go back to it. I have never had such a big love/hate relationship in my life! The rest the workshop was really good we talked about about HIV issues. We did alot to comparing and contrasting to American and Kenyan culture. We also took a field day seeing a youth organization that fought HIV with skits,dance and games. Ahh a man taking care of the house here just brought me tea!The place I stayed on the coast was really touristy. I played volleyball after the work was finshed for the day. I played all but 2 days. One day I was really sick but no worries I am all better now! And the other day I went swimming in the Ocean. So after Erica leaves I will have to start really acting like a Peace Corps volunteer! I of coure can't wait for her to come and have been doing lots of planning.I mean no more staying at nice hotels, no more showers, less options for meals and no power. The good life I am glad things don't always go so nicely because when they don't if give you things to talk about!

I am trying to get back into the swing of things with my project really focusing of eco tourism and fish farming. The eco tourism I am just want to help put something on the ground and for the fishing farming we need to make the fish bigger because the size is not marketable but if we can get them bigger they will be very marketable. The people have also been making baskets that are very nice and I am even thinking to trying to find and way to have you guys buy them( let me know if you are untrusted). I will try to get pictures soon. Well that is about all that is new. Later guys,

P.S. I funny quick story that I have been forgeting to talk about, the other day I saw the girls that call me "Uncle" and I guess they didn't know what a white persons arm pits smelled like...I was told they smelled good! THANK YOU OLD SPICE!

So I am back in Kenya getting used to everything again. Today reminded me to blog about the little things that I take as a normal day but other probably wouldn't so I had to go down to Voi to get this volunteer ID card replaced since I lost it somehow at the airport. I started going the breakfast in Wongonyi. If I go at 7:00 I will get these fresh bread things called mandazi. The car leaves at 7:30 to Voi so this is prefect. So I wait for my car to be ready and just when at I think the car (I always take) is ready to go another one pulls up and the driver tells me to get into it. Didn't really understand this because this never happens..Then we start driving and there is a huge tree branch in the road, so we have to carefully drive around it. We make a stop at a house probably to get milk that might be going to Voi. The car starts going and we see there is a road closed pretty much marked by a branch in the road(different fron the one earlier). This is not a problem I am not even sure if we planned to go that way. We make another stop and unload what it looks like to unload 3 huge bags of glass (maybe for cows). And we are on our way to Voi. There is a gas station we usual go to and I think someone there told us there were police around the corner, because everyone starts pullng on thier seat belts. The police officer stops the car (will ask for brides offen but not this time) and then waves to me probably because I am the only white and lets us on our way. I don't think he really checked for seat belts but I was on a bus were a police officer came on the bus and checked every person. Oh I almost forgot. I went to the police station for this ID. I go to the bathroom on my way out and go pee at a urinal and there are no pipes to so my pee is going on the floor.(Sorry if this is too gross for you) I stop mid pee and that is really hard to do! So that was my morning going to SA made get out of my groove and made me think how different(normal thing of Kenya)things can be. I wanted to wait for a till I got back and I had fewer options to read some letters, because I knew they would mean more. So thank you to everyone that wrote me from Cousin Julie's wedding and the New Orleans Mission trip. These things always mean so much to me! Also I was able to call a few of you from SA with skype I enjoyed that very much and I want to say sorry for those who I didn't not get to call. I was going to pull an all nighter my last night there and make some more calls but the Internet was out that night. Go figure in 3 weeks the Internet didn't go out for more than an hour and my last day it is out for all of it! But I really can't complain it was a great trip I made some great friends and did some fun things! In my next blogged to come..... I will be going the 2 workshops one permiculture(farming) and the other HIV aids. I am very excited about the HIV aids one because the ast. chief of my village is coming with me and it is also on the coast(Mombasa) which means swimming. This is pretty much the worst timing since I just got back but what you going to do, if things go as planned you are pretty lucky!

I am back in Nairobi safe and sound! I didn't need surgery after all. I did alot of physical therapy. It will take some time to heal but I will be 100% in one time. The doctor gave me no limits and the worst that can happen is if I over do it, my knee will take longer to heal. Thank you all for your support and prayers.

I am had a chat with one of the Peace Corps doctor and he told me that the doctors in Nairobi miss read my MRI and so my knee is still screw up but no as badly! This means no surgery. I will see the doctor not Thursday and hopefully he will clear me to go back to Kenya the following Monday. Otherwise I am just hanging out here. Making Peace Corps friends from all over Africa that are in the same boat as me. I went to this mall yesturday and it was crazy big! It had a I-Max, a normal theaher , a drive in one(only one in South Africa) and bowling. There were a ton of stores too of course. I got a good workout for my leg! Peace Corps told me I should test my knee and go to a nauture park where there could be animals. So as you guys can tell life is pretty tough these days....

So my mom said it quite well. As of now phyical therapy for 3 weeks. I am only going it for 3 days and week. LOTS OF FREE TIME. It is good and bad to be here in Pretoria, South Africa is a very nice city, but after a while I think I am going the get really bored. Plus getting used to site again is going to be a challege. I am making alot of friends that are Peace Corps from other countries and South Africa which is nice. So I don't think I will need surgery but I can't say for sure until I get the MRI back after the therapy. I am trying to get the laptop to connect to the internet but having some problems with that. I talked to the IT guy here and he is having me try somethings. He is really nice he said he would come to the hotel (or as they call it guest house) to try to fix it! So I used to say that Nairobi was just like the U.S. pretty westernized but compared to Pretoria, Nairobi is nothing! I had this Chinese buffet the other day and it was some of the best I have ever had(nothing can beat Ming's in Peoria). So really I don't know how much I will blog here because my life is pretty normal now and who want to read about that!However I may visit some PC's site which could be interusting...The culture here is pretty interusting to. I ahve not seen it but here there is still alot of rasium. I will keep you all posted of any changes medically though. Thanks guys!

John

We were able to talk to John this afternoon. Due to a second opinion, surgery was not done on the meniscus today. Instead, John will remain in South Africa for three weeks to get physical therapy. Hopefully, that will solve the problem and surgery may not even be needed.

John is taking it easy and can now move without pain. YEH! He is doing much better. His Dr. is one of the best and works on the rugby team there.

In the meantime John is getting a bit "spoiled", staying at a 4 star hotel with hot showers, comfy bed, mounted TV and delicious, hot breakfasts. McDonalds, Subway, and KFC are also nearby.

John's cell phone number in SA is 011-27-780419865.

Your thoughts, support, and especially prayers have been much appreciated!

Thanks much. Donna Juliano

Tomorrow I go to South Africa and have my surgery on Thursday. I think all of this is pretty crazy. I mean flying me across the continent to fix my knee. I know I will be in good hands and I am very thankful for that.

I have been really starting to find my place in my project. The other day (before I knew how screwed up my knee was) I went for a hike with my friend Bigvia, who knows the forest pretty well. I had gotten a hold of a GPS so I was marking points and taking pictures for the guy I work with John(the project manager). He has never been to the forest and as soon as I am up for it, I am going to make him come. He always says, “ I really need to go” but he is always super busy. I was in Nairobi last week with all this doctor stuff. It was nice because I saw I lot of Peace Corps, some there for medical some not. I also have been watching football or soccer in Nairobi. The USA beat Spain and they are ranked 1st in the world! Then they almost beat Brazil 3-2 they lost. IF they would have won it would have been the FIRST cup they would have ever won. I watched the movie state of play the other day too. It was pretty good and was the first movie I am had seen in Kenya’s theaters. I also went to go see the National Museum which was fun but I walked the wrong way down a street to get there so I did lots of walking which my knee did not like so be time I got out of the museum my knee didn’t like me! So as you can see life been hard watching movies, eating American food, and watching soccer…

Going back to the village for just like 4 days was kind of hard because I could walk around too much, but I spent 2 nights talking with a guy who know a lot about farming and my project. This last Friday was nice too I met with the fish farmers and told them they should start to account for the fish they harvest and asked them how they want to move forward. It get annoyed sometimes because they tell me things like they want to build a fish shop and they think the project can buy it for them. It is a problem all over Kenya I think people get in a mind set they can only do things with help from the outside. But overall I was really happy with meeting I got them to think. I feel sometimes they wait for my project to tell them how they should do things. If they think like that when the project leaves it will fail. In August 3 Italian girls are coming for 3 weeks but I don’t know how much I will see them since I will be going the some Peace Corps trainings in that time. I am not sure what they will be going in fact the guy bringing them was asking me for ideas.

So I am back in Nairobi now I am have to leave tomorrow at 5am. I should be going to bed soon but I am not sure I much sleep I will get since I will probably have so much on my mind. I am going a city called Pretoria and I guess it is pretty nice. They have super big malls, a zoo, and McDonalds. I think the internet will be faster and the water is safe to drink there (So don’t worry Dad). It is going to be really different going back to the village after all of this. Well I think that is about all that is new with me. I will blog about South Africa soon! P.S. I got the letters sent from Julie’s wedding and I will read them in the hospital so thanks guys!

On facebook i posted pictures. You guys better enjoy them because i think i took like over 3 hour to post them(i think next time i will shrink them down)! But they are not very well organized and i will put captions when i get time but for now the locations are 1. A fellow pc s house that has lots of monkey friends 2. Mombasa which is on the coast 3. Wongonyi: these are the pics with forest and awesome views. 4. The national musium in nairobi. Have fun with the guessing game for now!

So just when i thought my life could not get any more random it did..so i couple of weeks ago i tried to get people together to plant trees bc there was 2 visitors one from state of IN and italy. I pictured it as having the community getting together excited to meet visitors, that as well as most things did not go as planned. We ended up planting but only really with the tree nursey groups. I carried this big bag of trees but didnt realize how far it was i would be walking with them and they dont call this place the taita hills for nothing! Half way i had even switched bags for a lighter one with someone and i am the kind of person that does like to do things like that bc i like to be that manly man! Be time i got to the tree planting site i was pretty tired but had some water and i was good to go, i thought...the next day my leg didnt feel right and there was a popping but nothing painful. I called pc medical and told them about it and they told me to come to nairobi. I thought maybe i should just give it a week this might heal thinking i might be being a baby about all of this but didnt. So i have been in nairobi this last weekend seeing the doctor getting x rays and MRIs. There has been a lot of waiting for answers. But in the end i have a level 3 tare in my meniskus in knee. This can only be fixed with surgery. I will be going to south africa to get it done. I will be there for 2 weeks for recovery. However it will take 6 weeks to heal. I am in wongonyi now. Monday i will leave for nairobi, tuesday i will be briefed on where i will go in south africa(as well as tons of other details) and wednesday morning i go the south africa. Surgery should be on thursday. As some of you are already aware of a lot of this ,i thank you already for all your thoughts and prayers. I am in good hands here and getting to south africa there is also a peace corps south africa that am sure will help me in anyway needed. I will not be able to know this until i get there but i hope to find use of a lan line since i hear Skype is only 2 cents per min when using a lan line.(having you calling me using the Skype). I will mostly likely be using the number 0715393697 for cell phone. I will try to keep all of you posted on what is happening. It is very great to know how many people are with me in thoughts and prayer!

Wow these last few weeks have been super busy! I will start with last Friday. I went with the Eco-tourism guys to this really nice hotel for tourists and met the lodge manager. The hotel treated us to a buffet which was really good especially when beans and rice can be a treat for me in Wongonyi! The lodge manager really wants to help us with tourism with our forest and also said he would buy vegetables from the farmer in Wongonyi. That night I met a lady that is from Wongonyi now living in Voi giving the project a lot of support. I guess it was her idea to start the project to help the people. She made a another really good deal and was very kind! The following weekend I met a bunch in Peace Corps in Mombasa( big city on the coast). So I now have seen the Indian Ocean! I stayed with a friend(PCV)was down there with a friend visiting him for the U.S.. It was a pretty sweet hotel it over looked to Ocean so I could shower( Having a shower it self was great) and look out at the ocean. That was Saturday and Sunday a lot of people left but some PCVs stayed around. I stayed at my friend Jon’s place(near Mombasa) that night and during the day went see this place called Fort Jesus. I am not totally sure on all the history but you can google it to find that. The place was pretty fun to explore. If want to see pictures I went with my friend Harmony Hartbaur (the spelling could be wrong) and you can make friends with her on facebook to see the pictures. She also has a bunch of other pictures of Kenya(some with me). She told me she doesn’t mine people asking to be friends but please put a note to her that you know me. This last week Wednesday-Friday we have been harvesting our first batch of tilapia. People here are so excited and I was too. I gutted some fish and catch them by going in the pond myself. I was in the pond and I almost got stuck because there was a really BIG hole in the bottom. So the last 2 days we’ve been having fish fries. They are pretty good. I was even think if we can getting people to come for eco-tourism then maybe we can have a pond set up for only big fish so tourist can catch them and the homestay can cook them. I had fun gutting the fish but I don’t think that is for everyone! We have also had to volunteers from World Corps staying in Wongonyi they will leave next week. (one from IN and the other Italy). The volunteer that was going to come long term backed out. There is a volunteer that “said” she will come in Sept. but will see if it happens. Around the village they have been working on the roads a lot so hopefully the cost of transport will go down and there is PCV that lives near me and there will be a DIRECT route with the construction. People tell me that they are not sure if the road will stay on good shape though but the long rains are coming in Oct. so we will see…keep in mind it is a dirt road most roads here are not paved. I guess power will come soon too but I am not counting on that according to this guy I work with. I am thinking power will come the day before I leave I am doing fine without it though my friend Bigvia charges(he has solar) my cell phone, I catch him butterflies so I guess it evens out. I think I am going to try to find a way to use my computer in the next village over (that does have power) soon. Charging my cell and computer use that is all I need power for. I was talking to the people from World Corps since they are up with the volunteers and they said they want to put up a computer lab with a projector in July using solar panels. That would mean I could teacher computers and use PowerPoint but I am not counting on this happening until I see people start building but some people have been doing some fund raising in Canada so I think it will happen. Tonight I am in Voi for what we call a “koroga”. There is this Indian/Kenyian guy, Jay that is having a few of us. INDIAN FOOD I can’t wait. This guy has a store in Voi and is very friendly. I think I am starting to kinda find my purpose with my project these last few weeks. I think I will be going a lot with tourism and marketing the fish. I think I am borrowing a GPS from my boss and will be mapping out the forest. The thing I like about tourism if we can get it started is it puts everything together. You have a homestays ,Cultural dancers, basket and pot makers, farmers and tour guides for earn money from it. Well I think that is about it. Let me know about the book idea( see previous blog) as well. As always thanks for reading!

So i really have been wanting to put up a blog.These few days have been really busy! So the weekend of the 16th was nice. Saturday I went to see man that lived about a hour and a half work.(That is not the far for me these day...) I talked to the man about america common questions I get are"how many languages are in the U.S.?" "Do people live on big hills like we do in the U.S.?" "how much money can you make in the U.S.?"(This is a tough one bc a dollar can go so much farther here) Sunday I met with the priest at the catholic church. Since he only comes up once a month and I go travel on the weekends alot it has been hard to meet him. So these days the road here is bad for U.S. standards but it used to be bad for kenyian standards(1 year ago) and still kinda is.This priest has been driving up for the last 7 years! The priest has quite a good heart. I had tea and yams with him after mass. The week following was pretty boring I went to the forest a few times with some swahili (its coming..) and just relaxed. Also worked in this survey for fish farmers which I had alot of input with the people I work with so that was nice. Friday I headed to Machakos to learn about kenyian sign language(ksl). I was at a school for deaf children. I now can count, introduced myself , say where I am from, the whole alphabet and a few other things! Sign is really easy to pick up. The kids were so happy just to come up and tell me what thier name. It was also neat there was a pcv that was deaf and I was able to sign with her. I didnt always know sign but I could spell or put it in a way that made sence. If you take the time you realize deaf people are just like me and you. I learned a little about the culture too things you would never even think about. If anyone reading this and knows some deaf I would encourage you to find a way to just learn a little sign and say hi to the person! Sunday lady I was in voi and I met this lady that was a pc in 2003 in kenya and now works in Sudan. Life is so relative sometimes I think it is crazy for me to come to Kenya and people tell me "i could not do what you are doing" but this lady put it well "peace corps is nothing, in sudan there are places I cant go to the bathroom in the side of the road bc of mines" she was interusting but I dont think I would want to do all that! Tuesday I met with some Kenyians from World Vision from Nairobi. They are working to help the people here. Really liked how they were going it too. They said you(the villagers) come up with an idea, you write a proposal , you write a marketing plan but we will help you along the way. This is what people need to get out of poverty not donations of food and clothes(now I am not saying those thing dont still people). I met some students that were from marcet in WI(sorry for the spelling I need word spell checker!) that were helping at the hospital for one day and the rest of the time building a library. The other day I had a reminder of how small this world is when I saw a guy in my village wearing a shirt from Shaumberg at first I thought "no that has to be a different one not IL" but I looked on the back and it said IL! So yesterday there were some men down to try to set up tourism here main attraction being the forest. It was alot of walking but I enjoyed it. We went to this point that had probably the best view of the land I have seen here. It was I big cliff so one wrong step and you might not make it live! One of the guys(from Kenya) had studyed at Texes A&M and he had traveled alot in the U.S.(38 states) with this schooling. Once I again I another fact of the world not being so big...I was talking to him ,he asked "so what state do you live in" i replied "IL" the man said "oh I have been there" I asked "really where at?"he replied ,"peoria"...wow! I also asked them what his favorate state was,nowI dont want to even say his answer...Iowa! He told me they have I nice animal breeding program in Ames. Today and tomorrow I will be with these 3 men. I have really enjoyed my time with them, they are very well educated and have been giving me lots of ideas and things to get excited about. So my mom had written me a letter with some questions and I figured everyone would enjoy the answers. Everyone in the has a big garden or shamba that feeds thier family and sells to others, all that are not in cities that is. I define a city as a place you can buy chocolate(like Voi). The main crop is white corn(maize) there is a shortage and this is a big deal for Kenya. Beans is probably number 2. They also grow yams, casava ,potatoes and others. Fruits it is guava reason now. Mango and passion season season has about past. Fruits seem to be seasonal and there is crop rotation offen for beans and corn. Not in my neck of the woods(literaly!) but tea and coffee is grow and it is a big exporter. It is getting colder here(but I still can wear sandles) So seasons hence are opposite. Thanks for reading I will try to catch up on letters and e mails soon but I always love them thanks guys!

So a few days ago there is am earth quake here. Hakuna matata it was not a big one but it did manage to wake me up and i fell right back a sleep after! It was the next day when someone was talking about it and i remembered since i think i kinda put it off as a dream.. I guess the last one was like 2 years ago so i have gotten my helping of earth quakes here!

So my village has i library but some of the books are very useless like how to cook only using a microwave. So i thought about having the people request books and in return they would have to write a thank you note back and maybe people could get long term pen pals. Let me know if you would be interusted i dont want to talk to my village about the idea until i know people would want to do it. I am hope people reading my blog could not only donate but maybe tell others about the project..thanks guys let me know what you think.

Sorry i have not been keeping up so well with the blog. Last week thier was not a ton going on but i helped this guy build a fish pond (still not finished) i also went to a village with my ast chief and talked to like 60 people about this small survey i had done. I had them brain storm on ideas they could do. It went ok...people kept coming in late so i couldnt get those people involved and am not sure how well they really got it too. The ast chief would translate for me. I am trying to help get rid of a mind set many kenyian have that they cant do anything unless they get aid. I think sometimes people are poor bc they just dont believe in themselves. People in my village get alot of aid. This last weekend was awesome i went on a safari. I saw lots of animals! I think it was the 1st time i saw a hipo through. We also got chased by an elephant! The driver clapped and the elephant started chasing and we quickly sped away no real danger. I got i video of this too! We also went to this tourist hotel where you could get pretty close to the elephant bc you were watching behind bars. I went with i bunch of volinteers from an organization called vso(from all over the world). That night more volinteers in the area joined us including pcvs. Monday i went to the office in voi helping with this survey for stores and hotels about the fish my village will soon sell. It was nice doing really marketing stuff! The villages by me are really getting excited bc some of the fish ponds are ready to be harvested but they just need to be trained how to do so. Coming back to wongonyi i had i nice talk with a man who called himself a douting thomas about the fish project. I tried to encourage him. He told me an interusting story about these forgien guys(maybe from us) who were traveling in kenya. He said they didnt bring much and were really roughing it. So i guess it started to pour rain and they ask the man if they could come in his house. The man ask the men "why are you doing this to yourself , you really like it here you are from i great country why come here" the men replied they came to get away from the business of the us. The old man told me he though it was crazy how he would love to in the us and these guys didnt even care for it. I hope the story didnt loose to much by me not telling it by mouth. One more story and i think i need to go to bed..so there are these girls i think 1st grades. I have been kinda treating me like some like of monster. I had tried to even play with them once and they got scared. The girls would get my attention and i would come and they would ran away. They have been kinda annoing! Today i saw them and they started chanting mazungu which mean white person. It can get annoing always hearing this. A lady saw this going on and she told them not to call me that. She then said call him uncle wamidi (my taita name meaning of the trees) so these girls started to call me that. The mama had them say thier names too. They started asking me what i ate, where i was from and if i had a bed. They also asked how old i was and the one girls said her daddy was older and the other girl replied but how can your dad be older look how big this toes are! It is really nice when people can see me for a person rather than a rich white man or a monster. Well thanks for readin

So i forgot to tell you all this last easter obama sent me a easter card. That was pretty special..the return address was ross mcpeake though...? Did he send the card 1st to you ross. Hey can you just tell barack about my kenya address? Next time then he will not have to send the card to jen and ross. I will tell him you all said hi. Thanks!

Hey so i know the u s economy is bad. But if you ever are having a hard time being thankful for what you have do a search on kibera slums...i just saw from the road in nairobi.

Hey so i know the u s economy is bad. But if you ever are having a hard time being thankful for what you have do a search on kibera slums...i just saw from the road in nairobi.

Lots to blog about. First i will tell what i am most excited about...i can now instant message on my phone! I got one of those all in one programs so sn for aol im is now kenyabearsfan and yahoo chat john31585 and g chat john.juliano123. I think i can only talk to 2 or 3 people max. So add my sn to your list and my program will tell me your sn. Send me an e mail if you want to set up a chat date! It is super cheap too. I am glad the internet on a cellphone is so cheap. Also if anyone sends me a package please address it to"john juliano or john mlamba" that is my boss that picks up my mail for me. Letters are still fine only to me.

So when i was in nairobi i tracked this guy down that lives in kenya and did pc in 1969. He now is a consultant at marketing firm in nairobi. Dont worry i am not getting any ideas. He taught at the university in kenya for awhile before. He also told me he wrote a paper on my tribe, taita. He was an interesting guy and he wants to go camping by a park near me. (jenny, meeting him was why i could not chat that day). there will be a girl coming monday from italy for i think 4 mo to work with micro financing. So i am excited to meet her. Oh yeah i wanted to talk about my trip back from nairobi. It was fun bc i saw garafes zebras and camels just chilling on the side of the road! I asked someone and they said it is not normal to see that many. Also speaking of camels i guess there is a place on the coast you can ride them. I think that is added to the list of things to do before i leave.

I read on the internet obama might come in aug for the big world conference. Last time he came here as gov he met with pc. So i hope he does again... So kenya is the only pc program to have deaf ed. There are some deaf people in pc and i have started to get to know them. So late may i think i will go to a workshop to learn some kenyian sign language and deaf culture. Well i think that is all the is new here with me. Thanks for reading and i hope to chat with you soon!

So I am back in Voi getting a ride to Wongonyi hopefully soon...I guess there is a workshop today on gener issues but I am now sure if that will still happen. Nairobi was fun it was great seeing all my friends and catching up with people. We did some pretty cool things. Peace Corps when to a place that sells and make honey and silk. They work with farmer to do this. So the coolest thing I did was Sunday. I got to pet and baby rino and elephant! The elephant almosts kicked me because I tickled his feet and the rino liked me so must he rubbed his mud covered body all over me! There is a pretty where to can feed garafs too I think next time I am in Nairobi I will go there! My boss wants to go up soon so I have go! Blog more later!