Adventuring/Holidays in Kenya!

           Here are some adventures that I have been on! I have been up to a lot of different things! Lets see its been almost a month since my last blog so I must talk about my trip to Ratta, Thanksgiving, Christmas decorating, and the giraffe center!

           Ok let’s start with Ratta. Tricia, Ben and I all set out on a Friday morning for a 7 hour drive; or so we thought it would be a 7 hour drive, but it was really a 9 hour drive to Ratta! Ratta is a small village located in Western Kenya near Kisumu located on Lake Victoria. My first reaction to this place was that it is gorgeous!

Ratta Downtown 

Amy, Andrea, Tricia, Ben, and David

              Ratta is where Amy and David are living for the year to teach in a secondary school. When we finally made it to Maseno, which is the small city about 20 minutes away from Ratta, after 9 hours we had to ride piki pikis (which are motorcycles!) for about a 20 minute ride to the small village of Ratta. I was very nervous about riding a piki piki, but I did and I have survived to tell this story! The ride wasn’t to bad, but I did feel like I was going to slide right off, but fortunately Ben’s luggage was secured right behind me and was holding me on while I was also holding onto Ben for dear life! When we finally arrived to Ratta is just about dark so we got settled into the house and we just talked and enjoyed each others company. The next we got the grand tour of Ratta, which took all of 10 minutes. It was such a cute little town. We went to the primary and secondary schools to see where Amy and David will be working for the next year. After the tour we headed over to a professors house (I forget the name of the professor, but we were invited over by one of David and Amy’s friends not the professor since he was not there) to take a tour of this huge house and to meet one of David and Amy’s friends. After that we headed back into town on the way back to the house to pick up chapattis, which are my favorite! The rest of our time there we just relaxed and enjoyed each other’s company. On Sunday morning we all awoke very early to get ready to head back to Maseno (this time we were able to get a taxi to take all of us since Amy and David were coming with us too!) to catch the bus for another 9 hour bus ride back to Nairobi! On our way to Maseno we made a small detour to go see the EQUATOR!!

Standing in 2 Hemispheres! 

The Equator sign the taxi driver didn't get in the last picture!

Maseno is only about 2 mins away from the equator so we made a small detour so that we could be in 2 hemispheres at the same time! We had the driver take our picture, but he did not get the equator sign with us so I had to take that separately. We then headed to the bus to make the long journey back to Nairobi.

At the Lutheran Church there was the graduation for the students, especially for the Pre-Unit class who will now be going to Primary school class 1 in January! It was a very long ceremony filled with singing, speeches, prayers, cake eating, and caps and gowns! The kids were so excited for this day, but by the end of the ceremony you could tell they were all tired and ready to leave! Here are some pictures from the graduation!

Virginia, Valentine, and Nicole: 3 girls in the Pre unit class at the Lutheran Church on Graduation Day! 

The Pre-Unit and Nursery classes on Graduation Day

Amy with some of the Pre-Unit Girls

Getting dressed in the caps and gowns!

Singing at their graduation! In January they will move onto Primary School, Class 1

            Thanksgiving was great! This was the first Thanksgiving that I can remember that I have been away from home. Even in college I would make the trip the back home to be with family for Thanksgiving. We had our Thanksgiving meal at Phyllis’ house, which we were all very excited because we all love Phyllis’ cooking! The meal included: Turkey, (even though we were told that we would just have chicken because turkey is so expensive) corn bread stuffing, mac and cheese, cabbage, and much more. For dessert we had amazing apple pie! After our Thanksgiving meal we enjoyed each other’s company and later we watched a movie (Love Actually) at the girls house. The day after Thanksgiving all the YAVs went back to Phyllis’ house to decorate the Christmas tree with Atieno (Phyllis’ daughter). We had a fun filled night of eating leftovers from Thanksgiving dinner and decorating the tree with ornaments and lights.

Tricia's new best friend! :) 

            This past weekend we had another fun filled weekend of sight seeing and more Christmas traditions! On Saturday we went out to Karen to go to the Elephant Orphanage which is open everyday from 11-12pm, but because we left too late and the matatus to get us out there weren’t that fast we ended up changing our plans and went to the giraffe center. This place was great! We were all able to get into the park for the student rate of 250 shillings, which is about $3. At the giraffe center you able to get really close to the giraffes and also feed the giraffes! The center is there to bred the different types of giraffes found in Kenya to make sure that the giraffes do not go extinct! After the giraffe center we all headed over to Mama Grace’s house where Amy and David are staying for the holidays, to have a potluck dinner and to decorate Christmas cookies! We had a fun filled night of singing Christmas carols, eating and making delicious cookies! I love that we have been able to do all of the holiday traditions that I would be doing at home here in Kenya as well!

Giraffe Center!

Catching food!

Kwaheri for now! (oh yea and I promise that my next blog will be about the different phrases and other crazy things that I said that my next blog would be about!

Isn't he so cute! :)

Also don’t forget that if you are willing and able to please, please, please donate to my YAV year! Even if it is only $1, every little bit counts! Here is the link again: https://gamc.pcusa.org/give/make-a-gift/E210301/