Nairobi, Relaxing, and packages

We just finished our last night in Nairobi and we are currently in a matatu on the way home.

We were in nairobi as part of our IST training. The training was every day from 8 to 5pm and covered topics like classroom discipline, permaculture (sustainable agriculture), malaria, HIV, and other things. The most important part for me was a chance to catch up with the other volunteers and share our experiences and teaching strategies. oh.. And of course free wifi and hot showers.

While in Nairobi we also did some shopping and even saw a movie. It is really nice to slip back into western conveniences, but it is not cheap on a peace corps budget!

School doesn't start back for another week so we will be living pretty alone on the empty teachers compound trying to entertain ourselves. Unfortunately they won't turn on the generator or water pump until the boys arrive so we'll be a bit closer to camping.

In technology news, we got a new phone! I am quite excited. In fact I am writing this blog from the phone! I also got a neat program which logs me into facebook, Sykpe, gmail, and any other chat program all at the same time. It is great! Therefore I may end up being "online" more now.

also, here is a list of items that we would love in a care-package.

-Chocolate chips (dark chocolate)
-Doritos
-Taco bell taco seasoning
-update about your lives
-Book
-misc. snacks like candy bars, cookies, sweets
-A pair of good pair of thin smart wool socks
low cut ankle size 10
-Gatorade mix, anything but red
-Potato peeler
-stickers for grades
-Cheap american candy that kids would get excited about
-Art supplies like paint, pencils, clay
-DVD of some some basketball games for my kids to watch
-A basketball ;)
-A good hackey-sack

Those are some ideas, but the most important thing are your notes and updates!

Miss you all

Quick Update

Hey hey hey,

Just wanted to give a quick update. I'm sitting in a nice tourist hostel in Kampala (Uganda's Capital) enjoying our vacation from school. The last two days we were in Jinja, Uganda. Jinja is on the mouth of the Victoria Nile river and is touted as the begining of the Nile river. We went rafting two days ago on some awesome rapids and went bungee jumping into the river this morning. We're now hanging out getting a flavor of Kampala, but I can tell it won't be enough. The city is huge and is supposed to be quite safe. Especially when compared to Nairobi.

Anyways, I'll write more later and most pictures.
Jon

Trash Pit

We have a trash Pit near our house where... Oh everything ends up. Paper, plastic, and of course food.

Some days i am just too lazy too walk over and dump stuff in so I will just practice my throwing arm. One day i was peeling potatoes out back and i ran into a few bad ones, so like usual i geared up and threw the rotting potatoe at the pit. The potatoe sailed through the air and landed with a thump followed closely by a "yip!"

Very little goes to waste here, and indeed a dog was in our pit eating our trash. It jumped out and scampered away, but from then we have affectionately called it "trash pit".

Over the last week we have slowly encouraged the "trash pit" to eat closer to our house and eventually from our hands. We learned that it is a "she" and that she is addorable! We also sometime call her Yoda cause she just looks kinda like Yoda.

Mandy wants to let her in the house every time she see's its stuby little tail wagging, but there is no way. Trash Pit did not get her name by being a clean, well groomed dog.

In other news, i am feeling a LOT better! I took some anti-biotics and it seems to have done the trick. It is especially good because we were starting to get worried about it affecting our vcation plans to Uganda.

Hope you are all doing well!

Ants, Basketball, Science Fair, and Sickness

Our life is a lot like the tite of this blog... Very busy.

This term is the term for both science congress (science fair) and Basketball. In fact the district competitions were on the same day! okay... Let me rewind...

We got back from Kisumu on Saturday when i was just getting over my sickness. By Wednesday I had recovered my voice and it was just in time. The science congress and Basketball tournaments were that weekend and i was doing a lot of talking. Come Thursday i was running around like a mad man between classes, science congress preparations, basketball, and getting our new computer lab wired and equipped. It was great timing for the computer lab to get running (students could write up their papers), but it was a lot to do.

On friday i gave the reigns of my science fair responsibilities to Mandy and i went with the boys to the basketball tourny. The first day went well. My boys beat their long time opponents in a narrow game and crushed a neighboring school around 34 to 4. (short periods).

Things were hectic on Mandy's end, but ended up well. One our students ended up making it to the next level of science fair and about 4 other groups from our school.

Okay now here's the key... On Friday i yelled and talked a bunch. I also didn't get food until 7 PM. I didn't feel too bad at the end of the day, but on Saturday morning i felt it. I had another sore throat and i was exhausted. Unfortunetly we had to return for the second half of the tournament the next day. I went more prepared (brought food), but i felt poor the whole day. It didn't help that our boys lost and ended up taking 3rd. Not bad, but not what we wanted.

It has been a full week since then and the sore throat and exhaustion still remain. it's really quite annoying. Every day seems filled with activities and i can't bring myself to cancel my obligations. I went to the hospital this weekend but they only tested for malaria and asked a few questions, so they were'nt able to figure anything out. I think i may get some antibiotics soon.

anyways... Enough about that.

In other news, we have begun a war with an Ant colony outside the house. Last sunday we had some guests over when i found a huge trail of ants streaming through our kitchen. Luckily we don't clean very well so the spiders were in high number and helped us fight them back.

I thought i had won, until a few days later Mandy woke in the morning to find them covering the dirty dishes in the sink. Again i went to war and felled many ants.

They have now retaliated by attempting to moving their colony directly under our back porch. This one worries me... I watched them carry the eggs/larvae to our stoop today while i peeled potatoes outside. hrmmm..

Okay, enough for now. PLEASE let us know what you'd like to read or see on our blog. Our life rolls on and it's hard to know what will be interesting for you.

Oh and in April we're going to Uganda to white water raft in the Nile. Sweet!

Mom and Dad - thanks for help with the Taxes.

Ryan and Kat - thought of you the other day when playing video games. Found a character called Zeeman! ;)

Kisumu, Hippos, and Street Kids

We had our first Vacation in Kenya this last weekend. Our school had its Mid-Term break and we went to Kisumu with another PCV friend, Stacy. It was really nice. We woke up at 7am on Thursday, got packed and we were in Kisumu by 2pm. Not bad...

Kisumu is one of Kenya's bigger cities and it sits right on the Eastern edge of Lake Victoria. Kisumu is a major trade town. Most things come off the Ocean and travel by truck or rail to Kisumu. They are then loaded on boat for trade with Uganda and Tanzania. It is also home to boat tours, nice hotels, shopping malls, CHEESE, Barack Obama's grandma, and even a huge movie theater. We did a little of all of the above.

We spent a good deal of our time just wandering around the malls going oooh.. ahhh... And buying things we didn't know we wanted or needed. We now have soy sauce, pancake syrup, twix, fresh garlic, and art supplies for Mandy's new club. The biggest store is called Nakumat and it was easily as big as a Walmart.

In the same mall as the Nakumat was a really nice movie theatre. For about 350 shillings ($4) we saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie on the big screen in a massive theatre. It was awesome and bizzare. We felt temporarily transported back to America. I half expect to look to my right and see Ryan and Kat.

On Friday morning we went to the local port and got a tour of the shipping port. Afterwards we got a boat 3 hour boat tour on lake victoria complete with a guide and up close encounters with hippos. Afterwards we walked to the fish market and had some fresh Talapia with Chapati and Ugali. It was delicious and not touristy. Despite the locale we were still bombarded by hawkers and street children the whole time we ate. The hawkers sold DVDs, watches, trinkets, and flashlights. The street kids walked around with plastic bags looking for money and food. We did not buy from the hawkers, but our leftovers did end up in the kids' bags.

Thanks for the emails and notes of concern about my sickness. The sore throat is still hanging around with some mild exhaustion, so i think i must've picked something up when i was sick. :P

My throat is starting to feel better today (Monday), but we resume classes tommorow, so that'll be the real test.

oh... And lance... "Nacho Cheese" Doritos!! ;)

24 Hr. Sickness

I got very sick on Saturday.
It started the day before. We made a hour long walk to our near by town for shopping, got lunch and then walked back with our supplies. It was very hot.
By the time i got back it was time to coach basketball, so stayed out for another 2 hours. After, we had a PCV friend, sonya, over for dinner. So i spent 2 hours standing in the kitchen preparing food. About mid-way through cooking i started feeling really bad.

To may a long story short, i think i got food poisoning, because i got very sick for the next day. Luckily i seem to have recovered. I now just have a sore throat, which i am hoping will go away as well.

The real down side to the sickness was the spectacle of it. All our neighbors got to see the mazungu go back and forth from the choo every 5 minutes and eventually just sit out there. argh... No one likes to be put on display when they are feeling their worst.

Thank You Tina and Jess!

We finally received the package from Tina and Jess the other day. It's hard to describe how happy we were. I got to eat some greaat chocolate and Mandy gorged on Doritos! We also got a game of skip-Bo, chocolate chips, stickers, and socks. The timing on the socks and chocolate chips was great because i was just about to be out of both! =)

So yea... Thanks! It took a long time, but that's only peace corps fault. The package apparently had been in Nairobi for a while. The good news is that any new mail sent to our new address at Kabungut should be quite fast.

If you want to send anything here are a few ideas from us =)
1. Doritos
2. Dark Chocolate
3. Chocolate Chips
4. A letter telling us all about your life and family
5. Oregano, or italian spices
6. Garlic salt
7. A good science fiction book