November

Well, I've been keeping pretty busy since my last post and I'm really looking forward to December where I'll have a little more free time. A bunch of old friends are coming into Nairobi (one from the States, one who has been working in Lamu, and two who have been working on an island in Lake Victoria) so it should be a lot of fun. School ends on Friday, but the kids will still be coming throughout December because they eat lunch at Hamomi everyday. I have plans to teach them about volcanoes and lead a week-long art project building a volcano so I can show them the baking soda/vinegar lava thing. It may be a bit ambitious, but it should be a lot of fun.

My brother from another mother, Michael Kenyon, arrives in Nairobi tonight and I'm looking forward to hanging out with him again. Cross your fingers that I take the right bus to pick him up at the airport!

Some of the highlights from the past few weeks include:
-Going to the Kenya/Nigeria soccer match. Totally insane. Unfortunately, Kenya lost, but they put up a good fight. Other spectators were not happy with the ref (he sucked) and showed it by throwing full soda bottles onto the field. Things got a little rowdy after the game, but luckily I went with a few Kenyan guys and they made sure that I made it out safely. Also, it was $3. Unbelievable.
-Going to a Kenyan wedding. We arrived a little late, but after all, I am in Africa-seems I've adjusted to their time. Instead of proceeding down the aisle at the end, the entire wedding party danced. It was great.
-Having my English class write thank you notes to all of the American volunteers who recently went back home. My personal favorite was to Kory, the PE teacher. It said "Thank you Mr. Kory for making us strong, and for making us to be with muscles." Awesome.
-I got cowboy boots at a local market for ~$8. That might not seem like a highlight to most people, but I was pretty excited.
-Finally getting the Kangemi Health Center to come to Hamomi and give our kids deworming tablets. As an added bonus, they had a health talk with Standards 6-8 about HIV/AIDS and living a healthy life. To have an open discussion about HIV/AIDS is a pretty remarkable thing here, and the kids seemed to receive it really well.
-Taking the standard 8 boys to a nearby cyber cafe to let them experiment with computers and the internet. Another intern has been teaching them about computers and it has definitely paid off. They did a great job and now all have email addresses!
-It was a little difficult to be away from home on Thanksgiving (a first for me!) but a friend and I made a big dinner and shared it with my host family. My family called and my uncles still managed to tease me, even though I'm halfway around the world. Definitely made me feel at home again. Packers won and I was still able to eat way too many mashed potatoes, so I did alright.

Starting tomorrow, I will be taking over the teacher workshops that another volunteer started a few weeks back. Not sure why anyone trusts me to teach other teachers, but hopefully we'll be able to work together and come up with something productive. We'll see.

My life here continues to challenge me, entertain me, and keep me happy. I've made some very good friends and experienced many new things. December should be great, I'm looking forward to traveling, seeing old friends and meeting new friends, working at school, and all other things that are coming my way. Please keep in touch if you've got a free moment, I'd really love to hear from you and I promise I'll write back as promptly as possible. I hope you're all staying warm!

Peace and Love, Hannah