Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Greetings From Loitokitok

I am living with a family at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro very close to the Tanzania border. The mountain is a spectacular sight every morning and night, it hides in clouds during the day. My family is wonderful, Mama Mary, her son Francis, wife Mary, sons Daniel (8) and Peter (6). We have no electricity or running water as expected but everyone in Kenya has a cell phone. We live about a 30 to 40 minute walk from town and our training sight. Internet access here is VERY limited and very expensive (4 computers in town) so I will blog more hopefully when access is better and cheaper. Due to the devaluation of the dollar the Peace Corps budget has been stretched so they are condensing 12 weeks of training into 8 weeks; so there is tremendous pressure to learn Kiswahili, the culture, how to live on your own in Africa and our job for the next 2 years. There are overwhelming hours of homework done by lantern or candlelight. It rains most every afternoon ant it is very muddy, nights are cool and days are very warm. I love the food, lots of FRESH fruits (oranages, bananas, passion fruit, watermelon, papaya, mango) and veggies, some meat (cow and goat), lots of chai tea, no coffee. Your diet varies very little.

This experience is wonderful and challenging and not for the meek or timid.

More later . . . Salama sana and Happy Thanksgiving!!

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