Another Article by Emily!

Ch-ch-check it out!!

http://www.divinecaroline.com/browse/travel

Scuba trip- Watamu: March 23-March 27

Well I am now a huge advocate for scuba diving!! It was absolutely incredible! I love Kenya and its diversity- the fact that I can take an hour plane ride and be on one of the most beautiful coast lines in the world is absolutely amazing.
Although diving was great, it didn't start out as completely wonderful. The first day of diving was not as great as I had anticipated as I got a bit sea sick on the boat- it was not a pretty sight, but I managed to get my "tests" complete under water and then was back on the boat for a second dive that afternoon.

In total our class completed 6 dives. It was my mom's birthday on Monday, March 26- and it just so happened that those were the 2 best dives of the weekend. We managed to get down to 20 meters and it was so beautiful- fish all around us- from tiger fish to octopus to clown fish. Unlike snorkelling, the fish do not seem bothered by your presence down there. The coral is just beginning to rebuild itself after the 1997 El Nino and it is growing back beautifully- such a diverse landscape down there.

Our scuba group was comprised of about 15 people and we had a great time all together. We stayed at a fabulous all-inclusive resort right on the beach and enjoyed the endless food and drinks available to us.(Emily and Larisa)

(Jake- a fellow foreign service kid)

(Naresh and Antony)

(Sue -dive instructor and me)
(the curly hair triplets)

An aside: As I was down in the water I could not stop thinking how I was really LIVING my life these days, versus being a passive observer. I realized that I seem to take every opportunity that is presented to me to try something new and do something a bit out of my comfort zone.

Dive trip to Watamu!

Heading to the Kenyan coast this weekend (Watamu) for the official ocean dive as required by BSAC (British Sub Aqua Club). I am really excited about it- will certainly be a change from the 6 m pool we have been diving in. The plan is to go down to 20 m :) I think there are about 20 of us heading down there for the weekend- leaving Friday and returning Tuesday morning.

We are staying at this great all inclusive hotel- called "Turtle Bay Resort". Emily and I realized that it will be our first real hotel to stay at in a LOONG time! Lately the trips have included tents and/or trucks to sleep in, so we are really looking forward to the luxury of it all.

Overall this week has been alright, however our house has not had hot water since Sunday!! At first I didn't mind that much, it's been hot here so cooling off in the shower has been nice... however for anyone who has taken cold showers mutliple days in a row knows, your hair begins to get very "straw-like"- not enjoying this affect. I am on a mission today to have this hot water fixed by the end of the day.

My posts have been slightly irregular lately because I have a slight addiction to facebook- it is trouble I tell ya'!

DJ Spins at Castlerock Gardens

Only a few pictures taken at the party we hosted on Saturday night. The turn out was great- about 60 people. Unfortunately my speakers were not great which was really unfortunate because the tunes were good :)

50 things...

Ok... it is a slow day at work... and yes I am procrastinating by putting up 3 posts in one day... but I started this list today and thought it would be fun to share:

50 Things I love:

1. Diet Coke
2. Coffee
3. Caffeine (obviously)
4. Sand
5. Sound of the ocean
6. sound of the call to prayer
7. my family
8. my friends
9. laughter, uncontrollable where you wet your face and possibly your pants
10. movies that make you think
11. movie popcorn
12. freedom
13. music
14. my sister’s philosophy of “just do it!”
15. going out to eat
16. Ethiopian food
17. silliness
18. generosity
19. my orange striped shirt
20. big earrings
21. confidence
22. oprah
23. devotion
24. internet
25. fathers who walk down the street holding their kids things, when the kid gets tired of carrying their things
26. mothers who can juggle 20 things at once and make it look easy (thank you mom!)
27. kids at Halloween
28. theme parties
29. facebook, although it may go on my hate list as it is so addictive
30. photography
31. coldplay and chris martin’s songs to gwyneth
32. google
33. chatting with my flat mates in the kitchen
34. kid names like gordan, gwen, eva, ella, jack
35. dogs
36. emails
37. cribbage
38. cottage days
39. kayaks
40. nice stationary
41. initiative
42. courage
43. books
44. sound of the crickets before I fall asleep
45. real letters
46. Rumi
47. belief
48. friends who CAN sing karaoke
49. red wine
50. people that make me want to be a better person

Emily's publishing debut!!!

Check out Emily's first published article! So proud of her :

http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/22236/27611

Happy Birthday Dana!

Everyone should have the same reaction to receiving gifts that my flat mate Dana had this morning! It was wonderful. Martin, Emily and I went out and bought her a small Ethiopian rug, one that she had been eyeing since Christmas. We bought it for her for her 27 birthday and this morning when we gave it to her, she fell to the ground and was sooo thankful. Her reaction made us want to give her gifts daily :)

Martin asked her, "so you going to bring the rug to work today?" Dana said, "Hadn't even thought of that! Great idea Martin!"

It is great when you can give someone a gift that they completely love and appreciate :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILEY WITZ!

...................................................

So I have been working my way through "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. He is a fabulous writer but I have come to understand that I am definetly a novel reader- a reader for escapism and enjoyment. I have been trying so hard to make my way through this book, but I miss my made up characters... so I am putting "The World is Flat" back on the bookshelf and returning to my novelist world.

Nairobi Now

Check out the site that some friends and I started about cultural events, arts, and entertainment happening around the city:

http://nairobinow.wordpress.com/

An unexpected meeting

Interrupted mid sentence, Simiyo asks Dana, Emily and I on Saturday morning, “Want to do something fun?” We immediately said “yes”, not knowing if fun meant going off roading or dodging the traffic in his taxi. However, we had an even bigger surprise when he said “I am going to take you to meet my wife, Diana.”

Simiyo is one of the frequent taxi drivers we take around the city. He is a phenomenal person and one of our favorites because he has wonderful sayings, such as:

• “I have been touching childrens’ hearts since 1999”- in reference to the annual Heart Run in Nairobi.
  



• “Every journey begins with a small step.”
  



• “Love is built, not given.”
  



• “God loves everyone, even Osama Bin Laden.”- to which my response was “Well, I am sure that is the case but I don’t think God is particularly proud of Osama Bin Laden.”
  

Our journey to meet Diana, Simiyo’s wife, began on Friday afternoon when Simiyo helped me pick up my new laptop and desk. On the way home I had an idea- why not give Simiyo and his family my old 2002 Dell laptop? So I asked him if it would be something he would be interested in and I said I would give it to him free of charge. He was thrilled and as a result I got a free fare that day, something that was not expected but very kind.

Saturday morning, at 6:30 am, Simiyo arrived to pick Dana, Emily and I up to take us to the Heart Run. We were going to walk the 10 km in raising awareness of heart disease among children in Kenya. It was at the finish that Simiyo came up with the idea to meet his wife, Diana.

Simiyo drove us to the Nairobi Women’s Hospital where his wife works as the head of cleaning services. We met her and immediately were drawn to her beauty and charisma. She took us all in for a tea at the cafeteria. It was at this point that Simiyo said, “You know I have always dreamed of having a computer for my family, and today that dream came true.” I was so proud to have given the family the chance to own their first computer. Then Simiyo continued by saying, “ You know I am so proud of my family, they are great people.” Cue- Dana begins to cry- out of complete happiness.

I think Diana sensed that we were all getting quite emotional because we really felt connected to Simiyo and his family, so she suggested that we take a tour of the Nairobi Women’s Hospital. It is at this hospital that rape victims are counseled for and given treatment. We did not go into that section of the ward and instead she took us to the maternity area and pediatrics. We were in heaven- lots of babies every where and the facilities were incredible! Dana’s mother is a nurse so she was busy taking photos for her mother. You could sense the extreme pride Diana had for her work as she showed us ward after ward.

At the end of our tour and trip to visit Diana, I ran in to get the old 2002 laptop while Emily ran into grab something I could not see. When I came back out to the car, Emily was showing a picture of Mom and Dad to Simiyo, she said “Now that we have met your family, here is our family.”

The whole day’s events was inspiring- Dana, Emily and I left Simiyo feeling completely fulfilled- we loved the fact that he introduced us to his family and it was clear that we were his friends, not his clients. In the next week or two we are all going to meet his children, Francis, Charlotte, Alvin, and Wadell. He wants Emily to meet the kids before she leaves for Vancouver.

A hike diverted...

Although living in Kenya is great, there are certain freedoms I miss about living in North America- one of them being the freedom to go on a hike without a guard/protection. I completely forgot about this small requirement on Saturday when Emily and I made our way to the lush Ngong Hills. We took two matatus early on Saturday morning, bumping along the road, listening to Tupac at full blast. Just a note- all matatus (small buses) have great sound systems and they love to pump the music out to the entire city- it is a fun adventure when the music is good. We arrived in Ngong city centre and walked towards the ranger station where we were then pointed in the direction to start the hike.

We hiked for about 30 minutes at an 80 degree angle and finally reached the start of the hike, where we were then told that we needed to hire a guard to accompany us on the hike. That was not a problem, but the problem was that it cost 2000 ksh, about $30 USD, and together Emily and I had 900 ksh. The rangers would not let us hike alone due to the grazing animals and frequent grazing thieves. So, we sat down had a bite to eat and came up with plan B. Plan B consisted of walking about to Ngong Centre and taking matatus to Karen where we spent the afternoon walking in Karen and checking out craft stores.


One great find was the Kazuri Bead factory. It was established in the 1970s and is a factory where women from Kibera (local slum) work- making beads, pottery, painting, etc. The result is beautiful and I have attached some photos.





Rewind to Friday night- awesome outdoor concert at Alliance Francaise, which highlighted African Fusion music. African Fusion is a combination of modern/rock African music and it was amazing!! The setting was fabulous, the music was fantastic and the crowd was energetic- can’t ask for much more really.

Sunday was the usual dive class and then Swahili lesson. Sunday has become ideal in Nairobi. The dive club is a great place to relax and catch up with friends. Lazing by a pool in March is such a novelty.

Next weekend Emily, Dana and I are participating in a 10K run called “Heart Run Kenya”- should be fun. Emily is off to Mombasa- on the coast (Monday-Thursday) and I have another busy work week with more team members from the UK and Sub Saharan Africa visiting.

Hope all weekends were great across the globe!

For more photos go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amandainkenya/

Work week madness

I have been getting some emails from friends wondering where the lastest post is :) So... here we go. It has been an extremely eventful work week. The BBC WIL team were here to work on the Portal and although the days were long and tiring, we came away from the week with so much to work on and noticed much progress! Yeah!! Finally feels like all the work is coming together.

So it was pretty much work, work, work this week- with a little jazz night thrown in there, and a purchase of a Toshiba laptop from a friend who is moving back to the states. I am really excited (geeky excited) about this new laptop. My old Dell, bought in 2002, yes it is ancient by computer standards, is slowly dying. The new Toshiba- comes with a ton of video editing software, music editing software, all Adobe products, and latest XP Professional. Whohoo. Oh, and a DVD burner- very excited about that. I will get it next week after it has been cleared of personal information and then it will become mine- yeah!!

This weekend should be eventful! Tonight a bunch of us are going to a Kenyan music festival and tomorrow Emily and I are heading out for a hike in the Ngong Hills- I love the setting of the Ngong Hills, it is so lush and beautiful.

Hope everyone has safe and nice weekend. Happy Birthday to Corinne!!