PEI Update

I love being home on PEI! Such a great feeling to be with family and life long cottage friends. I have found out that I have a number of avid readers of the blog on the Island, so I thought I would give a "shout out" to them: Susan, Sandy, Mike, and the GST Centre break crew :)

While I have been on the Island I have gotten back into running and working out which has been a nice change to my lazy-ness in Nairobi. This weekend Dad and I are taking a full day Kayak skills course- really looking forward to doing that.

Will post some pictures toward the end of my stay.

Congrats to Doug for taking the TSN job! Now I just need to get my hands on some TSN hats :P

Halifax and PEI!

24 hours of traveling later I made it to Halifax! Mom, Dad and Emily met me in Halifax and it was so great to see everyone!! In many ways it felt like ages since we had all seen each other and then in other ways it seemed like just a month ago I was saying good bye to everyone.

Halifax was great- a mix of shopping, seeing friends, and catching up with the fam. I had a great time visiting with Mary Kate/Tony and Andrew/Carol. (Thanks again for a great evening!)

I am on PEI now and am ready to start the cottage lifestyle- going for walks, reading, kayaking, biking, and visiting.

More pictures and updates to follow, but I believe it will be a slow blogging 2 weeks.

Special congratulations to Ryan and Val Fugit who welcomed a baby boy to the world on 23.June!!

Birthday weeked!!

Had a great birthday weekend, full of time with friends and time for me! I started my Saturday off with a pedicure and some "me" time, before heading off for a joint-birthday BBQ at my friend, Kevina's house. It was awesome!! She and I had a Kenyan meal catered- which meant the bbqing of 1.5 goats :) Nyama Choma- yummy!!


On Sunday, my actual bday- I met up with my friend Jane for a nice brunch, then saw Sandra and ended the evening with Dana and Martin to see the movie "Ocean's 13".

I am heading home on Wednesday evening and I can not wait!! I miss my family quite a bit, so it will be a great visit!!

Explosion in Nairobi.

At approximately 0820 hours, this morning, There was a low intensity explosion on Moi avenue near the Ambassadeur Hotel & City Gate Restaurant, Nairobi. Police have cordoned off the area as rescue teams try to get the injured to hospital.

The local media are reporting at least 5 people are confirmed dead and at some 36 seriously injured. They have been rushed to various city hospitals.

The area has been cordoned off as police investigate. Witnesses said a man with what looked like hand grenades was seen trying to jump into a bus when the explosion occurred. The witnesses said he attempted to detonate the grenade and was killed in the explosion.

The Ambassadeur Hotel is located in the city centre and has a major bus stage next to it. When the explosion occurred, there were scores of pedestrians and workers waiting for buses to their offices.

Downtown is heavily congested and staff members are asked to avoid this area, until the situation returns to normal.

(After touching base with my flatemates and friends, I was relieved to hear that they were not in that area of town this morning. I work about 15 minutes from where this explosion occurred. There should be more news later today/tomorrow)

Art and Rugby.

I saw the most refreshing piece of art on Friday at the Professional Centre in Nairobi. The one woman act was called "Migritude", performed by Shailja Patel. Her work is based on her experience as an Asian-Kenya growing up in Nairobi, then moving to the UK and finally to America. She speaks eloquently about her life and if anyone has the chance to see her perfom, it is a MUST.
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Saturday was the famous Safari 7's Rugby tournament- with participating teams from UK, South Africa, Tunisia, Morocco, Kenya, Cote d'Ivoire, and others. Beers and rugby watching- great way to spend a Saturday afternoon! (Eye Candy Galore)

The rest of the weekend was a mix of meeting up with friends, running errands, and getting ready for the week ahead. Next week, exactly 9 days away- I will be plane-bound for home- whohooo!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amandainkenya/
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I punch like a girl.

My friend, Anne Marie has been raving about her thai boxing class, so I thought I would join her yesterday afternoon. The warm up part was intense, but great. Then came the boxing part. In my mind I thought it was going to be something along the lines of Tai Bo. I was wrong. Basically it was actual boxing training. I was told to practice punches in the air, which honestly made me look more like a girl than I am. Anyways while I am air punching back and forth in the air, Anne Marie is punching a punching bag, looking very fierce with her new boxing gloves, and in the corner are two women complete in boxing gear punching and kicking the crap out of each other. Apparently they are actually training to compete in boxing championships... I was like "Huh?" "Why? That is CRAZY"

What I realized is that I am not a fighter- I enjoy sport and exercise, but have no interest in competition boxing and would probably run if someone started throwing punches at me in a ring. So I think I will hang up my imaginary gloves and go back to my 80's step aerobics.

Hell's Gate National Park & Mt. Longonot

This past weekend I decided to test out the Pajero by driving with 4 friends out to Lake Naivasha. We decided to go to Hell’s Gate National Park, site where Tomb Raider was filmed, and do some hiking and then camp at the famous Fisherman’s Camp. We actually didn’t camp, we rented a banda (small cottage) and ate all of our meals at the camp restaurant. Nice for roughing it! We hiked Saturday afternoon through the gorge- the main attraction of Hell’s Gate. It was breathtaking (see pics).

(Camping always seem to make the weekend seem longer than it actually is, something about being out in the outdoors without distraction). That evening we settled down with some beers and played “Jinga”- I have never played this game before and I found myself becoming quite competitive- we managed to get to 24 layers- which I guess is pretty good, especially after a couple of beers!

The next morning we decided to hike Mount Longonot on our way home. Mt Longonot is a volcano- and a struggle to get up. However, once you reach the top you are welcomed by a beautiful crater that reminds you of scenes from Jurassic Park. The entire crater is overgrown with lush trees and bushes.

In other weekend events- I went to see my first play in Kenya. The play was absolutely frustrating- one of those round-a-bout- “he said, she said” stories. Even though the story line was infuriating the acting was great!

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Roland posted 2 videos from our River India trip which you can check out here:

Siang River 2007 Parts 1 and 2
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDRx7cUc8hM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX_Q-ku06HI

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For more pictures from the weekend go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amandainkenya/