The Holidays (Part 3: Kenya with Nate)

I left America on the 11^th and it would’ve been a lot harder but I lucked out because I was traveling back with my wonderful boyfriend and we had lots of exciting plans ahead of us. It was tough leaving my family all over again but I keep thinking about how I will be home by next Christmas to see them all once more! Nate & I left Dullas and had a 12 hour layover in Amsterdam and were able to walk around, ride the train for a few hours (we couldn’t figure the system out), eat lots of sample cheese, see the flower market & a punch bug and check out the public library for a free view of the city. It was the best layover. We arrived early on the 13^th in Nairobi and traveled pretty easily back to Sipili. We hung out and caught up on sleep before we had to leave for Naivasha 2 days later for my Peace Corps training. I had mandatory training with my group for 3 full days. We basically talked about what we learned from our last year, what we wanted to work on and getting excited for the upcoming year. This was the first time PC had this training for volunteers but I think he decided to because after year one is when volunteers are more likely to early terminate (the other times are right when you arrive at site and 6 months into service). It was alright though I wasn’t a fan of being in sessions from 8-5 every day when Nate was so close and I still couldn’t see him. He ran, read, napped and watched a few movies and got to see some cool animals! We were at the Kenya Wildlife Training Service Training Institute so there were animals everywhere. We saw warthogs out the window, zebras, impalas and gazelle and Nate got to see 3 giraffes one morning. It was really good to see the other volunteers in my group too! It had been a long time and hanging out with them afterwards was lots of fun. After Naivasha we went back to Sipili to relax before my school field trip 2 days after training. Nate got to experience a day in the life at my school with the field trip. The morning started off like most during the year where I had no idea what was going on or what to expect and no one I was asking seemed to know either. We were supposed to be ready at 8 to leave at 9…we left at 11:30ish and headed with 30 kids to Land of Hope, a Laikipia Conservancy. We were supposed to arrive early enough to see some animals but we missed that being as we run on Kenyan time and the Dutch don’t hahaha. Our kids were fitted-or rather inventory was taken-for hearing aids that the group from Holland had brought. They handed out balloons and bubbles afterwards, that were a huge hit!! It was hilarious to watch the little ones try and pick up the balloons or throw them in the air-they loved it. That was pretty much the field trip though only lasted about 1.5 hours. We hopped back on the lorry (basically a truck) and headed the 2 hours back to Sipili on a very dusty and bumpy road-sitting on mattresses in the back of this truck. The kids who lived in Nyahururu left right after getting back to Sipili and so it was very long day for them with little food. The day was an adventure for sure! The next day Nate & I left for Fishermans Camp, Naivasha. We arrived and got a little tent set up for us and we waited. Nothing. An hour and a half of waiting later, we decided to eat our picnic dinner and that’s when it happened. We looked across the fence and we saw our first hippopotamus! And it was HUGE!! On Christmas Eve we left Camp and biked to Hells Gate-a beautiful park filled with lots of wildlife. We biked for about 7 hours and saw the obsidian caves as well as giraffes, zebras, gazelles, impalas, warthogs, antelope and African buffalo. The African buffalo were the scariest because they were in a humongous herd with the biggest ones in the front staring at us. There was a car that we’d passed maybe 15 min before and so we decided to wait for them to pass the buffalo and scare them away. The car arrived and they stopped to ask what we were doing and they laughed but told us it was a good idea because they can be really dangerous animals. Oh snap. We were on bikes and after the car scared them a little bit, we rode past as fast as we could and the people in the car were nice enough to wait a little way ahead to see if we made it okay. We got back to the camp and after a warm shower (the only one Nate was lucky enough to have) we decided to splurge and eat at the one restaurant on the grounds. It was sooo good and it ended with the best treat-we saw 6 hippos that night! That was one Christmas Eve experience I’ve never had before. On Christmas Day we left for Nakuru and walked around, ate some Nyama Choma (fried meat) with ugali and then finished off the night skyping Nate’s family in Pittsburgh. The next morning Nate went running and ended up running 25 min with 3 fast Kenyans out on their morning run-he was so happy! The rest of the morning, we hiked up to Menengai Crater. It’s the 2^nd largest caldera in the world I believe. It took us 2.5 hours to hike up and 2 to hike down-we definitely got our workout in for the day. We relaxed and ate lots of good fruit the rest of the day and ended that night by skyping my family! It was soo good to hear their voices and catch up! We left Nakuru for Sipili the next morning to hang out there for a few days before our New Years adventure. We left for Iten on the 30^th and it was a long travel day. It took us 4 matatus and 8 hours to get there but that was faster than we’d anticipated. When we arrived we weren’t sure where the key would be since we were staying at my friends house but she was in America. We got to the school and ended up going to the graduation party that was held at the school that evening (for people not from the deaf school) and getting a free meal and chai while the principal searched for the spare key. It was eventually found and we were able to sleep at Mackenzies house like we’d planned. Her neighbor at the school we found out is an athlete training there and he offered to take Nate with him on the easy run the next morning-jack pot! At 5:30 the next day Nate & Robert left to meet up with maybe 50 other Kenyans. Nate said they started out at a slower (its all relative) pace but by the end of it some of them were going pretty fast. He estimated they ran around 12ish miles that morning. Robert was impressed Nate stayed with them the whole time. He said he checked his watch at 30 min then 40 then 50 min and was happy to see Nate still holding on. Nate was ecstatic when he got back. Robert invited us over for chai and bread and we chatted a little while we watched some New Years celebrations on TV. Robert ran a 64, I wanna say, half marathon but aspires to run a marathon some day. The rest of the day we spent by relaxing, eating mandazi & more chai, walking around in search of the Olympic Stadium (we found out in mid-afternoon that the stadium is actually in Eldoret-45 min away) and then searching for the one track in Iten though we never found that either. It’s a little town filled to the brim with runners and it was really neat to be there again. The following day before we left Nate went running one more time. This time was a workout. They left around 8:30 and ran a one-hour workout of one min fast then one min easy. Nate kept the top group in eyesight for the first 56 min before he said he fell back a little bit and although when he got back he was tired, he still looked on top of the world. All of the Kenyans kept telling him he only needed to be there for 1-3 months and he’d be so much faster. Maybe one day we’ll go back so we can both train J We got home late that night and then had 2 days of relaxing in Sipili before Nate would fly out. He helped paint the map of Africa. I hate the ladder and so he climbed up and did the 2^nd coat on the word ‘Africa’ and repainted the blue around it and now it looks much better up top and is officially done done done!! We also visited MCs house and he gave us the full tour. He was so excited to hear that Nate is an environmental major and told him a lot of cool stuff about his farm and the plants in it. We left for Naivasha on the 5^th so that on the 6^th Nate could leave in a taxi for the airport at 3:30 am. And just like that, 3 weeks were over, time sure flies when you’re having fun!

Overall the time with Nate here was amazing!!! We had so much fun exploring and seeing new things together. I’m so happy he got to see Sipili, meet my kids briefly and just see beautiful Kenya. Sadly he is arriving back in America today-on the coldest day I hear-but school starts soon for both of us and then time will continue to fly.

Speaking of school tomorrow is the official opening day for Sipili School for the Deaf! I can’t believe my second school year is about to begin! I have no idea when we’ll have our staff meeting and we’ll pick classes or when classes will begin but so it goes. I wish all of you the best with work and school and hope you all survive the cold winter! I can’t believe it’s possible to now say that I will see you all this year since I will be home before next Christmas but I wish you all the happiest 2014 and hope it goes well for us all!

Wishing you all the best and lots of kisses from Kenya,

Love Zabet