Floods of Chocolate Milk

When I awoke this morning, the skies were dark and thunder could be heard off in the distance. Luckily I was able to board a taxi (matatu) just before the rain began to fall... and boy did it ever fall!! Given the hectic nature of our weekend I have been in no rush to get to work this week. So instead of stressing about how long it was taking to get to work, I sat back and enjoyed the storm.

It was raining so hard that we needed to pull over for 20 minutes to wait it out. In an instant the streets went from dry and pot-holled to flooded with chocolate milk. Women rushed about with bags over their hair to prevent getting wet and the taxi leaked everywhere. By the time my taxi reached downtown (over an hour later) the rain had mostly subsided, and I made my way to the office...where the power was out.

Learning and Moving On

Well, we are now in the post-tournament phase of our internships, and I couldn't be more happy to have it behind us. Our "Playing for Awareness" Sports Tournament on Saturday was a complete disaster (at least in our oppinion), but I learned more in one day than I have over the course of the last few months. It was extremely disheartening to see how demanding and ungrateful everyone was, and even how dishonest people became when a bull was at stake. It was going so badly that at one point I had considered not extending my internship, but now that I have had the opportunity to cool off a bit, I realize that I need to overcome the problems we faced, and actually get some environmental information across before I pack up and head home.

So now I am switching gears and will be starting to focus on assembling a book of information on tree species to distribute to farming co-operatives as part of the environmental trainings I would like to organize. Also I will be using the money that I raised over the holidays back home to fund an environmental drama and song competition between school groups in March. Thank you again to everyone that contributed to the fund, I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

It is from our failures not our successes that we learn the most!

Not So Very Far Away!

I decided today to join the modern world.... and start a blog. I never imagined that moving to Africa would inspire me to get my first mobile and start a blog!

Now I'll be able to post little observations as I make them rather than writing a massive bulk email after months of procrastination. I'll even try to include a picture or two along the way...

See, I'm really not so very far away!