Adventure is Out There!

We’re getting close to the end of the semester, classes and exams are over, DR selections have been made and in two days time, we will start DR fieldwork.  Crazy!  In good news, I got my first choice for DR!  I’ll be working with one of our professors, Kiringe, and nine other students assessing the water quality of the main river that goes through Kimana Group Ranch.  In assessing the water quality, we will be running water quality tests, measuring the erosion, and measuring the distance between human settlements and farms and the water.  I’m excited! I’ve been reading countless articles on water quality but it won’t really be real until Thursday when we start fieldwork.  That means we don’t get to really celebrate Thanksgiving in normal fashion, but all you really need to celebrate Thanksgiving is counting your blessings.  We’ll celebrate Thanksgiving the next week on a non-program day.  We even chipped in to buy a turkey, which are pretty scarce around here.

Today we had our second non-program day.  We went on a hike in a town called Loilotoktok.  We were hiking to a waterfall, but being that it’s the dry season there was no water in the waterfall.  It was a fun hike though, we jumped over boulders in the dried river bed and tried to avoid all sorts of spiney and pokey plants.  We found a cave that was about twenty feet up on a rock face and I climbed up to the cave along with three of my fellow other students, much to the dismay of our student affairs manager who was certain we would get hurt and he would get in trouble.  We didn’t get hurt though, don’t worry!  At the waterfall, we found these huge vines and all took turns swinging on the vines! We dubbed the hike “Adventure Hike”.  Climbing to caves, jumping boulders, swinging on vines; it was great!

After the hike we went into Loilotoktok town and went to the market. The market was good, I didn’t get anything or barter at all, but it’s always fun to walk around and see what people are selling.  After the market, some of us went back to KBC and watched a movie while the rest went into Kimana town.  After watching a movie, I spent the rest of the night in the kitchen helping one of the chefs, Motero.  It was one of the most relaxing nights I have had here.  No one was around so it was quiet while Motero and I just cooked away, or at least Motero cooked, I just cut fruit and veggies.  It was very peaceful.   

Well that’s it for now.  We haven’t gone out a lot lately.  All of our time is spent on getting ready for DR so that’s why there are a lack of posts about Kenya.  I’ll try to update about what DR entails and how it’s going.  Have a great Thanksgiving! Make sure to count your blessings and tell the people you love that you’re thankful for them.  I am thankful for all of your support and prayers back in the states!  Thank you everyone!