how we spent the holidays.

On Christmas eve, we (the five volunteers staying with Pastor) went out for a fancy meal at one of the restaurants in Nakuru, called the Magic Carpet. It was mostly east Indian food, and I had some awesome palak paneer. Kyle had a chicken dish that was also quite good. It was nice to get away and have a meal together where we were washed and clean.  The boys even ironed their shirts! It was also our first time being out of the house after dark - and everything turned out okay! We have since been out at night twice - again, we are safe!

On Christmas, Pastor asked us if we wanted to go to the national park here - Lake Nakuru. It was beautiful! The lake is famous for having thousands of flamingo and also a few groups of both kinds of rhino. We saw one of each. We also saw zebras, giraffe, lots of different deer/antelope/gazelle, some water buffalo, monkeys, and even a LION! super cool.
Here are some pictures. None of the lion, sorry. We were actually out of the car for when we saw the lion. We were pushing our car which had broken down. Hahaha bad timing. The lion wasn't interested in us though, she was stalking an antelope.

looking over the lake

Giraffe in the wild!

Fixing the tire right after we saw the lion. Andrew and Jeremy are supervising.

Soooo many flamingos!

Their Christmas was a bit different from our traditions. We didnt have a big meal, and we were the only ones who gave gifts. Joy (Pastor's daughter) loved her little shoes that we gave, and Pastor Antony and his wife liked their coffee maker (from Emily) and coffee beans (from us). I was telling my mom about it on the phone and she couldn't believe that they didn't have one. Well, now they do! We will probably have coffee one of these mornings soon - but we usually leave for the slum before everyone in the house is up.

On boxing day, Kyle and myself and Jeremy (another volunteer) went to Menegai Crater. A dormant volcanic crater that was simply amazing. It was so high - we were one the ridge of the crater - and its expanse was huge! A guy who has a shop there told us that the crater has one of the largest calderas in the world. He showed us the volcanic rock, ash gravel, and obsidian that make up much of the crater. We could even see the black area that was the lava flow!  Its last eruption was in 6050 BC. (roughly estimated)

Jeremy pushing me into the crater. Haha

 It was a very cool way to spend the morning. Then we went back home and boxed things up - boxing day! Because the next day, we moved!

We used the skipping rope that we play with at the slum to lower things from our balcony to the moving truck. Haha. Here are some pictures of the moving truck - we were surprised that everything made it there in one piece.  The moving truck guys actually tied everything down with the skipping rope that we use at the slum with the kids.

Our moving system - Andrew and Kyle.

Ready to go!

The new house is quite a bit bigger, and it is in the same compound as a hotel, so we can use their restaurant  - a coke is only 50 shillings, and ice cold!- and their pool. We have yet to go swimming, but maybe today. At our new house we also have a hot shower. It had been exactly one month since our last hot shower, and it felt great! On the sad side of things - Kyle and I have both had upset tummies the last few days, and my sunburn ontop of sunburn is now peeling. ewwww.

January will be a busy month for us. We are going to Nairobi to meet the new batch of volunteers and talk about the projects we have going on at the garbage slum. We will be starting classes Monday - Saturday. A feeding program 3 days a week (to start, it might be five days a week in Feb.) And Kyle and I will be working on another project for the slum. We hope to get a clean water program in place that is more sustainable than paying for a water truck every other week. We want something more permanent - and we both wish we knew more about water filtration right now.


Hope everything is well with you back home, Thanks for keeping up with us while we are away.
Have a happy New Year.
- Kate and Kyle