Adventures in Life

Yesterday I woke with the dawn (even a bit earlier) and travelled across Nairobi with collegue Bethany to attend the Ambassador's U.S. Presidential Election Party which started at 5am. This was to catch the election results live. Thousands joined in the celebrations at US Ambassador Michael Rannaberger's house. Red, white and blue colored the place as large screen TV's were in every corner bringing in the news as it happened. While waiting for the results non American's had the chance to vote in a mock election (over 400 voted for Obama and 17 for McCain). People were also able to ask political questions from experts. Meanwhile I munched on pasteries and fruit, sipped my hot morning drink and rubbed shoulders with a variety of people- most of which were pro Obama. 900 Kenyan school children were invited, as well as scores of Kenya's Ministers of Parliment and other national leaders. Here I am with Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai. Of course there were also m...

Two weeks before the US elections and Obama Mania has hit Kenya! Remember, half of Obama’s genes come from Kenya so people here feel a special connection and pride with him. T-shirts, signs, bumper stickers, skirts and pins are showing up in the least expected places. The local news reels never miss an election update. Newspapers have more news on the elections than any other event. The pic shows our two main papers and this is only some of the articles featured that day! Then there is the 'Obama Musical' which is playing at our National Theatre- they say it is a story of a Kenyan America told in dance, music, narrative and song by George Orido. Local commercials are appearing more and more- my favorite one is from a local paint company called Duracoat and the spokesman is talking to Obama, standing in front of the White House reminding him that when he moves into that big house they can provide any one of 4000 paint options to ‘freshen up the color’ of that white house. He is...

Swaziland. It just sounds cool, don't you think? I have always wanted to visit and finally the time was right. As Carmen and I entered the country we were suffering a bit of exhaustion from our long journey but still the excitement and curiosity of a new country kept us going. Immediately we could see why this country is renowned for its hiking and outdoor activities - mountains, woodlands, streams, plunging ravines and waterfalls cover this highly untouched landscape. It really would be wonderful to spend a week or two hiking in this stunning region but this particular trip didn't allow for such lengthy adventures. However, even with just a few days we were not disappointed. We were able to get introduced to the culture and beautifully rich traditions. One highlight was accidentally finding Maladela’s Homestead with the unique venue House of Fire . While there we toured the base for a community women’s cooperative for basket weaving called Gone Rural and saw the women dying...

I have been too quiet and I regret this as so much has been happening since I last posted. I am still not in the habit of blogging and I have been travelling a lot making it more of a challenge. Instead of dwelling on the silence I will try to share a bit of what has been filling my days of late. A week ago I boarded a plane from Nairobi, heading to Southern Africa for a true break- no laptops, no cell phone and no promise of email- just what I needed! On the 7th I landed in South Africa long enough to marvel at all the options for shopping and food- and I never even left the airport! A few hours later I was off to Maputo, Mozambique where I met up with my good friend Carmen. She has been living in Zambia for the past year and has now been travelling around Southern Africa- most recently Lesotho (a place that has now been clearly added to my places to visit). She met me at the airport and we spent the next day and a half checking out the capital city- we caught a tuk-tuk (little 3-whee...

So, I am far from being the first but certainly not the last to get a blog up and running. It is Saturday, I am currently sitting in Java House (for those of you who have been to Kenya you know- it is a happy place), for those of you still waiting for your chance to visit beautiful Kenya, just know Java is a little piece of home. It's a coffee shop/American style restaurant in Nairobi. They offer great burgers, soups, huge variety of breakfasts, hot drinks that rival Starbucks and fabulous treats such as classic apple pie! The best thing is they have free wireless so I can sit here sipping my favorite drink, log onto my favorite Seattle radio station and send messages out to all of you. Nairobi has come a long way. Last night some friends and I headed to the local 'mall' and watched a new movie, Hancock . Not the greatest movie but it was entertaining and it was warm in the theatre which was a welcome change. You would never guess but it is cold here. Since we are below th...