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Date: Dec 29th, 2006

( Happy Belated Birthday Mommy!)

Hello, Oh you people of civilized society where the toilets flush and people follow the speed limits...or wait.. where there ARE speed limits.
THANK YOU SO MUCH for your emails!! It feels so good to connect with you from across the miles, and I miss you all so much. Maybe this surprises you, when I've been desperately waiting to come to Africa, and now I'm homesick.
Well, first of all, this trip has helped me remember why, only six years ago, I was begging my parents to move back to Canada. Life here is hard, as it is everwhere in the world. I wasn't naive of this fact before, I just chose to forgot it, in my frustration with Western life.
This trip is two thirds over, and Randy and I are both very homesick. But in no way do we regret this trip. It's been eyeopening,revealing, difficult and fun too.
So maybe I'll delve a little in the part of Africa I don't love so much: one is the dirtyness. It's smelly, and polluted. People toss their garbage wherever they fancy. The roads are adorned with smelly plops of cowpies and there are flies everywhere. I think the city is the worst in this aspect; in Uganda I always dreaded going into town, or worse, the city.
Not only that, theres the constant busy chaos, noise, pickpockets, and police officers with assault rifles. It makes me just plain uneasy. Not only that, there's the celebrity status that comes with a white face, and for me, a massive head of (might I add braided) blonde hair.  It's like Oprah strolling down the mainstreet of bracebridge, or Angelina Jolie showing up on your doorstep and asking to use the bathroom.
I get wide eyed stares from kids, and I even make babies cry. I can't be discreet, incognito or inivisible. I might as well streak down the street naked. But no, I'm not going to do that.
ABout the braided hair thing: last Saturday I had the enjoyable experience of having a dozen clucking women pulling and pinching my scalp for six hours. My head was bent over double for half of that and I've been cracking my neck like so many chinese firecrackers ever since. My hair nearly reached my butt when they were finished, because they put about three yards of fake hair into it. I've trimmed it down so it reaches halfway down my back. It's cool, and highly practical cause I can't get rained on, go swimming , or shower for the next month.
WEll I"ve heard the weather back home is rather drab, but here ( in ELdoret, actually) the streets are turned to rivers and the trees are underwater.  It's been raining here since September, and though it's nice having everything green and lush, it's a bit hard on the roads ( theres the understatement of the century; lets just say it's better to swim, or drive on the savannah) and the Kenyans are more than a little fed up with the constant downpours.
Christmas day was overcast and cloudy, and we didn't see the sun all day, which was a bit of a bummer. Randy and I get up at 6 to see the sun rise every few days. The first day was beautiful. Unfortuanately we haven't had much luck since, dreary drab drab drab.
So maybe you wonder why I"m in Eldoret, and how in heaven's name did I get acess to * A COMPUTER!!!* . Well we've been discarded here for a few hours, a the Shirikwa hotel while Dave goes off ... somwhere. .. Jua Kali . We were going to swim and laze aroudn the pool ( in the dreary drab drab weather) but then we came into the lobby and *hallelulah chorus and parting  clouds* they had an internet cafe! So i got the chance to read all your emails, and thoroughly enjoyed them.
I'm glad to hear I've entertained you with my ... whachacalem, wild stories. I apologize to those of you I promised a postcard from Paris.... I was dillusional from lack of sleep and everything is Paris is freaking expensive!! So I sent a communal postcard... Did I mention that France smells bad? I dont' think french people shower.. .But hey , I haven't showered since I left home, so who am I to talk.
So ... back to my story about Eldoret. We took a long a bumpy drive from Vahiga yesturday, and arrived with sore buttocks at the Highland Inn in Eldoret. It sounds lovely and Scottish I know, but it's really just ... I don't know... it would be illegal in Canada. No toilet seat... yep.... But it flushes!!! In theory... It "stirs", so as long as there is nothing solid in the bowl, you're fine... but I left a little present for the cleaning lady, though I tried about 15 times to get it down the "Cho" ( Swahilli for hole in the ground into which you poo)
The room was well equipped with a TV with 4 channels (2 that worked) and One bed for me and Levina. Which was fine. Randy and Dave made sure they got the room with 2 beds, because, although they are father and son, they can't bear the thought of actually *touching* each other.
Today, Levina has gone home to stay with her mother, and I may not see her again. I think my whole stay at Shangilia wouldn't have been as much fun without her, and I wouldn't have wanted to stay in that grass hut by myself.
Now I know you girls are dying of curiosity about why you shouldn't eat cabbage. And its because.... OH! wait, I can't tell you. You'll have to wait til I get back. Lol. i think it's bunk anyway so don't worry. I've actually become rather fond of cabbage, so whatever. Even if the superstition is true, it's not enough to worry me, at least not until I'm hitched.*shifty eyes*
So!Anyways! Today we are going to Nakuru, ( not really sure where that is )  and we'll stay there tonight (not sure where) and tomorrow we'll go on Safari! That'll be cool. Hope it doesn't rain.. or flood ...
So.. Christmas was interesting, I was especially homesick for fruit cake and apple cider that day... Christmas Eve was even better though! I got sun stroke in the market and nearly passed out, before stumbling into a seamstress shop and collapsing onto a stool. WE had been standing in the midday beating sun for an hour, while the girls bought their new Christmas dresses.
My vision started getting blurry, then my hearing -- it sounded like i was inside a tin can, or that my ears were clamped shut. THen I couldnt stand up and was leaning on Randy , probably drooling or something attractive like that. Then he pulled me into the little shack where two young women at seagull sewing machines looked at me oddly as I fanned myself and gasped for breath.
Maybe it sounds romantic now, but it really wasn't. I don't reccomend it. Then it happened again. I walked outside for 2 mnutes and nearly fainted again. Finnally the girls were done and we managed to shove our way out of the market. THen I saw a soda shop, like the pearly gates, rising in the distance, and dove inside. An orange fanta and bottle of water revived me. Hopefully no lasting brain damage.
OH yah! Rachel, on the plane from Paris to Addis Ababa I got a bottle of wine. But it was really gross. But!! Last night we had dinner at a bar here we had a round of Smirnoff Vodka coolers. They were really good! ( We muzungus can get away with anything, even if we are underage)  Levina was close to drunk, after just one. It was pretty funny. ALong with our sinful drinks we had a whole cow leg, hacked to peices right in front of us by a machete weilding waiter. THey must have had to butcher it right when we ordered because it took them more than an hour to bring us our fries and beef. ( my apolgies to the vegetarian readers)
When we go to Nairobi on Thursday we'll go the World Famous Carnivore restaurant, where you can eat anything from Crocodile, to Zebra, to Ostrich. I'm not thrilled, but it will be an educational experience I guess. ( Like the time Dave found a Chicken in his Egg!)
So, although Africa is non stop adventure and excitement, I am very much looking forward to seeing familiar faces at the airport! And I'm looking forward to staying at the Hilton again.. ( smack! Im just a hypocrite. but i gues after living in a mud hut for three weeks one is justified at staying at the hilton) That will probably be my next opportunity to use the internet, so I'd love to hear from you! But soon I'll be home and back at school, seeying you again.
I think we're going to go try the lunch buffet here. So , regretfully signing off-- we miss you all!
Love, Sarah and Randy

Date: 20 Dec 2006

Well here I am again in an internet cafe, this time in Kisumu.  I almost didn't get to use a computer because the power was out when we arrived
I've been having a really great time with the kids at Shangilia. They were shy of me at first , but now I'm getting to know them a lot better.
Believe it or not I got really homesick the first couple days, feeling a little overwhealmed by everything, I long for the comfort of my own bed and my flush toilet at home.
Going to the bathroom has become an ordeal. I dread the telltale rumblings in my bladder, which despite the most noble attempts, will not be ignored.
We have a 'flush toilet' ,an easy 200 yards accross rocky terrain from my personal grass hut. But it is a non-flush-flush toilet, for one has to pour 5 litres into the back of it to make it flush.
Nonetheless i am thankful that I don't have to use a smelly johnny-on-spot. But I shall never take a canadian toilet for granted again.
Even worse than midnight trips to the toilet, are showers... so far I have only taken one. Yes i know it sounds gross but it's not worth it!
The one i did take was in an unlocked tin stall out of a hose with a crowd of loitering men watching me walk in and out from outside. *awkward* (swim awkward turtle swim)
The profession of most African men is sitting around. And sleeping around too. I dont want to be sexist and racist at the same time, but this is true. It's why AIDs spreads so fast.
I learn my lessons in kenyan culture from Lavina, my roomate. She thinks i'm hysterical and we often are laughing so hard that we keep awake Dave and Randy in the next hut over.
She told me why women should never eat cabbage... which is not G-rated enough for this email.
The kids at Shangilia are really awesome, and they are pampering us with mzungu food and special treatment. I try to make them stop , and last night i ate soem ugali with them, which they thought was amusing.
but we've been eating lots of pinapples, mangoes, jipatties, and good stuff liek that. Last night they served chicken. This happened to be the same chicken that had been pecking around my feet earlier that afternoon, before being scooped up by Jacinta with a  brandished knife.
i coudln't bring myself to eat it... Lexy and Dan must be proud of me; maybe Kenya will turn me into a vegetarian afterall.
I've had some perilous encounters with African wildlife, like the gargantuan cockroach that was climbing my mosquito net the other night. i HATE cockroaches. I screamed and Levina promptly excecuted it with a shoe.
The other, perhaps more life-endangering experience, was yesturday morning. Bleary eyed and half awake, i opened the front door of my hut only to be jerked awake by the sight of snake coiling his way across a rock--right towards me.
It was about a foot and half long, half an inch think and shiny black: a black mamba. i didn't panic, well at least not outwardly;I just watched it slithering closer, till he was only 2 feet away. His pink tongue popped out. But then he must have seen me, and turned back on himself and slinked away.
When I knew he was gone I put on my boots and dashed to the 'bathroom' to tell Lavina. When eventually we told the camp directors taht there was a mamba skulking around, they must have thought the silly mzungu girl is hallucinating, and they laughed.
They thought I must have seen a lizard, or maybe a catterpillar. Then I told them I'd seen one before i knew the difference between a lizard and a highly poisonous snake, thanks very much. Oh well.. eventually they believed me, but there wasn't much they could do about it. I just check  between my sheets before i go to bed.
But i'm sure I am in far greater danger on the kenyan roads than with local wildlife. On the way into Kisumu today from Vahiga (the village where the orphanage is) , we had to get out and push the Toyota Corrola up a rutted slope.
I guess your vehichle here is either 4 wheel drive or man-powered. There are two gears here: FAST, and A-short-blast-of-the-horn. As the driver swerves between boda bodas and stray chickens, he toots his horn with pride; it is the responsibility of the pedestrian to get out of the way. If not ... SHMUCK.
most of the time,t hey make it. if say however, the pedestrian does not the horn's meaning (say perhaps, they are a goat) the driver will at the last possible second swerve out of the way. If, and only if, they happen to be headed towards a sharp precipice, then they may employ their brakes.
Here in kenya, they drive on teh right side of the road, which just happens to be on the left. THus was explained to us by our taxi driver on the way to the airport in Nairobi. Then we got distracted by some giraffes chilling out beside the run-way.
Most of the roadways here in africa are ruled by the infamous matatus: busses in disguise as taxis.
Way back in my childhood in mbarara, when we lived in fear of these use-to-be hippie vans turned to monstrous beasties, we would sing this song, to the tune of Jingle Bells to assauge our fears:
Dashing through the mud, in a four-door Ma-ta-tu. A hundred and eighty pass-en-gers, and a term-boy hang-on too. No lights, no brakes no gears, but still we carry on. We're going to Kisumu town and we'll ge-et there by dawn... Oh! nanana...
On that note, merry Christmas! Thanks for your emails, thoughts and prayers. I really miss you all. I dont' know when I shall see a computer monitor again, but until then!
Love, Sarah

> Subject: I'm in Kenya!!!!
> Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2006 10:00:42 +0000
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>
> Hey Everyone,
> Well I'm actually here, halfway around the world, sweating like a pig and sitting in an internet cafe across from the Hilton in Nairobi.
> I feel like such a hyprocrite; my first night in Africa and I spent it at a suite at the Hilton. But having been awake for 48 hours with only a few restless hours of sleep on the plane, it felt sooooo good to sleep in a real bed, albeit a Kingsize bed.
> Slightly ridiculous, but this is my laste taste of civilization for a month. And they have  a pooooool!!!! I can't explain how good that felt.
> yeah so Paris: dirty city.... kind of gross, and not as much fun when you've been awake all day and night. But Notre Dame is amazing!!! I was blown away. The eiffel tower isn't all it's cracked up to be; we climbed the stairs to the first level.
> There was a post office up there, so I sent a letter home from there.
> THis is really weird! Thaat song... "If i lay here, if i just lay here, would you lie with me and just forget the world" you know that one? It just came on the speakers. It's so strange to hear a western song in such a non-western place.
> So, it's 12:30 pm here, which means that right now you're probably all sleeping at home in your beds at 4:30 am.. except Alison, no idea what time it is in New Zealand, and Chloe, i guess it's different in England.
> It still  hasn't toatally sunk in yet that I'm actually HERE! It was a cool flight from from Addis Ababa to Nairobi because it was a low altitude one. Yeah I wanted to hurl for most of it, but I got a birds eye view of Ethiopia and northern Kenya
> I think Ethiopia used to be one big lake, because it looks like a dried up mud puddle from the air, a bunch of random lakes and miles and miles of desert.
> Yesturday  morning, I woke up on Ethiopian Airlines, and watched the sun rise on the Sahara desert. The  horizon was bright pink and gradually as the mist cleared I could see the sand dunes and the Nile snaking across it.
> I remember watching  that same sunrise 6 or 7 years ago on a flight from London.
> Like I said, it's stil sinking in. It's hard to believe that I'm  actually on the other side of the globe (especially hard to believe when one is staying at the Hilton). The heat is only thing that's convincing me.
> Speaking of Culture shock ,Justin Timberlake " Sexyback" just came on. I hate this song! Oh yeah and that other one was called "Chasing cars". apparently. Who names these songs?
> I think Paris was probably the worst culture shock so far, well I guess cause I grew up in east africa its not so weird here, but having never been to france, and being terrible at french was a very strange experience.
> Everyone looks like me, so I expect them to speak english, and they expect me to speak french. So it was very hard to communicate. And their airport is dirtsack. Lol.. I learned that anything goes in Paris. It's so RANDOM!
> There was a guy with an accordian in the train car... and yes Evan, I bought a breadstick, one Euro , it was reallly good. And there was a man feeding the birds outside Notre Dame.. how poetic. And I drank strong (expensive) coffee in a cafe...
> But now here I am in Nairobi. At 5 we're flying to Kisumu, in yet another low-altitude flight, i hope I don't puke. Tonight we will be at Shangilia Children's home. My home for the next month. Randy's adopted sister Lavina is staying with us too.
> Last night I taught her how to swim and she's been freaking out about the fact that we're staying at the Hilton! She's really cool, and she's gonna be my roomie for the trip. She got up early this morning while the rest of us slept in and almost had to pay extra for not checking out in time.
> We just made it in time for the buffet breakfast they were packing up. It was reallygood! Our last of western food for a while. Which is fine with me. I love african food, well at least I did. I hope i still do!
> Well I will have to get off here soon, it's a shilling a minute ( 2 cents). THis whole money thing is messing me up because I'm used to Ugandan shillings.
> Here 50 shillings is about one dollar, but in Uganda it was 1000 shillings to one dollar. So I am very confused about it all.
> I've taken a whole memory card of picutres already, I wish I could send them but this computer is craptacular and doesn't have an input spot. Good thing I have an extra card. The internet in Kisumu is dailup so... that wont' happen from there.
> Well I need to go now, but I miss you guys and think about you lots. Pray for me, and our safety as we fly today. And for us to not pass out in a taxi from the heat.
> We've been speculating that it would be nice to have black skin, so we could handle the heat and so people  wouldn't think we are rich mzungus. Relatively speaking we are...Anyone know how to get reverse albino skin pigmentation surgery?
> Meh.. I'll deal. But I'll be sporting a million more freckles when I get back. Beleive, me I"m not missing the snow.
> My time is up! I miss you all lots, thanks for all your support. Not sure when I'll be able to write again. Until then!
> Love, Sarah
> ( And Randy and Dave )
>

Africa has been increasingly on mind.. all the memories coming back like a half forgotten dream. And I want to share about it! Here is just the beginning, a small sample of the memories locked up. I'll keep adding more, once I get the chance to scan some.

--Page still under construction--

The community on a hill where my church (centre) and my house ( down the road to the right) were. This is myself and my little sister when we first visited there.

The three girls "nextdoor" soon became our best friends. Left to right, their foster brother Muccoli, Julian, Our dog Queeny, Me, Rachel, Jane, and Pamela (affectionately known as Edie)

Me and Ian, whom I don't really remember, but our parents thought we looked cute becuase my dress and his shirt matched. And come on, is that not a cute picture?

This was at one of the hotels we would go and visit on special occasions, the grass is really that green in the rainy season, no pesticides used. The hotel overlooked a beautiful valley. They had an exotic petting zoo including camels, donkeys, crocodiles and a stuffed lion that you met as you came around a sharp corner. Though if you were smart you didn't pet the crocodile. But you could ride the camels and donkeys.

If you know me you know I am fond of wearing army/treckie boots a good deal.. well this where it started. A friend who was in the army was visited and somehow his boots and hat went missing.... temporarily of course.

Family tradition is breakfast in bed on your birthday. This is my 10th.

We held a lot of outdoor parties in the gazaebo, this one was a big Christmas Dinner.

Yes.. living on the equator means lots of freckles for us with fair skin. But Freckles are awesome!
Me, Rachel , and Momsie chillin down town.