THE WORLD AS MY WITNESS

Has it really been a month already?? What have I been up to? A lot of beaches, sunsets, sand. Sometimes I kind of forget this is my life now… then I feel the sweat everywhere on my body. My back, my neck, my clothes are just damp (I didn’t know my upperlip could sweat) then I’m like oh I’m in Kenya and it’s end of November. I spend most of my weekends on the beach with friends. Or check out local parks like Shimba Hills up in the mountains. Some days you can see elephants near the river banks. Yesterday, during the presidential inauguration- a declared Kenyan holiday, we took to the beach for a barbeque. It was good and sandy (adds flavor). For thanksgiving, my boss was kind enough to invite me to his awesome feast with his expat friends. It was a nice spread as you can tell! Lobster, turkey, oysters, stuffing. I’m incredibly thankful to have met the people I have, and how they welcome me into their lives. And I’m just as thankful to have such a great family back ...

Village huts right outside the main Kilifi office Alright my first full week of work. Everyone is so friendly to each other - saying hi to every one. Nothing too much happened besides more meetings to get to know all the different departments. One day I went to the Nursery - where they grow the seedlings for the Eucalyptus and Melia trees. This was a cool experience because I got to see more modes of transportation in Kenya. So there’s the tuk-tuk and bota bota. But there’s also the matatu ( mah-tah-tu ) which is a small passenger van which locals take cause it’s cheaper. There’s usually a bunch of them, so chances are there’s one that’ll get you where you need to go. There’s a guy who’s a conductor of sorts who sticks his head out the window yelling to get people to hop in the van - so it gets very very crowded. I took this on my way back from the nursery. It was hot, cramped and there were chickens under my seat. On my way to the nursery I took a probox, because my coworker w...