KENYA THANKSGIVING!

During HIV/AIDS week the Loituktuk crew came to Machakos. The Loituktuk people are learning how to teach Math and Science to hearing kids. IT was SOOOOOOOO great seeing them! We only got to hangout with them in Nairobi at the very beginning of this adventure for about 4 days in total but in that small amount of time we all got so close. We all stay in touch through text but it was great to just hangout and catch up.

Their sites will unfortunately be very very far away from my site but we already have ideas floating around of when we are going to visit each other during our breaks and staying in touch.

What was great was that we got to celebrate Thanksgiving as an entire unit. Thanks to my friend Ben who made good friends with chef at the hotel they were staying in, the hotel cooked us Thankgiving dinner.......Kenya style. Before we knew that the hotel was cooking us dinner we thought we were going to have to go find a turkey, kill it ourselves (I'm not joking), cook all of our food over a fire and figure out how to get the ingredients we wanted from Nairobi. Thanks for Ben's amazing bargaining skills, we got a turkey, cranberry soup (it was more soup then sauce), mashed sweet potatoes, ham, rolls, and other delicious food! It wasn't quite the feast that we are use to, no stuffing, pie, brussle sprouts or endless amounts of turkey or Thanksgiving sandwiches the next day. BUT IT WAS A SHOT AT THANKSGIVING! and we were with everyone and that was what mattered. I missed everyone at home but I'll have a lifetime of Thanksgivings in America.

It was great, all the Kenyan trainers joined us and got to experience their first Thanksgiving. We also had lots and lots of beer with dinner and so the party was a great time. By the end of the night we were all playing spin the bottle dance, so if the bottle faced you, you had to go in the middle and dance. The trainers brought their traditional dances and the Americans brought their 'get low' dancing. The two combined is the best dancing EVER! Who knew that some of our trainers, who are straight edge during the day could get down and dirty on the dance floor. It was such a great time sharing a holiday that was so important to all the of PCV's with our Kenyan friends.  

We got to stay at the hotel with the Loituktuk people which is  BIG DEAL because typically we have to be home by 6:30pm to our home stays and we can't leave the house. But on Thanksgiving we got to all hangout all night at the hotel catching up and having a wonderful Thanksgiving party. We also, had our friend Kris who is from Australia, a girl Anna from Germany and another girl Jessica who was from the Netherlands who joined in on our American holiday!

It was my second time having Thanksgiving outside of the United States and I have to say it was quite the success!

I'm thankful for all the new friends that I have made, this wonderful experience I'm in the middle of, the kids that will be my students, and my family and friends who have been so supportive while I've been abroad!