Our Christmas celebration was on Christmas Eve as 15 of us gathered at a friend's house and had a huge feast and lots of drinks. Kenyans, Canadians, Americans, a Russian, an Egyptian, a Frenchman and a Mexican were in attendance. It was quite the party and we ate a lot although I think what filled me up the most was the Mexican Eggnog made by Perla with 12 eggs in it (in a 1 litre jug)! And the recipe called for 26!!! It was good though. Christmas morning Karen and I set off on the bus for Mombasa. It was a long, hot, bumpy busride but we made it in one piece and still managed to have time to check out much of the laid-back coastal city. That night we dined at an amazing waterfront restaurant and had crab for Christmas dinner. I was SO HAPPY.

The next morning we set off for Lamu. This bus is less used by tourists (most people fly) and we were in the very back of the bus sharing the back row with 4 other people. Tight fit. Thing got even tighter as we picked up cargo to bring to Lamu - which eventually included about 30 chickens, with their feet bound to one another in pairs and thrown into the back of the bus (meaning on and under our seats). I must have had 4 chickens on my feet and some under my chair. The ones sitting under Karen kept squacking and flapping its wings and scaring the hell out of Karen. It was a VERY interesting ride. Poor chickens. From there we took the ferry to Lamu and have been here ever since.

This place is breathtakingly beautiful and the atmosphere is so laid-back and charming and the architecture is so interesting. I dont' want to leave. Did I mention there is very cheap seafood? We had lobster last night and have had prawns for lunch every day. The fresh juices come in pint glasses and cost 50cents. My favourite combos so far are banana passion, avocado banana, mango pineapple... the list goes on - I have a goal to drink 3 pints a day minimum.

Ok, long enough post... time to hit the beach! My tan is coming along nicely. Pictures won't be able to be posted until after Jan 2nd when I'm back in Nairobi. From here we head to Watamu tomorrow (checking out Gedi Ruins and going snorkeling) and then Karen leaves and I meet up with friends in Tiwi Beach for a big New Years Party.

Slightly delayed posting but things have been busy. Yes, I was in Ethiopian briefly. How it all went down was that I went to renew my Kenyan visa for an extra 10 days (it expires while I am away hiking Mount Kenya and 10 days before I leave for South Africa. I figured it wouldn't be a very big deal. I was wrong. Apparently you cannot extend your visa past 6 months. Ever. Or so says the senior immigration official. And that you have to leave East Africa (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania) to renew it. WHAT? Ok, seeing as I have 2 days free before I head to the coast I think I had better do something about this. I head to a few travel agencies and they managed to find me a fairly cheap flight to Addis Ababa - the capital of Ethiopia.

I payed for the ticket, packed, gave Karen some emergency numbers in case she needed any help from my friends, and the next day I was on the plane to Addis. What a beautiful city! It has lots of really nice highrises, the streets are in great condition and it seems somewhat less chaotic than Nairobi or Kampala.

I spent most of the day wandering around the Merkato (the largest open-air market in Africa) and bartering for silver objects. Most things were actually quite a bit more expensive than Kenya. The people were sweet and interesting with most of the men greeting you with a "You look beautiful today". Not bad for my ego.

I treated myself to my favourite meal (Ethiopian or otherwise) of Shiro (tasty bean paste stuff) and Tej (Ethiopian honey wine) and head back to the airport for my flight back to Nairobi. It was a good little adventure. I want to go back and see more of the country but I guess that will have to wait for next time!

There are a lot of holes in the ground here. I'm talking more than potholes. I'm talking open sewers, 2-foot deep moats between street and sidewalk and just random holes that are deep and rather dangerous. To add to this obstacle course, you have the objects that stick out of the ground. Like poles that aren't removed completely, but rather sawed off leaving a sharp metal pole sticking up 1/2 foot out of the ground. Perfect for stubbing and injuring toes if you are not careful. I was rather un-careful and did just that last week and my toe swelled up to TWICE it's size. It is ok now. But it did cause me to miss a day of climbing.

Karen is doing well considering she is usually the one to fall into such things as open sewers - ok, it hasn't happened before but I can totally picture it! I think she has been suffering a bit from the heat though. It is a really strong sun and quite hot in the daytime now, although it still gets chilly at night.

Walking around town you hear Christmas songs and it seems surreal. It seems more like summer vacation than Christmas to me. But I have a couple of little presents to open on the 25th, and a big dinner with Lauren & friends on the 24th should also be nice. I wonder if they would be up for singing carols?? The 25th we will be travelling to Mombasa but have made reservations at one of Kenya's premier establishments - Tamarind - a seafood restaurant that is quite famous around here. I am SO excited! One thing that keeps me awake at night though - crab or lobster?? BIG DECISION!

Karen and I got back from a quick safari to Nakuru, Kenya's 4th largest city. We did a hike up Menengai Crater, spent the night in Nakuru, then today woke up bright and early for a 6-hour drive around the nearby National Park. The park is famous for it's 800,000+ population of flamingos as well as the white rhinos that you are pretty much guaranteed a good look at (this is not the case in most other parks). But the highlite of the trip for me was a quick but great encounter with a leopard! I finally saw one! She jumped in front of our van and ran into some shrubs. I managed to get a photo of some tail and leopard butt. But leopards are so elusive (a friend here hasn't seen one in the 10 years he has lived here). I feel quite lucky. That means I have seen all of the "Big Five" game in Africa - Rhinos, Elephants, Buffalo, Lions and Leopards! It was a good trip although I think we are both a little tuckered out. Photos to be uploaded on flickr soon.

We went to check out the Ngong Racecourse horse races today. It was a gorgeous, sunny day and the laid-back races were a great way to spend the day after a late night at a going-away party for friends. The line-ups for bets went extremely slowly due to old, misfunctioning betting machines. There were no television screens to see the race as it progressed. You had to, GASP, watch using just your own eyes! It was a kind of step back in time as well to the old colonial times. The majority of the people attending were black Kenyans but there were a few die hard "Kenya Cowboys" or white Kenyans. The Kenya Cowboy title confused me a bit when I heard friends referring to them, but many of them actually do wear cowboy hats (with their top of the line designer clothes). This obviously doesn't refer to all white Kenyans, but there is a very distinct group who tend to stick out quite a bit and kind of gives them all a certain stereotypical image. I find it all a bit strange.

We did very well, all of us winning at one point in the day, excited despite the low payouts. A lovely, fun day.

It has been another busy week. Karen went on Safari to Amboseli National Park and saw lots of elephants and stunning views of Mount Kilimanjaro. I have finished up my last week of work before the holidays. YEAH! 3 weeks off! The office closes for 2 and a half weeks but I took of an extra couple of days so that Karen and I can do some travelling to different parts of the country. This week Nakuru and Rift Valley. Next week Lamu, Watamu, and Mombasa (aka 'The Coast!')

Karen wrote a section about Licence Plates. I wrote a section about Death Announcements. More INTERESTING and FUN cultural info and differences about Kenya to come!

1) License Plates

License plates are colour coded and pretty interesting. A yellow license plate is the standard issue. Most of the alphanumeric strings seem to start with 'K' for Kenya. A blue license plate has something to do with the Kenyan government. This fact came courtesy of Frederick, Karen's safari guide in Amboseli.

A red license plate means a diplomatic vehicle. The codes on the plates include 'UN' for the UN or 'CD' for general diplomatic missions. If you are in downtown Nairobi you literally see a diplomatic plate every two minutes. At a nice restaurant you see even more. Jokes aside, there are lots of UN vehicles in Nairobi because much of the work in the Sudan and Somalia is headquartered here.

2) Death Announcements

Death announcements here are quite different than those in North America. First of all, the death announcements don't necessarily happen right after the death because often times the family has to save up enough money to transport the body to the part of the country where the family is from and save for funeral and burial costs, so you will often see a death announcement several weeks after the person has actually died. Secondly, (Karen reminded me of this difference that I am now used to) is the way that the announcements are placed. They are usually several pages in each day's newspaper and in full colour with a large announcement and photo of the person. They are a very well-read section of the newspaper. Below is a scan of a typical announcement. The Promotion to Glory thing confused me at first – thinking it was a job promotion or something... I guess it could be seen as that!

Our weekend was great. I have to say that if any of you come to Kenya and want to see wildlife – go to the Maasai Mara. It is gorgeous and it is unbelievable the number and variety of animals that you see.

We drove down with Ally and Don on Saturday morning. It took just under 5 hours to get there even with one breakdown. If you live in Kenya and plan to have a car – you have to be prepared for breakdowns. First of all, the roads are terrible – huge crater-sized holes even on major highways – and those are the PAVED roads. With the sun being so strong and such terrible driving conditions, overheating is as common as the blown tires and cracked windshields that you will most likely encounter. So most of the people here know a good deal about fixing cars and have 2 spare tires on them at all times.

The park was amazing as always. Animals we saw: serval cat (looks like small cheetah with tall pointy ears), lions, giraffes, zebra, impala, eland, hyena, crocodile, hippo, elephant, dik-dik, ostrich, vultures, baboons & buffalo. Plus a ton of other stuff. That night was dinner and a concert just outside of the park and we were up early the next morning to drive around some more before heading home in the late afternoon. That day we saw much of what we saw the day before but also were lucky to see a mother cheetah and her 2 cubs just after they had a feast on a kill of a gazelle. I saw a mother cheetah and 6 cubs here 4 months ago and I'm thinking these could be the same ones only more grown up. They were so cute. They had really laboured breathing from all the food that was visibly in their bellies.

We made our way back across the lovely countryside and as Don (who we got a ride with) was turning onto the stretch of highway that would take us into Nairobi, we were waved over by the police stationed near the turn. There were several other cars and trucks pulled to the side. The officer approached the car:

Cop: did you see the stop sign?
Don: yes, I stopped at it.
Cop: Well, I don't think you saw it – it has a sign on it that says “stay left” and you turned right. And now you are ARRESTED!
Don: What? Arrested? For what?
Cop: You are arrested! You are in BIG TROUBLE. It said stay left! Give me your licence and wait in the car.

First of all, if there even WAS a sign, it was probably hand-written on a piece of paper because no one saw it. At this point more and more people were being pulled over (because the turn was where people normally turned to get to the main highway). A large crowd had gathered around the police officer who kept shouting that everyone was arrested and screaming “IT SAID KEEP LEFT!”. A few people offered the cop money and were able to leave quickly while the rest waited to call his bluff and to be let free without having to give any 'chai' (bribes). As expected, Don and the others were let go with a 'warning' shortly after. This is so common here – inventing of fake offences in order to delay you to the point where you just pay a bribe to get out of the situation. I am so glad I don't drive here – that allows you to pretty much avoid that whole side of things. But despite the delay and frustration we all couldn't stop laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. This place is officially INSANE.

We just got back from the Maasai Mara Game Reserve. It was amazing as always. More to come...

Looking back at these photos I think I get a LITTLE too excited when I get to play with the giraffes. I haven't quite mastered looking glamourous when posing with wildlife. I think Karen pulls it off quite nicely. This is at the AFEW Giraffe Centre.

Last night at a Scandinavian Christmas party a bunch of us were sitting around talking about the opportunities that you have in Kenya that you have in so few other places. As there is a long weekend coming up everyone was discussing their plans. 2 people were going to the coast to go diving, a handful of people were going to the Maasai Mara for safari, another couple were going to Ethiopia and someone else was going hiking near Mount Kenya. There are limitless things that you can do here – all for very little money. Particularly for the people like me who are only in Kenya temporarily – you feel like you have to take as much advantage of these opportunities as possible – a weekend wasted is a complete CRIME here when you may have missed an incredible opportunity.

Karen seems to be adapting nicely. She is venturing out on her own and honing her bartering skills in the market. This weekend we are off to the Maasai Mara National Park for a game drive and for a concert.

I went to see Harry Potter last weekend. Have I mentioned that in the movies here they play the national anthem before the film? Also, most films have an intermission half-way through if it is 2 hours long or more. I always forget they do this and when the movie suddenly freezes on the screen I think the film has broken or something and get really angry until I realize it is just a break.

And in Kenya news – President Kibaki fired his entire cabinet 2 weeks ago after his humiliating defeat when the proposed new constitution was not passed. Yesterday he announced his new cabinet and 19 ministers refused their postings. The government is in limbo now as from what I understand they are in recess until after the holidays. The masses are very much against Kibaki (as is much of his own party). What will happen now is anyone's guess.

My apartment building is full of Italian families. Many of them are youngish married couples who work in Kenya and have adopted Kenyan orphans. There are so many cases like this in this building. It is so adorable to hear the little Kenyan kids (who are like 2 or 3 years old) speaking Italian to their parents. They also speak Swahili. Some have one or two birth kids already but have adopted one or two orphans as well. I hope the pool is fixed soon so that I can hang out with them again.

Tonight went indoor climbing and tried lead climbing. I ended up falling but it wasn't bad (didn't hit the ground - just fell a ways through the air before the rope caught me). Wasn't scary - actually a little fun (except that I almost landed on someone's head!)