I can count to six in kiswahili, Moja, mbili, tatu, nne, tano, ceta
Hey dudes, this will be a very long entry.
I know you guys have been missing me sooooo much (haha.. yeah right), but not much has happened, so finally I decided to make an entry. Last week was slow and annoying. We worked with the Walkalima Dairy, and I went stir crazy. The weekend finally came, but since there was nothing to do, it wasn’t that exceptional. Over the week I had a number of experiences with different arthropods in my room at night. It was Tuesday night I believe, and I just turned out the lights to go to sleep and all I hear is eardrum breaking cricket chirping. Those little fuckers are really loud. Anyway, so I got up and turned on the light and found the bastard, and he was huge. I caught him in my hands (which he filled, he was about as big as two digits of my pointer finger) and opened my window and threw him out. Closing the window and feeling very self satisfied I went to bed. Two minutes after the light was out, there was the sound again. Apparently fatty wasn’t the noise maker. So, the problem was, every time I turned on the light the guy shut up, and I couldn’t find him. So it went like this (keep in mind this is one oclock in the morning), I stood in the middle of the room in the dark with my flashlight, every time I heard the noise I’d flash the light in a different place until I found him. He was actually quite small, and I decided he had to die, sorry little guy, my good Samaritan quota was filled that day. So now with that done I went to sleep.
There were many other experiences with mosquitoes (of which I’m terrified, I don’t want malaria) and moths, but I won’t bore you with those.
So Sunday we were completely bored out of our trees, and sat around complaining. Chelsea picked up her loanly planet and was flicking through when she happens upon a park called Isolo National park. It breeds black rhino’s. So we called Dom (our driver) and asked if he knew where it was, he didn’t. We phoned our old driver, and after a long discussion we decided to try it. So we piled into the combi and drove for and hour and almost missed the turn. The signage left a lot to be desired. It was a flimsy sign with small letters that said “Isolo Ranch”. So we went in there, came upon a lot of farm equipment and were a bit discouraged. We found someone, and he said to just take a left up ahead, so we did and sure enough there was a little sign that said “Game park” with an arrow. So we drove, and the only animals we saw were a hell of a lot of beef cattle at first, and no building at which we could pay. It was seriously like a horror movie, no one was around. Finally, after driving aimlessly for awhile we came upon a building with a gate to a fenced in area, it screamed game park. So the guy comes out, and tells us we were supposed to pay wayyyyyyy back there. So we got all grumpy, but went and did it anyway. The place to pay was hidden among the farm equipment with a tiny sign that says “office”. Now honestly people, how in hells name were we supposed to know to pay there.
ANYWAY, we went into the park, finally, and it was actually a lot of fun. There were Baboons at the beginning, and they do this really cool jumping thing to get over the fence, it was cool. As per usual, we saw massive amounts of waterbuck, I still like them though, I find them fun. Lots of zebras and a few giraffe. I really7 feel like I’m on Africa when I see zebras and giraffe, sometimes I just laugh out loud. That’s when the girls look at me like I’m losing it, they just don’t know me well enough yet. We saw both white and black rhino’s, but the black ones were really far away. It made me a little sad, but I still enjoyed watching them.
Oh, I have a new favorite animal too, warthogs. They are so hilarious. They run everywhere, and there tails stick strait up in the air, it makes me laugh.
Anyway, after the game park we went home, spontaneous safaris make me happy. Only criticism I have is there was no gift shop where I could waste more money. Oh well.
Anyway, Monday was interviews again, in which I did 4. the vet, transport unit head, dairy unit head, and store unit head. They were interesting. The 16th question was simply “do you have any other comments before I leave”. Anyway, the vet (who is at least 35 by the way) looks at me and says “are you married”. So at first I took this as a joke and laughed and then changed the subject. Then he asked me again, and I said “ummm…. No>??” and he says “Do you like it here enough to stay?” So I said “umm… Julies waiting for me, I must go.” And ran the hell away. So then I interviewed the transportation head (younger guy this time, maybe 30), and after the interview he asked me how often I go to the disco, and if I was going this weekend. Holy crap boys, just cause I’m white doesn’t mean I’m gonna do you, GAWD. Anyway, it’s kinda fun, cause Kenya’s like the only place were hot guys hit on me, it makes me giggle, even if some of them are old.
Today was a fun day. I’ve also decided what I want to do with my life. I want to ride in the milk run trucks, for the rest of y life. It was so fun. The Lorries (trucks) are massive, and must have crazy engines on them, cause they fly up hills like there nothing. Anyway, we get shoved into the cab of this truck and meet Bernard, the driver. We fly down the tarmac towards Ichmara (I’ve recently learned this is how you spell it, not Ishmara like Theresa told me) where we’re doing the run and I glance at the speedometer to see how fast we’re going, it says zero. I think it’s awesome it doesn’t work, for no real reason, except lorries aren’t supposed to go over 80KPH, and we were totally doing at lease 120. Well, the day was great, the lorry off roads well, and Bernard was a riot. The people bringing there milk were really friendly, even though I don’t speak Kiswahili.
I also fell in love today. It was the strangest thing ever. We were waiting in the cab of the truck, because it was a short stop, and I turned to look out the window, and there was this absolutely beautiful woman standing there. I don’t know why I found her so amazingly beautiful, but all I could do was stare. She was wearing a very pretty blue dress that was obviously made for a special occasion and she obviously used it to do work around her farm. It was very faded, but clean and well kept. There was a little girl beside her, who obviously was her child, but that didn’t stop me from falling madly in love with her. I waved at the little girl, and she waved back and then ran off with her friends. The mother smiled at me, and I tell you if I was standing up I would have fell down. It was the most wonderful smile I’ve ever seen. It was just so open and bright; I thought I’d pass out. Anyway, then we drove away, and I had to pretend I didn’t want to jump out of the truck, run up to her, and ask her to come back to Canada with me. I know it’s such a weird thing, but she was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever witnessed.
Anyway, after we drove away I got over my heart break kinda quickly. I’ve come to terms with how it’s not going to happen, but I doubt I will ever meet anyone so beautiful ever again. I mean, many of the women I meet here are very striking, and all of them have these wonderful laughs and warm smiles, but she was absolutely the most splendid creature. God damn it I sound like a bad teenaged movie. Oh well, deal with it .
After we went to the dairy, I saw mount Kenya. It was finally clear enough to see the peak. I was very excited. It was really pretty, and now I can say I’ve seen it.
We’ll, now that I’ve eaten noodles packaged in Romania (should I be worried about that?) I’m gonna go do some work.
Sorry for the long useless post, and the gushy “I fell in love” rant, but come on, doesn’t it take you back to high school days when you had crushes on random people and wrote about them to your friends
Miss everyone
Kisses
I know you guys have been missing me sooooo much (haha.. yeah right), but not much has happened, so finally I decided to make an entry. Last week was slow and annoying. We worked with the Walkalima Dairy, and I went stir crazy. The weekend finally came, but since there was nothing to do, it wasn’t that exceptional. Over the week I had a number of experiences with different arthropods in my room at night. It was Tuesday night I believe, and I just turned out the lights to go to sleep and all I hear is eardrum breaking cricket chirping. Those little fuckers are really loud. Anyway, so I got up and turned on the light and found the bastard, and he was huge. I caught him in my hands (which he filled, he was about as big as two digits of my pointer finger) and opened my window and threw him out. Closing the window and feeling very self satisfied I went to bed. Two minutes after the light was out, there was the sound again. Apparently fatty wasn’t the noise maker. So, the problem was, every time I turned on the light the guy shut up, and I couldn’t find him. So it went like this (keep in mind this is one oclock in the morning), I stood in the middle of the room in the dark with my flashlight, every time I heard the noise I’d flash the light in a different place until I found him. He was actually quite small, and I decided he had to die, sorry little guy, my good Samaritan quota was filled that day. So now with that done I went to sleep.
There were many other experiences with mosquitoes (of which I’m terrified, I don’t want malaria) and moths, but I won’t bore you with those.
So Sunday we were completely bored out of our trees, and sat around complaining. Chelsea picked up her loanly planet and was flicking through when she happens upon a park called Isolo National park. It breeds black rhino’s. So we called Dom (our driver) and asked if he knew where it was, he didn’t. We phoned our old driver, and after a long discussion we decided to try it. So we piled into the combi and drove for and hour and almost missed the turn. The signage left a lot to be desired. It was a flimsy sign with small letters that said “Isolo Ranch”. So we went in there, came upon a lot of farm equipment and were a bit discouraged. We found someone, and he said to just take a left up ahead, so we did and sure enough there was a little sign that said “Game park” with an arrow. So we drove, and the only animals we saw were a hell of a lot of beef cattle at first, and no building at which we could pay. It was seriously like a horror movie, no one was around. Finally, after driving aimlessly for awhile we came upon a building with a gate to a fenced in area, it screamed game park. So the guy comes out, and tells us we were supposed to pay wayyyyyyy back there. So we got all grumpy, but went and did it anyway. The place to pay was hidden among the farm equipment with a tiny sign that says “office”. Now honestly people, how in hells name were we supposed to know to pay there.
ANYWAY, we went into the park, finally, and it was actually a lot of fun. There were Baboons at the beginning, and they do this really cool jumping thing to get over the fence, it was cool. As per usual, we saw massive amounts of waterbuck, I still like them though, I find them fun. Lots of zebras and a few giraffe. I really7 feel like I’m on Africa when I see zebras and giraffe, sometimes I just laugh out loud. That’s when the girls look at me like I’m losing it, they just don’t know me well enough yet. We saw both white and black rhino’s, but the black ones were really far away. It made me a little sad, but I still enjoyed watching them.
Oh, I have a new favorite animal too, warthogs. They are so hilarious. They run everywhere, and there tails stick strait up in the air, it makes me laugh.
Anyway, after the game park we went home, spontaneous safaris make me happy. Only criticism I have is there was no gift shop where I could waste more money. Oh well.
Anyway, Monday was interviews again, in which I did 4. the vet, transport unit head, dairy unit head, and store unit head. They were interesting. The 16th question was simply “do you have any other comments before I leave”. Anyway, the vet (who is at least 35 by the way) looks at me and says “are you married”. So at first I took this as a joke and laughed and then changed the subject. Then he asked me again, and I said “ummm…. No>??” and he says “Do you like it here enough to stay?” So I said “umm… Julies waiting for me, I must go.” And ran the hell away. So then I interviewed the transportation head (younger guy this time, maybe 30), and after the interview he asked me how often I go to the disco, and if I was going this weekend. Holy crap boys, just cause I’m white doesn’t mean I’m gonna do you, GAWD. Anyway, it’s kinda fun, cause Kenya’s like the only place were hot guys hit on me, it makes me giggle, even if some of them are old.
Today was a fun day. I’ve also decided what I want to do with my life. I want to ride in the milk run trucks, for the rest of y life. It was so fun. The Lorries (trucks) are massive, and must have crazy engines on them, cause they fly up hills like there nothing. Anyway, we get shoved into the cab of this truck and meet Bernard, the driver. We fly down the tarmac towards Ichmara (I’ve recently learned this is how you spell it, not Ishmara like Theresa told me) where we’re doing the run and I glance at the speedometer to see how fast we’re going, it says zero. I think it’s awesome it doesn’t work, for no real reason, except lorries aren’t supposed to go over 80KPH, and we were totally doing at lease 120. Well, the day was great, the lorry off roads well, and Bernard was a riot. The people bringing there milk were really friendly, even though I don’t speak Kiswahili.
I also fell in love today. It was the strangest thing ever. We were waiting in the cab of the truck, because it was a short stop, and I turned to look out the window, and there was this absolutely beautiful woman standing there. I don’t know why I found her so amazingly beautiful, but all I could do was stare. She was wearing a very pretty blue dress that was obviously made for a special occasion and she obviously used it to do work around her farm. It was very faded, but clean and well kept. There was a little girl beside her, who obviously was her child, but that didn’t stop me from falling madly in love with her. I waved at the little girl, and she waved back and then ran off with her friends. The mother smiled at me, and I tell you if I was standing up I would have fell down. It was the most wonderful smile I’ve ever seen. It was just so open and bright; I thought I’d pass out. Anyway, then we drove away, and I had to pretend I didn’t want to jump out of the truck, run up to her, and ask her to come back to Canada with me. I know it’s such a weird thing, but she was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever witnessed.
Anyway, after we drove away I got over my heart break kinda quickly. I’ve come to terms with how it’s not going to happen, but I doubt I will ever meet anyone so beautiful ever again. I mean, many of the women I meet here are very striking, and all of them have these wonderful laughs and warm smiles, but she was absolutely the most splendid creature. God damn it I sound like a bad teenaged movie. Oh well, deal with it .
After we went to the dairy, I saw mount Kenya. It was finally clear enough to see the peak. I was very excited. It was really pretty, and now I can say I’ve seen it.
We’ll, now that I’ve eaten noodles packaged in Romania (should I be worried about that?) I’m gonna go do some work.
Sorry for the long useless post, and the gushy “I fell in love” rant, but come on, doesn’t it take you back to high school days when you had crushes on random people and wrote about them to your friends
Miss everyone
Kisses