Asha Cottage Diani

... incredible. I feel like such a rock star! The first couple days we had Maggies help which was nice BUT, she is going to be gone on Monday in Nairobi getting vaccinations and will leave us in charge of the whole clinic. AHH! The clinic is a building with no electricity or running water...you do everying thing in one tiny room then send them to the next room to get their medicine. The worst so far was having to give ...

... much on the drive. It is weird to see a giant house with one of those bouncy huts like at the fair (I think it was a kids birthday party) right across the street from mud huts or lean-tos. Those are the moments that really cause you to think. So I arrive in Bungoma at around 6:00 and no one is there to pick me up. Lauren gave me her phone so I start calling people. I guess the cell lines were down b/c of a storm. I call Sarah, my other student that is here. She and her mother are ...

... our heads. We were welcommed by the doctor and 3 boys who we thought must be his apprentices. They sang a welcome song and played musical instruments which are partly like maracas and partly like drums. We were then shown the tools that the bush doctor uses, some of his ointments, hollow animal horns and feathers, water and leaves to cleanse the soul. We were told about a lady who he had recently healed who had very swollen ankles and couldnt walk. She had ...

... we only saw 3 elephants on the drive, but we saw lots of gazelle and birds. During the morning we went back to the school where we had been invited to teach a maths lesson on Profit and Loss. Luckily we had been given time to plan it, rather than being thrown in with no idea of what to do. We were not sure how much the students understood or took in what we said, but it was a really good experience. The rest of the morning was spent back in the tree nursery which was ...

... are hired by wealthy ranchers, who are hoping to keep up their cattle exports to the Indian market, to seek out the nice grazing land inside the park. They arm the pastoralists with AK 47s and pay them just enough to fatten up their cattle and to bring them back to the owners to be exported out. Since one of our partners is the Kenyan Wildlife Services, we were asked to help the park security to help run out the cattle that these guys brought during our ...

... when we went to get something from our tent and saw a bunch of Masi men guarding the camp with torches. We asked what this was about and found out that the week before there was a herd of elephants going through the camp in the middle of the night so it was better to have the guards on to keep us safe. We were thankful they were there and that the rest of the camp was when we woke the following morning. On Tuesday we had a morning ...

... which is a 15 passanger van...yet there is a saying in Kenya ...one more can fit. So, I am riding in a Matatu with 22 people pushed in. The thing is that the Matatus do not have a speed limit...so they go 80-90 mph. That is not the scary part, the scary part is that the road is paved and elevated 8 to 12 inches from the dirt side roads and it can only comfortably fit a car and a motorcycle. Yet, there is a Matatu that is coming the other way ...

... war umgeben von Zebra-, Antilopen-, Bueffel- und Elefantenherden. Krass! Man hatte das Wild wortwoertlich vor der Haustuer, nur ein Elektrozaun trennte den Gast von den Bewohnern des Parks. Gegen Abend folgte schliesslich noch eine Spaetpirsch, und die war wohl die mit Abstand lohnenste der gesamten Safari: Als wir in der Ferne fast zehn andere Safari-Karren auf einem Haufen sahen, fragten wir uns natuerlich alle, was die da machten. Die Antwort - kein Scheiss: Da ...

... ueb** die Trockenzeit kommen wird. Und um dem Ganzen noch das Sahnehaeubchen aufzusetzen: Von den Erloesen d** V**kaufs landete praktisch nichts in den Kassen des Fiskus. Das meiste davon fand sein Ziel in den Taschen ei***** Minist** - wahrscheinlich viele von denen, die Obamas Amteinsfuehrung in einem Washington** Nobelhotel genossen. Ob ihnen ihr feines Essen im Halse stecken geblieben ist, bleibt zu bezweifeln... So wandle ich mit meinem Wechsel von Rucksack- zu ...

... goodness, I thought they were monkeys". It was an exclamation she will probably never forget, as the men turned to face us and blocked our path. As my eyes travelled down, I saw long rusty knives that in Tanzania are called Pangas, but here are called Machetes. I still didn't click, as farmers often use them as scythes to clear the grassy fields. Then I saw the blank look in the eyes of the man closest to me, they were vacant and had no feeling .... Then he started running ...