Kakamega Birthday

Hello again - sorry it's been a long time, but the reward is lots of pictures (relatively) which will hopefully actually upload this time.

So since my last post (which was not a real post) I have been getting back into the swing of things with the project - we got our first lab results for an antibody test against toxoplasmosis, and we expanded so that our reports now will come from all 33 of the target villages. There has also been a lot of waiting for responses from people, as usual, and sadly as a result of that there are a huge number of tasks I haven't been able to cross off my list...I've tried to speed this along by putting very small and accomplishable tasks so I can cross them off. Things like "receive an e-mail from Amos" or "hope that the virtual server gets set up in time"... but anyway, things actually are moving along and I've been incredibly impressed with the drive of Victor, the guy who has been helping me set up RapidSMS, and hopefully together we'll be able to push through some progress.

Also since my last post, I turned 23, and I had a lovely party hosted by my friends Jason and Ricky, who are amazing, and many other also amazing friends turned up. Sadly I did not take many pictures, but Tor made homemade pita bread and there were many other deliciousnesses, and the cake, a three layer Banoffee Cake (banana bread/cake layered with dulce de leche and bananas with caramel frosting), was incredible, and we all have to appreciate it more because apparently Jason slaved over for almost 6 hours because there is only one springform pan in Kisumu. Thanks friends.

Yesterday I finally made it out to Kakamega Forest with Jo and Steph and Per and Karen and Darryn (my mentor, who is in Kenya probably for the last time before my fellowship ends). Kakamega forest is a fragment of the rainforest that used to stretch all the way across equatorial Africa. We hiked, and picnicked, and ate more delicious cake (carrot cake with lime frosting this time, also incredible), and saw birds and fungi and trees and bugs and lots of monkeys and sadly even some dead reptiles (a 4 foot long adder and two chameleons - one in the forest and one in the parking lot in my compound).

Here are some mushrooms on a tree:

Here's what the top of the hill at the edge of the forest looks like:

Here are some bats living in an old gold mine shaft:

Here are my travel buddies that didn't want to go and see the bats:

Monkey watching:

Hanging out with my favorite new housemate, Karen. We accidentally say the same thing all the time and also do a lot of crosswords together. We make a pretty good team, if I say so myself.

So all in all life continues to be excellent, although I have been stressed lately by possible last minute changes in my plans to go and see Doug. In order to tackle this stress, I have eaten an enormous amount of tofu which is homemade at the chinese restaurant in town. Next tactic: make a decision at deadline time (in 3 hours and 40 minutes)!