Chirstmas and New Years with my Peace corps family

For Christmas I had a few volunteers over for a few days. Ok by few I mean I cooked dinner for 12! Yep it was a bit chaotic but everyone helped out! I made most of the meals but everyone was so good at pitching in on cleaning up and what not. On Christmas day we slaughtered another chicken, and had mashed potatoes, beans, carrots, and yummy mac and cheese! Compliments of Breezie's care package. 

In case I forgot to mention.... we may have run out of water. Yes I had a house full of people and NO WATER! The toilets didn't flush for a day. Needless to say we bathed in the river when we had the chance. TIA

me and Kibaibai, I made him a xmas sweater but he didn't like it to much

All the kids in my neighboorhood. They got to play in my yard since it was christmas. They also sung me a song!

Everyone was gone by Tuesday, I had Wednesday and Thursday to clean and recover. I tell you I don't know how my Grandmas do it! They host so many people over the holidays and cook every meal! It was a lot of work to say the least. 

On Friday, which was the day before New Years Eve. I had a JOYWO event. When the office told me about it, they made it sound so.... well... not a big deal. Needless to say I showed up Friday morning to Miletisa, to over 20 huge white tents, and sound system and stage being put up in the center. I guess there were over 3000 people there, mostly women from the womens groups. I had to get up and introduce myself and say a few words on behalf of Peace Corps. I got over any fear I may have had of speaking to large groups, real fast. We've all spoken in front of our classes in school, some have even performed to large numbers of people in a play. But speaking to over 3000 people, including government officials, in Kiswahili! Well I can cross that off my bucket list. 

For the New Year the same group, plus and minus a few, met up at another volunteers on Rusinga Island. Its absolutely beautiful there, but very rural. On New Years day we took a boat (and by boat I mean a hand built wood boat, with an extra passenger to scoop out the water as it seeps in) to a private island! We had the beach to ourselves all day! I guess the resort that is there is no longer in use. It is still owned but not taken care of. But they had the cutest little bungalows which included flush toilets! Also the care taker gave us fresh coconuts and had them peeled and a hole pokes so we could drink the coconut milk inside. DELICIOUS! 

Andrea, Izzy, and I on our own private island for New Years! It was absolutly beautiful!

Now i'm back home and back to work. I will continue going to the women's groups, but starting this month or the next I want to start some health clubs at the local secondary schools. We'll see how it goes. 

Also I forgot to mention the new addition to my house. a Chujio water filter! I visited the factory while in in service training. It's the filter made out of a clay pot. Well it averages 1 liter of water filtered in an hour. It was a little pricey,but worth it since I will not have to treat my water anymore! Plus I can offer clean drinking water to the people who work on my farm. If you can't tell.... Im pretty excited! 

I'm short on money this month, obviously with the holidays, purchase of a couch and water filter. Anyway I wont be able to update until next week or so. I apologize. I hope everyone had as wonderful of a holiday as I did! HAPPY NEW YEAR!