Operation Covert Thanksgiving Surprise was a sucess!!!

A few of you might have known about a super secret plan to surprise my family this Thanksgiving. I had already planned to come home this holiday season because my brother is getting married and I was NOT going to miss that. My family was lead to believe that I wasn't going to arrive until AFTER Thanksgiving. What they weren't aware of was the fact that I had changed my ticket before I purchased it- arriving in Detroit the night BEFORE Thanksgiving. Kel and Gavin would pick me up, I'd get a few hours of sleep at their house, we'd drive to my grandfathers on Thanksgiving morning and surprise my parents who were still expecting me to arrive the day after Turkey Day.

Of course this entire plan depended on Kel keeping this whole plan a secret (which she did EXCEEDINGLY well!)

I had some ridiculous travel delays but after about 38 hours of travel, I got to Detroit, met up with Kel and Gavin, went back to their place for a few hours of sleep, we got up, drove up north to our grandfather's house.

I hid in the back seat while Kel and Gavin, DJ and Alicia tried to get my mom and dad to come out of the house and "help them bring in some stuff". Mom came over to the car, I popped out and surprised them all. It was the best Thanksgiving surprise ever!!

I had a wonderful time with my family, stayed up all night to brave the Black Friday shopping insanity, and now I'm ready for some serious sleep (I haven't slept more then an hour here and there for the past 60 some hours-I'm sure I'm a REAL joy to be around!)

Here we are, leaving at midnight to start our Black Friday shopping! Welcome to the insanity Alicia!!

Termites

My teammates and I love to get this great Kenyan Kitchen magazine- it has great recipes with locally available ingredients (a HUGE plus as there is nothing worse then seeing recipes online and realizing you can't find half of the necessary ingredients. I'm getting really good at substituting stuff but its wonderful to read a recipe and know you can find all the needed ingredients without too much trouble!)

We look forward to the new issues, and yesterday my roommate came home with the latest edition- the Christmas edition. We starting paging through it, anticipating some fun holiday recipes. But this is the first recipe we found:


And while it is true that termites ARE a locally available ingredient, and they ARE a traditional food from Western Province, this was the LAST recipe I expected to see in this cooking magazine. Its quite timely, as this is the season for flying termites. The guards at my gate collect the termites whenever they swarm out after a rain (these are the bugs that come out by the thousands after a good evening rain). Maybe I should pass the recipe on to them!

It's Possible I Take Matatus Too Often...

I take public transport (matatus and buses) everywhere- or I walk. I've become quite accustomed to Nairobi traffic (which is absolutely insane) and I'm used to the matatu driver's interesting interpretations of traffic law. (Let me put this in perspective, most people who come to visit end up just shutting their eyes in the matatu- especially if they end up in the front seat- where they can see all the passing on blind curves and wrong side of the road driving at insane speeds with oncoming traffic).

So today I was taking a matatu home, I was in the front seat and the driver was being extra creative in his driving. The Kenyan woman next to me was freaking out. I was sitting there thinking "eh- we had PLENTY of space" and she keeps gasping at the oncoming cars and our driver's aggressive progress through the uncontrolled intersections.

I think it may be possible that I am TOO used to traffic here and I will probably scare my family and everyone else when I drive in the States!

The Party

Here's some of our party hats! Too bad I can't upload the pics of all of us wearing them- they are hilarious- I guess you'll have to check my next newsletter for those. The drawings on the hats are the pictures I use each week to illustrate the stories (a friend from college draws them for me each week).

But our party went great. We all had a blast, had cake and soda, played games, wore our hats (which the little kids promptly stole after class) and it was great.

Happy Birthday Youth Group

They Youth Group I lead turns 1 tomorrow!

Wait till you see the party hats!

Pepsi Project

Here's a link to a project some friends of mine in Asia are involved in. The plan is to revamp old shipping containers to use as schools in Liberia (and possibly other parts of Africa). They have registered their project with Pepsi Refresh- its a competition where the 2 best ideas (voted on by the public) will receive funding from Pepsi Co.

All you have to do is vote for their project! Its free and just takes a second! Even you Diet Coke lovers can get behind a project that builds schools for kids! :P So here's the link- http://www.refresheverything.ca/containerschools just click on in, scroll to the bottom of the page, and vote

We use an old shipping container for an office/sewing room at our sewing program- hey you use what you've got!!