How life changes over the years! When I was a teenager, I thought I was being daring and adventurous by finding a summer job away from home one year. I went to Myrtle Beach, SC with a college friend and waitress-ed at a hotel restaurant. What adventures we had that summer!! Another summer, I volunteered for Head Start as a teacher's aide. I had never been around that many poor children and it was a heart warming adventure - quite different from my Myrtle Beach experience!!
Well, I guess if I were a teenager now, in order to be adventurous or daring, I would spend my summers overseas or perhaps on an African Safari!! That is what my daughter is doing. She has been in Kenya for 2 weeks doing Infectious Disease research at a local lab there. She has finished with her work - very early - and has changed her reservations to return home next Wednesday. Depending on flight delays, etc., she should be back in DC Thursday or Friday and will begin out-processing from Walter Reed for her move to Brooks Army Medical Hospital (San Antonio). In the meantime, she has had her own adventures and I can't wait to hear all the details! Last weekend, she went to a village with one of the medical school students who is working with her and they stayed with his family for a typical Kenya weekend. Here are a few of her comments to us about her visit:
Lunch was "a typical Kenyan lunch (although certainly a feast) of rice, ugali (which is a "loaf" of flour which tastes somewhat like grits), cabbage, sukumawiki (a green similar to spinach), and beef stew"
"As everywhere else, CocaCola has a huge impact here with the standards of Coke and Fanta along with some new names -- Krest ("bitter lemon") and Stoney (ginger beer)."
"breakfast (the Kenyans have this food thing down well!) of donuts, chapati, pound cake, and bread with jam. And, of course, tea -- good Kenyan chai tea. "
"time for church...definitely an experience. African Pentecostal Church...no less than 3 people collapsed in convulsions and had to have the demons "cast out." They translated their traditional tribal language (Luo) into English especially for our benefit -- we were introduced to the congregation and they said special prayers for our "safe journeys." After church was lunch -- more typical Kenyan fare plus roast and fried chicken that we had watched them pluck the night before! "
This weekend, she is on a Safari in the Masai Mara National Park. Because of doing work there in the lab, they were able to get a good deal of the safari rates so they decided to splurge on their accommodations. They were originally going to pitch a tent in the park but instead made reservations at Kilima Camp. Here is a link to their site where you can see pictures and read about it. This is the high season for the wildebeasts so she is hopeful she will get her money's worth!! I think she will. Looks like such fun!! Sure can't compare to Myrtle Beach but I have my memories too which are precious to me.
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