Mt. Longonot

Me and 6 other PCVs climbed Mt. Longonot. It was my first real hike and it was amazing. The view from the peak of the ring is a killer! Below are some facts about the mountain from wikipedia. 

Mount Longonot is a stratovolcano located southeast of Lake Naivasha in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya, Africa. It is thought to have last erupted in the 1860s. Its name is derived from the Maasaiword oloonong'ot, meaning "mountains of many spurs" or "steep ridges".

Mount Longonot is protected by Kenya Wildlife Service as part of Mount Longonot National Park. A trail runs from the park entrance up to the crater rim, and continues in a loop encircling the crater. The whole tour is only about 8–9 km long but very steep, so that the round trip of park gate - Longonot Peak - park gate takes around 3 to 4 hrs hiking. The gate is around 2150 m asl and the peak at 2780 m asl but following the jagged rim involves substantially more than the 630 m vertical difference.

A forest of small trees covers the crater floor, and small steam vents are found spaced around the walls of the crater. The mountain is home to various species of wildlife, notably zebra and giraffe andbuffaloes (droppings on the rim) and hartebeest. Leopards have also been reported but are extremely difficult to spot.

Happy Holidays!!!

Hope everyone had a merry merry christmas!!! My Christmas was great, got to open some presents from home. Spent christmas with my dog in a hotel.

New year is coming up and want to wish you all the best! 2013 has been so good to me and I am so grateful and blessed!!! Happy New year!

I have been taken off the island and now I am currently in a transition between sites. I don't know where my new site will be in Kenya or what my new assignment will be. Everything is up in the air right now and the holidays have delayed the transition. 

Thats all I got today, happy holiday all!

In Service Training (IST)

We are now 3 month into site and our 2 week in service training has just begun. To me two days to get to our venue. We are staying in a really nice camp and eating some great food. First time outside of my island and back into the real world.

Finally found a scale and weighed my self, to discover I have lost 25 pounds in three month. Not sure whats going on maybe just change of environment and lack of verity of food.

On the plus note we are eating 5 times a day here at IST. Three meals and two tea breaks! I had forgotten that this much verities of food still exists. So good to be satisfied after meals, very grateful!

Crayfish Camp

Camp dinning hall

Missed real food

Enjoying IST

What a weekend!

Had the chance to host at my site for the first time. 3 volunteers came over this weekend. We biked around the island, went swimming, had bond fire and then did some business sessions with local groups. Great weekend #VeryGrateful

Biking around the island for the 2nd time

about to start

My friend just cut the banana from the tree and gave it to me

Bond fire

Enjoying that island life

Story of the week

A pregnant woman was feeling labor pains on her walk home. She wanted to give birth and people around tried to get her on a motorcycle to get her to the nears health center. She jumped off the motorcycle because the baby was coming. So they brought a grandmother from the neighborhood and new born kenyan was born! 10 minutes later as I was walking into my compound she is walking home with her baby and a crowd following her. Tell me why I was the only person among all my neighbors that was shocked by this. Life goes on....  

Lake Victoria serves its people

In my community, people bath at the lake. There is designated area for men and women to bath. Women usually go in groups to bath and is perfectly normal. Men usually don't go in groups but never the less, they are still bathing at the lake in the same area. Luckily I have a bathing room next to my house but sometimes I too bath at the lake. 

However, people are not the only ones that bath at the lake, everything else also bathes at the lake. clothes, dishes and animals are all washed in the lake and our drinking water comes from the lake. Some people do filter their water, unfortunately many don't. Apart from that, swimming as you bath is quite fun lol   

First safari trip!

Me and few other volunteers got together this past weekend in Bomet! It was nice to be away from site and see how others are doing! We actually got a chance to visit the Maasai Mara. It was freaking amazing! We got to see all kinds of animals.

Gazelles

 Mara resort 

Giraffs 

Zibra

Lunch at a beautiful resort in Maasai Mara

 Hippos