Kenyan Kaleidoscope

 Dear family, Yesterday was a visit to the beach, and what a wild west show that was! I am going to give some simple do's and don'ts for a visit to a public beach in Kenya, along the Diani coast. Do bring a towel or blanket of some kind, because the sand is a very fine grain and will get stuck on everything: your phone, snacks, the pages of your book, among other things. Don't speak to the beach hawkers, or "wabunifu" in Kiswahili. They will 1. Think you are their new best friend and 2. Definitely their next customer for whatever they happen to be selling. I learned this the hard way, it took me about 45 minutes to get away from the throng and sit down, and another 20 minutes when we are trying to leave the beach. Do take the opportunity to ride the beach camels that come through on a daily basis! Because when are you going to get to do that again? Don't come to the beach having to go to the bathroom. The bathrooms are private to hotel guests only, and the s...

 Dear Family, Do you want to know something incredible? Here in Kenya, there is not a whole lot of signs about speed limits, especially in the cities. I found this rather curious as we were being driven around by our drivers to get to and from the training center... How does one control traffic in Nairobi? Answer: So throughout the cities, on major highways AND side roads, there are a series of speed bumps scattered about. In the daylight, it is easy to see them coming, and you slow down accordingly as to not "hit air". There will be instances where you are not paying attention, and will hit one of those too fast--this happened to me last night in a tuk-tuk vehicle, which is essentially a motorized small vehicle on three wheels. The driver is up front, and one to three passengers sit behind him in an open air vehicle that can move fairly quickly considering its small size. Our driver hit that bump so quickly that my entire upper body slammed into the roof before I realized wh...