Recap

Hey guys,

IST officially ended yesterday, and we capped off the two weeks of training with an amazing cookout at our Country Director's house. We ate grilled hamburgers, hotdogs, chili, played basketball, and ate oreos. I think just about everyone ate until they were uncomfortably full, but it was well worth it. On Wednesday we spent the entire day in a nearby town called Thika, in which we learned about various food security techniques. Peace Corps is going to incorporate food security programs in the near future, and so this was an intro of sorts. The highlights were rabbit, goat and chicken rearing, various crop planting techniques, and some irrigation/water storage and catchment ideas. It was actually the most informative part of IST, as most of us need good ideas for income generating activities at our sites.

There is a group of us staying on in Nairobi for one more night, and then i'll be heading down my buddy Porter's site in the Masai Mara park. It'll be a pretty significant change of pace from Nairobi, as his place is pretty isolated, but it's in the middle of a national wildlife park so the potential for Bear Grylls-type activities is high. After that i'm actually coming back to Nairobi for a couple of days because I was voted on to the Volunteer Action Committee (Peace Corps' version of a student government) and we have a meeting on the 30th. I'll be heading back to Agenga after the VAC meeting, where i'm going to start working out the logistics of building this playground and start cranking out some grant proposals. I'll definitely keep everyone posted on progress for that (if anyone has any suggestions for companies or organizations that build playgrounds in developing countries/areas let me know).

Alright, that's pretty much it for now. Here is a link to a bunch of pictures i've taken since being here, and i'll try and get some more up from my trip down to the Mara. Take it easy and i'll talk to everyone soon.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2042654&id=33900475&l=c652b15a79