Back at it

Well...hello there again.  Welcome back.  (I'm saying that as much to myself as I am to you.)  I'm here to share with you what's been happening in my life the last few months.  So, here we go!

Audrey came in January and spent the entire month here.  It was great, and we were so blessed to have so many people support us financially to make that happen.  She was able to see my life here, meet a lot of my fellow teachers and friends, see the beauty of Kenya, and get excited about where we'll start our life together in July.

Just a taste of the beautiful colors on the coast.

Baobabs!

The first week she was here was spent recovering from jet lag (for both of us - I had to pick her up from the airport at 2 am!) and visiting the Kenyan coast.  We spent 3 days in Malindi with my roommate and a few other friends, and it was incredibly beautiful.  We swam, ate lots of delicious seafood, walked on the beach, took engagement pictures, read, and enjoyed being back together finally.  Our favorite things we saw were the baobabs.  If you weren't at the Rochester Vacation Bible School in the summer of 2010 titled "Baobab Blast", and don't know what baobabs are, they are huge, old, awesome trees that are found mostly in East Africa.  They look like giant, grey elephants, and are the epitome of everything Audrey and I love in nature.

When we got back from the coast, Audrey was able to come in and help out at school almost every day.  She accompanied the choirs on piano most days, gave a speech in my 7th grade speech class, and helped run rehearsals for the middle school play.  I was spoiled having her here to help me.

Hi, Mr. Giraffe.

Before she left, I took her to Crescent Island, a part of Lake Naivasha that you can actually walk around on the island with the animals.  We hung out with some eland, buffalo, giraffes, dik diks, gazelles, and zebras.  It was a beautiful, sunny, hot January day, and we enjoyed walking around the island and taking pictures and spending time outside together.  Coolest part of the day was when we were in our car on the way out of the park and a giraffe stood right beside our car with his head literally right above mine.  Giraffes are huge.

Shortly after that day, Audrey left to go back to the States.  Terrible night.  I drove her to the airport at 3 am, we cried a lot, and I watched her go up the escalator past the ticket desk out of my sight.  That's one of the worst feelings...having to watch someone that you love so much leave, knowing you can't do anything more to help, and you can't be there to comfort them.  We're both glad that we'll never have to experience that again.

Well, then I was back to normal life without Audrey.  Choir class, speech class, ultimate frisbee every Sunday, Nairobi Music Society (just singing as a part of the choir this semester), and the middle school play.  The play performances were last weekend - Thursday, Friday, and Saturday - and the name of the play was 30 Reasons NOT to be in a Play.  It was a great show, the students performed really well, and the audiences really enjoyed it.  :)  And now I have a lot more time on my hands.

Well...there's a quick recap of the last few months.  Be on the lookout for more posts in the next few weeks.  Exciting things on the way.