Kenyan Thanksgiving

Sorry everyone. I know I've been delinquent about blogging. Life has been so so busy the last few weeks. We had a ton of work to do for the parent meeting a few weeks ago and since then we've been getting ready for World Day for Disabled which is next Thursday and of course, all the cooking for our Kenyan Thanksgiving. So in lieu of writing everything out, I put up a ton of new pictures. There's an album from Katie's going away party. She left two weeks ago Monday and will be spending some quality time with her family before going back to Nigeria in January. She does have to fund raise again...so if you're interested in helping her out, you can contact her from her blog "How Did I Get Here" which is in my blog list.
The other album is a compilations from our St. Julie staff outing at the Kitale Nature Conservancy, the St. Julie parents meeting and play day, our Kenyan Thanksgiving and of course, Tom and Micheal's barely month old puppies. The staff outing was alot of fun, although a little sad. The place has a home for disabled animals, which I thought would be animals that were injured but were infact animals born with disfiguring birth defects. The parenst play day was also alot of fun...mostly b/c I had to most popular play station. Kenyan adults loved to learn how to play spud.
Finally, our Thanksgiving was a HUGE sucess. Tom and Micheal did the Turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy and hosted. I was in charge of everything that needed to be baked in an over- so I made green bean cassarole, stuffing, apple crisp and pumpkin pie, from an actual pumpkin I bought from the market. I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself, and the boys. Despite all the adjustments that needed to be made cooking Thanksgiving the Kenyans ingredients, things came out delicious! I'm especially proud of my pumpkin pie. I'd never made pie crust, let alone the inside from a real pumpkin. I wasn't there for the slaughtering of the turkey, although I'm sure Tom will have pictures up on his picasa page. Anyways, we enjoyed the day with a selection of Sisters from both communities, some St. Julie people and Hezbon from Tumaini (and of course Shinzi and her puppies!). As sad as I was to miss Thanksgiving with my American family, it was a really wonderful meal with my Kenyans friends.
Kate will be in Kenya in a week and a half and I'll be back in the states just in time for Christmas. I'm so sad to be leaving this wonderful place that has been my home for almost 11 months, but i'm also very excited to see my friends and family (not to mention have access to a microwave and washing machine again!).