Green Oranges

Hello dear friends and family-

It is day 2 of our training in Eldoret. Eldoret is much cooler than Kisumu because it is located in the mountains and near the rainforest, it is also much smaller. We drove on Sunday morning from Kisumu to Eldoret, it took about 6 hours total. Along the way we stopped at the Kakamega forest which is a huge rainforest that is now under the protection of the government. We went on a forest walk with a guide for 300 shillings per person (about $5) for 2 hours. We saw lots of monkeys (black and white, blue and red tail) and beautiful butterflies. We also saw the great footed squirrel...which I have to say looked just like the squirrels running around UW campus. Our guide spoke of all the many different snakes located in the forest, mambas, cobras, etc. Luckily we did not see any! We saw the strangler tree, the ones that slowly kill the other trees over a period of 30 years and the Mama tree. The Mama tree is a tree that was the only one of it's kind. They collected seedlings and have planted many trees all over the country using the seeds from this tree. That is why it is called the Mama tree, it is the mama of many. Sadly, this tree is now dead but still stands tall in the forest. Our guide also pointed out different plants and trees that are used in traditional medicine to cure all sorts of ailments- diarrhea, sore throat, venereal diseases and even one that he claimed scientists are putting the bark in pill form because it has been shown to cure prostate cancer. It was interesting. The forest is bordered by a row of about 30 feet of tea plants. The government did this on purpose because the locals were encroaching on the forest and cutting more and more of it down. This way, there is a clear barrier of where the forest starts and also brings in some much needed income to the locals so they are not tempted to destroy the forest for wood to sell. When we got back to our van, we discovered that the battery was dead. The funniest part about this was that we couldn't find the battery. The driver said it should have been under the front seats (where the engine is located) but it wasn't there. Anyway, we had to push start it but it worked and we were on our way again.

From there we drove by the crying stone. I have to say that this was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. It was very impressive. We only stayed on the road, which was probably almost 1/2 mile away. We thought about walking on the trail to the stones, however the locals now charge for you to pass by on their land (300 shillings) and we could see rain coming in the distance. In Kenya, you do not want to be caught out in the rain, it is a torrential downpour. So we took pictures and then continued on our way. About 10 minutes later- it started to pour.

Our hotel is okay, not the best but livable for a week. My sheets have holes in them, but they are clean and the ceiling is falling down in a portion of the bathroom. This hotel is the best in town. There is currently a conference going on with 200 teachers at the hotel. During the political crisis early in the year, teachers refused to work and have since requested to be transferred out to areas where they match the tribe. As you can imagine, this has caused a huge disruption in the education field. This conference is to bring the teachers together and talk about it. We also met a man last night who was from Finland. He is here in Eldoret to install a machine at a local dairy that will package the milk so it can stay on the table unopened for up to 2 weeks. Refrigeration is very rare for most people so it is vital that milk can be kept at room temperature without spoiling. My favorite part about meeting Barry from Finland is that he thought I was from Denmark! I started laughing and said "no, American." Do I sound like I am from Denmark? So funny.

Last night on our way back to the hotel from the training we stopped at the cheese factory. The cheese factory is listed in the Kenya travel book as the only attraction to see in Eldoret, so we had to stop. We all had ice cream, which wasn't bad but not nearly as good as ben and jerry's or baskin and robbins. Can you tell I am missing my ice cream?

I think I mentioned this in my emails when I was in Nairobi and Thika in April but here the oranges are actually green, not orange. The inside is a pale orange but the outside is as bright a green as a key lime. I was told that they have been genetically modified, I'm not sure if it is so they will grow in Kenya or what the reason is. But- they are very very good. Very juicy and very flavorful.

I hope you are all well. Thank you for your emails from home, I love reading them.