Thanksgiving and Monkey Noises

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving in Kenya. So it started off as about 7 of us volunteers getting together and cooking random stuff and ended up being close to 20 people feasting. We started inviting our Kenyan friends and family and it ended up being a big get together. Everyone was mingling pretty well. Its odd because Thanksgiving for me back home is usually just me and my immediate family so this was a little different. It felt more like a “stereotypical” Thanksgiving. Big and noisy. Different distant family members. Cooking all day. Stressful. Someone making a drunk scene. Etc. Overall though it was nice. Its weird because it doesn’t seem like the holidays. No big marketing campaigns. No cold weather (god I could go for some cold weather). No shopping. None of it. My friend Lauren pointed out its like life is paused because the seasons don’t change. I kind of agree.

Monkey Noises, Slash, My Birthday

So most of us who had gotten together for my Thanksgiving went camping for my birthday. We went to the nearby Kakamega Rainforest. We rented a tent and stayed at a campsite. The irony was that camping for some of us was nicer (amenities wise) than “home.” I wasn’t among those but it still was pretty nice. They had a big outdoor kitchen area which was where you could start fires with firewood and stuff, it had power in this area (so lights and charging phones), and they had a shower area.

So we stayed two nights, the day in between being my birthday. My birthday started with us hiking out to a waterfall, which we then went swimming in. My friend has a waterproof camera so pictures are on the way. We then went back and made lunch. And at sunset we hiked up this big hill that had a viewpoint. We watched the sun go down before hiking back. All in all a pretty good birthday.

One thing I should mention is I’ve learned a lot of strange things out here. I know far more about beekeeping, fish farming, and regular farming than I ever thought I would. But one that didn’t occur to me was that I can identify the sound a monkey makes. Which let me tell you is a weird one. They apparently travel through the campsite at night. Previously I would have thought Kenya was being attacked by the aliens from War of the Worlds. But now I roll over in my sleeping bag, think for half a second, and go “damn monkeys.” As a popular YouTube video called “You know you’re a PCV in Africa when…” put it: Monkeys serve the same purpose squirrels do back home.