Coming home

I spent new years eve 2008 watching fireworks from a Zanzibar beach and dancing with a dread-head named Mr. Kifufi. I'd love to show you pictures, but my traveling companion Phil dropped his camera in the ocean the following day attempting to capture the brilliance of a Zanzibar sunset from the warm water of the Indian ocean. I do have lots of other pics from the trip that I will attempt to post this weekend, along with getting caught up on a number of things I intend to share here - including my trip to Nanyuki to visit the weavers and spinners there (which feels like ages ago), Christmas in Kenya and then some general complaints about being bogged down with assignments when it's beautiful and sunny outside and it seems like there are so many things I'd like to do while I'm here other than stare at my computer screen reminding myself that the weight of the world doesn't rest on whether or not I figure out how to keep my sentences a bit more concise and to-the-point in my papers (or blog posts...). I'm actually really enjoying my assignments, it's just amazing how out of practice I feel academically - and the sleeping dogs of procrastination refuse to awake and make themselves scarce so I spend a good amount of time beating myself up for not just taking things a bit more piece by piece.

I realized when I returned from Zanzibar that I've entered a new phase in my time in Kenya. The newness of being here has somewhat worn off and I came home to familiarity and routine. I want to be careful about this and maintain the openness that being in a new place brings - I practically walked around with bells on for the last three months with the wonder of the people I have had the opportunity to meet and interact with, and the many opportunities to learn and grow in regards to the many issues I'm here to address. I also want to make sure I stay present with my goals for my time here - life right now revolves 100% with getting through the end of the semester (exams start second week of February) and while my studies are incredibly important to me, they aren't the sole definition of my time here, so I'm finding I have to give myself a bit of grace as I navigate through.

I'm still catching up on emails and trying to readjust to having the internet at home - sometimes I kind of stare at my computer and wonder how I ever used to spend so much time wandering the internets. Then an hour goes by, the book on my lap remains unread and I realize I've spent the last 60 minutes contemplating just how sturdy one pair of walking sandals on zappos.com might be compared to another on the streets of Nairobi...

Happy new year to all - more from me soon!