Hey! We've been living in Dawlish, Devon since we came back to England after the summer. We have a great flat right on the English Channel. I am finishing up my classes and Al is finishing up his teaching certificaitons. We have been staying really busy. We have decided to run a marathon this spring in Belfast. So we've joined the local gym and have been training nearly every day. I can't wait. We've also decided to take a trip to Morocco in mid-March. So, we've brought our travel blogs back to life so that we can keep everyone updated again [View Full Entry]

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Hello! Here is our update from our post-volunteering travels to Lamu on the coast of Kenya near the border of Somalia. It is amazing here. A Swahili town with narrow walkways. It is a Muslim society and the people are just amazing. So kind and funny and welcoming. We are staying in a small guesthouse which was built, acording to Charlie who works here, a few hundred years ago. We are in the top room which has a balcony and is super breezy. We are right next to the mosque which makes for some early mornings with the pre-dawn call to [View Full Entry]

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Supa! I can't believe that we've finished working in Saikeri already. I seems impossible how fast the last six weeks have gone. This place has become a part of us and we are so sad to leave. I can't imagine we won't be returning to Saikeri at the moment. It has really become a second home for us. The people here have been so amazing and loving. We have really become a part of their community and the last couple days have been hard. There have been many tears and hugs and photos and kisses. But, we leave knowing that someday [View Full Entry]

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Hello everyone! I hope that everyone is great and had a wonderful week. Alan and I did a lot of work this week... and got pretty sick as well (not because of the work, though). We got back into town on Wednesday and quickly made up for the two days that we missed. I really started getting into the research for my dissertation for university that is on the rural Kenyan Maasai pregnancy practices and beliefs... I started doing a lot of interviews and it was so interesting and so much fun. The women here are amazing... especially after you [View Full Entry]

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hey there, alan here, i'm still alive and kicking.. i'm just checking in to say everything here is great, it really is a unique, exciting experience one that i will remember for the rest of my life.. the people here are fantastic, they are nice, friendly and always smiling....as you prob know we live in a family home with a wonderful woman named gladys and her daughter and son...we have no electricity or running water..but its great anyway..the days here go so fast and the weeks even faster, i cannot believe we have been here for over three weeks....as for our [View Full Entry]

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Supa! I hope that this blog finds you all well and happy. We have just come back from an amazing weekend and I can't wait to tell you about it... it's a long one, though... so get ready. Thursday evening we went to eat at a place called Carnivore. It has been rated one of the top 50 restaurants in the world… twice. It was great. The servers gave you meat straight off the sword and we ate until we couldn't eat anymore. Alan said that the beef was the best he's ever had. His exact words were, "Every time I [View Full Entry]

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Enda Supa! (Hello to everyone!) YEAH! I have figured out how to get the photos on the web. In this blog I've only downloaded a few, though. It seems to take quite a while... So, what I've done is put them on my photo website at www.lifeofbrooke.shutterfly.com and will put them on here when I get a little more time. I hope that you get a chance to check them out. The people here are so beautiful and there are some really cool photos of the kids we get to hang out with... they are so funny. The bed got [View Full Entry]

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Supa! (Hello in Maasai) I hope that this blog finds everyone well and getting ready to say hello to the first day of summer tomorrow. Since we are right on the equator tomorrow, June 21st summer solstice, we will have no shadow at 12 noon. I hope that I remember to pay attention. I've got some great news for everyone who donated (and for those who didn't as well). Alan and I have made our first major donation... we've helped create a much needed maternity ward for the clinic I am working in. This is the only maternity within a four [View Full Entry]

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At some point between using the internet and catching the bus back to Saikeri our cell phone was stolen. We bought a new one and here is the number (011 from the states, 001 from Ireland and England) +254 725 070 477. Sorry about that if anyone was trying to call that other number. We knew that something would get stolen at some point and at least it was only our cell phone and not anything super important. I came into town today to update this and send out a few emails because there is a festival this weekend in Maasailand [View Full Entry]

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Well, here goes nothing. I am not sure where to even start... It's been an amazing week. On Saturday afternoon we arrived at our homestay in Saikeri in Maasailand. About three hours from Nairobi down a long dirt road. Our family is amazing. There are four kids, two that are away at secondary school and two that live with us. One is 12 and her name is Purity and the other is one and 1/2 and his name is Nathainel. Our host mother is somewhere in her late 30's and her name is Galdys and our host father is near [View Full Entry]

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