Today is my last day in Gede. Tomorrow morning I'll take the 10 hour bus back to Nairobi. Then from Sunday to Tuesday,I'll go to Masai Mara for a Safari! On Wednesday I fly back home via Amsterdam. It will be a 20 hour journey.

Before I leave Gede, the place where I have spent so much of my time in Kenya, I want to recap what I've done while here. On Tuesday, I went to the forestry institute (KEFRI) and again since my advisor wasn't there, they didn't have much for me to do. I did get to take a tour through the forest and I saw a buffalo rinosorous spider, beautiful painted Eucalyptus trees (They look painted but that is how they are naturally), and monkeys. They just ran wild across the treetops like squirrels, while I trudged through the rain that poured down on the tree cover of the bush we were hiking through. After my forest hike, i spent the rest of the morning doing some physical labor in the tree nursery, moving seedlings around. I moved some 600-700 seedlings during the hour and a half that I worked.

In the afternoon on Tuesday, Mercy (my host mother) took me to the butterfly garden and Gede Ruins. I got to hold a butterfly! Don't worry I took pictures. Gede Ruins was fascinating. It is a historical site that holds the remains of a medieval Arabic town. Most of the walls have crumbled due to the humongous bulba trees that have rooted up the city and left it in crumbling pieces. Again the monkeys laughed and swung on nearby trees.

Wednesday was the day of the referendum (A holiday where Kenyan's vote to pass the constitution.) Because it was a holiday, I decided to take 3 of my host brothers, Sidney (13) and the twins (10) to the beach in Watamu. We had a really enjoyable day. We made sand castles, coconut boats, and I tried to teach Sidney to swim all while avoiding lots of seaweed. The Indian ocean is beautiful, tealish blue. I want to come back and snorkel some day. (I also want to swim in the Arctic ocean with a wet suit of course, it is the only one I haven't swam in yet.) Mercy brought fried chicken and chips (fries0 for lunch. We had such a spectacular time that Mercy kept saying that the boys will never forget this day.

On Thursday, I actually got to do some work at the forestry station. Bernard, my advisor (and a scientist) decided that it would be best to utilize my teaching skills by having me compile/synthesize a training guide for starting a tree nursery. While my morning on both Thursday and Friday was less than exciting spent at a computer designing this guide/pamphlet, it was nice to be able to contribute my skill set and produce something useful for the Kenya Forestry Institute.

In the afternoon on Thursday, Mercy took me to the Sea Turtle watch in Watamu. I've never seen a sea turtle so close up. One was huge and weighed close to 100lbs. Most of the others were very sickly. The turtles at the center usually are recovering from injury or sickness. (They get sick because they eat plastic bags in the water thinking they are jellyfish...very sad and disgusting!)One of my favorite parts of going to the turtle watch was getting to ride a motorbike. They serve as a common taxi form here on the coast of Kenya.

I made guacamole for dinner last night. It was quite a hit. Tonight I'm making ground-nut soup (a Ghanaian dish). My family loves it when I cook. I figured I'd appease them one last time before leaving tomorrow morning. While I will miss Mercy, Tsofa (my host father), my host brothers, and all their kindness...I will not miss the cold showers, everyone thinking I'm italian and having unlimited amounts of money, the huge massive black wood spider that sit in the corner of my guesthouse, or having to hand wash my clothes every other day. Africa has been fun, and adventure to say the least, and the Safari on Monday and Tuesday should be amazing, but I think I'm ready to return to good old Brooklyn... 4 more days and counting.