Giraffe kissing and more

So Kenya is AWESOME. Everyone I'm with is really lovely; I'm staying with two girls called Annie and Rebecca, who I get on really well with, and we're staying at a woman named Grace's house. Her 8 year old grandson, Gigi, also lives with us, and is adorable and hilarious, but less so when he demanded that I give him my i-pod.

My last week or so has been as follows (and I apologise for the long post because I know the attention span of many of you is limited)

--Some Giraffe Kissing - we visited a giraffe centre where you could feed and stroke the giraffes, which was absolutely amazing, and nobody was allowed out without feeding a giraffe from their mouth (i.e. kissing them). In my case it was more being licked by a giraffe but I think I prefer it that way.

--Some Monkey Feeding - we went to City Park in Nairobi, where there are wild monkeys which will come up and take peanuts from your hands, and, if you hold the nuts near your shoulder, will leap up onto it and climb on you for a while. This was SO cool. I also met a group of rather less friendly monkeys today in Nakuru (the town I'm staying in) National Park, who chased me and tried to cling to my leg. My friend Amy has a ridiculous photo of this somewhere so I will put it on here when she's around.

--Some Hippo Watching - we took a little wooden boat onto Lake Naivasha, which has wild hippos and about a billion pelicans who all float together in one area and heard the fish into a big group for them to eat. It was late afternoon when we did this so it was soooo beautiful.

--A Lot of Handshaking - we are the only white people in this little town so EVERYWHERE we go we are stared at, waved at, shouted at and hit upon. It's lovely when people are welcoming and want to make friends with you, but horrible when they start harrassing you. We visited 3 schools and 2 orphanages yesterday and were mobbed by childrern who find us absolutely fascinating. I must've shook the hands of hundreds of kids and at each school we were completely surrounded by children trying to grab our hands and hair and ask 'how are you how are you how are you' repeatedly, as this is the first english phrase they learn and they love it.

--Many many many servings of vegetables - the food here is quite good and it's easy to be a vegetarian, but getting a little tiring already; we generally eat Mocchimo, which is mashed potato and maize and herbs, and some kind of vegetable every day. The mangoes, which you can buy from wheelbarrows on the street, skinned and cut, for 20p, are amazing.

-- A Lot Of Very Scary Driving - the drivers here are NUTS. Lots of screaming and bumped heads is involved in every journey. And the vans have a tendancy to almost break at every major roundabout.

--Some More Wildlife - I have also seen SO many flamingoes and pelicans at Lake Nakuru today, where we went on a kind of safari, as well as gazelles, pumbas (wild boar), zebras, giraffes, rhinos and some scary looking vulture-like birds.

I start teaching tomorrow which should be amazing. I told the headteacher I'd like to teach some art and he seemed really enthusiastic, so I am going to be teaching English, Art and Mathematics (oh dear).

So yes, missing everyone back home but loving it out here.