this is amazing.

day 2: it that really only the second day??

we spent the day with Louisa yesterday. it was quite a day! i can't even beleive what i am about to write, but i swear that it's true. 100%.

first we went to her house, which is in Nairobi, and which also happens to be the most adorable little house i've ever seen. it is has one main room, with a loft above where she sleeps, and a tiny kitchen and bathroom off to one end. it is in the middle of such a beautiful garden with some of the brightest flowers i've ever seen. then we drove to the airstrip where eston works and got on a tiny little plane, flown by eston's boss, jamie. we flew over Nairobi and all the way to the farm house out here in the country. what an amazing flight! seriously. the sun was just setting and we got some amazing pictures!! this country is so beautiful, one minute it is rolling green hills and the next it's flat dry fields. we saw a rhino! actually i didn't see it. sad. but Lauren adn Louisa did. but i did see some zebras and other cool weird, african animals. Jamie likes to show off so he was flying really low to the ground and back and forth, basically my mother is freaking out as she reads this thinking to herself that i could have died. but look mommy! i didn't! i've alive and safe!

so it was just about the most beautiful airplane ride i've ever been on. and i'm trying to figure out how to upload some picutres off my camera onto this site. randy is helping me do that right now.

we spent the evening just sort of settling in, having a great dinner and going to bed. we woke up at noon this morning, i guess we're still a bit jetlagged. how do you actually spell that? whatever. the only thing i do have to say on this supbject is that once again my mother was right in her advocacy of homeopathic medecine. her faith in bread & circus led her to purchace these pills that are supposed to help with jetlag. and they do work! amazingly!

now i could probably write an entire book on the house we get to spend the next 6 weeks in. pretty much, this house is the single most beautiful piece of architecture i think i have ever had the blessing to walk through, let alone live in. we are surrounded by eucolyptis trees that blow in the refreshing cool breeze day and night. they make a sound that sounds strangly like the ocean does, which makes lauren feel that we are right back on the cape. but we arent, are we. nope! we're in kenya, africa. a bazillion miles away from cape cod. their house is open. like realllyyy open. every window is really a door that opens out and lets in the sunlight and the breeze every time of day and night. the front wall of their house is in fact a hige window which they open during the day. as you look out of this giant wall-window, past the green open field in front, what so i see but mount kenya of course. it is breathtakingly gorgeous here. not to sound cliche, but it really is. every color is enhanced, every tree is taller than any i've seen, they are more alive! nature is right here. instead of being something you go outside to experience, nature is something that is inside this very house.

this morning Suzanne took us on a tour of the area. the whitfields own a third of this land. two other families work nearby. one family grows and exports thousands and thousands of roses. and the other family works with irrigation systems, i think. we met some of the people who work on thier land, all of who are so nice and happy to meet us. as we walked i noticed that even though suzanne has been here for so many years, she still finds the beauty of this country to be amazing. she still is blown away by the colors of the trees, or the smells of the roses, or the sound of the wind. it's really great to be around someone like that, someone who really charises nature like that.

i will now try to upload some of the best pictures that i have taken so far. it takes a while to do, so i will have to be selective about what i put up here and what i will have to save for some big slideshow when i get back. lauren and i will start teaching at two different nearby schools either tomorrow or the next day. i have absolutely no idea what i am going to do. probably just show up and say that im here and willing to do whatever they want and need me to do. that's life i guess.

i hope everyone at home is happy, peaceful, and enjoying their summers. this trip as only just started and i promise to keep anyone who cares, updated. if no one reads this. if nothing else. it is a way for me to document what i am doing each day.

love to everyone!
sophiebess