In the words of my man Bob: Give Thanks and Praises

One of my absolute best friends sent me an email today telling me that in the spirit of the upcoming American thanksgiving she wanted me to know that even with thousands of miles between us, and 10 years of friendship behind us, she is thankful that we are still such a significant part of each other’s lives. I could not agree more!! and this isn’t the first time in the past few weeks that someone has encouraged me to think of what I’m thankful and happy for. So, here it is. A list of those very things …

• My family (including mummy, dad, Michael and Penny… and of course all of my extended family!!)
• All of my friends back home that I love and miss so much
• The great friends I have met here, and the one’s I met before coming here
• Skype!
• The incredible people (and animal) that we come home to every day: Olive, Taysha, Frenk and Blackie
• The beautiful music we hear from our porch (possibly a choir that practices across the street)
• Momma Karol, the OT assistant that SKIPS HER CHAI BREAK (you have no idea how delicious the chai is…) to help translate our sessions with clients
• …chai!

• Playing with kids allll day everyyy day
• The delicous food we eat here... like nyama choma!

• The delicious food that my housemates make… ok let’s be honest, Jeff and Elvina are the cooking dream team. Joyce and I…welll…. we could use some practice..

• Spending time with these great housemates: aka Tanzacrew
• Going for runs and looking down at the beautiful bright purple jacaranda peddles that have fallen to the ground

• Travelling somewhere new and amazing every weekend

 

• The million different pleasant greetings people use (mambo, jambo, habari, shikamoo, etc…)
• The one really bright east-facing star that we see every night
• Our good health
• Having the opportunity to travel and learn at the same time
• The amount we laugh…. It’s absurd.
• The opportunity to make devices (and toys!) that will help our clients

• And finally (there are a thousand more things I could write, but this post has to end somewhere…), I asked Tanzacrew what they’re thankful for and every one of us said something about the welcoming, hospitable and warm people here. The concept that giving is better than receiving, no matter how little you might have, is something that is definitely ingrained in this culture. A word we hear multipe times every day is ‘karibu’, which means ‘welcome’. It is so fitting that this is everyone’s favourite word because it describes exactly how we feel here!

-Martha xo