Because it is Vacation

Vacation – Holiday as the Europeans Say

Between the groups that came for the summer and the interns coming in September Daniel and I had the blessing of meeting Larry for a 12 day Mediterranean cruise. Larry decided not to come to Kenya this year but gave his blessing for me to go to Africa for almost 6 months this year. I was so homesick this summer it was painful!! I missed Larry so much I cried and questioned my decision to help in Africa. For those of you who know me well, you know I am always scheming for the next adventure. (not that living in Africa isn’t enough of an adventure, I have to add an adventure within the adventure). I figured Larry could meet us half way.

I have been wanting to go to Italy for a few years and wasn’t sure how I would get Larry to go. For some reason it did not hold his interest. The mention of the cruise and meeting Daniel and I was enough. Thus my scheming materialized.

I learned a lot on this trip about Europeans:

- They have great body image. Everyone proudly wears a bikini or Speedo. Size and age don’t matter.

- You can tell a lot about a country by their bathrooms. In Italy we had to pay $2.00 to us it.

- Their public transportation is wonderful.

- Any male under 30 in Italy looks like they could be my son.

- They all know English. Everywhere we went some one could help us in English. I am so amazed and impressed. I guess Americans only need to know English because we can travel the world and everyone has learned our language.

- They are proud of who they are, their history and their countries.

- They know a lot more about American history and politics than many Americans.

- The ship had a special section in the restaurant call the “British Corner”. I found the British like cheese, cold cuts, hard boiled eggs and beans for breakfast.

- That if I watched BBC instead of CNN news there was a bigger world of news than what goes on in just America.

- Turkey doesn’t have air conditioning in their airport.

- The British love to travel as much as the Americans do.

- Italians talk really loud! Not just the Lipparelli family!

- The Tower in Pisa is really leaning but so are a lot of other buildings in Italy.

- Venice may be the most beautiful City in the world.

The trip was wonderful. It was good to be with Larry for two weeks and was hard to say good bye at the airport today. It was odd to leave from a vacation and not go “home”. Daniel and I are almost to Nairobi. We have four days back in Kitale before we return to Nairobi to pick up the interns and start the next adventure.