Janneke's weblog

Hey there!

Finally another message on my weblog. It has been a while. I have been busy with my internship. As I mentioned in my previous message, I got the opportunity to do a research for which I had to carry out several interviews. I have been crossing through the whole of Nairobi to meet 26 people who were working in the field of ‘environmental mainstreaming’. It was so interesting! We got to speak to people from different ministries of the Kenyan government, from NGOs, from the UN and from several parastatal organizations. At the moment I am working on the analysis of the results. The research is exactly what I am interested in: environmental policy.

Only a few days left, and then I will fly home again. I really feel like going home, taking a good rest and celebrate Christmas and New Year with my family.

Last weekend I went to Mombasa, a city on the coast of the Indian Ocean. We crossed Mombasa, but did not stay long and went soon after our arrival there to the cottage where we would stay. It was simply heaven! The weather was wonderful, the ocean was like a warm bad, the environment was terrific, our lunch consisted of coconut and banana and the cottage was so big and luxurious! We kept on saying to each other how lucky we were, and how much we felt as if in paradise. We spent hours just floating in the sea, speaking a bit, and simply being happy, with broad smiles on our faces. We did a lot of snorkeling as well. I was só amazed by the sea stars! There were hundreds of them, all in different colors and sizes. I had never seen anything like it. They are animals, but do not really look like it. We could just pick them up, and then we would see their little mouths and legs on the bottom-side. There was also loads of fish, corals, sea edges, and plants to see in the sea.

Now it is almost Christmas, but it is a weird feeling that the weather is still so gorgeous here. The sun shines every day, and the temperature is perfect. Still, I’d like to feel the cold of winter again. Last Tuesday me and Vick, my house mate, organized a goodbye party. We decorated the house with Christmas decoration, placed the Christmas tree (that has a permanent place in a corner of the house) well visible on a table, and played lots of Christmas songs to get in the x-mas mood. Just before I went to Nairobi, I had put some Christmas songs on my memory stick (which was in August). I can’t have (the days before) Christmas without Christmas songs!

Well, I think this is (one of) the last messages. My adventure is almost over now. Some times were not as nice I had imagined them to be, some were greater than I imagined. My illness has restricted me in lots of ways, but I can still say that I had a great time here and learned lots of new things!