Elangato Waus, Kenya (via Mark)

Allison managed to call this morning dispite sporadic cell phone coverage.  Actually, she and a few others hiked the closest mountain to obtain a signal!  We chatted for 15 minutes until her cell phone signal was lost as they had to start down while it was still light.
She's been in remote Masai villages for the past week or so, highlighted last night with each student spending the night with a Masai family in their mud-hut homes. She slept on a goat skin bed on the dirt floor after a night of drinking tea made from goat's milk around the fire. The family spoke no English but managed with the aid of a 17 yr.old youth translator. Without much sleep, and smelling of smoke and cow dung, they spent the morning in class followed this afternoon with a Masai Olympics.  Spear throwing, bow & arrow competitions and other traditional events - Allison was quite proud to hit the target with the arrow.
Following her hike down from the mountain the Masai village was putting on a feast for the Canadians. The group had already witnessed the Muslim blessing and slaughter of the goats for this feast.  Allison was able to appreciate this ritual with her limited Arabic training from Queen's.
Previously in the week the group had a bit of excitement when they were hit with a hailstorm out near Lake Naivasha.  She said the trip to Naivasha ended up being a 4 hour trip to a gas station. Upon return to their camp, where they've been camping out for days, her tent was the only one with the tent fly open (busted or forgotten, I'm not sure). So with her tent awash she got to sleep in one of the nearby cabins for a change.
Friday, the group moves back to Nairobi where they will have to finish up numerous assignments to conclude there session two work.  After all these assignments and journals are completed and presented Saturday the group will unwind a bit in an ex-patriot bar in town.  Sunday will be their first scheduled rest day in weeks. She also expects to be able get back online at that time too.
We are hoping to hear from her again on Friday and/or Sunday .............depending on how much unwinding is done!