Sorry it's been hard to keep up with this lately. But we're still alive and well, don't worry! January was a busy month -- Dan went back upcountry for work soon after we got back from The Gambia, and I started volunteering with the Red Cross. It's a good project -- with three years of funding from the EU -- and I am helping with the environmental health/hygiene promotion/community development part of the project. So that's been good. Also, on top of that project, I took on a volunteer community health project for CRS as well, and that seems to have led to a possible consultancy! I am excited about getting paid, and I should know more about it by the next time I can post. So, keep your fingers crossed! We booked our tickets for flying back to the States in the spring for the wedding, so we could definitely use a little extra cash. Who knew it was going to be thousands of dollars to get home from here?

What else were we up to in January? Well, we spent some time at the beach, at the gym of course, and we attended some dinner parties. It's been fun finding things to do. Just this week, we went to our first samba (Brazilian/African dance) lesson, and next week we want to try out a salsa dancing class. The expat community pulls stuff together to get people out of the house and we're checking things out here and there. Oh, we went on our first Freetown Hash House Harriers run as well. We'd been meaning to join for months. There were probably around 30-40 people on the run... we were led through compounds, up hills, on the back dirt roads in one part of town... we probably ran 5K or so. People are cheering you on from their houses. It was fun. Lots of Sierra Leoneans -- and there's all kinds of crazy hazing to torture the runners who are new. Someone told me since it was my first hash run ever that I should drink a beer out of my running shoe (thank goodness i talked my way out of that one!) And one other nice treat was our visit to the "chimpanzoo" which is offically called the Takaguma Nature Reserve, just outside of Freetown. It had been closed for months, but has recently reopened (by appointment only) and we went with some friends on a Saturday afternoon. I've tried posting some pictures so you can see.... unfortunately my pictures don't do the chimps justice. You have to look behind the metal fencing -- and up in the trees -- but we enjoyed watching them play.

Oh, and i wanted to post a few pictures from december as well, now that i have them on my computer -- one is of our Hanukkah celebration here ( we wanted to show off our made from scratch latkes) and some of our saying goodbye to our friend Todd, who went back to the States at Christmas time... just so you can get a glimpse of things we've been up to! Thinking of you - hope all is well at home. Stay warm!