Playing a little catch-up

Good Morning from sunny Lamu, Kenya. Charlotte and I are here to spend a little time with a missionary to the Aweer People, and getting some R&R on Lamu Island. So we're playing a little catch up on the ol' Blog, but I'm sure you'll forgive us.
Charlotte's duties with the office of Communication and Development continued sadly and unexpectedly as she helped coordinate the on-campus memorial service for Dr. Steven Sesi. Dr. Sesi was a beloved member of the AIU faculty, and his loss deeply impacted the community. Additionally, Charlotte has been working to support the launch of Serve the City Nairobi, develop a 5-year project plan for AIU's Center (or is it Centre?) for World Christianity, and do ministry profiles for student ministries. All while keeping me fed and clean. Another full-time job.
By comparison, I have been slacking off, reading and writing for school. Exam week ended Friday, and the sum of the semester is 1,700ish pages read and 140ish pages written, double spaced 12 font, so its not really that impressive and even less so if you bothered to read any of it. Please don't, you've got more important things to do. The final push for reading tests and papers meant I was a bit of a study-hermit the last couple weeks. Thankfully, EB was good about stopping by and pulling my head out of the books. We went together to downtown Nairobi, went to a guitar store, and got lunch at a KFC. It was EB's first time, and he was pretty impressed, deducing that it was the Kentucky that made the Fried Chicken so good. I wish I'd made up the last part.
I think our biggest pangs of home-sickness hit Thanksgiving week. I whine about missing football, but Thanksgiving is something that Charlotte and I both love, and it is defined by the people we celebrate with. Besides, Tennessee has been so bad at football, its kind of nice to be out of the country. Thanksgiving is really a favorite holiday of mine because it is about being together. Thanksgiving doesn't possess the busyness of Christmas, and hopefully true reflection of what we are Thankful for will give perspective that we are so blessed. We were able to celebrate with 2 missionary couples from the U.S. and it was a good time with lots of good food.
So that's why you haven't heard much from us lately. Kinda a newsy update that we've been busy, but nothing too exciting. We'll get some fun stuff up about our time in Lamu. We return to Nairobi Thursday night, and fly to Dubai the following Wednesday. Time is ticking off pretty fast.
John