Hey Party People.
This past week has been an exciting one, as usual. There are new pictures on facebook if you haven’t seen them yet. I had my first serious day of homesickness last Monday, but luckily I have some good friends here who distracted me enough to get me over it. I find that having to be home by 6:30 pm every night (because of the danger that comes along with the sunset) can be really isolating. My family is really busy so I spend most of my time with my sister Cynthia, and she is such a doll. We listen to popular music together and she asks me questions that she’s afraid to ask some of the women in her family. I feel like I’m really building something special with her. Although Mama is busy from 7 am – 7 pm each day with work, this past weekend I saw that she really does want to spend serious time with me, even if its only a few minutes before bed. The lack of family time has been a bit of a catch 22 for me so far, but this past Saturday I insisted on no t.v. or movies and kidnapped my little sisters for a girls night. We played games and I taught them a magic trick (which we then practiced for about an hour after that), and listened to music and paged through magazines. I convinced Mama to let us all push our beds together and have a slumber party which thus led to secret chocolate consumption and staying up 2 hours past Angel’s bedtime. It felt really good to be a fun big sister for a night.
School work has been mentally challenging, and the day seems to take a long time. Since its divided into two hour blocks, the lessons tend to be really fast and dense, and I rarely put my pen down. That being said, I am learning so much. Last week in Kiswahili, we went out to a restaurant to practice ordering food and asking questions about the menu and pricing. We also usually get a half day at least once a week to allow us to work on our assignments (which naturally none of us actually do). This week I will hope to use my half day to go to the Arboretum outside of downtown Nairobi. The language lessons are pretty intense though, I usually have a solid exhaustion headache after leaving Kiswahili class, but our teacher is so patient and really tests us. I think I’m doing pretty well for only having two weeks of school so far. I’m proud of the Kiswahili that I know thus far.
Last Friday, we went swimming after school which was a really nice activity to end our week. Although we got stared at a lot while applying SPF 50, overall it was a really fun afternoon. Tom and I did some pretty pathetic dives (belly flops) that resulted in nice red marks, and a lot of laughs from locals and our friends. I had dinner with my friend Shelise’s family on Friday, which was a nice vacation from the white rice and French fries at my house. We went out to a bar called Sailor’s on Friday night, and met up with a dozen or so of our friends and their host brothers and sisters. Its always really fun to monopolize the dance floor and not worry about being sillypants. Saturday was spent walking around (getting very lost) in downtown Nairobi in an attempt to make it to the National Museum. In the end, we wandered for a bit, got some lunch, and ended up just laying in the Central Park for the afternoon, once we realized that the museum was not going to happen. We did get to walk around a roundabout for about twenty minutes whilst lost though, that was a treat. J
Sunday was all about the Pack. I took some naps during the day to prepare for a sleepless night with my team. We had no water or electricity all day so coordinating cabs and timing was a bit rough since everyone’s cell phones were dying, but we arrived at Masrawy at around 10 pm. Since we had 4.5 hours until game time, we mostly just smoked hookah and ate falafel and watched the clock until 2:30 am. Plus, with the knowledge that our Director / Professors has cancelled class for us the next day, we had so much fun. The owners of the restaurant shut the place down (or should I say kept the place open) for us until 7 a.m. and were so great and accommodating. They projected the game on the side of the big white tent and we all celebrated until sunrise as we watched the Packers win the Super Bowl. It was so great and exciting and really a blast. One of the most memorable sporting events of my life & a big highlight of the year. It was absolutely surreal to be celebrating the first Superbowl victory for the Pack since I was 6, while the sun rose over the outdoor restaurant. It was like an unimaginable secret garden. Plus a lot of Wisconsin chutzpah. God, I love the Packers. I was really proud to be a cheesehead that night.
Whatever was up with my eyeball has since disappeared. My eye doesn’t hurt anymore, but my feet do. I’ve been getting some really bad blisters on them, regardless of what shoes I wear. They are to the point of infections and continuous pain, but I’m working it out. It’s really difficult to find shoes that keep my feet clean and dry and don’t rub on the really long walk to school. It’s been painful but if I practice a little more self-care, I should be alright.
This coming weekend, we will likely be travelling to the Rift Valley (the largest province in Kenya) to stay at the resort of Abdul-Aziz and Simon, two of our wonderful leaders. In addition to working for MSID, the two of them own a campsite and are hosting us for the weekend. We are so excited to stay there and camp outside, but especially to see Simon and Abdul-Aziz in their other roles. A group of my classmates went whitewater rafting in Uganda this past weekend, and I was pretty bummed to miss out on that (for the game) but am looking forward to this trip and possibly one to Hell’s Gate next weekend. Only a few more weeks until we transition to our internships, so I’m trying to soak up as much of Kenya as I can before moving to Mombasa. The coasties are probably going to be doing some significant travel before that, assuming I don’t run out of money. P.s. I’m running out of money. Oops.
This past week did bring a few challenges though, namely the fact that I spend 1000 shillings on postage and postcards to send some messages to my family, Adam, the Dowds, etc. and didn’t realize until about 3 minutes AFTER I dropped them in the mailbox that only two out of the seven had complete addresses. Silly silly. But for real, dang, I spent like an hour writing all those out. Also, I got burned for the first time, but only slightly, and not at all since then. I’m pretty diligent with the sunblock, but I won’t apologize for accidently sitting in the sun for too long playing Super Jewel Qwest. Such an addict for that game. No worries, I made it to Level 50 yesterday and was greeted with the message ‘CONGRATULATION YOU ARE LORD OF SUPER JEWEL QWEST’. What a way to end Super Bowl Recovery Day ’11. Pure Bliss.
Besides that, not too much has changed here in good ole Kenya, and I will likely post again sometime next week after coming home from camping. If I do end up going to Hell’s Gate, I’ll keep ya’ll posted on the details for that. FUN FACT: The major motion picture THE LION KING (wahh!) is allegedly supposed to be set in Kenya at Hell’s Gate. Omigah.
Kwaheri,
Amani
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