yet again i suck at blogging...gah i'm so annoying.

stuff has been beyond fabulous here. no al shabaab in nakuru, no illnesses, no complaints! not sure whether harry and laura have told people, but i'm officially staying a full extra month!!! it's so crazy because i'm technically supposed to fly back to the states today...wow. no offense to america, but i'm really thankful i extended my trip because there's still so much to learn at work and fun to have (both in and out of work). trying to blog about the past three weeks is almost impossible, but here are some highlights i suppose.

i keep meeting incredibly sweet people. the relationships are definitely my favorite part of this trip. my friend isabel is like my go-to and we run all over this town together. we've been so lucky to meet this really fun group of swedish kids, two adorable norwegian girls, and some fab kenyans. the people and hanging out with them for dinners and dancing at night has been by far my fave memories. nakuru is pretty small so like everyone knows each other so we normally see the same people out and stuff which makes this place feel like home!

in terms of work, things are great. the past two weekends i've been going to these things called "health action days" in rural areas where FAIR gives dewormer, vitamin a, vitamin d, and milk to hundreds of kids. they are SO fun to attend. the kids are so cute and playful and want to hold your hands alllll day. sometimes there's one little girl on each of your fingers. it's really adorable actually. the only thing that is painfully embarrassing is when all of the community caregivers have the kids form a circle around me and proceed to either force me to sing a song (alone) or jump rope (also alone)...in front of everyone. ugh kill me. it's SOOOO awkward, i always turn bright red and want to die. but other than that it's super fun.

one of the norwegian girls that we hang with turned 23 over the weekend so we went out to celebrate! it was so fun and i knew i had to work the next day but i just couldn't leave before midnight like i had planned! some of my coworkers were out that night too so i was like, okay if they can do it, i can do it. i can and i will get up at seven tomorrow... and as the hours ticked away i ended up getting home and going to bed at 4am. so literally we all came into work hungover and tired as hell and right when we saw the kids, everybody perked up in one second. crazy how you forget about silly things like being tired when you're with these kids that just want to snuggle you. and many of which don't have shoes or underwear...

so i'll be home the week before christmas! which means everyone will be getting african-themed christmas gifts. hope there aren't any objections, but if there are feel free to confront hehe :)

funnies:
-i bargain for watermelon every day. i wish i could do this when i get back...but a) watermelon won't be in season and b) i don't think kroger would be down with negotiating
-yesterday i saw 4 kids and a driver on a piki piki (motor bike). mothers in america would have cringed, but not here!
-since i'm not a huge fan of chai, and the kenyans drink it thrice a day, i enjoy bringing a cold diet coke to work for a little caffeine boost. this may seem harmless, but my boss and many of the other employees here hard-core hate on me for drinking soda in the morning. it's hilarious. one woman told me that drinking too much soda will make me a more violent individual HAHAHAH!
-just renewed my visa! i'm a registered alien in kenya!

i'll leave you with a quote from my friend philip: "i like american girls, they do what they want." thank you, philip and duh!

OH SHOOT WAIT one more hilarious thing. so one of my friends here is dating this guy that is the commanding chief of the nakuru police force. first and foremost, when i say dating i mean he's one of her boyfriends. she has quite a few :) anyway, he took us out to lunch the other day because we're always down for a free meal. so when my friend went to the bathroom, the policeman was like, "how old are you, valen" and i was like "22" and he asked me if i had any kids, to which i responded, "nope, i'm still young!" the policeman said, "you're not too young, i'll give you a baby to take home to america." AHHHHHHHH! WHAAT?!?! seriously i almost died laughing!!!!! how hilarious is it that a freaking police officer would say that to a girl that is like half his age. imagine! only in kenya. (*if you alarmed by this story, do not be. just take it for what it is worth: an example of the corruption and sexuality of the african population).

safety update

hey! just wanted to let people know i'm still safe here. maybe you've seen the news, maybe not, but stuff is kind of crazy between somalia and kenya right now. there's this freaky somali terrorist organization called al shabaab that is targeting tourists as a means for revenge on kenya (or something like that?). thank god i'm home from mombasa because that is not a place you want to be right now. luckily nakuru is not really a touristy area and is much safer than places like kisumu or nairobi. this week us volunteers are planning to just lay low and chill as to not draw attention to our whitey selves. please don't worry, but prayers are always welcome!

maybe you'll be seeing me sooner than we thought in the case that i get deported haha! but hopefully not. i'm definitely not naive, but fortunately i feel very safe here. praying it stays that way.

just a quick little update :) LOVE YOU ALL! val

i officially have caught the travel bug. not the illness, but the interest! i think i'm going to be addicted to africa for forever. it's just so crazy how we were in the same country and yet traveling to mombasa felt like we were on a completely different continent! kenya in itself is so diverse.

as planned, we took the train from nairobi to mombasa (13 hours, very bumpy, slept like a baby thanks to a benedryl) and arrived at twiga lodge on tiwi beach. it was super overcast the first afternoon we were there so we were all nervous that it would be crappy weather for the week, but it turned out to be fabulous! there were so many fun things about the trip! can i just list them? it's easier that way..

-the staff at the place where we stayed was so fabulous. i would recommend this facility to anyone. it was unbelievable.

-we got to snorkel in the indian ocean and right in the middle of this ring of coral reefs was a sand dune. we could swim to it and chill on it and feel like we were walking on water. it was breathtaking. like literally...

-the bugs in nakuru do not remotely compare to the ones in mombasa - we're talking millipedes that were a foot long (and had red legs. AHHH!) oh and snails too...?

-there were a million blue-balled vervet monkeys that would swing in the trees around dinner time. they literally had neon blue ball sacks. it was SO weird and kind of yuck...

-i met the african version of my dad. he referred to himself as "king soloman." uncanny resemblance in personality as well as large head.

-we got to meet so many neat volunteers and vacationers from all over the world! no americans though :(

-my infatuation with swahili music continues to grow. get ready, i'm bringing it back to the states with me!

-my roommate rachel and i laughed pretty much the entire trip. she is fun as hell and such great company!

on the last day we went into mombasa town to tour a little bit before we took the night bus home to nakuru. it was so interesting! first of all, since mombasa was once a really important port, there are a lot of arabs that moved there. honestly, i felt like we were in the middle east as opposed to africa because there were so many men and women in muslim garb. oh, also, i asked this guy we met if he was muslim and he was like, "what??" i asked him again and he still didn't get what i was saying and then i just randomly tried a different pronunciation and said, "are you mooslim" and he said, "OH! yes, yes i am!" hahah! not too keen on the american accent. the vibe was just so different than that of other areas of kenya that i've experienced. it was busy and hectic and crowded, but still so culturally rich. overall, i really enjoyed my time on the coast!

regardless of what you might expect, the ten hour night bus was really great! NOT. it sucked. but it did the job. we got home in one piece and avoided Al Shabab abduction! (sorry mom, i know you don't like jokes like that!)

great holiday, great week, great weekend. family, please be assured that i'm safe, happy, and healthy. miss you all! and chipotle lately...

today is the day we leave for mombasa! it takes three taxis, a matatu (bus), a train, and a ferry to get there. despite the crazy amount of time we'll spend traveling, it's going to be awesome to play on the beach for a week! i'm not bringing my computer so i won't be able to post or anything for the next eight days, but i'll update right when i'm back.wish you all were coming with!

p.s. everyone calls mombasa the las vegas of africa hehe. uh oh!

what a great week! this is what it looked like:

on monday i worked at the farm with amanda! we weeded and hoed and did all this harvesting stuff, during which i got an extreme sunburn on my neck. cool. however, i learned to make ugali which is a traditional kenyan side dish made of maize flower and water (some of the american volunteers have compared to grits - which i have never had so i don't know). people at the farm said it was good. yay!

tuesday and wednesday consisted of sessions with the sex workers. i continue to have the privilege of working with them and learning about/from them. so thankful for days like these! i forget what happened on thursday, but i want to cut to the chase and talk about friday because it was SO neat.

so another aspect of FAIR is the care and support they provide for the community (apart from the prevention part with the sex workers). to carry out these duties in the community, they have hundreds of volunteer mentors who are trained to do household visits and counseling to check up on the children and families FAIR sponsors. on friday, i got to go with to do these home visits! oh my gosh it was so interesting. we visited ten homes and luckily most of the kids were in school (which is obviously the goal - that they can attend school every day) but a lot of the moms or caretakers were home. we got to meet so many of the families and hear their stories and ahhh i really enjoyed it. there was one point where i got pretty emotional though...like i thought i was going to cry. we went to this one house where there were twelve kids living with one caretaker. the caretaker is HIV positive and still tries to work as a farmer to make a little bit of money for her household. the people we were with classified the shelter as being in bad condition which became more obvious as we walked through the two room home. there was a teeeny mattress on the floor that was probably as thin as two pieces of cardboard and 12 kids slept on it. dear god it was hard to see. stuff like this makes me feel so spoiled (in america and nakuru). it sucks but this is what so many people in this gorgeous country deal with on the daily. wow. no matter how hard it is to see, it's important to see how hard it is for some of these families.

we didn't take any field trips this past weekend because this friday we are going to mombasa! yes, i realize this highlights my bratty-ness after what i saw on household visits, embarrassing ugh. but i'm really excited for the trip because if you ask anyone in kenya where you need to visit, EVERYONE says mombasa! it's one of the most southern parts and on the coast and everyone says it's crazy hot there. yay i'm excited to bake on the beach and see a totally different part of kenya! also, we're taking a train there! i've never ridden a train! woohoo! so i'm sure i will have lots to report about this adventure in the near future.

i hope everyone is doing really well! thanks for reading!

to continue the safari post: it was fabulous. our driver peter was literally the best ever and managed to get us up close and personal with every animal that was hard to spot. it just was so different than i expected...i guess because i just didn't know much about safaris so i didn't know what to expect in the first place. the best way to describe the masai mara safari is to compare it to a treasure hunt. we are the pirates on the hunt and the animals are the treasure. the best part is that we all get to share in the find! the drivers of all the cars each have a walkie talkie and can chat with each other about major finds in the animal kingdom and then they all get to share the prize of seeing the animal. for example: peter would get a call on the radio in swahili and it would be something along the lines of "we found a leopard" or whatever and then we would literally FLY there in our safari mobile and there would be fifty cars waiting for it to come out of the bushes! hilarious. it still feels surreal to think that i was five feet away from a lion. with a real live mane. woah.

another fab find we have discovered is this restaurant called Twitters (which they pronounce tweeters) which is the bomb. we go almost every single day for lunch because it's right across the street from FAIR and our meal is 100 kenyan shillings = $1! hell yeah! it's delish and cheap as mcdonald's but you get a TON of food. however, the kenyans have severe issues with my pickiness. they do not enjoy the fact that i am not the most adventuresome eater and choose to call me out/scold me blatantly every single day. can't catch a break.

so every tuesday night our house looses power from 6:30-9:30. strange, yes. we don't know why but it's like clockwork! so this past week we ate dinner early before it was time to bust out the flashlights (which they call torches...) and then went to this great bar/restaurant/dance club called Taidy's which is like five minutes from our house. we chilled and drank Redds, which are like girly wine coolers, and talked around the table because they had power! it was so nice. i love nights like that.

this work week was great, specifically yesterday. amanda and i got to go to this monthly meeting that FAIR hosts for about 100 sex workers in the nakuru area. i don't know how to describe it, but i just love being around these groups because the women are just sweet. it's sad too, but sweet all the more because they are SO loving and kind to me. they all remembered me from meetings and made me feel so good!  i'm so lucky to be working here and working with them. i wish you could see these women! so beautiful.

tonight we're going dancing. duh. hopefully we won't get malled by the kenyans who literally swarm and pretend like they are taking pictures with invisible cameras of us. whatever. miss you guys. thanks for reading this randomness!

failure to blog

it's been ten days since i've written! i suck at blogging. dang it.

so i'll start kinda far back...like last weekend: so friday night i got home from work and had ants in my pants to go out on the town in nakuru! one of my favorite friends at work, kendi, invited me to go to this hotel in town with her and then go dancing later. we met at waterbuck hotel which had a super posh little pub in the back of it and drank tusker (the kenyan beer)! then we moved to this club called Enigma where we literally flailed until 3am! it was hilarious because i told rosemary i was going to be back around midnight or one and when she came to unlock the door for me at three, she was like, "i knew this would happen. i knew you would have too much fun at the kenyan clubs!"...which i totally did. luckily she goes out a lot too so she wasn't mad :) the clubs play a mix of swahili and american music and EVERYONE dances. like people go crazy...especially the men, which is so fun to watch! that was the night i fell in love with kenyan music. obsessed.

the other volunteers and i trotted around town during the day on saturday and met up with these danish volunteers that are working at the hospital at night time. we went to this nyama choma (barbeque) place that has a live band and turns into a dance club after dark. SO HILARIOUS. the kenyan men have a fascination with white women, so they were like so bizarre when we were dancing on the dance floor. i walked back to the table and this guy called me over and was like, "i'll pay ten cows for you to be my wife." they literally are like sharks and they are RELENTLESS when they spot you. sometimes you have to say enda! which is go away in swahili! it's kind of fun :)

last week went by pretty quickly. oh yeah! we got two new roommates that are american and from virginia! they're 22 and childhood friends and adorable. also one of them works with me at FAIR. her name is amanda and i'm a huge fan. our two bosses were out of the office last week so we basically did paperwork and filing and stuff to help out. we got to bond over hole punching. how cute.

on to the exciting part: SAFARI! we finally went on safari to the Masai Mara (southern kenya, close to tanzania) from friday to sunday! it was sooo cool oh my gosh. what a once in a lifetime opportunity! however, one disclaimer: if you get carsick, a safari is your worst nightmare. dead serious. thankfully i do not have that issue, i just wanted to state this fact.

shoot have to go to dinner. i'll write more in a little bit! :)