the start of week 2!

mooching the internet at work again, oops!

So this was such a wonderful weekend here! We took our first "trip" which i will describe more in detail in a little bit, but it was just so exciting to get to travel with all the fun people here! when i finished work on friday afternoon, we all went to dinner at this really cool place called the summit. it was a restaurant/sports bar/disco dance floor and they brought out a whole chicken for each person as our meal! i went with my norwegian roommate penny and the 3 other 60-year old female volunteers that are staying with Rosemary (two of which are australian and funny as hell). we got to sit around and enjoy the night after our meal and then danced after that!

on saturday we went to a pool in downtown nakuru called the Merica hotel where you get to lay by the pool and relax for FREE! but if you even stick your foot in, a man comes over and says, that will be 300 kenyan shillings. haha. there are pictures on facebook, but just to reiterate, it was GORGEOUS. the rest of nakuru is dusty and pretty brown, but the pool area was lush and green! such a treat.

after the pool, i begged penny to come with me to this concert called kenyans for kenya. one of the guys i work with at FAIR was on the planning committee and invited me so i really wanted to check it out. it was sponsored by the red cross and cost 100 shillings ($1) to get in and you could listen to like a billion kenyan musicians sing. the proceeds went to the people in northern kenya who are experiencing severe famine at this moment. it was SO neat and so african. when i say there were no other white people there, i mean there were ZERO other white people there. it's so hilarious because wherever you walk, you get called to and swarmed and people want to take pictures with you because lots of them have never seen another white person. HAHA so the concert was no different. penny wouldn't let me dance because she said it would make us "targets for bad stuff" but i really wanted to dance like they do. the young kenyan boys dance like their legs are caving in and broken. i'll demonstrate when i get back to america, but it's pretty funny to witness! i want to learn...

side note about the concert: it was kind of sad because when you went to the entrance gate, there were hundreds of families (kids and adults) who were listening to the music outside the stadium because they couldn't pay the 100 shillings to get in. that is how poor it is. i feel like a spoiled brat.

on sunday we got up early and traveled two hours to lakes bogoria and baringo! if you're ever in kenya, these spots are a must. here are some of the animals i got to see: ostrich, giant tortoise, flamingo, scorpion, snake, crocodile (or alligator i forget which), monkeys, giant storks, etc. Best part about seeing these animals is that they are in the wild so you can get as close to them as they will let you! great for photo ops.

life in kenya is easy if you're american because it is so relaxed and slow moving. i feel really calm here because i'm never in a hurry or "have some place to be" because the kenyans don't care about being late or not. i think i belong here because i'm late to everything!

moquito bite count: 2