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!