weekendi

i'm starting to get worried i just may not come home (not completely true, mom and dad) but this small town of eldoret and all the people in it have wiggled their way into my heart and i am having too much fun. pole sana.

on thursday, the group of us, successfully pulled our first all-nighter in order to finish a quantitative data collection project on hand washing. we had the run of the dining hall, i made eggs (i'm eating them over-easy exclusively now) and toast and insane amounts of coffee. meghan and i had a heart-to-heart about love and settling down and how beautiful africa is (ultimately a procrastination technique, but wonderful nonetheless). i opted to take a "nap" for two hours, but woke up panicked 4 minutes before class at 9:30am. classy. george washington university flew an economics professor out here from d.c. so she is teaching us for the next 4 days. we have a lot of reading. but she took us all out for a nice dinner on friday night. then we went dancing. we are becoming quite the friday-night-regulars and this place called (....) "places"! when you walk in da club there is an arch way that is covered in multi colored lights, and you have to go through TWO! metal doors that the security guard opens for you from the darkness at the exact moment you reach the door. and when you get inside, this song is usually bumpin'.

saturday i woke up "late" at 9am and sat by the pool because it is closing for the season and i wanted to get as many last-minute freckles as i could. then i went and played with babies (surprisingly). apparently, my teenage angst was just a phase and i do, in fact, have a maternal instinct. i could sit for hours in the rocking chair cradling babies. they don't judge you when you have a bad singing voice and their deep brown eyes and smiles could turn your frown upside down. a new girl, abigail, was abandoned two days ago. her mother just left her in the hospital. she is extremely stunted and at 11 months old looks and weighs like a 4 month old. her tummy is bloated and her little legs are toothpicks. it's only possible to tell she's older because she has four little teeth and ALL she does is giggle. truthfully. she just laughs and grabs your finger and dances when you play music. ahh, it broke my heart. so, to remind myself the world is beautiful, i went on a bike ride and raced some 12 year old kid down the hill and beat him! 'cause my bike is fast like lightening.

then, the real fun started. dun dun dun. the mr. africa body building competition. wow. these men are SERIOUS. and flex their muscles to celine dion in tiny-weeny-polka-dot bikinis. we cheered them on (especially our dear lady friends who were emceeing. wink wink), drank a lot in the bar and loved all 6 hours (!) of it. i'm pretty sure the drinking was a prerequisite. then a handful of us piled into the car to head out to the farm with our mzungu kenyan friends. beer pong happened with one ping pong ball and smaller-than-regulation-size cups, good music was played and we enjoyed heaven.

wambui and i with IU's own body builder

this was no joke

the game of flip cup was no joke either

this morning we all woke up. mark and megan made us all breakfast (pancakes with fresh mango syrup and eggs. it was damn good.) which we ate in the garden. then took turns riding around on the dirt bike and bid our farewell to jani (the farm owner's son), who is off to botswana to take a "scouts course" for the next month. his father, a pilot, was due to fly him to nairobi. this doesn't seem like real life. then we drove back to town in andrew's truck (which is missing a muffler) listening to (bad?) techno music and watching kenya go by.

and at that moment, i swear we were infinite

then we played soccer, where i got hosed by a kenyan man playing without shoes. ghana and egypt are playing now, and i think i'll go watch some of that game. but, really, you should probably come visit. i'll make you a pancake.

boys with a dirt bike

jani, dan and i after pancakes

us ladies (and the little dog, too!) happily full after brunch--thank goodness i have such good posture!

the latest from my digital camera. blast!

[and there's this about sudan]

wonk wonk

usually in the late afternoon i get to go on a bike ride. it's pretty great, 'cause i've found this longer route that includes a couple of quiet dirt roads. and it's so fun to cruise down the road, dodging bumps and rocks and the bike is sturdy enough that it can handle it. it's like a video game. and i get to yell "harbari?" to everyone i pass. which usually catches them off guard, and they stop staring.

nothing else to report. tuesday was a lot of class. we have a new professor for qualitative data collection and she's awesome. this outgoing, SUPER smart, kenyan woman who has done research on commercial sex workers and men who have sex with men; which is relatively unheard of here. then we all went out to kenyan karaoke for the evening.

and yesterday i woke up with a nasty bug that was going around. therefore, i threw up all morning, had a little fever, and other un-ladylike symptoms and just slept and felt bad for myself. i also watched a few movies. wonk wonk.

this is interesting. it's nice when you log into the nytimes from an international IP address, you immediately get the "international edition." this basically means more information about the world's fastest texter (she's from korea) and cricket scores as opposed to the NFL.

darfur and sleeping babies

this is my monday:
hmmm (check it)

baby jolene

the days keep turning into night

life here is hard. today i woke up on a farm with giraffes, came back to the compound and made some eggs, took a nap, played soccer (pulled my quad--wonk wonk), had sundowners by the pool and went out to chinese food for dinner. then got in a taxi that got us lost:
us: "we are going to elgon view drive"
taxi driver: "oh yes, i know this place"
us: (passing the street) "oh! that was it"
taxi: (still driving) "yes, i know the place"
us: "sawa sawa" (still driving away from the place, thinking he knew a short cut) "umm, it's not up here it's behind us"
taxi: "ohh!! you know the place? you will tell me how to get there?!"
us: "yes, we will give you directions."

in about an hour we will go watch the football playoffs. more so as a procrastination technique than my actual interest in american football.

recently we have befriended a mzungu kenyan pair of guys that work on a nearby farm. (<-- click that, you won't regret it) its a huge piece of property and they breed giraffes for the sake of conservation and also raise your standard farm animals. the place is beautiful. friday night we all went out dancing until quite late. we pushed ourselves and were out until about 4am, but a kenyan will tell you "that's when the fun starts!" and we have been ridiculed in the past for leaving "early." saturday morning we woke up and piled into the van to go to the farm, for a little hike and giraffe tracking. the pictures will suffice and depict how wonderful it is. then we went to lunch at a restaurant that overlooks the Great Rift Valley. take note though, if you are going to a restaurant because you are hungry, this is not the place for you. the views are stunning, there is a keyboard to jam on, but you will wait for a sandwich for about 2 hours.

meghan and i, the explorers

we found them! the twigas!

my dirty feet and a view of the great rift valley

then a few of us went back out to the farm to socialize with american games, dancing and rabbit-chasing. the rabbits were the highlight of the night. whereas we have cow tipping in america, mzungu kenyans drive out to their landing strip, leave the headlights on and jump out of the car to chase rabbits at full speed. it's near impossible, obviously, and no one successfully caught a rabbit. chasing after birds and gazelle-like animals is also socially acceptable in the game. all-in-all it was a wonderful weekend in our understanding of paradise; i hope you had a great weekend too.

what it looks like when someone sprints ahead in hot pursuit of a rabbit

necessary rabbit-chasing costumes

i had a dream i stood beneath an orange sky

my salvation lies in your love

life here is beginning to ebb and flow. it's starting to feel natural and more comfortable. however, i have not been able to get over the fact that kenyans CUT IN LINE. everyday we go to the university cafeteria and wait in three lines. the first line at the kiosk for our coke kubua baridi (big, cold coke) then we wait in line to order our lunch then we wait in line to get the food. and without fail everyday, in at least one line, a student will cut. they are not malicious about it, just passive aggressive and nonchalant. i asked our kenyan friend about it, convinced it was because we were wazungus, but, in fact it is just a cultural thing and we need to be more assertive. noted.

kayla in our quantitative data collection classroom

yesterday in swahili class we went over "foodstuffs." we had to pretend we were at a restaurant. kayla was the "waita" and i was the "kustoma" (both words spelled correctly here). perfect. we are increasing our swahili classes to twice a week. and our teacher told us here they have TGII 'cause friday = ijumaa. the jokes never stop.

also prominent in my life has been my frequent consumption of cucumbers. they are delicious and fun to peel with this nifty little knife i have. i have been eating at least one a day, which is good 'cause they have quite a few nutritional qualities:

• Fresh cucumber juice can provide relief from heartburn, acid stomach, gastritis and even ulcer.
• Placing a cucumber slice over the eyes not only soothes them, but also reduces swelling.
• Daily consumption of cucumber juice helps control cases of eczema, arthritis and gout.
• Cucumber has been found to be beneficial for those suffering from lung, stomach and chest problems.
• The potassium in cucumber makes it useful for the problem of high and low blood pressure.
• Cucumber contains Erepsin, the enzyme that helps in protein digestion.
• Cucumber juice is said to promote hair growth, especially when it is added to the juice of carrot, lettuce and spinach.
• Cucumber juice, when mixed with carrot juice, is said to be good for rheumatic conditions caused by excessive uric acid in the body.
• Cucumber can prove to be beneficial for those suffering from diseases of the teeth and gums, especially in cases of pyorrhea.
• Being rich in minerals, cucumber helps prevent splitting of nails of the fingers and toes.
• Cucumber has been associated with healing properties in relation to diseases of the kidney, urinary bladder, liver and pancreas.

the other day i heard a R&B/hip-hop song while printing my assignment where the chorus was "shake your booty in the name of jesus." that alone explains a lot about kenyan culture.

last night we heard from a man that works for AMPATH about the post-election violence two years ago. his personal story was gripping. he told us about transporting vulnerable people around town and the road blocks and the unemployed young men with machetes that were getting paid by government officials to continue fighting. the IU compound became a Hotel Rwanda, the hospital was a mess, all shops completely closed down and bodies could be found in the street. he is also a body builder and will be competing in the Mr. Africa competition next weekend here in town. i already bought my ticket.

this morning we went to the Imani workshop, to shop and take a tour, where HIV/AIDS patients can work making clothes, paper goods, jewelry and pottery to generate an income. i bought some gifts :)

kanjani with men and women making paper behind her

in other news, i am stark raving mad at the supreme court, and i bet you are too.

taxi tunes

"I never knew of a morning in Africa when I woke that I was not happy."
- Ernest Hemingway

it should be known that every night when we drive the 6 minutes from the IU house to our hostel the music that is playing in the taxi is downright wonderful. it's typically a love ballad from the mid-90s. last night it was "from this moment" by shania twaine. followed by whitney. i couldn't make this stuff up if i tried. the only thing better than taxi tunes is the karaoke song list.

this morning we went to tumaini (meaning "hope" in swahili) which is an AMPATH funded place for street kids to come on Monday and Wednesdays and play games, eat some food and just be children. a vast majority of the street children here are addicted to huffing glue. you can get half a bottle for less than 10 cents and it gets you high, "makes you brave," and curbs appetite. truthfully, i was dreading going. this is a collection of children that harass you in the street asking for food and money and will follow you for blocks until you get a. pissed and forcefully tell them to leave you alone or b. cave and give them something (read: the latter option is DEFINITELY frowned upon). We learned some slag words (Niaje = what's up?; poa = cool; freshi = fresh) and i perfected the fist pound before meeting up with very poor, sexually active, drug-addicted young teenagers. anyway, they are AWESOME. they giggled at us and talked about us in swahili, but mostly they just played. we played volleyball and soccer and ran around for a few hours. i talked with a street girl who was the toughest chick i have ever met. she was 20, had a 5-year old son, and had already lost a baby. she was turkana from the north (turkana people take out their two bottom center teeth) and came to eldoret to "survive" in the "base." she didn't speak english but i learned that street men and women call themselves survivors and town is referred to as base. they sleep in rolled up carpets at night and men and women sleep separately. they use the nearby river for their washing, bathing, etc. she was shocked by my tattoo and ear piercings, and kept asking if it caused me pain, which i explained it didn't, but maybe it got me some street cred.

in class, we broke into small groups to go over a project and i was talking to another student (also a turkana!) about the bracelet i haphazardly wrapped around my wrist again before i left. the turkana people wear the bracelet too and she offered to re-wrap it for me after class. so we go to the hospital (she works in the lab) and proceed to hide in a backroom for 2 hours (!!) it was the biggest ordeal ever. so sweet she wanted it to be perfect ("it's my first time doing it. i only used to see my grandmother do it.") we had to unwrap the whole thing, straighten it out by pulling it back and forth on the faucet (this obviously required the help of two men), the first time it was too loose, second time is was WAY too tight and my hand turned deep purple and i couldn't feel it and i had a mzungu freak-out moment for sure, the 5th time we GOT IT! then she took me for a mango and a soda at the little kiosk outside of the hospital.

on the walk home i saw one of the younger boys from tumaini. he didn't ask me for money. just gave me a high five and kept walking.

birthdays are fun

how i spent my birthday:
1. bicycle ride (not pictured)
2. played with baby Barack and baby Lydia at the Sally Test Center


3. eating lunch in the "VIP lounge" in the cafeteria (VIP 'cause it has red, velvet-like seats)



4. got (pleasantly) surprised by water being dumped on my head and birthday decorations!


5. took a nap by the pool


6. had homemade cookies and coffee in class


7. went to wander around town (not pictured)
8. drank delicious wine with the ladies and went to karaoke (!!)


9. danced until 2am (sadly, not pictured)

aside for massachusetts failing all of us horribly, it was a great day. thank you for all of your birthday wishes, they made me really happy.

sunday reading

the way to happiness

saturday is salama

on friday we walked over to the IU house and a bunch of people were crowded around. we asked the guard and he nonchalantly said "i came to work today and i found out it was the Apocalypse." this was clearly a concern until we had an 'ah-ha!' moment and realized the reason why people had two pieces of paper out was because it was, in fact, an eclipse. it was neat. and there won't be another one of that duration until 3043.

then i spent the morning with an adorable 3 month old baby named jesse at the sally test center. it's a fun place off of the pediatric ward at the hospital and anyone can just drop in and play with the babies and children. he smiled a lot and sucked his fingers and drank all of his bottle and he is HIV positive and an orphan. so sad to have to start life that way and he has no idea. he's not even afraid of white people yet.

at the center we also listened to a talk on asthma and met a new friend, anne. she is a kenyan law student and volunteers at the center in the mornings. we invited her out dancing with us that night and she came. people here are beautiful. we explained we were going out to celebrate my birthday (ultimately using an excuse to get all of us girls out on the town) and when she came to the club she brought me a shell necklace in a little basket, "because you are the birthday girl!" i had met her 8 hours before. there's a level of hospitality and sincerity in this culture that americans are lacking.

we danced our socks off last night and had a rip-roaring good time. i got a dancing lesson and there is a little bit of hope that by the time i leave i will be able to shake my hips properly. at least a little bit.

everyone before hitting the town

today we drove to Wabuye for the AMPATH launch party. essentially it is an all day event with loads of community members enjoying each others company and getting excited about health. we were told there is over a 90% positive response rate for those who want an AMPATH counselor to come to their house and test them for HIV. after our chat, in true kenyan tradition, they fed us in the neighboring school. and it was delicious. fresh chicken, chipati and coca-cola in a bottle really can't be beat. we watched the events (tug of war, soccer, a dance off (!!), speeches) and even did a little singing of our own.

so, children in kenya don't wear diapers. makes complete sense considering diapers are expensive and WIC isn't exactly up and running around here. mothers carry their babies on their back and it is said they feel the baby wiggle and know when he or she has to pee and they just put them down, they do their business on the ground, and everyone continues on their way. i know this because today i missed the wiggle and got peed on. all was well under a shady tree and i was holding a woman's adorable baby daughter and she was sitting on my leg, and we were watching soccer and BAM! warm wetness. now i definitely have to do laundry.

ps-fun trick: kayla taught us that if you always look at the person's elbow when giving a high-five, you will never miss hitting their hand. try it. it's true.

pps-nairobi went a little nuts yesterday.

ppps-attention MASSACHUSETTS. in case you were unsure about what to get me for my birthday this year, you can just go vote for Coakley on Tuesday. Apparently the polls are close and we need the Democrat seat to move forward with health care. C'mon, you won't regret it. In the legacy of Kennedy (even if you think he wasn't a stellar person, mom). pleaseandthankyou.

waiting for lunch

tug of war

all of us at the event (plus an additional 30 children)

just being wazungus (it's a video! hooray!)

pole pole

last night i had a dream that i looked at my calendar and it said "Ma 9" and i panicked 'cause i thought we were leaving kenya already, 'cause it was may 9th. and i was sad. i thought i hadn't bought anyone any presents and i never made it to lamu and in my dream i was concerned. then it dawned on me that we hadn't gone to the field yet so there was no way we were leaving. and it must have said march 9th, not may. point being that i'm happy enough here that the thought of leaving already was disturbing. i wish i could share it with you, it would be nice if you were here. but in the meantime, it's pretty damn awesome.

here, as slang, they call vegetarians mbogotarians ('cause mbogo is vegetable). that's priceless.

good work, world.

the group at the food distribution center at AMPATH

like two trapeze swingers

please remember me, happily/by the rose bush laughing/with bruises on my chin, the time when/we counted every black car passing/your house beneath the hill and up until/ someone caught us in the kitchen/with maps, a mountain range, a piggy bank/a vision too removed to mention

We get up early in the morning. The four of us are usually up and at 'em by 8am. Probably because we turn into pumpkins after dark so we go to bed on the earlier side. My 3 roommates like to run in the morning, and i've never been running's #1 fan. So, i tend to stretch on our balcony with Iron&Wine on repeat, and at that hour, when it's perfectly cool and breezy it's pretty close to heaven.

Today we took a tour of the AMPATH hospital. Assuming you all did your homework and cruised the website I won't bore you with repeating their programs, but it's a well-oiled organization and we're in it here. They have a handful of initiatives and programs for their HIV/AIDS clients, one of which is the FPI, or family preservation initiative, which operates under the notion that even if you give patients ARVs if they have inadequate nutrition or extreme poverty, their condition will not improve. (as public health students, we like this) So, there is a farm on site where produce is sold (income-generator) and given to "food-insecure" patients with a prescription from a nutritionist for up to 6 months. Currently though a change is happening where the healthier clients will work on the farm to generate an income while also providing food for their less-healthy counterparts. there is also a passion fruit juice factory. and they are currently grafting the "purple passion" and the "yellow passion" to make "an even sweeter passion" (the jolly Kenyan man was very enthusiastic about his job)

a kenyan woman distributing maize brought in once a month by the WFP

us on our farm tour

The partnership between IU-Kenya-Moi-USAID-PEPFAR etc, etc is intense and AMPATH is essentially a symbolic acronym for the collaboration that operates under the Kenyan Ministry of Health. Also, technology is cutting edge around here. Google was in town last week because they will (eventually) provide phones with GPS and data collection software that can be formatted accordingly, so trained counselors can go door-to-door in the 3 million people catchment AMPATH area of Western Kenya and test people for malaria, TB, HIV all within their homes and rural villages (!!!) This weekend there is a "launch party" in a village where people come out to play and listen to talks and sing--all done to ultimately gain enthusiasm for a program beginning in a new area. it's pretty exciting. and that's a fragment of what we learned. all before noon.

i walked into town in search of (room temperature) milk and it never ceases to surprise me how handicapped individuals operate in developing countries. i passed a woman on her hands and knees using two pairs of flip flops (one for her hands and one for her knees) because her lower legs were deformed. another man cruised by me on his knees because he didn't have lower legs. either we provide surgery in the U.S. or they are hidden from my view, but i haven't seen anything like it in a long while. a girl on our program wants to do her culminating experience on handicap-access in kenya. needless to say, it is few and far between.

and it would be nice if the powers that be could give haiti a break. that news is so sad.

tonight us, and the other few dozen of mzungus on this compound, are going out to an indian dinner. AND i got the seat lowered a bit on my hip new bicycle, so tomorrow i will take her for an early morning cruise.

OH! and our address here is: Lauren Welch
c/o Indiana University/George Washington Univ
PO Box 4806-30100
Eldoret, KENYA
[obviously packages, letters, postcards, etc would be greatly appreciated. we will just all have to hope it gets here by May]

so alivia taylor can see how cool i look with my neon backpack on a daily basis

terrific tuesday

hipsters need to abandon williamsburg and get to kenya. they would have a field day. the ironic clothing is everywhere. today i saw a pair walking: one in a hoodless sweatshirt with a siberian tiger on it that said "love your mother" accompanied by an elderly woman in a neon colored sweater with the nike swoosh on it from 1983. a majority of people ride old, rusting, vintage bicycles, with baskets and without helmets. i bought a ($4!?!?!) jansport backpack for school, and naturally, the only color they had was neon green. my clothes may be cooler than your clothes by the time i get back.

we started classes and they're great. it's wonderful because we are taking our courses in 4 intensive blocks as opposed to spread out over the semester, so we can spend three weeks with our kenyan counterparts in the field. it's super because we only have one or two classes at a time and we just bust 'em out in a few weeks and move on. and this place is a big deal. the IU-Kenya partnership is impressive and you should definitely take a minute to cruise their website. and we live on the compound with joe mamlin, no big deal to take your breakfast with a nobel peace prize nominee. we have our tour of the hospital tomorrow. and there is a center for abandoned babies where you can go drop in whenever and just hold them and play with the children. perfect stress reliever.

today, however, we didn't have class. so we laid by the pool (sorry?) then wandered through town, sat and drank coffee and read my new danielle steel (err, i mean, ernest hemingway) "novel" AND i got a bike! it's perfect. so in kenya you go to the grocery store and you buy a bike (new for $90) then you immediately take it to the fundi (fix-it man) to get it fixed. i brought my kenyan friend, which was smart considering the pedal fell off as i was pushing it out of the store--found out later it was missing a bolt. then for about $4 the fundi fixes it like new and you pick it up 2...or maybe 3...or maybe 5 hours later. it's a bit dodgy being a white girl with a new bicycle so i will have to roll it around in the mud for a bit. but it makes me happy and on weekends i can go on ride around on the dirt roads, it's a speed demon! here they also have bike taxis, boda bodas, where someone puts a cushion on the back of their bike and hauls people around. if i get strapped for cash i think it would be a good job prospect. just a thought.

oh! and i got a new phone. an even nicer one with a flashlight and SNAKE. bring it on! my highest score is already 1250 (that's a snakemaster for those of you unfamilar with the game)

the number is: +254 716715464 (it may be temporary, but i'll keep you posted)

me with my new bicycle!
(sorry aaron for straight-up stealing your handkerchief during summer 2k9--forgive me?)

ladies by the pool we have access to

eldoret is happenin'

we made it to eldoret. i slept most of the way in the back left corner of our rented matatu. and just listened to music and watched kenya go by. it's green and rainy and little children walk up the side of the road with their goats. we stopped to see the great rift valley and to take pictures at the equator (!!) we also passed through a small town called bird forest which suffered the most during the post-election violence last year. a few hundred kenyans are still living in IDP camps along the road. our living accommodations are nice. there are four of us to a room and i am in the moi university hostel first, which means we live with kenyan medical students, and we have to cook for ourselves (this morning i had a peanut butter sandwich and banana).

the great rift valley

all of us at the equator

our room

a view from our balcony

the walk from our hostel

the hospital

at the bar/restaurant

meat meat meat meat

yesterday we went for a walk through the town, which is busy and full of people. we had some lunch, walked through the open air market and managed to not get run over. i also bought a newspaper and spent my afternoon digesting the kenyan news.

here are some headlines (and highlights) from the national paper, The Standard (which tends to be bias towards the Opposition side of politics--a majority of Western Kenya):

homosexuality perversion is a threat to survival of humankind: "Homosexuals have coined the term homophobia, to mean intense fear or hatred of homosexuals. Accordingly, I am classified as a homophobic. This is on account of the fact that I cannot stand homosexuals...let me have about me a couple of dozens of Tiger Woods and their dozens of concubines. I can live with that and so, too, can Mother Nature and a whole world out there....but homosexuality is another ballgame all together...it is worse than scandalous that society allows homosexuals to brazenly talk about such psychotic and psychopathic things as 'gay marriage'...then there is the rapist. If the homosexual must have his space, let the rapist have his space too. The lowest common factor between the rapist, the pedophiliac and the dog-man is that they have evolved perverted carnal appetites that run counter to the law of nature..."

how to recover when cheated on: 1. don't act like the victim, yes you are hurt and perhaps confused, but sitting back and feeling sorry for yourself won't help. 2. don't accuse: you need to swallow your anger and pride 3. get to the bottom of it: this is going to hurt, but you must know the reason for the cheating and fix it 4. forgive and forget: this may be the hardest step, but it is the most necessary.

a cougar is born: "I invited Timmy and his friends over and eventually Mr Out of Bounds man bought them a play station 3. Timmy (a 20 yr old college student home for the festive season) and i would cuddle on the couch."

needless to say, I will buy the paper much more often now. There was other news, about the government, a man's goat farm, the matatu strike, the African Cup (soccer. errr, football), and the trouble brewing in South Sudan. But the articles on lifestyle choices I found most interesting and educational.

last night we went out to nyoma choma which is just huge slabs of meat they cut up and serve you with beer and the football game playing. then we went out to the dance club in town, called Spree, to practice our dance moves with the kenyans. It's fun, they play reggae and hip-hop from about 5 years ago and have lasers and bright lights. I watched this Kenyan couple bump and grind for about half hour simply trying to figure out how human hips can physically move like that. i don't have the gene.

hope you all had a super duper weekend.

internetz

i've been reading a lot of andrea gibson. and other than my dear friends sarah lawson (rememberwhenihadablog.blogspot.com) and justin searns (who guards his brilliance), she is certainly my favorite poet.

and i've found a bit i like a lot:

i've never seen a bomb drop.
i've never felt hunger.
i've also never seen lightening strike
but i know we've all heard the thunder
and it doesn't take a genius to tell something's burning.

"Please call me by my true name,
I am the child in Uganda all skin and bone."
Do we remember the rest?
And, "Jesus Wept."
Jesus wept, but look at our eyes,
dry as the desert sand
dusting the edges of our soldiers' wedding bands.

Do you know children in Palestine fly kites
to prove they're still free?
Can you imagine how that string
must feel between their fingers
as they kneel in the cinders of US-made missile heads?
You can count the number of the dead by the colors in the sky.

The bough is breaking.
The cradle is falling.
Right now a six-year-old girl is crouched in a ditch in Lebanon
wishing on falling bombs.

Right now our government is recording the test scores
of Black and Latino 4th graders
to see how many prison beds will be needed in the year 2015.

Right now there's a man on the street outside my door
with outstretched hands full of heartbeats no one can hear.
He has cheeks like torn sheet music
every tear-broken crescendo falling on deaf ears.

At his side there's a boy with eyes like an anthem
no one stands up for.

Doctor, our insanity is not that we see people who
aren't there.
It's that we ignore the ones who are.
'Til we find ourselves scarred and ashamed
walking into an emergency room at two am
flooded with a pain we cannot name or explain,
bleeding from the outside in.
Our skin is not impervious.
Cultures built on greed and destruction
do not pick and choose who they kill.

Do we really believe our need for Prozac
has nothing to do with Fallujah,
with Kabul, with the Mexican border,
with the thousands of US school kids
bleeding budget cuts that will never heal
to fuel war tanks?

Thank god for denial.
Thank god we can afford the makeup
to pile upon the face of it all.
Look at the pretty world.
Look at the smiling people,
and the sky with a missile between her teeth
and a steeple through her heart
and not a single star left to hold her
and the voices of a thousand broken nations
saying, "Wake me, wake me
when the American dream is over."

[andrea gibson-when the bough breaks]

and, sadly, this happened in south sudan
this is interesting based on uganda's recent politics around homosexuality

BUT, also little things to make the world a tad more beautiful. It's Friday. We start our adventure in Eldoret shortly and children in uganda have skateboards.

wapi dawa man?

i suppose i should explain the origin of the blog name. i have a small swahili phrasebook that translates helpful things (i.e. "where is the bathroom? how much is this?" etc etc) I was flipping through it before departing the U.S. and there is a section on romance and "social activities" (read: sex). Needless the say, the translations are quite funny including:
"No. You will not use me for sex."
"We need to use a condom" (always helpful)
"I do not want to marry you."
there are then some commands followed by "Easy, tiger!" which, as you may have expected by now translates to "tulia, simba!" I found it entertaining that lonely planet thinks that would be helpful to a western tourist. thank you, lonely planet.

last night the three of us wandered out to carnivore for a plate of meat and serious night out on the town in kenya's adult playground. it was just as extravagant (and delicious) as I remembered, and after a handful of dawas (medicine = vodka, honey & limes) we were frolicking on the playground, playing pool with the assistant manager and shamelessly dancing to MmBop (again?!)--kenyans have not lost their love for hilariously bad 90s pop music. i also learned that, as to be expected, facebook made it to this continent and even if you don't have a phone there are ways to make new (aggressive) friends.

slides!

the assistant manager that helped us win our pool game

another wonderful aspect of kenya is their television shows. namely i have watched mexican soap operas dubbed in english. so antonio is actually the father of jose but he's in love with another woman who told him she is pregnant but even her mother thinks she's lying, someone was poisoned AND everyone found out nicholas was lying about being blind once he saved a boy from being hit by a car. and that all happened in one hour!!

today, a couple of us wandered through kibera. i wanted to buy flip flops and was in the mood to be chased by adorable kenya children yelling "how are you!" which is exactly what happened. the slum is still shocking. the filthy water runs through it, as people throw their waste (fecal matter and trash) right out their front door, which is a 12'x12' mud hut with a tin roof they pay about $12 a month for. the children are adorable too. you will hear them as you're approaching "pshh, a mzungu, yada yada...a mzungu" to their friends. then like a well-rehearsed chorus they begin yelling "how are you! how are you! how are you!" it's not a question, some would be confused by an answer. i didn't bring a camera but this is the idea:

the railroad in kibera

waiting for our afternoon beer with our new irish friend

i should be packing. we leave for eldoret in the morning.

tembo, twiga & politics

the smell in this city is something you don't forget, it's somewhere between burning trash, smog and fresh cut grass.

this morning i woke up from a dream that i was a soccer star. i was the goalie and i dove for the ball repeatedly and missed it. we were playing girls vs. boys and there were a lot of people from high school playing in the game. odd.

then we hopped on a matatu and headed to karen to see the elephant orphanage and giraffe center. however, about halfway there i started to have severe stomach troubles. so i actually paid about $9 collectively only to use the bathrooms. i assume my luck will change for the better shortly. i did learn this about elephants: they are a matriarchal society and the eldest female actually controls the herd. they form deep personal connections: with friends, their keepers and when they lose an elephant close to them they can become very depressed which can make them physically sick. they are extremely intelligent and curious. and downright adorable.

baby elephant!

twiga

last night i had dinner with my former home stay family. my father works for the Norwegian Refugee Council and is going to the dadaab refugee camp on friday to open an office. NRC provides vocational education, shelter for many refugees and programs to address women and children rights. they are also exploring the possibility of opening an office in yemen--where there are a lot of somali refugees--but the U.S.'s current stance on yemen has already begun to cause complications. we talked at length about a handful of political situations in africa. he has just come from three years in liberia where the general population does not trust ellen johnson-sirleaf due to the fact she has been unable to stem corruption and has hired many of her friends for the central government. liberia is due to have a general election next year, yet he believes ellen will contest it (again) in an attempt to remain in power. there is an inadequate police force as well throughout the country, yet (beautifully) in september the first child to not know war in their lifetime entered kindergarten. he noted s. sudan would have a collection of problems in the coming years. firearms are in the wrong hands, and although all s. sudanese can agree they want autonomy, there is little else they agree on and there is a strong ethnic divide even among the southern sudanese themselves. uganda is due to have a general election in 2011 (where the LRA will certainly be a factor), followed by kenya in 2012. needless to say east africa will be a political hotbed for the next few years. all very interesting to me; i hope to be back.

this is happenin' in kenya

love your elders

a few photos to wet your whistle

the garden of the hostel we are staying in--moments before i lost my camera to the cement

megan & kei in prestige plaza

a view from the taxi

another view from the taxi

the sign that welcomes you in the airport

well, i found hartstone

a view of city market

megan and i on the city hoppa

my former home stay brothers, ian and issac, and their new baby sister!

and then there is this, just in case you need saving in uhuru park