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]