just another day in the life

thursday night, after the rain, we called a taxi to head to the gym. "Taxi Max" showed up, but in a car that wasn't his:

us: "Max, this isn't your car."

Max: "Haha, oh i know. I traded with my friend."

us: "you just traded cars?"

Max: "well, yes. the traffic in town is horrible, people forget how to drive in the rain, and i knew it would take me an hour to get here. so he was on the side of the road i wanted to be on and i didn't want to wait to turn around, so we just switched cars!"

us: "huh. so where is your car now?"

Max: "my friend has it. in town. i will get it back from him later."

then we talked about how he didn't know if he had enough gas to get us the 5 minutes across town, so we turned off the car and coasted down the hill ("the E, means enough, right?! ha. so i think i have just enough gas"); he told us how he hit a zebra ("in america you hit deer, ya? in kenya we hit zebra"); and we got rear ended in traffic (in his friend's car) but no big deal, no one was hurt and he wasn't concerned with the fender bender. just another day in the life.

friday we got up early and went to "international cultural day" at Moi University. It was a long day. We were told to be there by 7am (nothing started until 10am); we had to display our culture (we wore jeans and sang 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame'); we came back to town for class (the professor didn't show up). just another day in the life. There WAS beautiful singing and lots of African dancing and Dinka men (from S. Sudan) that were very energetic and proud and entertaining. It was nice to be able to go to the main campus and be a part of the student body for a day.

the dancing dinka

Moi University student choir (video!)

kayla, meghan, megan and i before we "displayed our culture"

friday night we went out dancing (again?! yes. again) it's too much fun dancing and sipping big beers here.

saturday i sat around and studied and went to play with babies. saturday night more sitting around and a horrible movie with katherine heigel that i regret watching the first twenty minutes of.

sunday morning, meghan and i got up and went to a car rally (?!) it was pretty cool and fun and would potentially qualify as 'white trash' back home. my nose (not my neck) got sunburned. but it's an actual sport that people do here. you get a fancy car, put in a roll cage, find a navigator and go drive really fast through local dirt roads and get timed. best time wins a gold (plastic?) trophy. but it was fun to sit around and drink some beers and (dance with the "clowns" that come in for entertainment in front of thousands of spectators and) watch cars go by. then we went back to the farm and sat with andrew and his family for tea. we filled a cooler with wine and beer and drove out to a little picture-perfect pond and had "sundowners" and took in the big, dark clouds until it started to rain. just another day in the life.

the rally cars

little clementine surrounded by curious kenyan children

photo op with the dancing clown

andrew's uncle came in 2nd place, and this is the ceremony to receive your trophy

andrew and i during the festivities

this is what a rally car race looks like (another video!?)

then we went out dancing until 2:30am and went to a hotel with a projector screen for the Super Bowl which lasted until 6am. I found a big ole comfy chair and slept through, more or less, the whole game. But Go, Saints! and it was nice to be doing something at the exact time ya'll were doing it, just on the other side of the world. And i missed the snacks. In particular, the buffalo chicken dip.

this kristof piece is sad, but you should read it.

word.

i am envious of the epic snowstorm in the mid-atlantic states and hope everyone is warm and happy and sledding.