i think i'm a little bit in love with you

....but only if you're a little bit, little bit, little bit in lalalala love with me [ll]

As is always the way, right as you're about to leave a place you find a new, deep affection for it. i have come to adore nairobi. i like meeting strangers and sharing a drink or a mildly ridiculous experience and not knowing any baggage or their personal history. i make my own judgment of character and the brief relationship only continues if it's fun. it's all supposed to be fun. and bars don't close. ever. you can come and drink rum and red bull while dancing till 6am. everyone is transient. in some way, even Kenyans in Nairobi (the ones i would meet in swanky-ish ex-pat bars, anyway) are coming or going from University or their home land. It's all brief, but intimate. New (seemingly close) friendships are formed quickly, and I enjoy meeting a new person all the time.

regina, leon and kimani at her (new!) soda stand in eldoret (left over from before the camera battery died)

We threw a party on Friday night. Part birthday party for Ann, part going-away party, part random excuse for a party. It was an overall great time. Our apartment was packed with dancing, drinking, international, transient people. We had (err, attempted) jell-o shots, we had a noise complaint from a rather uptight neighbor, a glass broke, and then we all migrated to the local club and danced till it closed down. All in all it was a successful night.

roy was multi-tasking: blowing up balloons and preparing the DJ set for the party

Federico and I in the kitchen

Matt and Phil passionately discussing something on the balcony

the CDC "canteen crew"

The night before we went out, mostly out of habit. ("Thursday is the new Friday") It was a fun night, again, more dancing and social, diverse people. The night ended with me hopping on my friend's motorbike and riding outside of town to watch the sunrise. When I got home, my face was quite dirty (due to the dust that got by the helmet i was wearing) and i was exhausted, but it was a fun way to end a night/begin a morning. And the foggy view within the ngong hills was pretty spectacular, only made better by the children walking by in their school uniforms.

Saturday, Federico and I woke up and decided to ignore the mess in the kitchen. Our kitchen's water supply is connected to town pipes that just aren't working, so we have had no water for 2 days (Opps?) We went to a nice brunch and I found a delirious Matt and we wandered around a market in Kibera. I bought some awesome 2nd hand blouses and Matt and I bought vests and wandered back to his house, proud and sophisticated in our new clothes.

Sunday I woke up, feeling refreshed and rested and Federico, Ian, Steph and I piled into "Twiga" (Federico's mid-90's Rav-4) and went to Nairobi National Park for a self-imposed safari. It was beautiful and so nice to get out of the city center for a bit. We saw animals, had some laughs, fought some baboons for a picnic table, and toyed (for hours) with a cheap, Chinese-made Ipod/radio hook-up that just didn't want to work. Then we passed by Carnivore to meet the other GWU girls for a beer and came home and passed 4 hours talking on the balcony and watching a hilarious video of a dowry ceremony that Federico had the privilege of attending awhile back.

steph and i at a lookout in the park

twiga! (lots of giraffes in NNP)

we wanted that picnic table, so steph showed the baboon who was boss.

#selftimer success

our brief guide with a baboon skull

Us with the other "Twiga" and the obvious Deep Heat tire cover

there is a lion there! (middle, right part of the shot)

a view from within the park

I wandered out with Steph to find a taxi and met my favorite askari, Collins, who was washing cars in the apartment complex parking lot while listening to loud, Luo music from the guard shack. He is my favorite security guard: young and friendly and always asking if i'm having a good day. I once gave him a beer when I came home from watching a football match, so I think that immediately gains you friends. He bought me a Valentine's flower a while back, but because I wasn't around to claim it, "it withered here" {points to guard shack}.

{Sigh} Anyway, I am getting sad to leave, it was a near-perfect weekend.