mid-week update

it's thursday, which is certainly the new friday. work is going a-okay, just one week and a bit left, so i am hurrying to finish the projects i should have been diligently working on for the last 3 months. lots of refugee movement data. for example! in FY 2009 Congress proposed admitting 12,000 refugees, but only 9,670 actually got admitted. that trend is consistent across the ages. we still don't have water in our kitchen, which has become a pitiful excuse to eat out. this week, so far i have had pizza, ethiopian, raviolli and tonight we will dig up indian food and dance (and dance) 'cause it's steph's last day, which is sad.

all else is well, life here is wrapping up swimmingly. i have become increasingly aware that the (ex-pat) people i genuinely enjoy here are simply those that do not believe they are rescuing the human condition by living in kenya. that's the one soap-box-worthy idea i can't stop trying to put words to. it's just a place to live. another city with some struggles and beauty all thrown together. and not even in an attempt to sound humble--it requires no actual sacrifice to live in nairobi, not in the luxurious bubble i have had the priviledge of floating in for the last 3 months, anyway. i just miss my bicycle. and all of you. and maybe the sunday morning farmer's market (which is odd, 'cause this whole city is a farmer's market, just no crab cakes).

one look at you and heaven's on fire.

otherwise i have been reading some good things:
1. mother jones on tumblr
2. bbc's adam curtis on humanitarian intervention (watch the videos)
3. long new yorker article on a political crime in guatemala
4. a photo essay of those refugees affected by Arab spring
5. and a university of nairobi student just dissapeared this past week, so other students rioted (and ultimately caused a lot of traffic in nairobi)
6. this nytimes (!) article about the energy of ubranization: "....and what you find is that we have created a lifestyle where we need more watts than a blue whale..."
7. on april fool's day, i was told the lead kenyan newspaper publishes fake headlines. good one. this is one of them, about kenya's new nuclear power project.

love this song

this weekend jonathan and i are attempting the overnight train down to the kenyan coast, armed with only a lonely planet and a sense of adventure. sun! and fun!