Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
No announcement from Kofi Annan yet. Yesterday on the news they said that Kibaki and Odinga would leave Nairobi for the next day or 2 for a media blackout while they make the final arrangements for their solution to the political crisis. As of now we are still going on our safari at Masaii Mara this weekend, but that could change depending on how people react to Kofi Annan's announcement later this week.
Some of you have been asking about school...and yes, I do go. We start school at 8:30 am and have Kiswahili until 10:30. At that time we then have a 15 minute tea break...Kenyans can't function without a tea break...then another 2 hours Kiswahili lecture. As you can imagine, everyone has a difficult time getting through 4 hours of language in the morning. We then have a 45 minute (hour long on Kenyan time) lunch, which we usually buy at the grocery store that is a 10 minute walk away. Lunches usually consist of either a sandwich at the deli, buns, mangoes, or passion fruit. Today myself and another girl got threatened by another young, resourceful Kenyan boy. This time he was so hardcore that the poop was in his hand. He told us he would throw it at us if we didn't give him food. Well, considering the way he asked and the fact that we were not going to part with our beloved passion fruit juice and buns we darted across the Ngong road as fast as we could, and running across the road here is not an easy task. People don't wait...they would rather run you over than stop. I feel like I am in the Frogger game everytime I cross the roads here. There is no such thing as cross walks or even lines in the middle of the road for that matter. The polite ones just beep there horn and you better get out of the way. The afternoons are usually reserved for either my International Development class or Country Analysis class. Both teachers are brilliant and great lecturers. In my country analysis we are learning about the colonization of Kenya by the British. I am beginning to really dislike that country for all the problems they caused here that are still impacting Kenya's ability to climb out of the 3rd world whole they are in. Class is over at 3:15 pm and then we do what we want until 7:00 pm since we need to be home by dark here. Yesterday, we celebrated one of the MSID students 21st birthdays....which isn't a big deal here since the drinking age is 18, but we still had a good time. Because we were "mzungus" (white people) we were of course over-charged for our Tusker by about 30 shillings. When I went up to the bar to order my drink I turned my head to see a guy taking a picture of me with his camera phone. When I called him out he just chuckled. I guess white people are just as unique to them as the Kenyans are to us, and I've taken plenty of pictures of Kenyans. We draw plenty of stares as white people, especially in a group. The stares and people shouting "mzungu" at you were hard to get used at first but I think we're all getting used to it. Plus, now we know some Swahili and are getting a tan so we don't have that same white glow we used to.
- comments