One More Month

We had our first non-program day in Kenya, and it was awesome. We took a short hike to a beautiful water fall in the morning. Then we went to An HIV/AIDS clinic and talked to some women who run support groups for local people and they all told us their stories and showed up beading that they make to raise money. So I obviously bought even more jewelry. Then we went shopping in town, but it was so hot we mostly sat and hung out to watch the local people. We were offered a ride to anywhere we wanted to go many times, but we turned them all down. I enjoy being left free in towns, it gives a little sense of more freedom since we don’t get very much of it. After shopping we went to Club K. Which sounds like a club kids go to on a cruise ship. But we sat at tables and had some beers. Our table had a personal bartender and every time we finished a beer the lady opened another one and had it ready for us. At one point they brought out a bucket of water and soap so we could wash our hands. Then they brought us our free chapati, I guess thats like free hot dogs at Jakes? Later that night we watched Grey’s Anatomy, so all in all it was a great day.

We received our directed research topics, and I didn’t get the one that I really wanted but I got my second pick. We are working with the water systems and I think I am going to focus on public health and look at how the water affects the health of the people who drink it by comparing the people upstream with the people down stream. For Easter we did an Easter egg hunt and it was a lot of fun so have some kind of festivity. We start all of our fieldwork on Wednesday and according to the professors we are going to be dead after, so it sounds like its going to be an intense 8 days in the field. I’m hoping to be able to go to the clinic and check out the records that they have. 

One thing that I forgot to mention from my last blog is when we went to Amboseli we were driving and we saw that the Soccer World Cup of Europe was in the middle of the grassland. Our professor and one of the drivers got out of the car and starting running toward it. Then they turned around and they were like come on! So about half of us got to get out of the cars, in the middle of the Amboseli, and take pictures with the Europe World Cup. It was pretty awesome. There was a guy who just kept telling us not to touch it. My life here is so random I’m not going to be able to get back to normal life.

We woke up this morning to a beautiful view of Kili and there was a ton of snow on it. I am going to be pretty upset when I don’t get to see that every morning.

I think its officially rainy season, its been raining about every other day, but today its really nice out. But with the rain comes the bugs, so there have been a lot of them. The other night I went to go to the bathroom and I found Natalie standing outside of them because there were 4 or 5 bats in them. So we spent the next 5 minutes trying to get them out but it wasn’t working, so we just had to move fast. Last night for RAP Emma did superlatives. Everyone got one, so I am officially “Most likely to face plant during a traveling lecture” I think it fits me pretty well, at least I am keeping my reputation in Africa.