So I'll just skip talking about Saturday and Sunday because they involved a lot of sleeping and making Swahili flashcards.  Exciting, I know.

But yesterday actually was exciting.  Yesterday morning I got up bright and early and met Izzo, the director of Marafiki at a mall called Junction at 8am.  Well, actually he didn't get there until about 8:30, but thats ok.  I was under the impression we were going to be taking a matatu, but I was wrong- Izzo pulled up in an SUV.  In the front seat was another girl, an American, who just graduated college this spring and has been in Kenya for about six months working with Marafiki.  Without the faintest idea what the agenda for the day was, we started driving.  After about 20 minutes of driving through a slum on the edge of Nairobi, we pulled into a neighborhood where the volunteers from Marafiki were staying.  Three of them climbed into the car to come out to Maai Mahiu with us so they could work for the day.  George also met up with us, he is the field coordinator for Marafiki, and as Izzo put it, "he will be my new best friend".  So the seven of us started driving, but we didn't make it very far because everyone wanted to stop at the grocery store to pick up a few things for lunch.  Then, we finally all piled back in the car and headed for Maai Mahiu.

We hadn't been driving for very long when we drove around a bend, and I'm pretty sure my jaw hit the ground.  All of a sudden, there was the Rift Valley.  I couldn't take in the whole view, it was so stunning.  What was interesting is that you could tell it was very dry, but at the same time there were a lot of colors- reds, browns, greens, blues, everything.  There were hills, and right out in front of us was Mt. Longonot- the highest point in the Rift Valley.  After I recovered from the initial shock of the view, I got my camera out and rolled down the window and started to take a few pictures.  Izzo laughed at me, apparently he'd forgotten I'd never been there before, and he pulled over so me and the other new volunteer could take a few pictures.  When we got back in the car, we immediately started descending down into the valley.  Nairobi is a mile above sea level, and within about 20 minutes, we were at the bottom of the valley, which is close to sea-level.  We drove through the town of Maai Mahiu, which is a small but still very busy little town.  And then about a 10 minute drive past the town is the Maai Mahiu IDP camp.

When we pulled into the camp, all of the kids ran out of the school and swarmed the car, all of them shouting "Izzo, Izzo, Izzo!"  It took us all several minutes to get out of the car because they were climbing all over us, giving us high fives and shaking our hands.  When we finally all made it out, we split up- the volunteers who had been there before went off to work on their projects with Izzo, and the new volunteer and I went with George for a little orientation.

We just started walking around.  There are 9 smaller camps within the larger camp, and a couple of them have permanent brick houses that were built by Habitat for Humanity.  But a majority of the people still live in tents, five years after being displaced.  Eventually, we met a woman who lives in a tent and went into her home for a few minutes so George could talk to us a bit.  He just gave us background information on the post-election violence, told us about the origins of Marafiki, and told us a little bit about the woman who's house we were in.  She is a single mother of seven, has lived in her tent in the camp for 5 years, and is HIV positive.  Her home was so poorly constructed that all the walls and the ceiling swayed as the wind blew.  While she had a fair amount of pots and pans and blankets and such, the physical structure she and her children are living in is astounding.  We didn't talk to her too much, and we didn't stay long, but we thanked her, and then George kept walking us around a bit.

As we were walking, a swarm of children that aren't enrolled in school came up to us, and they were all really surprised and excited when I could ask them their names and say a few basic things in Swahili.  That then of course led to them saying really complicated sentences really quickly and me being really confused, but oh well, it was still fun!

We also went and saw the classrooms at the school, the clinic that is currently under construction, and the humungous ravine that has been carved out by the flash floods that come down from the hills.  After our little tour, we had a little break and sat and chatted with the other volunteers, and then once all the kids were out of school, we played with them a bunch.  A huge group of kids attacked my hair with sticks, creating a complete rats nest- but they had fun, and I had a hairtie to pull it all back after they were done, so it was ok.

After playing with the kids, a delivery of lumber came for the clinic, which we then helped count and move around.  Then we spent a little more time talking and baking in the sun (yes, my face has blistered once again- all the other volunteers were laughing at me- oh well!), and then we headed back into Maai Mahiu town.  They quickly drove me by two possible hotels that I can stay at, both of which looked completely fine, and then we headed back into Nairobi.  It was a very long day- the heat is sooo exhausting, and the heat there is way more extreme than in Nairobi because we aren't a mile above sea level- but it was a great day, too.

A few things stood out to me.  I felt very safe in Maai Mahiu.  Nairobi is a little sketchy at times, but everyone in Maai Mahiu was very friendly and I felt completely comfortable.  Everyone is happy to help and answer any questions I had, which was great.  The area is beautiful- I know there are a couple of nearby national parks that I can visit on the weekends if I have time.  I guess the bottom line is, I am excited to get to go back and spend a few weeks there soon!!

But for now, I have to focus on our Swahili exam which is the day after tomorrow, and then we head to Uganda this weekend!

I hope all of you are doing well, too!

Well, overall the week was uneventful, but I still have lots to say! Imagine that!

Lets start with last Sunday.  I got up in the morning and met a few people from my group and we went to a mall called Junction to see a movie.  The movie is called Nairobi Half-Life, and its the first Kenyan movie to ever be up for an Oscar (I think in the foreign language category- but it has subtitles).  It is about a young man from a rural part of Kenya who moves to Nairobi to become an actor but gets caught up in gangs.  It was a great movie and you should all definitely go see it when it comes out in the states.  It was especially interesting though, because it was set in Nairobi, and obviously, we are in Nairobi.  So we recognized places (perhaps more than we wanted to, especially in the violent scenes), scenery, etc.  We all agreed afterward that the movie would have had a completely different effect on us if we had seen it in the states.  I don't want to say too much and spoil it, because you should all definitely go see it, but we were a little shell-shocked, thats for sure.  Anyway, go see it, its worth it!

Then this week happened.  Again, nothing too exciting.  We had Swahili every morning this week, but they weren't all lessons.  We had a horribly long exam on Wednesday, and yesterday (Thursday) each class had to make a skit in Swahili relating to noun-classes. Ugh. Except, magically, everyone decided to play a game instead, so we actually got to play charades, jeopardy, and taboo in Swahili, which was actually pretty fun (even though I HATE charades).  In the afternoons this week we have had some free time to do work, since we had a ton of assignments due this week and some due right after we get back from our trips (oh, by the way, I'm going to Uganda in about a week- so excited!!).

This is also the week where all of our Independent Study Projects (ISPs) got seriously underway.  This weekend and Monday and Tuesday of next week is our ISP prep period, which is where we are all supposed to go to the location where we will do our research and make contacts, figure out where we are going to live, etc.  So this week I've been talking with an organization called Marafiki (which means "friends" in Swahili) that works in an Internally Displaced Persons camp called Maai Mahiu.  Maai Mahiu is also a small town that is about an hour outside Nairobi in the Rift Valley Province.  This camp was formed following the post-election violence of 2007-2008, where more than 1,000 people were killed, and more than 600,000 people were displaced across the country.  Five years later, there are still thousands of people living in this one camp called Maai Mahiu, and they are now classified as settled IDPs.

So through a happy circumstance, I found the organization called Marafiki which works in the camp at Maai Mahiu.  They have build a school, are working on building a clinic, they run food programs, adult literacy programs, skill building workshops... I could go on and on.  They are a relatively new NGO, since they obviously only originated after the post-election violence of 2007-2008.  After playing a pretty epic game of phone tag with the founder of the organization, I finally met him yesterday afternoon to discuss what I want to do and the logistics of me working in the IDP camp.  Izzo is a young guy with a degree in biomedical engineering that then decided to start Marafiki after the elections five years ago.  We met and he gave me a more detailed history of the organization, what they do in Maai Mahiu, and how I can work with them.  All I can say is, I am glad I found them.  From what it sounds like, they are more than happy to accomodate me and my somewhat unorthodox request.  Normally they work with volunteers, but I am really just looking for an organization to host me informally while I do my research so I have some established contacts within the area.  Izzo has agreed to help me find a place to stay, to match me up with a translator, and to have someone within the organization work with me throughout my time researching.  Oh, and what I want to research... right.  I want to look at livelihoods within the IDP camp, which will be particularly interesting because this is a settled camp.  While most people are still living in tents, they also own the land they are on.  So what do they do to make it on a day-to-day basis?  According to Izzo, most of the residents of the camp are farmers, yet the land they are living on in Maai Mahiu is very dry and infertile.  I think it will be absolutely fascinating to look at how the thousands of people in this camp survive, and what they hope to do in the future.  I'm SO excited.

So, what the tentative game plan is, is that I have the weekend here in Nairobi free to do some independent work, and then on Monday I'm going to take a day trip with Izzo to Maai Mahiu and get a tour of the camp, learn the basic function of things there, and look at living options for while I am there.    It sounds like just the intro I will need to the area before I return to actually start my research! And then after we go to Uganda, we actually start our ISPs.

What I am planning on doing (and lets see if this actually works... it's Kenya, so I'm never really sure of what is going to happen until it is actually happening) is spending the first four days of our ISP period in Nairobi doing basic research on my own.  Then I will go to Maai Mahiu for about a week and a half and start my field research.  Then I will return to Nairobi for a four day weekend.  There are four or five students that are staying in Nairobi to do their research and are renting an apartment, and they've said I can crash on their couch for a few days.  The long weekend will be for me to touch base with my advisors in Nairobi, do a bit of online research if I need to (I doubt I'll be taking my computer to the camp), and it just so happens that the weekend I'm planning on spending in the city falls over my birthday and Thanksgiving, so I'll get to spend it with some friends- sounds pretty perfect to me!  Then it'll be back out to Maai Mahiu to finish my field research for another week or so.  Finally, I'm planning on spending my last week in Nairobi talking to NGOs and government offices in the city about IDPs to get a different perspective, as well as finishing my written report and preparing for my final presentation.

So. I don't know if that sounds as great to anyone else as it does to me... but I'm pretty psyched!  We'll just have to see if it all works as planned.  Even if it doesn't, I'm sure it will be an amazing experience, and I'm excited to finally have a decent idea about what I'll be doing for my last month in Kenya!

Anyway, thats my ISP.

Then, after spending a lot of time doing work and researching yesterday, I went and met some people from my program at a place called Brew Bistro, and we hung out there for a while- it is a really fun place, but because getting home safely is an issue, we left around 8:30.  And last night, in a very impromptu fashion, I actually didn't stay at home- I went to one of my friend's houses in a part of Nairobi called Fort Jesus.  Lets just say its pretty different from my neighborhood, and it is basically part of Kibera, the biggest slum in Kenya.  Three of us spent the night with our friend, so there were four of us all together in two twin beds.  You can imagine how restful that was.  So now, after taking a taxi back home, I think I'm going to take a quick nap, shower, and then try and do something productive today- we'll see how that goes!

Well, overall it has been an uneventful week, so this will be short and sweet.

Monday it was back to class- Swahili was a little rough after a whole week off!  We spent most of the day reviewing everything, because we covered a lot in Shirazi and we had forgotten a remarkable amount.  Anyway, Tuesday was actually pretty interesting.  We went to Gikombo, or the informal sector here in Nairobi.  The informal sector is a huge area where people make and sell all sorts of things: pots and pans, clothes (SO MANY SECONDHAND CLOTHES), trunks, food, shoes... and on and on.  Walking through Gikombo is nearly indescribable.  The ground is mud, trash, food, and waste, all mashed together into a very soft and slippery surface that you have navigate very quickly because the pathways are very narrow and you are in everyones way no matter how fast you try and move.  On either side of you there are haphazardly made tables which are making and selling items (very aggressively, I might add).  And this goes on forever.  I can't quite describe the feeling in this area, it is much more hurried and frantic than any of the slums we have walked through, and I think we all felt much more out of place.  We went on this walk without any previous information, but in the afternoon we had a lecture about the informal sector (80% of employed Kenyans work in the informal sector...unbelievable) which was very informational and made a lot of what we saw make a lot more sense.

On Wednesday and Thursday we had development lectures all day, and while it is tricky to focus on one subject from 8:30-4, they were interesting lectures.  Thursday quickly turned into a frustrating day for me though, when I was told that my idea for my independent study project (ISP- which we all do for the last month of our time in Kenya) probably wasn't going to work.  Next weekend we are all supposed to go to the location where we'll be spending our ISP time and make our contacts so that when we return during the second week of November we can hit the ground running.  So it was a little frustrating when I was told a week before that that what I have been planning all semester isn't going to work.  So I left the office pretty darn ticked off and bought some chips and an avocado on the way home and sat in my room with my homemade guacamole and pouted for a while, and then got to work.

The next morning (after skyping with Wooster friends-one of my favorite things ever), I was in a much better and more productive mood and did some work and sent some emails that I think helped make my ISP idea do-able.  Nothing is set yet, but it is looking like its going to work.  When I know for sure, I'll specify what it is I'm planning on doing.  Other than that, on Friday I just had Swahili again and our last development lecture, mailed in my absentee ballot (ahhh- I voted in my first presidential election!) and then went home for the night.

This morning I didn't set an alarm, but I didn't really need to because I slept so horribly that I was up most of the night anyway.  I felt like I was going to throw up in the middle of the night, but because my room is outside of the main house and the house (and therefore the bathroom) are locked and therefore off limits to me during the night, I just laid in my bed feeling crappy until I finally fell back asleep at who knows what time.  So, when I finally got up, I showered and got dressed and came down to Java, a coffee place with free wifi.  As of now, I've been sitting here for about 6 hours writing all of the papers that are due next week before our ISP preparation period begins.

So for now, I'm just focusing on getting everything done for this next week (we have several papers and our Swahili final this week, so its a busy time!) and then next weekend its off to my ISP site.  I'm sure after that little adventure I'll have much more exciting things to say- so, until then, I hope you are all doing well, too!!

The tricky part of writing a post based on the last three weeks or so is that I can’t possibly capture everything that happened.  And these last three weeks were fairly fantastic. 

First the less interesting part- the week spent in Nairobi.  We continued our classes, but we focused on Swahili and cultural topics because we were about to leave for the rural village stay where it was more important that we know a few cultural intricacies rather than particular health or development knowledge.  So the last week was spent largely in class and preparing for our trip to the coast.  On the September 21^st (a Friday) we had a free afternoon before getting on the overnight bus from Nairobi to Mombasa.  Getting on the bus was an interesting experience, as we were loading our bags and climbing on, a police officer walked over and started yelling.  We couldn’t quite understand what was going on for a few minutes, but he was looking for the bus driver because he had parked the bus on the edge of the road, and apparently the Kenyan president had just driven by, so that was unacceptable.  But he had a giant stick in his hand and was waving it around and putting it right in peoples faces, so all we could do was apologize.  He wasn’t just upset at the driver, it was all of us too, because apparently we should have been saluting, but we definitely didn’t know anyone noteworthy had been there.  Anyway, it was an interesting insight into how the Kenyan Police handle issues. 

The bus ride actually wasn’t that bad, I think a lot of us slept pretty well. We arrived in Mombasa around 7am and then went to the SIT office in Mombasa to brush our teeth, eat some breakfast and relax for a few minutes.  Once the shops opened up, around 9am, we headed out in a few different groups with staff members from SIT Mombasa leading us around to do some shopping.  In the village we stayed in it was inappropriate to wear any of our Western clothes, so we needed to find a few local things.  We all bought muumuus (long flowy nightgown type things) and khangas, which are two pieces of rectangular fabric, one of which gets wrapped around your waist, and once gets wrapped around your chest and head.  After a few hours of shopping in some incredible heat, we had lunch and then got on a bus to drive us about an hour and a half south to the village of Shirazi, where we would spend the next 10 days. 

When we arrived in Shirazi, all of our families were already gathered around one of the main buildings in the village and were waiting for us.  So we very quickly collected our bags and sat down on a giant grass mat.  There wasn’t any beating around the bush- our director just immediately started calling out student names and pairing us up with our families.  I was called somewhere in the middle of the group and met my mama and gave her one of the most awkward hugs imaginable because she is literally only about 4 and a half feet tall.  But we grabbed my backpack, mosquito net, jug of water, and candles, and started walking to her home.  When I got to their home, they let me get a little settled in and then they gave me one of their family khangas to wear, and then we just spent the afternoon and evening trying to get to know each other.  I didn’t figure out exactly who was a member of my immediate family until the end of our time in Shirazi (which I know sounds ridiculous, but I swear, its not!) because there are so many children in and out of every house all the time that it is hard to tell who actually lives there and who doesn’t.  Even meal time and bedtime aren’t helpful because kids ate with us all the time who I knew weren’t a part of the family.  Anyway, in my family there was Mama Zedi, and then three sisters: Saumu, who was about 15, Mwanapili who was about 9, and Rukia who was 4.  My mama was a widow, so there wasn’t a father in the house.  They also gave me a Shirazi name (all the other students got one as well), so for the 10 days there I was called Saumu.  Yes, that was also my sister’s name.  So it got a little confusing, but she was my namesake, so it was still kind of sweet!      

Their home in Shirazi was very simple, but provided all of the necessities.  It was a simple mud and stick house, but it had several rooms.  When you walk in the front door, there is a very small hallway with one room to the left and one room to the right.  I actually had the room to the right all to myself while I was there, which was nice but made me feel guilty since everybody else stayed in the other room.  In my room there was a small bed, a little table, and a grass mat to cover the dirt floor.  The whole house had a palm frond roof, but my room also had a layer of World Food Programme bags that had been stitched together to give a little protection against rain.  I never actually saw the other room to the left, but I am assuming it is very similar.  The little hallway room area is the multipurpose room of the house.  It has a dirt floor, but whenever we sat there they put a grass mat down.  This is the space where we sat to talk, ate, played cards, and where everybody did homework- it was the only sitting area in the house. 

Then there was another door out the other side of the hallway that led to an open, outdoor area that was used for cooking, washing dishes, doing laundry etc.  It was a large dirt area that was more or less open.  Then off to the right was the kitchen.  It was covered with a palm frond room but didn’t have a door, so it was still very open.  They had a little fire pit area in the corner of the kitchen and then the other walls were stacked with drums of water, the few pots and pans they had, and the few food items they had.  Then there was my favorite room of the house, the shower.  It was an open area with palm frond walls that came up to about my shoulders, but then there wasn’t a ceiling.  There were a few large stones and logs in the ground that you stood on as you poured water on yourself from the bucket in the corner.  Even though there were some very large millipedes and spiders in this area of the house it was great because as you were showering you had a view of a bunch of other homes and the palm trees- it was pretty stunning.  And then off of the shower was the bathroom, literally just a hole dug into the dirt.  And that was the house! 

I don’t know how best to sum up the 10 days in Shirazi, so I’ll just try and go over some of the highlights and main challenges. 

We had class Monday- Saturday while we were there, which meant we had Swahili every morning from 7am-11am (we met earlier so it wasn’t as hot) under a giant tree.  We had lunch with all the students under a giant mango tree that was right on the water- this is a coastal village very near the Tanzania border, if I didn’t mention that.  A couple of afternoons we had activities, but mostly we were supposed to be working on research projects.  Everybody had both a group research project and an individual project to work on while we were there.  It was really interesting trying to conduct research in a village where we have very little command over the language and cultural practices.  But a lot of times, we just ended up going and sitting on the dock and playing with some local kids in the afternoons- much more enjoyable! 

On our first full day in Shirazi, we all met up and all we were told is we were going to go to a beach to go swimming.  So we loaded up a boat with about 10 of us and no SIT staff member, and then boat started plugging along in the inlets that led out to the main ocean.  For some reason we all thought it was a short ride- we were very wrong.  After about 45 minutes in the boat, the driver started slowing down the boat.  In the middle of the open ocean.  We were a little confused and concerned.  And then we realized what was going on, but we didn’t quite believe it.  The driver was pulling up to a sandbar that only comes up out of the water at low-tide: it is a disappearing beach.  But when we pulled up, even the shallowest points were still a food or so under water, so we just started laughing uncontrollably as the boat dropped us off literally in the middle of the ocean.  We couldn’t take anything out of the boat because there was no where to put it, so we just ran around and we couldn’t help but smile and laugh.  It was pretty incredible.  After 15 minutes or so the boat with the rest of our students and one of the SIT staff members came, and by that time there was some sand that had come out of the water.  We spent a couple of hours there just playing in the crystal clear water and then laying on our own private white sand island.  Absolutely incredible.

Oh goodness, the clothes was another highlight of the time in Shirazi.  Even though we all bought clothes to wear in Mombasa, almost everyone’s family still insisted on giving them clothes to wear.  And this resulted in some pretty comical things.  I really only had three spectacular outfits, the rest of them were fairly normal.  A normal day was wearing a muumuu with khangas over it, so we were well covered up.  We were staying in a Muslim village, so it was important to be modest and keep our heads covered most of the time.  But there was one day that my family gave me what one of my friends later described as a very long sequined negligee.  It was pale pink and COVERED in sequins, a sheer fabric, and it had spaghetti straps.  But mind you, my shoulders may have been exposed and my shorts were visible under the sheer fabric, but you better believe they had a matching scarf to keep my head covered.  Oh boy.  Then one day they gave me a khanga that was completely tie die.  Someone described what I looked like by saying that I looked like an exploded bag of skittles.  It was a little vivid.  And then the best outfit they saved for my last day.  Oh lordy.  It was a polyester floor length dress that was blue and white.  It reminded me of a child’s Halloween costume, except adult sized.  It also had a matching headscarf to match its spaghetti straps (one of which broke during the day, therefore exposing my bright pink sports bra… classy.  But I sewed the strap back on that night).  It was so hot in the Shirazi sun, but it was pretty comical.  While them dressing me was a little strange, it was done with so much love, it was totally ok.  They were just trying to show that we were a part of their family and they tried to give us their nicest things so we would look “good” while staying in the village.  It was actually pretty darn sweet. 

We also got to experience piki pikis in Shirazi.  Oi.  Piki Piki means motorcycle.  We had to ride them.  I have had not so pleasant experiences with motorcycles in the past (basically I'm just terrified of them) and so I was not too thrilled when we were told we would have to ride on the back of a piki piki to go visit a health clinic in the next village over.  So, the poor guy who was driving the piki piki had to deal with my death grip as I climbed on the back and one of my friends got behind me.  It was only about a 10 minute drive through the jungle to get there, but that was enough for me.  I was laughing hysterically, but mostly so I wouldn't cry.  The views were amazing though, I will say that.  The tour of the clinic was relatively uneventful, but then there was the piki piki ride back.  I was feeling slightly more comfortable at the beginning of the ride back. That is until we drove through fire.  Literally.  My friend and I just screamed a little and went "why yes, of course we just drove through fire on a piki piki on a dirt path in the jungle".  Yikes.  It was definitely an experience!

Let’s see, what else.  Oh- the food!  So. Much. Coconut.  Amazingness.  They make rice with coconut milk, beans with coconut milk, fish with coconut milk… yum.  They don’t have much food and there is very little variety, but coconuts are in abundance- they just climb trees and get them.  My family taught me how to grate the coconut (in fact I still have a cut on my leg from that coconut grater) and then make coconut milk.  There is a lot of fish in the village because it is coastal, but other than that, there isn’t really any protein.  We had beans once when I was there, but you could tell that was a special occasion.  And on my last night we slaughtered a chicken, which was an even bigger deal.  On my first day in the village, Mama Zedi told me that she doesn’t always have enough food, so when she doesn’t she goes to her mama, and when her mama doesn’t have enough food, she goes to my mama’s house.  That is a pretty foreign concept coming from the States, and it was pretty humbling.  But it makes sense- my mama was a widow, and I still don’t understand where she got the little money that she did have, but somehow they are still scraping by.  Needless to say I went and bought them a ton of groceries before I left.  Eating in Shirazi was a very interesting thing too, they put all the food on one big platter and everybody washes their hands with a cup of water, and then everyone says “Bismillah” and everyone eats off the same platter.  It was definitely a bonding thing, since we were all huddled around the same plate. 

On our last day in Shirazi I had to go and do a little work in the morning, but I came back to my house around 1pm.  My mama had made an appointment for me to go and get henna before I left, so we went to her friends house.  They do piko, which is like henna but it dries black, so it is much more obvious.  This woman drew with piko from my fingertips to elbow and then from my toes to mid-calf.  It was beautiful.  While she was drawing on my feet, she stopped for a minute and said, “Oh, wadudu!”.  Wadudu means bug in Swahili.  There are little bugs called jiggers in Shirazi which get under the skin in your feet and grow there.  And I had one in my big toe.  Lucky me.  But my mama came over and saw it, so after we went home when my piko had dried, they told me to go get a needle (luckily I had one in my sewing kit) and I sat down in the hallway sitting area.  My 15 year old sister, Saumu, took the needle and picked the little bug out of my foot.  It hurt, but it wasn’t too bad.  But then she found two more in other toes, so she took those out as well.  And then, I found out, they had gotten some brown/orange henna like we have in the states and they took a little stick and colored in some of the piko designs on my hands and feet with the henna.  I can’t quite describe how or why, but from Saumu picking the jiggers out of my feet and then my whole family helping put henna on me, it was just the perfect way to spend my last night there.  It was all done with so much love and caring, it was so wonderful.  Then we had our huge dinner of pilau and chicken, played our last game of cards (I gave them a deck of cards and taught them to play a few games- go fish was their favorite) and exchanged some gifts.  I gave them a few toys, a notebook, a new paraffin lamp (I don’t think I mentioned, but hopefully you got the picture that this village doesn’t have electricity or running water), and a bunch of groceries.  I still don’t know how they afforded it, but my mama had a hat, purse and fan made for me.  It was so sweet, they were so excited to be able to give me something, and I will definitely keep all three of the gifts for a very, very long time.  That night I also promised I would find a way to send them a bunch of the pictures I had taken throughout the week, because they don’t have any pictures of their family. 

I don’t really know what else to say about Shirazi.  Some of it was overwhelming, there were constantly kids crawling all over us, Swahili was a little tricky, but overall it was great and I really loved my family.  My mama was so incredibly sweet I can’t even begin to describe it.  Saumu is very serious about her studies and really wants to go to secondary school next year.  She was also who taught me how to do the most in the village- how to cook, how to wash dishes with dirt (yes, they don’t have soap, so they wash with dirt) and she dressed me every morning.  Then there was Mwanapili who has the biggest smile imaginable and just wants to play games all the time.  Rukia is a typical whiny, but actually very sweet four year old.  She took a while to warm up to me, but when she finally did, we had some precious moments of her meeting me at school and then holding my hand as she walked me home. 

I don’t know if or when I’ll be able to, but I really hope that someday I get to go back to Shirazi.  They were all so welcoming and happy to have us there- I really did feel a part of the community, which was fantastic.  I was surprised I didn’t struggle more there with the lack of conveniences that I am used to, and some really, really big bugs (including the ones that were living in my feet) but my family made all of that more than worth it. 

When we left Shirazi we went back to Mombasa for a few days and had a lot of health lectures there.  We didn’t have Swahili all week and instead just focused on some NGO visits and learning about the Kenyan healthcare system, which was interesting, but with 6 hours a day of lectures on the same topic, we were already to be done by the end of the week. 

And now we are back in Nairobi and spending the weekend with our families here before we start classes back up here tomorrow!

Sorry for the really long post- next time I won’t wait three weeks to write again!!