August 4, 2009

Lets start off with a few random things before I forget! Everyone here is fascinated with our hair! Mindy (who has gorgeous long blonde hair) gets petted wherever she goes. It sort of makes me regret cutting my hair... :( Oh, this is funny! Obama's Grandmother lives somewhere in town. The people here LOVE Obama. Whenever you tell someone you're American, Obama gets brought up. Oddly, everyone here is related to him... they're all his Grandmothers cousins.

I'm not quite sure why I didn't mention this before, but it makes me think of you Mrs. Lukasiewicz... everyday when we drive to the school we pass a few military schools. Pictures aren't allowed, so I'm sorry, but I can't take one. It's interesting. All of the guards are out with their guns. It's intimidating. At least we know we're in a semi-safe area right?

Okay now Mom, you might just love it here. They have palm trees! They aren't really taken care of though. They don't cut the dead palms off. I know how much you love them though. Also, they have the best fruit ever! The pineapple is to die for. It's perfectly juicy, and it's not bitter. The bananas don't look so hot. Apparently they use make-up on our bananas in America... which makes me feel... uneasy? Mangoes are great, and I have Passion fruit juice just about every morning! So, you would like that part of Kenya!

Now about today! We started off at Squatters Hill. We brought the clinic up there... they used the preschool as their base. The rest of us arrived to play with the kiddos. We brought necklaces and face paint. They went crazy over both. I helped with the face paint. We got totally SWARMED. I discovered that I'm not very good at painting faces... Haha. I talked with a few of the people there. I met a seventeen year old girl named Anne. She seems very nice. I've noticed that the only thing kids really want are friends. I gave her my home and e-mail address. Hopefully we'll keep in touch.

After the hill we headed to a few different locations. We were given the opportunity to go back to the school, so obviously, I took it. They had closing ceremonies, because it was their last day of school. It was pretty boring, I'm not going to lie. A few of us were falling asleep. I'm not sure how it started, but one by one all of us got up to speak and say our final goodbyes. It was nice. The coolest thing was that it poured right before we left... while we were attempting to speak, or more like scream. POURED. It's rain season, but one of the drivers told us that it hadn't rained until we got here. So, one night we prayed for rain (because they're kind of in a famine here) and everyday since it has rained! What a miracle. It was a great ending.

Driving back to the hotel was like driving in a chocolate river. It was wonderful. When I got back to the Kunste I went to Tuskys. It's the only official grocery store they have here. It's really nice too. It's very clean. You can buy a lot there. Almost anything really. It's not very big though.

One more thing I forgot to mention in the random section. The soda here is way good. They have lemon, orange, and cherry fanta! Personally my favorite is cherry. The variations of other sodas are good too. Coke here doesn't taste quite like Coke in America. They don't have Pepsi, just Coke. Coca-Cola is a big thing here. It's advertised everywhere. There are shacks made out of Coca-Cola casings!

Just a statement... I've gotten used to people being fascinated with Muzungus (white people). I'm not sure if it's because I think I'm African too or because I'm used to getting weird looks. Haha.

Brynn shared a song with us tonight that was very touching. I cannot get it out of my head. It's called Gratitude by Nichole Nordeman. After all we've been through this week, it means a lot. It perfectly describes how the Kenyans are here... grateful for the little that they have.