got mah hair did

So several interesting things occurred this past weekend. I'll start off with Friday, which I had planned as a quiet night in. Of course that never happens here. Aubrey had some friends visiting from Tanzania, and they were planning to hit up Carnivore for this huge reggae concert with Andre, Dave, and some others from the program. Yes, it would have been cool, but it was also 1200 shillings just to buy the ticket, so that's why I passed. Anyway, around 6 or 7 that night, I was chillin in my house when Aubrey came over and was like "okay, we're going out." I asked why she wasn't taking her friends to the concert anymore, and it turns out they didn't get tickets because Andre was in the hospital with TYPHOID. Yep, earlier that day he had toured one of the slums and got stuck there because of all the traffic downtown. They ate at a restaurant there (no I don't know why there was a restaurant in a slum) and he drank the water they served. Granted...he thought it was purified. But it definitely wasn't because 3 hours later he was hallucinating and vomiting with acute Typhoid. He spent all that day and night in Nairobi hospital. Poor guy. :( But anyway, Aubrey needed to take out her friends, so we met them back at Westlands, AND we managed to convince my brother, Toti, and his 2 friends Ben & Mohammad to come with us! It was a great night and though we had set a time limit for ourselves of 1am, we made it back closer to 4.

The next morning I got up at 9:30 so I could walk over to Kenyatta market (just across the road from me) to get my hair braided!! I went to the ladies my mom here uses and spent a confusing 10 minutes picking the size of the twists I wanted, and then what color extensions, etc...Then they sat me down in a plastic lawn chair and 4 of them went to work. I couldn't see what they were doing, but I think it was something like taking tiny tiny pieces of my hair, twisting the extensions into them so that they stuck, then twisting them about 1/3 of the way down. The extensions kept the twists in place. It took them 3 hours and 5 sets of extensions to finish sectioning off all my hair, then one of them put her foot on my armrest, exposed her thigh, and started rolling my twists along her thigh! I don't understand quite how it worked, but doing this twisted the remaining 2/3 lengths of my hair, and another hour later I was FINALLY done. Then they dipped the ends in hot water, tied it back, and sent me on my way. It didn't hurt much, except that they made me sit scooted down in that chair forEVER and I think the pressure on my head and chest gave me the random nosebleed that I got. But it was worth it. I LOVE IT. I must have like 400 loooong twists and you know, I kind of expected it to look a bit goofy, but I swear its probably the best hair style I've ever had. Now, I'm not allowed to get them wet, which means no washing my hair or scalp until I take them out. That will be interesting...but it sure cuts down on the amount of time it takes me to get ready!! And lets face it, no one on the program showers very much anyway. =P

That afternoon, Jesse & his friends from Cairo showed up!!! I was SOO FREAKIN EXCITED to see someone that I knew from Madison! I wanted to show them everything about my home and Nairobi, but unfortunately they were only here for that night. They had a 5am flight to catch back to Cairo Sunday morning. So we went out to Carnivore for dinner, which was RIDICULOUSLY expensive (2100 shillings just for dinner and a water!), but delicious. Carnivore is this touristy restaurant in Nairobi that serves all kinds of meat, even game meat. It's kind of like Samba in that they carry the meat around to your tables on spears and its all you can eat at a fixed price. I had chicken, turkey, pork, beef, ostrich, crocodile, and chicken livers (which are not good, for the record). The crocodile was definitely the tastiest. Very tender and salty. I kind of wish they served it more often, but its only for tourists. We talked and caught up over dinner, then taxi'd home to get ready for a night out. I won't bore you with the routine, which was going to Mad House (the prostitute hangout), then ditching it for Rezorus in Westlands again because Saturday nights at Mad House are apparently for prosties and old white men ONLY. Rezorus was typical and very fun, but then something kind of insane happened!! I was sitting at our table with my friend Joey, when all of a sudden we saw a guy at the table across from us get his flaming Sambuca shot. He apparently didn't know how to drink it because Joey and I watched as he poured the shot, flames and all, ALL OVER HIS FACE!!! His face was literally in flames and he started yelling and hitting himself and his friend tried to blow out the fire!! Oh my god, it was INSANE. It was probably only 30 seconds before he got the flames out and sat there just looking stunned, but it felt like forever. When we realized he was okay, Joey and I started cracking up at how stupid he was. But oh man, I will NEVER forget that. Then when I was leaving to get a taxi for everyone, some random guy by the door pinched my butt. Since I've been here, guys have said a lot of things to me, but no one has EVER gone so far as to touch me inappropriately like that. I whipped around and started cussing him out and shouting, but all he did was smile and move closer to me! So I shoved him as hard as I could and he stumbled backwards into the table. As I left, I saw his friends laughing at him. Serves him right. I thought going out in America was bad? In just over a month here, some guys tried to mug me and I had to assault a guy in a bar for touching my ass. At least I'm learning my own strength I guess. But that was definitely unpleasant.

I got everyone home and we tried not to fall asleep before their taxi came to take them to the airport. There was some drama getting the taxi, and I learned that I definitely cannot trust 2 of the guys I've been using. But thankfully Ken and my brother were around to help out and we got everyone to the airport eventually. I think they made it back okay! Jesse, if you read this before you contact me, please let me know you're safe in Cairo!

I slept in SUPER late on Sunday, then got some cheap Ethiopian at our fav restaurant Awash and chilled in my living room before going home and getting to bed early. It was a fun, crazy weekend and I'm still exhausted. But it was so good to see someone from Madison and reminded me just how much I'm missing all of you back home. I hope you're all well and it's not too cold yet! Write to me and let me know how you're all doing. We're going on a field trip tomorrow (yes, like back in elementary school) and then Wednesday I think I'm taking a tour of the slum Kibera. So I'll write about those things ASAP. I have also figured out where and how to call on Skype, so if anyone has it and wants to talk, let me know!

XOXO