swirling vortex of mystery

Okay, okay, I'm sorrrrrry!! I know I've neglected my posts here, and now I'm horribly out of date. But a packed schedule combined with rolling power-outages in Nairobi made it very difficult for me to get anything done. And now I'm in Mombasa...andwell...you know how it goes!

I can't possibly write about everything that's happened in just one post. It would take me FOREVER. So I'm going to break it down, starting with my last weeks in Nairobi.

One random night a couple weeks ago, I went with Andre, Aubrey, Kasamba, and Kasamba's friend Babu to a reggae club downtown called Monte Carlo. Kasamba was a bit worried about us going because I guess its very likely you'll be pick-pocketed there. We weren't worried...but we SHOULD have been warned about the male-female ratio! We got there to discover that, not only were Aubrey and I the ONLY white girls in the club, we were also 2 of only about 9 women! There must have been about 20 guys to every girl. It's hard enough to fend off advances from Kenyan men when there's one or two of them.......now try fending off TWENTY at once!! We wanted to dance because the music and atmosphere of the club were really fun, but everytime we stood up, we got mobbed. At first it was kind of funny, but as the night wore on and the men were chewing miraa and drinking, they got aggressive. I finally forced the guys to leave with us, but not before Andre tried the miraa also! He was quite a handful to deal with for the rest of that night, lol. For those who don't know, miraa is a leaf that people in Kenya commonly chew as a stimulant. It also has the unfortunate effect of being like an herbal viagra! Can you picture the scene at Monte Carlo now? Yeah...pretty nuts. =P

I know some of you are wondering about my latest Facebook status...and I guess I'll write a bit here because it IS a major event in my time here in Kenya. But I'm gonna keep it short. Yes, I have a Kenyan boyfriend. It was completely unintentional and I'm STILL wondering how it happened (you all know what a commitment-phobe I am)! I'll just say that I met him through my Nairobi brother--he is very progressive and smart...and we just clicked. :) It's nice but I don't know what will happen because now I'm going to be mostly in Mombasa and he is in school in Nairobi--an 8 hour drive away. The funniest thing about it is that EVERYONE here is trying to marry me off to him! =P My Nairobi mom was thrilled and said we should marry at her rural home. My colleagues in Mombasa are planning a beach wedding. And Aubrey & Ashley don't care where it is as long as they get to be bridesmaids! Haha, the culture about dating here is SOOOO different from the US. Luckily for me, he thinks its just as hilarious as I do. Sorry y'all, but there won't be a wedding anytime soon!

Moving on...as I hope you're all aware, my birthday is coming up very soon! When we're all (hopefully) celebrating Obama's win on Nov 5--just remember to wish me a little Happy 21st Birthday if you can! A whole mess of us were born around the same time here: Aubrey's was Oct 28, my friends Jane and Kathy are tomorrow (Halloween!), and then me, and then Joey on Nov 16 (right Joey?). Everyone who had a birthday on the program while we were in Nairobi got a special cake, and we didn't want to miss out on cake just because we'd be separated by the time our birthdays rolled around! So me, Aubrey, Jane and Joey planned a combined birthday outing for our last night in Nairobi. And boy did we celebrate! Unfortunately, poor Joey got really sick with a bacterial infection the day before, so she couldn't come. But the rest of us went back to our fav Westlands club, Rezorus. It was me, Aubrey, Ashley, Jenna, Ash&Jenna's host brothers + dates, Jane, Jane's friends, my bro Toti, my boyfriend, Tony, Tony's date, Simon & his wife, and a few more of Simon's friends! All-together, I'd say about 25 of us took over an entire area of Rezorus. We laughed and chatted and had a great time, and then it was time for the cake-cutting. Jane had bought a HUUUUGE chocolate cake from Uchumi and brought it to Rezorus. They sang to us and then we began doling out slices. Now, if you remember from one of my other posts, its tradition for the kids to put dots of icing on their faces at birthdays. So I put a bit on Jane's face...then she put a bit more on mine...then I put even MORE on hers...and it spread and spread until the ENTIRE group was covered head to toe in frosting!!!!! It was a full-blown frosting WAR that night. And we had so much fun. Though I think our waitress pretty much hated us for the mess we made. I spent the rest of the night with nasty frosting dreadlocks, but it didn't matter because pretty much everyone else in the club had some on them too. We danced for hours and got home just in time for the Kisumu group to shower, grab their stuff, and catch the bus. Mombasa people left a few hours later, but I just stayed up all night with my boy & my bro. Sleep was an after-thought to spending my last few hours with them.

That morning, plus one REALLY heavy suitcase and minus a few dreadlocks, I caught the bus to Mombasa with the rest of the MSID-ers working out here. It's a long, 8-hour drive from Nairobi to Mombasa, but at least the roads are relatively decent the whole way! The bus company was called Mash Cool, which I find really amusing but in fact probably isn't. But whatever, you get to hear about it anyway! Praise be to cupcakes that I had a front row seat, because I got to stretch out my legs and sleep most of the way. I woke up only a few times: once to see that we were driving through real African bush (I mean no people, no houses or huts or anything, no animals...just sand and scraggly trees), another time for lunch at a roadside snack bar, and once more in time to see what I have termed "the swirling vortex of mystery". It looked like a tiny, black tornado and formed directly in front of us on the left side of the road...crossed over...and then dissolved entirely. If you remember Tazmanian Devil, just picture when he'd spin around and destroy stuff and that's what it looked like! I still have no clue what it was.

We knew we were getting closer to Mombasa when everyone started shedding their sweatshirts and began sweating instead. The heat rose by more than a few degrees and the humdity JUMPED up. Nairobi is practically cold in comparison!! As we neared the city, Abby was dropped off at her homestay just outside it, then the rest of us continued on to the Mash Bus stop on Jomo Kenyatta Avenue to meet our families. It was nerve-wracking to leave the comforts and friends I'd found in Nairobi, and I had no idea how strict or welcoming my new, large, Muslim family would be. I already missed everyone I'd left behind, but you know me. I thrive on change, so this new part of my trip was exciting! And let me tell you...Mombasa is a WHOLE different story.

Okay, I will post again soon on life here in Mombasa. Now its high time I get myself back to work! Take care everyone! Have a GREAT Halloween, and I will be with you in spirit on election day!! Fingers crossed Obama wins, because I may just have to stay in the house for a while if he loses! Kenya will be in a frenzy either way!