Nimechoka

Okay okay okay. I know I haven't written in a while but I was sick and I've been so busy! But, here's my update:

I started my internship, and it's been so great! I've worked on designing pamphlets for the Jumia Zalendo Project (patriotic society), worked on a grant proposal for the Eagle Project (such a cool project!), and taught some of the boys the cupid shuffle. Success, no?

Today was an especially good day. I worked with Thetu on the Princess Project today, which is a program they have with eight mentors that go around to 100 girls each (4 groups of 25 each), and teach financial planning and reproductive health, since it's not taught in the schools on their own.

So we went to visit one of the lessons that w

as being taught, and before we began the lesson, we went in to meet the headmaster. We were walking into his office and there was a line of girls outside of it. They started giggling and whispering (because there was a mzungu at their school!), and one of them tapped me on the shoulder. I turned and said hello, and then she told me that my shoes were very beautiful. I said thank you very much, but was surprised because they were my beat-up TOMS. Then, I walk into the headmasters entry area, and there were boxes full of TOMS waiting to be distributed!! I was so excited to see things come full circle like that. When I came out of the office, they were getting their shoes. They were so excited that they had the same shoes as I did! It really made my day.

In other news, we went to Kitan

gela last weekend and visited Maasai Lodge and the Kitangela Glass Factory. We got to see some giraffes and even baboons!

To get to the Glass Factory though, we had to cross a gorge on this super flimsy bridge. Luckily, I braved through it and came out alive both times.

This weekend will be fun, I'm going to my internship Saturday day, and then at night, I'm going to a Safaricom Live! concert (safaricom is the Verizon of Kenya). It should be great, and we have VIP tickets. There's going to be a lot of Kenyan music, and we've made friends with some of the guys who are working it and they say we'll get to meet some of the bands! Other than that, I'll be doing a lot of work on my research project. It's about higher education in Kenya, and working on some other papers for USIU. We're in the homestretch for my Politics of Culture in Kenya class. It ends the third week of October, and then I get to focus on my internship 3+ days per week!