Love this day.

September 8th
This was so far the best day ever. Day trip into Nairobi, take 1.
 -Walked to the matato station at 5:30am in the dark.
 -Only matato around had a broken door so I climbed through the window, awesome.
 -Didn’t get lost, ALL DAY!
 -Went to the craziest post office I have ever seen. It looked like it was for some small town in the south of Georgia, not the largest city in Kenya.
 -Had the best cup of coffee, in a real live coffee shop.
 -Got to use the restroom in a toilet, not a hole.
 -Had the best 360 degree view of the city from a 30 story building.
 -Met some really cool local guys in the city market and got a killer deal on a necklace made by my new friend Ben.
 -Stocked up on snack food at Tuskys, they sell semi western like foods. PEANUT BUTTER
 -Ate lunch at a proper restaurant, chapati and banana based vege stew.
 -Used the internet in a really nice building complete with escalators and flushing toilets. But was so jacked up on the coffee I could barely type a sentence.
 - Purchased a cell phone and credit for a total of about 14 USD.
 Got super car sick on the way back but didn’t care because I had such a good day.

September 9th
Today is your birthday sister. Miss you mucho grande soy latte with hazelnut. I am glad I got to call you and wake you up. Yesterday I bought large bag of tomatoes and a large bag of carrots for 20 sch each. It’s about 80 sch to 1 USD. I am so excited about my peanut butter that I am currently putting it on everything, including my carrots and tomatoes. So for breakfast, tomato with peanut butter. All the other volunteers think I am a big nutty. HA get it NUTTY? No but really I think they are the crazy ones who would rather skip a meal because they don’t like the food. I actually like the food.

I went to the Makuyu town school today with Maddy and Eric, they are two of the three Americans that were on safari when I arrived. All the Oregon kids are great. And I can say kids because I am the old lady here. All the children laugh at me when I tell them I am 25. We graded papers today and hung out in class with the 8th graders. Some of the papers I read were really impressive. “ The boy ran as fast as a lion after its prey”… It is weird for me to be the one with the red pen making notes on grammar and spelling. From reading this I am sure you understand why that is weird. It is making me much more aware of my own grammar and spelling. Great, now I fel pressure to spel things write and put em in the write order 

After a relaxing afternoon hanging out with all the volunteers a few of us decided to head into Kenol, a nearby town to hang out for a bit and use the internet before meeting up with some other volunteers for dinner. The internet was fast and I got to Skype, post pictures and post my first blog, all in all very productive. For dinner I had Tuskers, the local beer, and chips (French fries). After hanging out and visiting for a while we all caught a taxi back to the orphanage. I was very excited because the taxi goes right to the orphanage, whereas the matatos go to a nearby town and then we walk the rest of the way. Plus, cramming 7 smelly volunteers into 1 small car is just funny. To top off all the excitement ‘I’m a Barbie girl in a Barbie world’ came on the radio and we rocked it out.

Once we got back to the orphanage I played a game of heads up Texas Hold ‘Em with Eric. We were betting things like toilet paper, peanut butter, shoes, socks, mattresses, body wash, towels… the stakes were very high. I went all in with pocket 5’s and lost everything..

September 10th
Started the morning off by walking the kiddos to school with a cup of instant coffee in hand. They look so cute in their uniforms. Blue shorts, sweater and hats that make them look like little smurfs.

Today Nate, Saskia and I went to the Makuyu Township School and helped out again today. This is not the same school the kids go to but they love the help. The kids are hilarious, a 12 year old boy hit on me today, awkward. After grading a small stack of papers I went into the 8th grade class and checked over their work and visited with them for a bit. At 11:00am we all had break, I complained about the heat and how the malaria meds were making me sick. After break we joined the 7th grade class and Sharon read me a Christmas story about a man with a wooden leg. It seemed to be the only book in English around.

School in Kenya isn’t like school we are used to. The teachers don’t stay in the class room, everytime I have been there the teachers are all in the staff’s room and if a child has a question they come in and ask. When I told them in the states the teacher is ALWAYS in the classroom they looked at me like a crazy white person that had just told them that Obama is my father. I suppose that explains the 18 year old boy in the 8th grade class.

Nate and I are planning on setting up a geography lesson before we leave. We are going to go into town and print off a blank world map and teach the kids all the continents and other important places, you know like Alaska. If I can find one I would like to purchase a world map too. Even the brightest of the kids have no idea where most countries are.

After lunch I gave susan a make shift manicure, her face was in a state of shock pretty much the whole time. It made me wonder whether or not she has ever had her nails cut. She got the works; cut, file and two colors of paint. Susan is a super special girl who has one of the worst stories I have ever heard. To put a smile on her face and make even the smallest difference in her life makes all of the bs I went through the last year worth it. I am going to sponsor her before I leave. She always gives me this sideways clever look like she is up to some kind of trouble, well most of the time she is.

Tonight is chapati night and we have all been talking about it all day. If we aren’t eating Ugali and beans we are all stoked. The kids are running around speaking Swahili to each other but every once in a while you will hear a chapati, volunteer or mazungu, which means white person. I hear that a lot. Just on a nice stroll into town and kids start coming out of the wood works point and shouting mazungu. Then they say every English word they know, in no particular order and of course want to shake your hand.

Susan’s manicure got me in the mood to be girly, so I washed my feet and wore mascara. That’s about as good as it gets. I think the ball cap I put on after the mascara defeated the point but I don’t care.

I don’t seem to have a care in the world lately. There are 8 other volunteers here at the moment and I am not concerned with any of them. It is so different then being home. No gas to put in my car, no silly boys to worry about and apparently you don’t have to bathe in Kenya. When I put on a fresh pair of pants I stand out like big time. As if I don’t stand out enough being a mazungu.