Nini ninataka lala

I'm staring at the computer screen, trying to avoid the fact that I have a pounding headache. Thinking up something to write about is about as painful at the moment as squeezing a sliver out of my finger. So--good news to your attention spans: This will most likely be a fairly short post. Fairly short.

So this week started with the arrival of two new interns: Bekah and Nicole. Kind of a random thing--Bekah and I were in the same Jerusalem group way back in 2000. The church kind of makes the world a whole lot smaller... Nicole is originally from Mexico, but has been living in Miami for the past few years. They are both really great, intelligent girls.



Other highlights of the week include:

-Sunday--Listening to a Relief Society lesson about proper nutrition and the five food groups: carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, proteins and water. ????? And how to eat three healthy meals on 100 shillings a day--roughly $1.50. Unreal. These kinds of scenarios aren't even thought about in America.

-Tuesday--Almost being T-boned by an oncoming Matatu that was in no way willing to slow down as we made a right-hand turn (equivalent of a US left-hand turn). Thanks for all of your prayers...they were certainly heard that day!! Nicole's not so sure she wants to be jetting around town with Aaron at the wheel anymore! ;)

-Wednesday--Kiswahili lessons

-Everyday--Learning not only how to understand these people but trying to get on the same channel of communication with them. (It would take a lot for me to post about this...but it's been a bit of an issue.)

-Thursday--Girls evening out while waiting for Aaron to finish up work--we went shopping at the heart of Mombasa. We found Kangas (traditional African skirts), drank coconut milk directly from the coconut and ate the meat with a spoon fashioned out of the shell. Very cool. Decided that wasn't filling enough and found a swanky little joint had some superb fresh pineapple, mango and avocado juice. Had a race back to the office in tuk tuks (see pic below)--and almost died from traffic weaving and CO2 inhalation. (Yes, we almost die on a regular basis.) It was quite the evening. I, unfortunately, left my camera in my bag at the office, and don't have a single picture to show for it. (I took the one below shortly after we arrived in Kenya.) Oh well...use your imagination.



-Thursday night--pulled a late one working on a project due at work. I feel like I've been in the equivalent of finals week since we got here!

-Friday night--I crashed at 9:00 pm. The rest of the group stayed up and conveniently planned out the next few weeks' activities which, unbeknownst to me, started the next day.

-Saturday morning--I woke up before 6:00 am to the Muslim call to prayer blasting out of the loudspeakers on the minaret of a mosque that's 'meters' away from where we live. I'm all about proselytizing, but when it comes to intruding the wee hours of my sleep, I feel that might be a little much.

-Saturday Mid-morning--Since I was up, I did the laundry that I've been neglecting...three weeks of it...by hand. It was quite the ordeal. And back to the fact that I didn't know that the use of my free time had already been determined for me, I missed going to the beach because I had already started a whole load of whites that I didn't feel I could just leave sitting around. Not a huge deal--I mean, sometimes clean clothes are worth the sacrifice. But, the problem is this: here we are more than 36 hours later and my laundry is still wet. Not because I didn't hang it out to dry, but because there's really no more room in this atmosphere for evaporating water. So...while I was excited about the fact that I would have clean clothes, I am now realizing that I have to deal with the fact that they will all be mildew-y. Pretty sure that's the last time I skip the beach to do laundry.

-Saturday Afternoon--After the laundry was hung to drip more than dry, we all headed out to explore some of the surrounding areas. We went to Mamba Village (a crocodile farm) and the Bamburi Nature Trail (aka Haller Park). I was thinking it would be a so-so afternoon. But it ended up being a lot cooler than anticipated. It was like being in a petting zoo of exotic sorts. The area is amazing--we literally live next to a rain forest. You will have to check out the pics below to see what I'm talking about.



-Sunday--Had Branch Conference and got to meet the mission president and his wife. Also, a follow-up Relief Society on proper nutrition for pregnant women and new babies. Learned the following things: It's really bad to eat boiled eggs when your pregnant. Breast milk can't be pumped and given to the baby later because 1) there aren't such things as breast pumps in Africa and 2) even if you could, it wouldn't be good for the baby. ???? And this was all while a sister was nursing her baby all out in the open. It's definitely a different culture here--and it's interesting to see what people understand and how they apply it in their lives.

-Did a walking tour of the old part of Mombasa and visited all of the mosques, temples and cathedrals along the way. Actually, we just took pictures of them. But it was still cool--and pretty sombering to again see how people live. The pics are below.



Well...So, apparently having a headache really doesn't equate with having short posts. If you've made it this far, I'm impressed. I'm signing off. If the pictures don't work. Let me know--there were a lot of them this time.

Cheers! (and yes, they say that in Kenya)