End of Week 2

2 weeks down! It has gone fast. I had a dream last night that it was Dec 11 and I was flying home, and I was very sad in my dream to be leaving all of the cool Kenyans that I've met. A side effect of my malaria medicine is to have vivid/strange dreams!

The first week of classes went well. They frontloaded our Kiswahili classes so we can start to use the language and it's fun to ask "how much," or "sina ngani" when going to a matatu (public transportation) or at the market. A couple of girls and I went to a market in downtown Nairobi yesterday and it was an experience! We got some neat things - bowls/scarfs, but the salespeople there are Very intense! One scarf seller even grabbed my arm as I started walking away. They all say, "please sister, I'll give you a deal," and people would follow us with paintings or jewelry and keep trying to sell it after we've told them straight up, many times, NO.

I went to church with my host sister again today and the music was awesome. I am starting to notice the difference in womens' roles in Kenya compared to America. I don't want to compare, but the idea of women being the person who cooks and who's job is to "support" the man makes me appreciate the power that women have back home. The sermon was about marriage and how what men need to do to keep the "fire alive." The pastor said that his wife dropped all of her dreams and plans to support him when they got married, so the least he could do is be kind/romance her. Interesting views to me - different than what I've ever directly heard before.

I'm posting more pictures on facebook now so hopefully they will upload before it gets too dark to walk home from the Java, the coffee shop with free internet!!! The sun is very predictable here - it starts coming up at 6 am and is up at 7 am, and starts going down at 6 pm and is completely dark at 7 pm. Not like North Dakota days!

I'll be posting my phone number and address soon - I have them both written down at my house. Hope all is well back home and miss you all!