only in kenya.

Day 7 (9/12)
I cannot say it enough. The stars here are amazing. The Milky Way is so clear and the stars are like a masterpiece. I don’t think I will ever get over it.
So I just realized that a week ago today I was leaving my house to come here. I can’t believe it’s only been one week. I feel like we’ve been here for so much longer then only 6 days. I feel like we’ve seen so much and learned so much from the staff and actually right now we are teaching Moses, about all the hotels in the States and shops and things (here hotel is more like a café, and usually a butchery is right next door.)
This morning I got up bright and early for our nature walk. As in we left at 6:10AM just before sunrise. At first we saw a troop of Baboons all up in the trees yelling and moving around from branch to branch. Then we walked for a while and saw tons of tracks from elephant (babies and very large ones), giraffe, buffalo, zebra, aardvark, goats and sheep. All of a sudden out of nowhere we saw an Eland about 200 feet in front of us, and then a few minutes later a couple Impala grazing about 300 feet away, and then those little Dik-diks were rustling the bushes a couple yards away. On the way back we saw the same troop of Baboons but a few of them had come down onto the ground and one male was absolutely huge, like extremely massive. During our first class our Prof almost got pee’d on by that cat again. I can’t remember if I mentioned it before but it’s a cat that lives in the compound and steals food and won’t leave. And our chumba (classroom) roof has a burlap layer underneath the tarp. It goes up there and will pee. Haha. I took my first hot showers since I’ve been here today! It was beyond glorious; even though the water pressure has to be kept low it’s still phenomenal. And today I learned they have a fiber optic cable so by the time its working (next semester?) The people in this camp can skype lol. I can’t complain though, there is a lot that’s here that I didn’t expect. AND today when we were running (yes I’ve picked up running-do as the Kenyans do right?) we saw a Vervet monkey running about 2 feet away from us and going up into a tree. So cool.
Tomorrow we are going for another field lecture…a 4 hour lecture. I can’t wait.
And I heard its about 60 and raining in RI…its about 75 and sunny here. Again.

New words! FYI-e=a, i=ee, o=oh, u=u, a=ah
Oh, by the way..elimu (ehleemoo) does not mean elephant. It means education, oops
Gari (gahree)-car/vehicle
Habari (hah-bah-ree)-news
Imba (imm-bah)-sing
Jambo(jahm-bo)-hello
Lala (lah-lah)-sheep
Mama (mama)-mother
Nani (naa-ni)-who
Omba (ohm-bah)-to bed/pray
Paka (pahkah)-cat
Kupaka (koo-pah-kah)-swear
*no q in Swahili*
Simba (simbah)-lion
Toka (toke-ahh)-get out
Ugali (oogahl-ee)-corn and water crushed, like mashed potatoes
Viatu (vee-ahh-too)-shoes
Wageni (wah-gen-ee)-guest
*no x in Swahili*
Yai (yah-ee)-egg
Zawadi (zed-wah-zee)-person