camels, affirmative

I just wanted to say that I love reading all of your comments. Joy, you crack me up daily : )

So we are in fact going on the camel safari from April 13 to 20th. We will be riding camels through Samburu national park, or buffalo springs national park, not sure if they are different...and camping. Oh man. I'm a little nervous : )

WE had no class again yesterday so we found a bar and had beer with Olungah. That was fun and it was nice to be inside in a cool place, with good, cheap beer. (a pint is 100 shillings which is about a $1.50.

OH! before class we went to Massai Market, which happens every Tuesday and Sunday, but on Tuesdays it is near school. It is this huge market of mostly hand made crafts...a lot of beautiful beaded stuff. A fellow American warned us before we went not to wear anything (like a necklace) that they would want to trade us for because they would be relentless. I happened to be wearing my necklace from Senegal that Vicki gave me and the first person who came up to me was asking me what they could trade it for. I also got an offer for my headband (which is just a yellow bandana). I am going to bring some stuff with me next time that I actually want to trade. WE didn't get anything there because we were told we should get better at our Swahili so we can bargain better and not pay the muzungu prices, which are much higher, usually by a decimal place.

So I went home and had dinner. When Chippa sat down with this food, Monica said "CHippa, you have only taken two greens" I looked at his plate and he had a huge pile of rice and stew and only two tiny little green beans. Something about this was so hilarious and MOnica and I laughed for a while. Chippa seems annoyed by his mother a lot. HE didn't laugh.

Another thing-almost every day I wake up to some child who lives above my room running around in shoes made of plastic. THese people must not have carpeting and the floors are concrete...so it's like someone tap dancing in my room every morning...with no apparent rhythm. Pretty much everything that happens in the flats above and aruond mine, and outside sound like they are in my room.

I just had my first class! It was Psychological Antrho, but it was supposed to be Culture and COmmunication. Apparently they just switched it today, for fun? I don't know. It was interesting, but like being in 6th-8th grade again with all the boys (who are actually men) yelling out irrelevant comments to make other people laugh, such as when we were talking about whether you need language to think or to think to have language, and the guy behind me says "my pet dolphin talks". Cool. Thanks for your input : )

WEll that is my last 24 hours for you. I have drumming today at 1 and then a meeting about Swahili classes at 2. THen back to watch TV for hours : )

Until next time...