hakuna simu (no phone)

Tuesday started off well. On Monday we had gone to immigration to get our pupil’s passes which serve as multiple entry visas. We had paid for them the first week we were here and they still hasn’t been processed until now. Anyway, we went on Monday to get them and they said come back Tuesday, which made me think they were just putting it off more and they wouldn’t really have them Tuesday, or if they did have them, would want a bribe for them, as is common here. But everything went fairly smoothly and we left with the passes and without paying anyone anything. So that is good news because now I won’t have to pay $50 to get back into Kenya when I go to South Africa.
I then went up to campus and hung out outside and read for a while because it was such a beautiful day. The weather here has been great lately, sunny and hot, and I thought it was supposed to be the rainy season! I’m sure now it will pour for days since I said this. At 2 I walked over to class and when I got to class, went to silence my phone, and realized it wasn’t in my bag. So I realized I must have accidentally left it where I was sitting and ran out of the classroom, down two floors, and across the green to where I had been sitting 15 minutes before, but my phone wasn’t there. Olungah happened to see me looking frantic and I told him I couldn’t find my phone so he called it. It didn’t ring, which meant that someone had already taken out the sim card, meaning it had been stolen. So that was kind of sad, and I am frustrated with myself for not paying better attention to where it was because I usually do. So I paid 2000 shillings for another phone, but they said they would be able to transfer the credit I had on my old sim card to this new one.
In class (Culture and Communication) we were talking about gender roles and how advertising plays into them. My professor was listing all the things a woman should do like cooking and cleaning and that men should be strong, independent, etc. Of course all the men in my class were agreeing out loud and the class erupted in laughter every time the professor introduced a new characteristic. It got irritating after a while, but I think I was already in a bad mood because of the phone.
Wednesday is the final exam for Psychological Anthropology--we are now finished with 2 of our 3 university classes, which is insane because we are still here for another month. And Thursday I go to Capetown!! I can’t wait! Apparently Zoe and I are going shark diving which scares me out of my mind, but how many people can say they’ve been shark diving?? I think it’s an opportunity I should take advantage of. My dad, who lived in South Africa when he was younger, said Capetown is where all the great white sharks are! Ahhh!