Last Thursday

On Thursday I met my friend Margaret and we went to her room in the women’s hostels for the university. We hung out in her room and talked and watched some guy named Michael Smith (?) singing gospel with this huge church of people in Canada. It was interesting. We also watched a DVD of Westlyfe (sp?) videos. I gave her a keychain I had gotten her in Capetown that was a beaded “M”, and she LOVED it. She couldn’t stop looking at it and holding it, it was really cute. She made us ugali and sakumawiki for lunch and it was actually the best sakuma I have had since being in Kenya. Sakumawiki is a green leafy vegetable similar to kale that comes in long strips. Most people eat it with ugali, which is a stiff meal that looked like mashed potatoes, but thicker and stiffer, and does not taste anything like potatoes. Anyway, both are staples in Kenya, but this was the best of either I have had yet here.
At 2pm I had my Psychological Anthropology exam, which I think went pretty well. Afterwards I went over to the YWCA and watched “The Queen” with Whitney, but didn’t get to finish it because it started pouring and I thought I should get home since getting a matatu in the rain is even harder than getting a matatu in the not rain. The past two days my matatu ride home has taken an extremely long time because the traffic has been so bad and we spend so much time just sitting. Also today on my matatu a song, which seemed excruciatingly long, was playing in which the chorus was “1 pussy and 13 dicks”. Wow. I could not believe it. Another more believable, but still sort of funny thing was that in the newspaper yesterday there was a page with a huge list of people who were supposed to contact some woman to claim their dead relatives’ estates. One of those people listed was Barack Obama. I wonder if he read “The Daily Nation” and is coming to claim his property. Apparently a bunch of his relatives live in Kariokor, where I live too!
Friday is Independence Day here, which is called “Madaraka Day”. Everyone has their Kenyan flags hanging outside their shops and houses. I am interested to see what it’s like. We have Swahili in the morning, but we are going on some kind of “adventure” in Karen. Afterwards Whitney and I are going to Njuhi’s house for lunch and maybe some kind of festivities. I am looking forward to another large amazing meal and some good company : )