i'm going to be MIA for the next few weeks

Because I have these things to do

1. 15 min presentation in Kiswahili
2. Grant Proposal for Nafsi
3. 45 minute presentation on my graffiti research
4. my 30-50 page paper for my graffiti research
5. Gender and IR final
6. Kiswahili final
7. work for Nafsi because two of the management team members are traveling for 3 months (so i'm taking over a lot of their responsibilities)
8. luckily i just finished my final paper for my internship (2 weeks early- GASP)
9. plus class and work days
10. and Mandela leaves in a week for Norway (6 weeks)

then finally i get to go relax on the coast.

ok, lets go!

don't forget to smile today

i see a pattern here.

Rural week happens, and i forget to update. pole sana.

things are crazy around here (shocking i know)

i'm actually not going to go all through rural week, because honestly, i don't want to type all of that. and it's pretty much the same as last time. bugs, farm, farm animals, cute children, much better food this time actually, awkward moments when no one understands what you are saying.... more farm life.... and BOOM it's over!

Our last night of rural week after we all got back together we stayed at a hotel, took a hot shower, and realized how badly we smelled. whoops.

then we had some good ol' group bonding time, played some mafia (an excellent camp game), and had a good nights sleep.

SINCE RURAL WEEK:
my research has been on overdrive i've been doing 2 interviews a day when i don't have class, in between class i am either writing research. reading. or only holding 1 interview. it's absurd. plus Nafsi work (PS LIKE US ON FACEBOOK AND FOLLOW US ON TWITTER and check out our site- WE DID THEM ALL THIS WEEK: facebok.com/NafsiAfrica     twitter.com/NafsiAfrica    nafsiafrica.webs.com ) - shameless plug right there.

andddddd just some absurd things flying around Kenya there was another grenade attack at a bus station in town, but nothing's happened since then, i'm not really worried about it i just keep moving when going places, try not to linger in crowded areas, otherwise my schedule hasn't been changed too much. I'm pretty much exhausted all of the time. but hell rather that then be bored (i mean COME ON i'm still in nairobi- and i keep finding new places and things to do everyday).


so i can comfortably say now i could be anyone's tour guide to Nairobi: the non profit sector and local livings. However, ask me to find the UN or US Embassy...uh zero clue. unless i got directions i could figure it out.


oh also. my english is SO HORRIBLE. it's embarrassing. i can't even speak to my american friends without them asking me to speak words. the problem with this is that although my kiswahili is improving, it is not enough to be losing english. just the way you speak english here is much different i've learned how to explain things and generally how my friends talk so i pick up on it too.


So today i went with some of the Sarkasi dancers and James to the International School of Kenya where i was a "guest PE teacher" i think i'm going to keep going too- they had a balance beam, AND mats! so i was beyond excited. i got to teach beam and helped middle school aged kids choreograph their routines! it was almost like home, in this surreal fancy schmancy school plopped in Nairobi. What was even weirder was that I took the Staff Bus to go teach- well that was weird.

Ok here are some fun photos from the past few weeks:

some of the group being silly before we went out for st. patty's day!

 skyping with mom on st pattys!

 me and eliza's host brother during rural week

 the walk back from the secondary school during rural week

 Nafsi, Holistic Community Yoga, and Africa Yoga Project teachers doing a yoga session together

 Victor and Yuli helping with my hair

 sitting on a huge rock we climbed too many scary stairs to get to

 skype chat with mom and maura!

 those are my bosses at work: throwing me in the pool during a workshop we had with two other organizations (afterwards we played in the pool)

 yoga workshop Nafsi peeps playin around.

 the ladies of abroad kenya spring 2012

 "the out cast" - since i was here last semester :)

 me and my boss doing the "kuku dance" aka chicken dance

 gymnastics on nyumbani rock!

 more gymnastics on nyumbani rock!

 those are ALL of the bags - rural week

don't forget to smile today!

So this whole KONY2012 situation.

As many of you know this video has recently gone viral, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc

Many people are in support and there are also many critics. Some people are more aware than others, some people are just interested in a potentially good cause. 

I am not asserting any opinion here, but all this information I found is worth reading to form your own opinion.

first, i suggest watching the KONY 2012 video made by Invisible Children

then, read some of the arguments against it- also note the sources, blog or newspaper, or media, or organization 

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/03/07/guest_post_joseph_kony_is_not_in_uganda_and_other_complicated_things

http://www.thedisabledcubicle.com/kony-2012-the-banned-critique

http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/

(feel free to look up more i know there's a lot out there)

finally, read their response-

http://www.invisiblechildren.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/critiques.html

and check out the website

http://www.kony2012.com/

and of course apply your own knowledge and opinion. 

get the facts/arguments it's actually quite interesting. 




don't forget to smile today!

Quick Update, then Rural Week info.

I know it's been a longggg time since I've posted, I got distracted for a while- and then bam midterms and then Rural week! which also means the semester is more than half way over! in fact we only have about 5 weeks left until we go to the Coast. Which also means about SIX WEEKS UNTIL I'M 21. which is ever more absurd.

Anyways- Happy belated birthday to the bestest baby sister ever, miss Erin HK, I cannot believe you're learning how to drive!! I don't think mom and dad want to believe it :)

Ok i'm going to run through things happening in my life:

1. kiswahili - it's going pretty good, I impress myself on occasion with what I know- but then again I also get frustrated when I can't figure something out

2. USIU- not bad, i did well on my midterm, just chugging along- we have a group project coming up- NOT looking forward to it.

3. Nafsi work- moving along quickly, trying to get a bunch of things organized, and i'm giving a workhop on March 15th! wish me luck! the grant proposal work is going to start most likely this week,

4. Independent Study aka graffiti research- aka most of my life, enough said there. actually there's been an awesome development just not all these huge pieces are popping up in time for the election- political ones, basically exactly what i'm researching! see below-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw2DVDENyOA&feature=share
or
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Writings+on+the+wall+for+greedy+MPs+/-/1056/1359472/-/13tygqz/-/index.html

and i finally found an academic advisor for it- he's being a HUGE help, since he seems to know everyone and their mothers.

5. da group/ friends/ mandela/mandi-- are all wonderful, unfortunately mandela was sick this week I made him go to the doctor (for his first time ever by the way...) so that was an experience, but now he is on the mend all is well.
and MANDI:

Ok so that's that in a summary- i'm sure other things happened I honestly just don't remember with 5 million things running through my head at once.

OK now i wrote everyday in my journal during rural week so i could update you all accordingly, don't worry i didn't forget anything exciting- it just, well, wasn't really exciting.

let me start off by saying: i hate farms. the smell, the animals, the quiet, all of it. I don't mind pooping in a hole, or all the bugs, or not having a mosquito net, or the bucket baths, it's just the farm. agh.

This semester we went to a different part of the country (if you recall I went to Western Kenya, and it was the rainy season), not it;s the hot dry season in Kenya, especially where we were in Ukambani or Kamba Land (a tribe in Kenya). It's basically dessert, and farms. Why? i don't know. but it is. And it is brutally hot, the kind of hot that makes you just want to sleep but you wake up with a stomach ache and all sweaty. but hey, at least it wasn't snowing. I'll take hot and sweaty over snow and cold ANY day. <-- well duh part of why Kenya was an excellent study abroad choice.


Ukambani is MUCH more spread out the cloest house to me was about a 30min walk away, luckily my Baba (host father) has a pikipiki (motor bike). The house I was in was much nicer than in western, they were actualy cement/stone structures with windows stead of a mud house. My family had SO MUCH land, enormous land, a bunch of cows, SO MANY chickens, and about ALL of the goats I've ever seen. The family harvested maize and beans to sell at the market. they had 4 children 2 in boarding secondary school, and 2 young girls one was 7 the other 10. the grandparents and "househelp" or farm help also lived on the compound.
picta time of where i stayed:

the house

 maize!

 my bed

 my stuff

 part of the compound, and a cow

 more maize

Ok i will post my daily adventures about rural week another time, i need to get some work done before heading to work!

don't forget to smile today!