I'm A Horrible Blogger, But Its Not Really My Fault

Sooo as my title points out, I SUCK. Lets face it I haven't written a new post, Kenya came and went and what? Nothing, thats what. So this here post is gonna cover A LOT becuase I need to talk about my Mali orientation, my entire month in Kenya, and the first 4ish days of Mali. Yeah, thats right, I'm in Mali. But it wasn't my fault that I didn't blog about Kenya, becuase I TRIED and I COULDN'T (For some reason, blogspot was blacklisted, probably to keep the university students from not researching/studying) Anyhoo, Mali Orientation: Welp, I learned that most of the stuff I had researched was wrong. Fail, me. We also focused on how Muslims are viewed in America versus how they view themselves. We went to a mosque, wore hijabs/scarves over our hair, and had a ball. Some kids left that day (it was in JUNE) but we didn't. Thats about it. We didn't have a lot of free time, cuz we had a lot of learning to do. I remember at the end, all 50 of us Yes Abroaders got together, and then we had to go.

Kenya: KENYA WAS SUPER AMAZING OMG I CAN'T WAIT TO GO BACK. So the technical stuff first. We first went to Mombasa for a couple of days to basically be tourists. The rest of our stay we spent at the United States International University in Nairobi. Two weekends, we stayed with our host families (Friday to Sunday). We were there on a social media project, working with Kenyan youth to address several different social issues, and raise awareness on possible solutions. We were there during Kenya's winter, although some days did get very hot. We were also there during a very bad drought (it was even proclaimed a national disaster!) Um um um not so technical stuff: While we were in Mombasa, we stayed at a hotel with monkeys (very touristy, not realistic at all) went on a safari (that was actually in Voi, but whatever), visited Fort Jesus (first it was a fort for the Portuguese, then the Arabs, then it was a prison. Now its a national monument), and visited a center of village replicas. A couple of kids got married there, we saw some traditional dancing, and bought stuff at a small market (my blue anklet? I got it there :D) Nairobi was colder than Mombasa, but it had its hot days as well. Most of the time we were stuck on campus, but there were a couple of times when we got to go out and shop. The Kenyan kids are amazing, friendly, funny, brilliant, and super smiley. I liked them, and I miss them a lot now. Even though we only spent about 3 weeks together, we still got very close. My topic was Unemployment, and we used Flickr. Our team (me, ny, ny, Kenyan chick) WON!!!! Yay :) Well, to tell the truth, we tied for first, but still, we WON!!!! (yay) In Nairobi, we saw more traditional dancing, visited Parliment (that was cool. Boring, but cool), did another safari, went shopping, and possible more (I can't really remember) Me, being me, I didn't journal much while I was there, nor did I bring a camera (STUPID STUPID STUPID) Actually, I don't suck, I really REALLY suck. Anyhoos at my host family, I discovered something really important. Information gets screwed up really easily. I thought I was going to have a 17 year old brother, and a 18 year old sister. Instead, I had a 9 month old baby brother and a 2 1/2 year old baby sister. I was confused, to say the least. But we still had a lot of fun, playing with the kids, eating out, going to church, getting colored on, etc, etc. Well, the color on the dress, that wasn't as fun. But it wasn't a big problem either. My family had a house maid, and she did the cooking, the cleaning, and looked after the kids. Apperenlty, its common in Kenya. Finally, we had Swahili classes, and I learned how to introduce myself, as well as simple greetings, and survival phrases.
Jambo! = Hi!
Asante = Thank you
Karibu = (You're) Welcome
Chai = Tea
Chakula = Food
There. A very mini lesson in Kiswahili for you :) I do believe that I am going to make another blogpost for Mali, becuase a) i've got a lot to say, it being fresh in my mind and b) i don't like have 3 topics in one post. not even 2, but i did write about 2 topics and that makes me upset. ooph.

Kwaheri!!
(bye in Swahili)