labda kesho (maybe tomorrow)

So, I'm still liking it here a lot, but I'm getting a little sick of having people laugh at me or children saying "give me chocolate" or "give me money." It's hard, because I know I will never be able to blend in here. People are always staring at the "mzungu" (white person). I've just been trying to work on my swahili as much as possible so at least I'll know what people are saying about me when they laugh at me and maybe soon I'll be able to respond. For now, we joke that you can always respond with "labda kesho" if someone wants you to buy something, or if they ask for something. We've been told that we will be proposed to many times while we're here, so a few of us bought rings so we can just tell people we are married. Now, I just need to create a boyfriend...

I'm pretty impressed with how fast we are learning Kiswahili, though. We've only been here three weeks and I'm almost at the level we need to be at by the end of July. In a couple of weeks we'll find out where we'll be living for the two years, and I may start learning a new local language.

Things with my host family are going well. The little little girl has warmed up to me and now repeats my english. she says "yeah, yeah" or "okay" everytime I say it and she loves to run up and give hugs. The weather has been a lot cooler than I thought, although I still just wear my short sleeves and maybe a sweater. Most Kenyans, however wear heavy jackets. One of these days I'll take a picture of the toddler because she is usually wearing a hat, pants, and a sweater with a puffy jacket over it, just around the house. She reminds me of the kid in A Christmas Story, waddling around not really able to move her arms, haha.

Besides sticking out by being a white person, I think I'm adjusting pretty well to the culture here. The food is good, I eat lots of rice, cabbage, beans, and chapati (which is a flat bread similar to tortillas). There's also avocado so a lot of us are planning on making some mexican food. I've learned how to wash clothes by hand, my knuckles are still recovering. I've also gotten used to going to the bathroom in a choo (pronounced cho), which is a shack with a cement floor with a hole in the ground, and also taking "bucket baths."

For anyone who wants to call me (mom and dad take note) go to telephonekenya.com and you can get calling cards for 11cents a minute! email me if you want my phone number. I can text internationally too :)

Thanks to those of you who have written! I just got some stationary so I'll be sending some more letters.