hakuna ground meat (there is no ground meat)

I love speaking in Kiswanglish (Kiswahili/English). But I'm not loving that the power keeps going in and it's taking me forever to write this right now. So last week was July 4th: we had a celebration and got permission to stay overnight at the Outward Bound site. Ground meat is not easy to find, and we didn't feel like spending hours upon hours grounding it ourselves so no hamburgers unfortunately. We did make black bean burgers, salsa, guacamole, hand-made chips, stir fry, and new inventions based on kenyan food. The best invention was my friend Rachel's, she took 2 andazi( like little fried doughs) and put peanut butter and honey in between. It was DELICIOUS. So, it wasn't your typical american holiday, although we did have beer, which was nice.

This week we had basically midterms. We're half way through training so we had an oral kiswahili language test, a homestay test, a written technical exam, and safety and security simulations. The language test went really well. By the end of training we all have to reach an Intermediate Low level of Kiswahili. I got Intermediate Medium (a level above what we need by the END of training and we're only halfway through). I'm pretty excited. The homestay test was pretty funny, we had to demonstrate how to wash clothes, mop the floor, chop vegetables, and light a jiko. Thanks to my adventure a couple weeks ago I had no problem lighting the jiko now, haha. The technical exam was on HIV/AIDS info and the health system in Kenya and I did fine on that too. In the afternoon we were put in various situations where we had to demonstrate our kiswahili. Fo, we had to bargain for items at the "market," order food at a "restaurant," report an incident at the "police station," bargain and take a matatu (like a VW van where people crowd into and use as public transportation) safely, and deter sexual advances in the "bar." It was really funny because it was put on by our language trainers. Our brains were pretty fried by the end of the day though.

Tuesday they are announcing our sites, and based on where I'm going, I may start learning a vernacular language in addition to Kiswahili. This past week, we had 3 people from my Friends Fighting AIDS Together group come and speak about the Rights of PLWAs (People Living With AIDS). They shared their stories of how they have been stigmatized and treated when people found out they were HIV positive. One woman was forced to live with livestock with her son and was given barely enough to eat. There are still lots of myths surrounding AIDS and its transmission in Kenya. That woman now, however, is doing much better and is in the beading group I mentioned earlier. A few of us went to their shop and bought some jewelry, so don't be surprised if I come home in two years with lots of beaded jewelry not made by me. I definitely plan on creating some type of beading group for PLWAs in my site as an income generating activity.

Ok thanks for those who wrote about celebrity gossip. So, I heard Sarah Palin resigned so she can run for president, is that true? Eww.