10,000 shillings means 100 dollars, Dad

The good Dr. Jay and Mary are in Kenya!!

And they are white as ever.

Not that anything is wrong with that. I intern all day on thursdays, so they were able to stop by my internship, though their driver got lost, and pop in and see me! The ladies loved meeting them!

However, prior to my parents arriving, i had an incredibly interesting conversation with Maggie and another women, Fillipa, from Eritrea with whom i was working with. We talked all afternoon about the status of refugees and immigration and the government in Kenya. People who live here have so much to say. They want exactly the same thing we want, a better life. And they know they are being shafted. Maggie asked me "why Africa -- why not you."

For the frist time was this question directly posed to me. It sucked, because I am use to replying -- i don't know. But i am not used to replying "i don't know" to an african.

It isn't fair. It isn't even kind of far. In fact, it really fucking sucks (pardon my language, my dad is going go be mad...)

Speaking of my dad. The adorable Dr. Kiefer -- tonight, he bought TWO bottle of 100 dollar wine -- thinking it was 10 dollar wine -- shillings are tricky, but not that tricky. The wine was delicious. I have been drinking a far amount of 300 shilling (3 dollar) box wine, so this was an incredible change. He doesn't even buy that in the US -- it was 5 times that amount of money our meal was - at least the rest of Kenya is cheap.

I am so happy they are here. Even in the midst of midterms and term papers, they make everything a little bit better. Parents are good like that. They know exactly when their little ducklings need them. And even though i am a pretty big duckling - i still have enough yellow fluff that i need them to swoop in at the right time.

I bought (well, my wonderful grandma bought me) a beautiful quilt today, I love it. It has a lot of reds and blues and pinks and reds and whites, it is amazing. It is one of those pieces that I will be able to tell the people in my life that "i bought this while i studied abroad in Kenya" which is nice to be able to portray my experience in a cozy blanket.

We are off the safari tomorrow! I am incredibly excited. Despite the amount of work I have to do (which is plentiful) it will be very nice to get out of the city and have an adventure. Breaks are important -- and it has been stressful the last few weeks,

We havn't had power, on and off, for around 3 days, nor have we had water for the last one or 2 -- that's rough when you are in the throws of midterms -- welcome to Kenya!

Anyway -- i will get better at updating this. I promise.

Always

Laura