The Weekend

So, what better thing to do while abroad than have a big 4th of July party?!

On Thursday and Friday, Scott and I were cooking up a storm. We made 4 pizzas, 2 pies (1 apple, 1 banana), strawberry shortcake, and brownies. It was quite the event. Also, I had my friend Mark Harris send me an American Flag, so we could put that up. We invited a bunch of people, and the US citizens only slightly had the majority. We also invited some of the Kenyan guys we worked with. I even had some American friends come a clinic from 3 hours away!

I was going to try to make some home-made fireworks, but was a little too busy to find the right ingredients. Still, that party was a big success. The night started off, with Scott and I still in the kitchen trying to put the finishing touches on a couple pizzas, with our friend Victor helping. All the girls were just sitting in the living room talking. Then one of the Kenyan guys Scott works with, Edwin, came in, and was pretty shocked. He said that if this was an African party, all the girls would be in the kitchen, and the guys would be sitting around talking. Oh well, somebody's gotta make those pies, and I'm not going to trust anyone else!

As the night went on, we played a couple of games of Mafia, which everyone enjoyed, and picked up pretty quickly. (Also, even thought I wasn't mafia, I still accidentally killed most of my fellow citizens, maybe I'm terrible at that game.)

The next day, I went into Nairobi with Edwin, and the 2 girls who had come from 3 hours away. (We went to Nairobi to put them on a bus back to where they had come from. They've only been here a couple of weeks, and it was actually a big effort to make the trip to Kijabe.) Then Edwin and I had coffee in the city center, and just walked around Nairobi. Then I called up some friends of friends who live in Nairobi, and went over to their house.

I had a great time, we had lunch together, and then sat around and talked. It was a very restful and relaxing saturday, after such a busy friday. I caught the matatu back to Kijabe around 5 pm, and got to sleep early. Sunday was filled with more sitting around and relaxing, as well as a game of ultimate with the RVA students. Then I sat around reading BBC's live update feed of the Wimbledon final, what a game!

So, you're maybe thinking, 'Alan, you had a 4th of July party on the 3rd? what's the deal?' Well, here's what's what. Friday is a better day for everyone here, and I'm already like 10 hours off from US time, anyway. Also, I thought, since I was going into nairobi on the 4th, maybe I could stop by the US embassy. (our tax dollars should go towards all our embassies throwing big parties for our independence right?) But the embassy had their big celebration on the Friday too! So, I figure I made the right choice.