Wrap up of my weekend

Dear Kenya,

I will say one thing, you have been a pain in my tush with this wifi nonsense! You give me several adventures and experiences and do not let me share them with my family and friends at home. I see keeping me all to yourself....That is a little selfish Kenya. Well since I have some wifi now I will do my best to update what has happened the past couple of days.

This past weekend the program went on a little nature walk at Masai Lodge. The words "little" and "walk" is an understatement. This was a full on hike! We started at the lodge and ended at Kitengela Glass Factory. This little community took recycled glass melted and reformed it into plates, glass, artwork, jewelery etc. However, to get to this community we had a bit of a journey. We used roots of trees to travel over a stream, dodged tree branches, stepped over animal dung, jumped, slid, and climbed over boulders. It was incredible! Of course of all days to be clumsy, my body decided to trip over itself, slip, and just be a train wreck. I loved it though! I would 100% do this again. Once the climbing portion of our journey was over, we walked through flat land where we saw a group of  baboons (even babies), zebras, gazelles! It was pretty awesome, I must say.The final obstacle to get us to the community was this bridge that connected one side of a cliff to the other. Of course we crossed it! It was pretty high and pretty shaky! The view was incredible. So much greenery surrounded me.

The community was very interesting. There were pieces of glass that were embedded into the ground, the walls. Decorations on the doors, stairs, sides of houses. It was very creative. We got a chance to see how they melt the recycled glass and turn it into beads to make jewellery. After purchasing several things we all headed back to the lodge to eat lunch. Once we finished lunch we had an hour or so to hang out at the pool! We were all sweaty and exhausted from our hike. It took some of us some time to finally get into the pool. But when we did, it was refreshing. This trip was extremely fun. I would recommend this adventure to anyone who comes to Kenya.

We headed home but stopped for a massive trip to the grocery store. Because the next day was September 21, the one year anniversary of the West Gate Incident, we were told it was preferred not to leave the area. So we stocked up!

Monday came around and there are only two things worth sharing that happened.
Fist we had our first class with our NEW Epidemiology professor. A classmate of mine had mentioned that someone told her that he looked like Winnie The Pooh. I wasn't sure what to expect. But sure enough, she was right. I have Winnie The Pooh as my Epi professor. He is wonderful so far. We learned a lot in our first class. There will be a bit of an issue understanding him since he speaks softly, with a heavy accent. But other than that I am looking forward to this class.

The second thing I will talk about is the traffic in Nairobi. Monday I got out of class a little bit earlier than 5pm. I did not get home until 6:30pm. The traffic is horrendous here! Not only do we sit for an hour, the pollution that surrounds us is unbearable! I have been sick the past week with congestion and a really bad cough and I am convinced it is the pollution because when I went on the hike on Saturday my sinuses and cough disappeared! The moment we entered the city again, my nose got stuffy and my cough returned. ( I am feeling a lot better now, thanks for asking! :) )

Well, that is it for now! Thank you to everyone who has been patient with me not having wifi to talk to them. I miss you all. A shout out to my Dad who celebrated his birthday this past Monday. A shout out to my AEPPhi girls who had their philanthropy event and retreat this past weekend (looked like a lot of fun!) Shout out to my little sister kicking butt at the SAT/ACT game! And a shout out to mom cuz your simply awesome! My final shout out is to Daniel Schwarz. Thank you for being incredibly flexible and strong with me. I am proud of you for working, interning, and doing amazing in classes. Miss and love you all!

Love,

Angie