Clearly this blogging thing is not something I'm very good at staying on top of. The May termers have arrived and so far I feel like everything is going well. I'm glad to have Lindsey around and it's fun to be able to share the experience with her, as well as with some of the other girls whom I know well including Mara, Christina, and Emily. Though it is weird to go from the one having everything translated for me to being the one doing all of the translating and talking. The group seems like it has pretty good dynamics and like it will roll pretty well, but with thirteen girls in close courters, there is still plenty of time for things to get interesting (though I don't anticipate it will...we'll see). Girls have a tendency to be more, well, loud when there aren't any guys around to try and impress. But I think Lindsey will sort of me my release from that. There's a nice little water tower just outside the school that we like to climb up to watch sunsets and go star gazing and really just chat about life.



I can already tell that I'm going to be a lot more tired and worn out these next two weeks. They have a full schedule planned and Lindsey and I are trying to fit more things in on top of it, but it's good. On the groups first village visit and I had a very different experience than all the others and it was pretty awesome. After the service, PH and one of the Maasai teachers convinced the Maasai warriors to do their traditional jumping celebration for us while the Maasai girls did a dance in the middle. It's kind of like a traditional mating call in a way, and I was thoroughly impressed. Christina was joking around with me and pretending to dance like the girls and we didn't realize that anyone was watching us until one of the older Maasai women came up and put one of the young girls' big decorated chest plates on me and told me to go join the girls and dance. I went willingly and did my best, but lets be honest, compared to the Maasai I neither have rhythm nor any movement in my shoulders, but the guys still did their dance in return. I tried hard to shake like they do but I am quite certain that I failed miserably. They all thought it was great and appreciated my efforts so I was glad to appease them. I just hope no one posts any videos on the Internet of this happening cause I might be a little embarrassed then. Besides embarrassing myself, I decided to stop avoiding the situation and just eat the intestine they served me. Normally Luca just assumes I don't want it and takes it and eats it because he really enjoys it. But I thought it wouldn't really be the real deal if I hadn't tried it at least once. I think the best description might be school's macaroni and cheese, minus the cheese, because it's a bit chewy.

Tuesday, Lindsey, I, and Bwana Strickert had the unique opportunity to go to a Barabike village. I'm so glad we went because it was far different than any of the others I've experienced. The women dress much differently. The have leather dresses that have beaded skirts so that when they jump the beads flip up and it's a bit provocative. The top of the dress puts the left arm in a sling and we couldn't decide if it was there so they can hold their breasts in place while they jump or so that they can't hold down their skirts. The Barabike are also very interesting because they have a lot of different body decoration than the Maasai tribe. The Barabike like to do a lot of scaring around the eyes and I personally think that it is really, really pretty. Usually they don't let people take pictures but because we had a fellow villager with us from the school, they let us take some. The women also wear the gold wrist bands and neck bands which are neat because the neck rings bounce really neatly when they are jumping. It was interesting because they were actually choosing their wives while we were there. After the whole ritual, the men asked Lindsey and I to jump with them and the jumped and chanted in response, once again I made a complete fool of myself, but it was fun anyway. I'm not sure what it means when we jump in sync with them like we did, but I don't think we got married.

I guess you could say that Africa has taught me to break out of my shell more and more if nothing else. Even Lindsey said that the biggest change she had seen in me was how much more social I am than she remembers me being. I'm aware of it, but I guess when your options are to spend 4 months alone in your room or step out of your comfort zone and make friends with new people, I would rather make the friends. Even coming back here from Dodoma after 12 days I couldn't believe how much I enjoyed seeing my Tanzanian friends again. I think that was probably one of the more giddy days of my life, which is not something I would usually admit. I'm getting a little more nervous about leaving because I fear that there are many of them I won't see again or at least not for a long time and I'm realizing how much they have meant to me as they have been such a large part of this experience. I guess it's best not to think about that right now. I'd rather enjoy the little time I have left.

We went to Mikumi again yesterday. After my last trip, the only thing I really had left that I wanted to see and hadn't yet was a male lion with a big mane. It turns out that was the first thing we encountered and it was right next to the road. The second day Bwana Strickert, Lindsey, Mara, Laura, and I had tired from the bus business so we spent the second half enjoying the bar and pool accomadations. We sort of 'accidently' fell in the pool with our clothes on and I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to relax for the afternoon.

Tonight Lindsey, Emily, and I are camping out on top of the water tower to do some star gazing and tomorrow we are going back to the cattle market.

Usiku mwema.