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hi

saw the president yesterday outside of our office. we're on the second floor and were standing on the balcony and he was posing for a picture with the presidents of uganda and kenya and other people. it was easy to recognize him right away because every business has a huge picture of him hanging up. i've noticed that from going around to businesses trying to fundraise for chawakua... it must be a law.

my housemate st has malaria. he felt nauseous yesterday morning and a woman from his work made him go to a clinic... so he's home today.

i've been kind of stressed and sleeping badly. seb has some family stuff going on so he calls me and gives me updates so i sleep lightly to hear the phone ring. and also, it's been raining really heavily throughout the night and that wakes me up... there was a lot of water on the floor of our sitting room this morning. i'm surprised my room doesn't get wet because i'm pretty sure my windows are open.

i had a nightmare last night that i was in egypt and i was recklessly driving a car by myself (yeah, most definitely a dream) and there were lots of people and animals (buffalos/cows etc.) in the road and i hit one that belonged to one of the men and it died. then the people around me started pouring oil on me and i got scared that they were going to light me on fire and kept asking why they were splashing oil onto me- but they wouldn't answer or would do it when my back was turned... then two people that i knew pulled up in a truck and i tried to communicate to them that i was scared and they pulled me into their car in between the two of them and we drove off. they explained to me that the people were going to burn me because that's the punishment for killing someone's animal. it was an awful awful dream... i think i dreamt it because the man in my book the white masai is starting to act a little crazy, and i was reading it just before bed.


i've noticed that people are so nice to me when i ride the dala dala alone. i think they must think that i'm going to fall out or fall over or something- because if i'm standing, they force a space and say 'let the mzungu sit down' or someone else that's standing makes me sit as soon as there's an empty seat. at first i'd say no no, but realized it's pointless and now i just say thanks....

going to hang out with a girl today who's recently been texting about meeting up. we've never hung out independently... she came here a year ago as a volunteer and married someone from here and only stayed married for a short short time and has now been going through a messy divorce. and she lives with her current boyfriend. and she also secretly dates other people. but none of it seems like it sounds once you meet her. she's very sweet and free spirited. i hope it's fun. i need more friends.