Taste of KBC

Mom wrote in an email that she was having a hard time picturing where I was, so I thought I'd help out with that by giving you all a short tour of KBC.

This is our chumba. We have classes, meals, and R.A.P. there every day we're at home. It also has our kitchen and our library.















These are our bandas. There are ten of them total, five on each side facing out the back porch of the chumba.














This is my banda--Engorungoru. It means bush baby in Maasai. I live there with Liz, Rocky, and Wendy.



















This is my bed! I have two batiks to decorate my mosquito net and my own window. When there's a full moon it shines right onto my pillow around eleven o'clock at night. My matress is a two inch piece of foam over wooden slats. I have sheets and a sleeping bag if it gets cold. It actually does cool down very well at night, so it's usually pretty comfortable (although I could use another two inches of foam).



















Trea doing her best impression of a washing machine. I LOVE the washboards. I get all of the red dirt out of my clothes and I tone my arms. It's one of my favorite things to put music on and pour black water down the drain. We can pay the mamas 200 KSh (about $3 USD) to do our laundry, but so far I haven't paid anyone to do my favorite chore.




















The best part about the African sun (besides having blonde arm hair for the first time in my life) is that I can wash my sheets and put them on my bed twenty minutes later. Bonus points for people who can pick my laundry off the line.

















Spenser doing his best impression of a student studying. Ben brought the hammock and put it up on the back porch of the chumba. There is a general rush to the hammock every time we get a break from class and I am happy to report that I usually win. I also usually wrap myself up in it and get sat on (apparently I look like an empty hammock). The person that sits on me is usually more suprised than I am though.




Just to let everyone know, this will probably be my last long post (and communication) for about three weeks. We're moving to our Nairobi National Park site on Wednesday (after our exams tomorrow) and we don't have internet there. We'll be going on our second expedition to Nakuru, Naivasha, and Hellsgate National Parks while we're there too. Don't worry, though, we'll have a TV to watch the election returns. It would be amazing to be in Kenya if Obama wins, especially since we might actually get some residual celebration from Nairobi unlike our usual backcountry site. The ironic thing is that Sarah said most of the Kenyans wouldn't vote for him if they actually knew what policies he stood for.