Oh, the Places You'll Go!

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Thu, 31 May 2012 07:33:35 -0400

a stand by the ferry selling shells

Thu, 31 May 2012 07:31:00 -0400

a stand by the ferry selling shells

cross that one off the bucket list

Thu, 31 May 2012 07:28:24 -0400

Bit of a free day since the kids are gone, we wanted to get one more beach day in to even our tans : ) slash my burn haha. We went to watamu beach right after breakfast. Watamu was the very first beach we went to, they’re all extremely gorgeous and I’ll probably never go to a prettier beach, but watamu takes the cake! It’s almost enclosed on the sides by land and cliffs and then straight across are islands. The water isn’t deep at all either, comes up to about my waist, a sandbar goes all the way out past the islands. So you can just float or sit or whatever! The water is also SO clear ad warm, ah I never want to leave!

It was pretty windy this morning though so when we were all laying out sand was just covering us. When I got into the water I came back and couldn’t even see my towel haha. We all moved down closer to the water because the sand wasn’t blowing there, Shelley on the other hand didn’t. Shelley somehow always manages to take half the beach home with her, but today took it to a whole new level. When we got up to leave she walked over to us and was COVERED in sand and didn’t even notice. Her entire face and head Hahahah I have no idea how she’s going to get it all out of her hair, especially in an African shower!

We had lunch back at bambakofi and then went to Malindi with omar to look around and do a little souvenir shopping! I got good stuff! And finished all my gifts for people! And also myself : ) I spent exactly what I had exchanged! The last bracelet I was buying I only had 137 shillings but the guy wanted 150, I told him I literally didn’t have it but he kept telling me 150 and told me to ask my friends. I was a little caught off guard because I been haggling with vendors all day and probably could have talked him down to 50 shillings but I really just wanted to spend all my money. The difference in price is only like 15 cents in dollars (100 shillings = 1 euro, 1 euro = 1.3 dollars). I didn’t really know what to do I just kept saying its all I have! Then mama Eunice came over and snapped a little Swahili and apparently I was good to go! Haha I love when she has her little snappy moments, she’s usually so calm and soft spoken.

The other things I got were a hand carved chess set for my dad! Hand carved salad tongs for my mom! An oil painting for my uncle t and aunt Lucy! Bracelet for bryce! A really cool bracelet that I want to keep for myself for briana! For myself I got two beaded bracelets, a necklace, and also an oil painting! I got really lucky I found the exact one that I had in mind. I kept looking at the beach but never got one because for one I didn’t have shillings yet, they’d also be more expensive since they were by the resorts, and I wanted to find the perfect one!

The bus dropped us off at the school after shopping and seeing Malindi and everyone started getting ready for dinner! Julien wanted to take all of us, Eunice, Jackie, and Saeid to a nice dinner. We went to ocean sports, one of the resorts near Geroda Beach. I got spicy crab meat but everyone’s looked good! Whitney Julie and Ashvin all got jumbo shrimp which came out on skewers that were hanging from a holder type thing i guess you would call it? Haha i don’t know but they looked good too! It was really nice of Julien to take us all out, he’s done so much already though! We need to pay him back somehow!

After dinner we all went to the bar and each got a drink, mostly all tusker lagers for our last night in Kenya :) Whitney actually bought Eloise’s because she didn’t have money and she was pretty stoked on buying a teacher a drink haha

… so then we had this great idea. Ocean sports, the resort, is right on the ocean… we also happen to be in Kenya, and it’s our last night. what would be next leading thought? skinny dipping! yes, I’m sure everyone guessed it! Amanda, Shelley, and Ashvin sat this one out but the rest of us girls headed down to the beach, stripped, and sprinted. OH MY GOD was the water cold! we all dove in and then stood up and were like “okay now what do we do???” hahah so we just ran out and struggled to find out clothes on the sand since it was dark out. Jill, who went to the bathroom and told us to wait, comes running down the stairs ripping her dress off was like “come on guys hurry” and we all started losing it and had to tell Jill we had all already gone in hahahaha she pulled off her shoes and screamed “YOU BITCHESSSSSS” as we watched her pale white ass dart into the ocean. I’ve never laughed so hard.

As Jill ran out of the water we heard Saeid coming to collect us to leave so we all scurried to meet him before he realized what we were doing. When we got back up to the bar Eloise told us she was able to stall him for a few minutes but eventually he came down because it was getting so late. Julien just laughed at us as we took our seats to finish out tuskers.

when we got home from dinner.. and skinny dipping.. we all lined...

Thu, 31 May 2012 07:09:12 -0400

when we got home from dinner.. and skinny dipping.. we all lined up with a flash light. each of us did a letter or number, luckily 10 of us and 10 numbers/letters in Kenya 2012 with an attempt at Africa in the middle. I took a picture of everyone doing their letter and then combined all the pictures into one photo to make this :)

stripes for daaaaaays

Thu, 31 May 2012 07:05:12 -0400

stripes for daaaaaays

after our nice dinner at the resort, drinks at the bar!

Thu, 31 May 2012 07:04:42 -0400

after our nice dinner at the resort, drinks at the bar!

me and marlee in the market!

Thu, 31 May 2012 07:02:12 -0400

me and marlee in the market!

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Thu, 31 May 2012 07:02:02 -0400

hand made rhino!

Thu, 31 May 2012 07:01:37 -0400

hand made rhino!

the market we walked through in Malindi

Thu, 31 May 2012 06:56:31 -0400

the market we walked through in Malindi

wood carving factory that we went to!

Thu, 31 May 2012 06:55:34 -0400

wood carving factory that we went to!

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Thu, 31 May 2012 06:54:06 -0400

Saturday morning at watamu, last beach trip!

Thu, 31 May 2012 06:52:59 -0400

Saturday morning at watamu, last beach trip!

No make up, no filter, no boundaries

Wed, 30 May 2012 07:34:38 -0400

I hit a mental block at lunch today. I couldn’t force myself to eat the greens and palenta. Just wasn’t happening. I really haven’t had a problem with the food and all the fruit is amazing! But something about today just couldn’t do it. So when we left to see the ruins I was still starving and being a crabby patty. However I snapped out of it as soon as monkeys were jumping on me! Yes monkeys! Our guide for the ruins brought a bag of bananas and on our way to see the actual ruins we stopped and fed a bunch of monkeys!

After seeing the ruins which are thousands of years old and really interesting to see and hear about how people lived back then (but really we just wanted to go to the beach!) so we dropped ellie off, who was staying at one of the 5 star resorts for the night being pampered.. no i’m not bitter……………. Went to the geroda beach. Jackie stayed with us but stayed on the sand just laying out. We all went in the water and played some games, took some girl jumping pictures, and played with some puppies that were on the beach!

I was still frustrated with the mental block of food and I was dreading what dinner would be. Then I realized it was our last dinner at bambakofi and they might do a lil somethin somethin and boyyyy did they. Ya girl got chicken and pasta again!!! Hahaha we gave the cooks a standing ovation and they started dancing around the kitchen hahaha (it’s these little moments that will stand out in my mind forever). We all want the recipe they use for the tomato sauce for the pasta, it is TO DIE FOR. And It’s not even just that we’ve been away from this food for two weeks, it’s just that good. It’s almost sweet, I don’t know that sounds odd but it is! And it’s so good! The chicken too is soo good, I need recipes!

Tonight is the night we experienced the Kenyan nightlife hahah we had so much fun! Saeids nephew came with us to make sure we had a little guardian with us to handle any local shenanigans we wouldn’t know to stay away from. We went to klub kalahara and got a few drinks and daaaaanced all night. Julien is being so ridiculous and yet again paid for all of us, we need to figure out how to repay him because he wont take money!

We literally danced all night, when Jill told me we were leavin I thought it could only be like 11, I wandered why we were leaving so early but it was almost 2! We just posted up on the dance floor and made circles and kept going in one at a time haha. None of us were even drunk or anything but it was just a good time with good ass people that’s the best way to describe it. I love all these people and we’ve had so much fun together the past two weeks. No make up no filter no nothing, all of us just along so well. It was especially cool how close we’ve gotten to julien. Before this he’s just been the overseer of us and we didn’t really know him but he’s hilarious and he really jumped in to our immature antics, it was cool!

We saw Maasai at the club too! Which I thought was kinda weird at first but hey why not! They both were very high ranking because they has a ton of beads and all decked out. Its cool how they keep their traditions, even at a club on a Friday night! We slyly made a circle around the Maasai guy who was easily 7 feet tall, and casually danced around him hahah but eventually he noticed. Saeids cousin said the girl Maasai is pined over, she gets free drinks all night and guys constantly hit on her.

On the way home we all talked in southern accents, no idea why this happened but it did and it was hilarious. Some people had some good ones, namely myself, Shelley, and Whitney. However others such as well maybe Amanda haha could use some work. As we pulled up to Bambakofi, and not to toot my own horn, I subtley said “after party at bambakofi” in a deep twang and had everyone rolling haha I have no idea why it was so funny but we had all just had a great night everything was funny.

All night Saeid’s nephew had been trying to dance with everyone but our dancing is more jumping around and flailing, while we wanted to grind. He stuck by Shelley’s side most of the night and when we got back he asked her if she’d go home with him hahaha, guess all those Smirnoff ices gave him some liquid courage!

We got home and all sat around the table and just bullahitted for a while. Ashvin made fun of julien for the Swahili in his speech and we diiiied. Julien laughed so hard he was losing it haha and him geeking out made all of us losing. We laughed for probably 15 minutes, got a nice little stomach workout!

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Wed, 30 May 2012 07:25:52 -0400

daaaaaancing all night with some interesting characters..

Wed, 30 May 2012 07:25:15 -0400

daaaaaancing all night with some interesting characters..

both sides of the table! at the club! hahahahah

Wed, 30 May 2012 07:24:46 -0400

both sides of the table! at the club! hahahahah

Lugano 2012!

Wed, 30 May 2012 07:23:48 -0400

Lugano 2012!

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Wed, 30 May 2012 07:12:00 -0400

I don’t hate it!

Wed, 30 May 2012 07:10:51 -0400

I don’t hate it!