The big news right now is the trip that I will be taking from March 18th-25th. I’m going to Mumbai!! (Formally known as Bombay). Kenyan Airlines is having a special for two people to fly to India roundtrip for $600 (before taxes). How could you pass that up? The answer is you couldn’t, so I didn’t. I’m really excited. Outside of Africa, India is the one place I really really want to see. And I’m going!!! It doesn’t seem real. It probably won’t feel real until I’m physically there.
Outside of India life has been pretty much normal. I’m still working at Sarakasi the non-profit performing arts development organization. I’m having a great time there and need to start buckling down and write a couple grants. I’m still working on the acrobat training center in the slum Eastleigh and I now have everything set up except for the funding. Anyone know any organizations? I’m actually leaving in about 20 minutes to go see the acrobat trainer with the kids at Mama Fatuma Children’s Home in Eastleigh. I’m excited because I also just heard through the grapevine that they’re having a little party.
School has been unexciting as always and I’m actually finding this semester a little more boring because my teachers aren’t quite as eccentric. Now when I say eccentric I mean that they were both male teachers that hit on us a little. Apparently that’s okay here. This semester the two classes I’m taking are Courtship and Marriage, and African International Relations. Courtship and Marriage is entertaining. Our textbook (yes there is a textbook written by three southerners in the 80’s) has such academically titled chapters like “Choosing a Partner”, “Family Planning”, “Developing a Strong Marriage Relationship”, and “Dealing with Marital Conflict”. Basically it’s going to teach me how to snag me a man. I really don’t know if it should be a class but hey I’ll take it.
My other class is African International Relations and it’s well, interesting. The teacher talks about a mile a minute so I have a tendency not to listen. She actually uses power point (which is a USIU first for me) but I also really didn’t read the slides. This made it twice as amusing/difficult when I was trying to study for the midterm. See what I failed to realize in class was that the English on the slides is truly horrible. Like I-don’t-know-what-you’re-trying-to-say horrible. After reading over her slides I swear to God I lost the ability to form cohesive sentences. Some things were small like “the ideas was” and others were bigger like “cooperation & unity was for the better the trade politically in Africa”. My favorite Fatuma Ali (the professor) moment was the line “Gabon felt it would be swollen. . .” I actually raised my hand about that one. I was genuinely confused and a little worried I mean, did Gabon sprain its ankle? Could it be a stress fracture? Why was everything swollen? Turns out Gabon was worried that it would be consumed by the bigger nations, you know “swollen” as in the past tense of swallow. Sometimes after I chew my food I swollen it.
I think this is it for now. I’m sorry everything has been so delayed in coming. Can I use a nation in crisis as an excuse? No? Okay. Love you all, miss you all, and I look forward to hearing from you.