Let's type this entire thing for the second time...

HOMESTAY!!! Mama wangu (my mom) is very sweet but I haven't seen her much because she works a lot. Baba wangu (my dad) is also incredibly sweet. He mailed a letter for me and then refused to tell me how much it cost because he didn't want me to pay.

They let me speak Swahili (and mess up sometimes) without laughing at me. Baba wangu said that this group is learning Swahili much better than last group; given that he's only talked to me and Lila, I felt pretty good about this.

Dada wangu (my sister) is Steph, a five or six year-old ADORABLE girl. She can't pronounce/remember my name, but she calls me "Sistah!" and we are best friends. She fell asleep on me in the car the first night and held my hand on the way back frmo church the second day and bought me gum. We sing the numbers song together and play keep away and I tickle her and she follows me everywhere. I adore my family (and my American family. My mom who was so excited about me getting her text message and calling her back even though I was in Africa! :) )

Saturday was spent hanging out with my homestay family and all their friends at a carnival of sorts. Lila is my cousin (her dad and my dad are brothers and we live all of 20 feet from each other) so our families were together all weekend. She and I rode a Kenyan ferris wheel and we rode the boat ride with my little sister. It was a very good time.

Sunday was church but I didn't feel too well so I went outside. All the kids play in the churchyard during the service, so I watched them and made some friends. I still have the problem of wanting to steal all the African children. My sister came out and sat by me a while later. When another girl came up I told her Steph was my sister and she turns to her and goes, "Dada wako ni mzungu!" or "Your sister's a white person!!" It was hilarious.

After church we had basically more church. A group from the congregation came over and did a more personal service in the parking lot-courtyard-space between the complex I live in and Lila's house. It was long, hot, and about the only thing I understood was "Yesu." But it was still interesting.

School has been pretty good. I still love Swahili and can say SO MUCH. I'm not so hot on history though. I don't really like the way David Sperling teaches, een though he's brilliant and knows basically everyone in Kenya (the current prime minister, one of the first provincial commissioners, the Kenyatta family). It's better now that I know we are not having any tests except our "reflections" on our time here, but it actually made me homesick yesterday. "I don't like this class" became "I don't want to be in this class" became "I don't want to be here--I miss my friends and family--I want to go HOME!" It only lasted about forty minutes though, because afterward a big group went to play soccer at a field near the school. I went and watched and did homework and wrote. It was very fun. We played with some adorable Kenyan kids--cheerleading for basketball and chasing them around. Alex (the student leader, who's hilarious) carried one of them around and then pretended they had to carry her. One of them, a LITTLE girl actually gave her a piggy back ride and I got some fantastic pictures. Some kids are actually at the field now, and I'm headed over after I post.

What I was mostly homesick about was the feeling of being with friends. The weekend was reallyfun, but I got neither time alone nor that much time with friends. I need one or the other, it turns out. All of us wazungu are getting along though, which is nice. And, I mean, you can't not have fun with Kenyan kids. A group caught us outside our school and they all yelled, over and over again, "How are YOU?!" and shook all our hands. I would answer in Swahili, which threw them off.

Anyway--this keyboard is atrocious and my computer turned off earlier without saving, so I've spent much too much time writing this. Mom & Eli--turns out if you research phone cards online, there are some especially for US to Africa and it will be way cheaper. Maisha--My family hosted Liz last year, if you know them.

<3 <3 <3