Leavin' on a jet plane...

Hello from Heathrow! I finally have time to do a blog post! My latest news and rants:

Moving sucks. I absolutely hate it and it never gets any easier. The only good part is the purge that accompanies moving. I estimate I got rid of a good 20% of my material possessions, if not more. Though when Shawnte saw all my boxes in the living room she said, "Norris, you've got a lot of crap." Yeah yeah... I come from a long line of hoarders, er, collectors, so I think I'm doing pretty well.

It's been a shopping frenzy for me and Will this week - we hit Ross to get sandals I can wear to work ($19), a waterproof jacket for the High Rainy season ($12) and some long shorts for sports ($12). I love Ross! All my gym shorts are running short length, thus tooo short for Kakamega!

I also got a UV light to zap water in my Nalgene to make it potable. Very high tech. Will said that The future has arrived (or something like that but much more clever) when he saw it.

Two packages arrived in the mail just in the nick of time - very exiciting. Katrina and Liz Wellington sewed me two awesome skirts. And by awesome, I mean past the knee, A-line, and enough material in each to use as a laundry bag. Will said that I looked like one of the chicks from the radical LDS church in Texas. Hee hee. So basically, very conservative, which is perfect. Trina even sewed in pockets for me. Aunt Elena sent some really nice Mary Kay face sunscreen to use as she says the sun is much stronger on the equator. Good stuff.

For gifts for my host family, Cristin suggested something Obama-related, which was brilliant. I got five differnt t-shirts from a designer on Vermont in Los Feliz (the same guy who's put all of the "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" posters on Sunset I think.) Someone told me there are plenty of Obama T-shirts in Kenya, too, but oh well. At least these are made in the US.

Speaking of my host family, I got a packet about them last week. There are three children, 12, 14 and 15, I think, and the parents sound lovely. The kids are at boarding school, but per Fredrick (my CARE friend) African boarding schools are no-frills, hard work, and, potentailly involve waiting in line to fill one's water bucket, not necessarily getting as much food as a teenager would prefer and, of course, being bullied by upperclassmen. So, it will just be me and the parents at home.

Also, I was surprised to learn that their house has a flush toilet, running water, a refriderator, and, get this, INTERNET. When I read that, I thought: "Wow, that's nice, but am I still going to have as authentic experience as I was hoping?" Which is silly of me, I'm sure I will. What is Authentic, anyway? Just my Western notion.

My guess is Angie (the Kakamega FSD coordinator) put me with them because they have a freezer: when I interviewed with Angie, I asked if there was anywhere in town that I could store an ice pack, just in just in case my back went out.

Aight, getting sleepy -- going to look for a bench that doesn't have the bum-proof arm rests on it to take a nap. Thank you everyone for all your help in getting me here, especially Will, who has been like a personal assistant the past week. He'll think twice before voluteering to help out next time! :-)

Lots of love,
Katy