So When you asked me what are we doing . . .

My favorite quote:

BJ "So I heard some people haveing sex last night" "Man she was loud"
Ben "Are you sure it was sex and not someone getting beaten up"
BJ "No, it was definately sex"
Ben "You're right, people haveing sex is a universal language"

Elliott "Ah sex and math, both Universal Languages, yet another similarity"

Best part today:
Having 10 complete strangers try to persuade us that they own a hostel we were at.


So the place we are staing at has internet, so I am able to put a little time into updateing you on our crazy adventures. And I'd like to emphasize crazy. (If you don't want to keep reading after that, you don't know me)

So we ended with me in England Airport. I take a nap. Wake up an hour before my flight. And wouldn't you know it, no one else is here yet. So I go to customer service and ask what is up? Apparantly none of my group has checked in! So the page gets Teju and Julie Marie. And there we are 30 minutes before take off and no group for Africa. Teju left his ticket with BJ so he can't even get on the plane. So Julie and I decided that we would have to go to Africa on our own. Kind of FREAKY. So we're chilling out in the airplane. Natasha asks where's my group, and I tell her I don't know. So like 10 min before the airplane leaves, in rushes our entire group. Whew.

Except for Teju. He never got his ticket from BJ. So I frantically tell BJ that he has to go back and get Teju. So he runs out and gets a page, and we just wait there. For ten minutes it is really intense, and bam, he's on. So we all make it barely.

The plane ride was fun. I sat next to a geinecologist. Weird. I didn't really know what to say. He was kind of crazy though, he came from California and didn't know where Paris or Athens was and listened to his music REALLY loud. Durring the ride I saw the coolest sunrise EVER. I mean EVER. The earth was still completely black and the sky still had stars. But in between was the most colorful fire on the clouds ever. I could even see the curve of the Earth. (See pic). What a great beggining. The meditation didn't work too well, I kept falling asleep. Yuck. But the good news was I was able to fall asleep.

Luggage wise 7/9 of our packs came in. Teju forgot to check in his luggage in England and Paul lost his luggage reciept. We have no idea where the luggage is, at all. So we decide to go check into our hostel without some luggage (our luggage is our backpacks with all our stuff for a month in them). We get a taxi through the airport. While we are doing this, we see about 50 people trying to get us to go in their taxis. It was funny. One man was jumping up and down. So I left my Hindu book on a mysterious table and loaded in. I handed my luggage to a guy who said he would put it in the back. Kelso told me if I do that again, it will probably get stolen. Outside I felt famous. About 20 people come right next to us and yell "Safari, Safari!!!" As BJ puts it we are 9 rich people, a huge target for tourist bookers. The taxi takes off.

A booker is actually in the taxi and he tells us we should book our tickets now for our bus tomorrow. So Ashley says to pull over and we do. And then BJ's taxi comes by and BJ is like no thanks we're not interested. That was our first booker experience. I'm going to call them Safarites from now on because they keep yelling "Safari, Safari!".

So we get to our hostel and it gets Freaky real Freaky. It ends up there is a house there but its under renovation. One lady is there tending the garden. We get into the house and it is awsome looking, but the owner is not there. So the taxi drivers (and mainly the safarites) ask what we want to do. We give them the shpeal. They tell us that they personally know the owner, and they will take us to him. They then suggest we go live at a hotel they know. And they start freaking out and just constantly all trying to go with them. And the weird part is more people start coming over to us. One guy drives in and tells us he is an official tourist guide from Kenya and he is here to help. Eventually BJ tells them all to leave us alone as we talk. We look into our tour guides (Lonely Planet rocks) and find a hostel in downtown Nairobi. So we decide to go there. And another guy comes over with keys. He tells us that the owner sent him and he'll unlock the door for us. BJ asks the man what the owner's name is, and the man doesn't know. So sketchy. So we drive into downtown Nairobi and it is scary. People are everywhere and there are a whole bunch of really run down shops.

We eventually check in but the Safarites decide to stay below us. And pester us some more. In fact they stay there all night and we checked in at 12 in the morning. We met one Safarite named Michael Jackson he was funny.

Once settled in (I'm with BJ and Ben) we went out to get some food. We aren't allowed to eat any fruit becuase it is washed with the water. So we tried a variety of different things that I honestly can't identify. The weirdest was some form of green meet. The crepes there are SO good. So we all go back to figure out what to do tomorrow, and a church service starts on the top floor. It is WILD. We hear stomping in rythm throughout the night. And once and a while a crazy roar would go out. I wanted to join in but the lady wouldn't let me in. That was weird. One of the kids just stared at me hard core. Kind of strange to say the least.

After we figured out that tomorrow we were going to go get bus tickets tomorrow I went to take a nap. I fell asleep, as did everyone else. Strangely enough, we didn't get up. We all slept right through dinner and didn't wake up till the morning.

The nights were freaky, no one was anywhere in the busy town. At one point to guys got into a fight right outside our window. A police man came buy and yelled continuously "Wanga, Wanga". He seriously said this like 50 times. And then the fighting stopped. Later in the morning we were woken to the screaming of what I though was a small child. It sounded like "Mah!" Over and over again. Later on I discovered it was a women in the street. To wake up, I went upstairs to chill out on the roof. I saw the lady fighting with some man. They were hardcore dukeing it out. At one point in time she pulled some sort of street figherish types of moves and jumped onto her hands. She then started fighting again. Eventually the guy put her down on the ground and kicked her. I so wanted to interfere. Another guy came buy a little longer to help her off of the ground. She then started beating up on him. Kids were running around the two cheering them on. Eventually the man put her on the ground. She pretended to faint. Then another guy came to help her and she started fighting AGAIN. She kept yelling "Mah, Mah" over and over. So freaky. Michael Jackson told me that she is possesed by Demons and needs a priest. She is currently sitting outside of our hostel.

For breakfast I ate on some delicious Crepes. Yummy!

Another interesting thing was a kid with AIDS started following us. I never saw someone who had visible AIDS. He kept asking us for money. Kelso told me not to give them money as then you will have all the beggers after you. So sad. So sad.

As BJ told me, this is the most dangerous part of the trip. And I'm going to agree. I really want to see non industrialized Africa. Buildings, poverty, busy for no reason, and crepes is not my idea of the world. It makes me sad that the world goes in this direction. I really feel strongly now on curbing the population as Nairobi is so sad with so many people are suffering. I hope one day I can help them. As Kelso put it, being they make $300 a year, you mine as well be carrying around $360,000 worth of wealth. So sad.

So hopefully you can see why I told you, "I have no idea". None of this could ever be planned but it really has changed my life so much. And now that I am awake I can't wait to see what else is going to happen. But it definately was CRAZY.

As always, please send me some replys, and let me know what is going on in your lives.