October Highlights

This is a teeny update on the month of October (which I failed to recognize in online writing...)
-I ate turtle. It's an endangered species here and haramu (illegal) to kill and eat, but it was already prepared for me...so I ate it. It was surprisingly great. It tasted like chicken but had the texture of fish.
-I spent multiples nights in shambas (Kenyan farms/rural land plots). These were just fun sidetrips that I decided to take outside the program. I got all my water to bathe and cook with from a nearby well, tried palm wine straight from the tree (through a traditional palm straw which strains out the palm floaters so you only drink the wine), slept on rooftops and stargazed into the purest, darkest sky on earth
-Rode a pikipiki (little motorcycle which 3 people cram onto and ride long distances on)
-Spent afternoons on a completely secluded beach
-Paddled across a channel of the Indian Ocean via surfboard while fishing off the back (and sunburnt my legs badly!)
-Wore the same 3 dresses everyday for 2 weeks (I've changed now because it's getting hotter)
-Spent hours chatting with local artists
-Woke up multiple mornings on the seashore and bathed in the Indian Ocean, then walked to the beautiful Fort Jesus (famous, look it up on Bing or something!!) for some chai and breakfast (mandazi)
-And I should add, to be realistic, many hours studying Kiswahili, banging out some midterm essays, navigating the crazy, crazy world of homestay families and intercultural manners, sweating like a crazy person, smelling donkey poop incessantly, and dealing with some of the local creepers (not actually, but you know..)

Maisha endelea! (Life continues!)