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Sorry I have totally neglected this blog... but here's the final entry.


So... last weekend we had the chance to see the last piece of rainforest that used to cover almost all of Kenya. It's called Kakamega rainforest- it was about an hour or so away and we traveled in style in a 'matatu' (that wonderful relic of public transportation that makes death feel imminent). Here's the funny story of how our trip got started.
We, four white girls, got dropped off at the Northern part to the forest. But remember, this is Kenya, there are no signs for any entrances or offices that might be useful to us at this point. So we saw a policeman up the road at a vehicle checkpoint (the place where they pretend to check cars and matatus and seatbelts), and we approached him. We asked how to get into the rainforest even though we were technically already there. He was kind and said he wished that he didn't have to work so he couldshow us around, so instead he sent a 'boda-boda' (bicycle taxi) man to go find guides for our mini-excursion. This situation may appear ridiculous but I assure you it's quite the norm over here.
10 or 15 minutes past and the boda-boda man came with 2 guys who were apparently rainforest savvy. We blindly trusted them and agreed to a price. Then before we set off one of our giudes (they were now 3) brought a piece of sugar cane about 2m (6ft) long. He then broke it up into 4 pieces giving each of us about 1 and 1/2 feet of sugar cane to chew on through our journey.
Finally we set off into the forest. At first we stopped by a tree nursery and then from there we climbed over a barb-wire fence into the real forest. I am sure there was a 'real' entry way but that would have been too easy. So we hiked through the beautiful rainforest for a few hours encoutnering horn-billed birds, monkeys-some black collubus that we had seen in other partsof Kenya and others with red tails. We also saw massive trees which we could stand inside of. All in all it was well worth the trip and an amazing day.
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Then back to research (adolescent repoductive rights in Kisumu). This week is my last in Kisumu- we're departing for Nairobi on Sunday with much joy. Kisumu is beautiful city/town and Kenya's third largest but not the best atmosphere for being a white woman. No biggie. So my research is basically done and it feels weird to say that. So now once in Nairobi I have to sit down and write my massive paper. Should be tons of fun. Then after that it's my last week. We Will travel to Mt. Kenya for project presentations and then do some wrap-up and evaluation of our time here. I can't believe I will leave here in just 2 weeks and 2 days. This will prolly be the last email until then folks- but some shout-outs to birthday ppl!!

Sarah Anne- May 1
Vicki- May 4
Daria- May 8

See everyone soon!

family life

Wow, I can't believe I am writing another one of these so quickly.Don't worry this won't happen all the time once my homework reallykicks in. So I moved in with my family yesterday. I have a mama andthree brothers, 24, 22 and 16. Only the older one, Tom, lives at homeand has a job. The other two are at school in different places. Mymama (mom in swahili) is the sweetest woman ever. She is sooo nicefor providing this home for me while I am in Nairobi. She is aborn-again pentecostal Christian and I have never prayed so much in mylife as I have in the past day and a half in her home. She cooks welland sings in her church choir, is training to be a HIV tester andlikes scrabble. My brother enjoys chess, which I haven't masteredyet.During dinner we watch Spanish soap operas dubbed in English, "LaRevancha" if you're interested. Also there is always a preacher onthe tv, like someone with a big microphone preaching to a huge stadiumof people. Not my particular preference but I will grin and bear it.Mama has lots of friends including some young ones who promised theyweren't religious fanatics. Raquel, one of Mama's close friends isreally befriending me anf promising to take me shopping for Kenyanskirts called kangas. Mama and I went shopping together yesterday atthe local supermarket for breakfast food, etc.I have my own room which looks over a huge shopping area called toymarket. There will be tons of souvenairs that will come home with me.I take bucket showers which conserves so much water :) I also drinkchai, hoping that if there is caffeine it is minimal. Chai, Kenyantea, is very important and happens everyday around 4pm. Dinner isaround 730 or 8.My classes start tomorrow at 830 and go til 4 with some breaks. Ihave been placed with the other three girls who have swahiliexpereince. I am going to be learning a LOT. I haven't seen or much of Nairobi yet, only the parliament, uhuru (freedom) park, and the moselium where Kenyatta thefirst president is buried. We also passes by the UN and the gaudyAmerican embassy. Those are places where I will prolly go forresearch purposes in doing my independent study project (ISP) inApril/May.I am making good bonds with a lot of the other people in our group.Tomorrow is Valentine\'s which is popular in Kenya. Another girl inthe group and I decided that the everyone in a group would pick avalentine out of a hat and make them a little somthing for Monday.According to our academic directors we are still in our honeymooningstage. Eventually the group is gonna go through some storming,norming, preforming and trasnforming...whatever. I am having fun andwill be happy to finally get into a routine this week. I miss youall!! Have a great V-day and don\'t forget to send some letters withlove to Kenya

Hamjambo!

Karibu Kenya!!!I finally reached a cyber cafe. There is so much to write and I ambeing chraged by the minute so I may be brief, but maybe not. Kenyais soooo amazing, but 15 hours on a plane is not. We arrived Sundayand left Monday for Naivasha (close to this gorgeous lake). Along thebusride there it was commonh to see zebra and gazelle just hangingaround. I even saw one giraffe in the distance on the way bacik.Naivasha was super interesting. It is a rural community and we stayedat a kind of ranch for our orientation time. We had to close thedoors to our rooms or else the monkeys would get into our stuff. Wealso saw some hippos who came out late at night from the lake tograze. I love my group, all 18 of them. So far we all get alongreally well. Saturday I move in nwith my host family, I can hardlywait! I am using my swahili all the time and classes don't start untilMonday.I have been bitten by every bug possible so thank god for for mymalaria drugs and vaccines. So far the stomach upset has beenminimal. The food is great, a lot of starches and roast meats. But Iam eating really well. I am also hardly spending any money which iswonderful!! And we get to create our own reading porfolio, norequired reading, only readingf that we WANT to read. Also, we have ahuge independent study project which will be crazy at the end of thesemester. I will probably go to a rural area to do my research.We leave for the coast on the 26th and stay one week with a family ina Muslim fishing village called Takaungu. And at the end of March andthe beginning of April, rightr after easter, we travel to Tanzania forabout ten days. This is the expereince of a lifetime, as wasexpected.Others things to note there is a good beer here called Tusker. Youcan get in the states if you care to be adventurous. Also, beer iscalled 'bia' and a bar is called 'baa' and it sounds like a Bostonaccent. The sunburn has been minimal and the weather has been great.It does get cool at night, around 50 and in the 80s during the day.On the coast it will be the hottest week of the entire year, and Iwill be wearing conservative clothing except for whenn we go to thebeach :) The sun will be directly over the equator starting at theend of the month. It is a very powerful sun here but I wear sunblockreligiously :) This semester is going to be wonderful. I will get acell phone soon I think and I will put what I think is my mailingaddress at the bottom of this. I would love to get some mail, butjust letters, they don't allow packages. Well lots of love to homeand everywhere else. I am thinking of all of you.

Sarah Gillespie
c/o SIT
P.O. Box 21752
Nairobi 00505
KENYA

Letters only PLEASE!

4 days at home

Whoa, back to cold weather. But since that is boring I will fill you in on the rest of my time in Brasil. From Thursday through Saturday we spent our days at the World Social Forum. There were about 200,000 people there... 30,000 alone who were camping out. It was sooo crazy. There were millions of workshops to choose from on topics like human rights, HIV/AIDS, privitization of water, coca-cola campaign, fair trade, you name anything in the social justice arena and there was a workshop on it. It was such a great learning experience for me. Meeting so many different people was definitely the highlight of the trip. On Friday night, just our Methodist group (about 60 ppl from all over who stayed at this methodist college in town) went to a traditional local steakhouse. There were waiters who just came around with big shish kabobs of various types of meat. The weirdest kind I had was chicken heart, sorry to my vegetarian friends. And then during our meal there was traditional samba and other dances performed by dancers on this center stage. It was so beautiful and full of color and vigor. After the dancers finished their performance the dance floor was free with some crazy good Brasilian music. Of course we all danced and I felt like a clutz, hardly possessing any rhythm. Luckily I had several men (who were a part of our group) volunteering to teach me. I don't think I can ever dance with American men again. I have to state for the record that Latin men are the best dancers ever. We all had such a good time that night. Sunday night our last night we had a small party just for our group after our action meetings. The highlights of the party were colored plastic cups making the design of the flag of Brasil and singing songs and doing Brasilian dances to which I cold hardly pronounce the words. I am dying to learn portuguese now! I want to go back to Brasil sometime really soon. I now have friends all over the country. It is such an amazing place.

But now I have only a short while until my next international adventure beginning Saturday night. I have very mixed emotions about excitement for Kenya and longing for Brasil. Wishing you all the best winter! Don't forget to drop me an email sometime soon. segillespie@gmail.com

it getting hot in herrrre

Besides sweating to death, this is an amzing exeprience. Yesterday there was a huge march (protest thing) to kick off the start to World Social Forum. There was anti-USA stuff everywhere and it made me feel at home :) It was the first time for most of us here to march as Methodists together. I am kind of really proud that my church is supporting this event enough to send us all down here. Usually the church is left out of international affairs but not my church. I am really grateful for this experience. The world will live in, in the US, is soo different. We have no idea the effects that our policies really have on other countries. But when you talk to someone who sees dead bodies in the streets everyday or has their family lose their business due to free trade policies, you realize what our government is doing. I need more time to digest and filter through my thoughts. But I promise to keep you all posted.

from blizzard to Brasil

Finally, I am out of the country. My plane was the last to fly out of Newark very late on Saturday night. I had to shed my coat, scarf and gloves in the car before running to my terminal in the snow. I was absolutely frigid when I left NJ only to arrive in 95 degree heat. Of course there is no air conditioning and I sleep on a straw cot next to a friendly gecko who comes and goes as he pleases, but hey, I am on a free ride to Brasil and World Social Forum (100,000 + people in attendance starting Wednesday). It is soooo beautiful here. I feel like I am in this small little paradise. I am staying at a Methodist College with a bunch of other, you guessed it, Methoditsts from US, Brasil, Chile, Paraguay, Mozambique, Angola, Switzerland, Cambodia, Indonesia, and the list goes on. So far the experience is pricless of course. Unfortunately my portuguese is non existent. I can now say good morning, good night, thank you and please. But luckily a lot of Portuguese people speak Spanish so I am golden. My Spanish language knowledge slapped back into action when I had to do this exercise with a Brasilian girl. I can´t believe I can still speak, although I m sure not well. Anyways, this week is full of adventures in to the city of Porto Alegre where we are and attending the world social forum. Slogan : Another World is Possible and for those of you who want to the portuguese- Um Outro Mundo e possivel. Yup, I am learning alright. Hope all your lives are wonderful. Kenya is 12 days away! But luckily I can chill in Brazil until the 31st. Oh yeah, and I am getting a tan. This is the best winter ever :)

I have a blog!

I am setting up a blog! Thanks to Virginia for the idea. This way I won't have to email ppl all the time. You can just check this site at your leisure.