Weekend Recap

Weekends are the best time to get to know the girls. Saturday I spent a few hours with the girls watching them wash their hair and braid it. It is quite a process! I also went for a run - I am trying to train for a half marathon with my darling aunt Colleen in October. It is HARD to run here at 6500 ft above sea level. Not to mention the hills and the uneven dirt roads. In the afternoon 50 girls who have decided to participate in my thesis research met with my on the patio to take the pre test survey. It went well, they were so worried about getting things wrong! For those of you just signing on, my study is on the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of Kenyan girls with regard to HIV/AIDS and Teen pregnancy. I was impressed by how much they knew about HIV, but there were also quite a few misconceptions.

Today (Sunday) I went down early for breakfast because it was Mandazi. Mandazi is basically fried dough, and it reminds me of home. I then attended Spiritual time at the "mini mosque" for two hours. The girls were so great and taught me a whole hell of a lot about Islam. One of the best things about Daraja is the diversity: there are girls from all major religions, from 24 Kenyan tribes. This afternoon I taught my first real class for my thesis. I asked the girls to leave me a note in my question box if they wanted to get test for HIV or take a pregnancy test, and I got a great response. Surprisingly a lot of the girls have been tested, but I told them it wont hurt to get tested again! I promised to go get tested with anyone who wanted to.

After class I tagged along on a game drive with Jason. I didn't expect to see much because we were just driving around outside campus. I didn't bring my camera, so we obviously happened upon a family of 8 elephant right on the road. We stopped and watched them for a while, I can't even explain what that is like. These animals are HUGE and could trample in car in an instant, you just feel at the mercy of Africa.