PHOTOS!

Finally, some pics of what I've been up to! (more are on Facebook)

Aug. 31 (the morning after I arrived in Kenya)

Overlooking the Great Rift Valley

This was a beautiful spot on the side of the road where people were selling small things in little shacks

With Sabina, one of the local Kenyans AU employs to show us around town

 and teach us the culture

Spotted on the side of the road during our drive to Lake Naivasha::

These pics below are from Naivasha, where I was abandoned for 3 hours to get directions on my own.

The next photos are nes of Kibera, the largest slum in Africa (also where Sabina grew up). A different local Kiberan took me around to see what life is like there. At first I was really nervous because you hear so many stories of violence and poverty, but once I entered I felt really comfortable (of course, everyone was staring at me). We climbed over a train to cross into the slum, hiked through mud and sewage, ran across a makeshift bridge 30 ft above a river full of sludge and waste, toured one of their pubic toilets (a reeking "biocenter"), participated in a dance reheasal for a youth outreach program, ate some sigar cane and mandazi from street vendors (bad idea in general but I was fine afterwards) and greeting the dozens and dozens and dozens of children following us endlessly chanting "How are you? How are you? How are you?"

(I didn't want to risk taking my camera into Kibera so these are all pics from online of exact locations I was at)

the train tracks that divide Kibera from the rest of the area. To left left (among the trashpile) is an incredibly steep incline we skidding down to get to the community. I was glad I had tennis shoes, but it was really difficult to manuver through all this in a long skirt!

waste rivers that weave through everyone's backyards- not fun to step in. I also stepped in a mini-bonfire that was right in the middle of the main dirt road- I'm starting to get used to walking without staring at my feet, but there's always an obstacle in the way (5-lb rocks, sewage, fires, babies...)

Looks intimidating, right? But it was really great to climb up and around people's houses like locals do (compared to roaring through on a tour bus, which apparently most Westerners do)

The kids LOVED us  were so excited to follow us around. They were holding my hand, shaking it, and high-fiving me, crying out "How are you!!" Even babies that couldn't even walk would cry out "Hawayuuuu?"

It was an incredible experience and I'm really excited because I was assigned the internship working with youth (teaching English, leading a soccer outreach program, and getting involved in the church choir) in another slum like this!