I've found that the longer I'm here, the harder it is to write blog posts. Everything that seemed new and different before no longer seems so new and different anymore, and it's hard to remember sometimes what I should explain and what's different from home. It's a good thing, really. I feel so comfortable here in Kenya, and more specifically on the coast. Today the program director came to visit me at my internship and reminded me that I only have three weeks left here, which made me so sad! I don't wanna leave my host family or Shanzu or Old Town or the Indian Ocean or anything. The comforting thought is that I'll only have a week to stay in Nairobi and then I'm free to roam wherever I want for my last month here in Kenya.

Tuesday was Maulid, an Islamic celebration to mark the birth of Mohammed. The women in my organization had their celebration on the patio of their restaurant overlooking the Indian Ocean just before the sun set. Because it was a special religious holiday, the girl I worked with suggested I wear a hijab, as all the women there would be wearing one (of course). So that day I dressed in a long black skirt and brought a scarf that she helped me put on my head. I was a little nervous at first, but all the women seemed to appreciate that I dressed for the occasion, and many shot me smiles from across the patio. For the ceremony, we all sat cross legged on mats in a big circular huddle around a finely decorated rug with different bottles and incense and ornaments on it. The women sang song after song, each leading a different part, with intermittent readings in between (that I could not understand whatsoever). Then after about an hour we stood up and a few women came around and poured rose water on our heads and painted scented oil on the back of our hands. I'm not really sure what everythng meant, but I sure came out smelling nice. I asked one of the aunties what the rose water symbolized, and she said she didn't think it meant anything, but that it was just tradition. We finished just as the sun was setting, and then we all had samosas and fried potatoes and donut-type things together, still sitting on the mats. It was really a beautiful ceremony, and it was so relaxing to be sitting outside in the breeze of the ocean surrounded by peaceful, loving song.

Last night when I got home my host mama's second oldest son's wife, Mary, one of the many relatives in the compound who have readily adopted me as part of their family, told me her younger sister was here to measure me for an African dress. Mary said she brought back cloth from Tanzania that she thought would look nice on me and she wanted to give me the dress as a gift. She also told me to tell her when I had about 3 hours free so she could do my hair (she runs a little streetside salon on the edge of the compound). I'm really excited about the dress, but the hair could be interesting... I'm not quite sure what she has in mind, and if she realizes how different my hair is from everyone else here. But I guess we'll see! Either way it will be fun. She's such a sweet woman.

Last week Patrick and Carolyn came over to attempt what is nearly the impossible in Africa: making homemade pizza. It took us about an hour at Nakumatt, the largest supermarket around, to search for ingredients that resembled food from back home, but we eventually made do. The main problem was that we could only find individual dough/crust-type things. And I have a very large family. So we arrived home ready to make a dozen pizzas, only to find that the oven, which mama hadn't used in over a year, was broken. That also complicated our plans for dessert: brownies. We ended up using a round frier-type thing that they use for chapati to grill/fry the pizzas, and once one was on the frier we threw a pot over the top to try to melt the cheese. One by one, we made a dozen pizzas! Well, nine edible ones...three were burnt to a crisp. The real problem came after... no one liked the pizza! I know, it's hard to imagine anyone not liking pizza, but almost everyone hated it! My teenage host brother and cousin, who will eat just about anything, were hilarious to watch -- they literally were almost gagging over it. All the kids said they'd had pizza once before and hated it. Thankfully mama liked it (we originally decided to make it because she had said she liked it and wanted it), but that's because she used to work in a hotel or something where she ate it a lot and got used to the taste. After dinner, and after Mama finished eating not only her pizza but the boys' as well, she helped make an over for the brownies by heating sand really hot... I'm not exactly sure how she did it but I know she heated the sand and then we put the brownies in a pot inside the sand with charcoals on top. They turned out to be delicious, and cooked in only about 25 minutes. Thankfully the brownies were a big hit! By the time we were finished it was getting late so Mama insisted Patrick and Carolyn sleep over. The three of us and my host sister, brother, cousin and Auntie (the house help) stayed up until past 2 a.m. playing different card games and laughing and chatting. It was so much fun. Everyone was tired the next day, especially the boys who had to get up at 5 a.m. for school.

Well, that's all I've got for now. Until next time!