.......about time

so i'm blogging

it's my birthday today! all the calls texts and facebooking has been really nice and put me in a good mood, so i thought i'd finally blog and catch up on things.

i've been having a great time back in norman with tracy and kirsten. we have amazing times every weekend as i'm sure you can see by their posts, because i never update.

not sure if everyone knows this, but i'm taking a class where that is supposed to help me with writing papers/essays for entry into things like grad school. it's not really a class, because i don't ever have a scheduled meeting time. all i have is an advisor that i picked and we meet when we want to talk about how i'm doing and for her to guide me. i met with her today, and she's really excited about a paper i'm writing about maasai and education and she thinks that i should just focus on that. she wants me to write everything i can about it and it's going to be the only thing i do all semester. She said i'll be able to take things from it to use for grants and stuff, and when i'm finished, she wants us to try to get it published. so that's exciting, but means that i have to really really try, and not write some last-minute crap hahaha.

it's good that i have something to do though, because lately i've been feeling really wierd. it's hard to explain. the best word i can find to describe it is worthless, but that's really not how i feel. i mean, it's wierd everynight when i go to bed, not having something i have to wake up for. it's wierd waking up in the morning and thinking, well, i guess i'll eat breakfast, then go to the gym, and then..... i guess people may feel like this in the summer when they don't have a job and are off from school, but i haven't had that in for the past 5 years, so i'm not used to it. and it's hard when everyone, EVERYONE, asks, so what are you going to do now?

i still think about everyone not here, probably on a daily basis. i miss you all. i'm so excited to see laura soon! and kelly's coming up this weekend so we can have dual-birthday celebration!

this post is getting too long for me, so i'm cutting it off.

pictures from the summer soon, promise.

b-sto out

almost home....

.......and i just started to think about it, and realized when i get home, half of everyone will be gone :(

no big reunion after world take-over this year

still here!

so i'm still here, not back in time to see everyone before they leave :(

but i'm still having a great time, i'm in narok for the day and heading back out to the bush tonight. i killed a giant spider that crawled out of one of my pant legs this morning when i was getting dressed in my tent.

i can't load any pictures on here, because i didn't bring my cord that connect my camera to my computer, so i guess i'll just do it when i get back.

i'll probably only post one more time, right before i come home, because i wont' have a lot of internet connection i don't think. i come home in almost just a week!

i miss everyone!

-brad

hi

so i miss everyone a lot, still.

i haven't had internet for a couple weeks and just got back into a city recently. i'm in nairobi right now and it was the first time i could really read any of your blogs. i did my best to read them all, but there were a ton (kirsten)! so i decided not to comment on them all, because it would take me a year with the slow internet here.

a few highlights though, nice tie-dye for the 4th laura and callie!. nice pie and painting brig, nice hair and ratstache tracy, glad you had fun on set megan, i wish i could get into the mj craze with you callie, i'm jealous of your NY fun laura, i saw harry potter here in nairobi, but i think i like the camera work and lighting kelly, it's 88 and lower everyday here kirsten :P.

hope i didn't leave anything out.



kenya is good. the drought is horrible though, people livestock are dying everyday. so everyone please do a traditional raindance directed over here.

i'll be home in less than 3 weeks. i'm kinda excited, but sad that i couldn't get an earlier ticket home to see callie and megan before they leave.

i feel like i should have a lot to post, but i can't think of it all right now. I'll probably be in nairobi for around 4 or 5 days before we head back to the mara.

i miss you guys and i'll have a more detailed update later in the week probably

-brad

black babies white mommies

sooooo many white parents with their "new african babies"!!!!!!

i can't get over it. usually i see about 5ish the entire summer i'm here. This time, i've literally seen about 5-10 every single day. It's so ridiculous. I know that some of them may have good intentions and everything and it may be a completely legitimate adoption, but i can't help but judge everyone of them! there are just too many american's who want to adopt an african baby because it's trendy. also there is a growing problem here, because of the huge rise in the adoption of the babies. the problem is "certified adoption agencies" are stealing babies and children from their mothers or familys, and telling the adopting parents that they are orphans. horrible horrible things, and the amount of children that i've seen with white parents since i've been here makes me worry so much about them and their families.

i forgot to tell you guys too, both my bags came in and were fine, there were plastic wrapped, so i was afriad they were all ripped and broken, but i guess they just wrapped them so they wouldn't get wet. i took a picture of them. i'll try and upload it later, but the internet is so slow here i might not be able too.

i haven't talked to meitamei yet, about him leaving early, but i think i decided that if he does, i'm going to leave that early as well. i'd rather come home like 10 days earlier and have a chance to get to see people before they leave! i mean, it's just 10 days. isn't it worth it? i'll be back in kenya and have plenty of opportunities to have more adventures.

i miss you guys a lot, and want to have some fun times when i get back! my trip seems so short this time. if i'm leaving early, it'll probably be on the 26thish, which means i have less than a month left here. i'm usually here for almost three months, and this time, i'll only be herea little less that two. i think i'll be able to accomplish everything i wanted to though.

i think we're heading to mau narok tomorrow, and then maasai mara the next day after that. i won't have any internet while i'm there, so this could be my last post for a while.

miss/love you guys

b-sto

progress

so i feel good about what's happening this summer. Things seem to be going really well for my scholarship program, and for the bigger organization as a whole. We have a center in maasai mara now. an actual building out in the middle of no where. it's almost done. it just needs doors and windows. It's incredibly exciting. No more cutting big branches off trees and trying to make a shaded area to work in. We now have actual offices!

In other news, i'm not 100% sure yet, cause i need to talk to meitamei to confirm, but i may be heading back to the US a little earlier. Mary (the professor that is here every summer with a class from prescott) bought meitamei a plane ticket back to the US so he could come to this big family reunion thing, and she bought it before she knew when i was planning on heading back. I think she bought it for like the 28th of july or something. So i need to figure things out, becuase i could either change my ticket and come up then also, or i could stay here by myself and just live in a village for a while, or stay at a school or something. Kinda sucks but oh well, she didn't know. On the brighter side, i may get to see some of you guys again!

Kenya is good. The drought was really bad this past year, and a lot of cows and goats are dying, which are pretty much peoples life out here. I haven't been to amboseli yet, but that was supposed to be hit the hardest by the drought, so i'm afriad to even go there and see what it's done.

i miss you guys a lot!

kenya

so, i made is safely.

had to pretty much run to catch every single flight connection, but i made it so it's ok.
sadly i can't say the same about my bags :( my two bags that i checked were still in houston when i got into nairobi, but they should be here in the next few days.

i don't really have a lot to write, cause i got in late last night, and now it's just 9 am, so i haven't had time to do a lot or see a lot of people.

just wanted to let everyone know that i made it and miss you guys.

-brad

bye

so it was a fun weekend, i'll start the post by listing my favorite quotes:

"I LOVE WOMEN!" - Tracy

"I think it might be loosening my vagina, so i think i'm going to start doing kegals" - Laura

"i love dick" - Tracy

"how old are you" - lady at pete's
"24" - Me
"are you single" - lady at pete's
"yes" - Me
"my friend wants to fuck you" - lady at pete's

"he looks like a cat, and i don't know what to do" - Tracy

"it feels tender" - Kirsten

"Do i have time to make a burrito?" - Tracy

"I'm dying to death" - Kirsten

"extendio penosum!" - Tracy

"does your toilet clog easily?" - Tracy
"no, why, did you clog it?" - Megan
"ya....." - Tracy

"BRRROOOUUUUUUU" - Noah, trying to make himself throw up on his pee in the garage

"oh my god i can't believe i just got that bird poop out of her hair! and now it's on my hand!!!! what do i do?!!?!?" - Kirsten

"fake propose to me you chickenshit!" - Jessica

"Ya, that's a dance i made up, it's called the jello" - Tracy


So, ya a ton from tracy hahahaha, but she was in the car with us the whole time and happened to say lots of funny things!! I'm sure i'm forgetting some really funny ones, i just can't think of them all right now.

I had a really good time this weekend and was sad to leave everyone, knowing that it was our last time to do something like that for a while probably.

i love you guys, and keep blogging so i can read about you and feel like we're all still together!

-me

sad :(

so megan told me she thought it was ok to watch the OUPSDVD and cry cause it's been so long since we've all been together.

so, just now, i watched it for the first time, alone in woodward, and.......i cried :( a lot. ugly cry kind

so i just wanted to say how much i miss/love all of you sooooooooo much. I think it just really hit me that even though i'll still see some of you guys and see others here and there, it won't ever be like it was, with all of us living so close together, able to hang out whenever we wanted all together.

you guys all mean so much to me it's ridiculous. my life would be so different, if just one of you weren't a part of it. please please please pleeeeeeease keep in touch.

ps. if i'm not subscribed to someone still, let me know so i can fix it. i'm not very good at this blogspot thing yet, cause i've barely messed with it

I'm here

With my awkward face...