i can't believe that i'll be going home one month from today. actually, i'll be going to london and waiting 17 hours to get on my flight home, but oh well.

at one point i wrote about Moi Day, and how my office was closed to celebrate the holiday. well, today is yet another holiday, although not an official one... i'm not even sure that it's an actual holiday. but, nobody at my office is working today. i didn't find that out, though, until i was about 100 feet away from the office, when my boss text messaged me to let me know. so, now i'm just sitting in the internet cafe w/ two europeans (i always wonder what other westerners are doing here, although i'm sure they're wondering the same about me). i felt bad about not writing in this more often, but now it looks like i have a whole day to write!

so, although i have basically no idea what's going on in politics in the US (hillary is ahead everywhere... that's all i know. i blame my lack of knowledge on the fact that i don't have a TV instead of my own apathy and ignorance), i do know what's going on in kenyan politics. it's actually pretty exciting to be here right now, since they're having the presidential election soon - december 27.

there are two main candidates - Mwai Kibaki, the current president, and Raila Odinga. it's interesting to see how much tribal heritages play into politics here. most of the central province is for kibaki, since he's from there and has invested a lot of time and money there since he was elected in '02. so, basically the whole central province is going to vote for him. where i am, though, is the western province, which is very strongly in favor of odinga. his party is called ODM and it's official color is orange, so there are people wearing orange everywhere i go today. so far, i've only met one person who supports kibaki, and i think it's because he is originally from the central province. it's hard to say who's going to win - it looked like odinga was ahead in the polls for a while, but now it seems more even. oh, and there's also someone named kalonzo who just joined the race recently, but the polls only show him having about 8% of the vote. however, i guess that can make a big difference. i liken him to a green party candidate - not mainstream enough, definitely won't win, but whose presence in the election might affect the outcome, anyway.

so, another part of the election is that the country elects a totally new parliament (british influence, i suppose). there are about 200 members in total, and each district elects one person to be the member of parliament. in the district i'm living in, there are about 70-something people running for this one position, so today they're all meeting together. thus the reason my office is closed. i'm not sure when exactly the voting or election process takes place for this position - i talked to a group of young guys this morning about it, but considering that they probably started drinking last night (not surprisingly, hard liquor smells quite nauseating at 9 in the morning, even on someone's breath), they weren't very helpful. anyway, the guys gave me a flyer for the parliamentary candidate they supported and appeared very faithful supporters of him, though. i told them that if i were kenyan i'd definitely vote for him. i don't really blame them, though - they have a government full of corrupt officials (although it's not awful compared to a lot of developing countries, i guess), and for the past 5 years, they've gotten basically nothing while the central province has done a lot better, in terms of economic growth. who knows how much better odinga will be if he gets elected - i'm sure there'll be lots of forgotten promises - but at least he would be different and the youth need some idealism to hang on to. it's interesting to me how similar the situation here is to the one we have in the US (although they're very different in a lot of ways) - it seems that people always think there's going to be something better and different, even though it's possible that this new president might be just as bad in other ways. but, people always need some hope to cling to - the hope that we might get a new leader who'll lead us to make the world a better place. and that may never happen, but what's the point of caring about politics if you don't think there's any hope?

anyway, it's really interesting to be here at such an important time for the country. i feel so much like an outsider - like no matter how much i talk to the people here about politics, no matter how much i see first-hand the effects of the government on their lives, i will never be able to get into their minds and to understand the way the feel about these issues. the fact is that i'm flying home, to my real home, in one month. and then i'll start reading US papers again and caring about what's going on w/ barack and hillary and the negligible republican, whoever that may end up being. and i'm excited to be back in a country that feels like it's my own. and to go out in public without having everyone know that i'm obviously a foreigner. but at the same time, it's so cool to be here and have have nobody care that much about my life and my country (not that they don't care - but honestly, how much do i normally care about kenyan politics when i'm in the US?), and to just see life from a different perspective.

ok it's too early in the morning to keep writing about such seriousness.

life is going really well here - i only have 3 more months of my internship which is so crazy. for the rest of my time, i'll just be putting together some educational materials for the schools i've been working with, and then going back to the schools to talk about a future partnership. my organization is submitting a grant proposal soon for the funds to make tree nurseries at all of the schools we've been working with. that would be a really awesome thing - the schools would be able to raise seedlings and then sell them in the community, and then use the profit for their schools. besides that, i'm basically just doing random things at the office. i've realized that i have such a short period of time left, and i just want to spend time with people more - and not just worrying that i'm not going to get all my work done.

so, i now have 5 hours left of my work day and no clue how to spend it. i sort of want to be a part of some political rally but that also sort of terrifies me. so we'll see... tomorrow hayley - another intern - and i are going to a town nearby called eldoret. we don't know much about this town other than the fact that we always see busses in town called "eldoret express" - so i feel like it's going to be pretty exciting. the main thing that "lonely planet" says is that it's known for cheese. who knew kenya was known for cheese? my cheese intake has been at an all-time low since i've been here (seriously, when's the last time i had cheese? i haven't thought about this but i'm pretty sure it was like a month ago) i'll definitely report on this later.

ok that's all i've got for now - things are good. it's ironic - b/c it's a slow-paced country, but life is absolutely flying by now. it's scary that things are going so fast, but i'm also so excited to be home. i miss you all so much! thanks for reading!