"I have never gotten sick or gotten anything stolen in Kenya - UNITL last week...blah"

It's been awhile since I've been online, I should start by explaining why...

As I was lying on the cold concrete floor of the bathroom - last week, for the third night in a row, I tried staring at the cockroaches in the corner and counting as far as I could in Swahili. That still didn't take my mind off of the toilet, and rather this time around I'd be sitting on it or puking in it. I'll spare the rest of the details, but let's just say I have never been that sick in my life. I never want to be that sick again. It was horrible and I'm so glad I'm better. Experiencing the Kenyan hospital was also not that fun. Trying to communicate to people that it was not a weather change or a spicy meal that was making me sick was not fun. I was sick for about a week with severe food poisoning - and how I got it is another story in itself.

It all started when I had the brilliant idea of testing my newfound independence by traveling from one side of the country to the opposite on my own in what turned out to be a over 23 hour bus ride total. A bus ride to remember. I started in Kisumu and traveled to meet friends in Mombassa, then we traveled up to an island off the northeast coast called Lamu. Once I met my friends and we had all got to Lamu, I admit that I did a little bragging about never being sick or getting anything stolen. Well, that was a bad idea. While in Lamu, which is a small island made up of a Muslim community, with no transportation except for donkeys - we had a blast. We ate great food and booked with a crew to sail us out to surrounding islands. We spent the day on the beach, in the sun, playing in the Indian Ocean, jumping over huge waves, it was beautiful. After a gourmet lunch of fresh caught fish and fruit, we went out for a walk. We came back and all of my money was gone - taken from the wallet in my purse. I'm over it now, but it was upsetting at first. It also sparked something out of the movie Pirates of the Carribean. Our trusted and beloved crew yelled at us to get on the ship as we tried to chase down the other boat that had been at the island. Allegedly, the other boat consisted of Somailian Pirates who were in Kenya illegally, banking in on tourists and local tourist businesses. We chased them, yelled at them, and our crew waited for them to come in at night. The Somalians who took my money were hiding out in a house nearby and our crew wanted us to get involved in this elaborate plan which we def. said NO to! In the end, the men were arrested and confessed to taking my money, they said I would get it back but I'm still waiting. I was embarrassed to say how much was stolen because it was about $80 American dollars which is a lot of money here.

So, I had money stolen, it could have been much worse, I'm thankful they didn't take my camera or phone. Next - the source of the food poisoning. We were excited when a random guy approached us on the street and invited us to his home for dinner and music. We trusted him because we read in our guide books that he has been inviting tourists to his home for dinner for over 30 years - he was somewhat famous around the island. We went, things were a little dirty and we sat on his floor to eat with our hands. The next day, we were all sick. So, I experienced being sick for the first time in Kenya. At least we enjoyed the food before getting sick - it was a fish and lobster dinner.

I am better now and back in Kisumu but my program is ending soon and I'll be leaving Kisumu for Nairobi on Thursday night. I don't even want to think about leaving the people in Kisumu, it's hard just to imagine it.