Long Time No Blog

Girl, what dates you talking about? The past week, July 15^th-23^rd 

So if you were not working, what the heck were you doing? 

Well, at first, I worked on the stuff I needed to write up to conduct my research. However, considering that I had finished all the preliminary stuff needed to get my research going weeks ago, sans translation into Kiswahili and/or Gusii, I literally had nothing else to do. Hell, I even finished creating the focus group facilitator training manual just for kicks. The only thing left to do was complete my literature review but I was hesitant to continue until I actually knew whether or not I would still proceed with my research protocol. 

To busy myself, I just decided to continue to explore Nairobi. I decided to do a mini restaurant tour because Nairobi has a ton of great restaurants with extremely talented chefs. My last Nairobi residence made this easy because it was near a bustling shopping mall (called The Junction) that had several really nice restaurants plus this location was right on a busy bus/matatu line, so it was quite easy to move about. Unfortunately, because I am flaky about carrying my camera about, I haven’t any pictures of the amazing presentation on some of the plates I have eaten.  I will hopefully be going back to Nairobi this weekend to enjoy my last weekend in Kenya, so I will try to remember to take a few pics.

My favorite place to eat thus far in Nairobi. Awesome sushi bar!

 When I wasn’t busy stuffing my face, I did the nightlife thing as well as hung out with some of the people that have become family during my time in Kenya (most notably, members of the Mwangi clan). Now that I am back in Kisii, it’s back to waking up early and doing a normal work day in the office or the field. 

So, since the research no longer feasible due to time constraints, what’s the plan for the rest of the time there?

The team and I both agree that the remainder of my time is best spent in the field to provide assistance whenever possible, with the potential report being written here and there.  Hell, just riding along is pretty educational but hopefully I get some substantial tasks. We’ll see how that all plays out from here on out! THANK GOODNESS my thesis/faculty advisor told me to not put all my eggs in one basket when it came to choosing a thesis. I'd likely be scrambling right now.

P.S.

Folks in the western world have a tendency to act as though that gays and lesbians in Africa are cowering in fear and hiding in the shadows. Wrong. I’ve met so many in your face, out and proud Kenyan lesbians who are just happily living their lives the best they can. And no, they aren’t all young and “experimenting” either. I met a committed couple of 15 years that were both in their 40s.While it’s generally met with ambivalence (with less tolerance seen with older and hyper religious folk), Nairobi is a heck of a lot less hostile on this front than a good chunk of the American populace. Well, at least with lesbians, anyway. Conventional definitions of masculinity usually provide a landscape for a far more constricting social straight-jacket on the whole sexuality front. But seeing as I haven’t met any out-of-the-closet Kenyan men, I can’t really comment on that front.

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