Catch up!

July 15^th

I am sorry for the long lag in blog posts! We have moved to a different (cheaper) hostel which is closer to town, but does not have wifi. Wireless internet is scarce on the ground in Kenya—half the coffee shops which should have it don't, and of those that do, half of their wifi is broken, not working, slow or they have no plugs for computers anywhere. The internet may be working great at a cafe one day, and down the next. So its a fun game of find the wifi. We are working on getting an internet stick from a mobile phone company so we can have wifi on the laptop almost anywhere.

News from the last week or so:

--Our research is going well; we have interviewed 6 Chinese construction and manufacturing firms.

--We toured a car assembly plant (the largest of the 3 in Kenya), which was pretty interesting and exciting!

--Someone tried (unsuccessfully) to pickpocket my purse on a matatu and snatch Mollie's bag.

--I have received a number of marriage proposals, most shouted out of the windows of cars, but one man followed for blocks asking for me to marry him “in the name of Jesus.”

--A man tried (again unsuccessfully) to extract money from us by refusing to let us off the matatu until we gave him more cash.

--According to the radio news, 28000 people in Kenya were diagnosed with cancer, and 6 recovered.

Mollie's boyfriend Jacob arrived this morning, and because its Sunday and all of the companies are closed, we are going to the giraffe center this afternoon to see the giraffes! Its the first touristy thing we've done since arriving in Kenya, so I am super excited to go someplace which is not a factory, internet cafe or a construction office.