last week in Nairobi

I'm heading to Kisumu on this coming Sunday super early in the morning. I'm going to a new city with a new family and I'll be starting my internship! My family here continues to tell me how sad they are to see me go. I've really grown to love them and to be comfortable in their house, and now I'm going to have to do it all over again with a new family. It should be another great experience :)

Yesterday we (the students and myself) attended a forum put on at the University of Nairobi. The panel consisted of the Prime Minister Odinga, the Director of the IMF and then some other political figures in Kenya- Wangari Mathai, the Minister of Finiance, Kenyatta's son, Bob Galdorf, and the Head of Transparancy International.
The forum was to talk about the state of Kenya, but they pretty much didn't do or say anything. They acknowledged the fact that the corruption in the government is Kenya's problem and the people must stop being corrupt in order to save itself. They continued to emphasize that the Kenyan people can change this by themselves. HOWEVER, they didn't propose any solutions or plans, or even acknowledge the fact that the government or the IMF are at the heart of the problem and the only ones with enough power to do anything. It was literally disgusting to listen to these total hypocrites tell students that this is their problem and they must come together to solve it, while the political figures are the ones that Kenya elected to figure out the problem.
It's this kind of bullshit that is keeping Kenya from developing itself and also what is forcing foreign countries to intervene and impede Kenya from being the one to solve its own problems. Without the legitimate help of the government to empower the people and solve its problems, the people are going to have a really difficult time fixing the country.

On another note, I'm having my swahili final on Thursday. I still have 3 papers to finish before the end of April and one 5 page review of my internship. Then, it's vacation time--I'm going to the coast and then to Egypt! Time has sure flown by. I can't believe my time here is half over already. I love it here, but I'm also looking forward to coming home.