Kenya, Tanzania, & Obamamania!

Whew! What a crazy place! This is by far the most unorganized/laid back/impossible place to accomplish anything that would normally be easy in the States. Obama here is an even huger deal than back home! Don't ask me how, but we made it up that mountain, and summitted on my 10,000th Day, just as planned! By far thye most difficult thing I've ever done. I wouldn't trade it for a million dollars, but you couldn't pay me a billion dollars to consider doing it again. More than half of the people we were on the way up with didn't make it (some not even halfway). Lots of altitude sickness, splitting headaches, vomiting, etc. etc. They teamed us up with this supercool couple, Karl and Marketa. He's from UK, she's from Czech. They were about the only two other people that made it besides us. Tanzania was badass. As soon as we left Kenya, on the way there, Kristin saw two giraffes on the side of the road! Whenever you're in a super poor place here, every random person is super helpful, usually to the point where it's annoying, to assist you to a bathroom, or walk you to the counter to buy a candy bar, so then they can ask you for a tip. It's crazy. The coffee here is awesome. Oh! And don't ask me how, but I somehow managed to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day the whole way up the mountain. Woo hoo! Kristin------> not only did he smoke a pack a day up the mountain but he also scared the shit out of me once we made it to uhuru peak by telling me my lips were purple and proceeding to ask our guide if this was normal. thank god i was already in a state of delirium and altitude sickness to think about anything but getting back down. never have i ever been so close to something that i could literally see the end of and still so willing to turn right back around... its was definitly quite an accomplishment. since then we have just been trying to get typical daily things done in this country but it always turns out to be a mission that lasts hours because nothing here is up to standards, and this is nairobi! its awesome though and the pictures will make it even better once we find a computer with the memory big enough to upload them in this decade. watched obama's amazing speech! its crazy being somewhere that allows you to actually see what a huge impact america has on the rest of the world. animals seen so far: monkeys (with pics for brooke), impalas, giraffes, and zebras. -------> sean The fireworks shot off at The University of Nairobi for Obama's speech were comparable to 4th of July in America! When we were trying to sleep in the hotel last night, (none of which usually have hot water) we thought we heard a riot! It was actually super happy people rallying down the street chanting Obama. In his speech, when he mentioned Kigolo, the little town where his father is from (about 200 kilometers from here{yes kilometers}) the whole bar we were in was in an uproar. The energy was crazy. OH SHIT! I found out the point of the fly in the toilets in Holland! Karl, the British chap we hiked up the mountain with, explained to me that it's to keep people from pissing on the floor. When I told him about it, he said, "You pissed on it didn't you? You couldn't help yourself, could you?" He was right. When I saw it, I had to piss directly onto it the entire time! It's like a Jedi mind trick. Those dutch are geniuses! No wonder they conquered so much! Flies in toilets! We went to Carnivore the day wot back from the mountain to celebrate. Karl and Marketa came with us. It's rated in the top fifty best restaurants in the world. Like a Brazilian all-you-can-eat churrascaria. Only difference is, in addition to beef, chicken, blah blah, that stuff: They also have ostrich, crocodile, stuff like that! They used to have zebra and giraffe, but then a bunch of whiney animal rights activists put an end to it. It took me two days and a million glares from strangers to realize that smoking cigarettes in public is illegal in Nairobi. It's so weird. You walk into any random hotel, tell them you want to smoke, and they direct you upstairs or to the pool, even if you're not buying anything! Oh God! We finally rid ourself of our giant bag. We paid a local to take us all around the city centre until we actually found someone to buy our sleeping bag and sleeping mat! Even better: We sold it USED for more than we bought it for NEW IN THE US! Funny shit. I didn't feel bad about it. These Kenyans ripped us off on laundry. They charge by the piece. So stupid. So now we're super mobile and down to just our backpacks. We're about to jump on a bus and go fourteen hours to Kampala, Uganda. That only cost us about twenty one dollars each. We should be there in the morning. We're about eight hours ahead of the East Coast US. OH! Before we go. I've got my next tattoo figgered out. Alhamisi, Mwezi wa Kwanza, juna na tano elfu mbili tisa. Something like that. It's Thursday, Januray 15, 2009 spelled out in Swahili. It's my 10,000th day. Kristin says bye. Hopefully we'll have pictures soon. Peace