Now you just have to ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky?

Hamjambo marafiki na jamaa!

Pole sana for not writing sooner, I've been crazy busy and tired, and even a little sick at one point. Bare with me while I catch you up on homestay action from a couple weeks ago.

So homestay was a complete blast! My friend Katie and I stayed with a family belonging to the Iraqw tribe. Now I wasn't expecting much, my loyalty is to the Maasai as far as my vote for coolest African culture, but I dare say I had a better time this trip. Now maybe dressing up for Easter was dumb, I thought they maybe might go to church but... ends up my family didn't. Tip of the Day: always bring a change of clothes, especially if it's raining and the house you're staying in is surrounded by a mud pit.

Anyways, we arrived and met our family, which consisted of Bura(not the askari), his wife Patrice, and their sons, Patrick and Edwin. Patrick was 17 and Edwin was around 11. Thank goodness that Patrick spoke English too, it helped tremendously. We started the day with a cup of chai, and I swear it was basically hot southern sweet tea. Definitely brought me back. Then we proceeded to sit around, until an older man came into the house, a friend of the family, and wanted to show us an old Iraqw tradition. Well, he wanted to show Katie the old Iraqw tradition... Sorry Katie, but I could tell all those dudes were in to you. So the tradition is basically counting stones. Taught by his father who was taught by his father before him, the man sits down on a mat, burns some incense, and counts. He keeps counting and counting, and then is able to tell something about your past, your present, and your future. Basically, African Tarot cards.

As he counted we would walk in and out, either cooking or butchering the sheep for lunch. It was definitely unique, firstly because I got to touch a sheep brain, but mainly because Katie is a vegetarian/ PETA-type. You know, the ones who think it's like wrong to eat meat, at least for them to. She didn't want any part of the shoat roast in Kenya or at Moyo Hill camp, but the homestay family actually got her to help skin the sheep. And you know I just ate it up, being a carnivore and all. Oh it gets better.

We cooked and sat basically all day. I tried a bunch of stuff I never thought I would eat, including like cooked blood and sheep guts. Definitely not my favorite, but I survived. We both had our fortunes told to us, and it was scary how spot on he was. I don't think I'll tell mine to you guys over the internet, but if you wanna know it, ask me about it some time. At the end of the day, we got in the car and exchange homestay stories with the other groups, and not to brag, but I definitely think we had the best time out of any of the wanafunzi.

SWOD is jiwe which means "stone" or "rock"

Salama na tutaonana!

-Ian