Freaky Michael Jackson guy

So events from since the last post until Friday night: zero.

We continued to work at Pharmaceutica, the community site just west of us about 2 km or so. We pretty much run the place now except we know none of the rules. The setup is quite similar to a fast food restaurant in the sense that there is an up front "ordering" area and a back "preparation" area. These two areas are separated by a small window, about one foot wide and maybe one and a half feet tall. Prescriptions go in the window and drugs come out. So our job is to sit in the back and fill the prescriptions. On average for Thursday and Friday, we go about four prescriptions per day. Enthralling, you say? But it's okay because Erin and I are cool, so we spend our time doing one of three things: telling stories of our misjudgments and debaucheries of the past, reviewing for the NAPLEX with my review book on my iPad, or killing some pigs with flying birds. I'm quite proud to say I got Erin hooked on Angry Birds. One interesting thing is that because everything is so relatively controlled, you can get most prescription drugs OTC if you have a good reason. A group of mzungus came in needing some anti-malarials. One bought a box of doxy (100 count) for 300 shillings. $3.75. I bought 75 pills for $9 AFTER insurance in America. 

But Friday came and we said our goodbyes, which is when we always seem to evoke the most friendly interactions of our coworkers, surprisingly. Maybe we're doing something wrong. 

We come back to Flora, hang out for a minute, and grab a light dinner since we're planning on getting dinner later. We sit with a really nice couple who is currently living in west Kenya close to Lake Victoria. They're working for a medical group providing care to those underserved populations and will be here for a year in total. Pretty awesome to actually be making a difference! Turns out they actually lived in Decatur for some time, so we talked about our favorite parts of Atlanta and took the fatal shift into talking about restaurants. We talked about the great Indian and Ethiopian food in Decatur and around Emory, the Korean on Buford Highway, even went so far to mention Chipotle! Ughh, I miss my Chipotle. I'll be needing a HUGE fatty burrito from Chipotle and a HUGE pizza from Goodfella's when I get home. Certainly. 

We head back to our room to get ready for what I'm hoping will be a great night. Since it's the most convenient day to celebrate my birthday, we go out to an Indian place my friend Raj recommended that's really close to the bars. I love Indian food. Maybe more than Italian, which says a lot. Not probably not as much as Mexican. Or more appropriately Tex-Mex. Erin has had Indian food about once in her life, so she gets our waiter's recommendation for a chicken dish and I get a paneer dish. Both dishes are great and completed with some rice and garlic masala nan! Such a good meal. Plus a Tuskers beer helped enjoy it too.

Then we headed off to the bar. We went to Gipsy, the same bar as last weekend because it was on the same block as the Indian place, plus it was fun last time. It's just Erin and me at this point since we've had some communication issues with our cellphone. We're just hanging out, chatting and people watching but not much more. I want to go downstairs to see the crowd a little more, so we head down after grabbing another drink. We're just enjoying the scene and music and definitely the people watching. Even though it's only our second time at the bar, we see quite a few familiar faces! Notables include a FREAKY Michael Jackson looking dude. Wearing a very MJ hat and huge sunglasses with an all black outfit. Complete with a blonde molestache. He's just sipping wine out of his gloved hand walking around eccentrically. He dances a little, again eccentrically. Most people just make way for him as he swiftly moves around the bar. We also see a creepy bleach blonde African with eyes that could burn holes through steel. So creepy. 

So after a little while, we decide we might head home soon. But little did we know that was not the plan. As we're watching the crowd, I get a huge hug from behind, and turns out our friends Carol and Nadine have arrived with about six others in tow. I guess it's time for the party to get started. Everyone grabs a few drinks and we dance most the night away with some new fun people. 

One interesting thing about this place is that a corner of it is apparently where the gay scene in Nairobi is. I even read this later on a FourSquare review. One corner of the bar closer to the dance floor is occupied by quite a few gay Westerners. Interesting to see the scene even here in Africa. 

Anyway, after some usual straight girl drama with some of the new girls (wallets being stolen, creepy guys dancing on them), it's finally time to close it down. All the other guys came in their own cab, packed in to the max. So since we're going to a different place, we decide to grab our own cab. We walk outside and up the street a few feet before noticing there is a small crowd of people up ahead. Then I notice there is a dude on the ground with his shoes being taken off. Then I also notice a guard with a large machine gun walking up to the scene past us. If that's not my cue for turning around, I'm not sure what is. I quickly direct Erin in the opposite direction and we find a beat up cab to agrees to take us home for 500 shillings, the cheapest ride yet! We're starting to drive off and a girl gets in the front seat, who turns out to be his girlfriend, beer in hand. We just sit back and relax for the short ride home. Once we arrive, we talk to the guy's girlfriend for a second because she's funny, then settle up the bill. Except we don't have 500 shillings exactly. The driver (nor girlfriend) has change, so we give him the small bills we do have and some coins, amounting to about 470. Not a problem for our driver! 

We get back to our room to the night. I try to Skype with Colton for a second but naturally Skype has it out for me. The internet has been so horrible lately, but Skype has typically still been working. Hopefully it'll last for a few more days.

Saturday was a supremely lazy day. Since I've been getting up so early each morning, I'm up at 8:30, just messing around on the scant internet. We watch a little Grey's Anatomy, since that's one of the only things I have on my computer apparently other than movies, and relax. We grab some lunch and decide we need to do something. We since our Kenya Museum Society membership gets us into one last place in Nairobi, we decide to head down to the National Gallery since it'll be free. It's about a 20 minute walk there, so not bad at all. It's a beautiful day, albeit hot. We arrive at the gallery to find out that it's really quite small. There is only one exhibition there, which is a temporary one featuring  a few short films on slumlife and a few photography exhibitions. Even so, it's free so we enjoy it as best we can. After finishing up our 45 minutes there, we head outside to see the sky has turned a nice shade of very dark gray. The weather changes so rapidly now in the rainy season. We book it back up the hill to Flora to sit out the storm. It's actually a nice walk since it's cool outside now, but the impending storm makes us rush a bit. We make it back to our room, open the windows, and enjoy the storm as it comes in. It rains for about three hours or so, including our walk to the dining room for dinner. After dinner, we watch some more TV before realizing the power is actually out. Yay! This usually doesn't happen for too long, but this outage lasted for at least two hours, past when we went to bed. I took my contacts out by flashlight. Just one of those things you deal with!

Sunday is here, and it's my BIRTHDAY! Since we already did my celebrating, I'm not expecting anything of the day except a little bit of fun. We're planning on trying to visit a few more orphanages in Nairobi today, so hopefully the weather will cooperate. 

Anyway, nothing new past that. Just watching my countdown until I'm on a plane to spend a few hours in London before heading back to Atlanta! I am sort of anticipating these last few days being a little horrible since I want to come home soon, but still have to wait out the days. We're heading back to Kenyatta for three day, which we're actually excited about, so that should make the time pass a little faster. Then a few last minute things on Thursday and Friday, then I leave Saturday. It's been a hell of a trip so far and not quite finished yet. I'll try to make the best out of my last few days!