Dear Almighty Creator,

When you were assembling me from various tissues, genes, and other assorted ingredients, did you laugh to yourself as you decided to leave out any sort of grace from my overall makeup? Another question, do you still get a kick out of it today when you see me trip and run into stationary objects on a daily basis? Well, I hope you do. Because today, after busting my THIRD pair of flip flops beyond repair, I walked back home wearing only one shoe. Now, you know that can be risky to do in America but come on, I'm in Kenya and I swear to You, if I get a jigger, you're to blame.

Sincerely,
Laken J. Rippentrop

P.S. Do you think you could send us some rain over here? Things are starting to get a little anxiety-provoking...

...

In other news, everything is continuing on as usual. Still being awoken at early hours by drunks and various livestock...and then again a couple hours later by a small herd of adorable children. In addition, my sinues and eyes have been under attack by various environmental elements for about two weeks now. Having allergies, wearing glasses, being clumsy, getting excited about science and math...yeah, I know I'm a nerd. Judge me.
Sadly, there is discussion of switching my malaria meds because it is thought that the kind I am on may be the reason for my issues with sleeping. This upsets me because I was actually looking forward to the long-term effects of Mephaquin and the stories I would be able to tell people in years to come. Not that living in a Kenyan village for two years won't provide me with enough ammunition to make everyone from the SVHS class of '05 admire my innate ability to be awesome, the thought of being able to discuss the hallucinations I endured as a result of my malaria meds really would have been the icing on the cake. But alas, I suppose this is for the best. Sleep is relatively important and I do miss it something serious so I guess I will just have to suffer through a hallucination-free year and a half.

Oh yeah, speaking of a year and a half, I turned 6 months old today. It still freaks me out that I've been here for that long. I just wish that I had something to show for it. Hopefully I will do something productive soon because this is getting ridiculous.

Anywho, I hope you're all enjoying the snow, ice, and freezing weather (Cassie, you are excluded from this) because I'm currently trying to convince myself to walk the 600 meters to my house but I'm having a hard time with this because I don't want to start sweating. I know, I lead a rough life. Later gators.