hard work/slut time

i know i know, i should have had 10 blogs since my last one, but in my defense i've gone through emotional highs and lows that have literally exhausted me mentally and physically! so brace yourself because this is going to be a fucking long post i think!

Part one!

first i'll talk about the rest of my kenya trip now that i have some pictures i can put up!

I'll start off with some of the water project stuff

this is a picture of where the borehole will be dug, i know it looks super green but it's the short rain season right now so everything looks green but normally it is really really dry!

This is a picture of me with an elder from one of the villages that'll be effected by the water (great shot of me i know) 

Here's another great shot of me with the women from the same village. The women are the ones that this will have the most impact on, as they're the ones getting the water daily

Here's a woman and her daughter showing how they carry the 20kl canteens on their back

Just some kids from one of the villages

One of the schools that we're planning on putting a water tank at

A meeting at the borehole site where people from all over the area came to listen to me and my coworker in kenya speak about plans and to also give us their input on the project

Ok so that's enough pictures of that. I got a ton of work done and had a great time. I got to see some old friends and got to meet a lot of new ones. I'm really excited about the work there but also nervous! after meeting and seeing all the people that this will effect it puts a lot of pressure to get this all done. 

Another aspect of this trip was the campaign trail for Meitamei (my boss) I'm pretty sure most of you know but he is running for kenyan parliament. He ran for it in the last election also but that was the one that was rigged causing tons of violence to occur in kenya. He's currently leading in all of the polls and we think as long as there isn't any funny business he should win by quite a bit. And if he does win, we get tons more funding = i get to keep working here without having to try to find grants to pay myself hahaha. it also means we'll have funding for a lot of other projects we want to start and have countless opportunities to do the work we want!

Here are a few pictures of the campaign trail. 

this is a roadside rally, these happened all the time on the long drives to the campaign rallies. there would be people just waiting along the side of the road because they heard Meitamei was going to be driving by, then we would always have to stop so he could give a little speech

Here's a pictures at one of the rallies, every single person always had to greet him, usually in a giant line like this one

here he is talking to some people and a small campaign rally

here are few other random pictures from the trip

my awful farmers tan i got!

some yummy goat fat and chapati haha

i took this picture to show laura how awful i looked one night and she told me to put it in my blog....

the trip home was god awful, i had a 12 hour layover in atlanta overnight and thought it would be a good idea to sleep at the airport

here's my bed

here's me exhausted trying to sleep. and in the middle of the night my coworker, tawny, called me because her water broke and no one else would answer their phones hahaha

Part 2!

I got back and it took me a while to get my sleep schedule back but i did, and got back going to the gym and all that junk. I had been thinking about Arkansas for a while, wondering what the point was, because neither of us wanted to move to the other so it was like, how long do you continue a long-distance relationship before you're like ok, thats enough. I thought it was probably better sooner than later to end it so ya, that's all done with. I was pretty sad about it all but in true brad tradition had my slutty weekend after a breakup that i always seem to do!

so there's a boy that i've been off and on kinda talking to for a few weeks, since the first time i went to phoenix. He wanted me to come down and see him this weekend so i said sure why not. well he works at a gay country bar in phoenix and found out he got called in to work this weekend so that kinda threw a kink in our plans. But i was going to arrive at phoenix about an hour before he had to leave for work so i went ahead an met him at his house! yada yada we messed around some and then he had to go to work. Here's his picture

not my typical bear but for some reason i think he's really cute

anyway then he went to work and i went to see my friend who lives in phoenix. i told him i'd go see him at work so a little later i went to the bar alone (i hate going to bars alone!) but had a good time. he gave me drink after drink and i got drunk hahaha. then i went back to my friends house to stay the night there.

the next day (sunday) i was planning on going to a beer bust at one of the bearish bars. A beer bust is something bars do on sunday where they have a great deal on beer. the one i was going to had $1 bud lights. on my way there that afternoon i talked to a guy on a gay app (surprise) and he said him and his boyfriend were going too. So i felt a little better knowing that i wouldn't just get to the bar and not know anyone there and stand there staring at everyone creepily. I got to the bar around 3 and they were already there. We started talking, both of them extremely nice and friendly. The beer was flowing and i got drunk once again (surprise) my friend from phoenix came with her boyfriend and they drank a ton with us. i was supposed to meet bartender that evening for dinner and a drink before he had to go to work but because i was having fun i told him that i'd just come see him at the bar again later. on a side note the couple that i met for the beer bust also knew bartender so they were gonna come with me to see him.

So we drank and drank and i turned into crazy brad. i was making out with the couple a lot and randomly other guys they knew and introduce me to also. one point in the evening i had my pants around my ankles walking around the bar in my underwear. but it was a ton of fun! and they couple introduced me to tons of other guys so i feel like it was a huge success on the people meeting front! Also they told me that pool party season is about a month away and everyone will want me to come to their pool parties too! 

So at i think around 10 we decided to leave and go see bartender at the bar. We went there and he started giving me lots of drinks again and i got even more drunk (surprise). after a couple hours there we decided to go (the bars don't close till 4 in phoenix). i went home with the couple and did the dirty with both of them haha. Here's a picture of them.

so the next morning they had to go to work around 1030 so they took me back to my car and went to work. I messaged bartender to see if he was up yet and to see if he wanted to grab breakfast before i left town for prescott. he told me that his bar was having a free brunch that morning and we should go there. I said sure and that i'd meet him in the parking lot. I get there and i see him pull up and he has someone else in his car. I walk to them and get introduced to his boyfriend! hahaha

so we go inside and eat and have a couple drinks, then a bunch more (8 or so) of his friends met us at the bar and the drinks and shots started coming one after the other! we drank all afternoon there, and then we went to another bar in the evening where we played some darts, drank some more, and ate some wings. Then one of them wanted us all to come to his house, so we went there and they grilled some hamburgers for us. At some point in the evening, i met bartender around the corner of the side of this house in the back yard and we started messing around. after a little bit of that a couple of his friends came running around the corner yelling busted or something like that at us. so we put our clothes back on and went back inside (his boyfriend was still inside). then one of them wanted to go back to the western bar so most of us did. Some went home to go to bed, including bartenders boyfriend.

We stayed at that bar again for a while drinking until probably 2ish and then we took a cab home. i went home with bartender and when we got inside and went in his room, i turned the light on and his boyfriend sat up in the bed looking at us. bartender told me they had a no clothes policy for sleeping in their bed so i took my clothes off, got in bed, and proceeded to have my second threesome for the weekend! 

i got up the next morning, said my goodbye's to the boyfriend and then bartender took me back to my car on his way to school. i drove home still feeling a tad drunk and now i'm back! all together it was a really fun weekend and i think i was really successful in meeting new people. bartender and his friends invited me back down this coming weekend because they're cooking out a ton of ribs and having a get together. so that will be fun! and i just may go back to the same beer bust the sunday after!

so i think that's enough for now! don't judge me!

flies, tea, and water

Hey guys

so i'm in kenya! haha but y'all already knew that. I've been here for about a week and have about a week left to go. I've been having a great time so far!

So i guess i'll start with the trip here. I had to be on the shuttle at 2:30 am. So i just stayed up that night because i didn't want to sleep in and miss my flight!

I didn't have a lot of room to pack things because i had to bring over some speakers for the campaign.

These were my two bags! one was just the speakers and the other was almost filled by just the speakers.

The flights were good, on both international flights i had my row to myself so i could spread out some which was super nice!

I think i was delirious in that picture, not sad like i look haha

I of course also took advantage of the free wine/beer they offer on international flights!

When i had almost made it to Amsterdam, i looked out my window and saw Megans house!

Finally made it to kenya and made my way through the aiport and to the hotel in Nairobi

Things have been good since i've been here. I've gotten a lot of work done. I'm out in a smaller city called Narok which is near the site for the water borehole we're trying to dig. I've been going out daily to the area and learning about the different beneficiaries of the water project. There are about 10 schools who will use the water, then a couple bigger shopping center type places (not like a mall, more like 20 or so shacks that people hang out around) then a ton of villages, a couple orphanages, and finally a new medical clinic they're building.

It's been a lot of fun, the first day i went out to the site where the hole will be dug, there were about 40 people waiting there who had heard i was coming. They wanted to get to meet me and talk to me about the water project. It was really great getting to put a face with these people. It also made me really nervous that i don't want to let them down so i have to do my best!

Most of the pictures i've taken are on my other camera and i didn't bring my cable but i did take one at one of the schools of some of the kids outside. I know it's not great.

We also went to a lot of villages and talked to the local people. This means going into their home and drinking a cup of steaming hot tea while trying to combat the hundreds of flies going for your ear, nose, eyes, and mouth.

One of the women, whom we made a member of the local water board, made me a necklace! 

I've been needing to get a lot of "human interest" photos of dry land and kids with flies covering their face and stuff like that to make the rotary people sad so they'll give more money, but with my luck it has been raining almost every day i've been here and so everything is very very green. I'm trying my best though so hopefully i get a couple tear jerking photos to use.

It's taken me a little while to get back used the the whole "no clocks in africa thing" where we make a plan to meet at 10am to start the day and don't end up doing anything until 2pm if at all. 

And i didn't forget near as much swahili as i thought i had! I thought it was gonna be almost like starting over but it has been going pretty well in that area too.

overall everyone has been very very welcoming and i hope all of this goes as planned and we can get this water to all of these people.

no for the down side! I saved up like a weeks worth of Hulu shows because i knew i was going to have some downtime in the evenings or some days all together. I got here and on the second night tried to watch hulu and it isn't available in this country!!! ahaghghghg so i looked around and tried netflix....nope! then today i was like hey wait, maybe i can go to the station's website and watch these shows that way! NOPE! ugh oh well, i guess i'll just sit in front of my computer for 3 days straight when i get back home!

The other bad part this trip was the jet lag. It wasn't that bad but i usually don't have any problem with it at all. i got here and slept completely through the first night, which is actually better than i usually do. But then that evening i got sleepy and fell asleep at about 630pm which means i woke up around 2am and was wide awake ready for the day! Wasn't too fun but i randomly got on skype and found a couple hoodlums that i could skype with!

sorry you couldn't see me or megan, callie but it was great to get to see both of you!

Anyways, this is getting a little lengthy so i'll end it here. I miss you guys tons and you all have to come visit me sometime in kenya!