Earth Dance was definitely not what I expected, but it was still really fun! When we first got there, the band was just setting up. The singer was an African woman that looked like she was at least 60. She was wearing a really sweet white African gown and head wrap that was embellished with jewels and gold fabric. She started out by saying that we were going to dance for peace and it was all about peace and love and what not. That band kind of had a reggaeish sound to it and then there was a Swahili hip hop artist. I really enjoyed that a lot! Then there were circus performers! I have never seen anything so impressive in my life that the human body can do. One of the acts was a group of 6 men that were crazily flexible. They could spin themselves all the way around from a stationary position and they made a pyramid balancing only on their hands. After that, there was just a dj playing music. On the way home we could see what the land was like in Tanzania as it was dark out when we went through the first time. There were rolling hills of sand with a mountain in the background. Its a really dry area. There were also grass hut homes with sheep and goats around. Along the side of the road, were children begging for water, it was so sad, they looked like they really could have used the water! Going back into Kenya was interesting. Two of the girls that I went with didn't get Visas b/c they didn't want to pay the money. At the border, officers actually came onto our bus and counted how many of us there was and made sure we all gave our passports. One of the men came back a while later with all the passports in one hand, except for two in his other hand. He came onto the bus and said "Kaitlyn and Rebbecca, You have committed an offence!" Right then I thought they were going to jail for sure, but he just told them not to do it again and we were on our way! They didn't even have to pay for the visa! I had my first exam today, Swahili. I think it went pretty well. It was an oral test and all we had to do was pick a topic and then talk about it for 10 minutes in Swahili. The rest of my day was definitely more stressful! On Monday, my ATM card got sucked back into the ATM, so I had to go retrieve it at the main bank of the company. Unfortunately, the bank was KCB, which is a government owned bank here. It was quite a process! When I got to the right window, I saw my card in a folder with some other cards and then the guy took it away and came back and said that I would have to get it from the 4th floor in 3 hours. The MSID staff person that I went with spent 1 hr. talking with people until I finally got it back! The issue was that the person that takes cards to the 4th floor wasn't there and that's why I was going to have to wait 3 hrs!! I'm just glad its over with and I have my card safely with me :) It's a really good example of how the government here is very unorganized and there also isn't a lot of checks and balances in the system. I don't know if its been in the news at home, but the Kenyan gov is really not happy with America right now. They are threatening to send the American ambassador back to America. A few days ago, the US gov. banned some top officials in Kenya from traveling to America, which is a big problem for them b/c they have kids that go to school there and they also have money and investments stashed away in American banks. The US is doing this b/c they see these officials as not working out the issues that led to the post election violence in 2007. My professors have said that the gov. has done nothing to solve the ethnic relations and land issues that people were fighting over, so after the 2012 election, there could very well be much worse violence than in 2007. It's really sad because Kenya has so much potential and resources that everyone could live here comfortably, but instead, the leaders have squandered huge pieces of land and tax money from the Kenyan people. I learned in class today, that if just the money that Kenyan leaders have stashed away could be recovered, Kenya wouldn't need to receive aid for 10 years! The good news though is that younger Kenyans are getting tired of the corruption and they are very optimistic about the future of their country.