not quite 100%, hovering somewhere around 75%

i am feeling under the weather and i can't even say it is because of wild birthday celebrations. i have lost my appetite, which definitely means something is up in my system. but it better damn well pass before tomorrow night when the real birthday celebrations begin as i am sure i will wake up feeling much older than my 26 years on sunday morning.

this afternoon i visited a beneificiary of one of our programmes at work and he lives in a room that is actually smaller than my room in the uk. and it includes his cooking stuff! i thought 11 feet squared was small. just when i needed a reminder i was in africa, i realise that acceptable minimum standards of living are much different.

it always make me think about the crap i think i need. and then i always get this incredible desire to just give away all my stuff. but then i realise that there is a reason i have all that stuff and i'm not ready to part with it. as my friend says, ''stuff' is the bane of my existence.'

i also saw the garbage dumps in the middle of residential areas, people selling everything included used plastic containers (yay for reusing), a housing estate named after california, fantastic looking produce markets, and more than a few streetside funeral parlors (which makes me think that death is so much more of a daily occurrence here than i am used to).

being out and about in nairobi on an afternoon confirmed that i am not cut out for office work and i would probably be better suited to working with an ngo on service delivery and programme implementation rather than the administration of programmes. too bad ngos don't pay well, but then maybe i have a better chance at being hired.

job searching and applying, i really do hate it. nothing like the job application process to zap all molecules of self-esteem. i am not so sure if molecule is the correct measure of self-esteem, most likely not cause i just made it up, but it seems appropriate.

off to a movie tonight after work and then for some cheese, bread, and wine with my flatmates. as long as my stomach wants food by then, that is. (have i mentioned that the best bakery in nairobi is located in a shell gas station?)