It's official...

I've gone national.

I *may* or may not have incredulously uttered the words, "Where did all these WHITE PEOPLE come from?" today.

I'm turning into a Rendille.

Today is a national holiday in Kenya - it's Moi Day. Moi was the second president of Kenya - he was actually a HUGE supporter of AIM missionaries, but that's a topic for a whole other post. Point is, each fall Tirrim Primary and Secondary schools hold a Culture Day on Moi Day. It's an opportunity for the kids to show off their Rendille culture to the community! (Which is all Rendille too, but that's beside the point...)

Over a THOUSAND people were there. Traditional Rendille who walked up to 20 kilometers to come watch their son or daughter perform. We saw traditional prayers, a wedding ceremony acted out by the Class 1 kids, several different tribal dances, and even a rap performed in Swahili!

Our kids at the Secondary School performed three Samburu dances - 3/4 of our class is Samburu and not Rendille. (The Samburu are cattle herders while the Rendille are camel herders, and because of this they get along as their animals graze at different levels - grass for cattle vs. eye-level for camels.)

I think I'm beginning to understand why my mom took so many pictures at all of my dance competitions and volleyball games growing up. Alicia and I were straight up OBNOXIOUS trying to get pictures of our students...we defined the term "Mamarazzi" that Kendall so lovingly coined. I've never been so proud of a group of people in my entire life. They were the highlight of the day!

Seriously. They are WARRIORS! I forget that sometime. In school, all I seem them as are students - teenagers who have fought through every hardship imaginable just to have a chance at a real secondary education. They inspire me in more ways than I could ever, ever express. But all the while I still forget sometimes that we are in Africa, that they are African, that they belong to a tribe, and that these tribes have their own distinctive, unique cultures.

Until today!

Needless to say, Alicia and I LOOOOOOVED Culture DAY :) I think we took, what...1000 pictures between the two of us? No big.

But back to the beginning of my post - there were twelve Dutch people at Culture Day today. TWELVE. All looked very out of place in their trousers -women don't wear trousers in Korr- and REI shirts. (They were guests of honor as they are building a Primary School in Ngurunit, a neighboring town.)

They tripled the wazungu population today in Korr.

It was as soon as I finished saying it that I realized I've grown more comfortable here than I thought. We are (slowly) learning the language; we have met and made friends with some of the women at church - both traditional and English-speaking. People are slowly less and less acting shocked to see a mzungu wandering through town at midday as we make our way home from school. I looked at the date today and realized we've been here over FIVE WEEKS! Time really has flown by.

Despite the cultural barriers and lack of comforts from home I took for granted, this place is really starting to feel like a home away from home.