Storytime with Moon: Twilight in Kenya

Wait, people know about you outside of my bubble?

Dear Twilight,

I left roughly three weeks ago to run to the other side of the world to Nairobi, Kenya and more specifically the slum of Kibera, the largest slum in Africa, roughly the size of Central Park and houses 1-4 million people. Kibera is the home to many many beautiful wonderful people who live in extreme poverty, disease and human rights atrocities. Not quite the place I thought I’d be able to find you in, Twilight.

But I was wrong. Now don’t misunderstand me I didn’t meet any LTT-ers or Twihards or see any Edward Cullen posters but I was surprised at how you were known even in such a dire situation but then I guess I should have known you’d have been there. How many stories (including our own) have we heard about how Twilight has provided an escape and a new perspective on life?

So to tell my story of finding you in Kibera. While I was in Kenya I was part of a team that put on camps for kids and teens from Kibera. The first week I found myself a sweet, tough, fun young lady named Adelaide (they have the best names!) and one afternoon we were taking pictures and I happened to have some old pictures still on the camera so I sat down to show them my friends and family and where I lived. It just so happens that some of the Eclipse premiere / Leghitch2010 pictures were still on and camera. When they asked what was happening in the pictures I wondered “would they know Twilight, if I asked?” “What if they’re Robsten/Nonsten? Will I kick them off my team?” Ok, ok I didn’t wonder about the Robsten/Nonsten thing. I knew Adelaide was too cool for such things, after all she plays Rugby and she’s 12. She could kick any one of our Robsten/Nonsten arse’s if it came to blows. No need for Twitter drama, take it to the pitch people!

Future LTT/LTR girls?

So I told them these are pictures from a movie premiere I went to. And I thought that would be sufficient enough and we could go back to talking pictures and braiding hair. But no, Adelaide grabbed the camera and said “what movie?” and so I asked, “Do you know what Twilight is? The books and movies?” and she answered “Yes…” a little bit excited I grabbed the camera and told her I was going to find a picture of some of the stars she might recognize. So i flipped quickly to a picture of Rob and told her “This is Robert Pattinson, the guy who plays Edward Cullen, the vampire.” (The dude I write a blog about and have seen more times than I need to tell people, the guy I’ve made up insane stories and situations about, the guy I spend more time talking about then I should, that’s normal, right?). Of course, by then the few boys who were looking on over my shoulder had disappeared. TYPICAL. Adelaide grabbed the camera back and looked at Rob and I asked if she knew who he was and she turned to me and smiled and did the Kenya eye blink think which is their code for “yes” and she handed back the camera and took off. Because of course more important things awaited, jump rope, football, rugby, hanging out with friends. As it should. Who needs Twilight when you have such things?

Besides my team mates randomly asking me stuff about blogging or Twilight, that was my one and only discussion about anything Twilight related while in Kenya. It was nice to be away and to see other cultures, meet new people and still have a small connection to Twilight. But it’s also nice to be back with you all! I look forward to jumping back in with both feet. Thank you all for the funny and sweet messages you left me while I was gone and for helping UC chronicle all the stuff I missed in the “While Moon was gone” posts. I’m definitely filled in now and fat taytay will forever haunt my thoughts! Thank you for that!

Asante Sana! (the extent of my Kiswahili)
Themoonisdown

What’s the last place you thought you’d find a Twilight fan? Or someone who knows what Twilight is? Did you out yourself?

Our internet game is ridiculous: LTR, The Forum, Twitter, The Store

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The Dirt – News Dump all things Twilight, Rob, Kristen, New Moon, and everyone else

Dear LTT-ers,

You know how sometimes there just too much to cover and not enough hours in the day?

Yea, that’s this week.

With filming of New Moon wrapped there’s been so much news and craziness off the set I thought we should bring you a new edition of The Dirt – the News Dump… where we handpick all the best news just for you!

Did we miss anything awesome?

Love your guts-
Themoonisdown

• Summit employs the latest in skank deflection security measures: an umbrella
  
• Kristen Stewart bows in the presence of greatness and then trades mullet styling tips with Joan Jett
• Robert Pattinson gets his ass handed to him. By a make up artist
  
• Creepy paparazzo gives us the play by play of Rob’s smiling, oh excuse me “RP’s” smiling (near the end)
• How is Taylor the most poised, best speaking member of the cast and just happens to be 17 and looks smoking in Calvin Klein?

[clearspring_widget title=”Access Hollywood Embeddable Video” wid=”482a0d55893fbe3f” pid=”4a38656e95067076″ width=”400″ height=”400″ domain=”widgets.accesshollywood.com”]

• Finally a dude who doesn’t have his head up his arse, hits on Ashley Greene. Then they ride the waves and uh surf
  
• Have you been living under a rock? Peter Facinelli made an almost impossible bet with a friend regarding Twitter. Follow him
• Gil Birmingham jumps on the Twitter bet bandwagon. For the love of God follow him so we don’t have to see him in a Speedo
• Yup, still there
  
• Tess got bored effing around with Max and Liz, took a wrong turn at the Crashdown Cafe and ended up on the Remember Me set
  
• As if you needed an excuse to watch more stuff about New Moon:

[clearspring_widget title=”Access Hollywood Embeddable Video” wid=”482a0d55893fbe3f” pid=”4a386cc55e6eb110″ width=”400″ height=”400″ domain=”widgets.accesshollywood.com”]

• See how many songs from the soundtrack ET can fit into a clip about New Moon
  
• This is how I describe Twilight to all my friends (via LionandLamb)

• New Yawk Punk sees Rob filming Remember Me, doesn’t attack him, then writes funniest fan review ever (via Oh No They Didn’t)

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Dad-icorn

And then Edward hitched Bella's leg up over his hip...

Dear Dad on flight from Chicago to LAX-

I was settling in for another tortureous 4 hr flight on American “we don’t believe in legroom” Airlines when I saw you pull out something familiar from your bag. As all twi-fans can attest we have Twi-dar, meaning we can sense or see anything Twilight related within a 5 mile radius and so OF COURSE I KNEW what that little red ribbon was on the front of your book. You had brought along Eclipse to help pass the time. I was about to rip it out of your hands and read some good ol Bella/Edward/Jacob love triangle when you started READING IT OUTLOUD!! I sat there going ‘why in the world would he be reading that outloud?’ Then I stood up to AHEM “stretch my legs” AHEM and I saw that sitting in between you and the lady I assume is your wife was your son! A young-ish 12-13 yr old BOY! And I knew I’d found another Unicorn*: A Dad reading Eclipse to his son!

Mile high book club

So I grabbed my bag and ripped out my phone cause this just had to be documented. Then I stealthy took like 10 shots without you ever knowing. Seriously, look at these! TMZ needs to hire me cause this is some stalker-azzi shiz right here! I thought long and hard about asking you and the fam for a pic, but I didn’t want to freak anyone out so I grabbed the shot you see and parked myself to listen to your dad-voice read the part where Edward and Bella exchange notes in Mr. Berty’s English class. As I sat there I wondered what if you got to the part where Edward “hitches Bella’s leg up around his hip.” How would you explain THAT to your son? Or what about all the shirtless kissing?!

Oh well, at least he was even talking to the kid! More parents should be as involved and kids need to hear about Bella and Edward’s love story. So I stopped asking questions and listened to your voice as we landed to the tales of the Wolves trading stories.

Dads Rule!
Themoonisdown

See more Unicorns!

What’s a Unicorn? *A Unicorn is a term we use to refer to mythical creatures… meaning people we’ve only heard exist but have never seen in real life, i.e.: a man reading Twilight/A male Twilight fan*

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