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?

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