back home

I have had a few requests to keep my blog going, so I will try to do that. I don't think it's going to be as interesting as it has been though...so I am not promising anything : )

So I have been home for about 24 hours, and so far so good. I thought it would be very strange to be home, but it feels really good. My dad surprised me at the airport by flying in just for my arrival, from Baltimore. That was pretty amazing. Another amazing thing was sleeping in my bed. I'd been looking forward to that for about 4 months. Also, my Uncle Rob is living with us for the summer, which is really fun, because he is a really cool guy.
Being outside of my house is another story. Grace and I went to play soccer at a field in Cambridge today, and I went to take a left turn and pulled out into the left lane, instead of the right, where there were two cars driving towards me. I need to get used to being on the right side of the road again.
So Grace and I played soccer for about 2 hours, and that was really fun, but I am not in very good shape anymore. My lungs also feel like I have been smoking a pack a day for the past 4 months because the air is so thick with car exhaust in Nairobi.
I went to the grocery store with my mom, which was a little overwhelming, but also fine. I met a water buffalo there named Yvette who was from vermont. Apparently her milk makes the yogurt they sell at Whole Foods. She was a nice water buffalo.
That is all for today. After dinner My sisters and Joy and Uncle Rob and I have plans to play frisbee at the high school track.

I am currently in London, but wrote this in the airport in Nairobi:

I am sitting in a room full of white people here in Nairobi, Kenya at the airport. They’re all sitting around talking and laughing and comparing their Kenyan souvenirs. It is so crazy to me to think that people come here on vacation for a week or 10 days and then go on their merry way. I wonder if they met any Kenyans, besides the ones that were serving them food or driving their vans. I wonder if they think about what life is like here. For some reason it makes me sad and slightly angry. I know that I am just a white person, like them, and there’s no real way to distinguish myself, sitting here on my Macintosh computer, which makes me sad and angry as well. For all I know, looking around, I could be sitting in a terminal in Boston. There’s a kid with a redsox hat 4 seats away. The madness has begun : )

The first thing I saw when I walked into the terminal in London was a big lit up Gucci store. Wow.

Kwaheri Kenya

This is a quotation from Barack Obama’s “Dreams From My Father”.

“There does seem to be something different about this place. I don’t know what it is. Perhaps the African, having traveled so far so fast, has a unique perspective on time. Or maybe it is that we have known more suffering than most. Maybe it’s just the land. I don’t know. Maybe I am also the romantic. I know that I cannot stay away from here too long. People still talk to each other here. When I visit the States, it seems a very lonely place—“ -Rukia Odero, an African woman who Obama talks to in Kenya.

So this is my last day in Kenya. I am actually a lot more sad about leaving than I thought I would be--especially towards the beginning and middle of my time here. I am really going to miss the mentality of the people here, generally friendly and interested in making conversation and sharing about themselves. I am also going to miss the food, and the Kenyan love of eating and taking time to eat. I have come to love Ugali, which sort of grossed me out when I first got here. I am really going to miss Monica’s sense of humor and her cooking. I am going to miss laughing with Chipa. I will miss my cousins over at the Y-Michelle, Dolly, Rhoda, Cheryl, and Maxwell. I am really going to miss Olungah-everything about him. Anyway, I could go on and on. I am not looking forward to almost 24 hours of traveling, but I am really looking forward to seeing my family in the US again.
I want to thank everyone, in Kenya and in the States, who supported me while I was here. Whether it was sending me an email or letter (even if it never got here), or talking on the phone, or maybe just thinking of me, it helped a lot. This has been an extremely challenging experience, more challenging than I could have ever imagined. It has also been extremely rewarding and I have met some amazing people and seen some incredible things that I will never forget. I will also never run out of good stories to tell.

So here I go, back to the Western world, which they talk about so much here. I hope to have the opportunity to come back to Kenya some day.

Monday Monday

On Monday I met Olungah and Whitney and another girl (can’t remember her name) for lunch in town. There a place in town that has amazing roasted chicken, so we ate that and ugali and sakumawiki. It was very good. Then I went with Olungah back to his office and we hung out there for a while before my friend Eve came over and then the three of us walked back to town. They went somewhere and I headed home.
On the matatu a man named Abdu sat next to met and started talking to me and told me he was from Ethiopia. He was really nice and paid for my ride and asked me if he could cook me lunch sometime, but I told him that I was leaving on Wednesday, so that wouldn’t work out. But, he confirmed my theory, that Ethiopian men (at least the ones who ride the number 9 matatu to Eastleigh) are extraordinarily nice and outgoing.
Then I came home and watched “Blood Diamond” with Chipa and Monica made us mandazis, which are like little fried dough’s. YUM. It is so crazy how fast this time is going and to think that I will be on a plane in no time, headed back west. I feel like my head is going to be spinning for quite a while.

On the news on Monday night was a story about how the Catholic priests of Kenya met to talk about condom use and decided that it was not allowed, even for people with HIV. The report said that 315 people die each day in Kenya from HIV/AIDS and that 9 out of 10 do not know their status. The Episcopal priests met and said that if a couple was discordant (one positive and one negative) then condom use would be okay. It is pretty alarming that this is happening, when 315 people a day, that is about 115,000 people a year are dying from AIDS, just in Kenya. You’d think you could make an exception and allow the use of condoms if it would save a few…thousand lives.

Wikendi

On Friday, Whitney and I officially became seniors! All of the people in our class though, were officially done with university, so they were a lot more excited than we were. When the exam was over, everyone went out onto the green and was running around like crazy posing for pictures and competing to have the camera man photograph them. It was pretty intense.
Immediately afterwards, I had the highlight of my day, which was getting hit by a bird! It just flew out of the bushes and into my stomach! It was crazy! I was also hit by a small child running around the corner later in the day, but that wasn’t as exciting. After getting hit by the bird, Whitney and I walked to this amazing bakery where I had a delicious meat pie and some carrot cake. Yum. Then we took a matatu to my house and watched Lion King and played video games with Chipa.
On Saturday, Chipa and I got up early so we could be at the YWCA at 8:45 to leave by 9 to go to Nairobi National Park with Whitney. The YWCA has its own personal driver, which Whitney’s mother gets to use whenever she wants since she is the president of the YWCA. So Mtua (the driver) didn’t show up at the house until about 10:45 and the three of us (plus Mtua) drove to Nairobi National Park. By the time we got through the gate and into the park it was about 11:30. We didn’t see much and Mtua kept saying “the best time to see the animals is around 9am to 10am, right now they are all sleeping.” He didn’t just say this once, but at least 5 times during the course of the drive and we all just kept thinking “well, our original plan was to be here early.” He was also very careful to point out all the animal’s “waste” that we passed. He would even stop and roll down his window to look at it. Also, when we came upon our first giraffe he said “oh, yeah, that is animal!.” It was pretty funny. We were all joking with him and saying we didn’t know what we would do without a tour guide as good as him : ) We saw a lot of giraffes close up and some different deer like impala and gazelle and heart-beast? I am not sure if that is a real thing or not-it was some big deer with big horns. We got back around 3:30 and Chipa and I hung out at the Y for a while and then came home and watched “My Best Friend’s Wedding” and “Charlie’s Angels.”
On Sunday, Whitney and I met our friend Ali, who we climbed Mount Kenya with. He had been in Pakistan for the last month doing some work there for the program he works for in Kenya. We had coffee at a place called “Hooters”, which is unlike the infamous Hooters of the U.S, and he told us some crazy stories from his recent adventures. Then he had to go to a meeting with his boss, so we said goodbye and I headed home.

Alhamisi

Thursday we had our Swahili exam in the morning, first the written and then the oral. The written was much different than I had expected, and included writing a 300 word essay in kiSwahili (whoa), but I think it went pretty well. I went first for the oral exam, and then waited for Whitney and Jenna to finish theirs, and then we all ate lunch at Hekima (the language school). Lunch was a big bowl of fruit-banana, mango, papaya (which is called pau pau here), watermelon (which I took out) and avocado. It was very good.
Afterwards we all took the bus back to town, and I went to go visit my friend Philip at the university hostels. He has been asking me to visit for a while, but I was always busy or sick when he wanted me to come, so I thought I should pay him a visit. He is a pretty cool guy and when we asked him what his plans were after graduation, he said he is running for mayor! He told us that is why he is often not in class, he has to attend all these political meetings. Wow. I was impressed. He made us chai and we sat around and talked for a while before I had to catch my matatu home.
Then I came home and studied for my Psychological Anthropology exam and watched TV with Chipa. Monica made pilau for dinner ,which might be right up there as my favorite Kenyan dish…but there is a lot of competition for that : )

kiswa

Alhamisi katika asubuhi, nina mtihani kwa kiSwahili wangu. Ninafikiri utakuwa sawa kwasababu nilisoma sana. Kwa mtihani, tunasema na tunaandika pia. Ninapenda kiSwahili na ninataka kuisoma tena, lakini ninataka kuwa mwalimu wangu, Daniel, tena. Nilimsema “tafadhali, kuja kwa Amerika kufundisha kiSwahili.”

Translation:
Thursday in the morning I have my Swahili exam. I think it will be okay because I studied a lot. For the exam we speak and we write too. I like Swahili and I want to study it again, but I want to have my teacher, Daniel, again. I said to him “please come to America to teach Swahili.”

By the time I am posting this, I will (hopefully) be done with my Swahili exam, which means I have one exam left, Psychological Anthropolgy, and then I am done with my semester abroad! Crazy!

On Wednesday Whitney and I met our teacher Daniel at Habesha for lunch. Daniel had never eaten Ethiopian food before, but he loved it and kept raving about the “njela” which is actually njera : ) He made us order our food in kiSwahili, which he has been wanting to do all semester, and we talked and ate and had a good time. Then I went home to study Swahili!

jumanne

Tuesday was another low-key day. I hung out with Chipa all morning, then went to meet Whitney in town for lunch. We ate at this cute little coffee shop that we discovered walking by. I had a very good sandwich there. Afterwards we went to a photo shop where I got some pictures printed that I am going to give to Monica and Chipa when I leave. Then I came home and watched Tyra Banks talk about pedophiles.
Tomorrow I have my last class ever in Kenya! Also tomorrow means one week until I pack up and fly back west. It seems crazy to me that this whole experience is almost over, especially when in the beginning and middle, I thought I would never get through it. Now I am thinking about all the things I am going to miss so much. I wish I could bring Monica and Chipa home with me and have them meet my family and see where I live and where I come from. Maybe someday….

Sick tena

Monday I was sick again, but this time with just a bad cold. So I hung out all day, laying low. I finished Barack Obama’s book, “Dreams from My Father,” which I think everyone should read. Some of the scenes he described of Kenya were so vivid and so similar to what I see every day. By the way, Obama is Luo (just like me) AND some of his family lives in Kariokor (like me). Here are some quotations I liked from it:

“Like how to deal with beggars. They seemed to be everywhere, a gallery of ills—men, women, children, in tattered clothing matted with dirt, some without arms, others without feet, victims of scurvy or polio or leprosy walking on their hands or rolling down the crowded sidewalks in jerry-built carts, their legs twisted behind them like contortionists’.” (38).

“The city center was smaller than I’d expected, with much of the colonial architecture still intact: row after row of worn, whitewashed stucco from the days when Nairobi was little more than an outpost to service British railway construction. Alongside these buildings, another city emerged, a city of high-rise offices and elegant shops, hotels with lobbies that seemed barely distinguishable from their counterparts in Singapore or Atlanta. It was an intoxicating, elusive mixture, a contrast that seemed to repeat itself wherever we went: in front of the Mercedes Benz dealership, where a train of Maasai women passed by on the way to market, their heads shaven clean, their slender bodies wrapped in red shukas, their earlobes elongated and ringed with bright beads; or at the entrance to an open-air mosque, where we watched a group of bank officers carefully remove their wing-tipped shoes and bathe their feet before joining farmers and ditch diggers in afternoon prayer. It was as if Nairobi’s history refused to settle in orderly layers, as if what was then and what was not fell in constant, noisy collision.” (309)

“It’s funny, you know. Once you’ve lived here [in Africa] for a time, the life in England seems terribly cramped. The British have so much more, but seem to enjoy things less. I felt a foreigner there.” –British guy he talked to in Kenya (355)

Twigas (giraffes)

Friday I went to a conference on Traditional Medicine that Olungah was speaking at as well as a few different traditional medicine men. It was really interesting. Traditional medicine in Kenya is called “ethno-medicine” because each tribe or ethnic group has its own medicinal practices and traditions. They talked about how Western medicine only treats the body, as if it is mechanical, while traditional medicine focuses on the body as part of spiritual well being and social environment. Traditional medicine is also a much better option for most people in Kenya for many reasons, such as it is what has been known and trusted for centuries, even millennia. It is readily available and convenient, as many Traditional Healers can come to the home of the ailing. Another huge aspect is that modern hospitals cost large amounts of money, while traditional healers can be paid in livestock, or even a daughter for marriage. Towards the end, a traditional healer spoke who talked about how traditional medicine can be developed, such as putting herbs into capsule form, and that it should be more widely recognized because it really works and has helped a lot of people. I completely agree with him, and I said that in the West, you can see people starting to turn towards more homeopathic remedies for things. Overall, it was a really great conference and it was cool to hear from all these different speakers.
On Saturday Chipa, Whitney, Michelle, Tanya (cousins) and I went to see Ocean’s Thirteen. I wasn’t expecting much, but the movie was actually good. Afterwards Chipa and I came home and Erin Brockovich was on TV, so we watched that. It was a movie filled Saturday.
On Sunday Whitney and I checked off a lot of our tourist boxes. First we took the bus to Karen to go to the Giraffe Center where you can hand feed giraffes! It was pretty amazing to hold out your hand and have a giraffe’s big long purple tongue come out and grab the food. We even held a piece of food between our teeth and the giraffe “kissed” us. It was pretty gross. The giraffes live on this wildlife reserve and the brave ones get fed by visitors coming to the center. I say brave, because most of the younger ones are too scared to come near people. We met Njuhi and her friends Brian and Roman there and then we all got back on the bus and went to visit Kazuri Beads, a place that makes pretty beads and pottery, and then went to the Karen Blixen museum, which is where Karen Blixen lived in Kenya. Njuhi said that Blixen’s home wasn’t very highly regarded by most Kenyans because it was a reminder of all the native people who were displaced by whites when they colonized Kenya. I told her I could see how that would be true, and then thought about how the United States is like that times one million. It is pretty sad. Afterwards, we headed back to the city and all went home pretty tired, but feeling like we had accomplished a lot in terms of “must see things” around Nairobi.

James

Wednesday and Thursday were extremely busy. Wednesday morning at 9 we had out first final exam, which was for Culture and Communication. Let me tell you, “Kenyan time” does not apply to exams. At 8:15 I was walking to the cyber café to print my paper, which we also had due for that class, and I saw my friend Margaret. She seemed very concerned that I was walking away from campus at that time, but I assured her I would be there soon. Then in class at 8:40, everybody kept asking me where Whitney was because she hadn’t arrived yet. I have not been to a single event or gathering that met early or even on time, but these people take exams pretty seriously. The actual exam was straightforward and we had to choose 3 questions to answer out of 8. It took me 35 minutes out of two hours, to write 6 pages of answers. When I got up to leave, almost the entire class gasped audibly and were giggling as I walked out of the room. I had two or three of my classmates come up to me later in the day asking why I had left so early and to not do that anymore because it scared them. Even Olungah said I shouldn’t do that. Strange.
Tuesday afternoon we had Swahili class and then met up with Jen Russell and Olungah to meet with some official people from the University. Then Njeri (Njuhi’s sister) picked us up and Whitney, Jen, Njeri and I went to my house for tea, which was pretty fun. Monica had quite the display out with tea and bread and mandazis (Kenyan fried dough type things). So we all sat and talked for a few hours, which was nice. We even got onto the topic of the World Wrestling…whatever it’s called, and Monica was telling us she used to be so into wrestling and was naming all of the wrestlers and who was her favorite. It was hilarious! Afterwards, the 4 of us headed to Carnivore, a world famous restaurant in Karen where we met up with Njuhi and William. At this restaurant they give you a flag and as long as the flag is up, they keep bringing food, which is mostly various kinds of meat. I sampled crocodile and ostrich, among other meats which I had eaten before. I couldn’t stomach the crocodile, but the ostrich was very good.
On Thursday morning we met Olungah at the University, picked up Jen, and headed to Kibera so Jen could see where Whitney is going to volunteer at Carolina for Kibera. Afterwards we went to Nyumbani Children’s home which is a home for kids living with HIV/AIDS. The woman we talked to who helps run the place is actually from South Philly, which was pretty funny, especially hearing that accent after so long. The place is amazing and their goal is to make it seem like a home for these kids. There are about 100 kids living there between the ages of 2 and 24 and they get funding from all over the world. All of the kids were at school while we were there, except for the preschoolers who they teach on the site. We walked into a room of about 10 kids, ages 2-8 who were all doing various things.
One boy named James, who was 2 years old, immediately came up to me with this big smile on his face. We played together for the next 30 minutes, mostly with my camera, which he loved. He sat in my lap for most of the time and would look at the camera then look up at me with his big smile and laugh and then look down again. He ended up taking a lot of pictures of my arm. When it was time to go, I really didn’t want to leave, but I stood James up and told him I had to go. He just looked up at me and wrapped his arms as far as they could go around my legs and didn’t let go. I almost started crying. I really wanted to take him with me.
At 2pm we had another final exam, this time for Anthropology of Infectious Diseases, which took me a little longer than C&C. I felt good about it and caught a matatu home just in time to beat the downpour. My next exams are Thursday and Friday of next week so I have a little time to relax : )

Jumanne

On Tuesday I met up with Jen Russell (our program coordinator from Bryn Mawr), after Swahili class. It was good to see a familiar face from home. Whitney, Olungah and I took her to Habesha, our favorite Ethiopian restaurant and we caught up on each others lives in the past couple of months.
Afterwards Olungah and Whitney had places to go, so I took Jen to Maasai Market so she could have that experience. It was an experience indeed. I ended up trading all kinds of things that I dug out of my bag for various Maasai Market items. As I walked by one man he pointed to the hair elastic on my arm and asked me if I would trade it for one of his items. So I ended up trading the hair elastic and a pen and about 27 shillings for a carved soapstone bowl. Another man and woman traded me a pretty necklace that I wanted for a necklace that I was wearing, a luggage lock and two pens. When I showed the man how to move the numbers on the lock to open it, his eyes got really wide and when it popped open he smiled and cried out “it’s magic!”. It was pretty funny. It is surprising the things they want, like they didn’t really want the necklace I had, but they really wanted the pens and the luggage lock and the hair elastic.
I am trying to get myself into exam mode after not really having serious classes for the past 6 months. I am finding it to be pretty difficult. Luckily all of my classes are pass/fail and all you need to pass at the University is a 40%.

Monday Monday

Well as I said yesterday, a bomb exploded in the city center of Nairobi Monday morning. Whitney and I were saying how we had been warned so much by our program coordinator about how dangerous Nairobi was, but we hadn’t found it to be very dangerous, especially in the center of the city. Ironically, our program coordinator arrived Monday morning to visit Kenya and check out the program. So the day she arrived, a bomb went off. So much for proving her wrong.
Besides that craziness, the day went pretty well. We had Swahili in the morning and then met up with Olungah and my favorite professor, Mrs. Bukachi, and went out to lunch. After hanging out in the city doing various things, I headed home.
I was watching the news tonight about the bombing and at one point they were talking about the police statement and interviewing different police officers, mostly in kiSwahili, so I didn’t understand most of what they were saying. What I found somewhat humorous was that the caption at the bottom of the screen read: “police statement: this was a serious crime incident.” No kidding. Apparently BBC news reported that the bombing was Al Quaeda, which seems like a pretty bold statement to be making when according to all the authorities here, nobody has any idea who the bombers were.
The leading story here seems to be that two men were trying to get onto the bus with the grenade to go to the airport, but someone bumped the one with the grenade while he was outside of the bus, and the bomb went off. I can’t believe they thought they could make it to the airport on a crowded bus, not to mention how horrible the roads are. I personally would not want to be holding a grenade for over an hour while the bus bounced in and out of pot holes and people elbow you constantly getting on and off…but that’s just me.

bombing

So I heard this morning while eating breakfast that a suicide bomber had bombed the Ambassador Hotel in the center of Nairobi. The Ambassador hotel is where all the buses come to and leave from and is a big meeting place for people in the city.

The Hotel was not bombed, it was actually some man who was trying to get onto a bus with a grenade, and the bus was full so as he was getting off, he got bumped and the grenade went off, which killed at least one person and injured a lot of people. I haven't heard anything since 9 this morning, so I am not really sure exactly what is going on.

I am fine though, except for wondering why people have to be so stupid and why there needs to be so much violence in the world. I can't really understand that. Where is it getting anyone?

So that's my Monday news. I hope everyone is having a nice quiet day wherever they are : )

boring

Friday was not a very good day for me. I spent most of the day throwing up and having diarrhea, while traveling from Mombasa to Kariokor by plane and two busses. It was pretty miserable. By the time I got to my house I was still throwing up and was extremely dehydrated, so Monica said we should go to the hospital. They put me on an IV and gave me a lot of different medications. I was there for about 4 hours and they discovered that I had a bacterial infection based on some blood work they did. So the doctor prescribed me some antibiotics as well as anti-vomiting medicine and sent me home. I managed to keep down some yogurt, just barely, and went to bed.
Saturday and Sunday were pretty low key because I still wasn’t feeling very well, but better than Friday. I was supposed to go to a big rugby tournament with Njuhi and some other people, but I decided to stay home and rest. So I mostly watched TV and read and just hung out.
So that is my boring weekend blog : ) Hopefully I will have some more exciting news soon!

Fishies

Today we went snorkeling off of Wasini Island, a couple hours away from Mombasa. Apparently the Reef there, Kisite Reef, is the second largest in the world behind The Great Barrier Reef.
Before going down to the boats, we went down into the "slave caves" where the Arabs used to keep slaves before selling them in Zanzibar. The cave was really cool and there were a lot of bats, but it was eerie to see the chains attached to the walls and to get a small glimpse of what had happened down there for so many years.
When we went snorkeling I saw the entire cast of Finding Nemo, except for Bruce (that was last week), and it was absolutely incredible. THe water was warm and blue/green and it was so salty that you could basically just lay on top of the water and look down at all the fish. There were so many colors and so many different kinds of fish. I even saw a rainbow fish, like the book!
After an hour or so of snorkeling, we headed back to the island where we had an amazing lunch of crab and fish and fruit. The crab was amazing and I felt bad for all the people who ordered chicken ahead of time. At one point we looked up from the table to the ceiling and there were hundreds or maybe thousands of bats above us, which kind of creeped me out.
Overall it was an amazing experience and we were lucky to get such a good price, especially with all the package included (lunch, cave tour, etc). Those resident cards we have are really pulling through for us.
Tomorrow morning we are headed back to the dreaded Nairobi for final exams. This has been such a great time, I don't know if I am ready to leave.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Mary, another one of my wonderful mothers
Hope your day is great and those children of yours are nice to you : )

Love that African Hospitality

Last night Whitney and I saw “The Namesake” which is based on Jhumpa Lahiri’s book. It was very good and I recommend the book first and then the movie : )
Today Whitney and I went into Old Town in Mombasa. First we went to Fort Jesus, which is the fort that the Portuguese used when they occupied Mombasa, and then it was later used as a prison. Since we are considered residents of Kenya with our student ID’s, we got in for pretty cheap. The place was cool, really old and interesting Arabic architecture.
Afterwards we walked around town for a long time, through busy little streets. Old Town is really pretty because all the buildings are old…hence the name, so it has a lot more character than Nairobi. People are really nice too, and generally don’t harass you as you walk down the street. Mombasa is a majority Muslim town and it was really interesting to be in a place where Christianity is not the central religion, as I have never been anywhere like that before. We stopped on the side of the street and a man cut open a coconut for each of us and we drank the water inside, which didn’t taste very good to me, but it was an experience.
We walked around a lot more and finally came to this cute little shop where a man and his wife were sitting. We were told this place had great food and that the man was a really nice guy, and both proved to be true. We sat and talked with him for a couple hours while he served us samples of everything he made. He was a very wise old man (as cliché as that sounds). One of the things that stuck out in my mind was when we were talking about travelling he said “water that flows down from the mountain is clean and clear, but water that sits in a puddle gets dirty and stagnant, so it is better to always keep moving and travelling”. I thought that was really interesting and something I will always keep in my mind. He also told us that a lot of famous people had come into his shop, but when they came he hadn’t realized they were famous, like McJagger and a few movie actors. He also said that Nicholas Cage rented the place out in 1984 to make his movie “Short Cut”, which I definitely want to see now. It was really cool to meet this man and his wife and his food was absolutely amazing.
We then took a few matatus home, trying to get in the general direction of the house we are staying in and finally found a place we recognized and walked home. It was a lot of walking and Mombasa is HOT and very humid, much more so than Nairobi. It was a good day though. We also went for a walk on the beach with the family’s dogs and Lesley at around sunset, which was really nice.
This family is so nice and welcoming. Got to love that African hospitality. It has been so completely unreal being here, but so incredible at the same time. I feel so lucky to have been picked up by chance by these people. Talk about being in the right place at the right time!

Unbelievable

Today Whitney and I landed in Mombasa at 7:45am and started walking from the airport to where we were told we could catch a matatu, a couple kilometres away. As we were walking, this car pulled over and a woman asked if we wanted a ride. They seemed friendly, so we accepted and we started driving down the road. The husband was British, but grew up in Kenya and the woman was from Zimbabwe. They have been living in Mombasa for the past two years, after living in Zimbabwe for a long time before that. So they were asking where we were staying and we said we had a friend recommend us a hotel, but we didn’t know the name and the phone number wasn’t working. So eventually the woman turned to us and said “do you want to come stay with us?” We hesitated, but accepted, sort of in disbelief. The whole time we were driving I had actually been wondering what these peoples’ house was like because they seemed to be pretty well off. They were really nice and said they had three kids our age, two boys who were not currently home-one who they had just dropped off at the airport, and an 18 year old girl who was home studying for her exams and who would like to have some company.
So we pulled into their gated house and walked in through the front doors to find a large, open air house, with an outdoor pool in the center of it. They showed us our room, with a huge queen-sized bed where we’d be staying, with our own bathroom. We were in complete shock. Then they served us breakfast. Afterwards, Whitney and I walked to the beach, which is about 10 minutes away. The beach was beautiful and it was hot and the water was warm. We met a guy on the beach and then his friend, who we talked to for a couple hours. They were really nice and seemed genuinely interested in talking, and not in dating us. So that was really nice and refreshing, after Nairobi.
They told us that if we wanted lunch we could be home at 1, so we headed back and had tortellini and garlic bread for lunch. Yum! After lunch we swam in their pool and laid in the sun. We had tea and talked to the mother, Lesley, for a while in the afternoon and then went with her to run some errands and see some of the town. We then came back and I took a bath in the large bath tub and went to watch the satellite TV.
This whole experience so far has been completely surreal and amazing. I keep breaking into a giggle, just thinking about where we are and what good luck we have had. These people seem genuinely nice and said they like having us around now that their sons are gone.
Tonight we are going to see “The Namesake” at the movie theatre in town. I will write more tomorrow!

tutaenda mombasa

I am off to Mombasa tomorrow morning and will write more when I get back on Friday or Saturday. In the meantime, here are some articles from THe Daily Nation, Kenya's main newspaper.

Mombasa:
Crackdown launched against homosexuality

A pressure group yesterday announced a crackdown on homosexuality and lesbianism in Mombasa. The chairman, Mr. Maalim Babu, said the group, affiliated to the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya, was concerned that Mombasa was becoming an immoral town. Homosexuals and lesbians organized a secret meeting at a Mombasa town hotel last week. The group yesterday appealed to Christians and other faiths to join them in the war against immorality. Mr. Babu estimated there are 25,000 homosexuals and lesbians in Mombasa alone.


Kitui:
Eating competition man choked by bread

A man was choked by a loaf of bread in an eating competition organized as part of activities to mark Madaraka Day at the Kitui stadium. Katiwa Ndaya was invited with four others to compete in eating a load of brad and soda in record time. Katiwa, who finished third, had no time to celebrate his victory as his eyes popped wide open with bread stuck in his throat. He was rushed to hospital where he was assisted and returned later to claim his prize.

Wikendi Nzuri Sana (very good weekend)

Wikendi Nzuri Sana (Very good Weekend)

I had a great weekend this weekend. Friday was Madaraka day and after Swahili, Whitney and I went to Njuhi’s house for a celebration lunch and family gathering. Her grandmother and aunts and uncles and cousins were there and we had chakula kubwa (big food) that was amazing once again. It was cool to meet more of her family, especially her grandmother. There was a family meeting that they have once a month where they discuss how each person/family is doing and what each person wants for the upcoming month or year. So everybody went around talking about recent events in their families and what they needed and who to pray for. They spoke in Kikuyu, so Njuhi translated for us. Then we all held hands and sang songs. It was really great to be able to be there and be a part of that. Despite the language barrier for songs and prayers and the meeting, I felt very included and there was a lot of power and positive energy in the room. On Friday night I slept over at Njuhi’s house.
On Saturday we went into town to meet Tim, Njuhi’s cousin, for the Sawa Sawa Festival, which was a jazz festival in the Nairobi Arboretum. The Arboretum is really beautiful and big and I had never been there, despite it being right on the edge of the Central Business District in the city. We saw some great groups play, including this famous South African guy named Hugh something that starts with an M (Masekele?). Unfortunately I have a bad name memory. He played the saxophone while another man played a trumpet and there was another with a guitar. The sax and the trumpet were amazing. They played one song with a group of little girls who were orphans. They sang a song called “make a change” that made me choke up. They were glowing while they sang, with huge smiles on their faces. It was adorable.
Another man sang a cover of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song”, and while I have always liked that song, lyrics never resonated with me as much as they did when I heard it in Kenya. “Emancipate yourselves from slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds…How long shall they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look…” Those words just seemed so much more powerful in a country where slavery is so recent, and in some cases still present. The white man may not officially be the power holder anymore, but after Independence white men are still the ones who run major companies and live in the big houses with gates right outside the city. Many people are killed daily because of corruption and poverty is rampant. I can now see why Bob Marley is so popular here-he sings about the oppression Kenyans, and many people in other developing countries, face constantly. The oppression that their current states were founded on through colonization and then through the power the European continues to hold.
Afterwards, Tim, Njuhi and I went to Tim’s house for dinner and then we went out to a few clubs with three more of Tim and Njuhi’s friends. I had a really good time hanging out with them and dancing. I was the only white person at the club we were at, but for once that didn’t attract unwanted attention and was able to just hang out, so it was nice. We got back to Tim’s house at 5am and I slept until almost 12.
Sunday I went home and showered and did laundry. Then Monica and I went to the hospital to see my 3 week old nephew. He was at the children’s hospital because he had gotten a bacterial infection, but he was doing much better when we saw him. I held him for a while and he was so beautiful-warm and sleepy with soft little tight curls of hair. I wanted to hold him for hours. But alas, we headed home.

Last Thursday

On Thursday I met my friend Margaret and we went to her room in the women’s hostels for the university. We hung out in her room and talked and watched some guy named Michael Smith (?) singing gospel with this huge church of people in Canada. It was interesting. We also watched a DVD of Westlyfe (sp?) videos. I gave her a keychain I had gotten her in Capetown that was a beaded “M”, and she LOVED it. She couldn’t stop looking at it and holding it, it was really cute. She made us ugali and sakumawiki for lunch and it was actually the best sakuma I have had since being in Kenya. Sakumawiki is a green leafy vegetable similar to kale that comes in long strips. Most people eat it with ugali, which is a stiff meal that looked like mashed potatoes, but thicker and stiffer, and does not taste anything like potatoes. Anyway, both are staples in Kenya, but this was the best of either I have had yet here.
At 2pm I had my Psychological Anthropology exam, which I think went pretty well. Afterwards I went over to the YWCA and watched “The Queen” with Whitney, but didn’t get to finish it because it started pouring and I thought I should get home since getting a matatu in the rain is even harder than getting a matatu in the not rain. The past two days my matatu ride home has taken an extremely long time because the traffic has been so bad and we spend so much time just sitting. Also today on my matatu a song, which seemed excruciatingly long, was playing in which the chorus was “1 pussy and 13 dicks”. Wow. I could not believe it. Another more believable, but still sort of funny thing was that in the newspaper yesterday there was a page with a huge list of people who were supposed to contact some woman to claim their dead relatives’ estates. One of those people listed was Barack Obama. I wonder if he read “The Daily Nation” and is coming to claim his property. Apparently a bunch of his relatives live in Kariokor, where I live too!
Friday is Independence Day here, which is called “Madaraka Day”. Everyone has their Kenyan flags hanging outside their shops and houses. I am interested to see what it’s like. We have Swahili in the morning, but we are going on some kind of “adventure” in Karen. Afterwards Whitney and I are going to Njuhi’s house for lunch and maybe some kind of festivities. I am looking forward to another large amazing meal and some good company : )

oops

SO I seemed to have forgotten the blog I wrote last night to post today. I will post it tomorrow.

Today is Madaraka day (Indepedence day) and we are going to Njuhi's house for lunch.

Sorry for the disappointing blog!