"hands off"

So last night when I met the two girls from the other program they were laughing about how Wairimu is "hands off". Today we realized what that meant. WE met her at a coffee place this morning to talk and look at a map. Then she showed us where the "city hoppa" bus stop was and said that was how we could get back to our guest house. From there, she showed us, we could walk down to the city. So we spent almost an hour at the bus stop trying to get on a bus, but they were almost all full and couldn't take all three of us. One bus guy said "no room for the mzungus" Mzungu=white person. We walked a little up the street hoping that an earlier stop would give us a better chance of all getting on. At that stop we met a guy who talked to us and he said "oh man it is SO hot, it is like Arizona!" And we were like "Arizona!!....we know that place!" So I started talknig to him, his name is Jeremy and he grew up in the city and then went to grad school for his masters in networking at University of Colorado Denver. He had been there for three years and had gotten back three weeks ago. He was really nice. He helped us with the bus, and talked to us a lot. It was nice beause it didn't feel like he wanted something from us, just to talk about the States and about Kenya. He also gave me his email and phone number (didn't ask for mine) and said if we ever needed help to call him or email. He said he got lost in New York City once and he wouldn't have made it without the help of people he met there. IT was really nice.
So we got back to the guest house, ate lunch, and rested for about an hour. Then we ventured into the city. it was a bout a 20 minute walk, but very hot, and there are definitely no emission regulations for cars...it is SO hard to breathe. There are just clouds of exhaust in the air. SO we found our way to the University and walked around there for a bit. It's very pretty (on the outside). There is a really cool fountain of giraffes and it's HUGE and water is pouring down and we (maybe jut me) really wanted to go into it, but we were already getting stares as it was. We found out we are going to be the only U.S. students at the University this semester.
After that we walked and found where the St. Lawrence kids have class and we sat and takled to them for a while. They were all really nice, and it was fun to talk to people who were visiting here from the U.S. who had already been here for a while.
Then we walked to this internet cafe that is MUCH cheaper than the one back at the guest house that I have been using. It's about half the price, and the pages load a lot faster (which is notvery fast at all). Anyway, we have to head back in a minute before it gets dark. I think it's going to be an early night for me. I can't believe it's only 10am there. This time this is crazy.

Love to you all from Nairobi, where the weather and people are overly warm : ) in a good way.

Sarah