“Fear is a friend who’s misunderstood”
That quotation is a lyric from a song by John Mayer called “The Heart of Life”. I have been listening to the song a lot lately and like it very much, particularly that line. It resonates a lot with me after coming to Nairobi and living here for three months and doing all these crazy things that I am afraid of, but then end up loving (or getting used to).
Wednesday was pretty low key. I went into town to do some internet-ing. Amazingly, I was able to get a lot of pictures up online because the internet decided to work and work quickly. I was supposed to have class at 2:30, Swahili, which is my one remaining class now that the professors of the other classes 3 have announced their endings. But alas, Swahili was canceled, so Whitney and I went and got something to eat and to catch up on our weekends. She had gone to the coast with some people from our class, which turned out to not be that fun apparently. And I told her about South Africa. Afterwards we went to a travel agency to book a flight to Mombasa-since she had no desire to take the 9-10 hour bus ride again after this weekend. So we’re going there at the beginning of June, which should be nice.
At 5:30 I took a matatu home which took about 45 minutes to go 2 miles because the traffic gets really bad after 5pm, so we were just sitting on the road not going anywhere for a while. I’m going through Zoë and Capetown-fun withdrawal, especially since the past two days I have come home to an empty house. Apparently Chipa has been staying at the YWCA for the past week. He was supposed to come home Tuesday, but he still hasn’t come home, so who knows. So yeah, back to adjusting to this Nairobi life I’ve been living.
I was just reading the Daily Nation, the newspaper here, and this clip was on the inside of the front page:
Man who Killed his wife jailed for a day
A 70-year old man who clobbered his wife with a jembe handle was yesterday jailed for a day. Samson Karimi Ng’ang’a was convicted by a Nyeri court after pleading guilty. He was facing a murder charge, which was reduced to manslaughter. He agreed with the facts read by the State counsel, who accused him of killing his 67-year old wife, Joyce Wanjiru, on the night of January 14 and 15 at their home in Mbiri, Murang’a South District. Ng’ang’a attacked his wife of 45 years over the use of kitchen utensils. After the verdict, Mr Ng’ang’a said he would start life afresh after serving his sentence.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Capetown
My trip to Capetown was one of the most amazing vacations I have ever taken and I am so glad to have done it. Although it was much colder than I am used to since it is winter there now, after a day or so, it was actually really nice to be in “fall” like weather. It was absolutely amazing to see Zoë, I had somehow forgotten just how much I missed her, which made leaving extremely hard. I think I have somehow gotten used to missing people and being uncomfortable, so that when I am reminded of the good company and comfort I am lacking, it seems so much harder to live without afterwards.
Thursday
On Thursday I flew to Capetown via Johannesburg. On my first flight the pilot told us to look out the left side of the plan so we could see Mount Kilimanjaro. I was excited and expecting to see a beautiful mountain in the distance, but when I looked out we were directly on top of the mountain so that it looked almost like you could jump from the plane onto the snow covered peak. You could also see the giant hole that is the opening to the volcano. It was absolutely incredible. I sat next to a South African man and we talked almost the whole flight. When I got to Johannesburg, I experienced a lot more culture shock than I expected. It was overwhelming to see so many white people and to be in a place that looked like a shopping mall. I met a girl at my terminal who was Pennsylvania and we coincidentally had seats next to each other on the plane, so it was cool to talk to her. She had just done the 20+ hour flight from the U.S. Also in Johannesburg I went into the airport store to look at snacks and they had an assortment of beef jerky type things, including ostrich! Crazy. I got into Capetown around midnight and found Zoë and Ben from Vermont (her housemate) and Ashley, a friend. Then we drove back to “The Cobbles” which is the name of the house they are staying in. There I met Natascha from Germany, Katie from Chicago, and MC (goes to Amherst?)-more housemates. After a lot of catching up we went to sleep.
Friday
Friday morning we woke up and walked up to the University. It is absolutely beautiful where they live and at the University. There are huge mountains everywhere. After Zoë and Natascha turned in their papers, we walked back home and Katie, Natascha, Zoë and I decided to go for a drive around the coast. Zoë had had some trouble earlier that day with the rental car because it was a manual, so I was the designated driver, which was an experience. It took a little getting used to, driving on the left and shifting with my left hand, but once I got used to it, it was fine. It was actually really fun to drive again, and it was funny to me because it was a Toyota Corolla, which is the same car (of my mother’s) that I drive back in the U.S., so I was in the same car, but driving on the opposite side. The coast was absolutely beautiful and the roads I was driving on made me feel like I was in a car advertisement. We drove around the winding cliffs of the mountains, overlooking ocean. We also stopped at a stretch of beach and saw a bunch of penguins, which we walked right up to, and I also found some cool shells. We went home around 6 and then all of us (Ben, Zoë, Natascha, Katie, MC and I) headed back out for Cuban food which was delicious and then to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3, which was good, but long.
Saturday
Saturday we were happy to sleep in a little bit. Zoë and I went up to Kirstenbosch, which is a beautiful garden/park and walked around and took pictures and talked. Then we headed home because Zoë and Natascha had a soccer game, which the other team ended up not showing up for. So Katie and I watched them scrimmage each other while I made friends with a little boy who I played catch with for a while. After practice we went home and had a “braai” which is a cookout and the food was amazing. I am pretty sure I gained all the weight back that I have lost in the past three months, in these past four days. I ate so well. So we ate and then all went bowling, which was pretty fun. After bowling we played some pool and then headed home because we had an early morning ahead of us.
Sunday
Sunday morning we (Natascha, Katie, Zoë, and I) left the house at 5:30 to go shark diving! It was a 2 hour drive to the place and the sun didn’t come up until about 7:15, so most of the drive was in the dark. We got to the place and ate breakfast and then we all went to the boat. The group probably had about 18-20 people in it. The ride out was pretty choppy and we were starting to feel queasy, but then when we stopped and put the anchor down in the water, things got a whole lot worse. The captain was saying how the water was extremely choppy and there were just tons of constant waves rocking the boat up and down. So as the captain starts talking about feeling ill due to this rocking, the man next to me starts throwing up over the side of the boat. This was just the beginning because I am pretty sure that for the entire 3.5 hours we were out on the water, there was always at least one person throwing up. I managed to concentrate hard enough to not do that, which amazed me because I don’t do well with throwing up and I was surrounded by it, not to mention two other boats nearby where you could hear those people as well. When I was getting my scuba suit on to get into the cage to dive, I started to feel extremely nauseous and the captain told us that if we felt sick, getting in the cage would make it a lot worse. But I came to shark dive and I really wanted to do it, so I got in with Zoë and Natascha and another man. Things were going okay at first and we were seeing tons of big sharks. One was even chewing on the cage (luckily on the opposite side from where I was) and got its tooth stuck on one of the ropes. It was pretty intense. Pretty soon though, the jostling of the cage got to me and I threw up that entire big breakfast in the water that we were all sitting in. The man next to me felt the need to mention that at least the fish were enjoying it. Ew. We saw tons of really amazing sharks, but we were all glad when we were back on land and our stomachs settled a little bit.
When we got back to the house, we took a nap, and then went out to dinner to this place that specialized in all different kids of game. Zoë and I split a “game skewer” which had springbok, kudu, and some other kind of meat on it. It was really good. There was actually shark on the menu and we thought about getting it, but the waiter said that the red meat was too good to pass up, so we opted for the skewer instead. Ben, Zoë and I also shared a tasty bottle of South African wine.
Monday
On Monday morning, Natascha made us really amazing pancakes and then we all headed into the city because she was getting a tattoo. While she was being inked, Zoë, Katie and I walked around and did some shopping. In one of the stores, the guy working there had this little baby with him who was probably 18 months old. She was really happy and we danced a lot with her. She was a pretty good dancer and all of the sudden would start what looked like break dancing. It was pretty crazy. She really enjoyed my camera so we spent a while hanging out with her while she ran around giggling and dancing, etc. After the tattoo and shopping were complete, we went home and Zoë and I made Portobello mushrooms with goat cheese and avocado for lunch. YUM. It was really beautiful outside so the two of us went for a walk up the street and into some shops. That night we all hung out and played cards and drank wine and had a good time. Zoë and I managed to sleep a few hours before 4am when we had to leave for the airport for my 6:20 flight back to Johannesburg and then Nairobi.
So the trip was amazing. Zoë’s housemates are really awesome and it was great to spend time with people and just feel at home (even though I was technically nowhere close). I had missed my best friend, who seems to understand me very well-certainly better than anyone here in Nairobi, and that was really refreshing. I was not looking forward to coming back here and getting used to the social and physical isolation again, but it isn’t too long until I head back to the U.S. for some real culture shock : )
Thursday
On Thursday I flew to Capetown via Johannesburg. On my first flight the pilot told us to look out the left side of the plan so we could see Mount Kilimanjaro. I was excited and expecting to see a beautiful mountain in the distance, but when I looked out we were directly on top of the mountain so that it looked almost like you could jump from the plane onto the snow covered peak. You could also see the giant hole that is the opening to the volcano. It was absolutely incredible. I sat next to a South African man and we talked almost the whole flight. When I got to Johannesburg, I experienced a lot more culture shock than I expected. It was overwhelming to see so many white people and to be in a place that looked like a shopping mall. I met a girl at my terminal who was Pennsylvania and we coincidentally had seats next to each other on the plane, so it was cool to talk to her. She had just done the 20+ hour flight from the U.S. Also in Johannesburg I went into the airport store to look at snacks and they had an assortment of beef jerky type things, including ostrich! Crazy. I got into Capetown around midnight and found Zoë and Ben from Vermont (her housemate) and Ashley, a friend. Then we drove back to “The Cobbles” which is the name of the house they are staying in. There I met Natascha from Germany, Katie from Chicago, and MC (goes to Amherst?)-more housemates. After a lot of catching up we went to sleep.
Friday
Friday morning we woke up and walked up to the University. It is absolutely beautiful where they live and at the University. There are huge mountains everywhere. After Zoë and Natascha turned in their papers, we walked back home and Katie, Natascha, Zoë and I decided to go for a drive around the coast. Zoë had had some trouble earlier that day with the rental car because it was a manual, so I was the designated driver, which was an experience. It took a little getting used to, driving on the left and shifting with my left hand, but once I got used to it, it was fine. It was actually really fun to drive again, and it was funny to me because it was a Toyota Corolla, which is the same car (of my mother’s) that I drive back in the U.S., so I was in the same car, but driving on the opposite side. The coast was absolutely beautiful and the roads I was driving on made me feel like I was in a car advertisement. We drove around the winding cliffs of the mountains, overlooking ocean. We also stopped at a stretch of beach and saw a bunch of penguins, which we walked right up to, and I also found some cool shells. We went home around 6 and then all of us (Ben, Zoë, Natascha, Katie, MC and I) headed back out for Cuban food which was delicious and then to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3, which was good, but long.
Saturday
Saturday we were happy to sleep in a little bit. Zoë and I went up to Kirstenbosch, which is a beautiful garden/park and walked around and took pictures and talked. Then we headed home because Zoë and Natascha had a soccer game, which the other team ended up not showing up for. So Katie and I watched them scrimmage each other while I made friends with a little boy who I played catch with for a while. After practice we went home and had a “braai” which is a cookout and the food was amazing. I am pretty sure I gained all the weight back that I have lost in the past three months, in these past four days. I ate so well. So we ate and then all went bowling, which was pretty fun. After bowling we played some pool and then headed home because we had an early morning ahead of us.
Sunday
Sunday morning we (Natascha, Katie, Zoë, and I) left the house at 5:30 to go shark diving! It was a 2 hour drive to the place and the sun didn’t come up until about 7:15, so most of the drive was in the dark. We got to the place and ate breakfast and then we all went to the boat. The group probably had about 18-20 people in it. The ride out was pretty choppy and we were starting to feel queasy, but then when we stopped and put the anchor down in the water, things got a whole lot worse. The captain was saying how the water was extremely choppy and there were just tons of constant waves rocking the boat up and down. So as the captain starts talking about feeling ill due to this rocking, the man next to me starts throwing up over the side of the boat. This was just the beginning because I am pretty sure that for the entire 3.5 hours we were out on the water, there was always at least one person throwing up. I managed to concentrate hard enough to not do that, which amazed me because I don’t do well with throwing up and I was surrounded by it, not to mention two other boats nearby where you could hear those people as well. When I was getting my scuba suit on to get into the cage to dive, I started to feel extremely nauseous and the captain told us that if we felt sick, getting in the cage would make it a lot worse. But I came to shark dive and I really wanted to do it, so I got in with Zoë and Natascha and another man. Things were going okay at first and we were seeing tons of big sharks. One was even chewing on the cage (luckily on the opposite side from where I was) and got its tooth stuck on one of the ropes. It was pretty intense. Pretty soon though, the jostling of the cage got to me and I threw up that entire big breakfast in the water that we were all sitting in. The man next to me felt the need to mention that at least the fish were enjoying it. Ew. We saw tons of really amazing sharks, but we were all glad when we were back on land and our stomachs settled a little bit.
When we got back to the house, we took a nap, and then went out to dinner to this place that specialized in all different kids of game. Zoë and I split a “game skewer” which had springbok, kudu, and some other kind of meat on it. It was really good. There was actually shark on the menu and we thought about getting it, but the waiter said that the red meat was too good to pass up, so we opted for the skewer instead. Ben, Zoë and I also shared a tasty bottle of South African wine.
Monday
On Monday morning, Natascha made us really amazing pancakes and then we all headed into the city because she was getting a tattoo. While she was being inked, Zoë, Katie and I walked around and did some shopping. In one of the stores, the guy working there had this little baby with him who was probably 18 months old. She was really happy and we danced a lot with her. She was a pretty good dancer and all of the sudden would start what looked like break dancing. It was pretty crazy. She really enjoyed my camera so we spent a while hanging out with her while she ran around giggling and dancing, etc. After the tattoo and shopping were complete, we went home and Zoë and I made Portobello mushrooms with goat cheese and avocado for lunch. YUM. It was really beautiful outside so the two of us went for a walk up the street and into some shops. That night we all hung out and played cards and drank wine and had a good time. Zoë and I managed to sleep a few hours before 4am when we had to leave for the airport for my 6:20 flight back to Johannesburg and then Nairobi.
So the trip was amazing. Zoë’s housemates are really awesome and it was great to spend time with people and just feel at home (even though I was technically nowhere close). I had missed my best friend, who seems to understand me very well-certainly better than anyone here in Nairobi, and that was really refreshing. I was not looking forward to coming back here and getting used to the social and physical isolation again, but it isn’t too long until I head back to the U.S. for some real culture shock : )
Thursday, May 24, 2007
siku mbaya
On Monday Monica wanted to be sure I didn’t get to my exam late like last time, so she told Njenga to come at 8:30. He came at 8:20, so I got to school at 8:30 and that is when someone told me our exam was at 10 and not 9. Apparently the professor had changed it the night before and told select people (not me). So I killed some time before 10. I felt really confident about the exam because I had spent a lot of time memorizing all the material. 10:00 came and the classroom was packed with people ready to take the test, all with little pieces of paper they were using as cheat sheets. One of my friends called me over to sit in front of her because she had a paper she didn’t want the professor to see. Sheesh. So it became 10:30 and the professor finally walked in with no apology for being late or explanation and asked the class to spread their desks apart, which they didn’t, so he walked out of the room and said “when you are ready to take the exam you let me know.” So then everybody moved their desks and we waited another 15 minutes but he never came back. We waited there until 11:30 and the professor’s assistant came in to tell us the exam was moved until next week on Wednesday. I was really frustrated at this point, but thought I could take the exam next Wednesday because I would be getting back from South Africa on Tuesday afternoon, no problem. Then the exam got moved to Tuesday morning! This school frustrates me so much sometimes!
To de-stress I snuck into the Sarova Stanley, which is a five star hotel in Nairobi and they have a 5th floor outdoor pool with yellow cushioned lounge chairs. I swam and sunned there until 2, when I went to Swahili. For our homework we had to write 50 sentences that had to meet all these different criteria. This took me 3 days to do, including the re-writing, and when my professor didn’t show up I wanted to give up on this school altogether because I had spent so much time preparing work for this day and I wasn’t able to show anything for it. Finally my professor showed up though and I turned them in.
When I got home the power was out, which meant the TV was not on, and Chipa and I had a really good conversation about all kinds of things. He has his driving test tomorrow and he’s really nervous. He is also really frustrating with his whole driving experience because had had to pay a lot just to take the classes and each time he goes to drive he has to give the teacher a bribe or else they refuse to teach. He also has to give them a bribe tomorrow or he won’t pass his test. Poor guy. Also, we were having a conversation about homosexuality in Kenya and I came out to him, which was cool. I was hoping that he might come out to me too, but no such luck : ) I really hope I can get him to Philly sometime, I really think he would enjoy himself.
I’m headed to the airport to go to Capetown and will share those adventures when I get back.
To de-stress I snuck into the Sarova Stanley, which is a five star hotel in Nairobi and they have a 5th floor outdoor pool with yellow cushioned lounge chairs. I swam and sunned there until 2, when I went to Swahili. For our homework we had to write 50 sentences that had to meet all these different criteria. This took me 3 days to do, including the re-writing, and when my professor didn’t show up I wanted to give up on this school altogether because I had spent so much time preparing work for this day and I wasn’t able to show anything for it. Finally my professor showed up though and I turned them in.
When I got home the power was out, which meant the TV was not on, and Chipa and I had a really good conversation about all kinds of things. He has his driving test tomorrow and he’s really nervous. He is also really frustrating with his whole driving experience because had had to pay a lot just to take the classes and each time he goes to drive he has to give the teacher a bribe or else they refuse to teach. He also has to give them a bribe tomorrow or he won’t pass his test. Poor guy. Also, we were having a conversation about homosexuality in Kenya and I came out to him, which was cool. I was hoping that he might come out to me too, but no such luck : ) I really hope I can get him to Philly sometime, I really think he would enjoy himself.
I’m headed to the airport to go to Capetown and will share those adventures when I get back.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
hakuna simu (no phone)
Tuesday started off well. On Monday we had gone to immigration to get our pupil’s passes which serve as multiple entry visas. We had paid for them the first week we were here and they still hasn’t been processed until now. Anyway, we went on Monday to get them and they said come back Tuesday, which made me think they were just putting it off more and they wouldn’t really have them Tuesday, or if they did have them, would want a bribe for them, as is common here. But everything went fairly smoothly and we left with the passes and without paying anyone anything. So that is good news because now I won’t have to pay $50 to get back into Kenya when I go to South Africa.
I then went up to campus and hung out outside and read for a while because it was such a beautiful day. The weather here has been great lately, sunny and hot, and I thought it was supposed to be the rainy season! I’m sure now it will pour for days since I said this. At 2 I walked over to class and when I got to class, went to silence my phone, and realized it wasn’t in my bag. So I realized I must have accidentally left it where I was sitting and ran out of the classroom, down two floors, and across the green to where I had been sitting 15 minutes before, but my phone wasn’t there. Olungah happened to see me looking frantic and I told him I couldn’t find my phone so he called it. It didn’t ring, which meant that someone had already taken out the sim card, meaning it had been stolen. So that was kind of sad, and I am frustrated with myself for not paying better attention to where it was because I usually do. So I paid 2000 shillings for another phone, but they said they would be able to transfer the credit I had on my old sim card to this new one.
In class (Culture and Communication) we were talking about gender roles and how advertising plays into them. My professor was listing all the things a woman should do like cooking and cleaning and that men should be strong, independent, etc. Of course all the men in my class were agreeing out loud and the class erupted in laughter every time the professor introduced a new characteristic. It got irritating after a while, but I think I was already in a bad mood because of the phone.
Wednesday is the final exam for Psychological Anthropology--we are now finished with 2 of our 3 university classes, which is insane because we are still here for another month. And Thursday I go to Capetown!! I can’t wait! Apparently Zoe and I are going shark diving which scares me out of my mind, but how many people can say they’ve been shark diving?? I think it’s an opportunity I should take advantage of. My dad, who lived in South Africa when he was younger, said Capetown is where all the great white sharks are! Ahhh!
I then went up to campus and hung out outside and read for a while because it was such a beautiful day. The weather here has been great lately, sunny and hot, and I thought it was supposed to be the rainy season! I’m sure now it will pour for days since I said this. At 2 I walked over to class and when I got to class, went to silence my phone, and realized it wasn’t in my bag. So I realized I must have accidentally left it where I was sitting and ran out of the classroom, down two floors, and across the green to where I had been sitting 15 minutes before, but my phone wasn’t there. Olungah happened to see me looking frantic and I told him I couldn’t find my phone so he called it. It didn’t ring, which meant that someone had already taken out the sim card, meaning it had been stolen. So that was kind of sad, and I am frustrated with myself for not paying better attention to where it was because I usually do. So I paid 2000 shillings for another phone, but they said they would be able to transfer the credit I had on my old sim card to this new one.
In class (Culture and Communication) we were talking about gender roles and how advertising plays into them. My professor was listing all the things a woman should do like cooking and cleaning and that men should be strong, independent, etc. Of course all the men in my class were agreeing out loud and the class erupted in laughter every time the professor introduced a new characteristic. It got irritating after a while, but I think I was already in a bad mood because of the phone.
Wednesday is the final exam for Psychological Anthropology--we are now finished with 2 of our 3 university classes, which is insane because we are still here for another month. And Thursday I go to Capetown!! I can’t wait! Apparently Zoe and I are going shark diving which scares me out of my mind, but how many people can say they’ve been shark diving?? I think it’s an opportunity I should take advantage of. My dad, who lived in South Africa when he was younger, said Capetown is where all the great white sharks are! Ahhh!
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
ninapenda nairobi
I am over hating Nairobi and starting to fall in love with it much to my surprise. I was realizing on my matatu ride home today that the things that bothered me so much about the city are the things I am starting to admire now-like the crazy crowds, matatus, etc. Of course this always happens when you know you have to leave a place or person that you have spent significant time with, no matter how much you think you might not like it/them, you start to find the little things you love and will miss. It is unfortunate that it took me so long to adjust, I consider myself to be a pretty adaptable person, but now that I feel adjusted, I find myself with one month left and the thought that I might never come back to this city that I called home for 4 months of my life and walked in and around every single day for 120 days or so.
And I have another thing to discuss. I am embarrassed to be talking about the Tyra Banks show in my blog while I am in Kenya, but Chipa and I watch it almost every day and it really bothers me. The goal she always talks about is getting women to be strong and empowered and to feel good about themselves. So all these girls and women come on her show and their whole life is “horrible” and “ruined” because they have some physical deformity like one small breast or acne or whatever. So you would think if Tyra was trying to promote women being empowered or proud of who they are, she would talk to them about that. But instead she gives them makeovers or plastic surgery and then everything is “so much better”. It drives me crazy! She even had an episode where women talked about their flaws and then they had the option to “flaunt or fix” them and every single woman chose to “fix”, or get some kind of surgery or makeover to change their appearance. I think Tyra could do better at empowering women by making them feel better without these transformations. She always says things like “Stephanie has low self esteem because she has acne”. Stephanie does not have low self-esteem because she has acne, she has low self-esteem because she hasn’t been taught to be proud of who she is! Lots of people with acne have self esteem. I guess that is what you have to expect from a supermodel.
And I have another thing to discuss. I am embarrassed to be talking about the Tyra Banks show in my blog while I am in Kenya, but Chipa and I watch it almost every day and it really bothers me. The goal she always talks about is getting women to be strong and empowered and to feel good about themselves. So all these girls and women come on her show and their whole life is “horrible” and “ruined” because they have some physical deformity like one small breast or acne or whatever. So you would think if Tyra was trying to promote women being empowered or proud of who they are, she would talk to them about that. But instead she gives them makeovers or plastic surgery and then everything is “so much better”. It drives me crazy! She even had an episode where women talked about their flaws and then they had the option to “flaunt or fix” them and every single woman chose to “fix”, or get some kind of surgery or makeover to change their appearance. I think Tyra could do better at empowering women by making them feel better without these transformations. She always says things like “Stephanie has low self esteem because she has acne”. Stephanie does not have low self-esteem because she has acne, she has low self-esteem because she hasn’t been taught to be proud of who she is! Lots of people with acne have self esteem. I guess that is what you have to expect from a supermodel.
Monday, May 21, 2007
wikendi yangu
On Friday after Swahili class, Whitney and I met Olungah and his wife at his office and were going to go see this guy Toni who is a famous Luo singer (Luo is the tribe that my family belongs to as well as Olungah). We had gone to see Toni a month or so before, but Toni never showed up. It turned out that this time he didn’t show up again and I told Olungah that I didn’t think Toni was a real person, but he insisted that he was. So after we danced a little, we left that place and went to another one called “Deep West Resort Club” which Whitney and I found pretty funny. They were playing Luo music there too so we hung out for a while, then went home.
On Saturday we came to my house and made chocolate chip cookies. They don’t sell chocolate chips in Kenya, but we bought some baking chocolate and crushed that up and it worked pretty well. The cookies turned out to be amazing, despite some difficulties. We didn’t have a measuring cup or spoon and we had to convert all the measurements to mL or grams or Celsius. My oven is also very small so we could only bake 6 cookies at a time and until we got the temperature right, they were taking 15-20 minutes per pan. So it took us about 3-4 hours to bake the cookies, but they turned out amazing and we both felt like we were home for a little while. Between baking and afterwards we watched movies with Chipa, including Memphis Belle which I had never seen, but liked a lot.
On Sunday we met up with Olungah again at school and on the way I had a man reach out of a matatu and grab my chest, which has never happened before, but was quite an interesting (bad) experience. When we got to school Olungah took us to Kibera (the biggest slum in Africa) to a place called Carolina for Kibera which is an NGO founded by a student from UNC Chapel Hill. Whitney is hoping to volunteer there so we talked to a guy about that. Their teen girls’ program was having a photo exhibition of photographs that the girls had taken with disposable cameras they were given. It was really cool to see their photographs, and teaching underprivileged kids how to use cameras is something I really want to do, so it was a pretty awesome coincidence that that event was taking place right when we got there. There was this little boy who ran up to me while I was standing outside and held out his hand for me to shake. I said hi to him in kiSwahili and he smiled and said hi back and then called to his other little friend “mzungu!” and his friend immediately came over with his little hand stretched out to shake mine. It was adorable. Afterwards we went to another part of Kibera where Olungah got his car washed and the windows fixed while we had a beer and talked at a little restaurant nearby.
And that was my weekend (wikendi yangu). Today my mom is going to Israel for two weeks and we are going to be in the same time zone for all that time! I wish her safe travels and fun times in GMT+3 : )
On Saturday we came to my house and made chocolate chip cookies. They don’t sell chocolate chips in Kenya, but we bought some baking chocolate and crushed that up and it worked pretty well. The cookies turned out to be amazing, despite some difficulties. We didn’t have a measuring cup or spoon and we had to convert all the measurements to mL or grams or Celsius. My oven is also very small so we could only bake 6 cookies at a time and until we got the temperature right, they were taking 15-20 minutes per pan. So it took us about 3-4 hours to bake the cookies, but they turned out amazing and we both felt like we were home for a little while. Between baking and afterwards we watched movies with Chipa, including Memphis Belle which I had never seen, but liked a lot.
On Sunday we met up with Olungah again at school and on the way I had a man reach out of a matatu and grab my chest, which has never happened before, but was quite an interesting (bad) experience. When we got to school Olungah took us to Kibera (the biggest slum in Africa) to a place called Carolina for Kibera which is an NGO founded by a student from UNC Chapel Hill. Whitney is hoping to volunteer there so we talked to a guy about that. Their teen girls’ program was having a photo exhibition of photographs that the girls had taken with disposable cameras they were given. It was really cool to see their photographs, and teaching underprivileged kids how to use cameras is something I really want to do, so it was a pretty awesome coincidence that that event was taking place right when we got there. There was this little boy who ran up to me while I was standing outside and held out his hand for me to shake. I said hi to him in kiSwahili and he smiled and said hi back and then called to his other little friend “mzungu!” and his friend immediately came over with his little hand stretched out to shake mine. It was adorable. Afterwards we went to another part of Kibera where Olungah got his car washed and the windows fixed while we had a beer and talked at a little restaurant nearby.
And that was my weekend (wikendi yangu). Today my mom is going to Israel for two weeks and we are going to be in the same time zone for all that time! I wish her safe travels and fun times in GMT+3 : )
Friday, May 18, 2007
Njenga wapi?
So Thursday, Njenga-the man who usually gives me a ride to school, didn’t show up at 8:45 when he usually comes and didn’t answer his phone when we called him. I had an exam at 9 am, which I had previously not been stressed out about, until it got to be 9am and I was still sitting in my house. So Monica called someone else who drove me to school. I walked into the classroom 15 minutes late to about 80 people all being quiet and writing away at their exams. The exam was a one hour timed exam which started at 9, but luckily it only took me about 35 minutes to do. Whew. That was kind of nerve wracking. After the exam I met up with Hassan who is the guy making the movie about Terrorism that I was interviewed for on Sunday. He needs help with the production of the movie in terms of recruiting people for interviews and asked if I wanted to be part of his team and I said yes. He is a cool kid and we talked a lot about his movie and then bought me lunch. Some things about Kenya being old fashioned in terms of gender equality annoy me, but I have to admit I enjoy men paying for things all the time.
On Tuesday when I was at Masaai Market I was saying how I wished I could shop for the things at Masaai Market without the constant hassle of bargaining and people following me and offering me things. One man actually said to me “Do you need a zebra?” I couldn’t stop laughing. Almost every person comes up to me and says “My seestah I give you good price!” which usually means starting at 10x whatever they would charge a normal, non-mzungu person. So anyway, I was walking slowly down the street Thursday killing time before I went home because class was canceled and it was early, and I came upon this shop called “Zanzibar Curio Shop” and decided to go in. What do you know, this place was huge and sold everything Masaai Market sold at fixed prices that were a lot lower than I could get as a mzungu at Masaai Market! My wishes were answered and I spent the next hour or so there exploring and buying some presents for people at home : )
On Tuesday when I was at Masaai Market I was saying how I wished I could shop for the things at Masaai Market without the constant hassle of bargaining and people following me and offering me things. One man actually said to me “Do you need a zebra?” I couldn’t stop laughing. Almost every person comes up to me and says “My seestah I give you good price!” which usually means starting at 10x whatever they would charge a normal, non-mzungu person. So anyway, I was walking slowly down the street Thursday killing time before I went home because class was canceled and it was early, and I came upon this shop called “Zanzibar Curio Shop” and decided to go in. What do you know, this place was huge and sold everything Masaai Market sold at fixed prices that were a lot lower than I could get as a mzungu at Masaai Market! My wishes were answered and I spent the next hour or so there exploring and buying some presents for people at home : )
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Ethiopian men
Happy Birthday to one of my lovely mothers, Joy : ) I hope you are having a great day!
So Wednesday on my matatu ride home a man came and sat down next to me. People sit next to me all the time on matatus as they are not known for being spacious or not completely filled to capacity. People, however, do not usually start up conversations with me. Only two people in my daily matatu rides have ever started up a conversation with me like this man did. His name was Abush and the other was Araya. Both talked to me and introduced themselves and then invited me over for tea sometime. Interestingly, both were Ethiopian as well. Another interesting thing is that usually when men talk to me I get a bad feeling and can sense that they are just talking to me because I am a white woman and they want to have sex or marry me or various other things they suggest. But both of these men seemed genuinely nice (although it’s possible that they are just good actors). I think it is really interesting that both were Ethiopian. Are random Ethiopian men generally friendlier than random Kenyan men? Is it just a crazy coincidence and I am stereotyping based on two people? I mean I am positive that not ALL Ethiopian men are like this because that is a lot of people to generalize. I do not know, I just think it’s interesting. Anyway, Abush wanted me to come over to his house for tea sometime and I said maybe we could meet in the city for tea. He also paid my matatu fare, which was really nice.
Other than having yet another pleasant experience with a guy on a matatu, my day was uneventful. I was supposed to meet a friend in the morning, but once I got to campus she told me that her aunt was sick and she had to go to her place, so I spent the hours between 10am and 2:30 pm reading a book and studying a little for my test on Thursday. Chipa showed me this little book he has of test taking tips, which I read. I told him that after I read it I felt a lot more nervous for my test than I had before reading it. He said “yeah I usually read that before tests in high school instead of studying”. I asked him how that went for him, how he did on those tests, to which he replied “not very well”. It was pretty funny. So I am going to review the material as well as reading the little book.
So Wednesday on my matatu ride home a man came and sat down next to me. People sit next to me all the time on matatus as they are not known for being spacious or not completely filled to capacity. People, however, do not usually start up conversations with me. Only two people in my daily matatu rides have ever started up a conversation with me like this man did. His name was Abush and the other was Araya. Both talked to me and introduced themselves and then invited me over for tea sometime. Interestingly, both were Ethiopian as well. Another interesting thing is that usually when men talk to me I get a bad feeling and can sense that they are just talking to me because I am a white woman and they want to have sex or marry me or various other things they suggest. But both of these men seemed genuinely nice (although it’s possible that they are just good actors). I think it is really interesting that both were Ethiopian. Are random Ethiopian men generally friendlier than random Kenyan men? Is it just a crazy coincidence and I am stereotyping based on two people? I mean I am positive that not ALL Ethiopian men are like this because that is a lot of people to generalize. I do not know, I just think it’s interesting. Anyway, Abush wanted me to come over to his house for tea sometime and I said maybe we could meet in the city for tea. He also paid my matatu fare, which was really nice.
Other than having yet another pleasant experience with a guy on a matatu, my day was uneventful. I was supposed to meet a friend in the morning, but once I got to campus she told me that her aunt was sick and she had to go to her place, so I spent the hours between 10am and 2:30 pm reading a book and studying a little for my test on Thursday. Chipa showed me this little book he has of test taking tips, which I read. I told him that after I read it I felt a lot more nervous for my test than I had before reading it. He said “yeah I usually read that before tests in high school instead of studying”. I asked him how that went for him, how he did on those tests, to which he replied “not very well”. It was pretty funny. So I am going to review the material as well as reading the little book.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
making trades
Happy Birthday Tia Julie!! I hope those little cousins of mine are being nice to you.
Tuesday we met at Masaai Market for the first half of Swahili class. As soon as I got there, I had an entourage of 3 men who said they wanted to show me their shop and that they would wait for my other friend to come and deliver her to me. They did in fact do that, and they also wanted to give me some very bad deals, so eventually I got rid of them when I told them I wouldn’t pay what they wanted. I did end up getting some cool stuff. I was buying a painting from one lady and she wanted more money than I had left so she asked what else I had in my bag. I told her I only had a pen and some hand sanitizer (besides my water and notebook, which I needed), so she ended up selling me the painting for 150 shillings, half a bottle of hand sanitizer, and a pen. What a bargain. I also got (for free) a cool sunburn on my back with a white line from where my bag strap was. Just picture a “no” symbol, but instead of a red slash with a white background, I have a white slash with a red background. Cool : )
The second half of class we sat in a park and learned Swahili and talked about our purchases and showed each other what we got. After class we were going to make our bus reservations for Mombasa on Thursday but the news has been showing clips of people wading through water waist-deep in Mombasa because of flooding there, so we decided to put it off for another weekend and bake chocolate chip cookies at my house this weekend instead.
We have our first test, which they call a CAT here- something that starts with “c” achievement test?- on Thursday in Anthropology of Infectious Diseases, which should be interesting.
OH! My sister had her baby on Friday! It is a boy and his name is something that sounds like Shay or Oshay, I am not sure. I will have to find out more about that. So now I am the proud Aunt of two little boys : )
Tuesday we met at Masaai Market for the first half of Swahili class. As soon as I got there, I had an entourage of 3 men who said they wanted to show me their shop and that they would wait for my other friend to come and deliver her to me. They did in fact do that, and they also wanted to give me some very bad deals, so eventually I got rid of them when I told them I wouldn’t pay what they wanted. I did end up getting some cool stuff. I was buying a painting from one lady and she wanted more money than I had left so she asked what else I had in my bag. I told her I only had a pen and some hand sanitizer (besides my water and notebook, which I needed), so she ended up selling me the painting for 150 shillings, half a bottle of hand sanitizer, and a pen. What a bargain. I also got (for free) a cool sunburn on my back with a white line from where my bag strap was. Just picture a “no” symbol, but instead of a red slash with a white background, I have a white slash with a red background. Cool : )
The second half of class we sat in a park and learned Swahili and talked about our purchases and showed each other what we got. After class we were going to make our bus reservations for Mombasa on Thursday but the news has been showing clips of people wading through water waist-deep in Mombasa because of flooding there, so we decided to put it off for another weekend and bake chocolate chip cookies at my house this weekend instead.
We have our first test, which they call a CAT here- something that starts with “c” achievement test?- on Thursday in Anthropology of Infectious Diseases, which should be interesting.
OH! My sister had her baby on Friday! It is a boy and his name is something that sounds like Shay or Oshay, I am not sure. I will have to find out more about that. So now I am the proud Aunt of two little boys : )
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
leo
Today was a National Day of Prayer and Mourning for the victims of the Kenya Airways flight and their families. There was an interfaith prayer service that was televised as well as a National moment of silence at 11:05.
I went to Swahili at 2:30 and Daniel let us have class outside instead of in the dungeon, I mean basement, of the building we usually have class in. So we went to a park nearby and sat and had class. It was nice to be outside for a change. Our classroom has one overhead light and a few small windows along the top of one wall. It’s pretty dismal. We learned a lot. I am really starting to feel like I can speak Swahili. After class Daniel and I walked towards our respective matatus and had a conversation in Swahili. It is a cool feeling to have it all come together and be able to talk in sentences and paragraphs.
Other than that, the day was pretty uneventful. I watched the Tyra show with Chipa when I got home, as I usually do if I am home before 6. My mom sent me her sermon from Mother’s Day, and in it was this quotation about “home” that I really liked, and made me really miss my home in the U.S. This is the quotation:
“home is … an emotion, a deep-rooted sense of welcome and permanence and belonging. It’s the safe, intensely personal realm where you can permit yourself to throw off everything that isn’t fundamentally, essentially you. It’s a complex, messy stew of throat-catching slants of light, kitchen smells, and déjà vu. If you’re lucky and the place has been around for a while, it can connect you – with people you never knew. Some people have a home from childhood; others spend a lifetime looking for it. Once you recognize it, you’re bound to it forever – even if it sits in an extreme locale. Even if it disappears.” -Dwight Young
I am starting to like Nairobi a lot better and starting to think that I will miss it when I go home, but I often look forward to returning to feeling what Dwight Young describes in that paragraph.
I went to Swahili at 2:30 and Daniel let us have class outside instead of in the dungeon, I mean basement, of the building we usually have class in. So we went to a park nearby and sat and had class. It was nice to be outside for a change. Our classroom has one overhead light and a few small windows along the top of one wall. It’s pretty dismal. We learned a lot. I am really starting to feel like I can speak Swahili. After class Daniel and I walked towards our respective matatus and had a conversation in Swahili. It is a cool feeling to have it all come together and be able to talk in sentences and paragraphs.
Other than that, the day was pretty uneventful. I watched the Tyra show with Chipa when I got home, as I usually do if I am home before 6. My mom sent me her sermon from Mother’s Day, and in it was this quotation about “home” that I really liked, and made me really miss my home in the U.S. This is the quotation:
“home is … an emotion, a deep-rooted sense of welcome and permanence and belonging. It’s the safe, intensely personal realm where you can permit yourself to throw off everything that isn’t fundamentally, essentially you. It’s a complex, messy stew of throat-catching slants of light, kitchen smells, and déjà vu. If you’re lucky and the place has been around for a while, it can connect you – with people you never knew. Some people have a home from childhood; others spend a lifetime looking for it. Once you recognize it, you’re bound to it forever – even if it sits in an extreme locale. Even if it disappears.” -Dwight Young
I am starting to like Nairobi a lot better and starting to think that I will miss it when I go home, but I often look forward to returning to feeling what Dwight Young describes in that paragraph.
Monday, May 14, 2007
wikendi
Friday was pretty uneventful. We had kiSwahili and went to Java House afterwards. We ran into Matt and Kevin there, two of the guys we hiked with from St. Lawrence. It was good to see them again before they go back to the states. Friday night I hung out at the YWCA with my cousins and Whitney.
On Saturday, Whitney and I went to Njuhi’s house because her older sister was having a get together for her birthday. When Kenyans have get-togethers, it means two things: good food (and lots of it) and good company. So we hung out with a lot of people and ate some great food and laughed and talked. We met a friend of Njeri’s (Njuhi’s sister) who went to school in the U.S. so we compared culture shock stories of being American and going to school in Kenya and her being Kenyan and going to school in America. It was really interesting to hear what she had to say and to see how much we had in common. Njuhi’s mother is adorable and a great cook and I spent a lot of time talking to her and listening to her stories of when she was growing up with 7 siblings. She’s pretty funny. It was great to see Njuhi in her element. She seemed to be glowing, she was so happy, despite her being so tired from end of school craziness and traveling. She told me that this is what she misses most when she’s in the States and I can see why. At one point in the middle of the party, Njeri turned off the music and said we were going to have a talent show and everyone had to go around the room and share a talent. It was pretty hilarious. Mine was popping out my shoulder blades which made the whole room gasp and a few people ask me to do it again. Njeri and another girl, Kate, sang songs. Njuhi did some freestyle poetry, which was really good and nice to hear, as that is something I really miss from the U.S. The party died down around 9:30 and Whitney and I stayed and had some wine with Njuhi and her mom and talked with them and Njeri and her friend Brian. We left around 11:30 and went back to the YWCA. It was such a fun time and so nice to spend time with Njuhi and her family in her house and eat such amazing food in large quantities. That is my kind of party : )
Sunday was Mother’s Day and I went to Nakumatt to buy food to make Chicken Masaman Curry for dinner. I also bought Monica some flowers, which the vender initially tried to sell to me for 1,200 shillings but quickly lowered the price to 300 when he realized I wasn’t brand new to Kenya because I answered him in kiSwahili telling him I wouldn’t pay that much. Then, as I carried the flowers to the matatu, I had at least 4 men ask me if the flowers were for them, etc etc. Ugh. Can’t a girl just get her mother flowers on Mother’s Day?? I was actually thinking it was pretty funny because I hadn’t showered in two days and was wearing my glasses and feeling pretty disheveled, but these men just do not give up : )
On Saturday, Whitney and I went to Njuhi’s house because her older sister was having a get together for her birthday. When Kenyans have get-togethers, it means two things: good food (and lots of it) and good company. So we hung out with a lot of people and ate some great food and laughed and talked. We met a friend of Njeri’s (Njuhi’s sister) who went to school in the U.S. so we compared culture shock stories of being American and going to school in Kenya and her being Kenyan and going to school in America. It was really interesting to hear what she had to say and to see how much we had in common. Njuhi’s mother is adorable and a great cook and I spent a lot of time talking to her and listening to her stories of when she was growing up with 7 siblings. She’s pretty funny. It was great to see Njuhi in her element. She seemed to be glowing, she was so happy, despite her being so tired from end of school craziness and traveling. She told me that this is what she misses most when she’s in the States and I can see why. At one point in the middle of the party, Njeri turned off the music and said we were going to have a talent show and everyone had to go around the room and share a talent. It was pretty hilarious. Mine was popping out my shoulder blades which made the whole room gasp and a few people ask me to do it again. Njeri and another girl, Kate, sang songs. Njuhi did some freestyle poetry, which was really good and nice to hear, as that is something I really miss from the U.S. The party died down around 9:30 and Whitney and I stayed and had some wine with Njuhi and her mom and talked with them and Njeri and her friend Brian. We left around 11:30 and went back to the YWCA. It was such a fun time and so nice to spend time with Njuhi and her family in her house and eat such amazing food in large quantities. That is my kind of party : )
Sunday was Mother’s Day and I went to Nakumatt to buy food to make Chicken Masaman Curry for dinner. I also bought Monica some flowers, which the vender initially tried to sell to me for 1,200 shillings but quickly lowered the price to 300 when he realized I wasn’t brand new to Kenya because I answered him in kiSwahili telling him I wouldn’t pay that much. Then, as I carried the flowers to the matatu, I had at least 4 men ask me if the flowers were for them, etc etc. Ugh. Can’t a girl just get her mother flowers on Mother’s Day?? I was actually thinking it was pretty funny because I hadn’t showered in two days and was wearing my glasses and feeling pretty disheveled, but these men just do not give up : )
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Happy Mother's Day!
I realize that with my host mother here I am now the proud child of 6 mothers. SO happy Mother's Day to Mom, Joy, Vicki, Mary, Meredith, and Monica. : ) You guys are the best and I wouldn't be where I am with out you.
Thank you.
Love
Sarah
Thank you.
Love
Sarah
Friday, May 11, 2007
what do may showers bring?
On Thursday I met Njuhi in town for lunch! She called me on my way back from Mount Kenya and we met up on Thursday and hung out for a few hours. It was really cool to see a familiar face from the U.S. She filled Whitney and I in on all the madness that has been happening at Bryn Mawr and it made me very grateful for the boredom I have been complaining about.
After we hung out with her for a few hours we took a bus out to Karen for “the last supper”. We were walking through Karen and talking about how we felt like we were in a different world-all the houses have huge walls outside of them with electric fencing and it’s shady and spacious. Then we walked into the St. Lawrence compound and there were all these white tents set up and catering bars. It was pretty nice. So we had dinner there and then there was a performance by this group of a bunch of drummers and dancers who were awesome. Watching the dancing and listening to the drumming was almost intoxicating. Then some guys came out and were juggling fire and others were doing acrobatics. It was really cool. At the end they played some songs and everyone got up and danced including some adorable little kids. After the dancing stopped I was playing on one of the djembes and a couple of the drummer guys said I should come over to where they play because it’s in Kariokor and I could play with them. So that will be really cool.
On my way home this morning I got stopped by some people making a documentary film. They were interviewing expats (foreigners) living in Kenya about their views on terrorism. So they asked me a bunch of questions like “Do you think all Muslims are terrorists?” and “What does a war on terror mean to you?” It was pretty interesting. Hopefully it will be a good movie.
In other news, I just booked my flight to Capetown to visit Zoë! I am really excited. I am leaving the 24th and coming back the 29th of May. May is turning out to be a really busy month, but in a very good way : ) Tomorrow Whitney and I are going to Njuhi’s house for her sister’s birthday party. I am excited to finally meet her family.
After we hung out with her for a few hours we took a bus out to Karen for “the last supper”. We were walking through Karen and talking about how we felt like we were in a different world-all the houses have huge walls outside of them with electric fencing and it’s shady and spacious. Then we walked into the St. Lawrence compound and there were all these white tents set up and catering bars. It was pretty nice. So we had dinner there and then there was a performance by this group of a bunch of drummers and dancers who were awesome. Watching the dancing and listening to the drumming was almost intoxicating. Then some guys came out and were juggling fire and others were doing acrobatics. It was really cool. At the end they played some songs and everyone got up and danced including some adorable little kids. After the dancing stopped I was playing on one of the djembes and a couple of the drummer guys said I should come over to where they play because it’s in Kariokor and I could play with them. So that will be really cool.
On my way home this morning I got stopped by some people making a documentary film. They were interviewing expats (foreigners) living in Kenya about their views on terrorism. So they asked me a bunch of questions like “Do you think all Muslims are terrorists?” and “What does a war on terror mean to you?” It was pretty interesting. Hopefully it will be a good movie.
In other news, I just booked my flight to Capetown to visit Zoë! I am really excited. I am leaving the 24th and coming back the 29th of May. May is turning out to be a really busy month, but in a very good way : ) Tomorrow Whitney and I are going to Njuhi’s house for her sister’s birthday party. I am excited to finally meet her family.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Standing Above the Clouds
Climbing Mount Kenya was an incredible, challenging experience that I could have never imagined before going. I was not prepared at all to go in terms of gear or physical shape (I should have been running 10 miles a day with a backpack on). I didn’t have gloves or hiking boots, both of which would have made the climb 10x easier. I was actually the only one in the group of 20 who climbed the entire mountain, up and down, in sneakers. Despite some discomfort, it was absolutely amazing. Here is a little recap:
Sunday
On Saturday night I spent the night at Whitney’s because we were getting picked up at the YWCA at 6:30 am on Sunday morning. Whitney’s host mother is away and it was our cousin Maxwell’s birthday, so there was a “no parents in the house, let’s have a party” birthday party for him. It was fun and I met a lot of fun people, but didn’t sleep much that night. We got picked up in the morning and drove a few hours to Chogoria, which is a town at the base of the mountain. We met our guides there and piled all of our stuff and ourselves on top of and into two Land Rovers that looked like they were at least 20 years old. From there we started to make our way up the dirt road to the entrance gate of the mountain. There were 11 of us in each car with the guides and drivers and there was nothing to hold onto as we bounced up and down over the bumps and mud pits. Both cars kept getting stuck in the mud and after pushing them a few times, the drivers decided that they couldn’t go any further and we got our backpacks down and hiked 2 km straight up to the base camp at 2900 meters. It was only 2 km, but it was absolutely exhausting because of the incline and the weight of our bags, which we weren’t used to yet, not to mention the altitude change. We got to base camp and explored the land a little, which was beautiful. We then made dinner of pasta and beans and afterwards were briefed on the dangers of altitude sickness. Apparently 50% of altitude sickness deaths happen on Mt. Kenya and Mt. Kilimanjaro. I didn’t realize how serious altitude sickness was. The guide told us that if we started to feel the effects of it, we had 3 hours to get down before it was too late. Whoa. After that we went to bed. I slept in a wool sweater, hat, fleece jacket, and sweat pants, under three blankets and was absolutely freezing.
Monday
Monday and Tuesday might have been the longest days of my life. Monday morning we woke up at 6, had breakfast of oatmeal, which I tried to force down, and set off for the climb. We started through some beautiful forest and I saw a wild chameleon in the bushes along the trail. The hike was absolutely beautiful. I don’t know if words can describe it, but I took a lot of pictures. I saw everything from enormous waterfalls to amazing rock formations, to crazy plants that only grown at high altitudes on free standing mountains like Mount Kenya. The hike was also extremely physically challenging. We would climb up for hours only to reach the top and realize there was another peak twice as big right behind the one we had just climbed. We climbed down and up through a crater, which was really cool. Breathing was really difficult the higher we climbed. We ended up hiking 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) before we got to camp at 4200 m (14,000 feet)-and all this with 30-40 pound on our backs. Once we got to camp I was absolutely exhausted as well as absolutely freezing. I put on every piece of clothing I had and wrapped myself in a wool blanket. We had dinner of pasta and beans again and went to sleep around 9, but I didn’t sleep more than 30 minutes the entire night because I was so cold. One girl in our group was having some pretty bad breathing problems and ended up getting really sick and not being able to climb the next day.
Tuesday
Tuesday morning we woke up at 2am to start our climb to point Lenana, the 3rd highest peak on Mount Kenya, and the only one you can reach without technical climbing equipment. We hiked through the dark up some really steep slopes and had to stop every 15 minutes or so to catch our breaths. The ground was frozen crunchy gravel and with the light from the stars and moon it felt like we were hiking mountains on the moon. We made it to 4700 meters by about 6:30am and watched the sun come up over the mountains. At this point we were standing above the clouds and seeing the sun rise at this level was breath taking (and not just because of the lack of oxygen at this altitude). At 4700 meters we put down our packs and started walking towards the summit. I don’t think I have ever been so cold in my entire life. My feet had gotten wet from the morning’s walk and were completely numb by this point. I also didn’t have gloves so my hands were numb as well as my face. I started to walk towards the peak, but every few steps I had to sit down. I think the combination of no sleep the night before and numb feet really did me in. I kept getting up and telling myself that I could do it, I could make it those last 100 meters up after coming this far, but after I tried a few times and failed, I decided it wasn’t worth hurting myself and slowly started to walk back down. I was disappointed, but also knew that I had made it really far and that was an accomplishment in itself.
After that, there was nowhere to go but down, so we started the descent. It was somewhat terrifying to go down because it was really steep and the only thing to step on was loose gravel. Samuel, the guide, took me by the hand and showed me how to “skate” down, which is kind of like skiing (with no skis), but you essentially run down the mountain, letting your feet slide down with every step. It was pretty difficult at first, especially with the weight of the pack, but I got a hang of it after a lot of falling, and it was sort of fun by the end. We made it down to about 4200 meters and stopped to have breakfast. We had all our bags down and everybody was sort of lounging around on the ground when we noticed these oversized hamster looking things. They’re called Rock Hyrax’s and are actually the closes living relative to the elephant, but look nothing like elephants.--they are about the size of groundhogs and have brown fur. These little guys wanted our food and started chewing on jars of peanut butter and bags of pretzels. They wouldn’t give up either when we tried to poke them with a stick or toss pebbles in their direction. It was pretty hilarious.
Around 11 we headed off on our hike to 3300 meters, which was another 9 km (after the 7 km before breakfast). The hike was long, but really beautiful. I noticed that at about 3500 km, I could take a deep breath without it being painful. By the time we made it to camp around 5:30pm I hadn’t slept in about 48 hours and I don’t know how my body was still functioning. I think I was on some sort of auto pilot. We set up our tents and made dinner…more beans, and then went to sleep. Both nights on the mountain, the sky was absolutely gorgeous. I have never seen anything like it. It was almost like there wasn’t any part of the sky without a star in it. I felt like I was living in Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”. I wish I could have taken a picture.
Wednesday
I slept like a rock and woke up at 7, had breakfast, which was more oatmeal. I hated oatmeal as a kid and haven’t eaten it since I was about 7 or 8. I thought “I am an adult now, I can make myself eat this,” but I was wrong. I tried a few times on the trip, but could never get more than a few spoonfuls down. I guess there are some things you just can’t overcome : )
We hiked down another 9km and made it to the vans to take us back to Nairobi. Along the way we saw a lot of Olive Baboons. We also saw this huge line across the entire road and when we got closer, realized it was a trail of ants about an inch thick, making their way across the road. I’ve never seen anything like it and it was amazing how they stayed in this perfect strip all along the path. Who knew ants could be so fascinating?
The hike was something I will definitely never forget—especially not in these next couple days where every step reminds me of each muscle I used to climb the mountain. I really enjoyed getting to know some of the St. Lawrence kids. Most of them are really down to earth and were really fun to be around. They have all been here since January and are going home on Saturday, so they kept talking about what they were going to do when they got home, like eat real ice cream or pizza, or sleep in their beds for days. It made me slightly nostalgic for the U.S. They invited us to the place they’re staying in Karen, “the compound” on Thursday night for their “last supper” so we are going over there to celebrate with them.
At one point on the way down Samuel pointed to the highest peak and said “When you come back, you hike that one, but you need to practice in America with rock climbing”. I sort of laughed and said “okay”. I don’t know if I will ever be back to climb Mount Kenya, especially the highest peak, but I am really glad I got the opportunity to go on such an amazing adventure.
Sunday
On Saturday night I spent the night at Whitney’s because we were getting picked up at the YWCA at 6:30 am on Sunday morning. Whitney’s host mother is away and it was our cousin Maxwell’s birthday, so there was a “no parents in the house, let’s have a party” birthday party for him. It was fun and I met a lot of fun people, but didn’t sleep much that night. We got picked up in the morning and drove a few hours to Chogoria, which is a town at the base of the mountain. We met our guides there and piled all of our stuff and ourselves on top of and into two Land Rovers that looked like they were at least 20 years old. From there we started to make our way up the dirt road to the entrance gate of the mountain. There were 11 of us in each car with the guides and drivers and there was nothing to hold onto as we bounced up and down over the bumps and mud pits. Both cars kept getting stuck in the mud and after pushing them a few times, the drivers decided that they couldn’t go any further and we got our backpacks down and hiked 2 km straight up to the base camp at 2900 meters. It was only 2 km, but it was absolutely exhausting because of the incline and the weight of our bags, which we weren’t used to yet, not to mention the altitude change. We got to base camp and explored the land a little, which was beautiful. We then made dinner of pasta and beans and afterwards were briefed on the dangers of altitude sickness. Apparently 50% of altitude sickness deaths happen on Mt. Kenya and Mt. Kilimanjaro. I didn’t realize how serious altitude sickness was. The guide told us that if we started to feel the effects of it, we had 3 hours to get down before it was too late. Whoa. After that we went to bed. I slept in a wool sweater, hat, fleece jacket, and sweat pants, under three blankets and was absolutely freezing.
Monday
Monday and Tuesday might have been the longest days of my life. Monday morning we woke up at 6, had breakfast of oatmeal, which I tried to force down, and set off for the climb. We started through some beautiful forest and I saw a wild chameleon in the bushes along the trail. The hike was absolutely beautiful. I don’t know if words can describe it, but I took a lot of pictures. I saw everything from enormous waterfalls to amazing rock formations, to crazy plants that only grown at high altitudes on free standing mountains like Mount Kenya. The hike was also extremely physically challenging. We would climb up for hours only to reach the top and realize there was another peak twice as big right behind the one we had just climbed. We climbed down and up through a crater, which was really cool. Breathing was really difficult the higher we climbed. We ended up hiking 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) before we got to camp at 4200 m (14,000 feet)-and all this with 30-40 pound on our backs. Once we got to camp I was absolutely exhausted as well as absolutely freezing. I put on every piece of clothing I had and wrapped myself in a wool blanket. We had dinner of pasta and beans again and went to sleep around 9, but I didn’t sleep more than 30 minutes the entire night because I was so cold. One girl in our group was having some pretty bad breathing problems and ended up getting really sick and not being able to climb the next day.
Tuesday
Tuesday morning we woke up at 2am to start our climb to point Lenana, the 3rd highest peak on Mount Kenya, and the only one you can reach without technical climbing equipment. We hiked through the dark up some really steep slopes and had to stop every 15 minutes or so to catch our breaths. The ground was frozen crunchy gravel and with the light from the stars and moon it felt like we were hiking mountains on the moon. We made it to 4700 meters by about 6:30am and watched the sun come up over the mountains. At this point we were standing above the clouds and seeing the sun rise at this level was breath taking (and not just because of the lack of oxygen at this altitude). At 4700 meters we put down our packs and started walking towards the summit. I don’t think I have ever been so cold in my entire life. My feet had gotten wet from the morning’s walk and were completely numb by this point. I also didn’t have gloves so my hands were numb as well as my face. I started to walk towards the peak, but every few steps I had to sit down. I think the combination of no sleep the night before and numb feet really did me in. I kept getting up and telling myself that I could do it, I could make it those last 100 meters up after coming this far, but after I tried a few times and failed, I decided it wasn’t worth hurting myself and slowly started to walk back down. I was disappointed, but also knew that I had made it really far and that was an accomplishment in itself.
After that, there was nowhere to go but down, so we started the descent. It was somewhat terrifying to go down because it was really steep and the only thing to step on was loose gravel. Samuel, the guide, took me by the hand and showed me how to “skate” down, which is kind of like skiing (with no skis), but you essentially run down the mountain, letting your feet slide down with every step. It was pretty difficult at first, especially with the weight of the pack, but I got a hang of it after a lot of falling, and it was sort of fun by the end. We made it down to about 4200 meters and stopped to have breakfast. We had all our bags down and everybody was sort of lounging around on the ground when we noticed these oversized hamster looking things. They’re called Rock Hyrax’s and are actually the closes living relative to the elephant, but look nothing like elephants.--they are about the size of groundhogs and have brown fur. These little guys wanted our food and started chewing on jars of peanut butter and bags of pretzels. They wouldn’t give up either when we tried to poke them with a stick or toss pebbles in their direction. It was pretty hilarious.
Around 11 we headed off on our hike to 3300 meters, which was another 9 km (after the 7 km before breakfast). The hike was long, but really beautiful. I noticed that at about 3500 km, I could take a deep breath without it being painful. By the time we made it to camp around 5:30pm I hadn’t slept in about 48 hours and I don’t know how my body was still functioning. I think I was on some sort of auto pilot. We set up our tents and made dinner…more beans, and then went to sleep. Both nights on the mountain, the sky was absolutely gorgeous. I have never seen anything like it. It was almost like there wasn’t any part of the sky without a star in it. I felt like I was living in Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”. I wish I could have taken a picture.
Wednesday
I slept like a rock and woke up at 7, had breakfast, which was more oatmeal. I hated oatmeal as a kid and haven’t eaten it since I was about 7 or 8. I thought “I am an adult now, I can make myself eat this,” but I was wrong. I tried a few times on the trip, but could never get more than a few spoonfuls down. I guess there are some things you just can’t overcome : )
We hiked down another 9km and made it to the vans to take us back to Nairobi. Along the way we saw a lot of Olive Baboons. We also saw this huge line across the entire road and when we got closer, realized it was a trail of ants about an inch thick, making their way across the road. I’ve never seen anything like it and it was amazing how they stayed in this perfect strip all along the path. Who knew ants could be so fascinating?
The hike was something I will definitely never forget—especially not in these next couple days where every step reminds me of each muscle I used to climb the mountain. I really enjoyed getting to know some of the St. Lawrence kids. Most of them are really down to earth and were really fun to be around. They have all been here since January and are going home on Saturday, so they kept talking about what they were going to do when they got home, like eat real ice cream or pizza, or sleep in their beds for days. It made me slightly nostalgic for the U.S. They invited us to the place they’re staying in Karen, “the compound” on Thursday night for their “last supper” so we are going over there to celebrate with them.
At one point on the way down Samuel pointed to the highest peak and said “When you come back, you hike that one, but you need to practice in America with rock climbing”. I sort of laughed and said “okay”. I don’t know if I will ever be back to climb Mount Kenya, especially the highest peak, but I am really glad I got the opportunity to go on such an amazing adventure.
Saturday, May 5, 2007
pole sana
I've been watching the news since this morning about a Kenyan Airaways plane that disappeared after leaving Louala, Cameroon on its way to Nairobi. Cameroon is saying the plane crashed, but Kenya Airways won't say that until there is confirmation. THey still haven't found the plane. THere were 106 passengers and 8 crew memebers. I can't believe they still haven't figure out what happened to the plane or where it is. I feel so badly for the families of those on board.
I am off to Mount Kenya tomorrow morning at 6am. We are acsending for the first 3 days and then coming down on the fourth day. It should be pretty amazing. I am excited for it : )
I am off to Mount Kenya tomorrow morning at 6am. We are acsending for the first 3 days and then coming down on the fourth day. It should be pretty amazing. I am excited for it : )
Friday, May 4, 2007
fun facts and a poem
Thursday morning I had class and then met Josephine who is leading the Mt. Kenya trip to talk about details. I spent the rest of the day in the hospital with Whitney because she wasn’t feeling well and I decided to get my chest thing checked out. Both of us came out with negative results, so that was good. Since my day was so uneventful I decided to include some fun facts and a poem.
Fun Fact: mzunguko means “round” in kiSwahili. Our professor told us the word “mzungu” came from mzunguko because Europeans went around the world to explore.
Fun Fact: even though homosexuality is illegal in Kenya and a huge taboo, men hold hands with men and women with women all the time walking down the street in public.
Joy sent me this poem one of the first days I was here. Her niece Emily wrote it and I have it taped up on the wall next to my bed. I like it a lot.
It isn't a question of finding gratitude--
the trouble is always finding space
between bus fares and falling soufflés
and naming previously undiscovered species of fish--
To make room for gratitude
we may have to sacrifice a moment
of sipping apple juice or riding bicycles,
we may have to pause
in the middle of a chapter, the middle
of a sentence, even mid-word,
to hear the yellow leaves
crackle under our feet
to take a tiny hand
in our own warm hands
to look with reverence at a face
that didn't have to smile but smiled anyway.
Gratitude will not fill our stomachs
or shelter our heads,
it will never
reveal the mysterious location of our car keys
or help us up from the concrete
that scraped us down to the blood,
but it may compel us to see the route home
at a walking pace
and to look up
from the sidewalk where we lay
to the vast, blue wonder we call sky.
Fun Fact: mzunguko means “round” in kiSwahili. Our professor told us the word “mzungu” came from mzunguko because Europeans went around the world to explore.
Fun Fact: even though homosexuality is illegal in Kenya and a huge taboo, men hold hands with men and women with women all the time walking down the street in public.
Joy sent me this poem one of the first days I was here. Her niece Emily wrote it and I have it taped up on the wall next to my bed. I like it a lot.
It isn't a question of finding gratitude--
the trouble is always finding space
between bus fares and falling soufflés
and naming previously undiscovered species of fish--
To make room for gratitude
we may have to sacrifice a moment
of sipping apple juice or riding bicycles,
we may have to pause
in the middle of a chapter, the middle
of a sentence, even mid-word,
to hear the yellow leaves
crackle under our feet
to take a tiny hand
in our own warm hands
to look with reverence at a face
that didn't have to smile but smiled anyway.
Gratitude will not fill our stomachs
or shelter our heads,
it will never
reveal the mysterious location of our car keys
or help us up from the concrete
that scraped us down to the blood,
but it may compel us to see the route home
at a walking pace
and to look up
from the sidewalk where we lay
to the vast, blue wonder we call sky.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Mount Kenya
Wednesday was a good day. We had Psychological Anthropology which was interesting although there was a big discussion on rape where some of them men were saying that blaming men for rape is putting too much pressure on the male sex, because if women are dressing provocatively it is there fault too. Wow.
After class I went to check out flights to Capetown to visit Zoe, but then realized that I didn’t have a multiple entry visa for Kenya, so I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get back into Kenya when I got back and thought I should figure that out before I bought the ticket. So that is my mission over the next couple days.
Whitney and I went to Java House for lunch and ran into two girls from the St. Lawrence program there so we invited them to sit with us and we all ate together. Some of the people in their group are climbing Mount Kenya from Sunday to Wednesday so Whitney and I decided to tag along since we had wanted to do that sometimes while we were here. So we are going to climb Mount Kenya! Next week! Wahoo!
After lunch we had Swahili and the past couple classes we have had a substitute teacher, Rose, who we like a lot because she’s funny and she goes a lot faster than Daniel, our usual teacher who is currently in Tanzania. After class, on the way to our respective matatus, Rose and I went to several “chemists” which are the pharmacies here to try to find one that carried the type of inhaler I need, and finally found one on our third try that had them. I feel like such a dork including this in my blog, but it was exciting to actually find a chemist that had them because I was not optimistic about that : )
I went home and met Junior and Senior (two of the guys I met yesterday) and then Mirab came out and I gave her my contact info in the U.S. which she wanted for when she saves up all her money and moves to the states. She plans to open an African Food Restaurant in Boston, specializing in ugali and chai and she is going to plait hair on the side. I told her it was a good plan. Hanging out with all these kids at the basketball court kind of reminds me of my childhood when all the kids in the neighborhood would play basketball until it got dark, and Mirab kind of reminds me of Kira. It makes me a little nostalgic for seventh and eighth grade….just a little though : )
After class I went to check out flights to Capetown to visit Zoe, but then realized that I didn’t have a multiple entry visa for Kenya, so I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get back into Kenya when I got back and thought I should figure that out before I bought the ticket. So that is my mission over the next couple days.
Whitney and I went to Java House for lunch and ran into two girls from the St. Lawrence program there so we invited them to sit with us and we all ate together. Some of the people in their group are climbing Mount Kenya from Sunday to Wednesday so Whitney and I decided to tag along since we had wanted to do that sometimes while we were here. So we are going to climb Mount Kenya! Next week! Wahoo!
After lunch we had Swahili and the past couple classes we have had a substitute teacher, Rose, who we like a lot because she’s funny and she goes a lot faster than Daniel, our usual teacher who is currently in Tanzania. After class, on the way to our respective matatus, Rose and I went to several “chemists” which are the pharmacies here to try to find one that carried the type of inhaler I need, and finally found one on our third try that had them. I feel like such a dork including this in my blog, but it was exciting to actually find a chemist that had them because I was not optimistic about that : )
I went home and met Junior and Senior (two of the guys I met yesterday) and then Mirab came out and I gave her my contact info in the U.S. which she wanted for when she saves up all her money and moves to the states. She plans to open an African Food Restaurant in Boston, specializing in ugali and chai and she is going to plait hair on the side. I told her it was a good plan. Hanging out with all these kids at the basketball court kind of reminds me of my childhood when all the kids in the neighborhood would play basketball until it got dark, and Mirab kind of reminds me of Kira. It makes me a little nostalgic for seventh and eighth grade….just a little though : )
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
new friends
On Tuesday in my drumming class my teacher told me to play this one beat and then he joined in on his drum and we just played and played. I got totally lost in it and sometimes even forgot I was still playing. Then he stopped and got his guitar, while I was still drumming, and he started playing guitar and then singing a song. I ended up drumming for 40 minutes straight. I remember when I couldn’t play the same beat for more than 5 minutes without getting mixed up or stuck. Now it’s like my hands play and I don’t even think about it. It’s cool to feel that. It was also really cool to hear actual melodies and songs come out of my drumming.
After drumming I found out class was canceled because of the holiday so I went home. I love Nairobi on national holidays because there aren’t many people in the city and things are quiet and you can move around without colliding with people and cars.
I don’t know if the news program “Aljazeera” airs in the U.S. but it is a really interesting perspective on the world. They talk a lot about Iraq and on Tuesday said that President Bush has spent over $400 billion on the Iraq war since 4 years ago. Over 3,300 U.S. troops have died as well as over 750,000 Iraqis. They also said that when the war started, Bush had a 64% approval rate among Americans and he now has a 30% approval rate. I don’t know if they show these figures in the U.S. I am pretty sure they don’t put them on the news. Aljazeera also has these little commercials where they have different statistics like saying how many nuclear weapons different countries have, like “Germany 2, Russia 4, etc etc…” Then they get to Iran and say “1?” and then to the U.S. where the number is over 1,000. It is such a different perspective than we get in the U.S. and shows how much of a bully and hypocrite the rest of the world sees our country as. I was also surprised to hear about a program on the BBC African News Network about people’s dislikes about America. What surprised me is that the program is called “Death to America” because that seems so harsh, but I guess it is a reality. I wish more of our government would realize how the rest of the world feels about our country. They also announced on the news today that all public schools are going to be free now in Kenya, which is HUGE because most people cannot afford to send their kids to school because even public schools cost money.
It was so beautiful outside that I couldn’t stand to stay in and watch TV anymore so I decided to go find the basketball court in the neighborhood. It turned out to be two rows of flats behind my building and there were tons of kids playing there so I went and sat down next to two girls on a bench next to the court. They said hi and a few things and then left, so I watched for a while. This kid Malcolm who was the smallest was trying to get the ball from all the bigger guys and he was so serious and determined with his nostrils flared. He did manage to get the ball a couple times, but never kept it for very long. Some kids started talking to me and pretty soon there were a group of 10 or so of us talking. One girl, Mirab, is a soccer goalie too. She’s 15 and she wants to save up her money and go to America and open an African food restaurant and plait hair on the side : ) This little guy named Junior kept asking me about things in America like whether bicycles are free and whether people have bare feet. Mirab and I also talked about our families and siblings and their ages. She is the youngest of 4 and the only girl. It was really fun to talk to all of them and hang out with people in my neighborhood. I am meeting all of them tonight at 5:30 to talk more : )
After drumming I found out class was canceled because of the holiday so I went home. I love Nairobi on national holidays because there aren’t many people in the city and things are quiet and you can move around without colliding with people and cars.
I don’t know if the news program “Aljazeera” airs in the U.S. but it is a really interesting perspective on the world. They talk a lot about Iraq and on Tuesday said that President Bush has spent over $400 billion on the Iraq war since 4 years ago. Over 3,300 U.S. troops have died as well as over 750,000 Iraqis. They also said that when the war started, Bush had a 64% approval rate among Americans and he now has a 30% approval rate. I don’t know if they show these figures in the U.S. I am pretty sure they don’t put them on the news. Aljazeera also has these little commercials where they have different statistics like saying how many nuclear weapons different countries have, like “Germany 2, Russia 4, etc etc…” Then they get to Iran and say “1?” and then to the U.S. where the number is over 1,000. It is such a different perspective than we get in the U.S. and shows how much of a bully and hypocrite the rest of the world sees our country as. I was also surprised to hear about a program on the BBC African News Network about people’s dislikes about America. What surprised me is that the program is called “Death to America” because that seems so harsh, but I guess it is a reality. I wish more of our government would realize how the rest of the world feels about our country. They also announced on the news today that all public schools are going to be free now in Kenya, which is HUGE because most people cannot afford to send their kids to school because even public schools cost money.
It was so beautiful outside that I couldn’t stand to stay in and watch TV anymore so I decided to go find the basketball court in the neighborhood. It turned out to be two rows of flats behind my building and there were tons of kids playing there so I went and sat down next to two girls on a bench next to the court. They said hi and a few things and then left, so I watched for a while. This kid Malcolm who was the smallest was trying to get the ball from all the bigger guys and he was so serious and determined with his nostrils flared. He did manage to get the ball a couple times, but never kept it for very long. Some kids started talking to me and pretty soon there were a group of 10 or so of us talking. One girl, Mirab, is a soccer goalie too. She’s 15 and she wants to save up her money and go to America and open an African food restaurant and plait hair on the side : ) This little guy named Junior kept asking me about things in America like whether bicycles are free and whether people have bare feet. Mirab and I also talked about our families and siblings and their ages. She is the youngest of 4 and the only girl. It was really fun to talk to all of them and hang out with people in my neighborhood. I am meeting all of them tonight at 5:30 to talk more : )
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Happy May Day/Labor Day
Friday after class Whitney and I got a call from Sammy, a man we met in Samburu, who was in town for the evening, so we met him and had a beer before we went to meet Wairimu and a bunch of the kids from St. Lawrence at Alliance Francais to see Barbra Guantai sing. She was absolutely amazing and really beautiful. She had a really powerful voice and was accompanied by an awesome drummer on a drum set as well as one playing African drums, and a bassist and guitarist. It was really nice to hear some live music and be in such a diverse crowd of people. Afterwards we went out to get something to eat and drink at a restaurant called Kengeles (which I thought was called Kankles). Then we all went to the apartments the St. Lawrence kids are staying at in the city and hung out there for a long time. It was fun to hang out with people our own age outside of a classroom and after 5pm; I felt like I was in college again : )
Saturday I went home and then went back into the city to meet Geoffrey who is Liz Plunkett’s friend that she met in Rwanda. He lives and works in Western Kenya, but was in Nairobi for a few days doing some work there. He was a really nice guy and even paid for my coke after we talked for a long time at Nando’s (a restaurant in the city). He said sometime before I leave he’ll show me Western Kenya. When I was trying to catch the matatu it wouldn’t stop, but then this guy stopped it (by slamming his hand against the side of the bus) and when I got in he said “I was the guy who stopped it for you”, haha. We talked for a while and he told me he was Ethiopian and from Addis Ababa. He asked if I had had any traditional Ethiopian food since I’d been here and I said my favorite restaurant was Habesha and he told me his cousin was one of the owners! He seemed like a genuinely nice guy and offered to invite me over to he and his girlfriend’s house for njera sometime. I don’t know if that will happen, but it was good to talk to such a nice guy who wasn’t trying to pick me up. So Saturday was the day of talking to genuinely nice guys and that was very refreshing.
Sunday was a down day and I stayed home and did laundry and watched a lot of TV. On Monday I went to KENWA and met a woman who was really nice and said if I came back next Monday she would have a program set up for me. It seems like a cool place and I am excited to be doing AIDS work again. Afterwards I went to Whitney’s and we decided I should see a doctor since I have been having chest pains and dizziness, etc. So we went to the school health center where I talked to a doctor but he said he couldn’t listen to my chest because he had misplaced his stethoscope and couldn’t do a chest x-ray because the machine wasn’t there or wasn’t working or something. So he gave me some antibiotics and cough medicine even though I have no cough, and sent me off; which was not very comforting. I am going to follow up on that, hopefully with someone who has at the least a stethoscope. I think it’s probably just a combination of stress and the horrible air I breathe in every day (when I blow my nose it’s usually black from the dirt/smog –gross.) Anyway, that was my crazy weekend!
Saturday I went home and then went back into the city to meet Geoffrey who is Liz Plunkett’s friend that she met in Rwanda. He lives and works in Western Kenya, but was in Nairobi for a few days doing some work there. He was a really nice guy and even paid for my coke after we talked for a long time at Nando’s (a restaurant in the city). He said sometime before I leave he’ll show me Western Kenya. When I was trying to catch the matatu it wouldn’t stop, but then this guy stopped it (by slamming his hand against the side of the bus) and when I got in he said “I was the guy who stopped it for you”, haha. We talked for a while and he told me he was Ethiopian and from Addis Ababa. He asked if I had had any traditional Ethiopian food since I’d been here and I said my favorite restaurant was Habesha and he told me his cousin was one of the owners! He seemed like a genuinely nice guy and offered to invite me over to he and his girlfriend’s house for njera sometime. I don’t know if that will happen, but it was good to talk to such a nice guy who wasn’t trying to pick me up. So Saturday was the day of talking to genuinely nice guys and that was very refreshing.
Sunday was a down day and I stayed home and did laundry and watched a lot of TV. On Monday I went to KENWA and met a woman who was really nice and said if I came back next Monday she would have a program set up for me. It seems like a cool place and I am excited to be doing AIDS work again. Afterwards I went to Whitney’s and we decided I should see a doctor since I have been having chest pains and dizziness, etc. So we went to the school health center where I talked to a doctor but he said he couldn’t listen to my chest because he had misplaced his stethoscope and couldn’t do a chest x-ray because the machine wasn’t there or wasn’t working or something. So he gave me some antibiotics and cough medicine even though I have no cough, and sent me off; which was not very comforting. I am going to follow up on that, hopefully with someone who has at the least a stethoscope. I think it’s probably just a combination of stress and the horrible air I breathe in every day (when I blow my nose it’s usually black from the dirt/smog –gross.) Anyway, that was my crazy weekend!
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