Adventures in Kisumu

So I love Kisumu. It's a great little city/big town and where I am going to be spending about a month. It actually reminds me a lot of Poughkeepsie - same general size and the same atmosphere as well. I had a really good meeting with the organization I want to work with too - Kick Trading. They are a Fair Trade company who work with a lot of artisans in the area making things from recycled materials. I will leave my description of their projects, history, etc for a later entry when I actually have worked with them a little bit and know what I'm talking about. But I do want to share the story of my first days working with Kick.

I showed up on Monday morning about 11am, completely unannounced. This actually, is not rare in Kenya. It's not considered rude to just show up at an office and ask for a meeting. And it's actually a little more efficient this way. If you schedule a meeting, the other person might not show up, might be late or might forget about it. But this way, you are in the office and they kind of have no choice but to deal with you. Anyway, like I was saying, I show up and meet with the 3 main office staff members and tell them about why I am here and what I want to do. And they were so awesome, and totally open to having me work with them. But the asked me if I could come back at about 3, because they were busy setting up for a meeting. They told me that there was a group if buyers from Ten Thousand Villages (TTV) coming at 3, and if I wanted, I could sit in on the meeting. For those of you that don't know, TTV is a big Fair Trade store with stores all over the US and Canada. They're a big name in FT, so needless to say, I was a little excited about the meeting. So I headed out of the office and over to the Kiwanis compound for a few hours...

Perhaps I should talk about why and how I ended up at the Kiwanis Compund. Leah, the S.I.T. coordinator for western Kenya, is a member and has some official position in the local Kiwanis club (she might even be the president). The compund is around the corner from Kick, and while she was taking me to the Kick office, we stopped by to say hi and so that I could meet the people at the compound. They were all very nice. She told me about a feeding program they do for about 50 school kids who can't afford lunch, and said that I should come over to help out after my meeting with Kick. I agreed, and actually looked forward to it. So, when I had about 4 hours to kill before my meeting, I went there. It is an amazing place. They have a small resturaunt, the feeding program, as well as a reduced price lunch for about 50 other kids, a small micro-credit program for women, weekend activities (extra classes, music lessons, etc), and are looking to start a nursery school in the next year or 2. As if all that wasn't amazing enugh, they are also working on a project to make re-useable sanitary napkins for girls. There are a lot of problems here with girls missing school for a week during their periods becuase they can't afford pads or tampons, you can imagine how much this puts the girls back. So they are working on prototypes now, and are looking to have them ready and to sell for about 30 shillings (about $0.50). They are also looking to get the idea to an organization who can mass produce them for cheap, because as my tour guide, Rachel, said, they don't want to keep this a secret - they want as many girls as possible to be able to use them. I was really impressed by the whole compound and its definitely somewhere that I am planning on spending a decent amount of time at during ISP. There are 2 foriegn volunteers there - one American and one Canadian, and they and the rest of the staff was so welcoming and nice. Working there will be a great break from the stress of ISP.

So after helping out there for a few hours, I went back to Kick to find that the buyers were stck in Kisii (About 2 hours away), and wouldn't actually be in the office until 8:30 the next morning. I asked if I could come back then, and they were very happy that I was able to come back. I got up very early the next morning, to give myself some time to get lost. But, incredibly, I made it there without a hitch. I got there about 8, and helped them set up chai and cookies for the group, and got to know the staff a little better. The group showed up at 8:30, and at that point had a short breifing about Kick and a Q&A session. It was great for me because a lot of my questions were answered as well. Then we took a tour of the area where most of the artisans do their carving - and it was really interesting. The buyers were all really interested in taking pictures and talking with the artisans, and I couldn't help but think about how voyeristic the whole thing was. I think that that's going to be an issue that I have a lot of problems with during ISP - am I just here to study these people or is what I'm doing actually going to benifit someone? Anyway, all the people were really nice and really interested in what I was doing. One woman even wants me to email her my paper at the end! They were touring Kenya and Uganda on a learning tour - to visit the places where their products come from. One of the women I was talking to said that after these tours, the sales of products from that area of the world always increase, sometimes enough to pay for the trip itself. I learned a lot from the meeting, and was really happy that both parties allowed me to be there - it was a really encouraging first day. After the TTV people drove away, I worked out some of the details with the Kick staff, and as I was leaving, Issac (the manager), told me that when I came back he'd have some work for me to do - this made me even more excited. I don't want this to be just a one way exchange - I want them to be able to get as much from me as I am going to get from them, and his comment showed that he agreed with that, despite us never having talked about it. So between Kick and Kiwanis, it looks like I am going to be very busy during ISP! Just the way I wanted it!

I realize that I got so excited about talking about my meeting and ISP, that I left out another very crucial part of the weekend that I want to share before wrapping up. We got there on a saturday afternoon, and since offices were closed the next day, we did a little site seeing. We went to the Kakamega rainforest about 1.5 hours north of Kisumu. We had some troubles getting in - the security guard was a major bitch and wouldn't give us the student price since we didn't have a letter from our institution to verfiy we were students. So instead of paying the $3 student price, we had to pay the $20 tourist price. We were not happy about this to say the least. But we all payed and agreed to let it go and enjoy the forest. We walked around for about 3 or 4 hours, first to a little water fall, and then up a huge hill to the top of a viewing point - it was amazing. Just green for miles and miles. It was a really tough climb (we didn't actually know there was a real path until after coming down, so we just hiked up the side of the mountain...harder, but much cooler), and we were all dripping by the end, but it was so worth it. And since what they say about a picture being worth 1,000 words is true, here you go:



With that, I'll close out my Kisumu adventure, at least for now. I am heading back there in about 3 weeks, so there will be a lot more detail to come about Kisumu, Kick, my ISP and I'm sure lots of other things as well. As always, thanks for reading and thanks for all the comments - I love reading them!

"So, what are you actually doing in Kenya?"

That's a question a lot of you asked me before coming here, and I know that when I answered you, I was very vague. That was largely due to the fact that I myself didn't really know exactly what I was getting into. That's just how S.I.T. (School for International Training), and most things in developing countries works. You just have to kind of jump in and go with the flow. But now that I've been for just over a month, I can give you a much better idea of what I have been doing, and what I will be doing for the next 2 months.

In Nairobi, we have classes. Lots of them. There are 2 lectures in the morning, and then one in the afternoon, a total of about 6 hours everyday. The classes are either Swahili, development, public health, cultural stuff orfield study prep. They are usually pretty interesting, aside from the health lectures. I'm not sure why, but the people they bring in to lecture to us on the health side are all just really bland. And since it is a different person every time, they end up covering a lot of the same topics. So it's a little frustrating, but when I start getting bored in lecture, I just think to myself "this lecture may suck, but I'm in Kenya, so it could be worse".

Other than the lectures, we also spend a good amount of time traveling. The travel is why i picked this program - we don't spend all of our time in the classroom, but a lot of it out in the country. And if you've read the last two entries, you should understand why I say this is my favorite part. Going to Bodo/Mombasa was amazing to say the least, and we have more travel coming up. On Saturday, about 10 of us are going toKisumu , in western Kenya near Lake Victoria to prepare for our Independent Study Projects (more to come on that later) and staying until Tuesday. It's supposed to be an amazing area, and I'm really excited to go. I'm surethere'll be a size-able entry about it when I get back next week.

After that, we are back in Nairobi for a few more days of lecture and then we are going on a 10 day trip to Tanzania. And this one should rival Bodo. We are going on safari, spending 3 days with theMaasai learning about their culture first hand, spending some time with one of the founders of the Black Panthers who is living in exile in Tanzania with his wife, and going to the War Crimes Tribunal, among other things. To say I'm excited would be an understatement. Again, I'm sure there will be at least one very long entry after I get back from this trip.

After Tanzania, we have about a week in Nairobi before we start our Independent Study Project (ISP). What this is is pretty much a thesis. We can pick any topic relating to development or public health that interests us, and we spend a month (from April 12 until May 12) researching it and writing a 30 - 40 page paper about it. Then we come back together as a group to each give a half hour presentation on our topic to the rest of the group. For my ISP, I am planning to look at Fair Trade as a method of development - does it actually do anything for the people? I am going to Kisumu because there are several Fair Trade organizations there for me to study and it gets me out of Nairobi (I'm not the biggest fan of this city). Most of my research is going to come from first hand interviews with the people producing the crafts, books, and NGO's like Oxfam. It's exactly the kind of thing I want to be doing - working with real people regarding their development, not learning about it in a classroom. I know that's not very specific, but I should have a better idea about what my ISP will look like next week after I get back.

As far as other topics go, they are really broad and I'm really interested to hear the presentations at the end of May. In case you're curious, some of the topics are:
-Why a Luo (a certian tribe) can't be president of Kenya
-Human rights abuses in prisons
-women and development (there are a few on this)
-there are several regarding HIV/AIDS in different ways
-the effect of university research on rural agriculture
-Swahili language and development
-how soccer can help development
-there are also a few regarding the situation of refugees
-there are several on health - malaria research, infectious diseases, and malnutrition

There are a lot more, but that's just a very short list. People are traveling all over Kenya to do their research, and it should be really interesting to see what they come up with. Everyone's topic has changed at least 3 times, and just seeing that process has been so interesting. So it'll be really exciting to see how they all end up in May.

ISP ends in May, as does the program. I'm still not sure what I'm doing after the program ends, so I won't even start to get into that yet. But I hope that clarifies why I'm here for a lot of people and what I'm doing. It's been so much better then I ever thought so far, and it should only get better from here!

The adventure continues...Bodo - part 2

So last time I pretty much set the scene for my week in Bodo. So now let me get into the specifics of what I did and how I spent my time.

Sunay was our first full day there, and they took us swimming in the Indian ocean. Bodo is on the water, but on a little bay type area, so we took a boat about 15 minutes out to a sandbar off the coast of an island called Funzi Island (it;s a big tourist island, so you might be able to google it and find pictures and info). It was so beautiful and we were all just so excited to be in Kenya and in the Indian Ocean - it was a pretty sweet experience. The water was so beautiful and it was such an awesome day. We all got pretty sun burnt, despite the bottles of SPF 45 and over we put on. But that's what we get for trying to go swimming on the equator. For the rest of the week, I was pretty much the sunburn expert. People who had never really had bad burns or peeled kept asking me things like "So, does this look normal to you?", "Will this peel?" and "So, how long will I be peeling for?". I think it's the only time that my vast sunburn experience has ever been put to good use. I'm glad to say that although I did get a pretty decent burn, I was not the worst one in the group by far.

For the rest of the week, our days pretty much had the same structure. We spent the mornings learning Swahili, had lunch and spent the afternoons working on a small group research project. Mine was about all the uses for a coconut and the tree. And they do use it for EVERYTHING. But more to come on that later. There were a few days were there was a locals vs. sit student football (soccer) and volleyball games. There were 4 games total, and we got killed in both football games, beat in one of the volleyball games, and despite a valiant attempt by us at the last volleyball game, we still lost. But it was a lot of fun and everyone really enjoyed it.

After class and the various after school activities, we would all go home and spend time with our families, which I loved. My family was awesome at including me in everything, and all I had to do was ask my brother "What is (s)he doing?" and he would explain it to me and then who ever it was would let me try it. I usually failed, but my family was very patient and had a great sense of humor about it all. Most of the things that I "helped" with involved cooking, so I think I should take this opportunity to explain a little bit about Kenyan food.

It is very, very carb based. Atkins would have a heart attack if he came over here (sorry about the bad pun, it wasn't intentional, I promise). I'll describe the food in the village, but its pretty similar in Nairobi too. The main staple of dinner is called Ugali. It is literally just boiled water mixed with corn flour until it comes to a consistancy that resembles mashed potatoes (but no where near as tastey). It is very dry and bland. So to go with it, they make a simple version of vegetable stew that is actually very tastey. It could also be served with cabbage, kale, both of which I really like. Other times it will be chicken - on the bone of course, or fish. Yes, I did eat fish. About 5 times in 8 days. And I realized that I really don't like fish. Before coming here, I hadn't had any fish in about 7 years, so eating it here was a huge step for me. Especially when my mom would just hand me a whole fish that had been boiled, complete with bones, the skin and the head still on it. Yeah, I was a little freaked out by that. But I sucked it up and ate it - I could tell that it was a rarity for them to have, so I didn't want to offend them. But don't get excitied - I do not plan on having fish for a very long time after this program is over. Other then that, we would sometimes have rice in place of the ugali, which was a nice break. For breakfast (aside from the chai of course) was chapati - its almost like a pita without the pocket and a little thinner. Hard to describe, but absolutely amazing. It has quickly become one of my favorite foods. We would also have mandazi in several variations - some were similar to biscuts or donuts or fried dough. They were also very good, although a little sweet for breakfast. And the funny thing is that they use the same spices in the mandazi as they do in the chai, so everything kind of tastes like the tea. But I like it, so it wasn't too bad. Oh, and we ate with our hands. And since it was a Muslim community, only our right hand. It was a little weird to get used to at first, but now I really like it. It was even kind of weird when I came back to Nairobi and all of a sudden had to use silver wear again. And when I tried to explain to my family that it was considered rude to eat with your hands in America they didn't really get it. Ahh, cultural differences. Gotta love them.

Anyway, my mama and sister would always let me help stir the ugali or roll out the chapati or mandazi and it was so awesome. And don't worry, my brother insisted on taking pictures of me doing all of this, so they'll all be up eventually, and I'll post the link when I can. Although, at slow connections that charge by the minute I don't think that's going to be until I get home in May...The kids in my family were so cute about taking pictures. I was a little hesitant to take it out at first, but they LOVED it! They would pose for a picture and then run to surround me and look at the picture I had just taken. They all loved it and I am planning on making them an album to send back to them soon.

Anyway, like I said, it was a Muslim village, so it was very conservative. I made the mistake of letting my knee show one afternoon, and my sister made it appoint to com over and pull my skirt down to cover it. And I wasn't ever able to go out of the house without my head covered by something. Definitely an interesting experience coming from America. But I got over it after a few days and enjoyed how ridiculous we all looked with our mismatching outfits and struggling to keep our head scarves on.

As far as daily life goes, hanging out with my family was definitely the coolest part. Even when they were all speaking in Kidoge or Swahili I enjoyed listening to them and trying to figure out what they were talking about. I'm not sure that they fully understood why I was there, but they were still glad to have me anyway. I was continually amazed by everything - women carrying 5 gallon jugs full of water on their heads, how welcoming everyone was, how resourceful they were, but mostly the kids - especially the young girls. My 7 year old sister would get up everymorning at about 6 to wash the dishes and sweep out the house. No questions asked. Young girls would be carrying babies that were about half their size and e totally comfortable with doing it. They all also know how to cook, clean and pretty much run an entire household by the time they are 10. I just kept thinking about what I was doing when I was about 8. I'm pretty sure I was still eating mud and playing hockey with barbie heads in the basement. And these kids are so responsible. They would play games and have fun, but they also just understand that they need to do all of these other things and get it done. Its amazing. I'm pretty sure my 7 year old sister is more responsible than I am.

They are also so generous. They share everything they have and even gave me presents! They gave me a really cheesy straw hat, straw fans, a little basket, and my favorite - a 5 foot long woven mat that is amazing. It's got these great colors on it - straw, maroon, green and purple and I'm in love with it. Right now its rolled up in the storage room at the SIT office, but I'm really excited to have a chance to use it. Oh, Gaby and Daryn - it is going to be somewhere in the room next year. You'll just have to deal with it.

So, in writing this, I'm realizing that I could go on for days writing about this one week alone. And this is already getting pretty long, so let me just wrap up with one more story. Like I said above, they use coconuts for everything. And as you may know, coconut trees are very very tall. Some were easily over 100 feet tall. So with no machinery or electricity to get them down, you can see the problem that would arise. So to get them down, they have special people who are trained to climb coconut trees. We got to see one of them in action and it was possibly the craziest thing I've ever seen. The get up the tree by using a rope (made from the coconut tree palms) around their feet and literaly jumping/shimme-ing up the tree. They go up so fast - it takes them less then 3 minutes to get up the 100 foot tree. Oh yeah, and did I mention that they carry a machete on their back in their shorts? Yeah, they do. Like I said, crazy. So once they shimme up the 100 foot tree with only a rope and a machete they cut the cocnuts off and they just drop down. Unfortunatly I couldn't see how they manage to do this without falling out of the tree - the palms were in the way and it was really really high. We only saw the coconuts fall and then saw him shimmi back down the tree. Again, in under 3 minutes. Then he cut them up for us and handed them out to all of us. Talk about fresh!

As promised, I'll wrap it up here. I hope the length wasn't too overwhelming for anyone, and I appreciate you reading this far! So until next time...

The Bodo story, part 1

Sorry for the delay, but this has been a hard entry to write. The week I spent in the village was AMAZING, and trying to put it all into words is a little overwhelming. So since it's taken me a long time to write even this much, I've decided to split this entry into 2 parts. This one has already gotten really long, and you can expect another pretty long one later this week. But for now, here is part 1 of my Mombasa/Bodo saga. I hope you enjoy it.

From Nairobi (which is pretty central in Kenya), we took an overnight train to Mombasa, on the coast. It was a fun train ride and we were all really excited about the next 2 weeks. The best part about the ride was looking out at the sky at night. I think i had my head out the window for at least 2 hours. The night sky is absolutely beautiful. I've never seen so many stars in my life and the moon was shining so brightly. It was absolutely incredible. We got to Mombasa in the morning and spent some time shopping and walking around. I absolutely love Mombasa, but more on that later.

We only spent a few hours in the city before piling back into the van and driving about 2 hours south to the rural village of Bodo. The ride was so pretty, but I ended up sleeping for most of it. We turned down a sand road and drove a few miles into the center of the village. We were all pretty anxious about what we would find there, but all that melted away the second we pulled up. All the kids in the village were there to welcome us, jumping up and down and singing songs. I have to say that it was probably the best welcome I've ever had and it made us all so happy. We went to the pavilion that would be our main meeting/hang out spot for the week, where they had chai and snacks set up for us. After about 45 minutes, we were all introduced to our new families and lead to our homes.

Before I go on, I want to explain a little about Bodo. It's a small Muslim, rural village right on the coast of the Indian Ocean with only a little electricity for the whole village and no running water at all. Most of the men are either fishers, involved in the tourism industry, make random crafts, sell foods (coconuts, rice, meat, eggs, etc) in local markets, or are unemployed. All the women have no "real" job, but work harder then anyone I've ever seen. They clean the house, make the food, take care of the kids and laundry, etc. They are working all the time, it's amazing. And most of the men just sit around - it was a little frustrating to see. But everyone there was so welcoming and so nice - by the second day we all felt at home in Bodo.

My Family

My mama was absolutely amazing. She spoke no English, and I found out later in the week that she usually didn't even speak Swahili, but rather Kidoge, her tribal language. It was kind of a relief when I found that out. I realized that the reason I didn't understand what she was saying wasn't because my Swahili was that bad, but actually because she wasn't speaking Swahili at all. I found out throughout the week that she's a midwife, and that she also helped to start a women's group in Bodo that's similar to a micro-credit organization. Whenever she said anything, it got done - even the chickens and goats listened to her. Sometimes she would just look at me, say "Ahh, Bodo!" and start laughing. She knew that I barely understood a word she was saying, but she would still just start talking to me and asking me questions anyway, and then either laugh and walk away or nod and walk away depending on my answer. There were a few tricky situations where I agreed to do something (like, for example, agree that I was tired and wanted to sleep) when what I thought I was agreeing to was something else (like a shower or to help her cook). But luckily everything would always get resolved.

The rest of my family was awesome as well. I had a 21 year old brother who spoke perfect English and was my tour guide/interpreter the whole weekend. He would ask me questions about America - like do we have monkeys or elephants, and generally about how things work there. It was so funny that so much of the stuff we take as common knowledge just isn't here. Like the fact that Barack Obama is the senator from Illinois, not the senator of the US. Or when he asked me about men having more than 1 wife. It was an eye opening experience to say the least. It's not that he was stupid at all, but rather that they stuff that we take for granted they just aren't taught. But having him around made me really conscience of gender roles in the area. I wasn't sure exactly how to act around him, and was kind of afraid I would somehow be married to him by the end of the week. But luckily, that didn't end up happening. I just kind of felt like I was on an awkward date with him the whole time. But I am very thankful he was around and so helpful. I also had a 15 year old nephew who spoke pretty good English as well. He liked to teach me Swahili, and he taught me the names of the planets (useful, I know), body parts, days of the week, and other random things. My favorite was when I asked him to teach me future tense and he taught me how to say "future tense" in Swahili. Not exactly what I wanted...

Other then that, I had 2 sisters, one who was very pregnant and should be having the child any day, and another sister who was only around for a few days before going back to her village 30 kilometers away. I also had a bunch of Aunts, Uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins. In villages like Bodo, everyone is related somehow. Either by blood or by some other way. For example, if a father dies, his children become his brother's children. It makes for some very confusing explanations of family ties, especially coming from an American perspective. But I loved my family - I loved having people walking in and out all the time. And they were so good about including me in what they were doing and being patient with me. But more to come on that later.

For the first few days, my family would just stare at me sometimes. I can't really blame them. They also laughed at me. A lot. Again, I can't really blame them. But it was in a very good natured way, and I was also laughing at myself most of the time, so I was really ok with it all.

My House

My house was very nice - a thatched roof, mud walls on the outside (that makes them cooler as the air can flow through) and concrete walls on the inside. There was extra space between the walls and the ceiling to provide for air circulation, but it also helped with noise circulation. Everyone pretty much heard everything that went on. There were several times when I heard my family practice saying my name in the morning, or heard my mom cooking, etc. It was really nice though - I liked hearing it all.

There were 3 rooms, and I shared one with my Mama. I did have my own bed, which was more then some people could say. I was happy about that. I didn't really see the other 2 rooms though. Straight down about a 15 foot hallway from the front door was the backyard area. This was where the living room, kitchen, bathroom and shower all were (and I use all those terms very loosely). The bathroom was about the size of a cubical with a hole in the ground, the shower was a little bigger and was just a bucket on the ground. There was no real "door" to the shower, so it was a little awkward. But after about 2 days and about 314 liters of sweat dripping off of me, I got used to it. The kitchen was a little bigger and was just a fire pit with rocks they used to balance the pots on. It was pretty cool to see how much they were able to cook on that one pit. Our living room was just a big open outdoor space between the house, kitchen, bathroom and shower. We used that space to eat, have chai, talk, hang out, whatever. We spent a lot of time outside, especially at night which I loved. All the stars in the sky were so amazing and I could have spent hours just looking up at them. I felt so comfortable in the house and I really do think that I could have stayed there for a lot longer. I'm not really sure what it was - but there was just something there, and I felt so much at home.

So with that, I'll wrap up part one. Like I said, I'll update again as soon as I can about the things I did, family life etc. I hope you enjoyed reading about it, and thanks again to everyone for all the comments. It makes me really happy to know that you are along for the ride with me!

A note for all my loyal readers

Once again, I have nothing specific to report, and actually need to get going in like 5 minutes, but I just wanted to let all my loyal readers (I know there are so many of you out there) know that I may not be posting for a week or two.

We are traveling to Mombasa today (it's about a 14 hour train ride, right on the coast) and going to spend about a week in a rural village, Bodo. I am very excited, and a little nervous - there is no running water or electricty. And definitely no internet. So if you don't hear from me for a little while, this is why. I'm sure I will be posting an uber-long entry about my adventures when I get back, so save your energy for that. Don't worry, I have my malaria medicine, bug spray, head lamp and my journal all ready to go!

A lesson in Kenyan culture

So in the past few days, I have been getting settled in a little more. The family and I are warming up to each other, and while it might not be the best home stay situation, it's not a bad one. The past few days have been pretty standard - get up at 6:30-7 (yes, I am out of bed by about 7 every day), leave for school at 7:45-ish, then have class all day. It can be Swahili, lectures on a variety of topics, or as we did today, Swahili love songs. Yes, we had a class where we sang Swahili songs. All of you who wondered why I decided on SIT, that's why. Cause singing is a legitimate form of education. Then I spend some time after school with friends, go home about 6:30, eat around 8:30, and am in bed by about 9:30 either writing or sleeping.

So, since there has been no big news to report in the last few days, I thought I'd take this opportunity to fill you in on some interesting details of Kenyan culture. So here they are:

-Kenyans love chai (tea) and drink it at least twice a day. But, they boil the milk in with the water which is a little weird. Good for killing bacteria in unpasteurized milk, bad for those of us who use milk to cool their tea down.

- Obama is HUGE here. There are always news reports and articles about him. They love calling him "Kenyan-American" as opposed to "African-American"

- Tribal heritage is also hugely important. People stereotype every one based on their tribe. I even heard someone say that since Obama is a Lou, he could never be a good leader.

- Times are more guidelines then anything else. Even if you have a set time for something, the person will show up late, if at all. Oh, and there's technically no Swahili word for "busy"

- People here never really get awkward. If they have nothing to say, they just kind of sit there. Anyone who has spent more then 10 minutes with me knows who bizarre of a concept this is.

- Nairobi is home to Kibera, the largest slum in Africa. People here are almost proud of that fact in a really weird way.

- The school kids here know one English phrase - "How are you?" and they all yell it to us in a chorus from the edge of their schoolyards as we pass on the way to school. Answering them in Swahili really throws them and is pretty fun.

- Almost half the population here is Muslim and I can even hear the call to prayer from my house. And no one here is gay. It's just not talked about. Being in a such a heavily Muslim and homophobic area is something that I find very foreign coming from the states and GW in particular.

- They all speak at least 3 languages - their tribal language, Swahili and English. Many of them even know more then that.

- There are no real sidewalks here - only a dirt path if you're lucky. My feet are going to be dirty for the next 3 months, and I'm actually pretty ok with it.

Alright, that's all I have for now, but I'm sure there'll be more to come in the near future. Hope you enjoyed it!

A Kenyan 21st and a new family

Ok, first off, a disclaimer. This keyboard (like most over here) are really hard to type on, so please don't judge my grammar. Oh, and this is going to be a very long post. I may not post again for a few days, so feel free to read a little and come back. I won't be offended. Ok, on to the post!

Thanks to everyone for the comments and the bday wishes - it means a lot to me! I may not have time to get back to all of you personally, but know that I appreciate it and miss and love you all.

So, to catch you up on my life since the last post, we have officially moved into Nairobi. We spent the last few days of orientation at another convent/hostel that was very nice. The next few days were nothing too special, although very busy. A lot of group time, talks about safety, what diseases we're going to get, homestay families, etc. We did get to take some tours of Nairobi and see the SIT office, so that was awesome. The office is a house that they converted - our main classroom is the entry hall/living room, with the upstairs rooms being offices or smaller classrooms.

On our first afternoon off, a small group of us went to Toi (pronounced toy) market, where they sell everything imaginable (this is the one you were talking about Christina!). It was overwhelming and kind of smelly but so stereotypically African. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures for fear that they would be taken - sadly, that seems to be a theme here. But it was everything you would think a market should be - smelly, crowded, full of stuff and a maze. It was kind of overwhelming, but I'm really glad I went.

The next day - the 9th, after a very interesting lecture about the tribes and their initiation rituals (I won't go into detail here, but let me know if you are interested - they are fascinating). And then a small group of us got to go to an orphanage for mostly HIV orphans - to say they were cute is a little bit of an understatement. I got to feed one of them, Liz, and she (ok, I'll be honest, we) made a bit of a mess. But she seemed happy. Then we got to play with them and they all seemed so happy. In a way, I was also happy for them. I know that they have a really hard life ahead of them, but right now they just seem so happy and content. They are fed, clothed, played with, and taken care of. Part of me couldn't help but thinking that they are the lucky ones. We left after they went down for a nap and went back to our hostel for lunch.

After a short health lecture, a group who had already gone to the orphanage went to a local pub - The Three Wheels. It is a very "authentic" pub, and we were the only wzungus (white people) there. Pretty cool. After a few Tuskers (which only cost about $1.50 and are twice the size of a normal beer), we went back for dinner, and the guard let us out for a night out on the town! Most of the group went, and it was an awesome bday eve celebration. I didn't do the whole 21 shots, or even close, but I did have several Tuskers and a huge shot of gin. Yes, shot. Straight. It was pretty gross. But then again, it was my birthday. We heard that there was a live band next door, so we went to check it out. There was indeed a live band and a dance floor! We all started dancing and it was so much fun. The guys in my group are awesome and were definitely looking out for us- it made me feel really safe, and it that way - and only that way - it reminded me of Apex (I miss you guys!).

They closed at about 11, so we went home after that. I did stay up until midnight, but not much later- I had been up since 6:30! But it was a great bday eve and I went to bed excited to meet my homestay family.

The next morning, we ate, packed and headed over to SIT for some more Swahili. The language is pretty simple and I think I am starting to catch on. They ordered pizza for lunch and we had a cake for my bday! It was very yummy and American. After lunch, we started leaving for our homestays in shifts. I was with the last group, and we all sat around, nerves flying trying to prepare ourselves.

At about 6, I arrived. My family is Mama Steph, her daughter Steph (people are called the name of their first child here- her name is actually Ann), Mama Steph's sister whose name I can't remember. Steph and Mama Steph are quite, but we spent a little while talking. It had been raining, and so the power went out. We spent a lot of time just sitting quietly by the kerosene lamp. I started feeling very homesick and wondered if I could actually live with this family. The power came back on eventually and that helped so much. We turned the TV on and ate a very yummy dinner of chicken stew and coconut rice. At about 10:00, I started falling asleep and headed to bed. I didn't let myself think too much, knowing I would just start crying. I actually slept pretty well.

I woke up at about 6:30 this morning, and since I knew the family didn't get up til about 8 or 9, tried to go back to sleep. But unfortunately, I could not. That's when I got really homesick and had my worst moment so far. I tried listening to music, going back to sleep, but nothing worked. Then I started writing in my journal, and that did help. It was a distraction at least. Mama Steph had said that Sunday was a "slow day", and knowing that the group had nothing planned, I was not looking forward to it. But at about 9, after catching up on my journal and collecting myself, I faced my fear.

I am happy to say that it was so much better then I expected. Mama Steph and Steph are still pretty quite, but they are getting more talkative. I ate some breakfast, relaxed and little bit as my fears subsided. I spent some time working on Swahili, and reorganizing my backpack and other stuff, which was very necessary. My spirits soared when I heard Mama Steph's sister turn on the shower - I have running water! While this is not abnormal, it's not exactly guaranteed either. Needless to say, I was relieved. Then I watched a little more TV with the family, did a little more Swahili and decided to try my hand at my laundry. I washed my clothes by hand (yes mom, by hand!) and hung them out to dry. Steph and her friends were definitely laughing at me a little bit, but in a good natured kind of way. I would have laughed at me too. I'm a pretty awkward person when it comes to these things. Or most things in general.

Then we ate lunch and watched some more TV. They have a really interesting mix of programs here - Scrubs, ER, a Spanish soap opera dubbed in English, Kenyan news. Its really interesting. It was raining again, but thankfully, the power held up. I worked on a little more Swahili until Libby, another girl in my program who is only 2 houses down came over and we walked to an internet cafe.

I am getting more comfortable in my home and think that I will be ok there. It might not be the best home, but they are nice and there is running water, so I can't really complain either. I am going through an adjustment time and it is hard, but have no fear. It'll pass and I'll be ok.

If you have read this far, thank you- I appreciate it!