November Adventures

This month has flown by- I've been keeping really busy with my internship (overseeing projects to develop a children's library (thanks for the support!) and build a bridge in the slum). Plus, classes at USIU have been frustrating. It's been really stressful lately, and I've had a few really upsetting confrontations with professors that try to bully us into accepting their low standards. But I LOVE my Swahili class, and I'm starting to get the courage to use the stuff I've learned.

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So after last month's fiasco, I decided to go to another soccer game. I'm glad I did because it was a really positive experience. The only problem was afterwards, when a mob of angry fans started charging the bus I was on, throwing rocks and stuff at the windows. The mob mentality is by far the worst thing I've encountered in Nairobi. But I'm viewing it as a positive experience, since it was exposure to a new perspective of urban life (plus, the season ended, so don't worry, Mom!).

During the Gor Mahia game- they placed 2nd this year

Because of all the responsibilities and stress we've been feeling (plus, everyone else leaves in less than a month), AU Abroad organized a weekend retreat for us. We headed to Castle Forest Lodge on Mt. Kenya, which was the most gorgeous, relaxing experience so far. Even though the first day it rained and then I got sick, it was such a good weekend. We spent the first rainy evening in the main lodge playing dominoes and enjoying home-cooked Kenyan food.

The cows behind my cottage (Mt. Kenya is in the background)

The moment I got food poisening lol

The second day (Sun, Nov. 21) I was feeling slightly better so I joined the group for a nature hike through the tropical forest. We walked through elephant tracks, learned about the Kikuyu legends (Mt. Kenya is a central aspect of their traditional religion), and ended up at the site of an elephant skelton.

Victor and the elephant skull that was just lying on the ground. I wasn't paying attention, so he tried to put it on my head first, but I shrieked when I saw the decaying underpart of it!

After lunch, Courtney and I hiked down to the waterfall. We ended up climbing through forest like this. Doesn't it look incredible!!

But no matter what, I still miss Bunyore!

Roughing It in Western Kenya

For the last week of October I traveled to Bunyore, Western Kenya, to spend a week living with a family in the rural part of the country. Before we got there, we spent the first night in Kisumu, where we ate fresh fish from Lake Victoria and took a boat ride to see the famous hippos.

hippo sighting! (We were terrified by this point, because the guys we hired to take us out here were creating waves with the boat and making noises to "agitate" the hippos so they'd come towards us.. not a good idea!)

After spending the night in a local hotel (where I slept for the first time under a malaria net), we headed out for Bunyore on a suicidal matatu. We sped around the deeply-creviced and potholed roads at lightning speed as live chickens squawked and pecked my ankles. The chickens were gifts for our host families, along with maize flour, sugar, butter, and other cooking supplies.

Bunyore is a gorgeous area set on the equator (= SO HOT!!). The village I stayed in was peppered with huge round boulders and cliffs, and my house was situated up on the mountainside, overlooking the rest of the community. Transportation was by foot, which became difficult in the rain, since every path is narrow, steep, and muddy. But I loved winding through the worn-down paths through rocks, over streams, and through jungle-like plants and fields. The air was so fresh that I immediately felt healthier and happier than ever.

I stayed with a retired schoolteacher named Nathan and his family. It took me about a day or two to feel comfortable in the home, but I quickly got a routine down. I’d wake up at 7:30am, take a bath (aka, going out back with a block of soap, a bucket of water, and a washcloth), and sit down for breakfast with my mama Damary, sipping their sugary tea and milk combo and talking about different aspects of rural life. I was working on my research project (an analysis of life expectancies in rural and urban Kenya), so her insight was really helpful. She said she was currently recovering from malaria, although apparently most people are diagnosed without a blood test, which in turn means constant misdiagnosis and self-medication leads to the development of drug-resistant strands of malaria. I met a lot of other people with malaria, including one of our group leader’s one-year-old son, but no one seemed concerned. Yet I slept under a net each night, popped anti-malarial pills each morning, and piled on the DEET.

Nathan, me, and Mama in front of our house

I went to the primary school, which was more overwhelming than it had been to enter Kibera the first time. Children were so extremely excited to see a white person that as I walked across the courtyard a wave of screams and “howareyouuuu”s swept over the school. It was a celebrity moment as the students swarmed me and asked for photographs.

The kids poured out of classrooms to see me (some rooms had 100 students in each class!)

the kids pulling back (and chewing on) the school's barbed-wire fence to get a better look at the white folk

Each evening I’d sit in the mud kitchen behind the house with Damary and my fifteen-year-old host sister. We’d start cooking ugali, kale, and sometimes chicken at around 6pm when the sun went down (we'd have dinner in the house using kerosene lamps for light). The kitchen had two open fires and little ventilation, so it took me a while to get used to the dark, smoky atmosphere. It was so interesting so watch the women cook—they’re able to reach into the fire to move logs around and pick up the boiling metal cauldrons with their bare hands. I learned how to cook the foods, but my main jobs were rinsing dishes and sitting on a wooden stool in the kitchen to hold a candle as they cooked. I think it was pretty obvious that I had no idea how to really help out!

  

making ugali over the fire

my friend Kelsey's host brother, preparing the chickens for dinner (and enjoying the plastic wand she brought for the kids)

It was really hard to leave my amazing host family. But they invited me back for Christmas, which I’m considering. Most of the students were so happy to return to Nairobi after the week, but I wish I’d been able to stay there longer- even without indoor plumbing or electricity, it felt so much more comfortable than my gorgeous three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in Nairobi.

I almost fit in! ;)

Kawangware: My Walk to Work

These photos were taken by my co-worker Zach as we walked around World Hope Academy, where I intern. I thought I'd share with everyone what my walk to work looks like :)

The path leading to school..













The backside of the high school, peeking out from behind the flowers (I love their colors) 



Directly behind the school, where I'm working on a project to build a bridge

On the left-side is the wall that separates the school from the sewage (it was put up last month since students used to fall into it)

 The girls are learning against the school wall

 The high school being built (the pink flowers are behind it)

Some of the girls I taught in Grade 7



The view from the classrooms

Hospitals and Crocodiles

Wednesday

I got a taste of teaching when I was given a classroom of 33 seventh-graders, mostly boys, for 70 minutes. Though I was terrified, it went really well and I actually enjoyed myself. They were able to help me with my library project by writing about which books they like to read and why they’d like a library at the school. I was able to incorporate their responses into my grant proposals and also get a better idea of what books to purchase (they seemed to mostly want books about history, geography, and soccer).

Half of the 7th Grade Class

Thursday

Last Sunday we made chocolate cookies in my apartment, and I must’ve gotten a little carried away with eating the raw cookie dough, because I’ve been feeling queasy ever since. Knowing Paul and my parents would be on my case if I didn’t get it checked out, I went to the hospital on Tuesday and had quite an experience. After navigating through the doctor’s various pick-up lines, I finally realized that nothing was deathly wrong with me except a sensitive stomach. I still felt terrible, though, so I took two sick days, the second of which was spent with my sick roomies. It gave me a chance to get some homework done, spend some quality time at the pool, and soak in beautiful Kenya.

My wonderful roommate, Kath, in our oasis of a bedroom

Saturday

Felix, one of my friends from World Hope Academy, took me on an adventure to the Mamba Village outside of town, which had tons of crocodiles and even some ostriches, giraffes, and camels. It was the first time I’ve travelled with a Kenyan and not been in a big tourist group. I thought that meant I’d be treated more like a local, but in reality it just meant everyone treated him like an mzungu too. It was hilarious to see his expressions as people greeting him overzealously with “Jambo!” and tried to sell him their CDs, etc. All I could say was, welcome to my world. Mwahaha.

After we’d returned to town for lunch, I met up with James (another friend from WHA) and went to the Paa Ya Paa Cultural Arts Center, a long trek out of the city center but well worth it—the US Embassy was hosting an arts festival with sculptures, paintings, music, acrobatic dancing, and poetry readings. It was really fun to see a different side of Kenya and spend time with the guys outside of work. We had to learve early so I could make it home by dark- such a Cinderella feeling :)

 

I never get tired of the giraffes! This one was a big more snuggly!

Animal Orphanages

Today I went with some friends to the Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi. This is where baby elephants across Nairobi have been rescued, rehabilitated, and released. We had a crazy time trying to get there (making three matatu transfers, each time unsure of ourselves) and we ended up walking through the living quarters of the orphanage’s employees and through some dirt back roads full of baboons. There are also tons of little monkeys hanging around the area since it's so close to the reserve.

We made it just in time to see the baby elephants splashing in the mud, fumbling over each other, and gulping down bottles of milk. By chance we saw two British filmmakers I’d befriended when we’d visited the Maasai (we should be briefly featured in their documentary next year).

I then almost got run into by a warthog that jumped into the muddy pool right next to me.

We also saw a rescued rhino- it was amazing to be so close to these docile creatures!

Yum :)

 Baby warthog!

After the Elephant Orphanage we decided to go to the Nairobi National Park’s Animal Orphanage, which houses lions, cheetahs, leopards, monkeys, ostriches, and other Kenyan animals. Since there was a big soccer match today downtown we couldn’t find any matatus with seats (especially not for five of us), so we decided to walk, estimating it to be about twenty minutes down the road.

(midway through the trek between the Elephant Orphanage and the National Park)

Two hours of intense heat, direct sunlight, and insanely steep hills later, we were picked up by a good samaritan and dropped off at the park. We went straight to the café for a good Kenyan lunch-plantains, lentils, chapatti, chicken stew, and rice J

finally making it to the Nairobi National Park after two exhausting hours in the heat!

The Animal Orphanage was very different than I’d expected- where the Elephant Orphanage’s focus is on socializing and releasing the animals, the Animal Orphanage is essentially a zoo full of caged animals that have been rescued, many of them over a decade ago.

When we first arrived we were told that we could pet the cheetahs and play with the lion cubs. We were so excited until we realized that it wasn't an offered activity, but an under-the-table negotiation. We kept asking him th eprice until he came out and said he was asking for a bribe. Even though we really wanted to touch the animals, we all felt uncomfortable about the situation and left pretty soon after that.

(the cubs we could've played with)

All in all it was a wonderful trip, but it's too bad we ran into problems towards the end. It was an interesting experience, however, to see how the guide asked for the bribe in such a round-about way. We tipped him before we left, but we were definitely shooken up after he asked us to give each of the armed guards a "tip" in exchange for us being allowed to enter the lion and cheetah cages. We joked about the next day's headline: "Five American Students Arrested for Bribing Security Guard To Play With Baby Lions at National Park."  Nooo, thankyou.

Kitengela

 the view from the top

 Today we took a trip to Kitengela to visit the Masai Lodge and glass-blowing factory. We arrived at the lodge around 10am, ordered lunch (since it takes hours for food to be prepared) and headed out on a “nature walk.” We were definitely not prepared for the trek, which turned out to be scaling rocks, jumping over rushing water, and crossing a suspension bridge to get to the factory.

I'm the second in line, in the green shirt

The factory itself was beautiful and looked like it came out of a Dr. Seuss book. We shopped around and then watched a glass-blower make a giant wavy salad bowl, which took countless steps of firing, spinning, and blowing the glass. It was really beautiful. After that we walked back to the lodge, had a great lunch (I got vegetable curry with rice and a salad) and hit up the pool. The lodge was an impressive high-class resort - the pool and tables were all right at the edge of beautiful cliffs and amazing scenery. We spent the rest of the day lounging around in the sun.

Of course, no weekend trip is complete without a wild animal sighting- we saw herds of gazelle and about a dozen baboons strolling along the road on our way back to town (look at the baby!)

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