First Week

Jambo! Habari yako? (Hello. How are you?) I apologize now for this post being all over the place because I know it will be. I don’t even know where to start! Africa is sooo different than anything you can imagine. The way of life here is slow and peaceful. There is no personal space; riding the matatus (buses which are more like minivans) is an experience in itself. People drive wherever they want, it’s a bit scary. But today, I drove the car with my house-parents until we got to the busy road; kinda weird to be driving on the opposite side of the car and the road!

I am learning Kiswahili this week in my language and culture class. It is a hard language, but I’m working on it. My mornings have been in class with about 6 people and Edith is our teacher (the house mother). In the afternoon we have been exploring the area. I have been to the city a few times- what an interesting place. It’s very dirty and there are just lots of shops and stands everywhere. There is a store called Tusky’s which is their supermarket. It is like Wal-Mart- there is one everywhere! Oh yea and everywhere you go you hear people say mazungo or wazunga which is white person or white people. It is not a negative term so no offense is to be taken from it.

Yesterday we went to a place called Paradise Lost which had a really, really old cave, waterfall, we rode a camel (so freaky when it sits down!), and made friends with a few guys there. One guy, John, showed us around an organic coffee plantation that is next door. I learned how coffee is made from the plant until the beans are ready to roast. They do it all organically there too. Coffee is a huge export for Kenya but sooo expensive to actually get in Kenya which is strange. We also saw a blue monkey (not the color blue it’s the type) which Alpha (a guy I made friends with) said had the name Jims. It was so neat to see him in the wild and be so close. Apparently if we had sweets he would come eat them out of our hand but we didn’t have any.

Today I went with Ian and Edith (house parents) and their daughter Glory to pick up their other two kids from boarding school for their mid-semester break. They go to school in the next province over in their rural home. We then went to a market to get produce for the house. That was so interesting. It’s what they have instead of a supermarket in the villages and they sell everything there. We had sugarcane which the shucks were hacked off in front of us and it was so sweet and such a treat. You definitely get use to being a spectacle here as they don’t see a lot of white people. You just have to get use to people staring and sometimes taking your picture (today with a camera phone! Haha) and wanting to shake your hand and talk to you.

As far as where I am living. There are anywhere from 20-25 people staying here depending on who is on safari, etc. Bunk beds are in every room with anywhere from 4-8 people sleeping there. The house parents even gave up there room for the week before some people move to different hose parents. Other volunteers are here from Mexico, Denmark, Spain, England, and then of course the US. So many different cultures and languages (by the way, the family I live with speaks three- Kiswahili, English, and their tribal language). There are also two housekeepers that stay here to cook and clean; they are so sweet and helping me with my Kiswahili as well. Everyone here is automatically friends, so nice to each other, and just wonderful! The water situation turns out isn’t really not that bad though! You can warm up the water or just take it cold. You really realize how much we waste in the US. Showers aren’t needed everyday and we use waaay too much water when we do!

I am definitely loving being here and know it is so hard to try to explain to you what’s going on. I will continue to try though. Hope things are going well with everyone back home. Much love!!!