Finally here!

Well, I’m alive and well in Kenya. After 48 hours of traveling, we arrived at Jomo Kenyatta Airport at about 7:30 am yesterday (so 12:30 am US time – we’re 7 hours ahead here). We were met at the airport by Eric, his brother-in-law, and his sister-in-law, Lydia, all of whom greeted us with huge hugs and smiles. Their kindness and genuine excitement was so endearing and really put me at ease immediately. After exchanging hellos, we all piled into the brother-in-laws car (also fun to note – they drive on the opposite side of the road as us, so being in cars here feels very odd) and headed toward our apartment. On the way, we stopped for breakfast, where we had our choice of chicken pie or beef pie. I went with the chicken, and what I got was a sort of pastry filled with chicken meat. It was somewhat reminiscent of pot pie…somewhat being the operative word here. Anyway, it wasn’t too bad, and we had delicious Kenyan tea to go along with it, which Eric and his family boasted is the best tea in Africa. I think its just black tea, as it comes in bags just like our tea in the US, but instead of adding it to boiling water, they drink it with hot milk. The result is a sort of café-latte like drink that is really delicious.

Anyway, the conversation during breakfast was lovely. We talked a lot about the difference between a calling and a profession. Both Eric and Lydia are heavily involved in community development work, and consider their work to be more of a calling than a profession. Their passion for what they do was really incredible… made me very happy to be here and have the opportunity to work with them. Technically, Lydia works for another organization, but she spoke of Lisha Mtoto and “the kids” as if she were as heavily involved as Eric. It’s obvious that the entire family supports Eric’s vision for the program.

After breakfast, we made our way through Nairobi and to our “apartment.” We are living in what is known as Eastland, a suburb just east of the city center. Our neighborhood is called Umoja, which, fittingly, means unity or togetherness. I say fittingly because there will be 7 of us living in our three room apartment this summer. By rooms, I mean actual ROOMS, not bedrooms. There are two bedrooms, technically. Jamee and I are in bunk beds in one of them, and then the other small bedroom also has bunk beds. A third set of bunks will be going in the living room area and then Eric will sleep on the couch. It’s INSANELY small and we might all kill each other before the summer is over, but this is what we’ve got so we have to work with it. Umoja is considered a lower middle class neighborhood, but is very safe compared to a lot of others. Our apartment is on the fourth floor of a concrete building, and we have an awesome balcony out front that’s great for people watching. It’s a lot quieter than I thought it would be, but that might be because we’re not actually in the city. When we arrived, Eric’s nephews were here getting the place together. The floors were filthy and the furniture they bought (our beds included) was not put together. I’m already starting to realize that Africans don’t have a real sense of urgency about anything… we sat around for about 5 hours while people came and went, sometimes cleaning, sometimes chatting. Eventually everything got put together and the place is now a cozy little home. The electricity does randomly go off at times, and the water is also sporadic, but as Eric says, “hakuna matata,” no worries. It’s definitely not what I expected, but the accommodations will do, and I’m glad that Eric is staying with us, for safety reasons but also just because he’s just an incredibly interesting person to talk to and I’m looking forward to getting to know him better.  By the way – we have running water (when it chooses to work) but no shower, so we have to “wash” using a basin. We took our first “wash,” or hand bath this morning, and it was difficult, to say the least. The washroom, which is also where the toilet is, is TINY. Like barely enough room to turn around tiny, so imagine attempting to shave your legs or rinse shampoo out of your hair… NOT AN EASY FEAT. It was nice to feel clean after the bath but the process was exhausting and we were filthy again in an hour, so I’m thinking that washing might be a bi-weekly event and not an everyday thing. Don’t judge me.

During all the cleaning and visiting yesterday, Lydia prepared us our first real Kenyan meal of choma and ugali. Choma is roasted meat – in this case, GOAT. Ugali is some sort of weird, almost dough-like mixture of maize flour and water (I think).It looks like raw bread dough, and basically tastes like nothing. I was extremely unsure of trying such intense foods right off the bat, but I didn’t want to insult our cook either, so Jamee and I both indulged in both the choma and ugali. The goat was really tough, but overall didn’t taste terrible, though I did have to politely refuse when Lydia handed me a goat kidney and told me to eat it. She said the kidneys and gizzards are her favorite, but honestly, I knew that I couldn’t stomach that and the thought of puking over our very primitive toilet makes me want to NEVER get sick here. For dinner last night Lydia and Eric’s friend Monica cooked again – this time with some sort of kerosene heating pot which literally filled the entire apartment with this insane smoke that made our eyes burn and water. For about an hour it felt like we were locked in a kitchen with one million people cutting onions. This meal consisted of pasta, some sort of greenbeen/carrot/tomato sauté, and avocados and was much easier on my stomach than lunch. Monica served Jamee and me enormous helpings though, and we both felt bad when we couldn’t finish. Both ladies said that we should gain 10 lbs while we’re here… that wasn’t quite on my to-do list, so we’ll have to see what happens.

After dinner, we sat around and talked to Eric for a while about Lisha Mtoto and his hopes for this summer. He seems so excited to have us here. We have already talked about getting some pictures of the kids within the next week and hopefully being able to put them up on a website. We’d all really like to see all of the kids get sponsors. For $25 a month, the kids would receive food three times a weekly, daily school lessons, monthly medical visits, and clothing. As of now only two of the children are sponsored for the next year, so I know I’d personally like to see that number go up.

By 10:00 pm last night we were exhausted and called it a night… I slept pretty well, although I don’t have a pillow so my neck kind of hurts today. I woke up at 5:30 am for no good reason and just sort of sat in bed listening to the neighborhood wake up. At about 7, I got out of bed and took my “bath” and then we proceeded to get dressed for a trip to meet Lisha Mtoto’s kid beneficiaries.

Just for information’s sake – Lisha Mtoto runs the feeding program/schooling out of Kibera, which is the second largest slum in Africa. This is where we went today… and to be honest, I’m still not sure what to make of the things I saw. I don’t think I have internalized everything yet, but I’ll try to describe the experience as it unfolded today. First, we had to walk a lot and take two matatus (bus like vans that hold about 15 people – they are TERRIFYING, but so are all cars/buses/taxes in Nairobi) to get to Kibera. It was a little chilly when we woke up this morning but as soon as we started walking it got HOT – probably 85 degrees. I sweated like crazy pretty much all day. When we got to Kibera, the first thing I noticed was the stench and the mud. The paths are completely made of dirt, and because of the recent rains, it’s literally just a huge pit of mud. It was actually hard to walk it was so slippery. We walked about a mile into the slums… past little tin shacks and stores. There were dogs, goats, chickens, and cats just wandering around everywhere, and everyone stared at us. They call white people “mzungos,” so we heard that a lot today as we walked through Kibera. At one point we took a turn off the main path and were literally walking through these tiny alleys that were just lined with shacks and laundry and children. As we approached Lisha Mtotos facility (a wood shack, probably no bigger than 8 feet by 8 feet), we could hear these little voices repeating the alphabet, and Eric told us that those were our kids! When we got to the door, all you could see were 20 little faces smiling. There is no light in the school, so it was hard to see everyone until we walked in – the only light comes from the open door. Inside, all of the kids were sitting on these little wood benches and there were posters all over the walls of the alphabet, numbers, family members, animals, etc. In unison the kids welcomed us and told us how happy they were to meet us – it was adorable. Teacher Grace, who has been teaching the kids on behalf of Lisha Mtoto for about a year now, then instructed the students to repeat all their numbers, letters, etc for us. The chorus of tiny voices was amazing and you could tell that they were so excited to show us how much they had learned in English.

In general, the kids range from about 2 to 6 years old. Aside from the English they are learning from Grace, they don’t really understand much, but most of them were willing to laugh at us and high five us, which was awesome. After they recited some songs and studies for us, we had lunch, which consisted of beans and rice. Each of the kids got a pretty good helping, and many of them ate like they hadn’t eaten in a while. Jamee and I got to sit on the little benches and eat right alongside them, which was really special!  Oh another thing - most of them have American names… Tom, Pauline, Marcy, Anne... Obama is my favorite though. They all just melted my heart. It’s crazy that they are so happy and positive given the absolute destitution they live every day. Just to give you an idea of the poverty in Kibera, after lunch, they kids went to the bathroom outside in the alley. There are no toilets close to the school building and allowing them to wander is unsafe, so they just go right outside the shack. Grace also said that the school room has been broken into several times, despite the fact that the door is locked everyday when they leave. She said that intruders have taken most of the meager school supplies the kids have.

After we ate lunch, the kids went back to their homes, which are just nearby shacks. Grace, who has two children of her own and who is expecting a third, invited us to see her house. It was literally one room with two beds, and it was beyond startling to picture a family of four living there. From what I saw, this is how almost everyone in Kibera lives and the slum is HUGE. You can see shanty houses for miles in every direction.

Not surprisingly, we were a little emotionally drained when we left Kibera. On our way back to the apartment we were able to stop and buy cell phones and wireless modems, though we’ve had some trouble getting everything to work. I suppose this is how it’s going to be this summer – never know when things are going to work or not. Overall, the past two days have been exhausting and overwhelming. This is certainly not going to be a glamorous or even enjoyable summer, but I think that it’s important for me to be here.

Alright – I think its time to end this for tonight. got a TV for the house – slightly ironic considering we don’t even have electricity in our room currently, but I guess these sort of odd dichotomies are what Africa is all about. Anyway, time to watch some Kenyan TV and relax. Hopefully I’ll be able to blog again soon…

OH! One more thing. I can't add pictures here and I don't have the patience to get start a new picasa picture site, so I will upload photos of the apartment and neighborhood on Facebook now - be sure to check them out.