I kissed a giraffe and I liked it...

Hujambo!

I’ve been in Kenya now for almost two full days. It took forever to get here, about 24 hours from when I left the house in DC for the airport to arriving here in Nairobi. I’ve been doing a lot of journaling, which I think is good. Things have been a little crazy since we’ve arrived, as they’ve been trying to shove a lot of information in before orientation ends. I have a lot to say, but I’ll just give you a few highlights so as not to bore you.

Yesterday we went to this place called the Giraffe Center and got to see a bunch of giraffe and baby wild boars that looked like they came straight from the belly of Pumba from the Lion King. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures for myself because British Airways casually misplaced my bag with my camera in it, but I should be getting it back tomorrow, but I’ll try to put up pictures from other people soon. It turns out giraffes are completely ridiculous creatures. They have giant faces and giant eyes, which apparently never ever shut. Giraffes sleep only 5-30 minutes a day but always sleep with their eyes open because their eyelids aren’t big enough to close around them. Apparently they live for 10-15 years, closer to 10 if they live in an area without tall trees to shade them. This is because they often die from their eyes burning. Also, apparently they really like to kiss you. Somewhere there is a picture/potentially a video of me kissing a giraffe, and I promise to share it with you all once I get it from someone else. Somehow the guides convinced us all to put a piece of food in our mouths and have Daisy, the giraffe, eat it. I figured I should try whatever they told me…

In other news, we’ve been staying in Karen, an affluent suburb of Nairobi. It’s named after the Dutch women Karen who is featured in Out of Africa. We’ve been staying at this nunnery, which means I actually have my own little room and amazingly this place has wireless internet, although pretty spotty. There’s a drought here and the electricity is run by water, so there are pretty frequent power outages. The most important thing of note here at Mary Ward is that every room has a Jesus hanging from the cross, which is pretty normal, BUT the Jesuses in our rooms happen to be GLOW IN THE DARK! I discovered this at 4:30 this morning when my jetlag was getting the best of me. It was a fantastic finding.

Perhaps the most important thing we’ve done so far here is today we had what was called a Drop Off. We weren’t told much about the activity, just that we were going somewhere and had to get information and report back. Me and two other girls got dropped of at Nyumbani (meaning home in Swahili), a little orphanage in Karen that I completely fell in love with. It was started by this guy Father D’Agostino, who was amazingly both a priest and a doctor. He started this orphanage for HIV+ children whose families had died from AIDS. They currently have 100 children who are just the cutest things I’ve ever seen. They live in these little cottages with 14 other kids and a nun, and they become a family. They all grow up together, and they were just the happiest children I’ve ever seen. I know they were putting on a show for us visitors, but even just playing themselves or in their classes they seemed so happy despite the fact that on the campus was a cemetery with 17 of their former “family members.” The orphanage provides medicine and education for the children and teaches them how to become adults. Later they even pay for their college. I just fell completely in love with this place.

So those are my highlights! Orientation lasts until Saturday when we get to meet our homestay families and actually get started with the semester. We’ve been learning bits and pieces of Swahili so far, so I’m looking forward to actually getting in the swing of things and exploring Nairobi.

Thanks for reading!