Lack of Internet Brings Late Posts

Written on Saturday, September 5, but no internet

Hamjambo mabibi na mabwana!

I’ve been here so far a week and have been having an incredible time. So far we’ve just been in orientation, getting to know each other and a little bit of Nairobi. We were staying before at the Mary Ward center and then we moved to Kopling for the past three nights. There, we found more glow in the dark Jesuses. I think they may be a necessity in any religious facility here, and you wont here me complaining.

Today we’ll move into our homestays, and I’m so exciting to meet them. I’m staying with a women called Mama Carole. She’s a widow who works for the UN and has three daughters, one in university and two in high school. Many high schools in Nairobi are boarding schools so I may be living just with the mom. They live in a lower middle class family, so I’m actually living in the most affluent neighborhoods of the homestays.

Yesterday was a really exciting day. In the morning we had our first official Swahili class which was absolutely fantastic! The classes are only five people, and it was the first time I didn’t actually hate a language class. I spent so much time being terrified of being called on and having no idea what was going on, but here it all works out! I learned so much in basic greetings that I feel pretty good about meeting my homestay family today. In the afternoon, we went walking around Nairobi with our language teachers, and we got to ride a matatu, which are these little busses for fifteen people that only young people around. They’re all neon colors and play really loud rap and hip-hop and play music videos. All over the busses are random logos, like Fox or Jazz Quartet, and on the inside are pictures of stars like Chris Brown, Rihanna, and more. We tend to be the only mazungus (whities) on the matatus.

A couple of interesting things about Nairobi: it’s really dirty here. Everything looks like oldie times because the air is really dirty like an old picture. There is trash everywhere, and where there is a break in the main trash there are fires for burning trash. I guess it’s better than using a landfill when you just can’t waste any land. The two neighborhoods that we’ve been in so far are all gated communities of houses or apartments with a guard there all nights. I think the homestay will be like that too. A lot of the walls outside of the compounds have barbed wire, and they place we were staying at for the last three nights had broken glass on top of the gates.

I’m really excited for my homestay! More information when I get it.

Alix