KENYA

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The flight from Chicago to Istanbul was pretty good. I sat next to some Turkish guy with a LaCoste shirt with his collar popped. I think he was gay. I was a little nervous getting onto the connecting flight but it was good. It was so easy. The Istanbul airport was soooo nice the view was amazing. All the houses there were so cute. When I got onto the plane from Istanbul to Nairobi I sat next to a guy from Kenya so that was nice. I think his name is lucas. He told me some stories about Kenya and things to watch out for. I kept falling asleep and I was in the middle of reading and started falling asleep and dropped the book and fell over it was pretty funny. When I was sleeping against the window one of the guys next to me folded his jacket and then gave it to me to use as a pillow. Then when I got off the plane I was nervous about finding John and getting my luggage and stuff. The airport was really shitty and gross. It was hard to find your way around but its really small so it wasn’t too bad Right when you get off the plane there you have to fill out some papers and then they look at your visa and take your picture and stuff. So I had a pen with me but I must have dropped it somewhere or something because It wasn’t in my purse anymore so I was looking for a pen and no one had an extra one and some people just ignored me when I asked but there was this man sitting at a table and I asked if I could barrow a pen and he gave it to me and then I took a few steps back to write on the wall there and he started screaming at me to come back because I was going to steal his pen or something and told me stay here and don’t move and use it at that table. So I was freaking out and started crying because I was so confused and didn’t know what was going on. I went to get my bags and still didn’t see John I got my bags and when you go out the door you’re outside and tons of people with cards with names on them and people waiting there and I still didn’t see John and so I started freaking out because I didn’t have any money on me that I could use there it was all US money. I didn’t have a phone or an address or any idea of where I was staying or going. Not to mention everyone was speaking in Swahili so I didn’t understand anyone or know anyone. I walked into the crowd to see if he was there and trying to lug around like 1000 pounds of luggage haha. Then people were asking me who I was looking for and trying to get me into the cabs with them and one man told me he was there to pick me up and was sent to get me when I know he wasn’t. Then Lucas found me because well I stand out pretty well considering I was like one of the only white people in the whole airport. Haha so lucas took me aside aand back into the airport and helped me find someone with a phone and so I could call john because I had his number. We tried the number a few times but of course it wasn’t the right one and wasn’t working so I panicked even more. I was like okay I want to go home meow. But I tried my house phone and it didn’t work so I tried Jonathan’s phone and it worked! It was such a relief hearing his voice. It made me feel 10000000 times better. So I had Jonathan look up the number. The phones here are all pay as you go and they call it “top off” so the phone I called jonathan on ran out of minutes and needed to be topped off so the guy had like 3 phones with him but I had to pay him 3$ US for minutes for his phone but I only had 20s and a 10 with me so I just gave him 10 but its ok he helped me out a lot so I didn’t mind letting him keep the change. So then we called John and he answered and he thought I was arriving tomorrow so he wasn’t there to get me. He talked to the owner of the phone and arranged for him to find someone to give me a ride to the house where I’m staying. Scariest car ride ever. They go so fast and drive all over the road. So I arrived at the house and met my roommates. There’s Anna who is only 3 or 4 years older then me and Priscilla who is from Canada and she is 22. Anna lives here at the volunteer house and cooks our food and just hangs out with us. She works for the organization. We have a lady who lives in a separate house in the back with her 2 kids and she cleans and does our laundry. Our laundry is hung up in the front yard and washed in a bucket. Classy. It’s kind of funny to see my underwear hanging in the front yard. Good thing there’s a gate so you can’t see in and were on this supppppper bumpy road off of the main road. It’s a dirt and rocky road. Just a little more then ¼ mile I’d say. So it’s a good walk. So I got settled in and I had a mosquito net hung up already so that’s nice I didn’t have to try to set mine up. Anna woke us up in the morning and said breakfast was ready and we went into town. Its really sad and all run down but that’s where you get food and stuff you need unless if you go into Nairobi but theres so many people. Every where you go people stare like crazy. I rode in my first mutati which is their cab but its like a big van with music blasting and people jumping in and out of the door and holding onto the side of the van and you hit the van when you walk behind it or get on or whatever its just loud and pure madness. If you’re in the way of the cars they’ll just hit you. So you have to make sure you’re not in the way when you walk. Its nuts I’ve never seen anything like it. We had dinner a little later and laid around the house. I share a room with Priscilla so it’s different but not hard to get used to. Before bed we all got on a couch and used my laptop to watch a movie and some friends episodes. It gets so cold at night.

Day 2

We got woken up early for breakfast. Then I went to the clinic in town. It was pretty nice considering the way everything else in town looks. The bathroom there is just a hole in the ground in a room. There was a guy getting tested for aids so that was pretty scary and I wouldn’t be surprised if he did. I filed papers because they don’t have computers they just have millions of papers with numbers. Then I had to fold the gauze pads and there were thousands of them so it took some time. After that I got to sit in the doctors office and just watch all the people come in and their sick children. It was pretty interesting I liked it but I kept putting on my hand sanitizer (that I kept in my fanny pack which I refuse to admit comes in handy…) I was scared of touching anything because it didn’t look that sanitary and with all the sick people there I didn’t breathe when I would walk past. All the workers there are so nice. Came back to the house laid around and napped for a solid 3 hours. The house was freeeeeeezing! I forget a sweatshirt so I just have a few sweaters. I was shaking that’s how cold it was. It must’ve been 50 degrees in the house. Magda missed her flight so she spent the night and ate dinner with us. Oh and I finally showered.

Day 3

I woke up early this morning and right before breakfast so I think I’m starting to adjust to the time. We ate breakfast and walked for a little bit to the hair place so anna could straighten her hair and get it washed. On the way back we got in the middle of a huge group of cows. They are so skinny you can see their ribs. We quickly got ready then took a mutatu to the next town then another to the next and then we made it to this plaza thing where I could finally exchange my money. I gave 160 USD and got back 11,920 shillings. It was awesome. Everything is so cheap here. Mutatu rides are anywhere between 10 and 30 shillings. A big water 70 shillings. Cheap cheap cheap. I love it. After that we took 2 more mutatus to get to annas cousins wedding. We had to walk a solid mile and a half to get there after that mutatu. I’m glad I wore flip flops. The road was so bumpy and all dirt. We only went to the reception part of the wedding. Its so different from the states weddings. There were thousands of people there. Of course Priscilla and I were the only two white people there so we stood out like crazy. The kids were all over us. We took a few pictures of them and they would just attack you and want you to take so many and just look at them. I think I found a Gilly! I will keep looking and find a better one. We got a mutatu and it broke down a little down the road so we had to wait for another one to come by and get it. It was pretty funny because you can fit like 14 people on there but we had like 20 and the sliding door was open and a lady was leaning out holding on and a guy was behind her holding on and people were on strangers laps. I love mutatus. They’re crazy. They always have crazy rap music blasting too. Its awesome. That’s Kenya transportation for ya. It started getting dark so we were a little worried because you do NOT want to be in a mutatu at night. It gets dangerous. We also saw a horrible accident on the way home. Or well just the after effects. The truck was completely cut in half. Accidents are so common here. Mutatus are constantly bumping into eachother. Your driving on the wrong side of the road all the time middle of the road and just berly missing a car coming right at you. Insane. So we made it back to the house and we were locked out of the house. Its impossible to break in because theres metal bars on the windows and metal locks on the door and if you shut the door hard it locks from the inside so we were locked out for a good 4 hours until “uncle” came and opened it. We had a little dinner in Annas room just outside of the house and waited for our house to open. But Im glad I got to go to an African wedding reception but I like the US ones so much more.

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