1. Dagoretti, Nairobi

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Hello.... we are having such a good time!


Finally we have managed to find the time to sit down at an internet cafe and update this! (And also, in true African style, have only just found an internet cafe with a working internet connection). The last few days have been very very interesting, challenging and seem to have flown by. We arrived on Thursday evening (got scammed by the forex at Nairobi airport - to buy the visa we were told they accept pounds or dollars, but when we tried to give them pounds the immigration people had randomly stopped accepting pounds, had to change pounds to dollars on an almost 1:1 rate).

We were then picked up by the people who organise our charity, Fadhili helpers, who are absolutely lovely. At the moment, for our "orientation" we are staying in a suburb of Nairobi called Dagoretti, where the Fadhili offices are. We are living in the house of a Kenyan Maasai woman called Phillippa, who is looking after us really well, and is an excellent cook... David has begun a love affair with ugali, which is this white cake made from maize flour, and Phillipa has taught me how to cook it. There are two other volunteers there, a couple from Manchester (Sam and Sam, one is a girl) who are a lot of fun, but unfortunately we won't be at the same Maasai village as them.

Phillipa also took us into Nairobi at night, which is crazy, and we got the priviledge of being the only mzungus (white people) in a Kenyan dance club, much amusement followed by a slightly scary ride home with a less than sober driver, we have learnt that lesson now! We asked Phillipa if he would be arrested, and she casually said "no no, the police will just want some money and it will be fine"

I have managed to force myself to eat basically all the foods that I used to hate at home (mostly bananas, beef) but unfortunately failed to finish the cooked intestine... the smell was horrendous, and for those who have not tried it before, it is hideously furry. To be fair I took about 3 bites...David seemed to actually like it, me and female Sam really struggled to wash up those intestine-d dishes afterwards.

Tomorrow we are going to Maasailand, to a village called Kimuka where we are teaching at the Saikeri Primary School (its not on any maps). We are also going on safari on the 21st with some other volunteers we have met, looking forward to that. I have also befriended one of the Fadhili organisers, a Kenyan who is absolutely lovely and is taking us to the David Sheldrick trust soon (elephant orphanage that was on TV a while ago on Elephant Diaries or something).

Oh and I could tell you about the bathroom arrangements also... our house has two bathrooms, both toilets are leaking, Phillipa says she will get the "plumper" around soon to sort it out... I have washed my hair once and the next day went to a Kenyan hairdresser who braided it for $2, so I don't need to worry about washing it any more!

Oh and other note: You may have heard of all the fires and gas explosions in Nairobi? Its so crazy, we went past the ruins of one supermarket, it was horrifying because people were crying outside because their relatives were trapped and probably dead inside... apparently when the supermarket exploded the manager locked and barred the doors so that looters wouldnt steal the stock.... so the shoppers were trapped inside and burned, its terrible.

We are now going to the market to meet the Sam's and get money out to pay for our safari😊

Oh and I am sunburnt😞

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Comments

[Sean]

:-)
I'm glad you're having a wonderful time, I hope you're looking after David and stopping him getting into trouble! I'll check you're blog every couple days (more than I check on uni stuff). Have fun, love Sean xxx P.S David should get his hair braided. Or dreadlocks.