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Published: January 21st 2009
Today is Wednesday. Yesterday we took a day off of Swahili lessons and spent the entire day touring Nairobi. We went to the all the locations where we will be taking the kids so that we are familiar with each place. We went to another hospital, the giraffe center, the elephant orphanage, a bead and pottery making place, the holiday inn, 2 other hotels, a few malls, and finally the restaurant the Carnivore for supper and to watch the inauguration. It was quite the day, especially being in the holiday inn. This holiday inn is no where near the North American Holiday Inn. It was very much a 5 star resort/ hotel. Very high end, and not what I was expecting. The kids won't be staying here, however when we do adult trips and company trips that is where they will stay while in Nairobi.
We also went to the airport to go through the steps of flying Bogani (VIP) groups within Kenya. We went by the largest slum in East Africa- called Kibera, there is approximately .6 to 1.2 million people living in a 1 km radius. All you could see was a sea of tin roofs and cardboard. It was incredible that this slum was right in the middle of this huge city of 4 million. After driving by the slum we went to the pottery place where everyone employed is a single mother who comes from the slum. They transport them to and from their home, and also pay for their medical care for both them and their children. The jewelry was amazing, very unique and beautiful.
The driving in Nairobi is like nothing I have experienced, at every intersection, there are no street lights, so it's a free for all- everyone just jumps in when they feel they can, so there are accidents all the time. I have never felt the need so great to wear a seat belt!
The fact that it was Obama day was another experience on its own. Everywhere and anywhere we went people were wearing Obama shirts and American flags in preparation and celebration for the night to come. I walked into the Foreign exchange building- Forex to exchange money and the security guard yelled out " Yes We Can, how's Obama?" It's interesting that he assumed that I was American and that I somehow knew him on a personal level.....
We went to the restaurant- Carnivore, but it also is like a comedy club/ politcal events place. We watched the ceremony on big screens and were quite suprised that a television crew interviewed a couple of my co-facilitators. Turns out it was quite a big deal because this television crew broadcasts all over Africa. Everyone recognized them right away where we were and people are still talking about when we go out in the city.
We went to another place after the ceremony and it didn't feel like I was in Kenya at all- it was a regular club in North America. Other than the fact that we were the minority, the music, the prices, the people were very similiar to the western world.
By the end of the night when it was time to go, we stopped to get some food. That small stop was sobering and flashed us back into the real world of the many Kenyans. While we were waiting at 1am to get some food- we saw many mothers with children under 1 year of age strapped to their backs pacing the streets, a small boy no older than 12 huffing something out of a plastic bottle, and a few young guys running by with police like sticks and tools in hand. They did not see us sitting in the car, however it was a very realistic picture of a night on the streets. Before this stop we had been driving in the car, reminising over the night of events and happily listening to music and playbacks of the historical speech. In a moment everything changed and we continued the ride back to our quarters in utter silence.
This morning we were back to the grind with our 3 hr swahili lesson- it's starting to come I think... finally! We will be doing leadership skills training this afternoon and continue to prepare and learn the enormous amount of material before groups start arriving.
Thank you everyone for leaving me comments- I appreciate hearing what you have to say, plus I love getting emails!!
Til next time!
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Hey, thanks for interesting blog and for reminder about Obama's day.