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Published: April 30th 2010
April 26th Never underestimate the power of jet lag! I barely got any sleep on the flight to Amsterdam, and that pattern didn’t change on my way to Kenya. So when I landed at 5:30am at the Nairobi airport I was practically sleep walking.
On the flight over a met a Norwegian girl named Susanne that was traveling with her aunt and uncle to Ethiopia, with them was an 8 year old boy that they had adopted from Ethiopia 4 years ago. They were going back to adopt another child, from what I gathered it was a long process, and it’s not like they can pick the child out. It’s more based on the need of the child, I imagine. Bless their souls, someday I’d like to adopt as they have. Susanne was really nice and friendly and I must say I have to blame her for the lack of sleep I got, haha, only kidding we had some good conversations.
At the airport my Kenyan friend Vincent’s sister (Violet) and brother (Victor) were there to meet me. We went through a lot of residential areas and since it was about 7am by the time I got out
of the airport, there were lots of people getting to work. Many waiting for trains and minibuses to start their Monday morning. Ya know, things aren’t so much different over here as you might think. I mean, they got the same shit here as we got over in the USA, it’s just a little different. For example they watch Filipino and Spanish soap operas that have been dubbed over in English. (For those of you who didn’t know, Kenya was a colony of the British Empire and so many Kenyans speak English, they even learn it before they learn Swahili in some cases. Or often times they learn their tribal language first then English and Swahili, and later down the line French or English).
After getting to the apartment we sat around and talked and got to know eachother, it was very nice. Violet’s eight year old daughter was home from school on a week long vacation, and she is probably the most adorable eight year old ever. She is also really smart, bilingual at this age and even knows a bit of the tribal language that her Tanzanian father, Paul, speaks. She’s pretty artistic as well, she drew
and colored a picture of me as proof.
I also met a good friend of Victor’s named Kevin, and we chatted a while and talked about Kenya, the USA, and I evened was able to practice some Swahili. Actually my Swahili teacher is the adorable eight year old daughter, named Maria. She helped me with some pronunciations and words, which was really a cool experience. I also walked down the block a bit with Victor and bought a bread treat that looked like an
empanada, I think it was called
mandazi. I paid for it with one US american dollar, which is about 70 Kenyan shillings, the vendor was really happy to accept it as the treat would normally cost me about 5 shillings. I didn’t mind though.
After I took a long 4 hour nap in the afternoon, (it was really hot too by the way! But they say it is actually the cool still!), the nanny (Grace) had prepared a dinner for everyone. Since Violet and Paul’s work means they have to travel a lot, Maria has a nanny to be looked over. The meal was really good, with a kind of chicken-vegetable sauce and a
spinach/green salad called
sukumawiki. To go with it is a dish called
ugali, it is made from maize and it reminded me a lot of Venezuelan
arepa filling. They typically eat with their fingers here, using the
ugali as a base to which grab the food, I used a fork but next time I’ll go with the finger method!
After dinner we just kinda hung around and talked and took pictures and were entertained by Maria. Her mother and father came home a bit later and we chatted for a bit. Also the fourth sibling Maureen showed up and met the funny lookin' foreigner from the USA. Violet ended up braiding my hair after I took a shower. I quite like the hairdo and I think I’ll keep it for a bit. It was painful enough anyways to keep it for a couple weeks. Tomorrow the 27th I am going to the coastal city of Mombasa with Victor. We’ll stay one night there and a morning before we head to Lamu Island, on the northeastern coast line. We’ll be two nights there before returning to Nairobi.
That’s all I got for now. Sorry I haven’t been posting as
frequent as I’d like, but it boils down to internet and time. I’m getting the hang of doing things though. Until next time…Pura Vida mi familia y amigos.
-Brendan “Avila” Mahoney
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Julia
non-member comment
Nice Braids
I remember when I had mine braided when I was in like 5th grade...it definitely hurts but is a lot of fun. Looks like a great family to start your trip w/ both on the plane and once you landed. Loved the pic of the plain and that bird is pretty trippy! Wheres the Sioux Falls shirt? :p