"How do you fit a large elephant into a tiny box?"

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I landed into Kenya yesterday afternoon and was thrown into a culture that no Lonely Planet book will ever be able to put into words. Culture shock is an understatement. The journey from the airport in Nairobi to the Nairobi international youth hostel took about 20 minutes and I am fairly certain my mouth was hung wide open in a look of "oh my God!!" the entire time. My chauffeur asked if I had been in Africa before and I replied "no", and he then replied "yep, you aren't in America anymore!" (at least one thing hasn't changed....everyone still thinks I am American).

While I am here I am volunteering with an organisation called the Kenyan Voluntary Community Development Project, which is an NGO in kenya that is registered under the name Voluntary Community Development Project (Kenyan is placed in front purely for advertising purposes). The website is www.kvcdp.og incase you want to check it out. Basically they are an organisation that places volunteers in hospitals, schools, orphanages, etc. I am going to be volunteering in the Karatina District Hospital in the Nyeri district. I will be staying at the home of the administrator if kvcdp....which is going to be great in terms of the fact that I will be staying in the home of an English speaking family and it will be safe. I later learned that this home has no electricity, no modern toilet and no shower ( only a wash basin). What have I gotten myself into??I already know that I am going to better appreciate the simple things we take for granted everyday a whole lot more once I get back to the uk!! I am still at the hostel and will be leaving for my placement tomorrow, which is about 2 hours out of the city of Nairobi.

I had my orientation this morning with a women named Jacky whom I have been emailing back and forth with for a few months now. It is great to finally put a face to the name and Jacky is absolutely lovely, which makes my transition into Kenya a lot easier. Jacky explained to me about kvcdp ( how it started, etc) and told me (more or less) what I will be doing at the hospital. The she asked me a question which I will never forget, "how do you fit a large elephant into a small box?" And she replied with "all of the problems, uncertainties, culture diversity, sicknesses and deaths that you experience at the hospital will be your elephant, and you have to embrace all of these things, be caring and respectful and only then will your 'elephant' fit into your heart. Sometimes it will be difficult and sometimes it will be emotionally stressful, but a the end of the day you will be a better person for it."

Later in the morning I went for tour into Nairobi with a tour guide provided by kvcdp. The first stop? Kibera. Kibera is a slum just outside the city centre of Nairobi and is second in size in Africa only to Soweto in Johannesburg. This slum is home to around 1 million poverty stricken people (about 300,000 per sq km). Kibera was primarily built to reward the Nubian soldiers of WWI for their service, but after Kenya gained independence the new laws inadvertently gave Nubians the right to right to rent out their houses to a greater number of tenants than legally permitted. This lead the area to become populated by mainly the poor to whom it was perceived as affordable. Anne, my Kibera tour guide, told me that the majority of people living in Kibera live off less than $1 USD per day and only 1 in 5 people have a job. The open sewages and poor infrastructure lead to the people of Kibera suffering from disease and malnutrition. Apparently, there is 1 open pit "toilet" to share between every 100 people which subsequently drains into the roads and water sources. Because there is no rubbish system in Kibera, everyone simply throws their rubbish in a pile on the ground which completely litters the roads of the slum..I could probably find my way to Kibera on my own from Nairobi by following my nose. Kibera was a massive eye-opener. You hear and read about the slums, but witnessing how these people live is the only way to truly understand. I felt as though I could cry at any moment walking through Kibera. The people that are living in the slum set up "shops" outside their mud foundations, tin roofed houses and attempt to sell anything and everything they can. There are a few actual shops and chemists along the outside of the slum, and if you enter these shops you will see miniature ( basically sample sized) portions of everything that you would need, which they sell in such small portions so that the people are able to afford to buy things. Also throughout Kibera are many schools and orphanages run by government and NGOs. Although public schools in Kenya are meant to be free, there are small fees that students need to pay for (ie, lunch, books, etc) and many of the children of Kibera do not attend the schools because the families cannot afford to send them. The paths along the slum are full of children running around unattended, playing in rubbish, trying to sell you things, etc.You can tell which children attend schools because they are the ones that say " hello," and "how are you" and try to speak to you in English. The train into the city of nairobi actually goes straight through the slum and is not guarded by fenses or walls. When i walked past this section in the slum there were children playing on the tracks ( again unattended) and homeless dogs laying across them. At first i thought, surely the train no longer goes through this area, but when i asked Anne she informed me that yes the train goes through here still and there are a lot of accidents that are simply considered as part of living in Kibera and mostly go unreported. The entire experience was incredibly sad, yet so insightful and made me feel so grateful for the lifestyle I take for granted everyday.

After we walked through Kibera, my tour guide and I jumped on a matatu (a form of public transport) and after this experience I will nevr ever in my life complain about having to take a bus. Matatu are basically mini buses that would regularly fit 14 people in them uncomfortably. The matatu i was in had about 16 + a few people standing up and haning on outside the side door. It was a pretty tight squeeze for sure!! We made it into the city centre of Nairobi after what seemed like an eternity but was probably closer to 30 minutes. The traffic in Nairobi is unbelievable. I think we sat at one round about for 1/2 of the entire journey!

When we finally got off of the matatu we headed to the railway museum which was fairly interesting and filled with the history and relics of the east African railway system. Outside the museum were the steam trains ( still in use today) in various states of disarray. Our next stop was the american embassy memorial garden and museum (the site of the old US embassy). As you may remember the US embassy in Nairobi was bombed by Al Qaeda on august 7th, 1998. The garden is well-kept, has a memorial stone with the names of those who lost their lives that day, and is mainly used as a place of peaceful relaxation for business people during the afternoon. The museum is filled with information, photos and video clips of the important day in history. Next, we headed to the parliament buildings and saw the prime minister and presidents buildings.... My tour guide tried to explain to me why there is both a president and a prime minister but the only thing I took from his explanation was during one elections they discovered it was rigged so they appointed another leader as well as the elected one. The prime minister and the president run the country together and don't make any decisions without the others approval. We continued along the route and ended up in Uhuru park before heading back to the hostel.

My tour of Nairobi and Kibera was a brilliant orientation into the culture and history of Kenya and i learned a lot of about the standard of living in and around Nairobi. It was very insightful, and if the rest of my trip is anywhere near as educational and insightful as today then I am in for an interesting 3 weeks.

I leave for my placement tomorrow which is about two hours outside of Nairobi. I am traveling with Jacky who has just informed me that we are taking public transport. Fingers crossed we are not traveling by Matatus!!!

Love and miss you all,
Courtney

P.s --> you missed an amazing first day in Kenya, Gabriele. I wish the Bel didn't need you back so badly so that you could have still come!! T.A.T!!

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