Karibu Kenya!

First blog post from Kenya! I can't believe I am here. It's so wonderful, I am absolutely smitten with this place already. I arrived at JBO airport at 8:30pm last night and easily found my bags, got my visa, ect. Then I walked down to the arrivals gate where I was greeted by a sea of people holding signs with peoples names and cab companies. I found the person there to pick me up (sadly no sign with my name though). He was a Kenyan man named Benjamin. On the way to the car he asked me where I was from and I told him Texas. His reply was classic. “Oh!! Texas, just like Chick Norris” he said. After we loaded my bags into the car I stood waiting by the door to get in, Ben stood there as well staring at me odddly before saying “Umm... miss, you use other door.” Derp. Of course Africans drive on the right side of the car.


When I arrived at the volunteer house the power was out, this kind of freaked me out b/c I didn't think that kind of thing happened much in Nairobi, but all things considered it was okay since I went straigt to sleep. I was told there was only one other lady here, and that really worried me. Thankfully however I was woken up a couple hours later to the arrival of three more girls. We didn't talk (mostly because I was asleep) until this morning though.


At six o'clock I saw one of last night's arrivals in the bed next to mine, I could tell she was awake but neither of us knew quite what to say. Finally I got out of bed to look out my window and we struck up a conversation. My roommate (for now) is a Brazillian girl named Thais. She is very nice and has traveled a fair amount. She laughed at me when I said I did not know of Rio and explained “You know, beaches, hot girls, the samba” I think I know what she means now, and she's promised to teach me how to use Kilometers and Celsius temperatures later today since “American's just make it so difficult.” Soon we ventured off into the other bedroom to meet the other girls. Two Canadian's named Victoria (18 yrs) and Erica (17 yrs). There is also Kristian (sorry, if I butchered the spelling!) a nice lady who is from a little bit of everywhere, but mostly France and the US. Soon Wumbai (the host lady here) served us breakfast, toast with peanut butter (I thought of you Kaitlin!!) and some bananas. It was yummy. The food here seems to be utilized well, made to fill you up and give you some protein in a cheap manner.


After breakfast a few more girls arrived (Kristin, 25, California. And Abbey, 18, England). Then we walked to Nakumatt (think Kenyan Wal-mart) and got cell phones. The walk there was so nice, however it also confirmed that I am definitely not in America anymore, things here are so different. But so far I am loving every second of it.


On the way into our neighborhood the first kind of scary thing happened. As we were walking in I saw a man collapse in the street and start to seize and vomit. No one stopped to help him or even blink an eye. People just walked on by. Myself and a couple other girls looked to Mika (the lady to walked us to Nakumatt) in concern and she said to just keep walking. It disturbed me a bit, but realistically there isnt much I could/should do. Life here isn't perfect, but that is what makes it so beautiful. Being surrounded by so many different nationalities is awesome. I love sitting and listening to everyone talk. Thais pausing occasionally to try and remember the English word for something,Abbey's precious accent, and the occasional British infused “fuck!” is like music to my ears.


Anyway, orientation is supposed to be at 9am tomorrow, so hopefully then I'll have a more permanent place to stay. I can not wait for the next six weeks!

The internet connection is intensely slow here, I will upload a couple pics when possible, but to be honest I don't expect that to be anytime soon.