Best Days of My Life

November 5, 2007

It’s been a while since a proper update. I just had the most amazing weekend. I had some of the worst lows and two of the best highs of my entire life. Things happened to me that I feel very privileged to have experienced since very few people get to do them in their lifetime. First, let’s catch up on events before this weekend.

The weekend after mid-terms was party weekend. On Thursday night we went to a club called Casablanca. My roommate and her best friend Michelle went out which was exciting cause it was the first time I’ve partied with Vanina. Casablanca is really amazing. Part of it has two bars and a DJ and people dancing. If you go through a doorway it takes you to a lounge part with low cushiony seats and hookas. There was also an outdoor part where there were fire pits and more hookas. I started off dancing with Vanina and Michelle, but was getting creeped on hardcore by Elias, one of the RAs at school, so I pretty much ran away and found Aaron, Owen, and a bunch of the American University students outside with a hooka and a fire pit. Owen was talking to a former child soldier from Liberia. They were talking politics and this dude was a little crazy. The rest of the night was really chill and I loved it. Got a ride home with Owen and the ambassador’s son by his driver. Benjamin (the driver) got confused and took us back to the ambassador’s house instead, then finally took us home to school. That place was a serious castle in the jungle.

On Sunday a few of us went to see a popular Kenyan artist at a place called Club Afrique. It was ok.

My Monday morning class was cancelled and during our Wednesday class our lecturer told us that he was going to Europe for a while so we wouldn’t have class until late November. I’m ok with that. This is exactly how Kenya is. During my Tuesday morning class I told my lecturer (he looks like a serious pirate with sneaky eyes, a huge beard, and a gold tooth) I was going to Uganda and would be missing one class and he kind of got parent-like and joked about Museveni inviting me personally and told me to be really careful. It was an interesting moment. Also, during that class I had a funny moment with this kid, Gerald. Now, I don’t talk in class much just cause that’s my style, but I made a comment about something in the news we were discussing. Gerald is this Nigerian kid who we just found out stabbed a guy earlier this year (and it was a big scandal as to who the stabber was) and he sits near me in class. Gerald is beautiful and smart, so it was kind of disappointing that he’s a stabber, but it sort of makes sense cause everyone here talks about how crazy Nigerians are. So, anyway, in class, after I talked, he passes me this little tiny folded note that said, “Never heard you talk in class b4. Sweet!!” I nearly lost it cause it was just soooo funny to get that from some notorious stabber. I’m pretty sure Gerald has a thing for me, but whatever. Mike thought it was pretty funny.

Ok, finally to my weekend. WEDNESDAY: Aaron, Mike, Rosa, Catherine, and I left on a USIU bus around 5:30 p.m. to get to our Akamba bus downtown. Stopped at Nakumatt for some supplies and Catherine bought a wig and candy cause it was Halloween and she really loves dressing up and eating candy. Got on our Akamba bus at 7:00 (when it was supposed to leave.) A little after 7 a guy comes on and says the bus would be leaving late (expected) because our convoy hadn’t arrived yet and we couldn’t leave without other buses or we could be hijacked (comforting!) Left around 9. The road to Uganda is horrible. Luckily I was able to sleep some.

THURSDAY: Around 6am we reached the Ugandan border. I was the first in line to get my exit stamp from Kenya. I hand the dude my passport and he checks out my Kenyan visa. He tells me to come around the glass and talk to him in the room. Confused, I do what he says. He asks me what I’m doing in Kenya. I tell him I’m an exchange student at USIU in Nairobi. He goes, “so can you read and write?” Uhhh yes… and he points to the place on my visa where it says “1 mth.” Crap. So we talk about it and he tells me that they gave that to me at the airport. I told him I was supposed to have 4 months in the country to study and that it was a mistake and I had no idea. I ask him what I’m supposed to do. He’s like, well you’ve been in Kenya illegally for over a month…what do you think I’m going to do? I’m starting to freak out now cause he keeps saying I’ve broken the law. Finally he’s like, Ok, well this is what I’m going to do. I’m going to arrest you, then you’ll go to court, and then you’ll be deported to the U.S. This is when I started crying. Funny thing is the first thought through my head was “fuckkk I’m going to fail all my classes and this is going to seriously ruin my life plan.” The second thing I thought was “fuckkk I’m going to a Kenyan jail, the last place I want to be.” Once I started crying he’s like, “are you scared?” and I told him I was, which he replied by saying well if you’re scared then I have every reason to think you’ve done something you shouldn’t have. I see Mike and Catherine and on the other side of the glass looking really confused cause they couldn’t hear what was going on but could see me crying. Finally they ask Aaron to come back there and talk to him about what’s going on. Aaron only had a 2 month visa and so he was in the country illegally for a few days. Finally the guy is like “well, lets ask this gentleman what he thinks we should do with you.” Aaron’s like, you should let us into Uganda and not deport her cause that would be stupid. So then the guys start joking around with us and were like yeah ok I guess we’ll let you go. You just have to get a new visa when you come back in. I was seriously freaked out. They were just messing with us to be assholes. They may have even wanted us to pay them off. I don’t know. All I know is they let us go and we got back on the bus and went to Uganda.

All of us had fallen asleep and were woken up by some guy just repeating “Jinja. Jinja. Jinja” over and over again. (JInja was our stop.) So we hurried off the bus. The bus dropped off us in the most random place. It was pretty much on the side of the road. Almost immediately we were bombarded by about 20 boda-bodas (motorbike taxis.) They were all up in our shit and we were having a hard time figuring out what to do cause this trip was pretty impromptu and we really hadn’t discussed where we were staying or how we were getting there. Since I did the most research about stuff in my Lonely Planet books I suggested we go to this hostel in town that had a sister hostel near the water falls on the Nile. I also read that a ride to somewhere should be about 500 Ugandan shillings (like 30 cents) and the boda-boda guys were quoting us 6000. Aaron went and found a matatu who said he’d take us to town for 500 shillings. We pile into the bus and tell him we wanted to go to Nile River Explorer Backpackers hostel instead. He says its far away and he knows where it is but itll cost us each 4000 shillings. We’re stupid so we said ok. Not only did he not know where it was, and we stopped at two other places first to ask for directions, but it was actually really close. Stupid stupid stupid!!! Oh well, it still was only a few dollars and we just wanted to get out of there.

We get to the hostel. It was probably 10:00 a.m. There were a million people running around in life vests and helmets and there were two trucks with rafts on them leaving to go rafting. It was madness. Went inside. A few of the people working there were white and super nice. They told us to go have some free tea and figure out what we wanted to do. (We weren’t sure where we wanted to stay and what we wanted to do while we were in Jinja.) Some guy, Nash, came over and started talking to us. He worked there. He told us all these things we could do and we decided to go to mountain biking through the rain forest the next day. We checked in and got a dorm room to ourselves cause it wasn’t busy. We ate lunch at the hostel. Really good food. Uganda is amazing. It’s so beautiful. Uganda is more what I was expecting Africa to be like. Kenya is just savannah and kind of boring. Uganda has huge beautiful trees and is more like the jungle. It’s also very hot in Uganda, unlike Kenya. The people in Uganda are also way nicer and it’s a lot safer. People don’t try and rip you off (as much) and are generally friendlier. I love Uganda and want to go back.

SO, after lunch we walked through town, saw a bit of Lake Victoria, and then walked to the source of the Nile. Verrryy cool. Mike, Aaron, and I all stripped down and went swimming in the Nile. Near the entrance a sign said there was swimming, so we asked a guy when we got there if it was safe to go in the water. He said, yes it was safe and we could go swimming after we had learned to swim. Not a lot of people here can swim. And we were like, yeah, we can swim and went in even though it seemed like no one wanted us to do it. Then we walked back home. Aaron, Mike, and I went to an Italian/Indian restaurant and ate really good food. Got really lost trying to find it but a bike taxi driver walked us there. Unlike in Kenya where he would have wanted something for that, the guy was just trying to help us out. Went home and crashed in our hot hot hot hot dorm room.

FRIDAY: Nash told us to be ready to go at 9:00 a.m. so we all woke up early and got ready to go mountain biking. Since we’re on Africa time we didn’t leave until after 11:00. The place where we were staying was the hub of the Nile River Explorers Rafting, so after 9 there were like 30 new people walking around waiting for their rafters breakfast before they were shipped off to the Nile. During breakfast they put on a DVD of past rafting and we watched that for a bit. Finally at 11:00 we got our bikes and helmets and jumped in a van with all the bikes piled on top and left for the forest. There were 5 other people with us who had gone rafting the day before. They were all on 10 week safaris through East Africa. There were 2 from the UK, 2 from New Zealand and 1 from Australia. Nice people. Drove about 45 minutes away to the rain forest. We first rode on a road through some rural villages. Lots of “MZUNGO HOW ARE YOU?!” by the little kids. Some of them chased us for a while. Cute. After like 20 minutes of riding we got the forest path we were going through. It was about 2 feet wide, there were lots of roots and logs on the path, it was very hilly, and everything was wet. After maybe 2 minutes into the forest I wiped out completed and banged up my knee pretty bad. But, I was generally OK and we kept going. In total we went 30 kilometers and took a break for lunch by a waterfall. It was sooo hot out. I’ve never had such a good workout in my life. It was basically a 5 ½ hour intense workout. It was kind of scary too cause I felt like I could die at any time. I fell off my bike a lot, but after that first fall I learned to jump off the bike as I was falling and was generally ok after those falls. Regardless my legs are seriously bruised and cut up from the whole day. On the second part of the ride we crossed a stream which was cool. We would periodically stop to break and once we were breaking and waiting for riders at the back, Catherine and I had a million ants crawling on our legs and biting us. It was horrible! I had them in my socks and in my shorts and it hurts like hell. A little while later I had a HUGE red ant biting my ankle. It wouldn’t let go!! It hurt and burned sooo bad. I tried smacking it to kill it, but that didn’t work. I tried pulling it out but it had two huge pinchers digging into my skin and I had no idea what to do. I was seriously screaming the whole time cause it hurt so much. Finally it let go and we moved on. Owie. Finished up the ride, went home, showered cause we were dirtier than I’ve ever been in my life, and went to sleep.

SATURDAY: Our plan had been to go to Jinja for Thursday and Friday, then go to Kampala on Saturday, then come home Sunday morning. We never intended on going rafting. Buttt, after seeing the videos and talking to all the rafters, we decided we couldn’t pass up rafting the Nile. It’s not often you get that opportunity. So, we decided to splurge and be kings of the Nile. So, we woke up sore and tired from our bike ride, ate our rafters breakfast, then jumped in the trucks to the put-in point on the Nile. There were 5 of us, so we grouped with 2 other girls. These girls wanted to be hardcore and had heard that Paulo was the best guide, so we jumped into his raft. No one in our group had really rafted much before, but these girls wanted to do the hardest parts. Most of us were like, uhhh take us the easy way. But Paulo wouldn’t listen and pushed us hard. I’m so glad he did. There were about 4 rafts total, and we were the “hardcore” raft. Paulo is on the Ugandan raft team and is their best rafter. He travels the world to do competitions. He seriously is the King of the Nile and I love him. Anyway, we set off and at the first rapid (class 1) he just told us to jump out and swim it so we could feel what it was like. Between each rapid Paulo would teach us the different commands and would prep us for the upcoming rapids. I was pretty scared in the beginning, but after a class 2 rapid, I was like this is easy lets do something crazier. After the class 2 we did a class 4. What a fucking incredible feeling. I love rafting. After the class 4 we did a class 5. In the US, if you wanna do class 5 rapids, you need to have formal training or something. But here we were, on our first day of rafting, doing class 5 rapids. We did like 5 class 5s total. We did an 8 foot waterfall. It was amazing. We only fell out once, on a class 5. Before we did it, Paulo was like, ‘you do not want to fall out on this once cause it would be a bad swim to take cause of how long the rapids last.’ Of course we flipped the raft immediately when we hit the rapids. I was under water for quite a while and I was little freaked out cause the raft was on top of me, but I was the first to pop up and Paulo helped me back in. Everyone else was scattered. We also had a bunch of kayakers with us who would go rescue people if they fell out. So eventually people were collected and returned to the raft and our paddles found. Later we went over a class 2 rapid and Paulo made us all stand up on the side of the boat and balance ourselves as we went over. None of us fell in cause we’re all champs. We also went over a class 4 rapid successfully, then he made us turn around and go through it a second time (cause were hardcore.) The second time a kayaker went through it first, and then we went, but he was trapped underwater for a while, then our raft when over him. He was pretty fucked up when he finally came up. That was a really scary moment. The last rapid we did was class 5 (and class 6 in some places!) and we did it like pros. The name of the rapid was “The Bad Place.” Hahahaha Sooo anyway we climbed out and got into the back of the truck with all the kayakers and rode back to the hostel on the waterfall and ate our free dinner. Then we got on a matatu to Kampala.

SUNDAY: We slept in at our hostel, ate breakfast, then decided to try and catch a bus back home cause it was raining and we realized there wasn’t much in Kampala we wanted to do. Got in a matutu and they told us it would cost 700 Ugandan shillings to take us to the buses. After they dropped others off we had to reneogiate cause we were apparently going farther than they thought. So we agreed on 1000. I had the map out the whole time and the driver had no idea where he was going. Finally WE directed them to the place and as we got out and were trying to pay they were like whoah whoah whoah its 15000 shillings each. Which was bullshit. So Mike and I were left in the bus and he was trying to drive away saying he was going to take us to the police. But I just busted through the door, we paid them the 1000 and we left. Assholes. So, we went to the place on the map where Lonely Planet said the bus place was. Well, Lonely Planet was wrong so we had to walk another 30 min in the rain to the actual bus station. The 1:00 bus was full, so we had to trek across town to a different bus to catch one at 3:00. Some really nice guy exchanged some money for us then walked us to the bus station. He lived in Sudan. What a king. Got on our bus at 3 and drove the bumpy way home. Crossed the border ok. Got to Nairobi, took a taxi home, then crashed at like 7am. What a fucking weekend.

Oh yeah, we went into some caves while in Uganda. It was Mike’s idea. I don’t know why he wanted to do it so badly. I think he said his mom told him it would be cool or something.

Just a quick update. School’s been pickin up and I’ve got a paper to write. Here’s what’s happened since my last post:

The boys went to Mt. Kenya. It was real lonely without them here. Pretty much everyone was gone that weekend. John and I hung out a lot and talked about how we are sometimes the same person. We have the same life goals and say the same thing at the same time a lot. Who knew I would get along with a frat boy. Me and three of my boys went to Carnivore (my first time) one of the nights. It was a “Stop Light” party; you got either a red, yellow, or green wristband depending your availability. Danced a fair amount. (Its nice being the only girl…you’ve always got someone to dance with!) There was a surprise performance by some Kenyan artist that everyone there knew. Met some other USIUers, such as Jackson, aka “Senator”… he’s a rapper and is a big deal. I like to think were best friends, but we probably aren’t.

Anyway, our boys are superheroes and finished climbing great Mt Kenya a day early and we had a big reunion when they got back to campus. Mike and I looked at his pictures. Mt Kenya looks like another planet. They saw these huge rodent-like creatures that are apparently related to elephants. Who knows. They kind of creep me out. It felt good to have everyone home. I was nervous Josh wasn’t gonna make it. But he did.

Then all last week I worked on a paper for my Ideologies class. It was the first paper I ever started more than a day or two before it was due. Not bad. Started my humanitarian law paper on Friday and finished Saturday. Sunday (today) I started my development paper that’s due tomorrow at 5pm. Im gonna do it up real big and pull and all-nighter to get it finished. John and Sadie already gave up and went to bed and are just gonna turn it in late. Im a pro and am just gonna get it done. I hate procrastinating.

Earlier this week Catherine and Mike had a watermelon seed spitting contest. Their target was Jaydon’s face. (His suggestion.) I don’t think there was a winner. Also, another time we were eating outside, a praying mantis was on my neck. Ahhh! Only in Africa.

So, this week I have a paper due tomorrow, and mid-terms on Tues, Wed, and Thur. After that I’m pretty much done with school cept for one more paper, a group proj, and finals. Other than that, these are my travel destinations that will occupy nearly every weekend left here in Afrika:

- Uganda road trip
- Amboseli National Park (KEI safari at Mt Kilimanjaro)
- Dubai (hell yes.)
- Mombasa (beaches!)
- Egypt (riding camels and seeing the ‘mids)

Things I miss most right now:
Sydney bean
High-speed, reliable internet
Having internet that’s in more than 3 places
Food, glorious food. Someone send me a package with a burrito, a sandwich, pasta, an egg sandwich, and a huuuge salad. Please.

Travels

October 11, 2007

I’ve been neglecting my journaling pretty bad. Lots of catching up to do. This is what’s happened since the last update:

A few weeks ago I went out for the first time. Thursday nights are the crazy party night here since not many people have classes on Friday. We all got ready and took an 11:30 bus from the gates of campus to a club called Galileo downtown. The bus we took was one of the “disco” buses that have black lights and are blaring music. Lots of fun. When we got to the club, it was totally dead. We decided to wait for a while cause things don’t really get going until like 2am and we all were pretty sure most of USIU would be there. So, we hung out, we danced a little, and then we found out most everyone was at another bar in Westlands. So, we all piled into Ladu’s car and drove to Black Diamond. This place was awesome. The other half of our friends were already there. The bar was on the roof of a building and half of it was inside with a really good DJ and the other half was on a balcony. Very nice. So we stayed for a while then eventually left around 3:30.

Later that weekend I needed to go to Nakumatt to withdraw money from the ATM to pay for the Masai Mara trip. Josh and I missed the bus by like a half an hour so we decided to just walk. Maybe 5 minutes after we got onto Thika Road (the major road that Nakumatt is on) we passed by a street kid. Maybe 10 minutes after walking a few feet in front of him, we realized he was following us and he told us he was lost. Josh asked where he needed to go and he said “anywhere.” So, pretty much from then on we ignored him and he pretty much stayed quiet and walked a few feet behind us. When we finally got to the ATM he waited in line with us. Then he followed us into the Nakumatt and waited in line with us there. By this point it was just ridiculous but kind of funny cause he wasn’t asking us for anything, he was just hangin out. So, we left Nakumatt and got on a matatu to go home. The kid follows us. Gets off when we did (and didn’t pay.) Then we get on the college van and he gets on. Gets off at the campus gates and again didn’t pay. So at this point were figuring he’s gonna stop cause he wouldn’t be able to get passed the guards. But no, somehow he gets through the gates. Josh and I were freaking out a little cause he was basically gonna follow us all the way to our rooms. So, when we got to the hostels and turned the corner we just ran to Josh’s room and slammed the door so he wouldn’t know where we were. We told Aaron what happened and Aaron pretty much went and told a guard to tell the kid to leave. We found out that when he got to the gate and was asked what he was doing, he just pointed at us like he was with us. Afrika!

This past weekend we went to Masai Mara National Park near the Tanzanian border. It was absolutely amazing. We left on Friday morning at like 7:30. We had 3 safari vans for all us. Our guide’s name was Peter and he did a great job. After we piled in the vans we drove for like 6 hours to the park. I wasn’t bored at all cause its just so great to look out the window at the scenery. We drove through a really rich neighborhood outside Nairobi and then after an hour or so we stopped at the Great Rift Valley to take pictures. The valley is so unbelievable. It looks like it goes on forever. So beautiful. Then we kept driving and actually drove right across the valley. We saw so many Masai herders and their goats/cows. Made another stop at Narok for gas and eats. Finally we got to our campsite in the early afternoon. It was sooo nice. We paired off and each got a huuuge tent with real beds and our own bathrooms and showers. All our meals were provided as well and the food was real good. Around 3:30 we got back in our vans and went for our first game drive. We drove about ten minutes away to the park and started our drive. Right away we saw elephants and zebra and antelope. The park has a few main roads (dirt) and smaller pathways that go through the savannah. There were a lot of other safari vans everywhere which was kind of disappointing. I never thought about seeing so many people on safari. It was kind of sad too cause you would see a line of like 15 vans and you’d know there was something cool there. Poor animals are followed everywhere, especially cool ones like lions or cheetahs. All of us were nervous that we wouldn’t see lions, but we saw lions pretty quick. We even saw a dude lion take a huge dump. Very funny. Anyway, we went out for a few hours and got to see the sunset. Oh yeah, these aren’t just any vans. The tops of the vans lift up so pretty much the whole time you’re on safari you’re standing up and holding on for your life. Much better views though. It was a great time. Went home, had dinner, then had a bonfire. The stars were sooo amazing here. So bright. We could see the Milky Way real clear and we saw shooting stars every few seconds. We could also hear hyenas makin noise all night. Baboons were in our campsite too.

Next day we woke up at like 7 and took nice warm showers and ate a great breakfast. Got back in the vans for a full day safari. Again, right away we saw lots of great animals. We were able to see the end of the great wildebeest migration. Cooooll!! Around mid-day we made it to the Tanzanian border and were able to get out and walk across the border. I’ve been to Tanzania now!!! For about 5 minutes. Then we drove across the Mara River and saw literally thousands of rotting corpses of wildebeest that didn’t make it across during the migration. Worst smell of my life. Then we ate our packed lunches at the Hippo Pools. Apparently a few days earlier a woman got too close to the water and a croc came out and ate her. We stayed away from the edge. Hippos make real funny noises. It also seemed like every other safari group that was there had personal guards armed with AK-47s. It’s interesting to see a group of guards eating lunch with their huge ass guns hanging in the trees. After lunch we went back out for safari again. At some point Shannon got the great idea to listen to the Lion King soundtrack on my ipod while driving around. Let me tell you, listening to Circle of Life while there are thousands of wildebeest running across the savannah in front of your van…that is one of the most amazing experiences of my life. We all took turns and we were pretty much all laughing cause you can’t help but just get goosebumps. Nearing the end of the day we were all exhausted so at one point we all took a short, bumpy nap in the van while Peter trekked across the savannah. After our nap we got to see a whole group of lions and lion cubs sleeping and playing by a pond. That was cool. Anyway, eventually we went back to the camp, ate, bonfired, and went to sleep.

Sunday morning we packed up and then walked to a Masai village nearby. They Masai men danced for us and then we danced with them. Soooo cool. They can jump real high. Then the women danced and lead us into the village circle. Apparently the Masai boys can’t be circumcised until they’ve killed a lion! The village is basically a circle of huts made of cow poo. At night they keep their cows and goats inside to protect from the wild animals. All the little kids were practicing the dancing and playing with poo. Interesting. They showed us how they make fire. Then we went and were able to buy Masai-made jewelry and stuff. Mike got a knife to go with his spear. Hahaha After we all finished buying stuff we said goodbye and got in the vans for another long drive. I slept most of the way. What a great weekend.

While we were on safari, Mike and I each got texts from a friend of ours, Sanyu, that she had something for us when we got home. We went to pick up our “somethings” and found out she had invited us to a celebration at the Holiday Inn in Nairobi for Uganda’s independence day! So, Tuesday night Mike and I got all dressed up and went with Ladu to the really nice hotel where probably a few hundred diplomats were. There were speeches made by the Ugandan ambassador to Kenya and the Minister for the East Africa Community. Then there was greeaaattt food and Ugandan music/dancers. It was really amazing. When I went to the bar to get a drink, two different guys told me they were looking for a “friend” and asked for my number. The first guy who asked me just confused me so I gave him my email, and by the second I got what he meant and I was like… uhhhhh yeah I’m uhh here with my boyfriend and pointed at Mike. Haha then he asked if I had any friends “from where I was from” that were looking for “a friend.” I told him I didn’t have any friends and left. Oh boy.

Yesterday was Moi Day so we didn’t have any classes. Catherine and John and I went to get Indian food at Diamond Plaza. John got confused and directed us to a matatu that took us to Village Market instead. (Completely wrong side of town) We had to take a taxi all the way back. When we finally got there, we ordered from the wrong vendor and got the completely wrong food. So we decided to do it up and just get another plate of the right food and share. Then I got a milkshake. Yum!! Then a taxi home. Then Catherine and I cleared out my meal plan account and got mashed potatoes! We are fatties.

So that brings us to now. Mike and Josh and Owen are at Mt. Kenya this weekend. The other half of our group is in Mombasa. Catherine/Aaron are going to Naivasha tomorrow with some pro skateboarders or something. Should be a real quiet weekend. Perfect to finish all my papers.

Next weekend I have free, then we have Mid-Terms, and the next weekend 7 of us are going on a road trip to…………. UGANDA AND SUDAN!!!!!!!! Yes, everyone, I’m going to Sudan. Be jealous. I’ll let you know how that turns out.

Uneventful

September 25, 2007

So, Africa continues. Not too much has happened since the last entry. We’re now into Week 3 of school. I have had no homework yet. Not even reading. So, pretty much, I go to class then bum around all day. Classes are still frustrating as everything we do is so inefficient and the teaching style here is so different. Pretty much a professor will read his notes and expect you to copy them word-for-word. I don’t really like any of my professors and the classes aren’t very intellectually stimulating.

After going to Kibera the first time, Mike and I got sick with this cough. The first week of coughing wasn’t too terrible. The worst of it was trying to fall asleep at night. The second week of being sick, things got bad. Around Wednesday of the second week Mike and I went to the medical center on campus and they pretty much just gave us drugs. On Thursday I was really, really sick and pretty much stayed in my room all day except for classes. Our RAs kept asking us how we were and telling us if we weren’t better the next day, they would make us go to the hospital. Now, yes I was really sick, but going to the hospital seemed a bit excessive. By Friday we were still really sick and were a little scared about having TB so we decided to hit up the hospital as suggested. I realized I left my insurance card at home, so I had to jump through so many hoops to arrange to get another copy and then work with the woman at USIU who is in charge of international students since we didn’t get USIU insurance and yeah it was just a lot of time wasted. But we figured it out. Then we went to see a different doctor at the medical clinic, and after talking to him, he said we really didn’t need to go to the hospital and just gave us different drugs. So I went back to sleep. Mike and I missed the first weekend of partying in Nairobi. Oh well. By Monday I was feeling better but still had a bad cough.

Things get pretty boring here so on Wednesday Mike and I decided to catch the USIU bus downtown and do whatever we could down there. Mike wanted to take some pictures too. We pretty much wandered around and got to know the city better. We also bought the first and second seasons of Scrubs for cheap. (Instead of Season 1, the disc we got had like 10 war movies instead. Oh well. This is Africa. Season 2 works just fine, thankfully.) It feels good to know I can find my way around the city now.

Thursday night (the biggest party night of the week) a few of us were bumming around and decided that rather than be losers, we would just go out and do something nearby. All the pool tables at Fifis were taken, so we walked down the road to Safari Park and the boys had a drink at Cat’s Club (C.C.s.) It was only like 1030 so the club was pretty empty and boring. So, we went to the casino. Mike and I didn’t want to gamble so we just hung out outside. Josh and Steven both won a lot of money playing slots. Eventually other friends came back from dinner at the ambassador’s house and were at C.C.s too. By midnight Mike and I were bored so we went back home.

Friday everyone went back to Kibera, but I stayed on campus. I thought Dijana and I were going shopping, but that got cancelled. Boring day. People were going gambling again Friday night so Mike and I watched a few episodes of Scrubs instead.

Saturday was my big adventure. Pach Pach, the Sudanese refugee I brought things to, invited me to come have lunch with him at his home. Mike and Dijana were both going to come, but Dijana ended up going back to Lake Naivasha for the weekend and Mike went to Nairobi National Park with KEI so I was all alone. I was nervous at first, but all turned out well. Pach Pach came all the way from his house to pick me up so I would be safe getting there. Very nice guy. We started walking down the road to USIU when some guy in a pick-up truck just sort of pulled over and Pach Pach acted like he knew him. I thought we were planning on taking a matatu so I figured a friend of Pach Pach’s appeared out of nowhere and was giving us a ride. It didn’t seem like a taxi so I was kind of confused. Very Africa. Apparently Pach Pach had met this dude once before and they were from the same area so the guy was just being nice and giving us a cheap ride to town. For about two seconds I was nervous that I was being sold or something. I lucked out. Anyway, we got to town, then went to the Hilton to grab a bus. I’m finally getting the buses now too. We hopped onto a 46 and took it to the end of the line. Pach Pach lives pretty much in a slum. He has a pretty nice apartment. A feast was waiting for us and we ate lunch with his cousin while watching Congolese music videos. Afterwards we talked for a long time about the U.S. and about various cultural differences. Pach Pach can never get married because in order to get married in his culture, you must pay a dowry of 25 cows and he can’t afford that. He also cannot date because that would be a distraction and could lead to devious things like sex and having kids outside of marriage. It sounded lonely. We ended up leaving an hour later than planned and I was a little nervous about not making it home before dark. Luckily everything worked out and I even got home earlier than planned. Overall, a very good day. I’m sure I’ll go back there.

Sunday Mike and I both woke up late but decided to catch a bus downtown to find the Masai market since we had nothing else to do. We ran into a lot of people on the way. We took the 46 bus to Ya Ya (and missed our stop) but eventually got to the market. We’re learning. I bought some gifts for people at home. I’m pretty good at negotiating prices. Mike bought a badass spear and got a good price. After about an hour we got on a bus back downtown, then only just caught the USIU bus home.

Monday was an interesting day. The new library opened on Monday. The building is sooo huge and looks really amazing. It only cost $1.75 million to build; this if for a building that would def cost like $30 million in the US. To celebrate its opening, Kibaki (the president of Kenya) came to the school for an entire day of celebrations. Unfortunately I still had to go to my 9:00 class. After class we went down to the ceremonies where we sat in the sun for hours. While Kibaki was on campus, we weren’t allowed in the hostels cause otherwise someone could shoot him or something. So we were trapped at this ceremony. I’m sunburnt now. After there was a BBQ and we got free lunch (after waiting in line for an hour.) I guess it was pretty cool to see the president.

Today the library was open for the first time. I waited in a line for nearly 2 hours just to get my fingerprint scanned since that’s how they let you into the building. Thank god that’s over. They don’t have the wireless set up yet and you cant plug into the internet with your laptop yet either. They said this afternoon, which in African means maybe tomorrow it’ll be ready. It’s not quiet in here either. They’re still hammering away to finish the building. It’s pretty cool though. There’s a lot of space. So I think I’m going to finally sit down and look over my notes from the last 3 weeks of school. It’s so weird to not have anything to do, so I’m going to make an effort to try and really make everything I’ve learned stick in my brain. Alright, here I go.

School Starts

September 11, 2007

Our pseudo-vacation has ended and classes have begun. Last week was pretty slow for the most part. Tuesday and Wednesday we just bummed around at school and picked up new international students. From Thursday-Friday I went to Naivasha and Hells Gate National Park with Mike, Dijana, Robin, and Ladu. Ladu is from Sudan and has a car here. He offered to take us home with him in December. This is exciting. Anyway, it took a while to drive there. We were stopped at a roadblock and were questioned by this police officer that looked like a general. He seemed friendly and sounded like he was joking when he told us it was illegal to not wear seatbelts in Kenya. Robin talked to him and apparently he was serious and we would have to each pay 6000 shillings as a fine. Robin took charge and paid him off and that was that. Ohhh corruption. I seriously don’t know what we would do without Robin.

We had planned to camp in the park on Thursday and spend all day Friday in the park exploring. We got there, Robin talked to the guys, and then decided for us that it would be cheaper to stay at this resort on Lake Naivasha instead. Things were going exactly opposite how we had planned, but that is the Kenyan way. We ended up camping at the resort, but it was a serious joke. It felt like we were just camping in our backyard or something. There was a pool and it was seriously a nice place. We ate food from the local market and then crashed pretty early. Friday Mike and I insisted we go to Hells Gate even though it appeared more expensive than we planned. We got there, drove through the park and saw lots of animals. There were zebras, giraffes, buffalos, antelopes, and baboons. Very cool. Then we parked at this ranger’s station and were able to get a guide to take us through the gorges and hot springs. We would have been so lost without our guide. Apparently parts of Laura Croft: Tomb Raider were filmed in the gorge there. The springs were cool. At one point the gorge was so narrow we had to take off our shoes and walk through the warm water. Then we hiked up to the top of a hill and were greeted by a Maasai community. They were amazing. They showed us one of their mud huts, explained about their lifestyle, and then danced for us. They were so nice. They told us we could come back and stay with them for a celebration if we wanted. We bought some jewelry and then headed back to the car. We did all that by 1pm and we were exhausted. Drove back to school.

Saturday the new international students went on a tour of Nairobi. Mike and I stayed behind and caught up on sleep, walked to Nakumatt for water and some other things, and used the internet at school finally. Rosa, Aaron, and Catherine returned from Lamu and we all caught up and gossiped and had fun.

Sunday I got a call from the refugee I was in contact with here in Nairobi and he informed me he was on his way to school to pick up the stuff I had for him. When I asked how soon he would be here, he responded with “ok thank you bye” and hung up. Typical. Mike, Dijana and I waited by the gate for a long time. Eventually the refugees showed up and I took them to lunch. They were both very nice and it was good to talk to them for a while.

Monday classes started. We were warned that professors don’t even show up on the first day a lot of the time. Dijana and I had class at 9 together. We woke up early and went to the library when it opened to get our books. That took sooooo long and was so ridiculous. I only have 1 book. Crazy. Went to class and waited for the professor until like 920. Then figured out we were in the wrong class. Found the right room where the professor finally showed up at 940. The first 20 minutes he talked about why its important to read for class and do you work and work hard. He said “do it for yourself, and if not for yourself, do it for your parents who pay your fees.” Yeah right. Then he preached to us about teamwork and how Jesus is God and Jesus believed in teamwork. Bad times. We never even talked about International Humanitarian Law. So my first class wasn’t great. Went back to the hostels after and Mike and I were people of action and got a whole bunch done on campus. Then class again at 530. The professor was an improvement. Very energetic and we actually talked about African development. The professor was hitting on me a lot and he made me his secretary (even though he kept calling me Tracy) and talked about how he was going to take me on a date to get coffee. Awkward!!! Then he dropped a bomb on us. He asked if we could just not have Wednesday classes cause it interfered with his schedule. So now we don’t have Wednesday class. I’m a little bummed cause this class was going to be amazing and I want to learn as much as I can. We’ll see how this works out.

Had another class this morning. Sooo much better. The professor is so smart. We talked about current events for a while. Then we each had to introduce ourselves. Then class ended. And here I am. About to go to lunch, then my last class at 120. Oh, did I mention the library isn’t open until the 21^st and there wont be wireless internet until next week and the computer lab is always PACKED? Yeah, great times. I’m out.

loves

Into Week 2

September 5, 2007

It’s been a whole week since I’ve had the chance to sit and jot down everything that’s been going on. It’s busy here, but great. Last Thursday we piled into the USIU van (driven by the great Julius Manga, the best USIU driver to ever exist. We all love him and he told me I could go live with him in the country. What a champ) and drove to a giraffe park. We got to feed the giraffes and pet them and if you put a treat between your lips, the giraffes will kiss you. It was really amazing. Then we went on a walk through the park, led by a guide, and we ran into one of the male giraffes (named Joc…we called him Old Joc haha) and were almost chased down. A bit scary but still very cool. We got a lot of cool pictures from that day.

Friday was the start of us really learning true Kenyan culture and it was a bit frustrating. It seems that there is always very little communication about what is going on so we are always pretty confused about where we are going, what we are doing, etc. Friday we really got a crash course in Kenya time too. Something you would expect to take maybe a half an hour will take at least 2-3 hours here. It can be a bit maddening. Friday we all met at 1030am to go to Machakos (a town in the country) to visit Robin’s family and go to an orphanage for the weekend. We all thought we were leaving Nairobi at 11 and were going to meet up with some of Robin’s friends from church, then drive to Machakos (a two hour drive to get 60 miles away.) Upon leaving the school we all found out that we were throwing a party for the orphans and had to pick up supplies. We went to a mall and were there forever. Then we went and ate pizza and we were there forever again. Robin then informed us we weren’t leaving Nairobi until 4pm. Robin constantly disappears too and we have no idea where he goes until an hour later he shows up from somewhere where he had to do some business. Kind of shady and weird. Anyway, we had to trek across Nairobi with all these bags of food (that we all had to pay for unknowingly) to where Robin’s mom’s bus was going to pick us up and drive us to the country. We were on time, and then Robin’s friends started filtering in. It was more than just a few friends; more than 20 people showed up. Then apparently we couldn’t be picked up where we were so we had to trek across Nairobi again and finally crowd into a bus. We probably didn’t end up leaving until 6pm. Once we arrived in Machakos, someone threw a rock at the bus and broke a window. One of the Kenyans insisted on removing the broken glass and I swear to god if we went over a bump John would have probably been impaled by this huge piece of glass. Anyway, we finally got to the house and pretty quickly figured out that this wasn’t just us and some of Robin’s friends going to Machakos for the weekend…it was a church retreat. Talk about awkward times. Thank god most of our group isn’t Christian and could be awkward together. Another thing about Kenyan culture is that no matter what you eat 3 meals a day. If you ship lunch and your second meal is at 5 o’clock, that means you just eat dinner at midnight. Sooo as soon as we got to the house, they started preparing dinner. We didn’t start eating until 1am. We were all so exhausted and just didn’t care about eating anymore, but we couldn’t go to sleep. What a day.

Saturday we were woken up by loud Kenyan hip hop at like, 8am. I don’t think Kenyans sleep. We left for the orphanage a few hours late. All of us were a little frustrated by what was going on, but a day with the orphans changed all that. At first I was holding the cutest little alien-looking baby named John. Then I had to go help prepare lunch and peeled sooooo many potatoes. I was really bad at it, but I really enjoyed sitting around talking for a long time about life with good people. I felt like a woman. Then more playing with children. I fell in love with a boy named Moses. The kids are all so amazing and happy. They take care of each other too. One kid started attacking me with a piece of string and this kid to the left of me just went up to him, yelled at him to stop, and then came over and patted me on the leg to sort of say “youre ok.” This kid had to of been only 4 years old. He was my little protector. A bunch of the boys went to town to get food and came back with two live chickens. Josh and John both killed the chickens. I watched although they did it rather inefficiently and it was sort of hard to watch. Near the end of the night Dijana and I talked to the woman who owns the home and she told us stories about 2 of the kids and just her motivation for helping the kids and afterward Dijana and I just had to go and cry cause it was just so heavy. Overall a good day though. At the end of the night we had to walk home and it was totally pitch black and we couldn’t see where we were walking at all. A few times I completely fell into a whole and seriously could have hurt myself. John and I were just both holding onto each other hoping we wouldn’t break our necks. Then, when we turned off the main road onto our small village road, we apparently went the wrong way and were attacked by guard dogs. Luckily no one was hurt and the owners came and led the dogs away but for a minute I seriously thought I was going to have to kick the fuck out of a dog. John came very close to being bitten. We finally got home and had a long time to chill before dinner was ready. Mike and I sat outside and talked for almost three hours. Mike’s probably my best friend here. He likes good music, movies, everything. He’s a film and television major and he always has cool stories. He’s from Denver. Anyway, we all finally ate dinner, then crashed.

Sunday Robin said he was going to take us to a place where the water from a stream went UP a hill instead of down. We all sort of didn’t believe it but figured wed see when we got there. We took one of these small 3-wheeled taxis way out into the country. It was so beautiful. We were dropped off and ventured down this path where we ran into some guys near a stream. Apparently we were in such a remote area that a few of the people we saw had never seen a Muzungu (white person.) THAT was cool. So we started jumping and climbing down these huuuge boulders. So much fun, but kind of scary cause if you slipped you would probably die. We all thought we were going to the stream where the water went up the hill but as usual Robin didn’t really inform us what we were doing so we were really only just walking on the rocks for the hell of it. We chilled near the bottom for a while. Eventually we turned around and went back to the road. Not surprisingly we had no way to get back to town so we started walking. A two hour walk to town. Yeah. We saw lots of goats and cows being herded through the mountains. My face got really burnt on that walk. Eventually we got home, at some leftover goat and then got on the bus and went home. Oh, and yeah, we never had time to go to this stream that goes uphill. Big surprise.

Monday Dijana, Mike, John, Ladu, and I went to Kibera. Kibera is the largest slum with over 800,000 people living there. John lived there for 6 weeks last summer and volunteered at an orphanage and made a documentary about the slum. So John took us there and had his friend, Peter, give us a grand tour of the place. A lot of the movie the Constant Gardener was filmed in Kibera. It was truly a heavy experience. You had to be very careful where you walked or you could slip into grow sewage water. The whole place was like a giant maze. Everywhere you go little kids shout at you and say “How are you?!” Except that they say it with emphasis on the ‘you’ and its cute. We had a really delicious lunch for less than a dollar, then went back to the orphanage to play with kids. I fell in love with a kid who wouldn’t talk. He was adorable. This orphanage was a lot different than the one in Machakos. There were way more kids, far less room to play, and everything was total chaos. Anyway, we left Kibera and took a matatu (sort of a Kenyan bus) back to Nairobi. We got to Nairobi around 630 pm and it was impossible to get a matatu back to campus. We started freaking out a little cause at 7 it got dark and was then very dangerous to be in Nairobi without a local. We trekked everywhere for a while looking for a cab but eventually the USIU bus was able to come pick us up on the way to the airport to get more new kids. We lucked out, we could have been in pretty big trouble. After that day of being Nairobi I felt like a pro at walking through traffic and dodging cars. Seriously, wow, I almost died a few times. We finally got home from the airport at like 1130. We left Kibera at like 5. Such a long time to get home. We reunited with the rest of the group. We’re such a family and it was hard to be separated for a whole day. Sadly three of our group went to Lamu today until Saturday and I’m seriously going to miss them.

Yesterday was a nice, relaxing day. I slept in really really late, went to Momma Rosie’s for a quick chapatti. Then an episode of Arrested Development with Mike. Then dinner with the group at Momma Rosie’s again. Then we all watched 300 together. Then sleep. I needed a break. Today is a similarly relaxing day. All we have planned is to get our library cards and user IDs/passwords for the school computers. Hopefully I’ll get the wireless shit set up. UGHHH Ok, time to go grab a samosa cause I’m hungry!

KISSES!

Exploring

August 29, 2007

Things are continuing to be amazing here in beautiful Nairobi. Yesterday afternoon we had a semi-orientation on the basics about the college. It’s cheaper to go to school here than Nairobi so I may just never come home! (Just kidding for those of you who would be freaked out about that.) Basically there are several kinds of international students. There are those in direct exchanges (like me and 6 students from American University who haven’t shown up yet), students in direct enrollment (like students from other African countries), and then those in the KEI program. Other than Aaron and Dijana, the rest of the people here are from that group. I’m not sure what it is exactly, but I do know all their weekend trips are paid for, they got a phone paid by the program, and other stuff. Regardless, we’re all really tight so far. Other than one girl, the whole group seems normal and really fun. Anyway, Patrick, the guy at USIU in charge of KEI gave us our orientation. Then we went and met the dean. Then we went and got registered or something for our IDs.

Then last night Patrick took us all out to dinner at a hotel nearby. The food is surprisingly good so far. I’m enjoying it. Patrick is also going to look into getting me an internship at the UN while I’m here, which would be badass. He also organizes the trips on the weekends and is going to give us advice for some trips were planning on our own.

This morning I woke up at 7am completely on my own and felt great. It was wonderful. At 8 a bunch of us worked out together. I hope we keep running here, it feels great, although its considerably harder since were at such a higher altitude

Then we went to breakfast at this place near the school. It's called Momma Rosie's. Food was delicious. Then we went to this place called Village Market, which turned out to basically be a mall, African style. Pretty westernized and rather boring. They had bowling, and Robin had never bowled, so we took him bowling for his birthday. It was so weird cause for the whole time we were there I kept forgetting we were in Africa.

OHHHHHH AND THE BEST STORY EVER!~!!!! on the way to village market, we saw all the houses for the ambassadors to the UN. Then, we drove down this street and got to see the UN. On the other side of the street was the US embassy. Catherine took a picture of the gate and immediately the guards started radioing people and like coming after us. They took her camera and we had to follow them to like the US compound or something. They had to write this big report, she had to delete the picture, they took pictures of the van, then we all had to get out and they took a picture of us. It was crazy. We were a little freaked out, but still laughing cause they weren’t going to do anything to US citizens. She got her camera back, luckily.

Tomorrow we see giraffes. This weekend we are going to the country to stay with Robin’s auntie. Robin claims there is a stream that flows UPHILL near there, but I wont believe it until I see it. A few of us are going to try and travel Mon-Wed of next week, but were not sure where yet. Dubai keeps coming up as an option and I guess its pretty cheap from here. Exciting!!

Through Day 2

August 28, 2007

Thursday: My last day of work. It was the most bizarre day of my life. Too many things went crazy that day. Everyone I work with took me to lunch at India House. It was nice. Alan gave me a keychain flashlight since the power goes out a lot. Patrick and Rebecca gave me an 80GB ipod as a bonus. Thursday was the Chicago-style hurricane and after work my sister and I had to drive to the North side to pick up the bag for the refugees. It took us forever to get there and we saw crazy destruction from the storm, like a roof right next to Lake Shore. The dude who was giving me stuff to take to the refugees lived in a commune. It took us forever to drive home. We had to cancel our dinner plans and picked up Portillos instead.

Friday: I started getting ready for Kenya. How typical of me to put all of that off until the day before. I really didn’t even get much done on Friday. My parents came home, I picked up my license at the DMV, and started collecting stuff I would be taking with me. My parents took Kurt and I to dinner at J. Alexanders.

Saturday: I was planning on staying up all night on Friday to get everything accomplished before I left, but around 2 I fell asleep and my mom woke me up at 7. Five hours lost. Oh well. I continued packing until Kurt came over for the last time. That was a hard goodbye. I cried. Then I rushed to Target and picked up stuff, then to Radio Shack for a plug adapter, then home to pack up. The guy at Radio Shack who helped me was really excited cause he lived in Kenya for 12 years. He gave me advice (and the wrong adapter. Boourns) Rebecca then drove me to the airport. She cried. Our flight was pretty empty. I slept on and off. Arrived in London at 8am their time. We planned on just hanging out in the airport for our 11 hour layover cause Dijana would need a visa to get into the country cause she’s Bosnian and we’re cheap and lazy. Anyway, after we got off the plane, we waited in a long line to find that we couldn’t have a carry-on AND a backpack (the lady in Chicago said it was OK) so we had to go somewhere else to check one bag. So, we waited in another really long line to be admitted into the country. Since we had to go into the country (technically) to be able to go to Check In to check our bags, they gave Dijana a transit visa for free. Sooo, we went and waited in the wrong line, then the right line, check our bags, then decided to go into the city since we had nothing else to do and when else would we have that opportunity. We exchanged our money, hopped on the Underground, and an hour later we were in London. We say Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the river, the ferris wheel thing, ate some lunch, walked around, then hopped the Underground back to the airport. The train ride and lunch cost us US$50 which is so ridiculous. Then another 2 hour wait in Heathrow, then another 8 hour plane ride to Nairobi. We were all so tired and crabby. I slept some on the plane. I watched 28 Weeks Later. Virgin Atlantic is a pretty badass airline.

Sunday/Monday: We arrived in Nairobi at 6am their time. It was still dark. We got our bags, exchanged some money, then found the person picking us up. We were all nervous that no one would be there, but he was pretty much the first person I saw. Good times. By the time we left, it wasn’t dark out anymore. The airport sort of looks like a jail. We got on the bus and started driving to the school. Once we got out of the airport I finally got really excited. Chris Brown was playing on the radio in the bus. Kenya is crazy. Like, there was a lot of traffic on the road we were on, so we just pulled over and drove on the side of the road (dodging light poles) to pass people. There are people walking everywhere. We saw some pretty extravagant hotels and buildings, and we also saw tiny shacks. I would never wanna drive here. People pretty much run across the street in between cars. There were a few times I really thought we were gonna hit someone. We stopped at sort of a 7-11 type place and got some food. Everything here is amazingly cheap. The biggest bill in shillings is a 1000 note. When we exchanged our money, all our money was in 1000s. My lunch and Dijana’s together cost about 250 shillings. That’s about $3.75 in US dollars. After that we started heading for the college. USIU is about 20 minutes from Nairobi. Everything is so beautiful. The sides of the road are total jungle. The school is right off Thika road, which is the worst road in Kenya (or Nairobi, I cant remember) for car jackings. The school is right next to Safari Park Hotel. That place is extreme. So huge. The school is guarded and you have to check in at the gate. The entire grounds are surrounded by electric fence. The guards have big guns.

Once we got to the school we were given our rooms. I’m on the second floor. Dijana’s on the 4^th. Aaron’s on the first floor, right by the entrance. My roommate is Kenyan and wont be here until school starts. The hostels are kind of confusing. Like, there are two wings. To get to my wing, I have to go to the second floor and go through a common room area. Everything looks the same and its confusing. I keep getting lost. After we put our stuff down, Robin starting giving us a tour of the campus. I cant even begin to describe how amazing and beautiful it is. There are palm trees and giant plants and flowers everywhere. Cats roam everywhere. And there are kittens. Very cute. Robin is so amazing. He introduced us to pretty much everyone on campus. Right now, other than staff, there are only a few of us international students on campus, and that’s it. They just built a new library and its SO HUGGEE. Seriously, in the middle of our tour, Dijana and I were like, this place is so much better than NCC. They have basketball courts, and a track, and a swimming pool, and a soccer field, and just about everything. The campus is huge on being clean. There are people cleaning everywhere. Someone cleans our room for us once a week. If you need anything, you just ask and everyone wants to help you. Everyone is always offering you tea too. Its really amazing chai. Robin had us over in his room and we had tea and he showed us pictures of his family. Later this week we are going to his family’s house and an orphanage. I’m really excited.

After our tour we took our first matatu (sort of like a bus) ride and then walked to Nakumatt, this store that basically has everything. Kind of like a Super Target. We picked up sheets, a pillow, a blanket, a mosquito net, and water. We took a taxi back. Im so glad we have Robin. He’s pretty much our guide for everything. Everyone speaks Swahili here, so Robin does most of the talking. Luckily they all speak English too. Robin is teaching us some Swahili. I can say thank you, thank you very much, and the numbers 1-7. Once we got back to campus, I unpacked, got my bed set up, then crashed for about an hour.

After our naps we went to Jambo Grill for dinner. (The cafeteria isn’t open yet, so we have to eat off-campus.) Another girl, Catherine, arrived the night before we did. She came with. She’s pretty awesome. She’s from Seattle, is a journalism major, and is Buddhist! All through dinner we just asked Robin questions. Theres a huge different between how we should act off campus than on. Like, swearing is cool on campus, while it’s a bad idea off. We also started talking about religion, and it came out that I’m atheist. He was cool about it, and he told me it’s a bad idea to tell people here, even on campus, cause they’ll all try and convert me. Apparently my roommate is really Christian. Should be an interesting time. At dinner I tried goat. It was pretty good. Really chewy. Once we were done, we took the school’s bus to go to the airport and pick up another girl, Ashley. She’s a Poli Sci major. We were having a lot of fun on the bus ride there. Aaron was so out of it. It’s so funny cause Aaron’s so tall and doesn’t fit in a lot of the cars. We got a picture of him in the matatu with his legs totally up against his chest to fit. We discovered that Aaron, Catherine and I all don’t drink. It was weird. Got to the airport, picked Ashley up, then drove through Nairobi. Saw Parliament. Saw the one building I always think of when I see Nairobi pics. We stopped to pick up food for the guy, Franco, who does hostel security. Robin and our driver (we call him Brother Mine, meaning my brother. He calls everyone Brother Mine or Sister Mine) got out to get the food and almost immediately we had some kids and a lady begging for money. One kid was sniffing glue from a Gin bottle. Odd times. Then we drove home.

I crashed almost immediately. Woke up around 4am freezing. Roosters were crowing already. There are a lot of dogs barking too. Had a hard time falling back asleep. Around 8am, Aaron and I went and ran. The track is pretty ghetto. Its dirt, uneven, and these guys were using machetes to straighten the edges. Took my first cold shower, then went to breakfast at the cafeteria. So far all the food I’ve had has been pretty good. Dijana is sick already. There are now 8 Americans here. Everyone seems pretty ok so far. Half of us are doing international relations and the other half are photo-journalism. There are supposed to be about 40 Americans, which is way more than expected. We are a little disappointed, actually.

Sooo pretty much I’m having an amazing time. The people are all soooooooo friendly. Everyone says hi to everyone. I love it. I feel bad for the Kenyans going to NCC. I can imagine how cold everyone must seem compared to here. The weather is nice. Its overcast but still really bright. In the morning and night its cold, but its perfect temperature during the day. Right now I’m sitting on the balcony, in a really comfy chair, off the common area on my floor. Its gorgeous. OH, and the view from my room is pretty great. I have a biiig window facing the campus.

Well, I’m going to go check on Dijana and then read or something. We don’t have much to do this week, but I like it cause I’ve been so stressed lately. Bye!

Three Days Left

First post! On Saturday I leave for Nairobi, where I'll be going to school at the United States International University until January. All summer I've been sort of in denial that I'm actually leaving the country for four months, until yesterday, when it finally felt real. I spent a lot of yesterday emailing Nikki, the girl who went last year, with all my questions and fears about being gone for a long time, about packing, and about being in Africa. I think I'm finally over my anxiety and am really excited to be abroad again.

Back in Winter Term, Model UN had dinner with the Lost Boys of Sudan in Chicago at a church near Skokie. We met a man, Ted, who is very active with that group and is financially supporting a Lost Boy and Girl in Nairobi. He asked us if we could take them some things they are desperate for. Tomorrow night I'm going with my sister to pick up some clothes and stuff to take with me. Ted emailed me their story and it's really sad. Both of their parents were killed in the civil war and the girl, who's my age, saw her mom killed by Arabs while she hid in the bush. I'm pretty excited to get to meet both of them and feel good that I'm able to help them out.

Here is Kuei and Lual.



Now all I have to do is pack and remember to take my Malaria pills! More updates when I arrive in Kenya!!