Mombasa Madness

Now that I'm here on the coast, I can't believe that I ever complained about the heat in Nairobi. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, people on the coast call Nairobi COLD! And Nairobi weather I'd say is comparable to midwest summers. I had been warned it would be hot here, but I had no idea how hot and humid and unrelenting it is. We usually "shower" (bucket bath... remember the no running water part?) twice a day just to wash off the sweat. Then as soon as you dry yourself, you start sweating again! And fans are few and far between. We have one in our main room, but that's it (and don't even ask about air conditioning). It's a good sign that it's hot if Kenyans complain about the heat -- in Nairobi you'd walk down the street in a tank top and capris and pass by Kenyan after Kenyan in full suits and long pants and long sleeves and sometimes even jackets! It's unbelievable. Even more unbelievable is that, amidst all the heat, people continue to drink hot tea throughout the day! At my house we drink it at least twice a day, steaming hot tea made with whole milk instead of water, and lots of sugar. Not to mention the fact that all meals three meals a day are hot as well. The food is good at my new house though, which is nice considering the quanities they like to serve me. :)

Life at my internsihp is, once again, a whole separate world. I work at an organization called Old Town Development Forum (Jumbe) and, as its name suggests, it operates in an area of Mombasa called Old Town where all the buildings are protected historical structures from the Portugese and Arabs centuries ago. It definitely has more of an old, small-town feel to it, although it is nevertheless always bustling with activity. Much of Old Town is occupied by Muslims, and therefore most of the women my organization serves cover themselves completely, some even covering their whole face but their eyes. I have no idea how they survive in the heat. The woman I spend most of my time with is Asha, who's 24, and she's taken me to her house several times for lunch (which is about a 2 to 2 1/2 hour break here). She, however, has gone to the upstairs apartment to cook for her uncle and left me with all her aunties and cousins and periodic guests downstairs. It's been really fun, and interesting, to get to know these women and how they live. Lunch is great, and very filling, and all the women eat with their hands (well, one hand), which is very common on the coast. As for work itself... I don't know if you could really call what I've been doing work. There hardly seems to be anything for Asha -- basically the only person who ever comes into the office -- to do, much less work for me. For now I'm just going with it though, and perhaps an opportunity will arise. In the meantime, there's plenty of observing to be done all around me.

I'm still absolutely loving life with my host family, and already I know I won't want to leave to go back to Nairobi! Yesterday I went to the beach with two of my host sisters and brother and cousin and we took 5 of the grandkids (ages 2, 3, 4, 6 and 10), and we had so much fun! The beach is absolutely beautiful, with white sand, palm trees, blue sky and lots of sun. Too much actually...my shoulders are burnt to a crisp today. The beach was filled with young guys playing soccer, people chatting in the shade, and men guiding camels down the shore offering to give rides. We were playing in the water all afternoon until the sun started to set at about 6:30 and we had to go home. We live basically just across the road from the Indian Ocean (just far enough not to feel the breeze), so it was just a quick walk there. The water is shallow for a long ways so you can walk out really far, and because it's so shallow the water is really warm. It felt great not to be hot for a whole afternoon!

Happy belated St. Patrick's Day to all the McConnons! I missed you guys this week, and I'll be missing you even more on Saturday. I hope the party goes well, and don't have to much fun without me! (Especially with the helium balloons, Fran and Cecelia.)
And all you in Madison and Minnesota (and Iowa), I want spring break stories!
Can't wait to hear from you!

The Coast Life

After two trips to the hospital in two different cities for digestion-related issues that all started with bad water (I'll spare you the details), I am now settled and getting used to life on Kenya's coast. And I'm absolutely loving it. I feel like I'm in a whole separate world out here, with its own culture and traditions and people and lifestyle. My host family is wonderful. They've never hosted a foreign student before, so everyone in the compound was eager to greet me upon my arrival Sunday evening. We live in a one-story cement house with no running water, but we do have electricity, which is a plus (although I often wake up to my 15-year-old host brother blaring hip-hop at 5 a.m. in the morning while he gets ready for school). My host mama is a big, dark, African widow in her 50s who's sometimes quiet but very sweet. I can tell she worries that I'm always happy and comfortable and feeling at home. She has 6 children, two of whom live in the same house as us, and 7 grandchildren. The whole compound is filled with aunts and cousins and children and grandchildren, so family and friends are always passing through, sharing a cup of chai or a meal or a story. My 20-year-old host sister and I have breakfast together each morning before she heads to class and I catch a matatu to the city for my internship. We live in an area called Shanzu, which is about a 30-minute drive outside of the city (the island of Mombasa). At night after we eat dinner the family (and whoever else is over) usually congregates in the in the main room and watches TV, chats, and the teenagers and I play cards (the ones I brought from Minnesota) or other games. Last night I was sitting on the sofa during this time and I could see three rats running around the room at the same time. I thought I had just gotten used to cockroaches... but RATS! And THREE of them! When the family noticed me watching them they all laughed, thinking it was funny that I had brought my feet up on the sofa. My mama told me not to worry, that she would "put the medicine" tomorrow.
Unfortunately I'm out of time for today! I'm so sorry to all those who've emailed me and haven't gotten a response yet... My last days in Nairobi were crazy busy and since I've been on the coast I've had no Internet access at all. I'm going to try to get back into the city this weekend to write more though. Until then!

Moses and the Nile

What a weekend.
Within it was both the scariest and the most relaxing moments of my adventure here in Africa so far. Before I jump right in, I'll give you a little background.
A dozen of us on the program took an overnight bus to Uganda this weekend and got dropped off at a random gas station in a city none of us had ever been, in a country none of us had ever been, at about 7 a.m. Friday morning. Having gotten various amounts of sleep ranging from about 0-3 hours, we all complacently (and groggily) packed ourselves into a matatu claiming to bring us to the place we wanted to go. We finally began to wake up when we stepped out of the van about 20 minutes later to find ourselves on the bank of the rushing Nile River, surrounded by the most beautiful green I've ever seen, smack dab in front of Bujagali Falls (I suggest you wikipedia it to get the full impression). After quickly changing into our swimsuits and gobbling down some breakfast, we hastily aboarded our rafts. Yes, we were about to raft down the Nile River. (This is where the scary part comes in...)
Ironically, our guide was this short, skinny, Ugandan 25-year-old with dreadlocks named Moses (we were on the Nile... catch my drift?). It's probably a good thing he didn't start describing all the safety precautions to us until after we were in the raft and I couldn't back out. We rafted all day, and even stopped at a calm spot to have lunch on the rafts (the safety raft carried it along for us). It was so much fun to be in the water after almost two months of stifling hot weather and to just take in all the beautiful scenery around us... that is, until we hit our second level 5 rapid and our raft completely capsized and we all went flying. When you're trapped under a person first and then the raft and then raging currents from all directions and you don't know which way is up and you don't know where the rocks are and you swallowed a bunch of water and you have more water up your nose and you feel like you have the wind knocked out of you... well, it's TERRIFYING! Finally Moses somehow grabbed me and pulled me to hold onto the side of the overturned raft while other safety guides in kayaks plucked up the rest of my friends. Needless to say, we eventually re-flipped our raft and all got back in to resume our journey, but wow, was that scary. Moses said it was one of the worse flips he's seen recently. Overall though, the experience and the Ugandan guides were great --I'm definitely glad I did it. The Nile water is amazingly clear, and in smooth spots we were able to get out and swim along with the currents. It was an unbelievable experience.
Now for the relaxing part... what could be better than sitting on the bank of the Nile during "glory time" (for those of you who know my mom), watching the sun set over the rapids, and enjoying a cool drink, delicious food and great company? I don't think we could have picked a better spot to stay, hearing the rush of the river just about 50 yards away from the room lined with triple-decker bunk beds where we all stayed. Even the bathroom stalls, which were somewhat luxurious considering they were more than simply holes in the ground, had square holes cut in the doors where your head was so you could enjoy the scenery -- literally at all times.

It took some motivation to wake up before sunrise on Sunday to catch a bumpy, hot, 12-hour bus ride back to busy, bustling Nairobi. But, in less than a week I'll be on my way to a new life on the coast! I can't wait. I don't know all the details so far, but here's the low down: I'll be living with a family on the coast about a 25-minute matatu ride north of Mombasa, in an area that the staff here call "pretty rural" (it's amazing how fast things get "rural" outside of the city). I will, however, have electricity, they say. During the week, I'll be matatu-ing into Mombasa to work with a micro-finance organization that gives loans to women's groups in the rural areas surroundign the city. From what previous program participants say, it's hard to judge the quality of an internship from its description alone, but so far it sounds like it will be exactly what I'm looking to experience.

Before I part, I want to give a quick shout out to the Petrons. Thanks for your comments -- it's great to hear from you! Sean, I checked out your blog and it looks like you and Cecelia are having having some amazing adventures yourselves! And Megan, you bet I'm channeling my inner McConnon. :)
Love to all!

Kenya moments

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA LOU AND MARCELLA!! I'm sending you lots of warm birthday wishes from Nairobi. :)
Second of all, I'm running out of time to write but I'll quickly explain these photos!
1. My friend Patrick and I visited a Masai village outside of Nairobi on Sunday with one of our program staff whose family lives there. We climbed up on these big rocks overlooking the rift valley and it was absolutely beautiful. It was a nice, peaceful escape from the city for a day and it was really cool to see how traditional Masai still live. We were literally dropped off in the middle the dry, dusty savannah by our tuk-tuk driver (could be described as a cheap, 3-wheeled taxi) and had to walk about 20 minutes through bush to their home with no electricity and no running water.
2. Typical Nairobi traffic. Notice the random vendors mulling about trying to sell knick knacks through your car window. A couple weeks ago some guys even tried to sell us puppies through the window!
3. My (new) youngest host sister and I.
4. A group of us after climbing up Ngong Hills, looking over the Rift Valley. We went to see the one working windmill the government has built up there to bring power to the village of Ngong. Apparently the second windmill has been waiting for a replacement wing from Denmark (I think?) for almost 7 years!
5. The edge of Kibera slum. My new home is right on the edge of this area (although my actual home looks very different from this), so it definitely has a different feel in the neighborhood. I walk about 40 minutes to school now, but it's an interesting walk, passing by everything from the slum to one of the biggest outdoor markets to the Sudanese and Polish embassies.

Well, I'm off to another big adventure this weekend...
Stay warm in Minnesota!