FOOD

So, i realized that 1. I haven't updated this in a while and 2. I haven't discussed the food at all. There are a few dishes that are pretty prevalent, especially amongst families that don't have a large income. In general, a lot of what Kenyans eat are bread, vegetables, and meat. There is a lack of cheese and sweets, so sometimes I flock to Java (basically the American white restaurant) if I crave something a little different. I also appreciate my home stay because we don't eat a lot of meat, and I am into that.

Ugali: Ugali is a main staple dish within Kenyan society. It's made from corn meal, and is somewhat similar to grits except it lacks butter and/or cheese. The thing I like most about ugali is that it is eaten with your hands, usually with some type of vegetable. Sikuma wiki aka kale is what I have eaten with it the most. It's pretty delicious, but I wouldn't want to eat it every day.

Typical ugali with sikuma wiki and meat

Chapati: Chapati is probably the most delicious flatbread you'll ever eat. I really really like it. It is basically a thick crepe that is made in a lot of the local markets. Each chapati costs 10-15 shillings, and to put things into perspective one dollar=80 shillings-ish. It is really convenient for lunch to go to Toi Market and buy chapati, avocado, and tomato. DELICIOUS and only about 40 shillings! It's the way to go for lunch.

CHAPATI!

Wali na maharagwe: Rice with beans. Rice is pretty simple and normal to our live, but is around a lot. They can put all types of stuff in the beans and with the rice. Sometimes, there are lentils, which are pretty delicious.

I can't think of significant food right now. A lot of my dinners at my home stay are really good just because they're homecooked and made from fresh ingredients. Another aspect of food is the fruit. It is so incredibly delicious! I have a new love for passionfruit, and my mama now buys extras in the house because I like them so much. There are also a ton of papayas and pineapples and mangoes for cheap. The mangoes aren't in season yet, but they're coming. We are going to the coast for two weeks starting tomorrow, and because of the warmer weather, the mangoes should be ripe. I can't wait! Also, I'm not dead; I just won't have internet for two weeks. More to come later...kwa heri!

Slum Tourism

Yesterday, we had 'class'. Basically, we went on a field trip to MYSA, which is the Mathare Youth Sports Association in order to show us development in the slums. Nairobi has a few big slums, including Mathare and Kibera. We all live near Kibera, so in order to expose us to another slum, they took us to Mathare. The day started off pretty interesting because we got to walk around the facility and say hello to little kids. However, then they decided it would be awesome to give us a walking tour of Mathare.

Now, I'm all for looking around places I'm living in, but this was probably one of the most invasive feeling things I've done in a while. A large majority of the 22 people in my program are 1. white and 2. not remotely fluent in Kiswahili. Because of those two things, a majority of our tour was us walking on a white person parade with little local kids yelling "MZUNGU MZUNGU" (which means 'white person'; pronounced ma-zoon-goo). It's pretty awesome when you walk through the streets and people point at you and say it or just say it to your face. It's apparently not offensive; it mostly just makes me feel awkward. Anyways, besides that, the kids would come up and expect to picked up or hold our hands. They would also chant "How are you? How are you" because apparently Americans say that a lot, but if you responded in English they couldn't understand and if you responded in Swahili, they were confused.

On the other side, you could tell the older people were very upset. In case you aren't sure what a slum is here, it is basically a bunch of shafty very small buildings made out of tinnish material put very close together. It stretches for miles in the bigger slums, and the people are living very close together with not much clean water and ditches with very dirty water, possible human waste, in them on some of the sides of the roads. It's obviously where people in poverty live (in case you haven't picked up on that), and it felt like we were walking through in order to use the people living there as a museum instead of as people. It was just very awkward, especially since the older people were doing things such as working or laundry, and felt as though we were barging in on their already very limited space. I think that it would have been different if we were touring because we were going to be living near there or doing work to help the people living there in some way, but it was literally just to show us how people live. As important as it can be to be exposed to that sometimes, we had no say in the situation and slum tourism is not something a lot of us students are interested in being a part of.

Aside from that, the day livened up when we spent the rest of it learning some African dance and playing soccer with kids. I promise it wasn't a horrible experience, just something to be aware of, in case you ever find yourself touring a slum.

My First Bucket Shower

So for anybody who has previously read, I may have mentioned the fact that my homestay family luckily has warm running water. What I failed to mention or realize is that that's only true sometimes. When it's not the rainy season (like it is now), the water supply gets rationed certain days of the week. So, we have now not had running water since Thursday morning. I guess that's only 2 days, but it feels like a long time.

Regardless, last night I experienced for the first time what is called a bucket shower. Sooner or later my time was going to come, but I was expecting later rather than sooner. I was somewhat demoralized because my little sister asked me to help her bathe, and I had to tell her no because I don't know how those types of showers work. Keep in mind that she is 6 and I am 20. It was kind of embarassing. so, after this little situation with Malaika, I wanting until she went to bed to ask my mama about how I actually set up the bucket shower. I swear it's not actually that hard; it's just really new and I'm not used to it at all.

So, basically, there are these giant barrels around the house that water is stored in and that is what you use. However, that water is cold, so you go into the kitchen and boil some of the water. Then, I went into the bathroom and put some of the cold water in. And from there, it's moreso just figuring out what's going to actually get you clean and what's going to just leave soap on your body. To be honest, it was a very satisfying feeling when I was over and done. Can't wait for it to happen again!

Lessons learned: 1. Africans avoid long hair for a reason. It takes forever to clean.  2. Technology has tainted our view of the world sometimes. 3. Simplicity is nice sometimes.

Here is a picture of the water barrel and the bucket I showered with...just in case you were wondering.

The Local Norm

On Saturday, we were finally placed with our host families. Mine seems pretty awesome. Everybody in the program has all different types, but I have a mom (Mama Malaika), little sister (Malaika), auntie (Silho), and the house help (Grace). Mama Malaika is engaged, but I'm not quite sure how much her fiance is around because he travels a lot for work.
The financial status of families is interesting because pretty much everybody has a house that looks on the lower economic side according to American standards, but the insides are actually pretty nice. It's also interesting to talk to other kids because depending on the situation, some families don't have running or hot water. Luckily, I have both, so I get to take warm showers...for now. woohoo! Also, house help is a common thing for upper middle class to upper class families. Ours name is Grace, but she has been with the family for 3 years and is basically family. She wakes up super early and does a lot of chores, but is treated well within the family and everything.

Yesterday, along with being my first full day with the family, was Malaika's birthday. I don't know what I was expecting, but I think it was something along the lines of being drastically different from America...it wasn't. There were a few exceptions, such as the birthday song was a little bit longer and more parents were around, but it was pretty much the same thing as a 6-year-old American birthday party. O ignorant American. That is all for now.

Nyumbani

In one of the first few days we were here, we went on what was called the 'drop-off'. Basically, this consisted of them taking us to an unknown location that we only knew the name of and then leaving us there for the morning to talk to people and figure it out for ourselves.

I got dropped off at this place called Nyumbani, which is the Kiswahili word for 'home'. That's exactly what it was. The place ended up being an orphanage for abandoned HIV+ children ages 1-23. They had about 9 different locations and hosted about 112 children. We got a tour around the place, and it was pretty remarkable because it wasn't just some place for them to live, it became a home. Each group of kids lived in a house with a mother. They all went to school on a regular basis and lived life as usual, but they were able to live in a place that stabilized their medications and conditions. I thought it was pretty remarkable because I sometimes get the impression that nothing is moving forwards in terms of HIV/AIDS awareness, but to see these kids in healthy, stable conditions was really moving.

Karibu Kenya

Welcome to Kenya!
After about 26 hours of travel, I finally made it here. I've about caught up with the time change, and have had a few pretty great experiences in only a short week.

The first day we were here we went to a Giraffe reserve, where we got to feed the giraffes and learn all about them as animals in Kenya. It was a good initiation, a little touristy, but how often are you up close with giraffes? We did get to kiss them, and after getting over the giraffe slobber, it was a pretty cool experience.