AMERICA!!

For the past five days, six of my friends and I have been living the Kenyan high life. We were on what is known as ISP Prep for our independent study projects that we will be beginning in about two weeks. For this, we decided it would be a great idea to live in a nice luxurious apartment with such amazing things as wi-fi, a TV, hot running water, and a kitchen in which we can cook what we want when we want it. This mostly means we went to the market and bought multiple huge bags of vegetables to consume incessantly for a few days.

What we were not ready for was the large amount of culture shock that would be put back into our lives whenever we left the building or the ‘wazungu zone’. Although the days were nice, the re-assimilation into homestay culture is a big joke. We were really smart about needing to re-assimilate ourselves. Sometimes I forget about the trash-covered dirt roads with ditches of crap on the outsides. No, really, I do love Kenya, but things get a little intense at times.

Needless to say, we, a group of pretty liberal beings with either impartial or negative feelings towards America, may have found our love for the country. On one particularly rough day involving one of my friends, Molly, stepping into an unforeseen pile of excrement and spending a while scrubbing it off her feet and shoes, we celebrated our allegiance to the beloved country we miss and call home. This celebration may have involved singing at the top of our lungs to any song that either says ‘America’ or which we associate with the country. There may have been some brief tears, exclamation of memories, and shouts of regret. All that was missing was a flag and some PBR.

However, we were continually snapped back into reality with the results of what we now call the ‘Nairobi Shuffle/Hustle”. It mostly revolves around the fact that Africa likes to really make its way through Americans. Just imagine: a white person hunched over, clenching his or her stomach while walking/slightly jogging down the street in hopes of making it back to the bathroom fast enough, with the other hand clutching whatever items the mzungu cherishes so as to avoid any attempts at mugging. Point two: during this alleged shuffle is probably when the mzungu will get hit on by the most Kenyan men. Who would have thunk it? Part C: This person may or may not also be looking for some bushes in case they vomit before they get anywhere.

Moral of the story: God Bless America. Kenya always has something new to throw at you. Embrace the Nairobi Shuffle.

This Weekend's Adventures

This weekend, four of my friends and I went on an adventure to Navaisha Lake and Hell’s Gate National Park. We had an amazing time, saw lots of animals, and really explored. Navaisha town is about 80 kilometers away from Nairobi, which means an hour and a half matatu ride. Woohoo! To start, we had to find the big matatu center in downtown Nairobi. We took a taxi, but we had to wait about thirty minutes to get a letter from our school saying we were students in Kenya that do not yet have pupil passes so that we could get discounts later on. That wasn’t a big deal. We just ended up starting a little later than expected.

Once we were on the matatu, we didn’t need to worry about much…until the matatu started to break down. We all suspected something was happening when there were a lot of beeps and suspicious noises coming from the driver’s area. I’m pretty positive we cruised downhill for about ten minutes in neutral before the driver got out by himself, Little Miss Sunshine style, and started trying to push the matatu uphill alone. At that point, it was pretty much hopeless for our little matatu. However, we were only about 2 kms outside of the town, and our group decided we would just walk the distance. About ten minutes later, we see our matatu drive by with everybody waving, being dragged by another matatu by a cable. I have no idea how they were expecting to stop but I guess that didn’t really matter. O and also, my friend fell down a hill when we started walking, which only added to the ridiculousness of the situation.

Not to worry…we reached Navaisha town. From there, we decided we would check out Crescent Island for the day, a place we thought was publicly part of a national park but is apparently privately owned. We took another matatu and found our way. It was a nice little hike up to the main owner’s house, and we ran into a TON of zebras and gazelles and whatnot. It was pretty awesome! Finally, when we reached the house, we found this really nice English woman, Linda. Her and her husband had apparently owned the place since the 70s or 80s. They were very friendly and helpful and gave us some advice on where to sleep for the night. Anyways, Crescent Island. It is the remains of an erupted volcano from way back in the day, so it is basically what it sounds like…an island in the shape of a crescent. From the top of the hill, you get a pretty good view of everything around there. Besides that, I don’t think any of us realized we were just going to be walking around with the animals, but that is what happened. On this island, there are just free-roaming giraffes, hippos, wildebeests, and some other animals. It was really cool because they weren’t in a cage or anything. You would see herds of them run by and I kind of felt like I was in the Lion King. It was the highlight of my weekend.

View from the hill

After we were done there, we went to a campsite. However, on the way to our campsite, we took a very epic matatu ride. For one, we split up into two groups, so my friends, Dana and Devin, and I ended up riding in this lime green matatu. Keep in mind that these buses are designed to hold 14 passengers, but there’s always room for one more! I would say we had about 28 people in this one, including 9 in the first two rows. It was pretty awesome because we had our big bags of stuff, as well as people basically sitting on us. I also had some random man breathing on my shoulder/in my hair. It opened a whole new world of matatu-riding for me.

Once we all made it to the campsite, we had an awesome time. It was really relaxing. There was a restaurant there, so we didn’t have to worry about dinner, as well as tents to rent. I set up my hammock for about the second time! The cords weren’t quite long enough, so we rigged this ridiculous looking thing together because tents were somewhat expensive to rent. The dinner was one of the best I’ve had here, and the lack of stress within the group was great. We pretty much just chilled out the rest of the night and went to bed.

BUT, when we were going to bed, we heard some noises coming from the water. We looked over and there was another group shining their lights on a hippo! It was super exciting because we wanted to see some earlier in the day and were not able to. Then, the hippo got angry and started charging towards us. Good thing there was an electric fence! The hippo got even more angry and ran into the water, but it was a good end to the night.

We woke up this morning, planning on going to Hell’s Gate, but when we got there, they told us it was going to be $25 a person. In Kenya, that’s extremely expensive, and I don’t think we had that much on us. So we left and started the extreme matatu-sitting in the aisle-riding home. Maybe we can go back another time…

Tuk Tuk Vs. Matatu

In case I haven't mentioned this yet, the roads here are possibly the scariest part of my experience. There are minimal traffic lights, basically no stop signs, and drivers that do whatever they want all the time. It basically makes me feel like I might die every time I enter a vehicle. The roads are somewhat paved, but usually have a ton of potholes. Flying around from all the bumps is pretty common. O and p.s. they drive on the wrong side of the road, so I almost get hit when I cross the street because I look the wrong way. It is an adventure.

Anyways, as far as public transportation goes, the basic modes are bus and taxi. However, in Nairobi and Mombasa there are these vehicles called matatus. They are pretty awesome because they are usually these pimped out vans about the size of a mini-van but maybe a little bit bigger. O but all the seats have been modified so that there are 14 seats...for 14 passengers, right? Wrong! Matatus are ridiculous because they fit as many people as they can, including on all the seats and in the aisles. When they drive down the street, the matatu guys who collect money ( I don't know what to call them) hang out the side of the van waving down people. They are kind of intimidating, but I am getting more and more used to them. However, we were strongly advised to make our backpacks 'frontpacks' because apparently people hang out in matatus waiting to pickpocket you. I promise it's not actually that big of an issue, though. At least not yet.

An example of the really classy stickers that get put on matatus...'Got Money' theme.

Besides matatus, while we were in Mombasa, I discovered the glory of a Tuk Tuk. It is possibly the most exciting vehicle ever. It's a 3-wheeled adventure with no windows and 3 people shoved in the back seat. They're really fun because they are little and can maneuver around everything, as well as being just as cheap as matatus if you bargain right. AND they take you straight to where you want to go. Although, I'm pretty sure half of the drivers are intoxicated in some way because ours seemed very confused every once and a while. Needless to say, we started paying more attention after it took us twenty minutes to get somewhere fairly close by. Moral of the story: I love tuk tuks, and they are just one more reason Mombasa is better than Nairobi.

My attempt to take a picture of a tuk tuk secretly while moving. Sorry...it kind of failed.

Shirazi!

For ten days out of the past two weeks, I was living in a rural village on the Southern coast called Shirazi. It was quite the adventure of a lifetime. Although some people didn’t enjoy their time there roughin’ it, I absolutely fell in love. It was a beautiful place full of some of the most selfless people I’ve ever met. On top of that, their daily pace was very relaxing and free. Besides taking Kiswahili every morning and playing dress-up with my mama’s clothes, I went on adventures every afternoon. I saw boys climb coconut trees, drank coconut water/milk, went to mamba (crocodile) land, learned how to cook a little bit, and visited some farms and surrounding villages.

My House in Shirazi

The side view/back yard

I lived with another host family there, who spoke very minimal English. However, I was astounded by how close you can become to a group of people through nonverbal communication. I had a mama, grandmas, dad, aunts, uncles, 4 sisters, and 3 brothers. The majority of the town is Muslim, so a lot of my family besides the people listed above were related to me because my dad had four fives. No big deal. Apparently that’s allowed. I had a ‘twin’ sister, Umi, who was also twenty. I spent a lot of my free time with her. She is an incredible person. She has a 9-year-old son, Alli, and even though she is only twenty, she was one of the most attentive and caring mothers I have ever seen. I couldn’t believe that she devoted so much of her life to her baby yet seemed to always be in a good mood. 

Umi carrying her baby Alli on her back in a khanga. I love that people carry their kids this way.

Most of the fam with henna!

My mama and me in one of my really hot outfits.

One of my favorite things to do with my family was hang out with them at night. For one, I would shower at night…and by shower, I mean stand outside with my bucket. I didn’t really mind it since I do it sometimes in Nairobi too, but it was really nice to stand outside and look up to see the stars in the sky while bathing. After that, I would wrap up in one of my khangas. Khangas are very common pieces of clothing that are made of beautiful fabrics. They usually have a phrase at the bottom, but I’m not completely sure what mine mean. Apparently some of them are offensive or dirty in some way, so hopefully that’s not the case.

Then, I would try to help cook dinner over a fire. When it was ready, we would all gather in the small living room on mats around one plate with all the food on it, wash our right hands, and eat. In case you’re looking for a challenge, eating really hot rice with one hand is really difficult. My family also is able to touch incredibly hot things, so they would have no problem grabbing steaming food while I thought I was going to burn my hand off most of the time. Regardless, I’m pretty glad I’m not a complete germaphobe because I may not have survived Shirazi.

Dinner by lantern. P.S.-There is no electricity there at all.

Best pilau ever!

I could probably go on about this for a long time, but moral of the story: it was incredible. I never wanted to leave, and if you ever get the chance to have such an experience, you should go for it.