From Nairobi to Naitiri...and back.

Whew, this weekend was crazy and incredible! I apologize if this post gets a little long, but it was such a great experience.

Peter and I left work a little early on Friday to buy ourselves some extra time. We took two matatus to his home on the other side of Nairobi. Traffic is really bad in Nairobi, especially during work commutes, so it took us a little over an hour to get to his place. He lives with his brother (who is studying in a university), and his sister lives next door, so I got to meet a few of his siblings, eat dinner (the first of many rice/stew/chapati meals), and take chai.

We had purchased bus tickets to take us from Nairobi to Kitale in western Kenya, and the bus was to leave at 8:30, so jumped on a matatu and hurried downtown hoping we would make it to the bus station on time. We got there at 8:15, and after enjoying a little Dido playing in the lounge we boarded our bus (it was like a big tour bus - it was really nice!). We left at 9:30ish, so by Kenyan standards, we were right on time! :) The bus to Kitale (I'm not sure about distance, but it's a 7 or 8 hour trip) was only 850 shillings, which is only about 14 dollars.

We left Nairobi and I quickly fell asleep, only to suddenly awake to the sound of...well, I don't know, but something mechanically not good. The bus pulled over to the side of the road, and for the next four hours (I think, I slept through a lot of it) we hung out on the side of the road while they "fixed" the bus. Apparently there was a problem with the gear box - not that I know what that is, but that was what I heard. I didn't find out until the next day that the place where we broke down was a pretty sketchy part of Nairobi...and by that I mean really dangerous. It was an area of the Mungiki, a sect of the Kikuyu tribe and essentially a gang that is known for really violent crimes, beheadings, and other things that I would prefer not to experience on a broken down bus at 2am.

So the bus finally left again, and our next stop was in Eldoret. We drove all night (yes, Bobby, I drove all night) and got to Eldoret around 7am, and stopped for a bit to use the restrooms (not very restful, let me assure you). Then we made the last few-hour leg of the journey to Kitale and arrived there without a problem. The countryside was beautiful! Some parts looked like I could just be driving around in rural Pennsylvania. The road was dotted with many small villages along the way, and the best way I can describe how they looked is the African version of a old Western town. A long row of buildings on either side of the road, some roadside stands, people everywhere (Kenya is always alive, I've decided), and then all of a sudden you're back in the countryside. The roads were good at some points and pretty rough at others, but driving in a big bus made the bumps less noticeable. Most of the roads were paved but some sections were worn down to the reddish dirt.

So when we got to Kitale we unloaded from the bus and boarded a Matatu to head towards Naitiri, the village where Peter stays with his pastor. The matatu didn't go the whole way to Naitiri, so we took a boda-boda the rest of the way. Boda-bodas are either motorbikes or bicycles that you pay to ride on. We took motorbikes (they're called piki-pikis here). I was a little concerned for my life, especially when we had to stop so the driver could put some of the spokes back in the wheel that had fallen out, and when Peter's bodaboda nearly took out a roadside chicken. But we got to Naitiri safely and walked the short distance to Peter's pastor's home.

It was on the bodaboda ride to Naitiri that I first realized just how out of place a mzungu (white person) is in the rural areas of Kenya. The western Kenyan areas are home to the Luhya tribe (to which Peter belongs), and they just don't see white people there. Driving by any group of people, I would hear the word "mzungu" in some conversation as they commented on my being there. The only word that I could think of to describe being white in rural Kenya is that I felt, although I wasn't trying to be, very obvious and ostentatious. It was as if literally every person on the road would stop to stare as we drove by. It was the first time in my life that I was actually uncomfortable about my race, and wished to blend somehow. Some children had never seen a white person before, and a mother even said she was going to bring her children to where we were staying so that her children could see a mzungu.

Peter's pastor and his wife were incredibly hospitable while we were there. They had a two year old son, Baraka, who was adorable. They live in a housing row shared by maybe four or five families. We talked with them for a little bit when we arrived and took some breakfast (Kenyan meals tend to be later than American meals) . I got to have my first cultural experience with a "shower" - a bowl of hot water in a cement stall, and a "long-drop" - the outhouse that was just a hole in the ground. Peter and I walked over to his church so I could see the facilities. There is a boarding and day school that meets there, and there were a few classes there on Saturday preparing for exams. Some of the teachers saw us and brought us into their classrooms to say hello, and again, I couldn't help but feel kind of...ostentatious. Like they were stopping their classes because there was a mzungu outside, and that warranted some kind of special event.

After interrupting a few classes and meeting a lot of the administrators of the school (and having some Black Currant Fanta, a soda we badly need in the US), we continued on to Peter's family farm. It was a pretty lengthy trip for walking so we took some bodabodas (bicycles this time). About five minutes into the trip the one I was riding broke/died/failed somehow and we had to flag down another one.

So after that ride we walked a short distance to his family's farm. They grow maize (aka corn) and a little bit of coffee, and raise some cattle and chickens. Peter is one of the older children (he's 24), and he has a large family, so there were five or six of his younger siblings and his mother and father. The houses were mud walled (incredible that they stay, but he said that even with the hardest rains they don't leak or crumble) with a tin roof. It reminded me a lot of the houses that we see in the Haitian villages of the DR. There were four houses - his father's house, another house where they did the cooking (I think maybe it was technically his mother's house?), a house Peter's older brother built, and then a house that Peter built.

We walked around his farm a bit and met some of the neighbors that hadn't seen Peter in a few months. I had never seen how coffee grows, so he showed me these huge trees/bushes that were Arabica coffee plants. They were full of berries which turned red when ripe, and then the coffee bean grows inside the berry-ish thing (maybe it's the seed?).

My thoughts on all of this: who was the first person to ever say, "Hey, if I take this disgusting tasting but tantalizingly red-colored berry, pop out the thing in the middle, burn it to a crisp in the fire, grind it up into a powder, and then pour boiling water onto the powder, throw the powder away, and drink the hot burnt bean/seed water...it just might be good."

Whoever he is, Starbucks should thank him. What a strange person.

We had supper in his small house on his family's farm - another round of rice, kuku (chicken) and stew. Kenyans are very hospitable and Peter said that you really can't go anywhere without someone offering you food. And it's the polite thing to do to finish it all, no matter how much you are served. It began thundering, so we grabbed a motorized bodaboda to make it back to Naitiri before the threat of rain caught up with us.

When we got back, we had another meal (so.much.rice.), and after talking with Peter's pastor (Solomon) and his wife for a little bit, I headed to bed.

Sunday morning we prepared for church and then went to the service at Deliverance church. It was just how I expected an African church to be - lively, loud, and joyful :) At the end I was introduced to the entire church as a mzungu visitor (again, feeling a bit ostentatious), but they were incredibly welcoming and happy to have me there. Peter and I left the service a little early, needing to take lunch and get on the road as quickly as we could.

Several Kenyan traditions have stuck out to me as something that I wish we did in the US. When you are a guest in someones home, you come with a small gift for them in a bag, and upon entering you give it to them and they take it away and say nothing about it. It doesn't have to be extravagant, just something from your area or something useful. And then when you depart, your host brings back your same bag containing a gift from them to take with you. It's all very subtle but so nice. Also, before leaving, everyone sits down and expresses thanks - the host thanks the visitors for coming and the visitors thank the host for their hospitality. It can be a long process, but very thoughtful.

We left Naitiri on bodabodas around 3pm yesterday and traveled back to find a matatu to Kitale. On this particular stretch there were probably 20 people in this little 15-passenger van, and I was cramped between Peter and a chicken. :) Since it was daytime, it was safe to take matatus for longer stretches (when we traveled overnight we had to take a bus because it's just not safe to stop and switch in the middle of the night), and so we took another matatu from Kitale to Eldoret, and I was able to sit in the front seat for the first time. It was great to actually see where we were going (in the back you can't see anything but the person's head in front of you and perhaps the person who is basically on top of you), but it also made me relish the thought of keeping my life, especially when we were weaving in and out of traffic and racing over speed bumps.

From Eldoret we got into a shuttle to Nairobi. They are more expensive (600 shillings/$10) but they go straight through without stopping (matatus stop anywhere and everywhere for passengers) and are more spacious. The five hour journey to Nairobi went without any problems, and we arrived back in Nairobi around 1am. A radio station from Nairobi (Easy FM) was having a "Diva Sunday", so we had some quality 80's and 90's diva music (Madonna, Bonnie Tyler (she needs a hero), etc), and then listened to the World Cup Game (Espana!!). After arriving, we grabbed a taxi to Peter's house, had some chai and butter sandwiches (traditional breakfast/late night food) and we went to bed around 2. Then it was up early for the matatu ride in morning traffic to the hangar, and we are currently back for another week of work!

A note on matatus: the drivers decorate them with anything and everything, and sometimes I'm positive they have no idea what the stickers mean. One of the two we rode this morning had a large "REAL MEN LOVE JESUS" sticker, and next to it was an even larger "PIMP UP THE UNIT!" decal. When we were stuck in traffic, the matatu next to us had a HUGE decal on the back window of Condoleeza Rice standing in front of the American and Kenyan flags. Random? Ndiyo. Yes.

So, in short, the weekend was a crazy adventure but it was incredible. Everyone says that "upcountry" is the real part of Kenya, and I appreciate so much being able to see how most of Kenya really is. It was beautiful.

I'm sorry for how long this is, and if you made it here and didn't skip parts I'm pretty proud of you.

For those of you who prefer to the movie to the book, I'm going to try to post pictures tomorrow :)

Kwaheri!

About AIM-IS. And goats.

I realized that I really haven't described where I am working, so I'll try to give you a brief description.

I'm working for African Inland Mission, with a division called International Services. It's based at a hangar at Wilson Airport in Nairobi. The unofficial motto of IS is "Serving those who serve", so as the name implies IS is here to serve missionaries and make their work easier. There are several divisions to IS - AIM Air is the largest, and it's the missionary aviation department; AIM Care is a missionary counseling center; and AIM Tech is a construction/engineering ministry. There are other services here such as a Finance department where missionaries can set up bank accounts and do their banking, a TAM shop (Technical Assistance Ministry) that repairs vehicles, and a freight department that does shipping and receiving. The Mayfield Guesthouse, where I stayed for my orientation, is also operated under IS for missionaries who are passing through Nairobi on their way to or from more remote missions fields.

One of the coolest things about IS is that it doesn't limit its service to AIM's ministry. I've read that in total AIM-IS serves over 160 missions organizations! Some of the larger ones that AIM-IS works with are SIL and Samaritan's Purse (they both own planes that AIM Air then operates).

So I'm working in the HR/Personnel office that serves the missionaries and employees (Kenyan staff) of IS. It's an interesting perspective, because we're essentially serving those who serve those who serve. For the missionary staff we do visas, work permits, housing etc. For the Kenyan staff we do the typical payroll, benefits, etc (since they are paid staff). The staff is about 50% missionaries and 50% Kenyans. I'm the only non-Kenyan in the HR office, so it's fun to work around Kenyans all day and see how they do business...it's a lot more relaxed!

In other news, the mother of the family that lives next door to us passed way last week, so the funeral services started last Wednesday. Funerals are a big deal here, so there have been services next door every night since last Wednesday. Most of them have been pretty low-key with hymns and preaching and whatnot. A few nights we've woken up to random wailing at random hours. Last night was a different story, though - apparently it was an all night service with drumming starting at around 2am and then more shrieking this morning. Thankfully, I slept through it all...I'm not sure how!

Yesterday a flight came back from Gatab (in Kenya). I guess the people of Gatab wanted to thank the pilot for flying there, because they gave him two goats. So when they opened the cargo door here at the hangar...there were two goats inside. Yesterday afternoon one of the guys in HR called me out into the hallway (the hallway is a balcony that looks over the hangar floor)...and they were slaughtering the goats in the middle of the hangar. Word on the street is that we're having a goat roast for lunch today :) A nice reminder that we're definitely not in the US anymore!

I'm buying my bus ticket today to go with Peter to visit him family, and I'm sure I'll have plenty to write about when I get back.

And for you guys in AEX, I'm offically set to travel to meet Koome on August 1st!!

And that's all I've got for now :)

a weekend at the coast

Here's what I've been up to for the past week...

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were typical days of work at the hangar. Monday night we went to see The Hulk - the theater has this thing called Nzuri Monday Madness where for 6 or 7 bucks you get the movie, popcorn, Coke, and a hot dog. It was a pretty good movie! (Tonight, I think we're going to see Prince Caspian for some more Monday Madness).

Thursday morning was a really early morning...we met here at the airport at 6:30am to fly to the coast. We took a DC3 owned by Samaritan's Purse - one nice thing about having a missionary aviation division is that you can do your own flights! We made a stop in Daba, a community in a remote area of Kenya where a few missionaries have been working for years. We dropped off some supplies for them. It was exactly how I pictured Africa to be - sandy, shrubs and some trees. The people group (The Orma people) are mostly Muslims, and the missionary work there has been slow but apparently they have been seeing some promise lately. Here are a few pictures from Daba...

It was great to see the "real" side of Kenya (not the city side), even if it was for less than an hour. We continued from Daba to Malindi on the coast (I said it was in Mombasa...but I lied. The hotel was actually north of Mombasa in Malindi).

The hotel itself was incredible. I've never experienced anything quite like it - it was like something you see in travel magazines. We could see the ocean from our room. The area where we ate was bordered by the beach on one side, and the pool on the other, so either way you got a view of some kind of water. When the tide went out, we could walk out and look at the tide pools:

We had four or five sessions over the Thursday-Sunday stretch. We had worship and the COO of Samaritan's Purse taught on Leadership. We had a lot of free time in between, so I spent a lot of time down at the beach relaxing :) Of course, there were ridiculous amounts of palm trees...so I was satisfied!
Saturday morning we took a glass-bottomed boat to a coral head about few kilometers from the hotel, and for the first time in my life I went snorkeling! It was incredible. I've only ever viewed fish like that in aquariums, but suddenly they were there swimming around me (they were really tame, and would just swim around you). And the coral was beautiful. I've never experienced anything like that before.

So, needless to say, it was an incredible weekend. We arrived back at the airport yesterday afternoon and we got back to our house at around 4:30, so I had the evening to recuperate - I was pretty tired.

This week it's back at the office M-F (at least as far as I know). This weekend Peter (one of the Kenyan guy in the HR office) invited me to go to his house in Western Kenya. Many workers in Nairobi only stay here because they have a job here. Their families are "up-country" - either in Northern or Western (or even Eastern) Kenya. Peter only gets to visit his family a few times a year, and so I think I'm going to travel with him to his home! He said it's a 12-hr bus ride...ouch. Sounds like an adventure!

I'll leave you with a friendly greeting from the Kenyan coast--

Kiswahili, matatus, a new home - the past week!

This past week has been really busy, as you can see from my lack of updates. So here's the whirlwind version of the last eight days!

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning were orientation days at the guesthouse. We went through a lot of things - the purpose of missions, safety info, health info, financial info, and a lot about culture shock and dealing with that. We also had language lessons for a total of six hours - Swahili is a very interesting language...so different from either Spanish or English! Two of the afternoons we had matatu lessons (matatu = public transportation). The whole system is based on numbers that correspond with certain routes, so we had to learn which numbers go where, etc. Riding in a matatu definitely makes me feel like I am in the middle of the Kenyan culture :)

On Tuesday afternoon, in the midst of our matatu lesson, we had the opportunity to go into Kibera! The guy who was teaching us goes to a church in Kibera, so he took us in to see it. We've been told that Kibera is the kind of the place that you don't go into without a Kenya (or two), so it was exciting to have that opportunity! It looked a lot like the Haitian villages in the Dominican, but MUCH more populated and packed together.

Thursday afternoon we went out for lunch and then went grocery shopping before moving into our house! Brandon and I (and a third guy at the beginning of July) will be living there for the rest of our time here. It's such a nice place, and it's fun to be on our own. I'm sticking in some pictures. Please note the palm tree in the backyard (I know I've already talked about it. But it's great.)

The place is incredibly secure. We have to unlock five locks just to get into the house! There are also 24-7 guards at each entrance to the community and another night guard who patrols our street. Our community borders Kibera (you can actually see it over one of the walls), so that make sthe extra security nice :) It was such an eye opener to go into Kibera, though, to see what poverty lies so close to us!

There are a lot of things to learn about living on our own - how to purify the water for drinking, which keys go with which locks (we're getting faster at getting in and out of the house), how to pump water into the house and up to the second floor, etc. Lots of learning!

Friday was my first day back at the hangar to work. It's good to be back! However, there hasn't been a lot for me to do the last few days, so it's been a little disappointing. I'm hoping some things come up today that will keep me busy!

The weekend was a good chance to relax and get out. I got to sleep in (a lot) on Saturday, made a trip to Mayfield (the guesthouse, to use the wireless internet) and to Nakumatt (Wal-Martish place). We had dinner at the Roberts' house (missionary family that lives right behind us). We've been pretty lucky in that we haven't had to cook much for ourselves yet, since we've been invited places so much!

Yesterday we went with the Levanders to New City Fellowship again. Every second Sunday of the month they have a meal after the service, and we stayed for that. It was delicious (and another meal we didnt' have to cook for ourselves!). I really like that church. Several people have told us that short-termers bounce around between churches to really get the "African experience", but I can't help but want to go there for the summer.

After church and dinner we all stopped at the Java House for ice cream. Java House is pretty much the African version of Starbucks. It was pretty darn close!

And today I am back at the hangar again. This weekend is the men's retreat, so on Thursday morning we will be heading out to Mombasa (on the ocean!) until Sunday. I'm really looking forward to that!

Kwaheri!

The Weekend! (with a lot of India)

I'm now living at the Mayfield Guesthouse (picture to the left) in Nairobi. It's actually really close to where I've been living for the past few weeks, so the area is pretty familiar. The Guesthouse is in this cool English cottage-ish building, but there are around 30 rooms (I think?). I'm up on the second floor with wall-length windows that overlook the main entrace (you can see my windows in the picture - second floor, to the left of the round turret thing). It's beautiful, and I feel a little spoiled by being here. I've taken the best shower I've had in weeks, and I have wireless internet access, although it's a bit unreliable. All our meals are provided here, too. It's a really cool place to be because missionaries from all over Africa are coming through here, so at meals and in the common areas when you meet new people you get to hear some pretty cool stories!

Friday morning we had a little bit of orientation and we went out to lunch at a Kenyan place called Tess's - very good food! We then made a trip to a Nakumatt (Kenyan version of Wal-Mart) and drove through the neighborhood Brandon and I's future house is in (THERE IS A PALM TREE IN THE BACKYARD!!) We then had the rest of the day to ourselves.

Yesterday was another day to hang out (I feel kind of lazy here, too - but it's good to relax a bit). I was up for breakfast and then hung out for the morning and afternoon. I finished the book I've been reading since my plane rides - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - kind of like a more uplifting version of Angela's Ashes. I definitely recommend it. Then yesterday evening Brandon and I and three missionary couples went to the Diamond Plaza in Nairobi for dinner. (It sounds pretty ritzy...and it's really not). It's in the two pictures to the left. It's a large shopping plaza (mostly Indian stores that sell everything from traditional Hindi clothing to electronics). Along one side there is a large food court-ish area. There is a long row of tables and then the wall is lined with little food stalls selling fruit juice, various Indian dishes, etc. (The food area is the bottom picture). I had real (not this Tropicana stuff) orange juice, a lot of nam (I don't know how you spell it), lamb, chicken, a lot of random dips and sauces...it was very, very good! We topped the night off with some homemade ice cream and coffee at one of the couples' house.

Today has been equally great. I went back to New City Fellowship church this morning with the Levanders. There is a sister church in the US that was planted to bring reconciliation between the white and black poplulations through the Gospel. This one in Nairobi was planted to bring reconciliation to the Kenyan and Indian populations. Worship is in up to four different languages, and the congregation is very diverse and very welcoming - I love it!

After church Brandon and I went to lunch with James, an AIM missionary, at a mall in Westgate (random very nice area of Nairobi). Seriously, the mall was nicer than any mall I've been to in the US. The food area was outdoor, with various levels and fountains and a fake river...it was pretty impressive. Then we traveled to another mall in Westgate (again, nicer than any mall in the US I've been to) and went to see Sarkar Raj (BOLLYWOOD!) at the theater there. A story of greed, corruption, power, and a lot of dying in the second half. It was so Bollywood and so wonderful. I've never been to a movie with an intermission, but this one sure had one. It was that intense.

Tonight I was schooled in a rousing game of Phase 10, and now I'm sitting in the "living room" at Mayfield updating this and thinking about bed. Our hardcore orientation starts tomorrow - breakfast at 7:30, and then seminars, Swahili lessons (I'm so pumped for this), matatu lessons (this too), etc until 5pm. I should get some sleep to prepare for it.

I've discovered that for some reason I love sleeping under a misquito net since I've been here at Mayfield. I also found this random book in the library here - Cuentos Argentinos de Misterio. No one speaks Spanish here. It makes me smile a little.

Kwaheri!

Movin' on Up!

I haven't updated this in a few days, so I'll write a little but about what I've been up to and then let you all know what this next week has in store for me...

This weekend was very low-key. I can't remember if I mentioned it, but I moved down the street to another missionary family's house - the Levander family. They have two boys (ages 5 and 3) so that has been an adventure but a lot of fun! They have been so incredibly hospitable. The weekend was a lot of reading, sleeping, watching a movie or two, learning how to make real Kenyan chai...it was relaxing! Monday was a national holiday called Madaraka Day (it's one of their independence day-ish celebrations), so I didn't have to come to work. What a nice long weekend!

Tuesday and today I've been here at the office. My current task is to revise and update all employee contracts (AIM-IS employs 70-80 Kenyan workers, and most of their contracts have expired). So it's time consuming but in my nerdiness I find it interesting! I guess there's a sign that this is what I want to do... :)

I'll work a normal day tomorrow, and then I move into a guesthouse operated by AIM here in Nairobi. The guy I'm going to be living with for the rest of the summer - Brandon - he arrives tomorrow night, and so my orientation (that technically happens your first week here, but since Brandon couldn't come until this week, they postponed mine so we could do it together) begins on Friday. It continues through next Thursday, and I'll get a LOT of information about staying happy, healthy, and alive/safe, Swahili lessons, Matatu (the public transportation here - the vans in the picture...they are CRAZY) lessons, and cooking lessons. Then next Thursday we'll move into our own house in an estate next to the one I'm living in now. I'm so pumped to have a place of my "own"!

Bonuses: the Mayfield Guesthouse has wireless internet and laundry. Sweet! I'll be able to Skype all next week and catch everyone at a decent hour.

Well, my ride is ready to leave. The workday has officially been over for 9 minutes so I better start living up the evening (whatever that means!).