"I am sorry chicken, but my tummy just wants you in it"

Wow I can't believe I've almost been here for four weeks! This weekend wasn't too adventurous (not like last weekend), but I still did quite a bit of fun stuff! 

On Saturday, Daisy and I went to the Nairobi Animal Orphanage (we even navigated there all by ourselves!). It was pretty cool to see - the cheetahs were adorable, the lions made me feel like I am actually in Africa, and some of the monkeys were just walking around freely without being in a cage. The  only disappointment was that they didn't have elephants. It was a beautiful area - a good escape from the busyness of Nairobi. Two of the university students joined us too so it was good to see them. 

  

 

An elephant skull.

A Zadonk (zebra donkey)!

On our way back while we were waiting for the bus, a nice girl who was also waiting told us that the bus probably wasn't going to pick us up where we were standing. So we followed her to a different stop, and got a matatu into town with her. Her name was Esther, and fittingly, she was beautiful. Daisy and I ended up sitting in the front of the mat, and immediately the driver started talking to us. Like many Kenyan guys, he wanted me to marry him so he could get a visa to America, and without saying yes he already thought I would be 'Mrs.Nicholas'. As annoying as that was (I've gotten proposed to a few times, even asked to take someone's baby to America), it was interesting to see his [wrong] perceptions of America. He thought, as most Kenyans do, that all Americans are rich, and that our government even pays us to live there! Yes comparatively most Americans are wealthier than a lot of the rest of the world, but our cost of living is much higher which they seem to ignore. He didn't believe me when I told him how much a car or house cost. I guess I kind of shattered his dream of coming to America and instantly being rich - but it really is sad how most people's goal or dream in life is to just get to America - like we are a perfect nation. It is true that we have so many opportunities - and being here has really helped me realize how many opportunities we have that I take for granted (like financial aid for college). But all the problems we have don't seem to exist in their minds. I guess you always want what you can't have though. 

Anyways, thank God for giving us Esther to get us safely back! When we got to town, she pointed us in the right direction to our next bus. God just doesn't stop looking out for Daisy and I :)

After the orphanage, Daisy and I headed to Kibera and met up with Molly, Jeffrey, and David (a different one than our teammate who goes to MIT). Our mission was to buy a live chicken, kill it, and eat it all within a few hours. We ended up buying two chickens and brought them to David's home. David was an expert at the slaughtering process, so he did most of it, although I did help pluck out some feathers. Cutting the head off was pretty gruesome (sorry Auntie…), although cutting it up was interesting (and reminded me of when Uncle Joe and my dad would catch fish and dissect them for us). The power went out early on in the process, so we did everything with candles and the 'torch lights' on our phones (almost all cell phones have a built in flash light here instead of cameras). We had quite a feast! It was really good, although some of the chicken was definitely not cooked all the way. Luckily I couldn't really see what I was eating because it was so dark, and I didn't get sick at all! 

Sorry these photos are a bit graphic...

 

David doing the killing...

The feast (without a flash).

                             

On Sunday, we were back in Kibera to go to church with our friend Emmaculate, a teacher from the school we visited last week. She took us to the english service, and although I kind of wanted to go to church somewhere else since we are in Kibera so often, I ended up enjoying it. We had to introduce ourselves in front of the whole church as usual, and people were very happy to see us there. It is amazing to see how faithful these people are, and how trusting in God that He will provide they are even though they have so little. But instead of living in sorrow because they don't have enough, they live with joy and praise God for all that they do have. After church we took Emmaculate out to lunch and then went back home. 

The only thing I have really been missing from home is the Cape and the thought of laying on the beach with all of my cousins and family, especially since its been so cold here! God knew exactly what I needed though, because today (Sunday) it was absolutely beautiful - sunny the whole day and HOT. It was so good to wear a sun dress without a sweater, and to feel the hot African sun. When we got back from church, I put on a tank top and shorts, and went out and read/slept in the courtyard of our apartments. People probably thought I was crazy, but I didn't even care how American I was being. It felt soooo good, and I just laid there pretending like I was on the beach. 

To mimic my usual summer post-beach Friendly ice cream runs, Daisy, Molly, and I walked to Junction to get some froyo. On our way, two kids came up and started walking with us, asking us for money. Daisy invited them to walk with us to Junction and said we would buy them food at the grocery store. I talked to one of them named Jatson most of the way. He said his parents left him, so another woman took him in, but that she did not have enough money to feed them and another boy. He was in class 6, and said he wanted to be a pilot or an engineer. I told him that I did as well essentially, and was studying to be an aerospace engineer. It was a pretty cool connection, and I encouraged him to keep working hard and to do really well on his national exams so that he could go to university. He asked me to by him flour so I bought him a pound of flour and a pound of maize meal (for ugali), and gave him some change to take the bus home. 

After he left, and we got some froyo (which I felt kind of guilty about after seeing his situation), we headed back home. We ran into him again, and he was holding some money in his hand. Molly asked him where he got it, and if he had sold the flour to get money. He said he brought it home (which if he lived where he said he did, would have been impossible). I didn't really know what to do about the whole situation, and just felt annoyed. Annoyed that he probably was lying just to get money, annoyed that just because I am white I was a target to give him money, annoyed at poverty and that he did need to beg as an 11 year old, annoyed that there is no right answer when someone asks you for money (is it better to give food? is it better to just talk with them and hear their story? is it really up to us to determine whether they use the money for something good or bad? or is it up to us to  determine if they are lying or not?). Even if everything he told me was a lie, he clearly still needed money, so I guess it was still good that I helped him in some way. I just wished he had told the truth…although Daisy pointed out to me that maybe his situation was so bad he had to lie (i.e. whoever was taking care of him made him beg for money, and would beat him or something if he came home without money (like Slumdog Millionaire)). I wish I could just help everyone I saw in the best way possible, but I can't, so I guess I will just keep praying for them (Daisy reminded me that this is really all we can do). 

After getting home, and washing my feet (they get sooo dirty here all of the time), I helped my host mom cook a delicious dinner: rice with spices and lamb and cabbage with pumpkin and carrots. After a good weekend, I am ready to get back to work this week! Pray for focus, motivation, energy, success for our project, and that I will continue to build relationships with the people I interact with every day!