"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!

Work Week 3

Sorry for not blogging for a while - this past week was pretty busy! 

We got a lot done for our project - collected a good amount of organic trash and an oil drum, did two burns, made some briquettes (using paper pulp and old bananas as binders), got to know the youth group we are working with, visited a school that makes briquettes, and learned a lot! 

On Wednesday, after buying some art supplies, Daisy and I visited a small, one classroom, school in Kibera that we walk by every day. The kids were ages 2-10, some missing shoes, some smelling like they had never had a bath in their lives, and all pretty excited to see us. The teachers were very friendly, and wanted us to come in and see the kids. The older teacher, Benta, told me she is living HIV positive, and lost her last teaching job when they found out she had HIV. She said she started this school for kids who are HIV positive or who have been orphaned by HIV. It was really cool to see what she was doing, although the children were not very disciplined and didn't seem to be learning much. One of the ten year old girls barely knew how to read. Also, when I gave them some art supplies and told them to just color and be creative, none of them really knew what to do. They never had the supplies to just color, so the teacher told them to draw animals to get them started, and thats pretty much what they all drew. It was sad to see how poverty really prevents kids from being creative, or from being kids at all. I value my education more and more every day - can you even fathom having about the education of a first grader for your entire life? 

That same day, Daisy and I got home early, so in light of the fourth of July, and our unmet cravings to bake, we decided to make chocolate chip cookies and a cake to thank David for taking us to his farm. We used our host family's oven for the very first time (no one uses ovens here because electricity is so expensive and Kenyan food can all be cooked with charcoal or stove top). Our family didn't have measuring cups so we just eye-balled all of the ingredients. We also only had baking soda instead of powder, and made chocolate chips by cutting up a chocolate bar. The butter we bought at Nakumatt the day before was half moldy when we opened it, and the brown sugar had molasses in it. Despite all this, the cookies came out really good (taste wise, they were not very atheistically pleasing), and our host family loved the cake although I thought it was a bit funky (it had ginger in it). 

I also got to Skype my whole family for the 4th! It was very good to finally talk to them all - although it made me miss the Cape! Later, Jeffrey, David, Molly, Daisy, and I went to a Kenyan bar for karaoke…until we showed up and realized karaoke night was on Tuesday. So we ended up just hanging out (drinking age is 18 here but I still didn't have any…) and dancing for a bit. Apparently Kenyans party pretty much every night - whether its a Monday or Friday, they love their Tusker beer and dancing. 

On Friday, we worked with the Zulu Youth Group almost the whole day. We did two burns, and are finally producing charcoal! The members are so nice, and are really taking ownership of this project which is exciting to see. One of the members, Steven Karanja reminds me of my dad so much - he is a handyman, good at figuring problems out, and fine working alone and doing his own thing. His daughter came to our workspace after she got out of school, and it was good to get to know her a little. She was beautiful and joyful, and loved math - she kept writing numbers all over some concrete with a piece of charcoal. It was such a good reminder for me that the work I am doing is going to help these youth group members like Karanja make more money so they can better provide for themselves and their families. When Alice asked her dad for some money to go buy some food while she was waiting for him to be done with work and he gave it so willingly even though I am sure he had very little, it reminded me of when I ask my dad for money for things like a DQ ice cream, and he gives me whatever he has in his jean pocket. 

On Friday night, our host sister Edith took Daisy, Molly, her host brother Andrew, and me (Zach I hope you appreciate my grammar whenever I list people) out to the movies. We were going to see Amazing Spiderman at 9 pm, but since we were on KT and arrived at 9:45 pm, we opted to see Snowwhite and the Huntsmen which started at 9:30 pm instead. Even though we were late, Edith and Andrew still sat on a couch and talked for a bit before buying their tickets…its still funny to see how much more relaxed people are here. The movie wasn't too great…but it was still nice to be out at night! Essentially having a curfew at 6:30 pm because its too dangerous to be out at night has made this summer not really feel like a summer…but its forcing me to read a lot, and I've been enjoying sleeping 10 hours every night (and I still need an alarm to wake up…). 

Nairobi : traffc :: Kitale : one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to

Ahhh where to even begin? This past weekend was absolutely amazing - definitely some of the best days I've had in Kenya so far! 

Early on Friday morning, David and his mom picked Daisy and I up and took us to the shuttle station in the city center. We loaded onto a matatu (a 5-star one, it might actually pass inspection in the US, unlike most other matatus here) headed for Kitale. Driving there was absolutely beautiful - we saw so many mountains, farms, the rift valley, large lakes, small villages, tons of cows, donkeys, goats, and sheep, and drove over the equator! The road was a single lane (and very bumpy in some parts), so going in the other lane to pass cars happens every few minutes, often just barely avoiding oncoming cars. We drove through Eldoret, "the place where champions are made", where all the runners who win our marathons come from. One interesting thing about Kenya is that buildings or schools will often have big signs that say "this is a corruption free zone". Well on the way there, when we would have to pass through police checks, our driver would slyly slip a 50 shilling bill in his license, give it to the police man, he would slyly take it out, give the license back, and let us drive on - corruption at its finest. 

After 7 hours, we finally reached Kitale. Kitale is a pretty rural place, very close to the Ugandan border.   Since it is so far from Nairobi or any big city, there is essentially no white people there. Instead of getting the usual "how are you"s and big smiles from children, we were more like foreign specimens to be cautious of and to study. As I was standing in the center of the town, a group of kids came up and just stood in front of me and stared. I talked to them a bit, but people there don't know english well. After a few minutes, the 'field study' of the mzungu was complete, and they walked away. 

David's family owns a farm in Kitale, but they live in Nairobi. So his Aunt Rose lives on the farm and takes care of it, along with David's adopted brother Mendela, a farm worker Evans, and Rose's two children David (9 years old) and Junior (4 years old). We took a taxi to their farm, aka a car that looks like its about to fall apart but still drives at least 60 mph on a small single lane road. 

Driving through the countryside was absolutely beautiful. There was maize planted everywhere, cows grazing along the streets, and so much fresh air! David's farm had a pretty big house that we stayed in, and then smaller huts where Rose, Mendela, and Evans lived. They had 4 cows, lots of chickens running around, and a guard dog. One of their cows started showing signs of having its calf while we were there, but it waited until we left unfortunately. They grew maize and tea. When we first arrived, we explored around. We got to see Mendela milk one of the cows, had one of the cows moo right in our face, walked through the tea bushes which smelt amazing, and saw the sun start to set. We had tea and bread, and then started making dinner. 

tea!

The house had no electricity, so once it started getting dark we did everything by candle light. There was no running water either, so to wash your hands you just pour water out of a jug (from the well) onto them. We also took bucket showers with water they heated for us in the mornings. The water tasted like smoke because they boiled it using the '3 stone method', aka putting a pan on 3 stones over a fire. For dinner we made chapatti and a vegetable stew, and Rose and Mendela had cooked us chicken and ugali. It was a pretty big deal that they killed one of their chickens for us, and when they say they eat the whole thing, they are not joking. I took a chicken thigh out of the pot - but the chicken feet, neck, and head were all available for eating! After I was full to the brim, we had mangoes and oranges as usual! These mangoes were even better because they were from Uganda :)

Daisy and I making chapatti (it was actually dark in the kitchen, we were doing it by candlelight, my flash just made it really bright)

The next morning I woke up early (from the rooster) and went out to see the sunrise. It was absolutely amazing. I just sat there in awe for an hour, praising God for bringing me to Kenya, for bringing me to Kitale, and for reminding me how beautiful He is. It reminded me of the sunrise in the Dominican Republic (shout out to Mitch!)…I don't think I've been so isolated from the busyness of life and able to just appreciate God's Creation since then. Ive been trying to look for the beauty in things (thanks BT Fam), in people, in Kibera…but it didn't really click until I saw that sunrise. After seeing that, I was able to keep looking for the beauties God had placed in my life throughout the day - from the pouring rain, David's and Junior's smiles, Rose's humility and selflessness, the smell of the tea bushes, the fact that I've been surrounded by banana trees everywhere I go here, and the sweetness of a mango. Its so amazing that God created such a beautiful earth for us - we were made last, we are the crown of creation, the cherry on top, and therefore, we are even more beautiful than that sunrise.

After some chapatti, mangoes, and bread and jam, we went to church. His family was Seventh Day Adventist, a type of church I had never been to, so I was pretty excited to go. We had to wear long skirts, and David said I looked like a missionary haha. When we walked into the church, one of the sunday school teachers got so excited to see us he wanted us to say hi to all of the sunday school children. We told him we would after, and went into the service. It was completely in Swahili, so I didn't understand much, but could generally know when it was time to pray, sing, stand etc. We did a feet washing, which I guess is pretty common for them, but it was my first time getting my feet washed. It was a beautiful picture of how Jesus is willing to wash away even our dirtiest sins, especially since my feet were so dusty and dirty from walking around the farm and in the streets with sandals on. The service was very long - we stayed from 10 am to 3 pm, and it was still going on when we left! The services are so long that its understood you just come and go when you feel like it. There were many kids in the service who just sat their quietly during the whole thing - I had trouble doing that! It was on Saturday because they celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday. Everyone was very welcoming, offered to translate for us, and were excited that we had come to their church. 

After that we went to the market, and then it started pouring. So we took a taxi back to the farm, and then had lunch which Evans and Mendela had prepared for us. We had native vegetables (spider plants or something), leftover chicken, and ugali for lunch at 5pm. David, Daisy, little David, Junior, and I then went for a walk, exploring around the farm. We then walked to David and Juniors school, where many of the classrooms were just mud buildings with holes in the walls. David told me later that when I walked by people on the streets, some of them were commenting in swahili how confused they were because my hair was almost white (so they thought I was an old person), but I looked so young.

A note on David and Junior…when we first got there, they were terrified of us. I don't think they had ever seen a white person, or at least not in person. Since they don't have a tv, and they rarely leave the farm, they would never have a chance to see a white person. They cautiously shook our hands, but didn't talk to us at all (they didn't really know english anyways). After being there for 24 hours, they still were so uncomfortable around us. I honestly thought they were the quietest, most miserable kids I had ever met. I bought them candy at the market, and they still didn't even smile! Finallly, on Saturday afternoon when we went for a walk, they started to warm up to us. We started running through the tea fields and they joined in. We finally got to see their smiles and laughs! We then took a lot of fun pictures with them, played tag, and joked around. They were astounded by the digital camera - without a mirror, I don't know if they had really even seen what they looked like. They loved seeing the pictures after we took them, and taking pictures themselves. It was wierd to not look at a mirror for three days - I can't imagine not even knowing what I looked like! 

David

Junior

David's classroom

While we were making dinner - fried potatoes, vegetable stew, and some roasted ground nuts (peanuts), I played a game with David and Junior. They were laughing and smiling so much, and it made all of us laugh. Rose was so happy to see her kids having so much fun. It was truly a blessing to get beyond racial and language barriers and just have fun with them. David then started singing "I have decided to follow Jesus" so I was able to sing along with him, and I even tried to learn the swahili version of it from him. 

After dinner, David's mom taught us how to make mandazis - basically fried dough. They were delicious, although I ate way too much. The next day my stomach hurt all day…my tolerance for sweets/ice cream is ridiculously high, but when it comes to fried food, my stomach just gives up. I probably won't be eating mandazi and fried potatoes for a while now.

After saying goodbye to Rose, David, Junior, Mendela, and David, we headed back to Nairobi. On our matatu there was a young women with a wailingggggg baby. The baby was tiny - she almost looked emaciated, because her eyes were huge compared to her head and body. She had a cleft lip, so she couldn't even drink from a bottle. I felt so bad for this woman, and kept praying for her throughout our ride. She was headed to a hospital near Nairobi so her baby could get an operation, but she had never been outside of Kitale before. All of the moms on the bus told the bus driver to stop at the hospital to drop her off; we didn't care that it was out of our way. He was too stubborn though, and dropped her off 20 kms from the hospital. David's mom gave her her shall to keep the baby warm, and a lot of us gave her money. She had to take a taxi to where she could get a matatu to get to the hospital. It really hit me how blessed I am - especially for health. My sore stomach was nothing compared to this poor woman and her baby. Please join me in praying for her! 

Oh and on our way back we saw zebras just grazing near the side of the road. Just another beauty from God to help me get through the 8 hour ride :)

By Sunday night we were back home, and it was good to see our host family, and to have water, electricity, mirrors, and internet again! Although I still miss the beauty and simple life of the farm…I would love to go back and visit! 

On Monday Daisy and I were back to work in Nairobi, and had a pretty successful day! Also, when we were walking down the street to buy a mango, a swarm of children came around us. We realized we were right next to a school, and the teacher asked us to come in and visit. We came in, and the children sang us songs. That morning I had an email from my Auntie Renee (I think you will always be Auntie, it feels too weird to say Aunt haha) asking for artwork from African children for her art classroom. I had been thinking all day how I could get this, or if it would be okay to just walk in to a school one day. God had it all under control though - and had me just be welcomed into a school. It didn't look like they had any art supplies, so I will buy some, and then ask them for their artwork. The teacher was very nice, and told us to come back any time.

I can't thank God enough for this past weekend - I realized how much I am a city-kid, and how amazing a nice break from my life to go live on a farm is. I hope you all can look for the beauties God places in your life everyday - they are there, we just miss them way too often. I believe thats how God gets our attention.

"The beauty of the world is almost the only way by which we can allow God to penetrate us…Beauty captivates the senses in order to obtain permission to pass straight through to the soul…The soul's inclination to love beauty is the trap God most frequently uses in order to win it." -Simone Weil

When in Kenya, do as the Kenyans do

even if that means dancing around a football stadium in front of hundreds of Kenyans as a mzungu…more on that a bit further down.

On Wednesday, our team visited a youth group in Dondora (the largest dumping site in Nairobi), that makes briquettes out of paper and sawdust. They sell the briquettes to school food service programs for very cheap, which means more food for kids (shout out to Oma! although your food was much better, these kids were eating porridge (flour, water, and some sugar anyone?)). Seeing their process was very interesting and we even got to help them out a bit. A member of the group then took us to visit a school to see the briquettes being in use. We came right after lunch, so the kids (at least 200 of them) were just running around until classes started again. I don't think the area we were in is visited by many mzungus, because they treated me like a celebrity. Kids literally swarmed me, each wanting to just touch my hand, to check if it was real or something haha. I could barely move through them, and apparently they were all saying "she looks like the people on tv" in Kiswahili. Their smiles and energy were awesome. I'd love to go back and visit them! 

At night, Daisy, Molly and I went to a Kenyan Premier Football (soccer) game with three guys who work at CFK with us and live in Kibera. The stadium looked like a colosseum, and it was where the Kenyan Olympic trials were held a few days ago! As I was trying to take it all in, I noticed bands of Kenyans slowly moving around the football field with drums, dancing and cheering. Our friend David who we were with asked us if we wanted to go dance with them, and although Daisy and Molly looked at him like he was crazy, I figured I'd probably only be at a Kenyan football game once right? So I ran down to the group of people with him, and joined in. They started going crazy - a mzungu at a football game? and dancing with them? for the team that represented the poorer sector of Kenya? When we passed the section of the stands filled with people, tons of people stood up to take pictures of the mzungu dancing with the group. A young girl started bowing down to me, saying something in Swahili that meant she was praising me. It was weird, exciting, thrilling, and a one of a kind of experience. At half time, the dancing group of about 10 people grew to about 50, and Daisy, Molly, and Jeffrey joined David and I in dancing with them. This group was even crazier, and some guy gave me an African necklace haha. After that we just watched the rest of the game, went out for some food afterwards, and then went home. It was our first time being outside of our house after 6pm, so I finally got to see the moon and stars! Its too dangerous for Daisy and I to ever be out at night, but the three guys walked us home so we were okay.

Today, Thursday, we went into the city center to the University of Nairobi for some meetings. One professor we met with about our project was really encouraging, and reminded us that she loves learning everyday, from everyone, no matter who they are. Whether they live in a slum, or have multiple degrees, she looks for what she can learn from people. Ive definitely learned so much from everyone here, and I never want to close my mind off from someone just because of their social class or reputation. Its definitely a good mindset to have :)

I then spent an hour and a half at a bank trying to withdraw money…lets just say African standards of customer service are not much different from American. I've been pretty okay with running on KT (Kenyan Time) so far, until I had to deal with this today. Kenyans are basically always on KT. If we have a meeting at 10 am, it will actually start at 11 am. The only time they act American is when driving, they drive as fast as they can just to slam on their brakes, and speed up when someone is crossing the road in front of them (although sometimes people stop for Daisy and I if we are not crossing with any Africans, mzungu advantages). 

Afterwards, Daisy and I went to the supermarket in searching of anything we could bake (even though my host family has never used their oven). My host mom said I would start missing home 2 weeks after being here, and I guess that was expressed by my need for a warm chocolate chip cookie and some chocolate milk. Unfortunately they don't have Trumoo here, or frozen cookie dough, or sticks of butter, or chocolate chips (that was the hardest to ask a store clerk where it was, especially since chips mean fries here). Our shopping trip basically failed (we didn't end up baking anything), but I did get some ice cream and chocolate milk. And yes I ate the entire 500 ml of ice cream today (and 5 chapatti)…but it must have been healthy for me because the nutrition facts were in arabic :)

Tomorrow, Daisy and I are traveling with David to visit his aunt's farm and his grandmother in western Kenya. We will almost be on the Ugandan border, and finally get to experience some rural Kenya! We bought malaria meds today and are ready to experience a 6+ hour matatu ride, bucket showers, maybe milking a cow, and some amazing stars. I won't have internet there…but expect updates when I'm back Sunday night!

Note: Our house got wi-fi, so I can basically Skype/talk whenever now! But its a little to slow to upload pictures here...so they will come Monday. And I added a video on the "children's smiles" post from the orphanage. thanks to all who've been reading this. i love getting comments and knowing you guys are sharing in this experience!

Giraffes, new friends, more learning.

On Sunday, Daisy, Edith, and I went to our host parent's church, Nairobi Pentecostal Church (Edith goes to a different church, which we went to last weekend). It was more traditional, but not too different from the penetecostal church I visited in Boston. Molly was there too with her host mom, and out of a congregation of a few hundred people, there were 5 white people there haha. People were very friendly - the girl I sat next to introduced herself to me, gave me her number, and told me to call her if I ever wanted to hang out when I am at Nairobi University. It was a beautiful day - the sun was finally out! Since its winter here, this is only the 4th day I had seen the sun, so you all better be enjoying it at home! 

After that, our host family took Daisy, Molly, and me, to the Nairobi Giraffe Center. It was awesome! We got to feed the giraffes, saw some tortoises, got lost on a nature walk (where some dogs almost chased us…), and even saw Pumba! It was good to finally see some African wildlife after being here for a week and a half.

PUMBA!

My host family

Molly, Daisy, and I then went to Kibera to have lunch with Erik, Moses, and Walter, three guys who live in Kibera, but work at CFK to improve their community. I didn't want to go at first, because our host family offered to take us to some other tourists sites in their car (not riding in matatus is a rare occasion, and a real luxury). But that morning I had specifically surrounded this day to God and whatever plans he had for me, so I trusted that going to Kibera (even though I am there every day) was what he wanted for me. 

Walking through Kibera still in our church clothes (aka the sandals I wore in Danielle's wedding plus mud, trash, and waste) was a little rough. But after jumping over ravines of waste, piles of trash, and many puddles, we made it to Erik's little shack. It was one room (probably ¼ the size of my dorm room this year), with a sheet dividing the sleeping area and living room. They had a tiny tv, with a couch and some chairs. They bought us sodas, and had made tiliapia (which probably cost a fortune for them) and ugali. It was amazing to see how welcoming they were although they had so little. They kept making jokes, saying everything we have they have in Africa. For instance, we have spacecrafts that can only be in one place at one time, but they have witchcraft (politicians here actually play witchcrafts to improve their chances of winning, it was in the newspaper yesterday). When I talked about what I was studying and told them I wanted to be an astronaut, I had to explain how you even go up into space. They had never heard of space shuttles, the international space station, or what the moon is like.

They told us a lot about their lives too. Tribes are very important in Kenya. There are 42 different tribes, all with different languages, cultures, dress, looks, names etc. A local Kenyan can determine what tribe different people come from just by seeing them. Often this causes a lot of tribal tension (like when elections roll around). They were all part of the Luhya tribe (as is our President), in which everyone has a middle name based on the time of the day they were born. So I would be Lyndsy Akinyi Muri, because I was born at 3:30 am. 

Neighborhood children would often walk in, have some soda, sit around for a while, and then leave. In Kibera, your neighbors house is your house - if you don't have dinner, you go to your neighbors looking for food. They guys were shocked when we each told them we only knew a few of our neighbors. One of the girls that kept coming in was named Michelle. She was actually named after Michelle Obama, along with the many children born in the past few years named Barack or Michelle. 

Daisy, Erik, me, Michelle, Moses, Walter

I was so glad we went to their house rather than doing tourists activities. It was such a blessing to see how passionate they were about helping their community, encouraging other youths to not turn to drugs, educating others about HIV and contraception, and encouraging peace rather than tribal tension.  It was humbling for me to see what living in Kibera is like, even if only for one meal, and showed me how independent/self-centered/un-neighborly we can be in America.

Another note: 

Every time I say my name Kenyans say ryndsy? yndsy? It takes them a while to get it...and they spell it Leansey Moory. I guess I could accumulate some vowels since I haven't had any real ones my whole life. 

Captivated

On Friday, our team (Daisy, David and I, and the university students, Allen, Mweru, and Flora) visited another slum in Nairobi called Mathare. The Dignitas Project in Mathare, which tries to improve lives in Mathare by improving education helped us to meet youth groups in Mathare. We went there to learn more about life in a slum and to see if the youth groups there would be better partners than those in Kibera. People in Mathare are actually more poor than those in Kibera, however they are more resourceful. In Kibera, there is many NGO's and USAid programs, so people are looking for handouts. In Mathare, the youth groups were very innovative and trying to improve their own lives without getting much help from outsiders. One youth group even collects trash without getting paid simply to improve their surroundings. We were even more of celebrities there because not many visitors ever go there (since Kibera is so much more publicized)…which is also why I didn't take much pictures. Every child I saw broke my heart!

Overlooking Mathare. From left to right: Rose, Mweru, Flora, Daisy, David, and Allen.

After we visited Mathare, the university students took us to downtown Nairobi (which was packeddddd with people and buses). We walked to 'up-town' Nairobi, a bit nicer area, and went to "Chicken House" for lunch. We got the special for 180 shillings ($2): a piece of fried chicken, chips (fries), and a soda. It was good…and more real than our fast food I think. It was the first chicken I've had since being here (beef is cheaper than chicken), and the first soda I've had in at least a year. We then walked around, got ice cream (the soft serve was not our fake soft serve - it was like frozen whole milk). 

Daisy, David, and I then said goodbye to the others, and went to Nairobi Hospital to visit our host brothers wife who got in an accident and has been there for 3 weeks. The hospital was pretty modern…although there were some areas that were outdoors. Every hospital bed had a mosquito net over it and hospital rooms had balconies to go outside. 

For dinner we had ground lamb, veggies, and a bright green mashed potato looking dish that was made of potatoes, veggies, and pumpkin leaves. And of course, mangoes and tangerines to follow :)

On Saturday, an intern at CFK named Molly who is from Illinois, explored Kenya with Daisy and I. We took an hour long matatu ride to Ngong Town, and walked a bit to the Kenyan Wildlife Service (which was not easy to find haha). After a long walk up a red-dirt road, we reached a tiny gate, which was the entrance to the Ngong Hills - 7 hills that you can hike up. Apparently there are bandits and buffaloes in the woods so we had to pay for two armed guards to walk with us (yes they had guns). 

It was a BEAUTIFUL hike - and so good to get some fresh air and be out of the city for a bit! I felt like we should have been singing "the hills are alive…" (and if you don't get that reference, you need to go watch Sound of Music, a movie I actually have seen) as we overlooked the rolling hills and the herds of goats/cows, saw the eagles fly over, and looked out on the vast Kenyan countryside. It was such a good reminder of how big God is and how he made that for us. I was truly captivated and refreshed. 

I kind of felt like someone from the Old Testament, like David shepherding sheep, or Moses walking up Mt. Sinai to get the Ten Commandments. 

At the end of our hike, there was a group of a few guys at the top of the first hill, blasting praise music in Swahilli. Only in Kenya can you blast music in a national park, and worship God so freely and publicly :) 

On the matatu ride home (with 21 people), a little boy named Bernard was squished between Daisy and I. He was adorable, with a bright smile. His mom said they were coming from the hospital because he had cancer. He was only 12 and was an orphan. His mom was actually his teacher, who had taken him in, even though she had 4 other sons. It was so amazing to see his joy despite having cancer, and his thanks when we told him we would pray for him. He wants to grow up and be an artist, and loves drawing animals. Please pray his cancer goes away! The world needs his smile :) 

For dinner, my host dad is making his special dish: na ma choma, a lamb cooked a special way. We had it with ugali and veggies, and it was pretty good! Its interesting that lamb is one of the cheapest meats here.