Life in Nairobi

I returned to Nairobi on Saturday after a week in Lake Nakuru National Park. My host mom and brother picked me up at the African Nazarene University in Nairobi. My brother's name is Joshua (JJ) and he is 8 years old. He helped carry one of my big bags which everyone in the program thought was so cute. I received a quick tour of my new home in Kilimani (just southwest of Nairobi - check it out on Google Maps). For those of you who are worried about my safety and security in Kenya - my home is part of an apartment complex with a large security gate and a 24 hour watchman.

I brought with me 3 soccer balls, so I pumped up one of them and gave it to my host brother. He ran outside to tell his friends and before I knew it, I was playing soccer in the parking lot with 6 young boys. They use the security gate as the goal and there are signs of frequent soccer playing in dirty soccer ball marks all over the surrounding walls and the security gate. We played soccer (football) for about 2 hours and I think it was a great way for me to connect with the young boys in the apartment complex. The next day at church, I saw one of them and he was very excited to see me.

On Sunday I went to my family's church service at the Community of Christ church. The church had about 35 people at the service and was held under a large event tent. At one point in the service, the congregation split into two groups to study a chapter in the Acts of the Apostles in the Bible. My host father led my group's discussion. We talked about how Paul had to go before a judge and that the judge wanted a bribe from Paul. We each had to go around and talk about an example in our own lives where we have seen someone try to extort a bribe or an example of corruption. It was a great exercise and really brought the reading to life as many Kenyans live a life where "give me something small" is a way to get things done.

On Monday, I started classes. My family has a driver and he walked me to school my first day. I walk about 2.5 miles to class every day. We had a quick introduction to the faculty. I will be taking a Swahili course, a course on Country Analysis of Kenya, and International Development with a focus in Public Health.

After an hour of class, we caught a bus to downtown Nairobi and bought our cell phones. I bought the cheapest cell phone they had because students often lose or have their phones stolen. The women in the store tried to rip a lot of us off. They would try to charge people an extra 100 KSH connection fee if they weren't vigilent. 100 KSH is only about a $1.42 US but the idea is that people associate white people with wealth and try to take advantage of it at all times.

We went to lunch in downtown Nairobi and the 4 of us at my table all ordered cheeseburgers. When it came time to pay, we were once again met with someone trying to rip us off. After the bill came and we paid we stayed around as other tables finished their meals. After about 10 minutes the waitress came back to our table and picked up a receipt that she had left on the table and tried accusing us that one of us did not pay for our meal. The waitress then also tried claiming that two of the girls ordered their meals differently and ordered the cheesburger, fries and Coke each separately therefore adding up to 20 KSH more than the Combo that came with the same 3 items. We even had one of our Kenyan staff members come over to the table and discuss with the waitress and she finally agreed that we didn't have to pay more than we already did.

After lunch we went to the immigration office to get multi-entry visas and our Alien Registration Cards. The whole process was quite lengthy especially since we overwhelmed the office by bringing in 32 people at one time. I had to wait in 3 different lines, fill out a lot of different forms and have each of my fingers fingerprinted.

After we were done with all of our errands, 4 of us grabbed a bus that dropped us off at YaYa Center which is a large shopping center about 5 minutes from my home. By this time it was raining heavily so the roads that were dirt in the morning were now very muddy with many puddles/lakes. The 3 of us who live on Kayahwe Road made it back to our homes and the 4th girl thought she lived near us. We asked the watchman at my complex to point her in the right direction and he said that it was past YaYa Center which we had just walked from. She didn't want to walk home by herself, so all 4 of us walked about 2 miles in the driving rain and muddy roads to drop her off. Even though our shoes were caked in mud and we were all filthy, it really helped us learn the roads around us and helped us gain confidence.

(Please note that I have tried to build-in links to websites for more information on certain topics in my entries. The link will most likely navigate you away from the blog just so you are aware)