another Saturday

Hey Hey :)

I'm still alive here in Kenya. I'm really starting to get a handle of life here.

Yesterday I went with a group of students: Ben, Kyle, Jaime, and Anya to Mount Longanot near Naivasha (about an hour and a half out of Nairobi). We had a bit of an adventure trying to find the place. First we fought the morning traffic jam to get downtown (it took me about an hour on a bus that would normally have taken about 15 minutes in non-rush hour). Anya forgot her passport, so we had to wait for her to go back and get it. Then, we took a matatu (I've explained this in an earlier post, but it's a 14 passenger van that drives like a bat out of hell) that was going to Nakuru (which was our first problem, we should have gotten on one to Naivasha; Nakuru is just out of Naivasha and it's a beautiful National Park where we had our orientation the first few days). The matatu dropped us off on the side of a mountain, and about 20 miles or so from Mount Longanot. After talking with some locals (and one wanted to drive us there for 2,000 /- (about $30US). We said no way and we would find another way. So we took a matatu to the next town over (and it ended up going back the way we had come). So after some deliberation, we decided to take on the adventure head-on and continue our journey instead of heading all the way back to Nairobi on that matatu. So we waited for another matatu that finally took us about 2 miles away from the mountain (and after some bargaining we took it for only 100 /- instead of 150 /- ($1.50 instead of $2--Kiswahili class is really paying off!). So we got off that matatu and started our journey to the mountain.
On the way we stopped and asked a person at what looked like a farm for directions. We found out that she was a teacher and about 20 wanafunzi (students), whose ages ranged from 3-6 probably, rushed out of the tiny shack they were using for a classroom. Ben gave them some cookies and we talked with them for a few minutes and saw their school. The teacher then walked with us for a ways until we saw where we were supposed to go. This was like something out of a movie-the students were so excited to see us and shake our hands and they were so greatful for the cookies. We've decided to go back and bring them school supplies and a copy of the picture we took of them all.
After we made it to the mountain, we had some lunch and started the adventure up it. It took us just under an hour to climb up. Along the way we saw a bunch of people, mostly Kenyans. Some of the women were wearing really nice clothes and dress shoes-heels even- to climb the mountain. I asked one of them habari za miguu (how are your feet) and she laughed responding, tired and dirty. Once we made it to the top of the crater, we took a bunch of pictures, ate and drank lots of water. Ben, Kyle, and I decided we could leave without hiking around the crater to the highest point. (We were set on hiking around the whole thing, but because of our detour, we were on a time constraint) I made it to the top, even though I'm scared to death of heights; I think this helped me get over it a little. On the top, we met a father and son (the father had to be in his late 50s, early 60s, and the son probably in his mid 30s). They were from Denmark, but the son started an NGO in Nairobi, so he's been here for the past 6 months working with Somalis. It took us about an hour to go to the peak and come back and then we headed down the crater at a run (because that was the easiest way to do it because it's so steep).
We finished just right about 5pm after starting my journey at 7am from my house in Nairobi. We hopped on the back of some piki pikis (small motorcycles), who drove us back to the main road for 100/- (about $1.40).
We caught a matatu heading to Naivasha (about 30 minutes in the wrong direction) in order to get a matatu going to Nairobi. We made it home just before 9pm.
This was an awesome and trying day, but we persevered and made it through. Today I'm sore as hell, but I know that I hiked to the top of a semi-dormant volcano yesterday :)

This morning I made french toast for my family and I'm not totally sure if they like it. Eddah (my 20 year old host cousin) I think just likes it when she doesn't have to do all of the cooking or dishes by herself, so she enjoyed it. However, Mama Tracy only had 2 pieces and told me after the first bite that this was strange. She's made french toast before but only with egg and bread, so it wasn't sweet. I think that caught her off guard. I loved it though, so my tummy was happy this morning :) My next meal will be egg fried rice with vegetables, and I'm probably going to make it tonight. I found soy sauce and broccoli here!

I'm probably going to go out tonight with some of the other students after working on my papers today.

The rest of my week was good...Thursday we went on a field trip with Dr. Jama and he brought us to the Central Business District (CBD) and then to the informal sector--where locals work metal into gikos (Small grill-like things that my family uses to cook on with charcoal), school boxes, small farming equipment, cooking pots, etc. It was really difficult to see this because of the conditions the people work under, but because they're informal, they are working for themselves and not a big company, but they are very unsafe and unsanitary conditions for the most part. The workers had no protective equipment--safety glasses or ear plugs, welding helmets or jackets, etc. It made me really sad but at the same time happy to know that these people were doing something meaningful and earning their living. After this, we went to the rich part of town. Mostly colonialists and those wazungos (white people) who have been here from before independence own these houses. As well as political officials who earned their money in very corrupt manners. That was a very difficult day...
Thursday evening, I went back to my house to find the friend of the student who lived with my family last semester there with her friend. They are both academic year students from UW-Madison. They told me all about Kisumu (where I'll be going for my internship in 3 weeks), as well as some stories from their own group. We had kuku (chicken) on Thursday, which was a special treat because we have not had chicken yet since I've come here (and you all know how I love my poultry! btw, turkey is pretty much unheard of except in the touristy areas).
The rest of the week was pretty uneventful...just class and homework and hanging with the rest of the students.

I'm starting to really like it here, but I really miss you all back at home.
Kwaherini!