The Great Masai Mara

The great Rift Valley
My home for a couple of nights!
One of my favorite photos from the Masai Village
Part of the hut, it isn't much bigger than the picture shows.
During the welcome dance, he was the beat leader.
This lion was on the prowl soon after this photo, you can tell she was sniffing something.

At the Tanzania/Kenya border!

Rough beginnings can make the whole rough. I was worried this might happen to my weekend trip to Masai Mara (The best national game park in all of Africa). Thursday night it took a while for me to get ready for bed; I got in after 10 and had to finish packing my things. When I was all ready to hop into bed and catch some rest my roommates came in. One was washing the floor, another cooking dinner (yes after 11!). They were all LOUD. Talking to each other and singing songs. To make things worse my roommate left the light on which made me think she would be back in the room soon so I politely left it on for her but she didn’t come back in soon. Plus she left the door open which maximized the sound. After lying in bed trying to fall asleep I turned the light off and tried shutting the door, without actually getting out of bed. The noise was still too much and I could not take it so I got my iPod, turned it up loud which I hate doing, and eventually fell asleep. It had to be after midnight if not one o’clock by the time I was sleeping.

My alarm went off at 4:45…too early to wake up but I had to! The bus left at 5:30…but actually leaves early so I had to get down there quickly! Skipping over the boring stuff we (Monica, Alyssa A., Julia, and I) got the Nairobi campus, had breakfast and loaded an Aramati Safari van! I was excited we had a private driver and car for the whole weekend. We left shortly after 7:30 and drove through the Rift Valley and many Masai villages. The Rift valley is beautiful, even with the drought. I cannot even explain how far you can see! My favorite part was seeing the farms along the edge of a hill and the green acacia trees. We got to Flamingo Camp about 1:30 in the afternoon, were given our tents, and had lunch. Lunch was gross! I can officially say that I have tried sheep…mmmm?

At four o’clock we loaded in the van and went for our first Safari! I didn’t expect the game park to be so big but once we got in you could tell that there were so many different places you could go just inside! A main road goes into the Mara of each of 5 gates and quickly splits into many other roads so you go almost anywhere. The first animals we saw were cows…yes, cows, some of the Masai people, who cherish their animals as they are a huge source of food and income, live inside of the Mara. The first non-domestic animals we saw were wildebeests. These are pretty ugly creatures; they look so old with their beard. The first sighting was cool…but then we saw so many throughout the next couple of days that you realize they are pretty plain compared to the other animals you might see. Throughout our ride we came across Thomson gazelles, zebras, giraffes, elephants, impalas, illads, buffalo, vultures, lions, and a leopard! We were only out for a couple of hours but near the end it started to rain. The rain is good and everyone thanked God for it because of the drought and its need but I was so worried that we would get rained out the rest of the weekend and have a hard time seeing anything really interesting…and a hard time taking photos!

When we got back to camp we had tea and supper which was a huge step up from lunch! We stayed in the “Dinning Hall” until 10 because it was pouring and no one wanted to walk out in the rain. When Monica and I went back to our tent there was a Masai man sitting on our porch. They look a little bit scary and it was dark and he was sitting there with a flashlight. Since our tent didn’t have a light attached to the outside we figured he was just waiting for us to make sure we could find it. He began talking to us and showed us the lion’s claw necklace he had and we tried to quickly get inside, he didn’t speak very much English. He walked away but the rest of the night I could hear him outside. I was so scared because none of the other workers were Masai people and there are many who live around so I didn’t know if he was a guard or just a random guy. Eventually I found out he was a guard and felt a little better. The beds were something else…a really soft mattress on top of a planked frame with a lumpy pillow. I was tired though so I slept pretty well.

Breakfast was at seven the next morning and we headed out about eight. We did a day safari this time! To add on to the animals you already know that I saw, I also saw jackals, cheetahs, a secretary bird; teal crested Laura, waterbucks, a black headed heron, baboons, hippos, a crocodile, monkeys, birds, and a lizard. The safari wasn’t really as exciting as I had hoped until about lunch time. Right before we had our picnic lunch we stopped at the Tanzanian border! I can officially or unofficially say that I have been there! At our picnic we ate right next to a family of monkeys, some people were feeding them which isn’t good but it was so cute to see! Shortly after lunch was the best part of the day. We ran across two lions eventually you could tell that the lioness was hungry and in search of food. We watched it prowl a zebra but unfortunately lost it over a hill and didn’t see the outcome. It was so cool to watch though!

Someone asked me to remember the smells and sounds of the Safari to accompany the photos. I am going to do my best while it is fresh in my mind! The Mara itself smelt normal…like most of Africa, a bit dusty and naturey, I am not sure how else to describe it. There were areas that smelt of death, and some that smelt like, dare I say it, poop. I can recall the Zebra’s neighing in a sort of donkey/horse way and tried to capture it on video. The hippos made a really interesting noise that there is no way for me to describe something mixed with the water blowing of a whale. I don’t think I actually heard a lion roar or much of a noise from any of the other animals.

Right after the safari we went to the Masai village. This was probably my favorite part of the trip. The people came and did a welcome dance for us where they made these crazy bodily noises and jumped and hopped around. Near the end they pulled Alyssa in and made her participate in their jumping contest. They eventually hopped all around us and stuck us in the middle until we jumped with them. One of the men showed us around the village, the cattle shade/shed, where we walked on cow dung and saw children having something similar to a snowball fight…, a house, and how they make fire using friction. The houses are so small; there were twenty of them in the village that was centralized on the cattle shade. The first room in a house is for small cows and the second room is the kitchen, the bedrooms have half walls with the kitchen. The entire kitchen is is a short fire stove with about a foot and a half on either side and then you hit the walls of the parents’ bed and the children’s bed. Quite a simplistic home, there was a small, less than a square foot window, and fairly low ceilings. At the end of the village tour they brought us to their market where each of the twenty families had a stand and were trying to sell us everything! This is something I think everyone should experience one day, they are like persistent beggars except they have something to offer in return. The funniest thing was a man offered for me to choose something in exchange for my watch, he said, “masai like watches.” I told him that I did too.

After the village tour the man showed us the school that had been built. There are still many Masai children who don’t go to school but this is a great starting point for them. They are all taught English, mathematics, Christianity, and a few other things. The rooms aren’t very big and have a lot of students in a class, but it is a start anyways.

We headed back to camp where we had some relaxation time before dinner. Dinner was very good again and I tried French onion soup…and liked it… During dinner Sylvia, who came with us, asked us if it would be okay if we skipped the morning safari because her dad had gone into the hospital and she wanted to leave early to go see him. We all agreed that it would be the right thing to do to skip it, but none of us really wanted to. After eating we played cards with two Japanese guys who were both traveling on their own around the world and happened to be in the same safari group. We taught them how to play a Kemps and spoons, they were hilarious! Then to bed!

I woke up at 5:45 and got ready. We had to have all of our things ready and be to breakfast by 6:15. At breakfast we heard good news! Sylvia decided that since we were eating breakfast early we could still go on the morning ride and get out earlier than the other plans allowed. The other plans included having early morning tea, going for the ride, and coming back for breakfast at 9. We were all very excited and we headed out camp before 7.

I am so happy we got to go because we saw one of the highlights of my trip this morning! First we saw a few dead wildebeests and knew that something had been on the prowl overnight. Next we saw two lions feasting on a cow! I wish we could have seen the attack but this was cool enough. One lion was just finishing when we arrived and he dragged the rest of the cow to his brother who chewed on it for a while. Once the cow had been moved a group of vultures swarmed to the area and began eating the flesh that was left behind. During the process a jackal came in and stole some of the flesh the vultures were eating, it was quite a sight! The rest of the morning was fairly similar to the other days.

We went through a different gate to exit and were bombarded with Masai women trying to sell us jewelry through the window of the van. We used the bathrooms here and I got my first experience with a hole in the ground…well these were actually like a toilet bowl in the ground. It was quite interesting… On the way back we stopped at the rift valley viewpoint and used their bathrooms which were really a hole in the ground. I think everyone needs to try these someday as well…it’s like going outside but actually having to have it go in a certain place! Thank goodness I only had to pee!

Anyways the weekend was good, very good. I enjoyed the safari but cannot see how a person would take their entire vacation just to do that, I don’t recommend it at the price! If you are ever in the area, or are taking a trip in Africa it would be an added bonus! Or if your heart is set on doing a safari make sure to couple it with other traditional African things. It was amazing, but not as amazing as I expected.

Onto the weekend

My weekends begin on Friday because I do not have class! This time I stayed on campus, but instead of studying all day as I should have a played some games! After lunch Alyssa and I played scrabble with my friend George, a Kenyan 1^st year, second semester student, and his friend Richard. It was a pretty intense game, Alyssa and I battled it out good. You could tell we both really wanted to win! At the end of the game I ran out of letters first and got the extra points but lost to her by 1 point! It was pretty close, but the boys were still quite far below us! I figured that maybe if we played it in Kiswahili they would have done better…haha!

For dinner I went to the Matthews with the other Americans and a couple Kenyan guys. We had a vegetable soup and I actually ate and really enjoyed it! I know…it is weird! Potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and more! We had soda bread to go along with it and it was delicious! I love going there! Alice, Mrs. Matthews, let me choose dessert since it had just been my birthday. After deliberation I decided I would try pineapple upside down cake! It was a semi-disaster! It tasted amazing but it pretty much exploded all over the oven. We all played Taboo that evening and I’m pretty sure my team ended up winning!

Ok, I will try to get to the good stuff, I suppose you don’t want the details of my every day but would just like to hear about the whole Kenyan experience!

On Saturday I went to a Children’s home. It was a house run by two “mamas” with about 15 children between the ages 3 and 15. Monica, Lora, and I spent a few hours playing with the kids, and letting them do our hair! Kenyans seem to love American hair! The kids were all very smart and got along so well together. The home belongs to the church and you can tell that the kids are in love with Christ. My favorite part of the day was when the girls decided they would sing us a song. They began with one and then pretty quickly all of the kids stopped what they were doing and joined in. Within minutes everyone was singing and dancing, the three year old even knew the words and sang along! The singing went on for at least 20 if not 30 minutes, all of the songs were from church. The older girls had to leave for some type of church meeting and Lawrence, a boy about 10 led the rest of us in prayer. There were about 10 kids left and they all listened to him, sat down, folded their hands, bowed their heads, and prayed. Everyone had a turn to pray what they wanted to pray and he would even translate into English if they wanted to pray in Kiswahili. Most of the little ones prayers consisted of, we pray for --, we pray for --, we pray for --, and so on until everyone had been named. The children were amazing and the Mamas fed us lunch and told us they hoped we would come again. I would love to go back soon, I cannot imagine meeting better behaved kids anywhere else!

We spent the evening at Sylvia’s. I think I have mentioned her before, she is the person at Daystar who coordinates all of my activities. We didn’t really do much, just watched tv until dinner, and during dinner. I found it so interesting that we ate on the couches and watched the television as often will happen at home. I asked her about it and she said that was the usual. For dinner she served multiple types of meat, rice, and chapatti! Like all of the other Kenyans she insisted we eat more! We got ice cream and cake for dessert!

Sleeping arrangements were strange, Lora, had to sleep outside in what I believe was the “servants quarters” with someone who I believe was a nanny or house help. She got bombarded with bugs all night and had to share a twin bed! Monica and I shared a full size bed upstairs and had a decent mosquito net to cover us up and slept fairly well!

Breakfast was similar to school breakfast, the main dish being bread, plain old sandwich bread! I find it so weird that they eat this everyday without even toasting it! We also had sausages, bananas, hard-boiled eggs, biscuits, and some more of that cake!

For church we went to House of Grace. I have no idea what denomination it was but it was very interesting…The service began with many praise and worship songs. They had projectors for the words and a huge worship team on the altar. After a lot of singing there were announcements…the weirdest I have ever seen! They played what looked like a segment of the nightly news advertising everything going on at the church and welcoming guests! It lasted well over 5 minutes and I felt weird watching tv during church. The sermon was long, very long, compared to the 12 minutes I am used to! We got out of there about 2 hours after coming in and there wasn’t even communion!

The rest of the day was spent walking around Nairobi. We were dropped in the city center where I saw a restaurant called Taco Club. What was so funny about it was that it had the “bell” logo from taco bell, exactly the same one! Inside looked nothing like a Taco Bell though! We walked from the city center back up towards school and went to a fruit market where they sell decent sized fruit salads for 70 shillings, about 80 cents! That was delicious! We ran errands and made it back to campus to catch the 5 o’clock bus back to campus!

That night I made dinner with my roommates! I taught them how to make tacos, which didn’t turn out as good as home, and they refreshed me on how to make chapatti! We had a little party. I think they sort of enjoyed the tacos, they said they did but I am not really sure! It was a fun night anyways!

The days have been better, the homesickness is fading away but it is definitely around. I am beginning to really enjoy and cherish my time here but am still longing for the familiar faces home brings. Hope all is well with everyone back in Minnesota!

Birthday Party

You have never had a birthday party until you have an African one! No, this isn’t really the case, birthday parties really aren’t very present here. What does happen is you get water dumped on you, or as some say you get bathed! So…I was eating dinner with a few of my friends, 2 American, 1 Canadian, and 3 Kenyan. Lora decided she would splash the rest of her cup of water on me, it wasn’t that much so it wasn’t too big of a problem. Alyssa decided that she could use the rest of my water bottle, which was probably more than half full, to get be drenched. All of these girls began to sing happy birthday really loud. The dining hall was packed and everyone turned to see what was going on and who’s birthday it was. At the end of the song the water got dumped and I was soaked! Before doing anything else I had to change so I went to fill my water bottle (the cafeteria is the only place to get clean water without boiling it, and I wasn’t going to be back there later in the evening). As I began filling my bottle a few guys, who I have never met before, decided to throw their cups of water on me too. Oh the joys of a birthday!

After changing I walked back to meet up with my friends and we went off campus to buy ice cream. I held my arms around Raija and Ann for a while and then pretty much was holding Ann to me because I didn’t want to get more water dumped on me and Raija escaped my grip! I walked off with my arms around Ann and Phyllis. Once everyone was together and I was sure there wasn’t anyone who would dump water on me I let them go. We brought the ice cream back to the PAC, the main court here on campus. We passed the buckets around, each taking a spoonful at a time. One of my friends, Raphael, brought his peanut butter which added to the greatness of the ice cream!

The ice cream was gone and it was about 9 and everyone had things to do so the big party ended. Alyssa took me back to her room to watch Pride and Prejudice. I didn’t have time to finish it because of our 11 o’clock curfew but what I did see was good! Overall it was a good birthday and I am very thankful for the friends I have made here!

Back on Campus and its my Birthday!

Since I have been back the water in my dorm has been touchy. Sometimes it will be working and others it won’t. I have been very tired and have this urge to constantly be on the internet or calling home again. I don’t really understand why because I am getting comfortable with the people here and realizing that a month has already gone by and I don’t even feel like I have done much at all. I know the rest of this time is going to go by so fast and I am ready for it to. I feel like fast is okay when half of you just wants to be home with the people you know and half of you wants to see and explore what this country has to offer. None of me wants to be doing the schoolwork though so sitting in class and studying are the hardest parts of my days.

I have also been really tired since I have been back. One night my roommate was talking with a friend and it took me hours to fall asleep. They weren’t even in the same part of the room!

Since I got back to campus I began running. My friend Raija and I wake up at 615 and get out by 630 to go for about a 15-20 minute run. I am assuming it is probably a mile and a half but I have no idea! We do some work basic stretches and ab-work outs afterwards. I am mainly doing this so that when Mt. Kenya comes I will be able to peak it without completely over exerting my body. The thing about Mt. Kenya is I have to find a friend who isn’t already busy for their Mid-Semester break, who has hiking stuff, likes hiking, and is in shape to peak the mountain. Most girls here aren’t very into sports so I don’t know how fit they are! Most of my friends are already busy or just don’t like hiking/camping.

I have also joined the volleyball team. My arms look like I got beat up. There are so many bruises and they are sore, but it will go away once I am used to playing. There are about 14 girls on the team and I am probably the worst. I try though! It is fun to play with them and get my body moving and have something to do. It does get frustrating sometimes though because they will speak in Swahili to each other and I become clueless to the conversation. I hate this because it is hard to learn and understand the tips that are being given when I cannot comprehend them at all!

Well there is a lot going on here and I have to get back to studying, or maybe take a nap, waking up early is not my favorite thing to do! Plus it’s my birthday so I figure if I want a nap I deserve one right!? Oh and that sucks too…I want to be with my family so badly today…I just now realized that… I know there are people here who are going to make it a good day but some things are just hard. I have already had some friends sing happy birthday to me and a few verbal happy birthdays and it is only 9:30 in the morning! I have been told that I am going to have a fun night tonight! I feel bad about it though because I don’t actually hang out with the people who have sung to me and apparently are going to do something for me tonight very often and I don’t feel they should have to do something for me when I am not that great of a friend. I am also worried that I am going to get water dumped on me because that is the Kenyan tradition. It is funny though because I am sure it will come from an international student not a Kenyan…

I have one last request before I end this post. I have been asked by my school to write a “postcard” about a single experience I have while abroad. It can only be 300 words I believe. I am asking you to let me know if there is one thing in particular that you think a bunch of college kids may actually be interested in hearing about. I will write it differently than in the blog! I still have about a month to do it so if anything really interesting comes up please let me know! Thanks!

Week - weekend and all that went on...it was a lot!

My week consisted of Monday-Wednesday and it wasn’t very exciting at all. I went to class, did some studying, and planned my weekend, or at least tried to. I am not going to bore you with all of those details when there is so much about the weekend I want to share!

Basically, Thursday was Prayer Day here at Daystar. This means that all classes shut down and everyone heads to the amphitheatre to pray. This is what I heard about how it has gone in the past. The electricity gets shut off, the water gets shut off, and security guards come into your room, make sure you are out, and lock the building. You must be there from 8 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon with one break for lunch. Does this sound good to any of you!? I do not mind praying but it sounded a little extreme so I decided to leave for the weekend…

I received a text from the lady “in charge” of me here, asking me to move my plans so that I could attend prayer day. There it went, my conscience got to me, and I knew I would have to stay. It was really hard to stick to that decision when my friends all wanted to go, but didn’t want to go without me. We were going to go to Hell’s gate and since I was one of the main planners they wouldn’t leave me out. As you may know I didn’t stay on campus Thursday.

I think I did make the right decision. After running into the lady who sent me the text we talked and I found out that I could attend prayer day at the Nairobi Daystar campus. I felt better about doing that, less extremes and I could still be a part of it and get off campus without changing too many of my plans. I wasn’t happy with myself for changing that decision but once we began praying I was very thankful I did. I don’t know if my experience would have been the same here at Athi River. The leaders led us through a prayer for ourselves and then to one with partners. I am not going to share the personal details but I felt so good after doing this. The partner prayer really helped me, my friend Alyssa prayed out loud for me. I didn’t return the favor because I am still not comfortable doing that (I did prayer for her though). By hearing what she asked help for and hearing what she had to say I feel so much better about my decision to be here. She talked about the courage it took and how difficult the homesickness is and how we want to be ready to let the Lord take over and do everything we can while we are here because it is such a short time and that home will always be home, when I come back nothing will have changed too much. Each word of her prayer helped me to feel so comfortable with my decision and has reduced the homesickness slightly.

After we completed prayers we had tea with some of the staff, did errands, and had lunch at Java. Java has pretty American food and is a nice change for us! We did some shopping at the outdoor stores and I actually bought something! Alyssa and I walked around that part of Nairobi to do other errands and a bit more fun shopping. I ended up with a scarf, two pairs of earrings, and The Proposal, yes the new movie! We met Lindsay at YaYa center which is basically a shopping mall and then took the bus back to her home. We made pizza from scratch and I tried green peppers and pineapple on mine! The sauce was made from fresh tomatoes and avocados. I was very surprised that I actually liked it, but don’t think that means I like it better than the good old pepperoni! Her roommate, Julia, made a salad with a dressing I’m not used to, I didn’t really like it but I did eat it. I also had some chai tea, I was very proud of myself! The night went by fast we watched a couple of movies and slept.

I forgot to mention Wednesday night. We took the bus to campus and got picked up by Jan. She had made tacos for us for dinner! I was so happy! I even tried guacamole, salsa, and cilantro on them! We had banana chocolate chip muffins for dessert and boy were those tasty! Jan drove us to Lindsay’s where we watched a movie and slept.

Anyways Friday morning Alyssa and I walked from Lindsay’s to campus, about a 45 minute walk. We had to leave so she could go to work and were meeting a friend, Karimi, at 11. After we got to campus she wasn’t there so we spent time in the canteen where I ate a mandazi, deep fried dough similar in taste to a donut. We then took some time to write in our journals which was nice because I have actually been finding myself too busy to do so lately.

When Karimi arrived we were invited for tea again! It is always tea, tea, tea around here! I didn’t have anything but afterward we walked to the hospital, our friends had to go, not me, took a Royco bus into town, ate lunch, and took a matatu to Karimi’s home. The Royco bus was fun, it was like a live commercial, the salesman would sell you two packs of Royco (a seasoning like a beef cube but in a packet) for 10 shillings (about 11 cents) instead of paying the usual 20 shillings to ride the bus. We ate lunch at Habesha, an Ethiopian restaurant. I will put up a picture of what I ate because it is hard to explain but somehow I liked it…for a little while and then I didn’t anymore! A matutu is a 14 passenger van that drives around like a city bus, there are tons of the around Nairobi. Getting on it was not cool! The first step in, the first step near it reminded me of going into a club, only louder. We sat in the front right by the speakers and were blasted with music the whole ride; they even have a screen with the music video. All of the songs were hip hop and had very sketchy videos to go along with them!

At Karimi’s we met her dad who was watching sports in the living room, his favorite thing to do. We got settled and met the neighbor kids! I was so excited to see them and say hi. It was also hard to watch them though because they were all about Paeton’s age and it definitely made me miss her pretty badly. We met Karimi’s mom before we left. She told us to call her mom and explained that everyone who is an age mate to your parents can be called mom or dad. This was funny because she is actually in her 60’s and much more like a Grandma to me than my mom! It was really nice to meet her though and see how welcoming she was. We did some grocery shopping before dinner for the next day. Families here typically go shopping everyday for food instead of weekly or bi-weekly like we do at home. When we got back it was almost time for dinner. The cook of the house is the child once they are old enough instead of the parents, but they also have house help who does most of the work, or the work the others don’t. House help here is very common; it is a pretty cheap service and employs many people. Karimi’s family has a live-in house help but apartments may hire someone weekly, or randomly to help clean around the home. The home also had a gate and a guard manning the gate, another job that could easily be cut out but is important for the Kenyan economy.

For dinner we ate boiled chicken, chapatti, pineapple, and some sort of vegetable. I enjoyed all but the vegetable; it was very bitter and really just tasted bad! It was interesting to eat with them because Alyssa and I finished our plate of food and were at a comfortable spot in our stomachs and then told to eat more. There is turn table in the center and her mom would spin the chicken or pineapple in front of us and tell us to have more! We did this a few times to be polite and got our plates away from us as soon as we could handle no more! The family stuck to their one plate of food, but we were expected to eat so much! I am not sure yet if this is cultural or just her mom, Karimi said that her mom is a little more insistent on friends being fed than most woman.

After dinner we helped with dishes and were then asked to have tea. I had hot chocolate and then we went to bed. Her house doesn’t have running water because of the water shortage. Using the toilet was a hassle, we had to fill the tank each time we used it in order to flush it, this was especially a hassle when we had to go in the middle of the night…which did happen because of the drinks at dinner and the tea after!

I am going to attempt to quickly tell you the basics of the rest of the weekend so you have an idea of what I did, and then explain how I felt.

We made plans to go to Hell’s gate, then decided it cost too much so we went to the National Museum and the Giraffe Center with Karimi and her mom. For breakfast we had eggs, sausage, “waffles”, aero roots, ham sandwiches, fries. Her aunt and uncle came over for dinner and we had chicken, chicken soup, French fish, pilou (beef and rice dish), fried potatoes, and pineapple. More tea, with bread and maize, dishes, sleep, up. We drove to church but it wasn’t going on because of a big ceremony downtown for pastors getting ordained and the president was speaking, we decided not to go. Made French toast – no syrup – peanut butter worked though – TV – diamond plaza for ice cream and back to Daystar to catch the bus to Athi River.

The changing of plans really annoyed me. We wanted to go to Hell’s gate and we had called around trying to find a driver at a reasonable price, we hired one but then Karimi’s mom said that her and her aunt would drive us. Admission into the park is about 25 dollars because we didn’t have our student ID’s so we decided we would just wait until we got them to go. This worked out because even though we said we were going to leave at 730 most everyone didn’t even wake up until then. Time cannot be trusted here at all, which is very annoying for me. We were getting ready to go out and do things and it just kept taking longer, people would get stuck into movies and not shower right away and it took forever to leave!

The museum was pretty cool but I felt rushed because her mom dropped us off and said she would come pick us up. It didn’t seem like Karimi was having a good time and since she was our host I didn’t want to make her do anything she really didn’t want to do. We walked this trail by the museum and saw a boy bathing in the river. The river was really dirty and it was sad to see, we had seen another boy bathing earlier in the week.

We went to the giraffe center next and I had a great time. I love giraffes and it was so cool to be so close to them, there were many of them out in the “field” and few actually near the edge. I enjoyed it but again I felt like Karimi wasn’t having very much fun, had I been on my own I would have stayed there much longer.

Meeting her Aunt and Uncle was interesting. Her aunt had me give her a hug and as you may know I don’t really like hugs! Plus it was a Kenyan hug which has that kiss kiss thing near the cheeks, side to side! It is so weird when you don’t quite know how to do this! Her mom did the same when we met her.

The next morning we slept really late and spent the day watching TV. This definitely annoyed me and I believe Alyssa too. We wanted to be out doing things with our time because that is what we were told we would be doing all weekend. It is hard to change plans and get stuck in the lethargic ways of a day but I was also grateful to be off of campus. You do what you have to do when you are the guest.

Before it was time to go back to campus I asked if we could go to Diamond Plaza for dessert because I know Alyssa really wanted to go there and we hadn’t made it yet. It is basically an Indian mall with a huge food court. So we were able to go there quickly before going back!

Wow, it was quite a busy weekend and there is so much more I could say! Basically it was so nice to be off campus and get away from the boring monotony here. Being busy definitely helped me keep my mind off of home, except for when we had some downtime. I am glad I got to see a little more of the city and see how a Kenyan family lives. Sorry for the length of this post! Thanks for keeping yourselves updated on my journey!!

Weekend and more thoughts

I spent this weekend on campus. I wasn’t anticipating anything exciting and don’t think I ran into anything amazing. I did however have a little bit more fun than I expected I would. On Friday I didn’t have class so I slept in late and missed breakfast. I spent some time in the library studying and went for lunch with Raija. After lunch I spent some time outside studying and reading about Lake Victoria, and then I did some more laundry. This took a little while! After this I spent a good hour or so talking with Gladwell, my roommate. This was really nice because we haven’t talked very much yet. We talked about my experience here so far and a few different cultural things and food. I told her that my favorite Kenya food was Chapatti and she offered to show me how to make it. I went for dinner with Ann and went over to the Matthews for dessert and to play a game with the other North American girls. This was very nice; I really like getting out of the dorm life and doing something a little different. Alice made peanut butter popcorn for us and also had oatmeal butterscotch cookies and brownies. Oh was it good to be there! We got back after our 11 o’clock curfew so they walked us back to make sure the guards would let us into the dorms. I went to bed.

On Saturday I slept late again but Gladwell had made some small chapattis for breakfast. She saved a couple for me and I put peanut butter on them. This is definitely not how people here eat them! I hung out with Ann for a little while and went to lunch with h her because all of her other friends had gone off campus for the weekend. Afterwards I came back and Gladwell showed me how to make chapatti. It is actually pretty simple; all it is made of is flour, sugar, baking powder, vegetable oil, and water. It is pretty much a guessing game though, you learn the proportions as you learn to make it and eventually you get it right. All you do with the dough is make balls roll them and then dry out the dough on the frying pan, apply oil and fry some more. I am hoping that by the time I get home I can do this! She also made a vegetable stew for us and I actually enjoyed it! The chapattis were better than the ones in the cafeteria and I really enjoyed them! We spent some time just relaxing watching movies. Gladwell also looked at my pictures on my computer. The rest of the night was pretty much spent on movies. I know that watching movies isn’t anything I can’t do at home but I am looking at it as a way of bonding with my friends because there really isn’t much to do here.

I am hoping that soon I can really feel comfortable talking with my friends, as comfortable as I am with those at home. It definitely takes time for me to get to this point though. I am really hoping that it will work.

Today I was walking by myself and thinking about what I am supposed to be doing with my free time, my alone time. Reading the Bible is something, but I am just not feeling that reading and reading is going to get me where I want to be. I was thinking about writing, about writing for my blog, and writing in my journal and how it may be one of the things I am supposed to do. I think that writing gets a lot out of you, and makes you think about things you would otherwise let slide by. I am hoping that all the writing I am doing will get me really thinking, and really realizing new things that are going to make me the Alyssa I will be the rest of my life. I am also hoping that by writing I can inspire someone else. I have no idea how, but hopefully some good will come out of all of this.

Each day I am taking this a different way. My last take was that studying abroad just cannot be completely positive. It has its crappy moments and sometimes it really just sucks, but hey that is life. I just don’t think that life can be completely positive all the time, you can make the best out of what you have but the bad moments help and shape you as a person, without them your life would be different. I know already that there are so many things from home I am appreciating way more than I ever have in my life. I think I have taken for granted the touch of a person, being hugged, even the hugs my mom gives me when I don’t even feel the need. I really don’t consider myself a huggy person, and I am not going to come home and be that person but the warmth of a best friend, someone who really truly understand you means so much and I can’t imagine living my whole life without someone there for me. It has been difficult enough for three weeks and I even have support through the phone and e-mail.

Anyways, overall I am getting better and feeling better about the situation. I am learning to take it for what it is and slowly grasping the culture. Maybe one day soon I will give you all a lesson on Kenyan culture but I feel this is long enough already. Thank you for reading and if there is anything you really want to hear about please let me know. I know I haven’t ended any of my other posts this way but I just felt like it now!

Ok so the classes begin...oh and my other thoughts!

I woke up Monday morning ready for classes, granted I was tired from my long weekend. I was so ready to finally get that routine I have been talking about and have stuff to do! Both classes went pretty well, classes here last three hours at a time once a week. I sat for about six hours and took quite a few notes. I got one “major” homework assignment, to read an article and type up a one page summary (list form) of it.

I decided I would go to the library right after class to do some studying, and e-mail checking. Well surprise! Fire drill?! I got to the library about 3:40 and the lights were down and not many people were inside. I figured everyone must just be somewhere else. I came in, sat down and was urgently told they were closed! The speed of it all felt like there was a fire and I had just walked into it. Soon after I found out that because of the Kenyan Census everything would close at 3:45 and open again Wednesday.

Well there went my plans. I could still do homework and surf the net outside but there was nowhere to plug in my computer. My homework assignment required using the library and Tuesday was just one less class for me leaving me with even less homework to do.

I haven’t been doing too much these past few days. I will randomly hang out with friends or lay in my room, surf the net, or study. I am still very homesick and trying to get over it but finding it very difficult. I have begun to look at this as a time to start something I don’t really do at home. I have decided that I let God take me here and that now I just need to wait and find out what he has in store for me now. I know there must be something and I am feeling that all of this downtime in a place so different from what I am used may be the place I really get to know him.

Many people have their God story, the point in their lives where they just feel a strong connection and know that God is there with them. I have always been ashamed that I hadn’t had this yet. It isn’t like I tried to avoid it. I am a Christian and I do believe but it just doesn’t seem to be working that way for me yet. Maybe it is because I am stubborn and it takes a lot for something to really prove itself to me. It definitely isn’t God’s existence I need proven but that I would love to have my own God story.

So basically I am trying to start reading my Bible and praying for what I need most now because really I am not having the time of my life. I realize there are times on this trip where there will be a lot of down time and homework is just not going to cut my boredom. But there has to be something in store for me, if I don’t run into my God story here I won’t be disappointed, I have already made progress just accepting the fact that life here is different, and people are different, but he is here with me the same he was at home and nothing can change that.