We have now been in country officially for a week, and what a week it’s been. Every single day has been full of new learning experiences. Our last day in Nairobi, we had a chance to be touristy and go to Nairobi national park for a Safari walk. We saw a ton off different animals…including petting a real cheetah (check out the picture!) She was very sleep, but help her head up while we took pictures. Our guide there was great; he knew where all the animals would be and how to call them so we could get more pictures. When we figure out a better internet situation, I’m going to try and post some of the pictures I’ve taken.

So after a wonderful few days getting to know the SND community in Nairobi, we hopped on an Akamba bus with Sr. Mary and started our journey up country to Malava. We didn’t make it very far before the bus we were on broke down. Luckily the bus that came to pick us up had cushy seats, which came in later going over the bone jarring bumps on the poorly paved roads. We drove through the Rift Valley and saw a (dormant?) volcano, zebras and a baboon. My photos do not do justice to how beautiful it was. We also drove through some of the places that were hit by last year’s post election violence. There was some rebuilding, but there are still internally displaced people living in huge white tents and the remnants of homes that were burned. After a very, very bumping final two hours from Kisumu to Kakamega Sr. Katherine picked us up from the matatu and we had a chance to settle into our new homes.

Our first day in Malava was chocked full. We had a chance to see market day- thank goodness Sr. Judi was with us, b/c many of the vendors gave us good deals on our produce for the week. They have been telling us that b/c of the drought and fields destroyed by the violence last year that food has been scarce, but we managed to get everything we needed and give our bargaining skills a work out. While we were out, we also had a chance to greet the community outreach workers who work for the St. Julie Centre. They were having a meeting when we stopped in…so Tom and I got a quick view into our new place of employment. After lunch, Sr. Katherine took us out to the orphanage and school where Jean and Michael will be working. The kids were all ready for us with a song and a poem and were much better behaved than some children I’ve seen in the US. We also had a chance to meet another American volunteer names Laurie who will be working on sports with the kids in the school for the next 6 weeks.

Yesterday we went into Kakamega to get the rest of the things for our houses that we couldn’t get in Malava. The idea of a supermarket in Kenya is a little different than running to Kroger. It is literally a big market, but inside, where you can get everything from this week’s milk to towels for your house. The road from Malava to Kakamega is very torn up and very bumpy. It’s interesting with three adults in the back seat of a pick up truck. We had most of yesterday afternoon off, after Sr. Judi showed us a few more practical things. It was the first time in a while where I could kick up my feet and read for four hours straight. It was very nice.

Today we went to mass at the parish church by the guy’s house. It was our first experience with full on Kiswahili and I thought it was amazing. The music was beautiful and there were little girls who danced in the aisles. They said it’s the longer mass, but I really couldn’t tell. It was interesting to listen to the homily in Swahili and see how many words I could pick up. At one point a women who had been sort of wandering around came and sat next to me. Then she got up, tugged my skirt out so she could sit on it right next to me and stared without looking away for a good 5 minutes before one of the people who was working in the church came and asked her to move. I may have been uncomfortable, but everyone else thought it was very funny. I felt bad b/c she was saying something to me, but I couldn’t understand her and she didn’t’ speak English. The father also asked us all to stand up before final prayer and asked someone from the congregation to interpret for us. Occasionally, the whole congregation would burst out laughing, but we really didn’t know why…another language barrier thing. Hopefully they were just laughing at his translation.

We had the afternoon off again today, and after tea with Tom and Michael and being walked home by our little neighbors Grace and Eunice, Jean and I headed back to Kakamega, this time on our own. We were successful in using the Matatu, although the one coming home was quite overcrowded and poorly ventilated. I think that almost every group of children between here and Kakamega yelled “Mzungu, How are you?” to us on our little adventure. It’s really funny, b/c you say “I am fine, How are you?” and they just either giggle or yell back yes b/c most of them don’t understand more than “I am fine”. Even the little ones on the matatu openly stare at us. There were even some little ones at church who sat completely turned around for the entire service staring. I think it’s cute now, but who knows how long it will last. I think once we’ve been here for a while, people will start to get more used to us.

Tomorrow is our first day of work and I’m really looking forward to it. I think it will help me realize that this is not a relaxing vacation and that we’re really here to learn something new and work hard. I’m sure work will offer a whole new day of learning experiences. We’re also having a lesson in Luhya greetings and culture tomorrow afternoon- as most people here are a member of that group. Many people speak Luhya, Swahili and English, so it’s helpful if we know as much as we can.

African observations:

- I’ve never seen the stars as clearly as I can here, but it’s from a completely different angle than the US. I’m going to have to find an astronomy book

- A bunch of the little kids wear sweaters with their school uniforms while us Americans are practically melting in this equatorial heat. And everyone keeps asking us in the late afternoon and evening if we’re cold.

- The matatus (mini buses- public transportation) in Nairobi have crazy themes like Obama, Jesus and Ludacris and often play quality American music like “Wind Beneath my wings”

- A ton of the kids here think we’re absolutely hilarious. The other run away crying.

Sorry there are no pictures yet. I'm still working on figuring out this very slow internet.