OWU in Tanzania, Safari-ing, & a Birthday on Mt Kilimanjaro

Welcome to a birthday edition of my blog.

A day after my last post, OWU prof and friend Mary Howard and the 2012 OWU in Tanzania group visited me in Nairobi. The students are a mix of current sophomores and juniors studying abroad in Tanzania for spring semester. I showed them around town and took them into a slum – Kawangware – to give them an idea of what Maono does. We sat in on two group meetings to learn about the concepts of microfinance, table banking, and the struggles and challenges that Nairobi’s poor face. Here’s a picture of us all after a visit with the Maono group “Glad Ways.”

Scott hung out with us as well and he shared his experience with the students – cultural, historical, etc.  Free from work, we all spent the weekend together – driving to the Rift Valley, sharing meals, watching traditional dance shows, and even attending a church service Sunday morning. Here’s a pic of us at a Rift viewpoint halfway between Nairobi and Naivasha. Warning – Facebook picture quality!

Back to work on Monday, I arranged for the students to have a tourist day at the Elephant Orphanage, Giraffe Centre, Kazuri Factory, and the Karen Blixen Museum. They enjoyed kissing giraffes just as much as I did! The group is learning fast and are fun to be around. It was fun acting as tour guide during their stay and made me realize how much I’ve learned here and also some things I don’t have answers to.

Mary invited me along with the group as they headed back to Tanzania. Their semester of schooling starts in mid-February in Dar es Salaam. Until then, they are playing tourist and acclimating themselves to East African life. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect – I needed to leave Kenya by January 31^st to renew my visa. Since my main gig in Nairobi is volunteer work, vacation time is pretty much at my discretion. Also, a lot of my work can be done offsite since it is computer work.

So, I hopped on a bus with Mary and the students and now I’m in Tanzania. For the first week here, we stayed with two ex-Black Panthers at UAACC (United African Alliance Community Center). Pursued by gun charges in the US, Pete O’Neal fled to Algeria in 1970 and wound up in Tanzania. Along with his wife, Charlotte, they run a center which is a hybrid orphanage, school, recording studio, and community meeting place. Off the beaten path, many of the surrounding residents utilize the center. Read more about Pete’s story in a recent article appearing in the Los Angeles Times.

Pete and Charlotte were a true delight and are truly changing the community for the better. Staying at the center, we learned a tribal dance with Swahili lyrics and performed it at a little get-together one night. We got to listen to Charlotte play beautiful music on a traditional guitar-like instrument, met many interesting people visiting and teaching at the center, and played soccer and basketball with the kids.

OWU has a presence in Tanzania. Not far from UAACC, the School of St. Jude stands, built from an investment from 11th OWU President Elden and wife Betty Smith, the namesake of Smith Hall at Ohio Wesleyan.

Arusha town is settled on the southern foothills of Mt Meru, a mountain less than 5,000 feet shorter than Kilimanjaro. Here’s a pic of Meru, with clouds that make it look like it’s erupting.

Tanzania (and Kenya) are in a dry, dry season. The long rains don’t come until April. Mary brings a wealth of experience with her – she lived in Tanzania for five years in the 1970s. She remarks often that she has never seen the area so dry. In the entire month of January, I experienced only one rainy day. Global warming, deforestation, etc. seem to have reared their ugly heads.

The students are a diverse group of backgrounds and personalities and I’ve enjoyed getting to know them over the past 2-3 weeks. Hanging with American college students felt good after living mostly in a different culture for 6 months. They are picking up on culture and Swahili quickly. And I can’t say enough about Mary – author of Hunger and Shame and a cultural anthropologist, she has a deep understanding of historical and cultural forces that influence life in East Africa.

I finally went on a safari! UAACC organized some for our group. We spent time in three national parks in Tanzania – Tarangire, Lake Manyaga, and Ngorongoro. The three parks contained three very different ecosystems and environments. Tarangire primarily attracts birders. Unfortunately, my pics of the varied and colorful birds didn’t turn out too great. Tarangire also has a huge number of elephants.

Later, we saw more – a mother with its children –

Tarangire is packed full of massive baobob trees –

First wild giraffe spotting – they look equal parts majestic and goofy.

Slightly less majestic and slightly more goofy? That would be the ostrich.

Our next park was Lake Manyara. The lake is situated smack dab on the Great Rift Valley. The park was more lush and green than Tarangire.

Here’s a picture of the lake with flamingos and giraffes in the foreground.

Flamingoes like to hang out in the lake water due to high sulfur content, like other lakes on the Rift.

We also saw many gazelles, impalas, and baboons. Here’s a baboon carrying a youngling. Can you spot the baby?

At Ngorongoro, we visited Ngorongoro Crater, which is translated to – wait for it – “Crater Crater.”

Down in the crater, we saw a bunch of wildlife. Thousands of animals covered the area due to the nutritious grass and water in the crater.  Huge herds of buffalo, zebra and wildebeest could be seen for miles and miles. The wildebeest pictured here are part of the Maasai Mara – Serengeti migration. Ngorongoro borders the Serengeti and parts of it are in the same ecosystem.

Here’s some zebras with a baby –

At this point, we had come close to checking off my bucket list item of seeing the ‘Big Five’ – safari animals that historically were prized for hunting. So far, we had seen three – buffalo, elephant, and the elusive leopard (usually the hardest to find). On the last day, we saw lions! We first saw some napping and then saw other ones walking right by our Land Cruiser.

This lioness came really close!

Soon after, we saw napping lions wake up and stalk zebras in the distance. Quite a stare down!

Next, we drove to the west end of the park to see the Olduvai Gorge. On the drive, we entered the Serengeti ecosystem – seemingly never-ending plains.

Olduvai Gorge is a 30-mile long ravine in the Rift Valley. The site is where Louis and Mary Leakey discovered hominid fossils and also where their son, Jonathon, discovered the first Homo habilis specimen.

Here is a picture of the gorge – the dark red colored formation is a monolith.

Funny that Olduvai Gorge, a site that lead to further development of the theory of evolution, is situated in Africa – now the world’s stronghold for Christians and creationists who deny evolution.

At the mini-museum inside, we saw the bike that a Japanese man used in his 9-year trek from Cape Town to Cape Horn. Makes me feel lazy!

Back to the safari -

In literally the last hour of our safari, we spotted the last of the Big Five – the black rhino! Our tour guide and driver Julius has an amazing eye for spotting animals and he never disappointed us up until the very end. It was very far in the distance, so no picture. Nevertheless – Big Five, complete.

A few days after safari, we headed to Moshi, a town on the foothills of the Africa’s tallest mountain, Kilimanjaro.

We’re staying at a place called the Honey Badger Inn. Honey badgers are pretty fierce animals – they have been known to kill unsuspecting lions, tigers, and bears, as this sign and OWU student Kym indicated.

Thankfully, there are none in the compound. But they do have a pool.

The day after we arrived, Andrew, a PCV (Peace Corps volunteer) with Trees for the Future, took us for a day of packing soil for planting. The organization provides seed and training for reforestation projects, as the Kilimanjaro area has lost much of its greenery in recent years. That night, the students and I went out with Andrew and other PCVs. They provided us with perspective on life in Tanzania and we shared a local Serengeti brew or two. Rhyme unintended.

On Monday, I celebrated my 23rd birthday! We climbed up to the first base of Mt Kilimanjaro at roughly 10,000 feet. Climbing to one of the peaks runs about $1,000, so we decided on the cheaper option. I think I’ll join a short list of people who have climbed the Roof of Africa on their birthday!

Standing tall at 19,341 feet and about 50 miles wide, here it is. The snow-capped peak (although not nearly as snowy as it used to be) is Uhuru Peak, aka Kibo Peak.

Here’s part of the group at the gate entrance on the day of the climb.

The climb wasn’t too bad – we took it ‘pole pole’ as they say in Swahili. When we reached our destination, we had lunch and Mary and the students sung Happy Birthday! I was presented with two gifts as well – a pint of Kanyagi (cheap Tanzanian gin) and a sign containing lyrics to the addicting Kenya foreigner-welcoming song – Jambo Bwana.

We walked a bit further to get a beautiful view near Maundi Crater. The land in the distance is Kenya and the body of water is Lake Chala. Mt Kilimanjaro is right on the border, but the whole mountain is in Tanzania.

The breezy air was borderline cold and felt great after several hours of hiking.

At our destination, we held a little ceremony to remember those we have lost. We gathered stones to represent individuals who have passed on. For me, it was a good time to remember my mother. I like to hope that she’s somewhere up in the sky looking down, smiling at me.

I’ve now parted ways with Mary and the students. I’m now in an internet cafe in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania’s old capital and largest city. Later in the week, I catch a train to Zambia. In Zambia, I will conduct Scott & Durham University’s microfinance research, the same administrating that I did in Uganda in December. The train is a two-day deal, but sounds better than the alternative – 57 hours of bus rides. Plus, I’ll have a bed.

My time in Tanzania has been a good break from work, and I’ve enjoyed learning about a different country. Down here, Swahili is the language of choice. I’m realizing I’ve been spoiled by Nairobi and all the fluent English that is spoken there. Since Tanzania’s first President, Nyerere, chose to teach Swahili in schools after independence instead of Kenyatta’s preference to teach English, the average Tanzanian doesn’t know much English. While this makes the people seem a bit distant, good for them to hold on to their language. I’m learning more Swahili by the day. On a run the other day, I greeted an elderly woman with “Mambo” – just like I would in Nairobi – problem is, I wasn’t in Nairobi, I was in Tanzania. The woman raised her voice and said “Mambo? Mambo!!? Look at me, I’m old. For me, you say ‘Shikamoo.’ Duly noted.

I’m excited to start my 23rd (or 24th, technically) year of my life in East Africa. The Patriots losing the Super Bowl and my birthday celebration atop Mt Kilimanjaro made for a great day. One of the OWU students even had my favorite James Bond movie on her computer and we watched it. ‘Do you expect me to talk? No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!’

Now for a couple of links for those who made it to the end.

Maono’s new website is up and running, check it out here.

I’m happy I’m out of Kenya for the time being – the Schilling has strengthened and the conversion to the dollar would make life their more expensive than usual – hopefully it will depreciate by the time I return.

Thousands of Kenyans are suing the UK for brutal abuses to anti-colonialists during the 1950s.

Next post will be from my 5th African country to visit – Zambia. Until then!

Tags: Arusha, Big Five, Honey Badger, Kilimanjaro, Lake Manyara, Meru, Moshi, Ngorongoro, OWU, Safari, Tanzania, Tarangire, UAACC

A New Home

Long time, no post! Hope 2012 is off to a good start for you.

First things first – I’ve moved into a new place.  Seeking a more diversified portfolio of experience in Kenya and a healthy dose of independence, I parted ways with the host family and began an apartment search. I’ll miss the fam and especially Kiama (the 2-year-old boy), but it’s time for the next step in my Kenyan life.  They were so kind and hospitable to host me for 5 months, and we had a lot of good times.

The apartment search was more difficult and frustrating than I could’ve ever imagined! Several times, agents/guards/acquaintances promised a vacant apartment when in fact it did not exist. It took about two weeks of long walks and investigating to find a real place at a reasonable price. I took the bait of a con artist as well. He was a ‘real estate agent’ who ‘found’ an apartment for me. After showing me a supposedly vacant apartment from the outside, he told me to call the owner to negotiate the price. Mysteriously, the owner would refuse to talk on the phone and would only engage in text conversations. Thing is, (as I found out later), the ‘owner’ was actually the agent on a different phone! I threatened to report him to the police, but that probably wouldn’t bring him to justice as police are pretty corrupt here. Plus, I’m only out $10.

I landed on an SQ (servant quarters) for $200 a month. It’s one room with my own bathroom and a shared kitchen/living room. Water, electricity, gas, and internet are included in the price. Best part, it’s less than five minutes walking distance to both the office and a matatu stage to the city. The owner first told me it would cost $375 a month. With many things in Kenya, the first price offered is more of a joke for the gullible than a serious offer.

My room is literally too small to photograph, so here’s a pic of the living room.

An Ethiopian family owns the house and rents out the SQ and two other larger bedrooms.

When I returned to Nairobi after my relaxing rural Christmas, I had another week before work began. I took some time to do some touristy things, including a visit to the Karen Blixen Museum. Author of Out of Africa and the namesake of Karen, a rich Nairobian suburb, she lived in the house in the background of this picture. And yes, that’s a fresh haircut.

Back at work, things are busy. At Maono, we are very close to unveiling our new website. It looks good and I’m hammering out the final touches with a web design team back in the US. I’ll post the link when it’s live! I’ve also undertaken a new project – to have a detailed database of all our members, I’ve designed a template for storing client information and have been out in the field collecting that information. Included is a picture of each member along with descriptions of their businesses and goals. The database will be used primarily for donors who are interested in adopting a group by lending money interest-free for a year to inject capital into a group.

Here’s a picture of Mathare Light, a group awaiting Maono loans.

In other work news, we’re busy implementing our organizational plan for the year. In order to pave the way for faster and more efficient expansion, we’re creating a new position to manage each of our three zones of activity – Zonal Manager – to oversee and evaluate field officer and group performance as well as manage expansion. Along with a re-structuring of group meeting times, we’ll be able to nearly double our number of groups within the year.

On to some exciting news – Mary Howard, a anthropology professor at my alma mater – Ohio Wesleyan – and OWU in Tanzania’s 2012 students are visiting Nairobi for a few days. Scott and I will show them around to a Maono group meeting and other stuff. What’s better, I may join them as they head back to Tanzania! After safari-ing and such, I would hop on a bus to Zambia to administer surveys for Durham University’s research down there. More on that as it happens…

A couple of quick notes before I sign off.

I’ve been meaning to share some music with you. I’ve been hearing a lot of new tunes, both Western and African. My favorite radio station is Classic 105. The station is a mix of UK (since the Brits colonized Kenya) hits from the late 70s, 80s, and early 90s and African soul, funk, and rock. Good songs I’ve discovered there? Pata Pata by South African artist Mariam Makeba and Casanova by Ultimate Kaos. Whenever I hear a song I like, I jot down some lyrics in my phone and download it later. Not counting Classic 105 stuff, my favorite song so far is Kigeugeu. The music video is shot in Nairobi. Also check out this song – Kwetu Pazuri – a Rwandan song that is being played everywhere in town now. Here’s another I enjoy if you’d like to hear more.

I’ve discovered a wealth of good British music, like Imagination’s Just An Illusion. An exception? Ever heard this song? Do They Know It’s Christmas. It’s kind of catchy, set a record for UK single sales in 1984 and that record remained until 1997. Produced to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia, it contains the lyrics “Tonight thank God it’s them instead of you,” “The Christmas bells that ring [in Africa] are the clanging chimes of doom,” and “[Africa is] where nothing ever grows [and] no rain or rivers flow.” I know the single was produced with good intentions, but I find those lines particularly offensive. No rivers flow? Ever heard of the Nile, Band-Aid? I’m lookin’ at you, Phil Collins.

It’s occurring to me that I need to write a full post just on music sometime! One last note – when I heard this song – Mama Papa – it eerily reminded me of another song. After an hour of racking my brain, it dawned on me and I found the song it resembles so similarly.

Finally, an anecdote – the other day, I saw a police officer arguing with a matatu driver in the middle of the road. When he said something quite nasty to the officer, she took her club and smashed his side mirror as he sped off! Glass shattered everywhere and I’m surprised no one got seriously hurt.  Apparently, to the matatu driver, the broken window was worth avoiding a fine for whatever he had done wrong.

I’m over 1,000 words, so I’ll cut it off here. More to come!

Tags: karen blixen museum

3, 2, 1, BUNGEE!!!

Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope the New Year brings good things for you and your families.

About a month ago, I sat down and crunched the numbers to see how much I’ve spent since my arrival in Kenya. The number was much higher than I anticipated. Some costs I forgot to include were travel/visas outside of Nairobi, tourist activities, healthcare services, and the occasional night out.

The money I raised to come to Kenya will run dry in February instead of June!

So, I’ve begun to look for opportunities to make a buck or two, or more specifically a Kenyan schilling or two.

To get an initial stream of income, I’ve joined a Durham University (UK) research team. As a research assistant, my job is to visit microfinance institutions (MFIs) and administer questionnaires to loan officers. I won’t go into much detail as the research is still in progress, but it deals with trust and commitment levels of loan officers and loan officer performance. The research is for all MFIs listed on MIX Market in Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Zambia, and Kenya.

From December 11th to 23rd, I spent time in Uganda administering surveys.

About half of the appointments I had scheduled before arrival. With many of the MFIs, however, no active contact information existed, so I met with them upon arrival. Some of the “lost” MFIs I found randomly on city streets while passing by!

In 12 days (9 working), I collected over 100 completed questionnaires from seven organizations.

Yes, you can see the stack

By and large, the trip went smoothly. I spent long hours convincing MFIs to take part in the research, but had no one turn me down. First, I would get approval from the CEO and then I’d begin the process of scheduling appointments for branches of that MFI, which numbered between 3-5 in Kampala for most MFIs. More branches exist in the rest of Uganda outside of the capital, and I will return in January/February to visit those.

For most of my transportation, I used boda bodas (motorcycle taxis). Kampala is swarming with boda bodas; it has quite a culture in the city. The main advantage of wipping around town on these things is saving time. When a deadlocked traffic jam occurs (which is most of the time in Kampala – just as bad if not worse than Nairobi), boda bodas always find a way around it. Always. Another advantage is that they are basically like a taxi in that the only stop it makes is for you. The open air feels a lot better than a smelly matatu with smelly people inside, and the cost is A LOT cheaper than a hired taxi. The only drawback is that they are unsafe. My rule of thumb was to always pick a boda boda driver who looked 40+ years old, as they drive safer than the young guns. After riding boda bodas all day, the wind in my hair made me look like a bit like this.

Another drawback – dirt in the eyes. Also, every morning in the shower I’d find copious amounts of dirt in my ears!

A shot of some boda bodas. They get their name from bicycle taxi drivers that used to shout “border-to-border!” to travelers from Kenya’s border entry point to Uganda’s, which used to be almost a mile.

I enjoyed negotiating with the boda boda drivers. After a couple of days, I loosely understood what price should be charged for particular distances. Since there are many boda bodas competing for business, I used a zero-sum negotiation tactic. It’s something like the way House Republicans negotiate when it comes to raising taxes. I would simply state my price and refuse to budge.

Actual conversation -

Me: “How much to Muyenga?”

Boda Boda Man: “For you, a good price. 15,000.”

Me: “Good joke, you’re a very funny man. I’ll pay 5,000.”

Boda Boda Man: “But it [the distance] is far. My friend, give 10,000.”

Me: “I’ll only pay 5,000, let me ask the guy over here then.”

Boda Boda Man: “OK, 5,000. Hop on.”

I found Uganda very addicting. Even though English is not as well spoken here and Swahili is not widely used (Luganda is the language of choice), I felt very welcomed by almost anyone I spoke to. I had many random long conversations with people I met. Seeing as I was traveling alone, I took any opportunity to engage with those around me. A couple of times when I was out at dinner, a group invited me over to eat with them! Very friendly people. Uganda, or at least Kampala, has a way of submerging you in happiness. I’m considering applying for positions here sometime in the future.

Logistically, I surprisingly only had a few hiccups. But they were notable hiccups. My favorite – I had a morning appointment with an MFI branch in Natate, a suburb about 10 km west of Kampala. When I arrived there, I checked a note on my phone to confirm that I was in the right place, and it said “Nakawa,” not Natate! And where is Nakawa? 10 km EAST of Kampala. So I hopped back on the boda boda to back track. Upon arrival in Nakawa, I phoned the branch manager and told her I had arrived in Nakawa. She then told me – “Nakawa? Our branch is in Natete.” So, I continued my neverending boda boda ride right back the way I came AGAIN! Frustrating to say the least.

Another funny anecdote – while boarding a matatu, the my (favorite) pants caught a piece of sharp metal sticking out of a seat. It tore a huge hole right on my backside, revealing my colorful boxers and white-as-snow upper thighs! I refused to pay the matatu conductor, got out, and sheepishly walked to a tailor. She sowed it together, although we both agreed maybe I should have left the hole to make a fashion statement. What’s more, she refused to be paid for her service. An early Christmas present! What kindness.

Other problems I had resulted from my American accent, which I’ve tried very hard to get rid of in the last 5 months. Talk to me on the phone and you’ll hear part Brit and part American. American English is sometimes too lazy to be understood. To cope with these issues, I always typed out a destination on my cell phone to confirm and re-confirm that the boda boda man was taking me where I thought he was!

The best times for loan officers to take surveys is usually in the early morning, or in the evening, since during the day they are busy in the field meeting with clients. So, most days I was out of my guest house by 7am and back after 7pm. Busy days.

What was the food like in Uganda?

Quite tasty. Here is a basic meal – chicken, matoke (green bananas) w/ ground nut sauce, cassava (yuca), pumpkin, posho (maize porridge, similar to ugali), spinach, coleslaw, and two unidentified kinds of sweet potato.

Another common meal is roasted pork and matoke.

This was my favorite meal of the entire trip, complete with my first African coke that was cold enough to earn the description “ice-cold.” I enjoyed it with Wilbert, a loan officer I met in the rural village Mpigi, who kindly took me out to lunch and footed the bill. This pic shows Mpigi town in the background.

In Kampala, there were many exquisite cuisine options as well. The best hummus I’ve had in Africa so far is pictured here. Those red lines look like part of the bowl, but they are actually sprinklings of cayenne pepper. By the way, for some reason Guiness is pronounced “GIN-ESS” in Uganda.

On the weekend, I kicked back and played tourist!

Kampala consists of 27 hills. On the top of “Kampala Hill,” the one Old Kampala is built on, Gadaffi Mosque stands tall.

A loan officer turned friend I met during the week took me out to experience some of what Kampala has to offer. Visited the Uganda Arts & Crafts Village, a film festival, the Uganda Museum, and a dance performance.

On Sunday, I stole away to Entebbe, a city on the shores of Lake Victoria 35 km from Kampala. I took a boat to Ngamba Island and visited the Chimpanzee Sanctuary there!

The boat ride took 45 minutes. Here’s the view looking back on Ugandan land.

Once on the island, we explored a bit before observing the chimps. These lizards, 5-6 feet in length, were everywhere!

Watching the chimpanzees was an amazing experience. Chimps are sooooo intelligent, and their behavior/communication is remarkable.

They got pretty crazy at feeding time. Here’s a video of a chimp demanding food, and successfully catching an airborne mango!

Another notable item – the nests you see in this picture are constructed by males, and the females fly around inspecting the real estate to choose a mate!

Back on the mainland, I spent the rest of the day in Entebbe.

I visited the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre, aka the Entebbe Zoo.

They had monkeys running around the entire zoo-grounds. One stole a banana from me – it was so entertaining I starting feeding them nuts and other goodies.

Then I saw this sign!

But the feeding was worth it to snap this picture.

In the zoo, they had a beach on Lake Victoria. It looked a little sketchy and I had no change of clothes, so I didn’t swim, but I did wade out in the water a bit.

But the tourist fun did not end there. On my way back to Nairobi, I spent a night in Jinja, a town halfway between Kampala and the Kenyan border.

What’s in Jinja, you ask? Well, the Nile River runs right through town. I came to bungee jump into the river!

It was a heart-thumping, frightening endeavor!

Here’s me nervously waving to the camera seconds before the big jump.

They secure your feet, attach a harness to your waist, and ask you to waddle over to the edge. Once there, you place both hands on a yellow bar above your head to hold on to. Then, you must put the tips of your feet off of the platform! The hardest part is next – removing your hands from the bar! Really hard to do….but I did….then it’s 3, 2, 1, BUNGEE!!!

So exhilarating! Feeling like you’re about to die and then not dying is a great feeling. This jump was 150 feet. There is one in South Africa that is over 500 feet tall! Call me crazy but I hope to make that jump when I visit.

The jump cost $95, but it was well worth it. Good thing I jumped – if you get up there and can’t do it, you still have to pay the $95! And a girl in the group I was with did just that.

I met some tourists at the place I stayed – from India, the UK, and New Zealand. The night I stayed reminded me of a frat party. Lots of chants and Nile Specials (beer of choice among Mzungus in Uganda).

A New Zealander not pictured above reminded me of how much one misses when they are a tourist instead of a a more long-term visitor. When I said I lived in Nairobi, he asked me if I had been on the “Ky-Beer-A” slum tour. I had no clue what he was saying, until I processed his mispronunciation of Kibera. I told him the truth – these awful tours are a real disgrace. Tourists pay safari operators to go on a walking tour through the slum. Many bloggers describe it, deservedly so, as “poverty porn.” Pictures are taken of slum-dwellers as if they are animals in a zoo. The better way to experience life in the slums is to visit someone there, sit down, and ‘take’ tea – not pictures.

Uganda seemed to be a very safe place – never once felt threatened the entire time I was there. The weather was pretty hot – a bit warmer and more humid than Nairobi, with temps hitting over 90 and never dipping below 70. I look forward to visiting “The Pearl of Africa” again. Someday, I hope to go on a gorilla tracking in Western Uganda, but it’s $700 at the cheapest!

The trip provided a much-needed dose of independence. Living with a host family has mostly upsides, but one downside is you lose some freedom. It felt great to follow the beat of my drum in Uganda.

I arrived back in Nairobi on Christmas Eve at 4am and left that morning with the family to go to the countryside for Christmas festivities. I stayed at this shag (farm house) in Rongai, a village way off the beaten path smack-dab in the Rift Valley.

I really enjoyed my Kenyan Christmas. In short, in Kenya the holiday is about two main things – family and food. We ended up slaughtering three goats over three days of celebration to feed about 25 people. And every part of the goat is consumed – most eat not only the meat but the fat as well. Then, the remains are stuffed into the intestines and stomach to make “African sausage,” which I must say was tasty. I ate so much over my time there, and feel like I’ll never be hungry again!

In terms of gifts, none were exchanged! Waking up to Christmas morning with no presents or Christmas tree was quite a different experience. I bought a gift for the Grandma & Grandpa owning the house, but that was the only gift exchanged. I’m glad I didn’t buy something for everyone in the family!

Everyone welcomed me and I was treated with wonderful hospitality.  90% of the time people where speaking in Kikuyu – a tribal tongue – so it was hard to follow most conversations, but I felt the warmth of the family at all times!

I did miss snow, listening to the Alvin & the Chipmunks Christmas song, and having my sister wake me up at 5am Christmas morning, but all in all I’m happy I experienced a Kenyan Christmas. And I hear Ohio didn’t even have a white Christmas, so I’m not too jealous.

Ah! This has been my longest blog post ever – hope it’s been entertaining and you’ve made it to this sentence alive and well. I’ll leave you with a picture of my host dad’s father and I.

Happy 2012!

I Kissed a Giraffe (and I liked it!)

Hey all!

First off, a big congrats to the Ohio Wesleyan Men’s Soccer Team and Coach Jay Martin. A national title and Martin becomes the winningest coach all-time in NCAA soccer. What remarkable achievements – makes me proud to be a Battling Bishop!

On to Kenyan happenings. In another edition of “Tourist Saturdays” with my American friends, we visited Giraffe Centre. It’s a place to go see, pet, & feed giraffes, as well as the less majestic warthogs.

The giraffes poke their heads near the ones they suspect to have food. They don’t mind getting close!

And by close, I really mean close!

Yep. That’s right. I kissed a giraffe. It was pretty passionate and romantic, as you can see from my closed eyes. Her tongue was very rough, and felt as if a piece of sandpaper was being rubbed against my face. My lips burned for a while afterwards! We learned in an informative session later that giraffe saliva acts as a natural antiseptic. So fresh and so clean.

Thankfully, I got a kiss and not a headbutt, as a sign warned us upon entrance to the centre!

Fun fact – Giraffes are well-skilled at catching projectiles.

Later that evening, I joined the crew at a Christmas celebration at Mama Grace’s house, a woman who hosts a get-together with Young Adult Volunteers in Nairobi to help them cope with being away from home for Christmas. I’m not a Young Adult Volunteer, but I am young, an adult, and a volunteer, so I have an honorary membership.

How do you cope with holiday homesickness? By making Christmas cookies, of course!

We had no cookie molds, so we used a knife and got creative.

Turned out pretty good.

And tasted even better!

 

Shelvis and Nancy, two Young Adult Volunteers from times past, visited Mama Grace’s that night. They were on their way to South Sudan to work with an indigenous ecumenical Christian organization. Read more about their work here.

We all had a great time sitting around a fireplace talking with Mama Grace. She has a lot of stories to tell. She worked under Wangari Maathai’s Green Belt Movement, is friends with Whoopi Goldberg and Alice Walker (author of The Color Purple), and earned a Master’s degree from the University of Illinois, my Dad’s alma mater. ILL – INI.

The house had a record player! We relaxed to the soothing sounds of Elvis Presley’s Christmas Album, among other records.

At one point, Amy and I decided to get some Christmas carolin’ started. I took the bass clef, she took the treble, and we opened up a hymnal and gave it our best stroking the keys of the piano. We’ll have a #1 Billboard hit pretty soon I think.

Last Sunday, one of my co-workers – Philemon – got married. And guess what? I drove the bride! Wish I had some pictures of me in my snazzy suit driving on the left side of the road, but I don’t. By the way, the decision to have Mr. Ben be the driver was made by the wedding planners entirely for shock value – an Mzungu driving the bride is unexpected to say the least!

Don’t know what African time is? Let me explain. The wedding had a scheduled start time of 10am. At 10am, neither the tent or chairs had arrived for the ceremony. They did around noon, and that’s when I set off with the rest of the drivers to pick the bride and her family. When we arrived at their residence, the father of the bride (Melissa) refused to release her daughter unless he was paid 8,000 KES (slightly less than $100). The groom couldn’t pay, because he WAS AT THE WEDDING, so the best man was contacted. To note – the process of deciding what the dowry (bride price) is and the payment of that amount is something that is usually negotiated and paid well before the day of the wedding.

To put a little fire underneath the father for postponing the wedding, we drivers acted like we were leaving. That got his attention and we negotiated to have the bride price paid at the wedding instead.

Once we arrived, the father refused to let Melissa out of my car. He wanted his money. Eventually, around 4pm, he received half of it via M-PESA, and the ceremony began.

I felt so bad for Melissa. You could tell she wanted to get on with the service way before it did, but the father forced his will to get some money out of the occasion.

The sermon had a good message but was out of place. Philemon and Melissa have been living together for over ten years and have two children. But the sermon was about high divorce rates and how important it is to really know the person you’re marrying. I think they know each other after 3,650 days together, Pastor.

When it was all said and done, the wedding finished at 6pm, and the reception followed.

THAT is African time.

Well, that’s it for now. I’ve been in Uganda for a eight days administering surveys to microfinance institutions for Scott’s doctoral research through Durham Business School in the UK. I’m having a blast and have plenty of stories to share, but I’m going to save it for a post later this week after I return to Kenya. Until then, folks!

Reunion in Ratta

Why hello there, blogosphere.

The day after my last post, I embarked on a weekend trip to Ratta, a tiny village in Western Kenya near Lake Victoria. It felt great to leave the hustle-&-bustle of Nairobi and embrace the beauty and peacefulness of rural Kenya.

My childhood friend, Amy, and her husband, David, are teaching English at a secondary school in this village.  They are both part of the Young Adult Volunteer program. Check out their blog here.

Two friends and I decided to pay them a visit! Here’s the whole crowd – from left to right, Tricia, Amy, Jamie, Me, & David.

We were pleasantly surprised to travel in a very comfortable bus. Easy Coach is also known for driving carefully on the roads, and it was a slow, safe ride.

We passed the port city Kisumu, the 3rd largest in Kenya, and the bus made its terminal stop at Maseno. From there, we took piki pikis (motorcycles, aka boda bodas) 20 minutes down this road to get to Ratta. The driver told me the road is impossible to use when it rains.

What you’re about to look at is “Downtown” Ratta. This is the center square of the village. Those wood structures are used in the morning and evening, when this area transforms into a populated market selling fruits, vegetables, and other food.

An anecdote from this area – one night for dinner, we walked into town to buy some chapatis (unleavened flat bread) and chips (fries). We found chapatis for 10 cents a piece. Things are so much cheaper in rural villages than Nairobi. When we found some chips, we asked how much they cost – the cook told us 1 cent each. And these were no small chips, they were more like scalloped potatoes. We did the most American thing you could do – asked her “How much for ALL THE CHIPS YOU HAVE?” $2 later, we had a full course of starch. As we helped the woman scoop chips into a bag, everyone in the market was staring at us, seemingly with no blinking.

Speaking of staring, I thought it was bad in Nairobi, but in the village you are the center of attention wherever you go. You can’t blame them, as many of the villagers have never seen a white person before. One of the techniques I’ve employed to deal with the staring is engaging in an unexpected staring contest. In Nairobi, I win these 100% of the time, but in Ratta, my record wasn’t as good. I reverted to the usual approach of asking “Habari?” or “How are you?”

I went on a run one morning. A favorite thing to do wherever I am is going on an unscripted run. I ran on dirt roads which got narrower with each turn. Eventually, a pathway I was following became a steep downhill. Soon after, trees cleared to reveal a beautiful view of a body of water – Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake. I took the group on a hike that afternoon to show them the view. Here’s Amy and I with the lake in the background.

When we took our hike, the sky was grumbling. Thankfully, we didn’t get rained on, but I did snap this pic of the storm approaching from the west.

One night, we played a card game called Dominion. I had never heard of it, but I recommend it! We also watched Home Alone to get in a holiday mood. Look what ya did, you little jerk!

David and Amy came back to Nairobi with us, as the school is on Christmas break until January. Just north of Maseno lies the equator. One foot in each hemisphere!

Our driver didn’t get the marker in the picture, so here’s one to prove I wasn’t standing on any old bit of dirt.

The trip was so relaxing. David & Amy were so happy to have us, as life without much human contact besides their students can get boring. It felt good for life to slow down a bit. Ratta has been added to my list of possible places for retirement. Even with the cold showers and frequent power outages.

I enjoyed two Thanksgivings! First, a couple of my co-workers cooked me a Kenyan-style meal. It included (clockwise, from upper left) – mashed potatoes with creamed spinach, brown rice with beets, curried turkey, peas & carrots, bread rolls, fruit salad, and carrots.

I’m surprised my belt buckle and shirt buttons didn’t pop off. The meal was so good, and it was very nice of my co-workers to celebrate the day with me! And I’m not talking about the murder and displacement of Native Americans part, just the be-thankful-for-your-blessings part.

That night, I purchased a turkey from an Mzungu butchery (Kenyans don’t eat turkey, it’s rare and too expensive). It was frozen and I put the purchase off till 5pm that night, so I thawed it in water overnight and cooked it on Black Friday with my host family.

Inspired by Aeschbury traditions, my sisters and I played around with the turkey a little before cooking it.

Now, let me be clear. I’m an awful cook. I’m great if you give me a microwave and something that’s microwaveable. No one in the fam knew how to cook a turkey, and when I didn’t know what “basting” meant, I consulted a professional cook – my Grandma! I called her 3 times during the day and her foil tent technique produced this tender, surprisingly moist turkey!

Every family member loved it. In addition to the turkey, our house help, Vio, made mashed potatoes and other fixin’s. Couldn’t find any gravy-like substance at the grocery store, so we used barbeque sauce. Not bad, actually!

I also bought some pumpkin pie at a restaurant a friend referred me to. It was $8.50 a slice – but given that this is probably the only pumpkin pie in Kenya, I’ll take it. It tasted better than the usual pumpkin pie, having more of a pumpkin spiciness to it.

What am I thankful for? The opportunity to live a year in Kenya and my friends & family, who supported my choice to come here and are always there for me.

But there’s something I’m even more thankful for. A month ago when I traveled to Rwanda to renew my visa, I returned to Kenya via an entry stamp which the border people said gave me another 3 months to stay. However, I showed the stamp to some friends and they advised me to consult the immigration offices – the stamp did not indicate I had 3 more months.

On Thanksgiving Day, I went to Immigration with my host mom, Daisy. Long story short, it turns out I had been living illegally in Kenya for 22 days! The entry stamp I received was a free stamp given for travel within the East African Community. Since I entered Kenya before my visa expired, I was not issued a new one. In any event, connections are so important in this country. Daisy happened to know a member of the management in the Immigration Office and he pushed me through with no problem. Had I gone there on my own accord, I would’ve paid a bribe or spent a night in jail. I didn’t, so now I’m legal and lovin’ it.

I recommend you all see Moneyball (and more importantly read the book!). It hit theaters here last week and I went to see it. On my walk there, someone tried to sell me some pirated DVDs – and one of them was Moneyball. Only in Kenya! By the way, before every movie in the theater, a Kenyan flag is shown on the screen while the national anthem is played, and most stand up and sing along!

Some things in Nairobi are shockingly hard to do, like finding pumpkin pie. But some things are much easier than life back home. I’ve had a lingering pain in my finger for a couple of weeks, so I went to the Doc and got an antibiotic prescribed. I went out one night and forgot to take my medication with me. So what did I do? Found a pharmacy nearby and bought one pill. Yes, just one pill, for 40 cents! And they gave me a glass of water to take it right there on the spot. No verification of my prescription or anything. Looks like Nairobi could be a pill popper’s Amsterdam.

AMPK (The Association of Microfinance Professionals of Kenya), an organization I am currently doing some consulting for, launched their think tank this week. The “Microfinance Leaders Forum” will strive to influence the development of the microfinance industry in Kenya. I did the report writing for the event and met some cool people. I need business cards! Here is David Kitusa, the Executive Director, giving the conference introduction.

It’s been awhile since I’ve given you a work update. What’s taking up most of my time currently is carrying out Scott’s research for his Master’s Degree. I’ve sent out e-mails to over 100 MFIs (microfinance institutions) in Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Zambia, and am in the challenging, sometimes tiresome phase of calling all of them to set up appointments to come and administer surveys. I have a 3-4 day trip to Uganda set up for the week after next.

I couldn’t leave the following picture out of this post. I attended my sister Kabura’s Christmas Concert for her school. During the performance, my 2-year-old bro Kiama went missing. No one knew where he had sneaked off to, and then we saw him on center stage! That’s him in the red hoodie, stealing the limelight!

One other tidbit to mention – I found out that Kazuri, a Kenyan company employing women to produce fair trade jewelry, has their one-and-only factory two miles from where I live. Global Village Collection, the fair trade retail store I worked at for two years, carries their products. Retail price of a Kazuri necklace in Delaware, Ohio? $68. The same necklace’s price in Nairobi, Kenya? $12. Does my Economics degree help me to see an opportunity to make big money? Yes.

Kwaheri for now.

100 Days and Counting…

Hey all! I’ve been living and working in Kenya for 100 days now.  I’ve experienced so much in those 100 days, and I’m looking forward to the next round!

Speaking of milestones, this blog has over 3,000 views since I started it in August. Thanks for all the interest and support!

The most notable occurrence of the past two weeks? I found out that not one, but two co-workers of mine share the same birthday as me! Ezekiel was born on February 6th a couple of years before me, and Ruth shares the exact same birth date as me! Another one of my co-workers does not know his exact birthday – we’ve been telling him he should succumb to peer pressure and “fit in” with the crowd by choosing Feb 6th! Paging Babe Ruth, Ronald Reagan, and Bob Marley – you have new company.

Fear grips many Nairobians now due to continued threats from Al-Shabab militants. To combat this fear, a US artist decided to distribute 10,000 bright yellow balloons at a crowded bus station on a Monday morning. The message was simply to wish all a good morning, as sometimes going to work Monday morning is a tough pill to swallow.

I took part in the event! I woke up at 4:45 to arrive in town at 5:30 to help tie balloons and pass them out to early morning commuters. I hung out with this group throughout the morning.

You’d be surprised how crowded Nairobi is at 5:30 in the morning. What a dedicated workforce, happily taking part in the monotony and stress of the rat race! Here’s a pic of the artist who organized the event – Yazmany Arboleda. He had A TON of energy, which I suppose is a necessity if you’re going to manage the passing out of 10,000 balloons!

During the course of the event, a member of the press thought I was this guy! A reporter asked me if I had a press release and if I was willing to do an interview. You know we Mzungus all look the same, even if one is Columbian and the other American!

One of my co-workers, Betty, has the Swahili name “Kazi.” This translates to “work.” And the phrase “Kazi” appeared on all volunteer t-shirts! We all joked that the entire event had been put on for her!

For the most part, people were willing and happy to take a balloon to hold it by a string on their way to work. Matatu drivers even tied balloons to their side mirrors! The event – Good Morning Nairobi -attracted worldwide press.

And so did the Bears with their dominating win over the Lions on Sunday. While my Bears seem to have righted the ship and are headed towards a playoff run, I’ve been missing watching NFL games. To cure my withdrawal somewhat, I attended a rugby tournament. Every year, Nairobi hosts an international tournament with teams ranging from South Africa to New Zealand.

On the way to the stadium, I purchased a Kenyan flag and and scarf. Upon arrival, we found out that Kenya had been eliminated from the tournament! I still wore my Kenyan garb proudly.

When we found seats and sat down, everyone sang a chorus of “Jambo Bwana” to welcome us to the crowd. This song is associated with foreigners and the title is Swahili for “Hello Mr.” The crowd and my entourage had a good chuckle. We talked to a bunch of Kenyans in the crowd, who were very friendly and keen to exchange phone numbers.

South Africa and Somoa squared off in the final, with Somoa coming out on top. Rugby is an exciting and fiercely physical game, but I longed to see a forward pass. Just one!

After the game, the South African team took off their shirts and did what I would call a victory dance, except that they had just lost! The ladies in the crowd got pretty crazy at this point. Their high-pitched screams are still echoing in my ears.

I went to another wedding over the weekend. It was a Kikuyu (most populous tribe in Kenya) wedding in Thika. The colors were orange and gray and I had a great time. Again, I was the only fair-skinned individual, but I’m used to that by now. Here’s the bride and groom sharing a dance with the tasty cake in view.

Some guys performed a traditional Kikuyu dance. It involved elbow movement that reminded me of the dance one does when taunting someone by calling them “Chicken!”

After the wedding, we stopped at a waterfall called Blue Post. Not quite Victoria Falls, but I’m working my way up!

I drove home all the way from Thika – a 2-hour drive. I drove on the world-famous Thika Road, the super highway being built by the Chinese connecting Thika to Nairobi. The road has no lanes, constant unannounced bumps, and frequent construction diversions.

I had an argument with some guy about merging. Gotta have cars merge one-by-one for efficiency and fairness. And a note to everyone out there – changing lanes in a traffic jam only makes the traffic worse! Staying in your lane always ends up being fastest, so long as there is not something blocking one lane. Don’t believe me? Read this book.

A rat has been tormenting my host family and myself for a couple of weeks. Every night, we’ll see it scurry off somewhere. I found it in my room around midnight one night, and immediately quarantined the thing by slamming my door shut. My 5-year-old sister Kendi and I spent strenuous minutes searching under beds, dressers, and such. Eventually, we cornered it behind a backpack on the floor, waited with bated breath, then struck hard with a broom. I hate to take the law into my own hands, but I’m happy to say this little devil is dead and gone.

Over the weekend, a co-worker of mine was involved in a car accident. Upon boarding a matatu, she realized there were no seats available. The matatu conductor expected her to sit on half a seat – and the matatu had already started accelerating. She didn’t want to, and what did the conductor do? Pushed her out of the matatu. She hit her chest on the door, fell out of the matatu hard on the ground, and then had her hand run over by the back tire of the matatu.

The result? Three days in the hospital, seven stitches for the chest wound, and a dislocated wrist requiring a cast for six weeks.

She has recovered well and it could have been a lot worse, but the whole event is infuriating. There is a culture in the matatu world based on aggression, bravado, and violence. What’s worse, the conductor got off scot-free. He fled the scene and the matatu owner took the blame and negotiated a settlement. No police involved, as the consensus is that they are too corrupt to be of any use in tracking down the conductor. Justice ain’t served in Kenya.

A happy early Thanksgiving to everyone! I heard there’s a place in Nairobi that serves pumpkin pie – I’ll be ordering one for dessert that night. Until next time!

27-Hour Bus Ride, 27 Cockroaches, & One Trip to Rwanda!

Bonjour, mes amis!

I’m just back from a trip to Rwanda, a tiny French-speaking country in Central/Eastern Africa.

Last week, I realized I needed to renew my 90-day Kenyan visa over the weekend. The way to do this is to leave the country and come back! So, I made plans to visit Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania with some friends. Problem is, mid-week the friends informed me that they couldn’t come along – I needed to make other plans for a trip. My host Dad’s brother’s fiancée (that will be on the test) is living and working in Rwanda, so I decided to visit her. That day, I departed on a bus due west!

The bus ride. Hmm….how do I start….well, first off, it was 27 hours long! Here’s the route from Google Maps – ignore their estimate at the trip duration – maybe 15 hours in a perfect developed world, but not here.

The bus was creaky, loud, and smelly.  When it rained, a hole in the ceiling allowed drops of water to pelt me in the face as I tried to sleep. Some dude used my shoulder as a pillow a couple of times. Feeling like you wouldn’t last 27 hours? I haven’t even told you the best part yet! At night, cockroaches come out to feast on bits of food left behind by travelers. And these things were huge. AS BIG AS YOUR HEAD! (if your head is roughly 3 inches in length) The guy sitting next to me told me they are a “tourist attraction” I had been relaxing with my shoes off – after the discovery of the roaches, I put them back on as fast as I could!

The bus driver pulled off maneuvers most people only have the guts to try in Grand Theft Auto 4. I found the perfect tune on my iPod to accompany the crazy driving.

Why did I chose a bus over a plane? Well, part of it is the scenery. I absolutely love adventure – long road trips included. And I saved almost $200 by choosing this route. It’s a decision I’d make 10 out of 10 times.

And as I envisioned, the drive was beautiful and I had fun chatting with locals on the bus. Southern Uganda – after the capital city, Kampala – was especially pretty. Banana trees were EVERYWHERE!

And those very same bananas were being sold on the roadside.

It got hilly, especially as we got closer to the Uganda-Rwanda border.

This mountain had a dark cloud at the top of it that made it look like a volcano!

These cool-looking palm trees made several appearances -

As did never-ending fields of sugar -

and tea -

We crossed the legendary Kenya-Uganda railroad line.

And I got to see a real-life boma! (hut with grass-thatched roof)

Last pic from the trek to Rwanda – a roundabout view in Kampala.

I saw mountain gorillas on the drive! Four of them were hanging out on the road! The bus didn’t stop and honked the horn loudly to make them scatter away. They retreated into a deep forest of trees. Happened way too fast to catch a pic!

A little hard to see, but this is faraway view of Mt. Elgon – East Africa’s largest solitary volcano.

The trip tired me out and made me a little zany.  Once I remember reading the label on a bottle of water as “Probably Ugandan” instead of “Proudly Ugandan.” Upon entrance into Uganda from Kenya at 5am, I forgot to get an entry stamp at immigration. And no one checked my passport to verify anything! So, I enjoyed 10 hours on Ugandan’s roads as an illegal alien! The folks at the other end of the border gave me a hard time, but I maintained that it’s certainly Uganda’s responsibility to make sure I get an entry stamp! (Note: on the way back, 3 people checked my passport! I like to think my case fostered some change)

Here’s the Kenya-Uganda border. Literally a gate you walk through.

I entered Rwanda after dark. Upon entry, the bus started driving on the right side of the road. What a relief to drive on the side of the road I’m used to. Rwanda seems very stable to me just because of this!

We drove through hills and mountains and arrived at Kigali, a city nestled in between a bunch of hills.

Kigali is beautiful. Anywhere you are, a gorgeous view is had.

Here’s a picture of Kigali’s downtown area -

Kinyarwanda and French (in that order) are the languages of choice in Kigali. Which makes it hard to communicate! I had to use the French I know to get by, as very little English is spoken. Ça Va?

Mototaxis, or simply “motos,” are used by everyone, not like in Nairobi where it is a novelty enjoyed mostly by tourists or on special occasions. I took several rides on these things. Driving was actually pretty safe and helmets are a requirement for both driver and passenger. Here’s a pic I snapped riding one.

BREAKING NEWS. Rwandans stop at traffic lights. I repeat. Rwandans stop at traffic lights.

The above is a scene you simply NEVER SEE in Nairobi. That’s a group of cars completely stopped and waiting patiently for a red light to turn green. Traffic laws are actually enforced in Rwanda, and driving is safer and jam-free as a result.

I hung out with Angie and her fiancé Michael in addition to Angie’s co-workers. We had a lot of fun over the weekend sharing meals, late nights, and good times.

From left to right – Wycliffe, Margaret, Me, Angie, and Michael.

One morning, Angie, Michael, and I visited the Rwandan Genocide Memorial. Amazingly, almost 1 million Rwandans were murdered within a period of 90 days in 1994. Some of the memorial was hard to process, including bones and pictures of the deceased. What’s worse, the genocide was entirely caused by colonial powers. History says that the Belgians divided the Rwandans into two groups – Hutu & Tutsi upon colonization. The distinction? Wealth. If you owned more than 10 cows, you became a Hutu. Less than 10 and you became a Tutsi. The divide fostered jealousy and hate. ID cards were issued – and decades later these same ID cards were used by perpetrators of the genocide to weed out Tutsis for brutal murder.

One day, I had some time on my own and decided to walk around randomly. I found a dimly-lit eatery called “Fantastic Restaurant.” Now, I think we all know that when a restaurant is has ‘fantastic’ in its name, it’s probably not. But this place was an exception. Delicious, delicious food – and a buffet! I stuffed myself with rice, yams, beef, spinach, and cabbage. All for 1300 Rwandan Francs – about $2. It was definitely not a place a white guy frequents – I had an audience of stares during my meal!

Here’s some currency – a 5,000 Rwandan Franc note and a 20,000 Ugandan Schilling note, both worth around $8.

Rwandans were a little bit shy/rude compared to Kenyans, but maybe I just perceived it that way because they don’t speak English. The friends I hung out with were mostly Kenyan, but most of the Rwandans I exchanged conversation with were nice enough. Angie said that even though Rwandans act like they like everybody, there is a lot of build-up tension, especially between the Hutus and Tutsis.

One lady gave me a hard time. She asked me what I thought was, “Habari?” – Swahili for “How are you?” – so I replied, “Nzuri” – “fine.” She then said – “Nkt! (clucking sound made when angry) I speak in your own language and you don’t understand me!” And curtly turned away from me to complain to her friends. Apparently she had asked, “How are you?” What a cold soul!

Kigali is a pleasantly clean city. There is no trash piled up on the sides of roads and no littering. Plastic bags are prohibited in supermarkets. The Rwandan government is dedicated to keeping their country clean -  the last Saturday of every month is Omganda Day, aka “Clean the Country Day.” Everyone participates in clean-ups, plants trees, or stays at home – no one can be found doing any other activity that day. And the Saturday I was in Kigali was Omganda Day! My hosts and I opted to choose option 3 – staying home. We watched a couple of football games, including Arsenal’s surprising win over Chelsea. By the way, my hosts were fantasy football addicts – apparently anywhere you are in the world, there will be people watching games while glued to their computer screaming “I need Player X to get Y amount of points so I can beat Person Z in my fantasy league!” FYI – I don’t believe in fantasy football. Why? Because it can lead you to root against your own team, undermining the backbone of integrity in sports.

My 4-day trip went by really fast, and before I knew it, I was back on another bus. And the second bus was a much better experience than the first. I switched carriers – from Akamba to Kampala Coach. Instead of water spitting on me in the night, I got a free water bottle at the onset of my journey! A welcome difference.

I met a Ugandan rap/hip-hop on the ride. He goes by Akyaman, wore a Rolex, but apparently didn’t have the $$$ to fly! He tried to convince me, accompanied by many f-bombs, that he was a popular household name in Uganda. He gave me his number and wanted to “crash at my crib” next time he was in Nairobi. I told him I have a 2-year old roommate.  Just checked out his most well-known song on YouTube – and it has a whopping 34 views! What a celebrity, in his own little world

The trip back to Nairobi took a different route – through Eldoret – a Kenyan city that marathoners train in year-round because of the high altitude.

I arrived back in time to celebrate the birthday of Tracy, one of my co-workers. I took my first lukewarm shower in a week that night and it felt great.

It felt great to travel such a long distance on my own. I’m feeling much more self-reliant and secure with myself with each step I take here in Africa. My ultimate dream is to take a bus from Nairobi all the way down to South Africa now.

Now to switch gears away from my vacation.

An Al-Shabab update.  A week ago, two grenade attacks separated by one day rocked Nairobi. The US Embassy has warned Americans to steer clear of public places, and I’m taking their advice for the most part. A week after all this happened, security has really ramped up in the city. I’m frisked entering any shopping mall or supermarket.

Back in Nairobi, I visited the Kenya National Archives the other day.

Very cool place with a lot of historical artifacts and information. Here is a Maasi warrior’s buffalo-skin shield and wood club.

A Kisii stone carving – just like the ones at my old place of work, Global Village Collection! Can’t verify that this one is certified fair trade, though

Funny story about these earrings – I asked a museum employee what they’re made out of – and he said, “Let me show you.” He then led me outside of the museum and pointed at a beautiful tree with purple blossoms. Wood!

The first “Presidential Chair” – sat in by Jomo Kenyatta.

There were colorful contemporary paintings, too. Like this -

And this.

Last but not least, I’ll fill you in on my work. I’ve been working a lot refining financial forecasts, donation utilization reports, and business plan stuff, as Maono is getting closer to negotiating a huge amount of investment and donation in our organization. I’ve worked on a newsletter and member survey for AMPK (the Association of Microfinance Professionals in Kenya). This week, I’ve also started work with Scott on his Master’s degree, which will consist of me surveying a bunch of microfinance institutions in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, and Ethiopia.

Until next time!

View From the Top

Don’t fret – this post isn’t about the forgettable romantic comedy – it’s about viewing Nairobi from 30-stories up!

What better day to update you on my Kenyan experiences than the day wild, exotic animals are on the loose in the countryside of Ohio? Looks like I didn’t need to come to Africa to go on a safari – could’ve just stayed home!

First, an update on news here. Wangari Maathai, Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2004, passed away. She was a visionary for women’s rights, democracy, and environmental conservation.

Two aid workers were kidnapped near the Kenya-Somalia border last week. This is the fourth time in just five weeks that Somali pirate gangs have attacked Europeans. In response, Kenya has sent troops into Somalia to push Al-Shabab (an Islamist insurgent group) presence out of the Kenya-Somalia border area. Troops are under orders to protect the area within 100 kilometers of the border inside Somalia.

A quick note to family & friends – I’m in no danger, as I live very far from the border, and have no plans to go there.

I’m skeptical of the impact of Kenya’s military action. Sending troops into Somalia has never fared well. I think the better way is to ramp up defense near the border and especially at nearby Kenyan port cities.

Al-Shabab has reacted to the troop deployment – spokesperson Ali Mohamud Rage told the BBC Somali service: “We will defend ourselves. Kenya doesn’t know war. We know war. The tall buildings in Nairobi will be destroyed.”

Well, that’s surely a bluff, but good thing I visited the top of the Kenyatta International Conference Center (KICC) Building last week!

That’s Tricia on the left and Amelia on the right. They are some of my best Mzungu friends here and we have started a bit of a “Tourist Saturday” tradition, during which we don touristy attire and see the sights of Nairobi!

The view from the top was breathtaking. Here’s a panoramic video I shot.

We had an intelligent, informative, and clear-spoken tour guide – Peter.

The KICC Building is the second-tallest building in Kenya (344ft), with the Times Tower (459ft, pictured here) being the tallest. On a clear day (this was not), you can see Mt. Kilimanjaro in this direction.

Downtown Nairobi -

I wasn’t kidding when I said we had a great tour guide – he won the “Manager of the Year Award” in 2010!

Lastly, here’s a pic of Uhuru park. Beyond the park about 4 miles is where I live.

After our trip to the top, we visited Maasi Market, a traveling market that sets up shop in a different Nairobi location each day. The Maasi are a tribe of nomadic herders in Kenya & Tanzania, known for their tribal dances during which the men jump as high as they can.

This particular market is geared towards foreigners. Price gouging is rampant. I purchased a T-Shirt, 2 pairs of earrings, and a bottle opener. The initial offer – $98!!! I was able to bargain down to $35, utilizing the walk-away technique thrice. Unfortunately, $35 is still a lot for what I bought. Also, later that day, I saw the exact same T-Shirt I paid $15 for on sale for $10 in a supermarket. Gotta love buyer’s remorse.

This past weekend, I attended a couple of dance shows. The first was a mixture of contemporary African dance with Spanish flamenco, sponsored by the Embassy of Spain. It was quite powerful at times and I enjoyed. The concert took place in a school. And the school had a bar – I’m guessing school kids aren’t allowed to opt to have study hall there.

The second dance show was called “Bomas of Kenya” – it’s a weekly show put on in Langata, an area near Nairobi National Park. The show consisted of 12 different tribal dances. It was really cool to see all the different styles and hear all the different beats.

Included in the program was the “Luo Drinking Dance” – at the end a “drunk” Luo man had to be escorted off the stage by his wife! He shook hands with spectators as he made his exit.

Dancers wore a wide array of colorful garb.

Many schoolchildren had taken field trips to the show.

The best part of the show was the acrobats!

In addition to flips & jumps, one dancer stuck a torch of fire down his pants, egged on by boisterous chants from the schoolchildren!

A dancer did a flame limbo too – check out this video – hard to believe!

That night, I attended a rap/hip-hop concert on the grounds of Carnivore. The headline act was Flavour, with his song Sawa Sawa Le. This song is currently the #1 played radio song in Kenya, and from what I hear it’s just as popular in the rest of East Africa and beyond. Some matatu drivers play it 3-4 times in a row! The concert was lots of fun, but ended on a sour note – two of my friends had their phones stolen and another had her purse taken. Gotta be careful being a white person in crowds here. Some people attend functions like this just for the robbing opportunities.

Now for a work update. I’ve been putting the finishing touches on Maono’s business plan and it’s starting to look good. We are in the midst of attracting a lot of investment, so long as we package it the right way. I really enjoy putting together business plans, except for the financials! Last week, I gave a business training presentation to a group of women in Kibera. It went well and I think I’ve learned the art of talking slowly, but it’s still hard to communicate with differing English accents.

Also, I’ve taken on some projects with a new organization – the Association of Microfinance Professionals of Kenya (AMPK). AMPK is a membership organization for – you guessed it – microfinance practitioners, researchers, and institutions in Kenya. They like my blogging style and I’ve joined their team to 1) manage a blog on their website and 2) manage their social networking sites. No pay, but my salary to me is the connections I’ll get through AMPK. I attend their board meetings and will attend functions that they have! I’ll add value to their communications and hope to figure out just how I’m going to make a career out of economic development.

A board member of AMPK and my connector-in-chief Scott Bellows is the Chief of Party (CEO basically) for the “Yes Youth Can!” Initiative. The initiative hit national press last week. Read on if interested. It’s a $13 Million USAID-funded project that is comprised of grants and loans. And guess what? The lending model for the initiative is based on Maono’s model! Youth groups are formed, money is saved, and loans are taken out and repaid. What makes Maono’s model different than traditional SACCOs (Savings And Credit Co-operatives) is that outside capital is infused into the group (in the form of loans).

Every day coming home from work, it is usually dark outside (sunset between 6-7pm year-round). I live at the bottom of a valley. It’s so steep that it makes sense momentum-wise to run down the hill. But I’m not doing it at night anymore! I tripped on a big hole (2ft by 4ft) on the sidewalk! Ripped my favorite dress shirt too. I’ll live, probably.

The other day, a man stole a purse from a woman near my apartment. She screamed “THEIF!!” and 5 dudes chased after the robber! Traffic stopped and a safari vehicle went off-road to chase after him as well. People tell me that especially in the past, when caught, these robbers were killed. Some friends tell me it still happens today. Makes me feel pretty safe out there.

Got a haircut yesterday. And it LOOKS GOOD. I found a place that cuts Mzungu hair – guess I don’t have to get a buzzcut after all! I told the guy once I’m a millionaire I’d fly back to Kenya just to get my hair cut at “A Touch of Class.”

A shout-out to my family – congrats Emily on being elected Bellevue’s Homecoming Queen! Always have to one-up your big bro – I only made the Prom Court & wasn’t elected King Also, congrats Dad on breaking 4 hours in the Chicago Marathon! The Nairobi Marathon is Oct. 30 & I’m running the 10k…join me?

Who loves Kenya? We do!

Boda-Bodas & Tuk-Tuks

Two weeks has passed since my last post – here’s an update on the life of a Nairobian.

I’ll start with my work update this time round. I’ve taken on mostly communications and business-related projects during my time working at the Maono Initiative. I do a lot with managing social networking sites. Last week, I converted the existing Facebook page from an individual profile to a group page that you can “like.”  This kind of page fits an organization’s needs much more than an individual profile and is more user-friendly as well. Feel free to “like” it yourself! Also, I started a YouTube account and uploaded this 5-minute video explaining what Maono does and why it can lead to sustainable poverty reduction. It quickly became the #1 Daily Top-Rated Nonprofit video in Kenya, admittedly because I myself rated it with my two existing personal YouTube accounts! Muhaha.

In other work news, I’ve undertaken the responsibility of formulating a business plan for Maono.  This is no small task, but Rusty McClure’s Entrepreneurship class at Ohio Wesleyan has prepared me – that course required me to write a 40-page business plan with a team of two other classmates. At the end of the class, we presented our plan in front of a panel of judges including real-life entrepreneurs and bankers. Sure, that business was a make-believe organic energy drink company (Mana Organics, if you’re interested in investing), but the basics of preparing a business plan are the same.

Another project on the horizon is a monitoring and evaluation of the organization.  This process allows an organization to assess the quality and impact of their work. It answers the question, “Are we fulfilling our mission and solving the problem we aim to solve?” A very important question indeed. Sadly, a monitoring and evaluation is often done just because a donor demands it. With the Maono Initiative almost three years old, it seems proper time to evaluate our impact. Are savings and loans accompanied with business and life skill training making the difference in people’s lives that we strive to see?

OK, enough with work stuff. This week, I attended the Nairobi International Trade Fair. This is an annual event with the theme this year being “Driving Agribusiness in Attaining Food Sufficiency and Vision 2030.” Vision 2030 is Kenya’s plan to become a middle-income country and achieve social, political, and economic goals by 2030. There were a wide array of stands, including the Central Bank of Kenya and stands about malaria and HIV/AIDS prevention. I collected many a pamphlet and ate a tasty 50-cent hot dog. Also, it was not a touristy event – I was the lone Mzungu in a crowd of at least 1,000 people.

Note that I broke out my khaki shorts and flip-flops for the first time in public – it was a hot hot sunny day!

This picture looks like it was taken at the Huron County fair in Ohio. Reminds me of how much I miss deep-fried Snickers bars. JK.

One of the booths I visited had a collection of narcotic drugs on display. The intent was to help visitors gain awareness of what the drugs look like. Good thing they didn’t offer free samples! Note to Dad: Don’t tell the Kenyan government to deport me back home, I returned this bottle of cocaine to the table right after this pic, I swear

You ever heard of these things called trash cans? There were no public ones at the entire fair.  The scene at the entrance – a week’s aggregation of admittance tickets, caked on the ground.

On the way to the fair, I rode in a boda-boda (motorcycle taxi) and on the way home I rode in a tuk-tuk (three-wheeled cabin motorcycle). Both were fun, sometimes frightening, and bumpy! In the tuk-tuk, the driver fit five people in the cabin – a place in which I expected two or maybe three people tops could ever fit. On that note, have I ever mentioned the lack of deodorant I’ve experienced here? Things can get quite smelly in matatus, buses, and other forms of crowded public transit. I must say though, if I was poor and living in a slum, I think personal hygiene would take low priority under life-sustaining activities like buying food and clean water.

I attended a concert last week sponsored by Safaricom, Kenya’s leading cell phone service provider. The concert, “Classical Fushion,” included performances by the Nairobi Orchestra and many different groups performing tribal music. I loved all I heard – there is a lot of musical talent in Kenya.  The crowd at the event was very diverse and people wore trendy dress, like this dude in tighty-whitey pants. I don’t know how he was even able to put them on in the first place!

My family also came to the concert, and there were plenty of activities for children – including free camel rides!

I know I posted a picture of my cute brother last week, but I can’t resist – take two!

On to some news from the past week. Daily Nation, Nairobi’s most-read newspaper, reported on increased car accidents. The culprit? Not dangerous matatu drivers. Not drunk drivers. Not lack of traffic laws. Not lack of enforcement of traffic laws. Not crowded streets due to lack of infrastructure. Don’t know what the answer is? C’mon…isn’t it obvious? Ghosts are the culprit. Prayers are being held at “black spots” to decrease traffic accidents. Now, I’ll take Daily Nation off the hook here – it’s the matatu drivers in the article making the ludicrous claim that only divine intervention can decrease car accidents. Who knows, there are so many accidents in Nairobi maybe ghosts are the cause. If pigs can fly, surely ghosts can cause accidents. Wait. Pigs can’t fly. Hmmm.

On the topic of traffic – sometimes in a jam, drivers selfishly take up all the lanes of a road. In this picture, five lanes of traffic have completely stopped movement from the other direction!

I realized this past week that I don’t know any foreigners here. All of my friends are Kenyans and Scott is some kind of hybrid Kenyan foreigner. Upon reflection I realized I would much rather have it this way than the other way around – living in a foreign bubble instead of experiencing the Kenyan culture.

Nevertheless, I’ve been thinking of how to overcome this problem, and a solution came my way! It just so happens that a childhood friend of mine, Amy, has been living in Nairobi for about a month and will also be here for around a year! Amy’s Mom & my Mom were best friends from college.  Amy is here with her husband and they are both volunteering for Young Adult Volunteers. She has a blog – check it out.

I spent last Friday night hanging out with Amy and her fellow Young Adult Volunteers. Much of my time was spent asking the question, “Amy, who knew the last time we said goodbye at Valley Beach (a waterpark in Norwalk, Ohio) that we would be saying ‘Jambo’ to each other in Kenya?!?” As they say, I suppose it’s a small world after all. It was refreshing to hang out with people both of my age and my culture. They even have a closet filled with American-themed things – including a red, white, and blue car air refreshener that they bought in Nairobi. Many a Tusker and good time were had. In the morning, I escorted them on their first matatu ride! It was a bit anti-climatic because the driver had no loud music blaring.

Accompanied with my desire to meet foreigners has been a desire to travel more. I’ve already made the essential trip to Mombasa, but I’m making plans to visit host family friends of mine in Rwanda and South Africa. I’m hoping to find a safari group sometime soon as well. Most Kenyans don’t go on safaris – this is mostly a foreign desire.

I finally got to experience a Nairobi market!  Lots of cheap secondhand clothing on sale, as long as you’re a Mwafrika.  My shop-mates contemplated having me walk away during some price negotiations so they could get a fair deal. During the negotiations, I would always say something like, “Listen, our skin is different colors but we all have the same heart and soul!” Hehe. A pic of Toi Market -

I took the kids to see a movie the other day. Nairobi has several modern movie theaters with stadium seating and the works. We saw “Zookeeper” for $5 and munched on popcorn 1/3 as expensive as popcorn in an American theater. Part of the story included a woman’s decision to remain working at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston or to travel to Kenya to work at the Nairobi Zoo! She chose to stay in Boston with her soon-to-be-husband – what a shame.

Now for an unnecessarily long-winded explanation of a frustrating interaction I had the other day – feel free to skip to the next paragraph if you’re short on time.  I drove a co-worker to a school where she had some business to do.  There is a gate at every school, housing complex, church, etc. in Nairobi and at the gate to this place, a guy with a real attitude annoyed me to no end. He wanted me to sign my name in a book and provide him with my ID number. I told him I didn’t have a Kenyan ID and he said my passport number would work. But, obviously, I don’t carry my passport on my person – I keep it locked up safe in my room! When I began explaining this to him, he interrupted me and shouted “White, white!” to me as he walked away. He brought back his Kenyan ID to show me what a Kenyan ID looks like – he thought I didn’t understand what an ID was. At the end of the day, my passport number was written down in his book as 123456789! A friend told me that the book is used in case a terrorist blows up a bomb on the school premises or something like that. But of course if you were carrying out a terrorist act you would write down a fake name and ID number since there is no verification that your information is correct! Apparently, none of this book-signing existed before 9/11. Another “security” technique I’ve seen is at Westgate mall – they check the boot (trunk) of your car for a bomb before letting you park. A real terrorist would definitely be aware of this and would install the bomb in the front trunk or glove compartment. At the same mall, metal detectors check every bag/purse that you bring in. But, when the detector makes a sound, the guards always say “It’s OK, go ahead.” Sigh….what’s the point?

Want to know what I eat for breakfast every morning? Two eggs and an original cereal concoction. The ingredients? Two Wheatibix bars, a cup of Cocoa Puffs cereal, a hunk of peanut butter, and a half-cup of warm milk.

Mix together and you get a sugary oatmeal-textured delicacy.

Now for a couple of random final notes to wrap this post up.

I’ve been running more lately and people frequently shout “Marathon!” at me, because the Nairobi Marathon is coming up on Oct. 30. Little do they know that I could only run about a 10K at this point. But I respond with a triumphant fist-pump nonetheless when someone encourages me like that!

My host family has a piano in the house now! My sister Kabura is currently taking lessons. Much to my delight, I still have Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata memorized.

It’s a bird!….it’s a plane!….no wait…it’s just a bird. A colorful bird got stuck in the house the other day. This one’s for you, Grandma, the expert birder!

Happy Birthday Dad! It was easy for me to give you an early-morning birthday greeting over the phone, since your 7am is my 2pm.

OK. That’s it for now – I’ve now doubled my self-imposed limit of 1,000 words. I’m so happy I decided to spend this time in Kenya and each day I wake up knowing I’ll experience and learn exciting new things. Until next time!

Baby, You Can Drive My Car (just don’t drive in Nairobi!)

Hi all! My calendar is telling me I’ve been living and working in Kenya for 50 days now! Doesn’t seem like it, but a calendar is so unbiased I’ll have to believe it.

Without further adieu, I must share the highlight of my week – I got to drive for the first time here! I love to drive and I’ve missed zipping around in my Ford Focus. I figured I would never drive while in Kenya, but I was wrong! I was screaming like a little girl with excitement during the ride to pick up some supplies for Maono and the day earns a spot on my unofficial “Top 25 Days of My Life” list.

There is a big difference between left and right. Driving on the left side of the road is harder than it sounds. Turning feels especially unnatural. Activating the windshield wipers instead of the turn signals is a common occurrence.

Also, there is a big difference between the United States and Kenya in terms of driving, the main difference being that most Kenyan drivers are crazy. I’ve learned this through driving around in cars, buses, and matatus, but driving myself really hit this truth home. The most dangerous thing is that drivers act selfishly and expect others to react accordingly. We all see this in small doses in the states, but here it’s the norm. Intersections are a nightmare. If there is no traffic guard present (which is usually the case), there is no right of way or flow of traffic whatsoever. Drivers do what they want to do – if they block one direction of traffic just to get one step closer to crossing a road, then so be it. Sometimes, there are stop signs and traffic signals at roundabouts, but literally no one obeys them – and police do not care. I feel like the stop signs here are actually green and say “GO!”

Gary Numan sang these words in his hit song “Cars” – “Here in my car, I feel safest of all.” One thing we know is true – he sure as hell wasn’t driving in Nairobi!

Most Kenyans blame the drivers themselves for the bad driving – and yes, they are selfish and dangerous – but the root cause of the problem is that there is no enforcement of traffic laws! Consider yourself sitting at a red light. There are no cars within miles. You could easily run the light, but you don’t – not because of safety but because of fear of a traffic ticket. We all weigh marginal costs and benefits of our actions, and in Kenya the benefit of getting somewhere faster usually trumps the cost of causing a possible accident. No surprise that there are 12,000 traffic accidents (3,000 deadly) in Kenya each year.

But hey, I’m destined to drive in Kenya – take a look at this sign!

Other driving differences include driving on dirt roads 25% of the time, encountering massive amounts of potholes and speed bumps that can give you a flat in no time flat, and always remembering to use your parking brake – Nairobi has much more elevation change than Ohio.

Here’s a picture of the car – a Toyota Fielder (and that’s my parking job!)

Comparatively speaking, in the United States, I’m an aggressive driver. In Kenya, I’m middle-of-the-road – another instance in which I feel more Kenyan than American.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I haven’t told you what happened on my first drive! On the way back, about 50 meters from the entrance to the office, I shattered my left side mirror! A car was parked in my lane and a car coming from the other direction swerved towards me to avoid a pothole. I overreacted and grazed the side mirror of the parked car. Thankfully, no damage was done to the parked car and the framework of my mirror remained intact even though the actual mirror shattered!

I felt awful and stupid, but the Maono staff assured me that everyone has fender-benders  – “bashes” – and that this wouldn’t be the last time I drove. And they were right – I’ve driven over 5 times since then, and I’ve been accident-free. I’m happy I had that scare on the first day because I’m much more cautious now and realize that I need to be on my guard at all times while driving.

I even drove by myself the other day to run errands for Maono and to pick up the kids at school. We sang the seasonally-inappropriate song “Oh Holy Night” at the top of our lungs while stuck in a motionless traffic jam. Still haven’t driven at night – and I don’t want to! – there are hardly ever center reflectors, people walk on the road, and drunk driving is widespread and condoned by an alarming amount of people.

I got the mirror repaired, but before that, on a weekend drive, the inyards of the mirror started to come out, and we needed a quick fix. Good thing I always keep a first-aid kit in my backpack -

I think Band-Aid (the corporation) could use this picture in a commercial at some point!

The weekend drive was to Embu, a village in Eastern province (which is actually in the middle of Kenya – this map shows you the provinces along with the cities I’ve visited so far outside of Nairobi – Embu, Nakuru, and Mombasa), to attend a church service that also functioned as a graduation celebration. I’ve been to Embu before – this is where my host Mom grew up – but this was my first experience at a village church service. As is the case with village events that I’ve been to so far, there were many people there (over 500).

There was a lot of dancing to rhythmic tribal-ish music and also many long-winded speeches. Kenyans do not rush through things. These men lead the celebration to honor a member of the leadership team of the church who had earned a P.h.d. in the states. The man on the right spoke Swahili and the other guy translated to the Embu tribe’s native language. I was lost but could understand the basic gist of things.

Usually, I feel like the odd-man-out at these village events because of the color of my skin, and here I especially felt that way! At any given moment, there would usually be at least 10-15 people straight-up staring at me. I’ve never thought I was so interesting until I came to Kenya! It sure does get annoying though – it’s hard to maintain a good-natured attitude about it 100% of the time. I understand that I look much different from what they are used to, but isn’t there some kind of universal sense of politeness? Of course I must remember that what is polite or rude in my culture isn’t necessarily the same in another culture.

I met an MP (Member of Parliament) at dinner after the celebration – I had been invited to eat with a select group of people because my host Mom’s Dad runs the entire church (and manages over 400 churches in Kenya!). I connected with my dinner-mates through humor – like expressing the fact that Kenyan food is so good that I’m worried I’ll return to America looking five months pregnant! We talked mostly about food – someone asked me what we use corn for in the US, and he couldn’t believe me when I picked up my Coke bottle and told him – for sugar! (as well as many other food products – high fructose corn syrup is a scaring thing!)

I got sick that night from the chicken we ate there. Daisy’s brother managed the food at the event and said that many, many people got sick from the chicken! Not a fun night but I submit that it was well worth the delicious meal I ate. Our water at the house also mixed with the sewage line a couple of days back so that could have played a factor in my sickness too.

Now for a few pics from the drive to Embu.

There are seemingly endless fields of rice close to Embu – hard to capture in a photograph – I’ve never seen anything more green. This is where the rice comes from that Nairobians eat.

And villages on the main road sell kilogram upon kilogram of rice -

There are many banana trees in this area as well -

In case any reader of this blog forgot how cute my lil’ bro Kiama is, here’s a reminder – yes, that is a Pikachu comforter.

He always pronounces “I love you” like this – “I love voo.” But yesterday, he said it correctly for the first time! Music to my ears. He’s a really sharp kid. My bet is that he’ll either be a soccer player or an economist when he grows up.

Work update time – I’ve continued work on my current projects (newsletter, business training manuals, etc.) and the newsletter is close to going out! Earlier this week, none of the field officers were available to manage a borrower’s group meeting, so I volunteered. I took a matatu out to Kawangware (a slum west of Nairobi) Wednesday morning and surprisingly found the place with no directional help! The name of the borrowering group is Maisha Poa, meaning “life is cool.” I had a lot of fun at the meeting – Swahili is still a weak spot for me but helping with the management of the groups’ savings and loans is not! The great thing about Maono is that the groups actually deal with their finances on their own – they did most of the work and have the capability of leading their own meetings. Maono’s role is more to oversee the group’s savings/loans activity, train and build business capacity, and ensure that loans are used for income-generating purposes. Running the meeting on my own solidified my confidence in understanding Maono’s operations. Also, I’ve finally mastered the basic greetings/body language stuff so I don’t feel awkward entering a room!

The group members got a crack out of my last name – only one of them could pronounce it correctly, and she was a Luo (a tribe known for speaking good English, sadly because of forced colonial processes) – the members gave her a hard time for it – “are you proud of that?” We shared a bunch of other funny moments.

I’m well over 1,000 words now, so I’ll get back to living the Kenyan life.