Africa is amazing. Basically. The people are the most friendly you will ever meet, to you, and to each other. The food is pretty good.... if I were to sum up Africa in one word: chapoti. It’s this flat bread that is soooo dang good I can't even believe it.
So let me give y'all the breakdown of events. First we flew here. I do not like flying. When we got here it was six in the morning, and I hadn't slept for almost three days. But I was so stoked to be here I was awake the whole day. We got some food, and then drove from Nairobi, where we landed, to Nakuru. The drive was extremely long, and I have the feeling that the hours here in Kenya are longer than American hours, because the "three hour drive" felt like an eternity. It was cool though because on the way we saw zebra on the side of the road. Hmmm. Zebra... zebras? Zebri? And way, more than one zebra. The roads here are much better than I had expected. Most of them are better than Kauai's roads, and the worst roads are usually hardly any worse than the worst roads on Kauai. Speaking of Kauai, Africa reminds me very much of Hawaii, just drier. I even saw some red dirt here. Not quite AS red as Kauai, and in Kenya the dirt sparkles. Its wild.
So when we got to Nakuru, we showered and went for a walk in the streets. It’s a totally different feeling to walk down the streets here. EVERYBODY stares at you. And not subtly. Some of the girls were saying they felt like miss America or something... ahahaha yeeeah.... even driving around, people in other cars and buses will stare at you and pedestrians will stop on the streets and just stare. Oh, and the driving experience here is terrifying. People don't pay any attention to the lines on the road, very often driving of the wrong side of the road, heading straight for oncoming cars, and then changing back into their lane at the last possible moment, or not changing back and making the person who is in their right lane swerve off the road to avoid a crash. People traveling on foot will walk in front of cars, or between them. But no one crashes or gets hurt because they have such good reflexes and are so used to driving this way. And the buses are like an art form here. No bus looks the same; they all have unique stickers and paint jobs making driving so much more interesting. I love it. Anyway, when we got back from our walk we did something; I don't really remember any more, it seems like so long ago. I do remember dinner. We ate at the restaurant in our hotel. And I got chapoti bread. And fell in love. And went to bed a happy person.
The next day we woke up early, at like 5:45, just because we weren't tired any more, ate breakfast, and headed out at around 10 to see a play about AIDS. We went to this little area in the streets of Nakuru where the Nakuru Players were putting on a skit about a girl trying to decide whether to have sex with a rich guy and risk AIDS or stay a virgin. It was really great, they got the audience really involved and had one boy from the audience who was a little older than me come into the play and pretend to be the girls brother and council her on her decision. It was really surprising because he said she should do it, because it was bad to remain a virgin and because the man had lots of money for her. And he was counseling her as if she was his own sister. Anyway, I didn't pay a large amount of attention to the play because it was in key Swahili and also because I was really distracted by all the adorable children. We started taking their pictures and they just swarmed us. In the next couple days I will upload those pictures on here, because I haven't had a chance yet. It was such an awesome experience. Little kids of three or four had their younger infant sibling on their backs, and all the brothers and sisters stayed close with each other at all times. We learned the word for smile from a woman in the crowd, it was something like chaka, and whenever we said it they would all break out in these wide, beautiful, happy smiles. After we left there, we went and spoke with the Nakuru Players about what they did, and got a tour of their actual theatre, and then we ate lunch at this funny little bakery. It was called The Nakuru Sweet Mart, and under that it said "French Baking" and when we went in it looked almost exactly like this Russian bakery in San Francisco, and the special that day was on a little board written in Chinese. The menu included mostly Indian and African food. It’s incredibly diverse here. The only thing you don't see a lot of is white people. Whenever we do we get all hyped up and say, "Ooo look, more white people, weird!" Other blondes are especially exciting.
After lunch we went and met with the group we will be working with here in Nakuru. All of them are so amazing. We played a game where we passed around a bag of candy and grabbed as much as we wanted, and then after were told to tell one thing about ourselves for each candy. All of the Kenyans said things like I love my school, I love my god, I love my friends, I love my family, I love all of you (which was actually heartfelt and not just something to say, which was soooo touching). They are all so happy to be involved, and all of them think this next week will be the best week of their lives. It’s almost a little scary, because there is all this pressure. I hope we can live up to their expectations.
I am so happy about the group of people I am here with. Everyone is so nice, and funny, and I am having so much fun. Carly and Isabelle and Juli CONSTANTLY have me doubled over with laughter, as do many other people in my group. Everyone is just so hilarious. I am so glad to be here with all of them.
I am rooming with carly, which is great. We have this little room with to beds in it and mosquito nets hanging from the ceiling. The bathroom is interesting. You walk in and you’re in the shower, and if you keep walking, you reach the toilet. The water leaves a strange film on your skin so when you in the shower you’re never quite sure whether you've washed all of your conditioner or soap off. It also has an electric charge, so that’s a fun way to wake up. And because I am taking doxycycline for malaria, my skin is really sensitive, so the smallest, invisible, micro abrasions sting when I run them under water. It’s not really a big deal, but it’s just something I’ve noticed. Anyway, I think that’s it for now....