As it is now the eve of my first day
of work, I figured I should share about all the great people I've met
and great things I've seen. For the first four days or so, Alice (the
other UP intern) and I stayed at the Holy Cross Seminary where we met
some of the most jovial (!!), most amazing men. Each night at dinner,
these four men supplied us with enough laughter to suffice for a
year. Brother John is the wise voice of reason—I just realized that
his name is Brother John...which I think is a character in Robin
Hood? Maybe? Anyway, then
there's Patrick, who's more laid back, but will bring up points to
settle a dispute. Cyprian is the hilarious judge, and Aga is the
jokester. And I love them. I'd say that one of the highlights about
being in Nairobi was going to the Animal Orphanage right next to the
Nairobi National Park. There I saw cheetahs, lions, monkeys in cages,
monkeys gone rogue, fed a giraffe, hyenas, house cats, and an impala.
Alice and I were also part of the show...school children gawked at us
and followed us while a family with a 2-year-old girl insisted on her
taking a picture with us. Soon, the entire family was in the picture,
too. I guess we're some funny-looking people.
We
convened with Peter (the site coordinator) and ten Duke interns to
fly from Nairobi to Kisumu AKA the shortest flight ever. It felt like
we took off, had a sip of plane-coffee, and landed. Then, a van
overcrowded with college kids and literally overflowing with luggage
made its way up the gorgeous A1 highway to the small city of
Kakamega. The drive with uncomfortable, but it was possibly one of
the most beautiful drives I've taken. The countryside is incredibly
green with rolling hills filled with maize and tea plants. Oh! One of
the coolest details of this drive: we passed over the equator into
the northern hemisphere. Turns out Kakamega is 30 kilometers above
the equator...so I'm basically living on that imaginary line. We
safely made it to Sheywe Guest House in Kakamega where we would spend
the next week in orientation, Kiswahili lessons, and learning about
Kenyan culture and tradition.
The
city of Kakamega is unlike any city I've been in, but that's probably
because I've never truly been in a typical Kenyan city. Everywhere,
people sell second-hand clothes, shoes, locally-grown produce, fresh
meats, and stores carry everything from WiFi modems to freshly baked
goods, to I don't even know. You can get anything you'd ever need.
It's more of a city than I expected, but it's nice. It is a bit
crowded, but it is not the bad kind of crowded. People are friendly
and the traffic is aggressive. Speaking of traffic, there are three
main modes of public transportation. First,there are mutatus, which
are basically big vans that carry people anywhere in the country.
It's essentially a bus system, but instead of only carrying fourteen
people like they should be, mutatus normally carry twenty to
twenty-five. They also tend to have some pretty wacky names. So far,
I've seen a countless number of religious names, a few called
“Hearse” that we parked across the street from a coffin vendor,
and “Swagger Life.” But my personal favorite is “Mimi ni
T-Pain” (I am T-Pain). Next, there are pikipikis or motorbikes. I'm
a little too wary to try those out right now. But I did try the third
type of transportation called boda bodas. Men ride their bikes and
you sit on a seat behind them above the back wheel while you hold on
and try not to think of all the things that could go wrong. It was
actually pretty fun!
Thursday
was the last day of orientation, so we split up the group and took
two mutatus to Kisumu for the day. There, we walked around, ate
lunch, and went to a resort to take a boat trip on Lake Victoria.
There were sixteen of us on a long, bright blue boat (twelve interns,
two program coordinators, one man to run the boat, and one to tell us
what we were seeing) so we were sitting at water-level. We saw
countless cool birds fishing and making woven nests. But the coolest
thing we saw was a mother hippo with her two baby hippos. We sat and
watched them from about thirty or so feet away for probably twenty
minutes of pure bliss. Hippos are the coolest! Sure, they kill more
people in a year than alligators do, but they're just the oddest
animals! I was thinking of the dancing hippos from Fantasia
the entire time. So...Fantasia—real
life—same thing.
The
group split up yesterday morning as we all made our own ways to our
host families. I have spent the past two days adjusting to their way
of living and trying to become a member of the family as much as
possible. From here on out, it is all about adjustments,
assimilating, and learning.
Tomorrow
will be my first day of observation and learning sign language...I am
a bit nervous, but am mostly excited for this fantastic opportunity.
I am so glad to have such a great support system here in Kakamega in
addition to all the support back at home...wherever home may be,
whether it's PNW or California or Spain or Costa Rica. So wish me
luck! I'm about to truly start what may be the most difficult, yet
most beneficial experience I've had yet.
P.S.
Pictures are to come tomorrow. Baby's gonna get some z's.
good job baby
ReplyDelete