Oh Jesus, I don't really know where to begin. It's Friday night and we've been in Nairobi for only 3 full days but it feels like weeks. I guess I'll start with the travelling , which was a little bit of a hell after a 6 hour drive, 11 hour flight, and another 9 hour flight. But, in the end, having only had 5ish hours of mixed sleep over those 48 hours really helped get over the jetlag. On Tuesday night we arrived at the "Kolping Guest House" in Nairobi completely unaware of what was to follow.
Wednesday morning marked the first of our intensive Kiswahili lessons. And when I say "intensive", I mean intensive. For the last three days we've received around 4-5 hours of lessons from some wonderful teachers and have learned SUCH an incredible amount. I can say for certain that in 3 days I'm already more proficient in Swahili than I am in Spanish (and probably ever was for that matter...). Using the language on the streets has already shown to have it's advantages and it's amazing to see the responses and respect people have given us when they realize that we are students wanting to learn rather than silly white tourists.
Speaking of the streets of Nairobi, that's really the only "real" Africa I've experienced so far (we're living within a fairly well kept compound complete with guard, chef, and a few maids. So needless to say we're not really living the real African life just yet). The streets are filled with both the good and the bad and it's definitely different than anything I've ever experienced before. Most of our meals have been from going out and exploring the area where you can easily fill yourself up on 5 shilling bananas or cooked ears of corn. Down the road is a small open air market where deep in a small shop where yesterday I unknowingly ordered a plate of intestines and ciabatta bread that was surprisingly not bad and even more surprisingly hasn't made me vomit yet. On the flip side of the fun we've had exploring I've gathered a fair amount of observations that I'll briefly note.
1) Everyone dresses nice. Second hand clothing is apparently very cheap so ever person aside from workers on the job are dressed in nice slacks and a nice shirt. This makes us white folk stand out even more in our t shirts and shorts...
2) People drive like fucking maniacs. I'm surprised none of us have been hit by a car yet. They also drive on the wrong side of the road...
3) We're only around a kilometer away from the largest slum in Nairobi, Kibera, so occasionally we'll run by a "glue kid". This has probably been the saddest experience I've had here when we have to deny giving these very small poor children begging for money on the corners. We've been told never to give these children money on account that most of it will be spent on glue which gives them an extremely zoned our high and doubles as an appetite depressant.
There's so much more to say but I really don't have the time to explain it all (I've barely scratched the surface of what I have mentioned). I'd also upload pictures but Hannah said it took her 45 minutes to upload four pictures of monkeys so I'm going to refrain until (hopefully) we'll have a better internet connection (probably not...)
In other news...We start our homestays in the outskirts of Nairobi tomorrow and we've been told that these will be some very uncomfortable and different experiences. I really have no idea what to expect but I guess I'll let y'all know in two weeks when they're over...
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