Changes

I decided I would be adventurous and try something new. Harriette offered to dye my hair and have never dyed my hair before so I said sure why not it it will be fun. Boy was I wrong. The color Harriette got was a golden brown and the woman on the box looked nice so I wasn't too worried about it. Harriette said she had dyed her own hair before so I felt like I was in good hands. Right away I new something was wrong. We ended up starting way later than I expected and when she started applying the gel she was saying how Ros told her to do the roots last but she wasn't sure when exactly to do it. That was red flag number two. I tried to bush any skepticism aside because after all she already started but I was slowly getting more and more nervous until I felt a little bit nauseous. When we finally washed it out and I got a good look at the color I was in shock. The roots, shaft and ends of my hair were different colors and you could really tell in the front. The front was blonde and it got darker as it went down. I looked crazy. When she was combing it out the color blended in a little more but overall yikes. She said I should come over Monday morning before I go to my Kiswahili class and she will straighten it for me so I tried to reassure myself with this is not how it is really going to look and it will be okay. But after she was done with it in the morning I felt I looked like a cross between John Lennon circa 1965 and Ellen Degeneres, not cute. At work people were saying you look so much better that you did before...really?....REALLY?..your judgement now is officially in question. After awhile I decided I do kind of like it as long as I don't have to look at it.

A saturday of tourture

Harriette asked me in passing if I would come with her on Saturday to a outside market so she can sell some of her products. I said okay not actually thinking of what that would entail. Friday when she reminded me she said I should be ready at 7:45 a.m. What?!...What?! Can you say that again, 7:45 a.m on a saturday? To be ready at that time I have to wake up at 6 to turn the water heater on because it takes an hour to heat up. I had already said yes so I couldn't back out even though the more I thougt about it the more I didnt want to do it.

On friday night I didn't even go till sleep until 12 so I was exhausted when I woke up. Somehow I managed to be ready in time and we went to Karen for the market which was at a school. There was a lot of trafic as we got close and it was chaotic as we pulled in to unload all her stuff. Right away I knew that we had stumbled upon an American enclave. Americans were everywhere I didn't realize there were so many Americans in Kenya. Harriette owns a company called African Arts Products and she was selling some magnets, air freshners and luggage tags with the Kenyan flag. Also, some coasters, placemats and a memory game with African designs on them. After we set up some Harriette, she went with her friend Goodie who was sharing the booth with us to browse all the stands. So I was left alone to watch over Harriettes stuff and Esther was watching Goodies. I am not a natural saleswoman, and as people were walking by I was awkwardly saying hi and not knowing what to say when people would stop and look. When Harriette finally came back from browsing I felt like she had been gone for an eternity when it had only been about 45 minutes. I finally got a chance to look around with Esther. I had imagined the market was nice like Masai Market but what I realized as I was browsing was it was a yard sale. Most of the stuff was old books and clothes for like 100 shillings, definietly not like the nice stuff Harriette and Goodie had. There went many people who bought anything, only about 3 people in 4 hours. For most of the time I was sitting in the grass regretting the decision I made to wear a swaeter as I slow roasted in the sun. It was so hot, seriously, I was baking, not fun at all. Even though the time went by very slowly the day did morning did end and as soon as I went home I went straight to bed to go to sleep. I should start thinking of a good excuse to use for when Harritte asks me to do it again.

Small and beautiful

I decided to ditch work again on Monday and go and do something fun. During my break in class I called Harriette and asked her what plans she and Ros had for the day. She said she was planning on going to the Safari Walk which sounded fun and it is something right here in Nairobi that I haven't done yet. So I called up Rebecca and asked/told her I wasn't going in and made sure, to be polite, that I didn't have anything that I needed to do in the office. I then went right over to Harriette's after class. When I got there she wasn't even home and Ros wasn't ready. We didnt even end up leaving for and hour and a half and then when we did finally leave Jakobi fell asleep in the car and Ros had forgotton the stroller. So we had to turn back drop Jakobi back at the house and by the time that all happened it was to hot and no one (except me) wanted to go anymore.

So they decided to not waste the afteernoon and go to Kazuri Beads, a bead factory. Kazuri means small and beautiful in Swahili. The factory is only about fifteen minutes away in Karen and to tour the factory is free. When we got there someone lead us right to our tour guide who jumped right into our tour. First, he showed us a plaque with there mission statement on it. At the factory they employ 350 single mothers and half of all the sales goes to providing them and their immediate families with medical care. He then showed us where these big machines which make the clay. The machines were bought from England and when they broke they had to send for someone all the way over there to come and fix it. The machine has to be cranked by hand which seems fairly impossible because they are so huge I have no idea how they manage that. We then were able to walk through where they form the shapes for the beads, paint it, the machines for heating them up, and how they put the jewelry together. They say you can take pictures during the tour and then when we were in the factory there was two other people taking a different tour and the girl was in someone's face completely, super close, leaning in, with zoom, to take a picture. I was thinking I hope I don't look like that and tried to be more conscious of what I was doing. At the factory they not only make beads but they have pottery too, pitchers, cups, plates. After the tour we went to the shop they had and looked around. I really liked what they had even though the jewelry reminded me of something a middle aged hippie intellectual professor would wear but it was to expensive so I didn't end up buying anything but Ros did. I think I will come back before I leave and get something. Even though the day did not turn out the way I had hoped I do have to say it beats staring at a computer screen all day.

First day of Kiswahili class

Habari mabibi na mabwana?
Habari chula?

I think I just exhausted the full extent of my Kiswahili. In case you had no idea what what I was saying I wrote, "Any news ladies and gentlemen?" and, "Any news from school?" When I signed up for the class I had no idea that it would be so hard. Everyone kept on saying its so easy it was a trading language so its not to complicated and its phonetic, it'll be a piece of cake, boy were they wrong. Let me back track a little on Monday I woke up early because I had to leave by 8:00 am to walk over to the Language Center where I am taking the class. It is a pretty short walk only about five minutes but I had to get there early to get my book and pay for my classes for the week. I got there in time and paid for anything and then as I was lead by one of the people who work there to the classroom I was able to meet the two other people who are in the class. There was Desta who lives in Sudan but said she was from Ethiopia and Sister Collette who is an Irish nun who has been in Kenya for a week. Our teacher Asunta was very nice and had us go around and take turns saying what Kiswahili words we know now. From the two words I said, mambo and poa, she asked if I am around a lot of young people because they are slang which I thought was pretty funny.

After that we went over the alphabet and I learned a couple of weird thing. For example, there is not C by itself there is a Ch though. There is no Q and there is no X instead they have some other random letters to replace it. I can't remember because embarrassing as this was I didn't have my notebook during the first half of class I didn't bring one. During the tea and andazi (Kenyan pastry) break I went to the front desk and begged for some paper which I am eternally grateful for because the class was cranked in to high gear for the second half. We went over greeting which sounds simple enough but it wasn't. There are just so many ways to ask the same question. Hujambo, Habari, Mambo, Habari yako and Habari gani all basically mean the same thing how are you or news literally. Then Habari zenu, Habari and Hatujambo is news but plural when you are greeting a crowd of people. Then there are just so many ways you can reply, nzuri (good), safi (clean), njema (fine), poa (cool), salama (safe), hivi hivi (50-50/ so so), si mbaya (not bad). There is just so much vocabulary that you have to remember. Then there is all the things you can ask about, school (chule), mke (wife), children (watoto), friends (rafiki), it just goes on and on and on. I think I am the worst one in the class. I am always raising my hand and asking dumb questions and when the teacher asks me a question in Kiswahili it takes me so long so gather my thoughts translate what she is saying and then go through the Kiswahili rolodex in my head to find the right word to rely with. I really should go and practice dada, muhana, leo.....

The best weekend ever part 2

I didn't get much sleep. I am not going to say who but someone was snoring so loudly that I couldn't sleep at all. I finally got out of bed at 5:30 when the water heater gets turned on and packed everything for our early morning ride. The best times to see the animals is in the evening and the morning, there isn't much activity in the afternoon. We left at 6:30 and headed out. We saw more of the some Zebras, Impalas and Antelopes before we saw the something that caught our attention for the majority of our ride, lion cubs! We saw a male lion lying in the grass awake and alert and then Sjoerd, Harriette's husband, noticed someting out of the cornor if his eye a mother lion holding a cub in her mouth carrying it to another hiding place. We darted over trying to get a better shot and then went back over to the bushes where they were all hiding. There were six lion cubs in total. Three tiny little ones that the mother lion went and hid and three slighly older ones that eventually came out and started playing. When the mother lion was taking two of the cubs she passed our vans so closely she almost brushed it.
The cubs were so cute. They were wrestling, jumping, and biting each others tails. I knew that what we were seeing was pretty rare and I was just soaking it in with the dumbest smile on my face, totally happy and excited. There were two male lions and one female located around them as a barrier keeping a close eye on everything that was happening. The only bad thing was there were so many vans around that after awhile you couldn't ignore the voice in your head that was saying these are these lions children and we are invading there Sunday morning relaxation time and their personal space. Even though I was thinking that I didn't want to leave it was so amazing. I never though that I would be able to see something like that on only a one night safari. In total we saw like 11 lions and 6 cubs in two day, we had the best luck ever. We even were able to see the cheetahs again for a little while but they weren't doing anything just laying in the grass like the day before.

We had to get everything ready to be out of the park by 10:30 you have to leave 24 hours after you arrive or pay for another day's park entrance fees. As we were leaving the park Harriette mentioned that Ros wanted to see a Massai Village and Josephat just pulled right over and headed straight to one. To visit they charge 500 shillings, which includes a tour of a house, a dance and them showing you how they make fire. I wasn't really that interested in going not because I didn't want to but because I thought it was kind of invasive. We are just showing up unannounced to someone's house and expecting us to give them a tour. I went along because it was interesting and its not everyday you get the opportunity to do something like that. The chief's son who gave is the tour and just a side note has two wives said that the money helps to run their primary school so that made me feel like I was helping a little. They did another of the jumping dance/chants for a little while and it was very cute Harriette's son Qui joined them and was jumping too. We then got a tour of a hut which was very dark, they dont have electricty and it was very cramped. They make them out of cow's dung and we got to see a house that was just going to be built. The frame was all ready and they started a pile of dung and were waiting to finish building it when the pile got big enough. The chief's son said that when they have more than one wife they each get their own house and mostly everyone is related in the village so they have to find someone to marry from a nearby one. There were so many flies though and they would stick on you I was constantly swatting them. There were these little kids though with all these flies on the face and snot coming from their noses but they didn't even notice. After our little tour we went to a little market that they had to sell jewelry to people who came to visit. I got a necklace and bracelet for 400 which is way more than I would usually pay but I decided that I wouldn't haggle and would pay I know they need the money. The weekend was really eye opening and a completely new experience for me and for my first safari ever I think it couldn't have possibly been any better.

The best weekend ever part 1

Saturday morning after three hours of sleep I woke up excited and ready for a just your usual WEEKEND SAFARI! I went with Harriette's family, her friend Ros and her son. I am so grateful for Harriette letting me tag along all the time I don't think I could be able to do all this stuff, at least not as easily, without her. So we left at 5:30 am for Masai Mara National Park. A driver came to pick us all up in a big Nissan van for the five hour drive. As soon as I climbed into the car I carefully placed my pillow on my lap and fell asleep for the whole drive. I could hear the kids talking loudly, bumping me, throwing up but I just kept my eyes shut and tried to force myself to sleep so I could be well rested for the day ahead. We finally arrived at the gate at around 11:30 and we all had to get out and pay the park enterance fee, it was $60. From there it was a straight shot to the hotel. We were thinking of staying in tents but they were all booked so we ended up at a really nice lodge. At the lodge there were people from all over the world, Spain, the U.K, America, France, China, everywhere. During lunch it started pouring rain. We were all worried that it wouldn't stop and all the animals would be in hiding when we would go out but it soon stopped.

At 3 we were all ready to head out for a late afternoon safari. When you are on the safari you see all the white vans dotting the landscape in little clusters around all the most popular and rare animals. Right away we saw this huge group of elephants walking together. The sky was blue and beautiful and you could just feel the sheer size of the park it felt like it went on forever. There were these baby elephants and they were so cute! Our driver then spotted some lions and as we got closer we could see there were three lions on one rock, two male and a female and a single male sleeping on a rock near by. Lions are so lazy, the driver, Josephat, was saying that they sleep for 20 hours a day. I felt bad, disturbing them as they are sleeping but I got over that in a minute and kept on snapping away. When we were driving away they car got stuck for a little while and as he was spinning really loudly in the mud all the lions woke up and were staring at us. We then saw some ostriches that were chasing each other and I learned that male ostriches are black and the females are gray which seems like the most basic fact ever and I still had no idea. I saw a huge heard of buffalo and I felt like I was in Dances With Wolves when Kevin Costner sees the heard of buffalo that goes on forver for the first time and he was in awe. I was literally thinking about that as I was staring at them. We then drove past a bunch of giraffes. There were two males were necking, where they slam there necks up against each other. Josephat said that they could sometimes do it so hard that they break each others necks! Whoever said giraffes were peaceful animals was a liar. The icing of the cake for the drive was Josephat being the best driver ever and spotting two cheetahs in the middle of grass laying down when no one had even seen them since the morning. We were the only ones there and we just stared at them for a good 15 minutes before anyone even came.They were so beautiful, lean and long with spots all over. It was like seeing all these animals for the first time like all the times I saw them on T.V or in a zoo didn't count. We all went back to the hotel at 6:30 on a safari high.

That evening after dinner there was a Massai dance in the main seating area by the bar. There was bunch of Maasi that worked at the lodge you could tell because their earlobes were stretched out folded up. The dance was good but we had a bad seat we were looking at their backs. They were doing a little skip around the room while chanting and then they did started doing the jumping. With straight legs they jump super, high like 2 feet its amazing. It's like they had springs on the bottom of their feet. After the dance we went to a feeding of Hyenas which was very anticlimactic. Hyenas are so skittish that two little house cats that walked up to them scared them off and they didn't come back. All on all it was a perfect day and I went to bed excited for tomorrow.

A taste of the night life

Yesterday, Harriette invited me to go to a slam poetry reading in Westlands with Ros. I honestly really didn't want to but I decided to do it because I don't really have any opportunities to do anything fun and its not like I had anything better to do. I tried to wrangle something decent to wear and we got to the restaurant, Doss, at like 7:45. Harriette and Ros met the woman who put the whole thing together just the night before at a dinner party. The woman Imani is from Hawaii but has lived in Kenya for 16 years. The whole event was to benefit a program to teach poetry to girls in Kibera. She was the first person to read her poetry in front of everyone and it was amazing! I couldn't believe it, it was way better than I could have expected. She was reading some poetry prompts that she was using with a pen pal she has in some California prison. They were so emotional, confident and visceral. Mostly everyone else with the exception of a couple of Americans were Kenyan and it wasn't just poetry. There were musicans and beat boxers too. One of the groups who performed were I later heard have the biggest selling CD in Nairobi and I got one of them to sign their CD that I bought. They were so adorable, Kenyan hipsters are my new favorite thing. I took a picture and had another of the singers sign the other CD that I got. Her name was Dela and she had a reggae, R&B vibe. Her voice was really beautiful. After the fundraising part was over they had an open mic and one of the people who went up was this Rastafarian Kenyan and he did his poetry monalogue in Kiswahili and he had everyone in the place jumping up, screaming, and laughing hysterically throughout his whole thing and I had no idea what he was saying. It makes me happy that I am starting Kiswahili classes on Monday. It was funny someone shouted, "What are you saying," in the middle of his set and everyone started laughing. It was honestly one of the best nights I have had since being here and Harriette asked Dela when she would be performing again and I think we might go and see her again. It makes me want to start writing poetry, I can start using some of my creative writing tools I learned last semester.

Karen Blixen Museum more fun than you would think!

On Tuesday I went to visit the Karen Blixen Museum with Harriette, Ros, and Jackobi. Harriette told me to come over at 9am because they wanted to leave early but as usual we ended up not leaving until 11. Karen Blixen is the woman who the movie Out of Africa was based on. The movie is really boring but I decided it was something that I could check of my list of things I did. When we arrived no one was there which is generally a bad sign that the museum sucks but I decided to proceed anyway with some caution. The price for museums is 800 shillings for non-residents and for residents it is only 100, not fair. What would tourists think if Americans got a super good price for things and foreigners had to pay 8 times more, I don't think that would go over very well. Only Ros and I went into the actual exhibit, Harriette said that she had been there already to many times. You are not actually able to take pictures inside because of copyright infringement for the movie which was slightly weird. In the museum they have a bunch of clothes and stuff that Meryl Streep and Robert Redford wore in the movie, props and then her actual furniture. It only reason that it was interesting because it appealed to the movie buff inside me and it was exciting to be in a place where a big movie was shot. I will say the one thing that was nice about no one being there was that we were the only ones in the house during the tour so we could see everything close up and touch some stuff fun, fun fun! The tour only takes about 30 minutes and we then we went to take a look in the museum store. Everything in the shop was so expensive! They had some of the same things that I have seen in the Masai Market and they were like 4 times more expensive. Westerners will buy anything really, which makes it worse for people like me who actually have a budget to work with. When I went back to work in the afternoon I went straight upstairs to see what Rebecca had for me to do and she told me to check my email and hang out. I hate being at work with nothing to do. It makes me want to relax at home in my sweatpants. With nothing much going on it does make it easier for me to sneak off and have some fun!

Giraffes!

I am finally starting to do some fun things and it is coming at the perfect time. Harriette's friend and her two year old son are visiting from Boston so she is taking them on the touristy rounds and I get to tag along. On Friday we were supposed to go to the Giraffe Center, the Karen Blixen Museum and some bead factory which I can't remember the name of but we ended up only going to the Giraffe Center. At the Giraffe Center they give you these little pellets and you get to actually feed the Giraffes. The kind of Giraffes that they have are Rothschild the rarest of three kinds of Giraffes in Kenya and they are easily distinguished by their white legs. There was only like 100 left because loss of habitat and Idi Amin the Ugandan dictator in the 70s killing tons of them for fun and meat. I know all this stuff because we all sat in the a little educational presentation they have at the center. It was interesting that they mentioned Idi Amin because I had just started reading, The Last King of Scotland, so I actually knew who they were talking about. Back to the Giraffes, I was hesitant at first when I was watching all these people feeding them because it looked pretty gross. There were some people who were putting the little pellets in their mouths and it was so weird. I don't know if I am the only one who feels like this but making out with Giraffes is not my idea of fun. I decided to be brave and give (feeding them normally) a try and I got to tell you if you ever have the opportunity to feed a giraffe take it it's so fun. There tongues are like dark blue and super slimy and strong and they just curl their tongue around the pellets and slurp them up. I was holding Skye, Harriette's four year old daughter, and at first she didnt want to do it but eventually she started feeding them too and was having fun. There was a group of school children from Kibera, the biggest slum in Africa and a 5 minutes walk from my house, and they were so cute. They were all in line and in there little uniforms, smiling and laughing as they all took turns feeding the Giraffes. It is a super touristy thing to do but it is worth it and really fun.

Fun Face: The Giraffes tounge is blue because it needs to be able to reflect the sunlight and not get burned when they are sticking it out to eat all day.

My camera died so I don't have the pictures. I will add them on when I get them from Harriette's camera later.

Crime and perspective

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile but I am going to play the robbed card and say I just wasn't feeling like it after that whole incident. Last tuesday after spending the whole weekend in the house completely shut in and upset I forced myself to go to work and go to my neighbor Harriette's house for dinner. At the office I made it a point to put on a smiling face and act like I had a fun Easter holiday. I said I had fun relaxing which is code for I spent four days lying in bed and crying but luckily no one picked up on it. I was busy which was nice I spent my time fine tuning some repots on the site visits and sitting in on a really long staff meeting. During the staff meeting I kept myself busy by writing out the lyrics to Shirley Temple songs on my notebook which I still count as actual work its hard remembering all the words.

After work I went and relaxed for a couple minutes before I got up the strength and energy to go to Harriettes house. She didn't even remember that she invited me over but said it still was okay. She didn't have anything vegetarian so she asked if I would be okay eating bread, avocados and tomatoes for dinner. I said okay and luckily there was some rice and hummus to make it a more rounded meal, avocados, tomatoes and bread just sounds so sad and incomplete as a dinner. I told Harriette her husband Sjoerd and her two kids Qui and Skye, who are 8 and 4, all about what happened and they were really nice about it. They said a friend of there's was carjacked coming from work and then they made him withdraw the maximum amount from the ATM and then drive him around till midnight when he could withdraw more again. They even stole his passport. They lived in West Africa for many years and Kenya for one and a half and they said of all the countries they have been to Kenya is really hardcore which was comforting to know. It nice to think that I am not the only one that has had a less than pleasant experience. I heard that if you shout, "Thief, Thief!" when your robbed that many times bystanders on the street grab the robber and beat them and stone them sometimes to death. One of their nannies who stole from them and was fired was shaken one day when she came to work because someone on the matatu stole a phone and when he was caught he was dragged out and beaten. She was pretty sure that he died. He was killed because he stole a cell phone I couldnt believe it. I guess if I had to chose between having someone steal something from me and getting away or being beaten to death I would choose get away.

I dont even know what to say

Yesterday the single worst thing that could of happened to me did. I had been wanting to finally go out by myself to get to know Nairobi better and start being able to do things I actually want instead of just following someone around. So I decided Friday would be the perfect day to go to the Nairobi National Museum since it was a holiday and I didn't have to work. I got directions on what bus to take from David and I was all set. It was easy to get there. I waited a long time for a bus, I could have taken a number 46 or 4w but I wanted to wait for a 4w and after waiting like 10 minutes and letting like 6 number 46 go past I jumped on the next one and left. I was able to transfer easily to the next bus, it was a smaller mutatu and I had never been in one before let alone by myself but it was fine. The guy who takes your money made sure I got off on the right stop. I then got really lost going to the museum. I went the wrong way like 3 times and had to ask for direction twice but I eventually found it alright. The museum was definitely not as interesting as I imagined, in fact it reminded me a lot of the Oakland museum. The most interesting thing they had was a section on evolution and they had all these skeletons that were donated and found by the Leakeys which was cool, but I dont believe in evolution so it wasnt that great. I left after an hour and a half and decided to go back. I was waiting at the wrong bus station for awhile until I asked someone if I could get a bus to town from there. He kindly gave me directions to where I should be and I was once again off. I found the bus station and made it on a bus back to town. But I ended up getting off on the wrong stop and had to walk down Tom Mboya street back to where I could catch a bus back to my house. I got turned around alittle and it took me some time to figure out exactly where I was and where I needed to be going. It was really hot and I was walking around so I just took my jacket off and kept on walking. Getting a little lost is what happens when you are in a new city so I wasnt particularly panicked or anything. I was finally on the right path when I noticed this crazy looking person looking at me weird. I thought he was going to ask me for some money so I just tried to move away from them a little and keep it moving when he turned around snatched my mom's rings from the chain on my neck and ran away. I was immedietly in shock. I started shaking and when these two nice people came up to me who saw the whole thing asked me if I was okay I started crying in the middle of the street. I always wear my necklace I havent taken it off in almost four years. The two guys tried to help me find it I guess the person who stole it stays somewhere literally around the corner from where he snatched it so they were trying to buy it back but it didnt work out. Those rings were the most important thing I owned and I specifically asked Natasha if she thought it would be okay if I wore it around. She said Nairobi isnt as dangerous as people say and I should be fine. I am just so angry and frustrated with myself that that could have happened. I mean my mother left them to me in her will when she died and they aren't even that nice to get someone a lot of money. I have been crying constantly and just going over what happened over and over in my head. Why didn't I just pay better attention and not get off at the wrong stop? Why didn't I just leave my jacket on? Why didn't I think of tucking it into my shirt? Any way I look at it it is really my fault and I just hate myself right now. It is not that I got robbed I could care less about that it is what they actually stole. I mean it was my mothers, it is not something that can be replaced. Right now I just feel sick to my stomach, I cant see straight and I barely have any energy to move. I was supposed to go spend the weekend with my boss Rebecca but I canceled and just want to be left alone.