The greatest luxury of all electricity

In the middle of the night Sunday I heard a big bang and the house slightly jolted for a second. I got up to see what was going on and the power had gone out. So I just went back to bed hoping it would come back on in the morning. That was three days ago it hasn't. Three days without power. All the food in the refrigerator has gone bad and every morning I have to boil water for a bath. Harriette was freaking me out a little bit yesterday saying how it could last up to a month because they have to send for a part in South Africa and with the power out soon there won't be any water with the pumps not being able to work. She didn't stop there then she went on about how there could be break-ins starting with the electric fence not working. Robbers could just go house to house taking whatever they want! I can handle the lights being out but no water, being robbed and probably murdered I wouldn't know where to begin coping with that. Right now the biggest hassle had just been carrying my laptop and chargers to work so I charge everything. The one good thing is I went to my Kiswahili class on time for the first time ever I am a lot faster in the mornings with nothing to distract me. I just hope it doesn't last for much longer I am missing having a hot shower in the mornings.

UPDATE:
The power came back on Thursday afternoon! I was so excited finally that hot shower I had been dreaming about and toast delicious, crispy toast!

Buruburu Day 2

On Saturday we had planned to go shoe shopping again and go to the big Maasai Market that happens every Saturday early so we can get the good stuff. Some how breakfast took way longer than expected and we didn't end up getting to town till 1. As soon, and I mean as soon, as we got off the matatu it started raining. Sometimes the rainy season can really put a crimp in your day. We decided to go ahead and see if they were still there. They were but all the things they were selling were under big tarps. The one thing I actually wanted was to get some Maasai sandles and you can't very well do that in the rain or so I thought. Being in the rain doesn't actually make that much of a difference because people will want you to come over to them even more. The rain finally stopped and I as we were walking around I was immediately impressed by how big it was. It was at least 4 times bigger than the one in Ya-Ya center that I usually go to. They had a variety of stuff and I got to try out my bargaining skills again. After Saturday I will no longer feel bad when I give someone a low offer for something. There was this one person who tried to sell me a picture made out of banana leaves, I wasn't interested so I walked away. His first offer was 700 shillings and when I passed him by later he said lowered his offer all the way to 200! From 700 to 200 he was just trying to rip me off because he can see mazungu, foreigner painted on my forehead. I just have to think of a fair price and then stick to my guns and not let them bully me. I still ended up getting a lot of stuff like a Maasai blanket, earrings, bracelets, a basket, a dress and sandles. After the market Rebecca took me around to show me some good places to eat in the area. When the other volunteers come I want to act like I know all these great African places to eat and go to town all the time. I will be like, "Oh yeah, this place I go there all the time, it one of my favorites," even though I had never eaten there before and will probably get lost on the way there. She showed me some fast food restaurants, Italian and African. I am excited to go back and taste them. It soon started raining again so we headed back to her house and got a start on dinner. When we were on the site visits I would eat chapatis for every meal they were offered because they are so good so she showed me how to make them. I had no idea how hard it is. Needing everything by hand is so tiring and takes so long. I tried out rolling them and cooking them my fingers were all burnt and red since she usually just flips them on the stove by hand. It is worth it though they were the best chapatis I ever had. On Sunday I woke up feeling sick so I ended up going home early but I defenitly am going to go back it was really fun and one of the best weekend I have had since I have been here.

Buruburu day 1

This past weekend I went to stay at Rebecca's house. I was supposed to go over Easter but after I had been robbed I didn't feel up to it and I was excited to finally be able to make it up. I packed up all my stuff and got ready to head to her house right after work. On the way to her house we made a stop in town to go shopping. The few times I have been to central Nairobi I never really saw any really nice places to shop I guess I just wasn't looking in the right places. First, we stopped off at Village Market which I had been to before but when I had gone most of the stores were closed so I didn't get to see it in its full glory. At village market there is a bunch of little stores that sells crafts, jewelry, shirts, nice well made stuff and even though they have little stores you can bargain. In the first and only store we went into I saw some of the most beautiful jewelry I had ever seen and it wasn't the usual kind of stuff that you can get at any Masai market. Rebecca and I both really liked a necklace and bracelet set that they had. They were made from this really beautiful stones that was beaded together in layers. I was impressed with Rebecca's bargaining skills because she was able to get two, one in white and one in blue, for less than the price for one!After that we went to a more traditional shopping center. She had promised to take me shoe shopping and at the store we went to there was some nice stuff that was my size but I didn't end up getting anything. We ended up having to rush out of the store because her husband was waiting outside for us and he had been waiting for a while. The area that Rebecca lives in Buruburu is actually pretty nice. The apartment she lives in is really central and she can walk right to the bank, grocery store, hair salon, restaurant in 2 minutes. I thought I lived close to everything but after seeing where she lives I am not so sure. We ended up getting to her house at 8 and we still had to cook dinner. She made these really good peas and I made sure to take mental notes of everything she was doing so I can make it again. We all watched a movie, Up in the Air, and I went to sleep I needed my energy for all the shopping we were planning on doing the next day.

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.....