Later on Day 1

Cody has been sleeping since about 2:00pm this afternoon. I had about a 3 hour nap today and am now wide awake (noon at home, 11pm here). Terry has been asleep for about an hour or so.

Cody and I went for a walk to a small market to buy some fruit and water. Terry opted out due to the rain. I must admit that I was not at all comfortable on the walk. Everything seems so strange. There are no sidewalks or curbs or lines on the roads. For the most part people seem to drive on the wrong side of the street (English style), but are pretty aggressive. It took us a few tries of hopping in and back before we dashed across the street. And we are just in a suburb – haven’t even seen Nairobi center yet.

That was enough adventure for us and Cody has been sleeping since  after a nap, Terry and I went for a walk in the opposite direction. We didn’t leave until after 6pm, and were afraid of getting stuck out in the dark. Janet says that this is a safe neighbourhood, but it has been drilled into us so many times not to go walking alone at night, that we are being extra cautious.

Everyone has a gate with electric fences and a guard. So, maybe we are not being too overly cautious.

During our walk we noticed that it is mainly men that are out walking about. They walk with purpose here, long strides, quick pace, relaxed looking though. I am not yet sure what the norm is… doing we look and smile and say hello? No one seems to be saying hello to us. I did get a few smiles, but not too many. Terry reminded me that they are just going home, likely after a long day of work. I decided I am just going to look people in the eye and smile anyway – I think that will increase my chances of getting some in return.

We passed a couple of boys (maybe 12 years old?) and one asked very politely if he could talk to us. He pulled out a piece of paper from his school and told us he was an orphan and needed 1,500 Kush to continue his school. He was taking pledges and had one written down in pen for 150Ksh. Habana (NO) was Terry’s answer. I smiled and said, “Not today thank you.”

I don’t like this feeling of mistrust I am carrying. I am looking forward to a good sleep and a few days practice to take the edge of. Through it all, though, I am so grateful to be here!

We poked our heads in on an aerobics class taking place near here in a rectangular building with a tin roof with AEROBICS painted on it. The instructor was a big muscular guy in a nylon track suit calling out the leads to a class of 4 or five women. Knee lifts and that sort of thing. The room had a mirror on one end and wide hardwood floors. That’s it. Outside of the building, was just some grass – not a grass field like you’d find at one of our rec centres, but just some beat up grass. There was a guy doing laundry in a bucket outside the building. Pictures will help, for now I hope my descriptions at least give you the impression that everything is different here.

On our walk I kept seeing corn cobs on the ground. Which was puzzling until Terry reminded me that, maize is their staple food.

“That’s funny” is my most common thought.

There don’t seem to be any bugs here, which I had read about Nairobi. So, that’s a good thing. I’m going to sleep under the mosquito net anyway, just to get in the habit as neither Terry nor I are taking malaria medication.

Tomorrow our mission is to buy a cell phone and visit the Langata Giraffe Centre (hopefully to kiss a giraffe ).


P.S. Please contact us through our gmail accounts – tanyainkenya@gmail.com or point7percent@gmail.com (as opposed to our work emails). Internet is expensive and VERY SLOW, so we’ll only be checking the gmail accounts. We would love to hear from you even if we don’t have time to reply.