Nairobi!

We have arrived in Kenya! As I write this, we are actually in Ribe already, but I want to recap our fun weekend in Nairobi first. There seems to be so much to write about (culture, people, food, language) and so many pictures to post, but I will leave some of that for future posts. It is hard to describe the richness of our experience so far; hopefully this brief description will suffice for now.

Friday
Our travels went well from St. Louis to Chicago to London to Nairobi. We managed to get some sleep on the flights and arrived in Nairobi at about 9:30 pm Friday night. Miraculously, all our luggage came with us through the transitions! Our dear friends Albo and Eda picked us up at the airport and we headed back to their house where we stayed. Albo and Eda lived in the US for a year about 2 years ago and we had been in a small group together, so it was a very nice transition for us and we felt very much at home.

Swahili word of the day: karibu (“ka-REE-boo”) = welcome

Photo: Our first view of Africa from the plane.

Saturday
After a breakfast of homemade pancakes, we headed into “town” (A&E live about 10 minutes from the city center of Nairobi) on a mission to find cell phones and a USB internet modem. After we scouted equipment at an expensive store, Albo graciously offered to go deeper into town for a better price – apparently the deeper you get the better prices you can negotiate, but you may have to compromise on quality and safety. With phones and modem in hand, but no credit (air time) yet, we headed to Kenchik, Kenya’s fast food, for fried chicken, chips (fries), samosas, and bhajia (fried, seasoned chunks of potato). After lunch we all napped – not so much from jet lag as much as being in town all morning (especially with the toddler, Bulamu)! Dinner was chapati (flat bread) and beef stew – mmm! We were able to sit and chat for a while and it was so nice to get to know Albo and Eda in their home.

Swahili word of the day: kuku (“kookoo”) = chicken (Kenchik’s motto is “we’re kuku for chicken”)

Photo: Bulamu playing the guitar (“ghee-TAA”)

Sunday
Breakfast was traditional Kenyan; tea and bread, then we attended the Nairobi Chapel youth service, where Albo is the youth pastor. It was amazing to worship in a combination of Swahili, English, and even Sheng (their slang), and to DANCE while we did it! We wazungu (white people) probably looked like fools, but it was a really cool experience to experience their culture in that way.

After church my friend Laura and her brother Mike picked us up; Laura and I were penpals when we were younger, and this was our first time meeting in person! When Laura’s father studied at Stanford in the 70’s, my mom’s family served as his host family. In fact, when we arrived at their home, he showed us pictures he took of my parent’s wedding! We had a wonderful Kenyan lunch (ugali, chapati, rice, fried chicken, beef stew, and cabbage) and then took a tour of Nairobi. It was great fun to see the big sites of Nairobi with Laura and her brothers – I remember her younger brothers’ notes on her letters many years ago, and now we all are all grown up. In the evening we ran some more errands to finally look for cell phone credit and a mosquito net, then returned to Eda and Albo’s house for a nap and a light dinner including nyama choma (grilled meat).

Non-Swahili - Sheng (their slang) word of the day: jammas (“jahMAHZ”) = dudes/youth

Photo: Chris, Lesley, Meli, and Laura in front of the Nairobi skyline.

Monday
Our goals for the weekend included obtaining cell phones, internet connection, an adapter (the one we bought at home wasn’t right), train tickets, and a bank account. By Monday morning we only had phones and a modem, none of which worked yet, so we headed into town again with the help of one of the “youth” from church, Muriu. After a stop at Nairobi Java House (Kenya’s version of Starbucks – and similarly overpriced), we took a bus into town where we eventually found an adaptor for 95 bob (slang for shilings) – 95 shillings!! That is about US$1.25 … I think we paid $15-20 in the US for the wrong one. Although we weren’t able to open a bank account yet, we searched for a good exchange rate and changed money … only to later see that the sign said “rates are negotiable.” We also picked up our train tickets (which were unfortunately not negotiable), and some sub sandwiches (per our craving). Back at Eda and Albo’s we ate subs, drank soda, and heard country music on the radio – a bizarre little taste of home! Finally we headed to the train station for our journey to Mombasa …

Swahili word of the day: sawa (“SAWwah”) = okay/fine

Photo: Albo, Lesley, Chris, Eda (with one on the way) and Bulamu at the train station.