Drive Like A Kenyan

Kristin went off on her own today (hopefully, she’ll write about her day on her own blog!) She had quite the time with Gloria, Mwix’s niece. They took the matatu into the city and Gloria gave her a little tour of the sites in central Nairobi including ‘some important government building’ and the ‘tallest building in Kenya’(Kristin’s words.) Then Gloria took her to the headquarters of Rose’s NGO, Real Stars. Kristin got the full tour from Rose and learned all about Real Stars’ projects.Rose was beautifully warm and wonderful and has welcomed Kristin to spend the whole 5 weeks she will be in Nairobi (March-April) to work with Rose, Nancy and Gloria. Kristin is VERY excited about traveling into Kibera, Mathare and other slums in the city helping to do social work home and education assessments.

I spent the morning and early afternoon working on the 2 topics I have been asked to help the team with at World Concern/Narok. My innate maternal multi-tasking gift kicked in when I was asked by Mwix to take care of Promise while she went up on the roof balcony to have her hair colored and cut. Two hours later I was still sprawled on the couch, a baby sleeping on my chest and my laptop propped on my knees, typing up discussion outlines with the screen half obscured by the cutest little head of black hair you’ve ever seen.

This afternon I wandered on foot all over the area around Mwix and Gideon’s place. My wandering started with a mile and a half walk to the Nakumatt (Nairobi’s version of a Fred Meyer Super Store) to buy soccer balls for the Siyiapei Children’s Home and ended up a 3 hour, 6 mile trek up and down countless dirt and dust roads lined with tin and stick dukas hung with strings of bananas and goat carcasses, past women frying whole fish in giant cast iron pans, past men hawking piles of used but spotless shoes . . .

The long wander was mostly out of curiosity but partly because I got, well, sorta lost. Not really lost,exactly,I just couldn’t recognize the Ochieng’s rock and dirt road from the rest of the rock and dirt roads and so—though I knew I was in the right sector of town—I just decided to turn it into a sight seeing adventure. I’m sure the hordes of people clogging the roads wondered why the crazy mzungu mama carrying 3 soccer balls kept circling their dukas . . .


But, no problem! I made it home in time for an evening out for Ethiopian food. Njera and the mixed platter, complete with the Ethiopian version of nyoma choma (chunks of roasted goat served with onions and peppers, all of it sizzling in an iron pot atop glowing charcoal.) Never mind that in order to enter the restaurant compound we had to drive through 2 guarded gates, had the undercarriage of our car viewed with mirrors and our trunk searched (all because of the Somali Al-Shabab threat,) oh, my! What a delicious feast! The first time I ate njera, etc., was the very first night I stepped foot in Kenya, way back in 2001, hosted by Sarah Lenssen (then, Jamieson.) I thought it was the most disgusting food I’d ever been forced to sit before. Thankfully, I have long reformed my tastes and tonight’s food was the best Ethiopian fare I’ve ever had.


And the ride home was almost as fun. We did, indeed, drive like Kenyans. Six adults, two children and one infant all in a Nissan Sentra. Yes. You read that correctly: 9 humans in one small 4-door Japanese car, in Nairobi.

Indeed.

Photos: 9 humans in one little car; Gloria and Kristin on matatu; Gloria; Kristin and Jomo Kenyatta; njera, njera and nyoma choma; frothy avocado-mango-papaya drink