Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
I have officially arrived in Kenya! The weather, food, and people have been great. We are currently doing a 4 day orientation at a monestary compound in a wealthy area of just outside of Nairobi called Karen. THe area is the location of the coffee plantation in the movie "Out of Africa." It is a very beautiful place but we all feel a little to sheltered as it is a gated/guarded compound in which we have not been able to leave except for about a half an hour yesterday when we took a little walk down the street. Needless to say the white mob of students looked a little out of place and definitely drew some stares, especially from the curious children. I am still trying to get used to sleeping with a mosquito net, I have some how gotten myself tangled in it every night. The night noises have been very interesting as well the most overpowering is the barking dogs the entire night. We saw a pack of about 10 stray dogs when we were driving here from the airport at 1:00 in the morning so I'm assuming they are the culprits.
Yesterday the peace talks between Kibaki and Odinga officially began. They are being mediated by Annan from the UN. The morning before these talks began an ODM (Orange Democratic MOvement) member of parliament was assassinated. I think this puts added pressure on the success of the talks. We watched the induction of both Kibaki and Odinga into the talks yesterday afternoon, but as in Kenya they of course had to take a tea break after they each said their introductory speech. Most of us found this hilarious since they announced they were going to take a tea break on television and we had been laughing at the MANY MANY tea breaks everyone takes here. Their saying is that in Kenya "everytime is tea time" and it is SO true. I have drank more tea in the past two days than I have in my whole life. We are on afternoon tea break as I speak. Tomorrow morning we are going to take a bus into Nairobi to shop and exchange money. We are all excited about that since we are getting kind of antsy here as we want to go out as see things. It almost seems to perfect and sheltered.
We are meeting our host families on Saturday and starting our actual classtime on Monday. Our classes are held at the Nazarene campus which is the old site of the University of Nairobi. I miss you all and hope you are enjoying your winter weather as much as I am!! :) Sorry that was kind of a low blow!
- comments