Nairobi

The best thing about Nairobi? It’s big enough to get lost in. I love cities. I like standing on a corner and seeing 50 different activities happen around me. I enjoy the internationality of cities, and (in a ‘I can’t believe I’m saying this’ kind of way) it’s comforting to not be one of the few wazungu in town for a change. I like coffee shops and museums, street vendors and bookstores, trash bins and public parks. I don’t even mind a healthy amount of traffic – makes me feel like things are going on. In all of these, Nairobi didn’t disappoint.

I had two meetings with other water-sector NGOs this weekend, and those served as my excuse to explore the city for the first time. On Friday morning, I met with two Water.org staffers, both of whom I’ve been in previous email contact with about water project best practices. I’ve been following Water.org’s work in developing countries for a while –especially their WaterCredit program – so it was encouraging that they agreed to an informational interview with me. I appreciated learning more about their organization and hearing their perspectives on some of the topics that interest me most (stakeholder engagement and monitoring/evaluation for water sector interventions).

On Saturday, I met an intern with a faith-based nonprofit here. Ben and I began communicating through CouchSurfing last month, and we realized that his organization is interested in partnering with Aqua Clara. So, encouraged by our directors, Ben and I met to brainstorm about a potential partnership. Again, it was good to trade experiences with someone else doing similar work in Kenya. So it was a productive weekend in terms of my professional interests.

Nairobi also had a lot to offer socially. While there, I met up with some IU students interning in Nairobi; a professor at Hope College who’s helping Aqua Clara with a few reports; and some guys I know from Kisii. I had some really nice meals out with these friends, enjoyed walking around the city and had fun at a couple bars and clubs. Although it may not be the smartest thing to travel alone to meet dudes at bars in questionable parts of town, I also know I never in a million years would’ve found these hole-in-the-wall clubs without local friends and only a tiny contingent of wazungu (Kelly and me). I drank very little, remained dedicated to the task of getting myself home without anyone else’s generous assistance and danced my ass off all night long. It was exactly what I needed.

So, it was a very good weekend. I’m glad I got to see it this way and to spend chunks of time with different people. I’m grateful that many of the friends I know there were available to hang out, and also to those I met there. I look forward to passing through NBO again in a few weeks in between my internship and my IU/Moi University course. Hopefully at that time I’ll be on my way to Mombasa & the coast!

Lake Nakuru National Park

Sam and I drove to Nakuru the last weekend in May. The 3-hour drive from Kisii town is beautiful. We pass Keumbu and Keroka, both of which I see daily from the matatu ride to work, and hilly maize and tea fields in between. The journey to Nakuru also gave us the chance to pass through Kericho, famous for its tea plantations. The tea fields varied in their shade of green, but all beautifully complimented the blue sky and stark white clouds.

Anyway, we got into Nakuru town a little later than expected, and since the sun drops like a rock here at the equator, it was pitch black when we tried to find a hotel. I’d reserved a room for us right in town, but as we drove by, we realized we’d never find a parking space at all, let alone a secure one. So we decided to try our luck finding something else. That proved to be a challenge, but we eventually settled in at Pivot Hotel (“PY-vot”) that first night. We sat in the garden and took nyama choma, ugali and a few Tuskers for dinner. It was lovely.

We spent Saturday driving through Lake Nakuru National Park, where we saw plenty of rhinos (many whites, one of the elusive blacks), pelicans, baboons, Rothschild’s giraffes, plains zebras, impalas, a warthog and a few hyenas. It was a beautiful day, and it was nice having Sam drive so we could stop when we wanted to. Unfortunately we missed the lions that had been spotted the previous day, and we didn’t see any leopards either. No predators. As Sam put it, no reason for us to be scared, except when the rhino that was literally larger than our little sedan crossed the road in front of us. I was thrilled though. The giraffes and zebras were absolutely amazing in person. I stood outside of the car for a bit while several dozen zebras trotted past me. It was pretty cool.

There are a few photos on facebook, so check them out here if you like. The way I pay for my internet discourages me from posting pictures on the blog.

Ring Fingers

Whereas in the US we wear engagement and wedding rings on our left ring fingers, and in many other countries they place them on the right, in Kenya each finger with a ring symbolizes something different. The ring finger means married; the pinky finger means single and looking; the middle finger means separated or divorced. Unfortunately I don’t remember the other two. This was all explained to me last night when, for the second time while dancing with someone at Dallas, I was asked if I was divorced because of the ring I wear on my middle finger – my Nana’s engagement ring.

I’ve thought a lot about wearing this ring here. I’ll be absolutely devastated if it gets taken from me. But because it means so much to wear it, I’m taking the risk and crossing my fingers that no one ever pries it from my hand. I guess I’ll also accept that people may assume I’m divorced, which actually I’m fine with.

Matoke, chipati and sukuma wiki

John taught me how to make matoke last night as he prepared a delicious meal for Sam, Virginia and me. Matoke is boiled bananas (ndizi) and vegetables – he added an onion, a few carrots, tomatoes and a green pepper. And we served it with a perfectly ripe avocado and cocktails. I had matoke once before at a fly-ridden hoteli in Rigoma, but John’s version last night was much better. I think I can recreate the recipe, so I’ll give that a try next week.

Other meals here are usually a mixture of vegetables, rice, chipatis and chicken. Nearly every day for lunch in Rigoma, we have rice, beans and chipati. We order from Martha, who stops by the office each morning to see how many of us will take lunch that day. Then she says she’ll bring the food at 12:30, so of course it’s almost always there by 1:30. She walks across the compound carrying a bucket of rice, a pot of food and bowls and utensils. Her chipatis (round breads a little thicker than Indian naan) are great, though a bit greasy.

Back at home in Kisii town, Sam and I take turns cooking dinner. We have two electric burners, a skillet and a pot, so we boil rice or potatoes to accompany stir-fried veggies. Sam’s soya stew is good, and he likes my spicy vegetable-fried rice. Overall we’re pretty compatible roommates, so we have a nice partnership for cooking and washing dishes. When the electricity is out at home, which is at least once a week, Sam and I have dinner at the sports club. We order chicken with ugali, a maize dish that’s the staple of the Kenyan diet. Sam’s friends at the sports club are proud to serve local chicken, but we’ve seen those things walking around and eating trash, so the local connection isn’t that much of a selling point. Ufanizi is the other good option for dinner – their Indian menu is a nice change.

Sam and Benson are in charge of the Aqua Clara garden and greenhouse, so we’ve gotten a lot of free organic produce from there. The sukuma wiki (greens) and green peppers were especially tasty, as are the avocados and bananas we bought from the market a couple times. George, a Community Development Entrepreneur who works with us, has taken to bringing me fresh fruit from his shamba some Thursdays. So this week I got a huge bag of passionfruit and something that reminds me of guava. He also said he’d bring me a live chicken for my dinner once, but I adamantly declined. I really don’t think I’ll be killing my own chicken any time soon.