(I typed this at the end of my first day in Mombasa, Oct 25th, but am just getting internet connection to post it)
First full day in Mombasa: complete. I haven’t stopped sweating since I arrived in Mombasa – I guess Janet my Nairobi house help was right when she said it’s a human furnace. As I write this I’m sitting on my bed that has beetles crawling over it every couple of minutes and listening to a woman sing some gospel sounding songs outside of my window. I could see the stars tonight! In Nairobi I couldn’t see them – I think it was from all of the pollution. Today was a success. I woke up to the rooster right outside of my room at 4:30. We have about 30 chickens that the family collects the eggs from and sells. And this time I’ll definitely know where my chicken comes from! The cows that are on the other side of my room started mooing at about 5 am. Early morning.
At my internship, I basically only did introductions and met some of the women who are in the small loan groups. The next challenge: most of them only speak Kiswahili. I gave my introduction in Kiswahili, and am grateful for those 7 weeks of Kiswahili classes that we had, but this will be a challenge. I’m not positive about what my responsibilities will be at the internship, but I will hopefully figure that out soon.
My internship is on the Mombasa island and I live on the mainland about a 30 minute car ride away. Once I arrived home, it was time to milk the cows for the 2nd time. I milked a cow!!!!! My host mom and I milked Natosha the cow! Never thought I would do that in my life! She said I was better at it than the men she’s seen milk cows, and she said if a man wants to marry me I can now insist that he gives me cows like the Maasai women do since I can now make use of them. My host mom is awesome. Super welcoming and very motherly. She and I made French fries later that night and it was fun! However, she is the biggest food pusher I’ve ever met. During our orientation we were warned that when not taking 2nds/3rds, the Kenyan moms will think that we don’t like their food. I didn’t find this to be true in Nairobi, but wow is that true here. Also, we drink piping hot tea A LOT. I’m already sweating constantly, and adding hot tea make it just keep coming. My host mom told me that I should drink more hot tea because it will make my body perspire and lower my body temperature. So I drink more cups of tea…
I have 6 weeks in Mombasa, 1 week of testing in Nairobi and then I’m home! Time’s going to fly!
Also – tidbit of the day: I went to the Uganda/Kenya soccer match 2 weekends ago in Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi. We had a terrible time trying to get inside of the stadium because they only opened a few of the many gates. We had bought our tickets in advance and we didn’t even get in until 30 minutes after it had started. My friends and I noted that logistics are definitely a problem in this stadium. Well this past weekend 8 people were trampled to death in that stadium. The stadium managers only had 2 of the 15 gates open, and it started to rain, so the crowd rushed in…crazy.
Miss you all, love you all. Good Night!
No comments:
Post a Comment