Wow the world it crazy!

I have exactly 2 weeks left in Nairobi, and then I'm off to Mombasa! The locals here keep telling me how hot Mombasa is, so I'll have to make sure I have plenty of sunscreen when I leave! I felt much better this week than last week, and had a great week!

Yesterday on my way to school I had my first mob justice incident - I was walking with Wendy and Ellen on a main road and a man came right up to us and started walking very closely next to us. He seemed to be slightly intoxicated and kept trying to hold our hands. Finally Ellen pushed his arm away and said, "Go away," but he kept walking next to us. A truck was on the other side of the street and must have been watching this happen because the guy in the truck started yelling at the man to leave us alone, and then he held a club out of his window and told me to take it and hit the man with it! I didn't do that, so the guy got out of his car and started walking towards us holding the club in the air and telling the man to leave. The guy left!

Our teacher explained mob justice to us as Kenyans who are tired of police not doing anything about the petty crimes and they're tired of pick pocketers and other things like that, so they take matters into their own hands. There's no 911 to dial...the cops are usually too corrupt to trust...and so it's comforting to know that Kenyans are looking out for each other.

We went on a field trip yesterday with our professor, Jama, who I believe should run for president! We started by going to the only park in the city where we could see the main government buildings. It was a beautiful, small area, and Jama said that only 20 years ago were black people allowed to be in the park after 5 pm. Then it turned into a "European only" zone. There are many places like this in Kenya, and especially Nairobi, because of colonization. I really wanted to get out of the bus and go for a run in that park since there were sidewalks and green grass - something I haven't seen in a while - but I knew that there's no way I would do that. It's too dangerous. I once again realized how much I take for granted such as security and safety and being able to just go for a run back home.

We then went to the formal industrial sector that included General Motors and Firestone. It felt a little like Minnesota. Then we went to the informal industrial sector. We visited a huge metal making place where there were at least 50 men hammering away at recycled metal to make pots, spoons, decorations, trunks, and much more. It was super loud, hot and dusty - hard work. Our professor asked one of the workers to let us try doing the hammering - it was hard!

Afterwards, we ate lunch at a beautiful area in the neighborhood where the president lives - it was a huge contrast from where we had just been. The extremes of poverty and wealth in Kenya are hard to comprehend.

Later that day, I went to Kibera, one of the biggest slums in East Africa, with some friends who volunteer at an after school program there. I had no idea how big Kibera was - estimate population is between 700,000 and 2 million people, and it is quite the experience. When we were walking to the school, many many kids would giggle and say "How are you!" I don't think they really knew what this meant because when we'd say "Good, how are you," they'd laugh and run away. One even ran up to my friend and just touched her skin and ran away haha. The school was a small building no bigger than my living room/kitchen area in Grand Forks and it had a small office on the second floor. It is all run by volunteers who went to the school when they were children and are not "paying it back" to the kids. I could see through the walls, and when we went upstairs to the office...slightly feared for my life because it seemed to be just a bunch of 2 by 4s nailed together. The kids put on 3 small skits for us that they've worked on to learn about AIDS/HIV prevention and the political violence of 2007. It was incredible!

Later that night, our group of MSID students went to a small Korean restaurant for our friend, Katie's, birthday. There is free internet at this restaurant, so we have become regulars, and we know the staff/owner pretty well. The owner even made Katie a birthday cake with her name on it!

Kenya is huge with lots of problems and lots of good things; many happy people and many greedy people....and this is just one country! Wow the world it crazy!