Driving = Sensory Overload

Nairobi is a city of three and a half million. Kitale is 150,000 including the containment area. That includes the surrounding area, people that would come to town to shop. So although driving isn’t the challenge here that it would be in Nairobi, it still requires a different set of skills than driving in the US.

You can see from these photos that you are sharing the road with many different types of vehicles. The most common mode of transportation and cheapest is by foot. It is amazing to see the number of people walking. At times it almost seems as if Kenya is a huge anthill with constant movement of people from one place to another.

When you start looking at public transit you’ve got bodabodas at the first level. They are bicycles with a passenger seat on the back. (An interesting side note: the way they got their name is because people would hire them to cross the Kenya-Ugandan border. Hence the name, bodaboda (border). Not only will you see people riding on the back of the bodaboda, you will see them loaded with firewood, groceries, sorghum to feed the animals, bricks, sugarcane, water, etc.

Moving up the economic scale are pikipikis, or motorcycles. You can tell that you are nearing a major intersection along any road when you see a group of men and
pikipikis or boadbodas ready for hire. It was interesting to note that any time our bus stopped on the way to Kitale, suddenly there were several pikipikis right beside the bus door ready to take passengers anywhere they might like to go.

I’ve written about matatus before. They are similar to minivans that have seats for fourteen but often carry many more. They are considered to be public service vehicles with the right-of-way in pretty much any situation. Watch out especially for them. They might stop at a moment’s notice of pull out right in front of you.

We use the British system of driving on the left side of the road. You need to look left-right-left for oncoming traffic, not right-left-right. Most major intersections in Kitale have a roundabout. Make sure you go on the left hand side of roundabout and yield to anyone on your right. The nice thing about roundabouts is that they have signs that help to distinguish them and let you know where you are. For example, I turn to go to my school at the Eveready round about, the bookstore is by the cattle sculpture roundabout, John’s school and the cathedral is at the Lions’ Club shelter. Even though we live in a residential neighborhood, we have a roundabout at our corner. I guess it’s nice to know that if we ever have car trouble we only have to walk a few feet to hire a bodaboda or pikipiki.

Then there is the car itself. The steering wheel is on the right side of the car. You shift with your left hand. I think all vehicles here are manual transmission. You are constantly downshifting for large speed bumps, deep ruts in the road, slow moving vehicles or going uphill. The blinker is on the right side of the steering column, not on the left. Both of us keep turning on the windshield wipers rather than the blinkers! Oncoming traffic is right beside you, not across the car. You need to hug the center of the road. If you go too far to the left you will hit a large speed bump, fall off the side of the road, or hit some other slower form of traffic. Russ assures us that we will indeed get used to driving, but at this point there is so much to be thinking about. Driving isn’t natural yet.

Biggest Changes

Recently one of our nephews asked, “What are the biggest changes you have experienced in moving from here to there?”

So here are my answers:
* Food: no fast food, no already cooked food at grocery stores, no mixes or easy/fast to prepare food. Even if you go to a restaurant, you usually have to wait 30 - 60 minutes for your food because they have to prepare it once they get the order. The food is much healthier here because it doesn't have all the chemicals and preservatives to keep it from spoiling. The fresh fruit is wonderful:) It is allowed to ripen on the tree it tastes so much better. The meat (beef and chicken) is tougher here and not as tasty. The fish that we've had has been very good.

The Kenyan typical diet is tea and white bread for breakfast, that’s it. Many don’t even eat a noon meal. (Our teachers in language school didn’t.) In the evening they eat ughali and sukuma wiki. Sukuma is like spinach and ughali is kind of like cornbread, but not really. It has the consistency of really, really stiff mashed potatoes. Unless they are educated, they don’t use silverware. They pinch off a little sukuma and then a little ughali using their thumb and forefinger. Kenyans eat many starches: ughali, rice, pasta, potatoes, much more than we do. They love sugar in their chai (tea) often putting in several spoonfuls.

*Few fixed prices. Except for stores and shopping centers that cater to the Western market, there are no set prices on items for sale. You barter and bargain for everything. We aren't very good at it yet. You go shopping and see something that you might want to buy. In America you look at the price and decide whether or not you really want it. Here, you ask the price. They always say, "For you, I will give you a good price." Then they give us one that is highly inflated because we have white skin. People with white skin are rich. That sounds silly, but it really is true. We have SO-O-O-O much more than most Kenyans. At that point we usually walk away because there is no way we are going to pay that kind of money. Then the vendors will say, "Come back, we have to talk about the price. The price is not fixed." So, if you are interested, you give them a price. Then you talk about it, back and forth, back and forth. It's a good idea to talk to people ahead of time so you know how much things are worth and you don’t pay too much if you do get it.

Last week John went to buy some bananas and avocados. He went to a fruit market that probably has about 15 fruit vendors. We have bought from this one lady several times and always before her price on bananas was pretty good. She wanted 80 Ksh for an avocado. He went to another lady and got the avocado for 50 Ksh. Altogether 10 bananas, 2 avocados, and 1 mango cost 180 Ksh which would equal $2.50.

* Almost every building is in a compound (behind a wall) including houses. You can't go into a parking lot at stores, hospitals, businesses, etc. without having to go through a gate and an askari (guard) letting you in. Security is tight. When you go into the parking lot of large stores or the malls in Nairobi, the guard gives you a piece of plastic kind of like a key ring. I'm guessing that they have as many of those pieces as parking places in the lot. When you leave, you give them the plastic back. Again, a security guard is there to take the plastic and open the gate.

* In the stores that cater to the rich there are workers in every aisle. I'm assuming they are watching for shoplifting. The good part of it is that there is always someone to ask for help if you can't find anything. You soon get used to people watching you as you shop.

* Police carrying semiautomatic weapons.

* Even when speaking English having to really concentrate and listen carefully so that you can understand what they are saying. Accents make it hard to understand. Then there is the fact that people here speak British English and not American English. Believe it or not, they are different.

We are now in Kitale and staying with fellow missioner Kathy, who lives in a house on a dairy farm. It is so lush and green here. Click here to see some pictures of the trip to Kitale and some photos taken on a walk while visiting Kathy.

Final Nairobi Days

It seems that most of our days in Nairobi have been packed with so many things to do. As you know, Mary is also a Maryknoll Lay Missioner that we met during orientation last fall. That means we have been together since September. She has decided to go to Mombasa while we are going to Kitale. So, once we finished language school we decided that we wanted to do some fun touristy things before we parted ways. Click here to see some pictures we took.

First we’ll start with graduation. The ACK Language School offers courses in many different languages including Chinese, Japanese, French, and tribal languages. However, most students are African learning English. We met people from Somalia, Southern Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, South Korea, Indonesia, Sweden, Turkey.

The final day of school was graduation. Each class was presented and asked to speak a few words. The advanced English class presented a skit about the importance of being able to communicate with one another in a common language. The most touching part was Jackson, a refugee from DRC. What is left of his family is currently living in Rwanda in a refugee camp. Because he finished secondary school, he was allowed to study English, but money has run out so he was forced to return. He wanted to sing a solo to us. Many a tear was shed.

Now that obligations were completed, it was time to play. Saturday was a trip to the David Shedrick Wildlife Trust Elephant and Rhino Orphanage. They rescue and care for baby elephants and rhinos who for reasons of poaching, accidents, droughts, etc. have no mothers. The public is only allowed to visit for one hour each day. While we were there, they brought out two different groups of elephants for a half an hour each. First they drank a bottle of milk. We’re guessing that there was probably about two gallons of milk in those bottles. Then they played in the water and finally threw dirt on themselves. Only a tiny rope fence separated us from them. At times you could reach out and touch them. Several times we had to back up so they wouldn’t step on our toes. Mary even got "kissed" by one of them. He left a dirty mark on her nice clean pants. The youngest was only 2 months old while the oldest was about 2 ½ years.

Sunday we met Dr. Susan, a MKLM who has been in Africa (Tanzania, Sudan and Kenya) for 25 years. Due to health reasons she has been in the US for the past year and just returned this week. We had heard so much about her. She is quite the MKLM icon being recognized by President Obama this winter for her service to humanity. She is moving to Mombasa and will be Mary's roommate. We immediately felt at ease with her and look forward to seeing her again in the future.

Monday was spent at Amani ya Juu. It is a sewing project for women from many African countries. Once a woman is accepted into the program there is a four year training program where she is taught sewing skills. The first six months are intensive, but after that time she is able to begin sewing and earning money for her family. She pays for half of a treadle sewing machine to use at home and the organization underwrites half. You can see from the photos that they do have electric machines and even a quilting machine in their workshop. Their beautiful handcrafted items are very high quality. They do their own silk screening, tie dying and batiking. Of course I asked if it was possible to purchase some of the fabric. I came home with two pieces.

The tour of their facilities took much longer than we expected so we weren’t able to make it back to Flora for lunch. That was no problem because they had a beautiful coffee garden that served lunch. It was a beautiful place, and a delightful way to spend the final day together with Mary in Nairobi.

Easter

Easter Sunday was spent with our fellow Maryknoll missioners. Vikki, a lay missioner, lives and works in the Kibera slum here in Nairobi. She has been a great help to us giving us rides, delivering our mail, suggesting places to go, and answering our multitude of questions. We wanted to make sure we had the opportunity to tell her good-bye before we moved to our new homes. So, we offered to take her out for Easter brunch after church. Of course, we wanted to go to church with her and needed a ride. She graciously accepted.

Her church of choice for the day was St. Austin’s Catholic Church. It is the oldest Catholic church in Kenya. The mission was founded in 1899 and the first church was built in 1911. It is an impressive church. From the physical surroundings, you feel like you are in an European or American church with all the stained glass and gilt. However, once the choir started singing, you knew you were in Africa. It was a beautiful service.

Her favorite place is Java House. They are a chain of coffee houses that have a wide menu of not only drinks but food. Choices, choices, and more choices. We sat outside enjoying the weather and all decided to have breakfast. John had an omelet, Vikki a croissant egg and sausage sandwich while Mary and I had eggs huevoes. We all agreed that we ate more than we should have. We spent the afternoon at her house visiting and enjoying one anothers company.

It is a tradition at the Father’s house to have a special Easter Sunday evening meal. They called and invited us as well as the Peace Team Sisters. It was a nice gathering and gave us a chance to also say good-bye to the priests and sisters that have been so kind to us. We had shrimp and ham for dinner. We almost thought we were at Grandma’s house for lunch.

It was a wonderful day. Click here to see pictures from our Easter celebrations.

Good Friday

Yesterday we did need our gum boots for the Good Friday services. Father John decided that we ought to see a different parish, so we went to the Reuben area to St. Jude’s Catholic Church. This church is much smaller than the others we have been to. Father John actually said Mass at different church and delivered us to Father Luigi, an Italian priest who also helps out on weekends.


In Kenyan’s eyes, Stations of the Cross are more important than the actual Mass on this holy day. We joined the procession almost half way through. Unfortunately, that meant that we were at the back and couldn’t get any good photos of the large cross they were carrying through town, Father Luigi, the deacons and altar boys. When we got there, they were already on the eighth Station. We are guessing we walked about a mile to complete the last part of what they call The Way of the Cross.

You can see from the photos here the conditions of the street. We are in the season of the long rains. It has been raining every day. Yesterday it rained at least three different times. They consider the rains blessings because they help the crops to grow and that ensures food for the coming year. However, I don’t see how people who are forced to live in the slums consider them a blessing. Imagine having to walk through these conditions several times a day and then come home to a house that doesn’t have running water. How would you ever stay clean?

Once we arrived at church, it was a good hour before Mass started. Several people welcomed us and introduced themselves. Peter and Peter became our guides. They gave a tour of the church compound and told us about their parish.

In order to empower themselves and generate some income, they have built 56 houses for rent behind the church on church property. In comparison to most slum housing these are wonderful. They are built on cement slabs so they are up off of the mud. They are built out of corrugated tin, have cement floors and measure 8 feet by 8 feet. Choos with running water (toilets) are available on the grounds for free. Houses have electricity and water is available for a small charge.

There is a wonderful wide open grassy area for the children to play. It even has playground equipment! They have built a hall for church activities which is also available to rent for special occasions. A computer class is offered with ten computers to the community for a small cost. There is a school for nursery and kindergarten students.

Mass was very nice with probably 300 people attending. Most Kenyans travel back to their villages and families if they can for Easter, so the crowd was light. In fact, Father says that Holy Thursday is the worst traffic day in Kenya as so many people are traveling. Mass lasted for almost two hours.

After Mass, the youth of the church were mobilized. That meant they were gathered and they asked us to talk to them for a few minutes. We told them a little about ourselves and they asked some questions. Then they gave us Kenyan names. Mary is Acheng, a Luo name for one who was born during the rains. John is Nyambira, also meaning one who was born during the rains in Kamba. I am Mumbi, the first Kikuku woman.

Soon, it was time for us to leave. Rose insisted on escorting us back to Father John. There was no way he could drive to the church. There was a gentleman during the procession before Mass was showing us the best way through the mud. We later found out that once the people noticed us in the procession (how could they not notice us), they had assigned him to guard us. Likewise, Rose wouldn’t leave us until we were safely in Father’s vehicle. The kindness of strangers is so humbling.

Mubarikiwe sana pasaka hii na amani na upendo. (May you be blessed this Easter with peace and love.)