Just a Normal Day

Instead of my deep ponderings on subjects such as my new watch or Kenyan hospitality, I'm sure you all would like to know what on earth I'm doing with my days!

Most days I wake up around 6 am. Girls who I've lived with before will tell you this is more or less normal, but now I've got the excuse of jet-lag. I'm 11 hours ahead of Cupertino, CA and then 8 hours ahead of NYC, so I'm still getting used to this. Anyways, breakfast with chai tea is a norm. Although, here the chai is really not the kind you get at Starbucks. It's actually a tea bag steeped in hot milk and then served with those brown sugar crystals. No cinnamon and spice and everything nice. It's great stuff, though, but I think it's a slightly different kind of milk because I sometimes feel a little woozy after drinking it.

Mornings activities have varied over the past few days. Often I have Kiswahili lessons with Bwana (Sir/Mr.) Ezikial have been great. He's got a wonderful sense of humor, really knows how to explain the roots and conjugations to my non-lingual brain, and has the "practice makes perfect" concept down. To display my talents, here is one of our common conversations:

Bibi Claire: Hodi! (Anybody at home!)
Bwana Ezekial: Karibu (Welcome)
Bibi Claire: Hujambo (Hello)
Bwana Ezekial: Sijambo. Karibu keti. (Hello back. Welcome and have a seat.)
Bibi Claire: Asante Sana. Habari gani (Thank you very much. What's up?)
Bwana Ezekial: Nzuri. Na weweje (I'm good. How about you?)
Bibi Claire: Nzuri pia (Good also.)

Then we ask each other a bunch of questions about the kids, and the home, and how each other's mornings have been... It's pretty great, and I'm really trying to use what I have learned so far. So, an application to real life for you guys would be that in the Lion King movie, when that little bird sings "Asante sana squashed banana...!) he is singing, "Thanks very much for the squashed banana." Random, I know.

I've been celebrating Christmas in Kenya with an AIM missionary Christmas party complete with a white elephant gift exchange. I brought chocolate chips which are evidently hard to find here, and got an African styled soap stone box. The hot item of the day,though, was a sage green shag toilet cover. Oh, those crazy missionaries! I also got to attend a Christmas program at AIC church this morning. The choir sang beautifully, and there were even 6 young boys playing violins, and a few members of the Nairobi Symphony. The Christians here are truly wonderful people; so dedicated to the Lord, happy, and welcoming.

While on a walk exploring my neighborhood, I picked up on the tremendously international nature of Nairobi. Of course there are the native Kenyans, but then there's the old British settler descendants, Kenyans of Indian heritage, and even more recent Asian immigrants. I don't understand yet what has drawn all these ethnic groups to this city, but it's created a truly cosmopolitan environment. Despite this, I'm pretty sure I really stick out as I was followed for a quarter mile by a boy begging for money from the supposedly rich American. I wish I could have shared part of my orange, but I'd just tossed the last of the peel... I'll talk more about giving to the poor later.

What else... Oh, I've made friends with the children of the Mayfield Guest House staff. There are some staff families who live in the Mayfield compound, and the kids get to run around wherever they want. So when they were out kicking a soccer ball around this jioni (evening), I walked out and joined a girls' team. There were these two sisters, Laura and Betz, who were actually quite fast and not afraid of the boys which made me feel better about playing harder. I should have asked the rules, though, because I thought it was fine just to hit the back wall, but evidently one must hit the 8 in. diameter basketball hoop pole in order to score. So my actual scoring stats went way down. By the time everyone had to go home for baths, we were all covered in red clay and sweat, but we had so much fun, there's a rematch scheduled for tomorrow whenever I'm home.

(I've included some photos of my walk around town today and the soccer match.)