"Whatever you thought, think again"

Saturday morning Michelle (from Australia) and I woke up at the normal time, but instead of feeding the infants at 8:30, we walked down the main street of Roysambu to where you catch the matatu. Matatu's are small vans that are the main mode of transport in Nairobi and the surrounding area. There is no limit to how many people can fit in a matatu... Our route number is 44 or 45, coming and going from Roysambu to Nairobi, but unfortunately they're not very well labeled. But as we crossed the busy, dusty street, all we had to do was say, "45?" to the eager conductors and we found our matatu right away. It was quite the wild ride, I felt like we were going to rear end the cars in front of us every time, but it never happened, despite the morning rush hour chaos. Once in the city, we found the Barclays band and took out more money than I would have liked, but went and paid a deposit for a Masai Mara safari that I'm going to do the last 3 days of my time in Kenya- so exciting! After that a man from the VICDA office took us to the Masai Market. Both Michelle and I had been looking forward to this all week! We were immediately surrounded by so many crafts and insistent vendors, "looking is free! Touching is free! I give you good price!" It was a little overwhelming at the beginning, but similar to my initial experience at Happy Life, things gradually slowed down. "Pole pole," they say, slowly slowly. We left the market with our bags much heavier than when we arrived. And my mzungu (white person) skin was a little fried on my shoulders. We went back to the office to meet Peter, our guide for the tour of Kibera. We took another matatu from the city center out to the slums, and got off on a crowded and busy street, with countless small shops and stands. Peter led us into a small passageway that I never would have otherwise noticed and suddenly we were in a labyrinth of short, compacted, hand constructed buildings. Into another passage way and between hanging laundry we were taken into Peter's house, which was very neat, clean, and homey. We dropped our bags and out the door we went. He showed us the Kibera clinic, the public latrines, the water supply, and nearly everyone we passed, especially children, said "HOW ARE YOU?!" Walking farther down the street the pungent smell of burning trash filled the air. The dumping sites are along the side of the road, and it is not uncommon to see people bent at the waist, hunting for scraps of something useful in the rubbish. As we entered the disorienting maze of Kibera again, we had to watch our step for the small streams of black water that run down, full of modly trash and grime. Every person smiled, said hello, and all the children wanted photos, which we were happy to take. It was so elating to see their faces light up when they looked at an image of themself on a small screen. They'd all scream, laugh and point. We somehow ended up back at Peter's house, where he showed us an old special edition National Geographic magazine, with "AFRICA" on the cover, and below that, "Whatever you thought, think again". These were Peter's words. He worked with the National Geographic crew, particuarly the photographers, and there is a small artile about him, as well as a large photo. He's a really sincere guy who is really adamant about bringing change to Kibera. Before going to the slums, I was mentally preparing myself to feel sorry for everyone there, but after leaving I really felt more sorry for myself. Not a single person there seemed unhappy. It was kind of refreshing actually, to be around people who really love other people, there was such a strong sense of community there that you could see on everyone's faces. Africa as a whole is misjudged greatly, and it was great to prove stereotype wrong in an area that is typically viewed so poorly.
We walked for awhile along the train tracks and on a dirt path along the road, eating small plums and sugarcane on the way to where we were spending the night: one of VICDA's host families. We had a good meal, and crashed. The next day it was off to Nairobi again to visit the August 7th memorial park and the Elephant Orphanage. Unfortunately, we forgot our maps... and most people had no idea what we were talking about. So we wandered and ended up visiting another market, although much smaller and a lot quieter because it was a sunday. There we met some very friendly and comical vendors, who thought I should come back to Kenya when I finish my studies and marry a nice Kenyan man, like one of them. We had a lot of laughs and got some good deals, and then went to find lunch. The place where we went had a huge menu, and lots of different cuisines. They had a veggie burger, so I decided to try it. However, when they brought it out, there was no burger. It was just veggies on a bun. Really, when you think about it, it makes sense! There's no such thing as a vegetarian burger. After several matatu rides that took us to the wrong place, and a short and fun motor bike ride back to Happy Life, we were back "home". We both slept so well, and this morning it was so hard to get up! But it was nice to see the babies again, and so many of them that were sick made huge improvements over the weekend. We've been making nametags for each of the babies to put on their crib, and we're going to make posters of their birthdays too. We've found our niche; the babies keep us busy and happy, and now that they're not all sick and have diarrhea, we're getting to know their personalities and it's pretty fun. We take the older kids in small doses. And we've met the lady in charge, Rosemary, who was on holiday for most of the first week, so communicaiton is improving.

Spit and poop

I don't even know where to begin. The afternoon that we got to Happy Life was utter chaos. They put the children in this "playpen" which is more like child prison, and told us to go play with them in this metal cage thing. Over the course of an hour I was spit on three times, hit, grabbed, hanged off of, cried on, two kids peed, and another kid tried to drink his pee off the disgusting floor. It was a bit overwhelming. We weren't instructed at all as to what our duties were, and we've had a lot of misunderstandings, but it's only the second day and we're beginning to figure things out. Basically you can choose what part of the home you'd like to focus your time on, such as feeding the babies, changing/playing with toddlers, or playing with the kids. The babies eat at 5am, 8:30am, noon, 3:00pm, 7:00 pm, and 12am. We have the choice of going at either 5am or at 12am. Today we tried going at night but we fell asleep and the alarm was useless. So tomorrow we're going to try to wake up early. It's pretty exhausting and I've seen, smelled and felt some interesting things... Lots of baby spit up and yucky poopy diapers. But it's pretty easy to make free time between feedings. Yesterday I bought some mangoes which I can't wait to eat when they ripen.
Today we took 3 of the babies to the hospital and it turned out that one had a virus, one a bacterial infection, and the other pneumonia. I was holding one of them while they got an injection and I almost fainted. I felt like a total wimp but it freaked me out. The baby didn't even begin to cry.
The food has been great so far. Nothing that I can say is specifically my favorite but some great potatoes, lentils, and lentil like grains. They have this white tasteless mush stuff that is actually really good with veggies and other stuff. I've been drinking a lot of tea too. Also- no mosquito bites yet! But then again, I am kind of in the city, or at least 30 minutes outside of it.
My feet are so gross. Just walking down the dusty street for 15 minutes and they're black. We actually do have a shower in our room, but it's electric so I keep shocking myself. The accommodations are quite nice compared to what I would have expected.

7 airports, 5 flights, 3 days

After traveling across 12 times zones through 7 airports and on 5 different flights, I'm finally in Nairobi. Sorry to my parents for not contacting them from London, but my connection was really close and I had no time to try to message or call you. On both flights to and from London I met some really nice people. And coincidentally, the guy I met on the flight to Nairobi is applying to Colorado College. He's spent his gap year in South Sudan. Very cool. It was nice to talk to someone my age in a similar position who I could relate to. When I landed (an hour late) I was met by David, a driver for VICDA who took me to the volunteer house. I didn't arrive until almost midnight, so I slept, even though it felt like noon. This morning Michelle, from Australia, and I had orientation, then went to the city center of Nairobi to get oriented, buy water, and go to the ATM. We're planning to visit the slums next weekend (the largest one in Africa) and the following week to go to Mombasa. Right now I'm writing to you from a small cyber cafe with a really crappy keyboard about 30 minutes from the city center right across the street from Happy Life Children's Home. I'll be here for the next two weeks, helping to look after over 50 children, mostly infants and toddlers, with Michelle and one other volunteer from Argentina. It's very hot and dusty, but I'm enjoying the absence of snow!