Karibuni!

I'm starting to get the hang of some of the key Swahili phrases now. Karibou (car-ee-boo) means "welcome." You hear that a lot here, because Kenyans are just so nice. Another one I've learned is "kwa heri," which means goodbye. Every time I hear it, I think of Chris Farley on that Japanese game show on SNL saying, "kwa-kee-sir-pee-nee-koo!" Whatever works to jog your memory, right?"

So I guess I haven't given much of an update lately...a house tour probably doesn't cut it, eh? Let's see what I can do about that... (Disclaimer: this will be more word-heavy than usual. But don't worry, I'll include slide shows.)

I mentioned that I was sharing a room with Bekah from Utah. That didn't actually last, but I feel like it accomplished what it needed to: now we're friends and we hang out. She doesn't live too far away, so we still meet in the mornings and run to the beach to watch the sun come up, and we'll go dancing or out to get cake. Or juice. (Turns out juice in Kenya is amazing. No matter what kind you get. I just got avocado juice the other day. Loved.) She directed me to a shop that sews skirts out of kangas, and she introduced me to the delights of drinking the juice out of a not-yet-mature coconut and then eating the meat with a spoon made out of a piece of the coconut shell. Yeah, I like Bekah from Utah.

I also like Bekah from DC, who I've been indirectly connected to from a lot of different sources prior to this, we've just never really connected ourselves. Apparently we needed to go to Kenya to be friends. That's okay by me. She just came out this week and is set on experiencing Kenya as much as possible for the 5 weeks she's here. So things have been busy since she arrived, but in a good way.

Our last roommate is Nicole from Mexico City. Such an interesting story she has! Her mom is 100% Spanish and her dad is 100% French, and she speaks English so she's fully conversant in all three languages. She also plays soccer on the club team at her school, and we got a chance to see her mad skills with a bunch of kids in the street today.

We've actually gotten to have a lot of conversations with her about the church because it just naturally comes up all the time. She grew up "Catholic" and has been very curious about Mormons because she's surrounded by us but she just doesn't know anything about us. She was very surprised to learn there were Mormons in Mexico City, because she's just never met any. One night she turned to me and said, "So tell me about your church." Everyone but me has served a mission, so she's basically gotten the first discussion and then some, depending on whatever questions she asks. Her interest seems purely academic, but it's always nice for people to have a good, solid source for this kind of information.

Work has been interesting. I've been learning a lot about what it's like to be a non-profit company that is still trying to grow and be self-sufficient. Yehu has made incredible progress over the past couple years. There is just still so much to be done, but who will do the work? The corporate staff is all stretched so thin. They work long days and come in on the weekends. (Although you would never know when you talk to them - they are all so kind and I've seen no outward displays of any kind of stress that they're all no doubt feeling.) Yehu needs more employees who are qualified, but they just can't afford to pay the kind of salary that would attract said employees. And at the same time, they've got some heavily aggressive expansion plans over the next couple years. Who is going to market this to new potential clients, and who is going to accommodate these new clients when everyone is already so busy?

Yehu is definitely making the most of having access to educated, free labor. I've been keeping very busy with working on my own projects, and with helping the stats guy, Omar, to get caught up. One of the big things I'm focusing on here is making processes more efficient - using shortcuts where they're available, eliminating steps that aren't necessary, and so on. I'm learning that the corporate office may have some inefficiencies, but the biggest problem is in getting those in branches out in the bush to use technology. They have the tools, they're just hesitant to use them. I'm hoping to make it out to some villages to do a little training with these people, to help them to get more comfortable with what they have.

Enough about work. Let's talk about the weekend.

I took Bekah DC and Nicole to the beach. On our way back, we met a guy in a wheelchair named Anthony who has led a fascinating life. He's done multiple marathons in his wheelchair, including in the Olympics (his fastest time was 1:51). He's also done a triathlon, and he knows how to kite surf and he coaches other people on how to do it (they call him Mr. Wind). He offered to teach us, and I may take him up on it. He also has a brother who works for Tsavo West National Park, which just so happens to be where we were hoping to go on a safari in a couple weeks. He says he'll hook us up with some sweet deals. Awesome.

We also visited Mamba Village, a crocodile farm (mamba means crocodile). Lots and LOTS of crocs there. As it turns out, they raise them there and everyone can come see the live crocodiles during all sorts of phases of life, but they also sell croc-skin purses and shoes, and you can eat the meat. Kinda creepy, since we just bonded with the live ones. (But yes, I ate the meat. It was delicious.) They also have a botanical garden there, and some spiders and scorpions and snakes. It was a cool place, and we got to take some of those pics that would never happen in the US...

We took a nature hike that day, too, in a place that used to be a quarry for the cement factory. They restored the place and now it's a lush jungle forest-looking place with giraffes, tortoises, monkeys, hippos, and other African wildlife. (Did you know the hippo is considered to be the most dangerous animal in Africa?)

Today we took a self-guided walking tour of Old Town Mombasa and several different churches/temples in the area. We didn't actually go inside any of them, but it was still interesting, and it's helping me to connect the pieces of the city I know. At this rate, I'll be able to navigate Mombasa by the time I leave.

A word about my branch. It's just solid. It is well-organized and there are some stellar members. I’ve been blown away by the Gospel Principles classes we’ve been taught – the understanding of the teachers, the questions asked by members in attendance, and the answers given. Today was Branch Conference, so the Mission President was there. (And they're from Idaho Falls!) This mission actually covers all of Tanzania and parts of Kenya including Nairobi and i don't know what else. These people really are pioneers out here.

My Relief Society is a riot. We're learning out of the LDS Women's Handbook and we're in the section of the book that covers homemaking skills. The last two weeks we've been talking about nutrition and how it relates when you're pregnant/have a newborn. Let's just say, we have some highly opinionated people here, and sometimes there were some outbursts (in a room that echoes). But because of the location and cultural beliefs and life situations, questions came up that you'd never hear in the US. Some were funny, some were not so funny. Let me give you some examples...
* Q: What are the 5 food groups? A: Carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and water. Milk is included in all of them.
* The teacher asked everyone to come up with three balanced meals using 100 shillings (about $1.30). There was a huge outburst that this was NOT ENOUGH, but then they did start naming foods. The first was cocoa. The third was sugar.
* Q: if you have HIV and you have a baby, should you breastfeed?
* The teacher asked everyone in the room how much their baby weighed when it was born. If the weight was too high or low, everyone would ask what they did wrong. Everyone went nuts when someone said her baby was 5 kilos (about 11 pounds).
* Re: women who go on bedrest during pregnancy: could this have been an effect of using "family planning pills" prior to pregnancy?
* You're supposed to eat fruit every day, but what if you can't afford fruit?

These are in sharp contrast to the questions and problems we may discuss back home. Some of them did make me laugh, some brought me quickly and humbly to the reality of life here, and some made me wonder what is being perpetuated here because of cultural beliefs about different situations. I am definitely interested to see what is to come in the ensuing weeks of Relief Society in the Changamwe Branch.

As an aside, could someone in the northern hemisphere help resolve a debate? We've been talking about the Coriolis effect, that water drains in a different direction depending on which side of the equator you're on. Could someone up there watch the water next time it's draining out of the sink or whatever (but not the toilet because it could just be the way the water is forced to flow - I want to remove all bias) and tell me which way it rotates? Down here, it's clockwise.

I updated my Kogod blog the other day with a bunch of random pieces of information about things I've noticed around here, so if you haven't had enough yet, you can see it right here. I just found out that my blog is currently being featured on the Kogod website, and they used my favorite Mwambalazi picture to do it, so that's pretty awesome. A nice reminder that going to a small B-school is cool because it allows everyone to be a rock star. Thanks, Kogod, for making me look good.