Wazungu in Tsavo

I'm in an endless game of catch-up that will no doubt continue until I leave Kenya. This last bit of time is flying by, and it's so packed full of adventure that I can't seem to find the time to document. I don't want to give it all to you yet because each thing deserves its own moment in the sun. For now, I'd like to introduce you to the wonderful world of Tsavo and Amboseli.

All the wazungu went on a little safari over the weekend. The original plan was to see Tsavo East, Tsavo West, and Amboseli - an aggressive schedule, but we just wanted to see it all! There was some miscommunication between our travel agent, us, and our driver, that resulted in us completely bypassing Tsavo West and essentially making things up as we went. It was a grand social experiment of how people act when things don't go as planned, and a big reminder to me of two things: (1) I don't like traveling in big groups. There is an element of flexibility I like to have, and it just doesn't exist when there are more than two or three people. The ability to wing it and be spontaneous is completely gone. Everyone's got their own opinions + no one wants to make any decisions = lots of wasted time. (2) Things just operate differently in Kenya. Everything takes longer than any typical American would anticipate, and you've just got to learn to be okay with that.

Despite the change in schedule, we managed to have ourselves a grand time. We opted for the camping-style safari, which was great for me because I haven't gotten to do any other camping this summer and I needed my fix. And we had a cook!!! Never in my life have I eaten so well on a camping trip. It may have spoiled me forever.

But enough of the talk. On to the highlights!

We saw a waterfall, Lugard Falls, that had cut itself through the rock over time. This was especially a favorite time because we actually got to exit the car and walk around. I literally skipped down to the falls. I'm pretty sure I held back from doing a cartwheel.

The best time to go looking for animals is when the sun is just barely coming or going, which means lots of amazing sunrises/sunsets we got to witness.



We saw a lion love triangle - a young, tough lion happened upon an older lion honeymooning with his lioness. There was a skrimish between the two, and in the end, the young dude stole the lady away while the old dude looked on. That was when we happened upon the scene.  Poor guy.  He was pretty beat up - physically and emotionally!


Elephants! Lots of elephants! They get a little testy when there are baby elephants around - which was almost always. They puff their ears out to look more threatening and lunge at you. Duly noted. We kept our distance.



As we got to Amboseli, the sun was going down. So I was looking out one window at this amazing sunset, and then I'd turn and look out the other window at Mt. Kilimanjaro. Which one do I look at?! What a happy dilemma.

Driving through Amboseli in the dark, we saw masses of animals around the marsh that don't come out in such abundance during the day. Lots of them were halfway submerged in the marsh.  It was too dark to capture this image, but I borrowed one to give you an idea. Just imagine that it's also dark.

There are a lot of Maasai living in Amboseli, and once we arrived they stopped by - probably to try to sell us some bracelets. Basically, they were standing there, huddled around me and Bekah DC and UT, watching us set up our tent. They did the same thing to me the next morning as I dressed my wound from a minor mishap in Tanzania. For whatever reason, this was hilarious to us. Uh, did you guys want to help, or were you just going to stand there and stare at us?

Other than that, there were just lots of beautiful animals!




Just to get you all excited about when I come home, I plan to post a "best of" album with all the pics everyone else has been taking that I just haven't gotten my hands on yet. There are some real good ones, and sometimes I hold back from snapping shots so I can just enjoy the moment.

I hiked (not climbed) Kilimanjaro

Literally.

Last Saturday, Bekah DC and I got up bright and early to brave the roads of Kenya to day-trip to TanZANia. Destination: Moshi, one of the main starting points for climbers ready to brave the not-so-steep-or-treacherous slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The drive itself was quite an adventure, full of ghost elephants and trucks, long stretches of wiggity-whack messed up dirt roads, a suicidal donkey, a herd of babboons, and some other wildlife (goats). And since it's in the past, I feel like it's okay to paint a better picture for you...

Kenya drives British style - left side of the road, right side of the car. Tough to get used to under any circumstances, only we were drivng a big truck - like a dad-sized truck. I don't like driving cars that big when I'm familiar with the roads and driving norms, and in this case I was familiar with nothing. And since I'm not used to the dimensions of the car from the right side of the car, there's always that tendency to stray into the shoulder. Which we did, plenty of times.

The trip was a straight shot - we drove on the divided highway (more fun) from Mombasa to Voi, then headed west to Taveta, the border town. We had some great expanses of red-tinted dusty African landscape, we saw lots of baobab trees and pineapple farmland, and I got some glimpses of mountains - the first I've seen here. (They reminded me of southern Utah.) Voi to Taveta was 110km of pothole-infested, washboard-laden, unchecked dirt road. I think they tried to put down some gravel once, but it didn't work out too well. There was almost zero traffic, which was very good, because the entire time we were on that road, we were weaving all over it in search of the smoothest route. (Bekah took video. I'll try to post it later.) Basically, it required some heavy concentration.

Which reminds me, does anyone know how washboards form? I wondered that again and again during the 2-3 hours we spent clanking down that road, I just couldn't think straight enough to figure out the physics behind it. And now that I can think straight enough...I still don't know.

This was probably one of the most spontaneous trips I've ever taken. I realized on the way down that we had no idea what we'd do once we got to Moshi, or where anything was, or really anything at all. It was kind of a rush and a boost to realize that this didn't phase me in the least.

There were many African angels who helped us through our day...

*The petro station attendants at Voi that showed us the turn we'd just missed to Taveta.
*The Sergeant at the border who helped us figure out where to put our car when we learned we couldn't drive across because we didn't have the log book (still don't know what a log book is), and then kept the creepy dudes away who were lurking nearby, and then arranged for some piki-pikis to give us a ride for us across No-Man's Land, the 4-km stretch between borders.

*The guys at the police station who let us park our car there for the day (could there BE a safer place to leave a car?).
*The Tanzania immigrations guy who didn't put up a fight when I countered his request that we pay $100 for a visa, which is literally double what every foreign country besides the US pays for a visa (some countries like to do that).
*The guy we met on the matatu (or dala-dala, as they say in TanZANia) into Moshi who was kind enough to offer assistance once we got to Moshi. We didn't use his guidance, but it sure is nice to meet good people.
*Frankie and Mikey, the two dudes we finally found who were willing to charge us a halfway decent rate to take us on a hike 1/5 of the way up Mt. Kilimanjaro for a couple hours...

...which allowed us to see Materuni waterfall ($250 for a cab ride to a trail head? Uh...yeah, no thanks. I mean, I know mountain climbers are all prepared to drop a couple G's when they roll into town, but seriously?).


*All the little kids who decided to join us on our hike and pose in our pictures with us.

*And all the little kids who didn't.

*The guy we met on the dala-dala back to the border who convinced the driver to take us right up to the border since it was already dark (hey, cramming in and dropping off 30+ people and a mattress can take awhile).

Bekah took her turn at the wheel for the drive back. There are no street lights here, and we were basically in the bush for the first 110km, so it was DARK. Driving in Kenya is a team sport! The one not in the driver seat was responsible for watching everything on the periphery, so both of us were wound up pretty tight and giving 110% concentration to our tasks...which is why I wasn't so tactful in loudly and very suddenly announcing when an elephant popped up on the side of the road, literally right next to the truck. And it was BIG! From my seat, I had to look up at it to see the head, the tusks, the trunk...and then it was gone as fast as it appeared. I'm pretty sure I almost gave Bekah a heart attack when I yelled, "Did you SEE that?!?!" Luckily, she didn't swerve off the road and we survived the ghost elephant sighting.

Back on the main road...a word to everyone who may be driving at night on Kenya roads in the future: some semi trucks don't bother with the tail lights. So you may or may not actually see it until you're practically upon it (remember, no street lights). Beware of the ghost semis. BUT the lack of street lights gave us a fantastic view of the stars once when we decided to pull over and do a little stargazing. Living in DC, I don't get to see stars much. And a lot of the constellations we saw were exclusively southern hemisphere stars, so it was a double treat!

Home safe, glad I went, 17 countries down, 100+ to go.

Coming soon...buckle up for some safari adventures...

A-Town

I'm breaking from the norm of talking about Kenya to give some love to my US residence...or at least to a small section of my town where I don't actually live. Those of you who know can vouch for its accuracy.



Coming soon: update on my weekend adventures in TanZANia.

Let's talk about food...

It's one of my favorite subjects.

Given my level of interest, I figured maybe everyone else likes it as much as I do, and thus you'd like to be enlightened on my food situation in Kenya. Here are the kinds of things that have made their acquaintance with my palette:

Beans and rice. A classic. And when I get it for lunch, it costs me about 60 shillings. That's less than a dollar, and it's usually more than I can eat in one sitting. Sometimes I splurge and get beans with a hint of coconut flavor. Aw yeah.

Also pictured is muchicha, one form of greens I've had here. Kind of like kale.  It's a little bitter, and it bears a strong resemblance to seaweed. Although I have to confess, it looks and tastes exactly like every other form of greens I've eaten. They're all cooked down the same way wherever I go and whatever I get, and if I ask what's in it, they'll tell me, "African vegetables." Awesome. The one you see in the next pic is sukumo. Notice any difference? Yeah, I couldn't, either.

This is githeri. A slight variation. This time, the beans are accompanied by corn (these grains tend to be a little tougher than you may typically be accustomed to), and a little cabbage. I swear, the first time I tried it, I was reminded of the flavor of Shepherd's Pie. I can't say I've had that impression again since the first time, but there you have it.

Ugali. Kenyans go nuts over this dish. They eat it all the time and crave it when they don't. To those of us who are accustomed to food that isn't very, very bland, this may come as a surprise. It's basically just cornmeal. It's kind of like mashed potatoes, only thick enough to hold its form. You'd never eat it alone - it usually would accompany the greens or some meat.

If ugali doesn't provide enough flavor for you, you may consider trying mukimo, another traditional dish. They mash together beans, corn, potatoes and greens. The whole time I was eating it, all I could think of was Green Eggs and Ham. I just may try to recreate mukimo next St. Patrick's Day.  In this picture, it's the green stuff that doesn't look like the greens I've already shown you.

Chapati. Think tortillas. No, wait. Think nan. Eh...it's something in the middle. It's like a thick tortilla that is fried. Like lots of things I'm mentioning, it tends to accompany a more flavorful dish, like beans or the beef stew I tried on my first day.

Pilau rice is also a favorite around here, and it's eaten with beef stew. But unlike the other favorites, this one's got plenty of flavor. The rice kind of tastes Middle-Eastern. The closest flavor I could compare it to would be the rice I get at Kabob Palace (Afghan food) in Crystal City. The resemblance is striking.

Other than that, there are lots of mangos, bananas, mangos, passion fruit, mangos, and other fruit that is extra-sweet and crazy delicious. As is the yogurt, and the juice. I am helplessly hooked. Hopefully once I get back to the US, I won't have a hard time adjusting back to fruit that wasn't picked earlier that same morning.

Kenyans are serious about their food combinations. If you're getting multiple items, you'd better make sure they match. If it's not an acceptable combination, don't worry. They'll let you know. Let's say you tried to order some mukimo and sukumo. They will tell you flat-out that this is a bad idea, and then they'll offer alternatives, and then they'll walk away to go fill your order that they determined you actually wanted.

And just for fun, I'll show you a couple things you may see from vendors on the streets of Mombasa...not like I've tried any of it, because I don't buy food from street vendors.

Cassava. Think yuca. Here, they'll fry them like potato chips in these big, black, wok-looking things...

...or they'll fry them like french fries (which everyone here calls "chips").

And the coconut. I confess. I've gotten this off the street lots of times. I think I've already mentioned this delicacy before. They take a not-yet-mature coconut, hack off the top with a machete, and let you drink the coconut juice inside. When you're done, they make a spoon for you out of the coconut shell and then you get to eat the coconut meat. It's bliss.


Cooking conditions at my house aren't exactly optimal. We haven't ended up cooking much at all because it's just such a large-scale production. First of all, we just don't have many options at the grocery store. Second, we have a hot plate and a microwave, and nothing else. Finally, after the meal we have to boil water to wash the dishes, then wait for it to get cool enough to touch. By this time, it's getting late, and we've just lost the ganas to get it all done. Add all that to the end of a long day of working in a hot office, and together it equals minimal cooking and dinners that are less than balanced.

So Bekah DC and I have a plan. We order just a little more than we typically do at lunch, and we take all the leftovers home, and voila! We eat lunch and dinner until we are filled, typically for less than $2 a day. Step two was to invest in some paper plates and plasticware, and we successfully eliminated the washing of dishes. Granted, we don't have so much variety, but we get to be healthy and lazy, at a fraction of the cost!  It's win-win-win!

Ninataka shani!

This past week was kind of a turning point. On the work front, I've gotten to the point that I'm comfortable with what I'm doing, I'm friends with my colleagues, I've made some great progress on the projects I'm working on, and I've established some much-needed boundaries (mentally and otherwise) on expectations. On the non-work front, I realized that I've reached the point where the strange things feel normal, I am oriented to the city, I know the matatu routes, I've picked up the essentials with the Swahili, and I'm feeling lighthearted and comfortable with my surroundings. I've reached equilibrium and my confidence has been restored to its optimum level.

Basically, I found my groove.

I really am happy with the work I've been able to do so far out here. Earlier this week, I showed Omar the templates I've been working on that he can use to automatically generate reports for all of the different levels of the organization. In the long term, I'm envisioning this to be a tool that benefits everyone because it's just going to mean faster access to data that is easy to read and use. In turn, this means more loans for more people. In the short run, it's all about making Omar's life easier. And if that's the only result I get to see while I'm here, that's enough for me. He's been a definite bright spot in my time here, even though I'm pretty sure he's been more stressed out than I ever have. Anyway, when I showed him the templates, he LOVED them. I think I can confidently use the term "gleeful" to describe his reaction.

The running joke has become that he increases my dowry every time I show him my latest time-saving implementation. So far, I'm up to a cow and two elephants.

I got to visit some villages this week, with Bekah UT and some CHOICE people. We were going to do interviews with people from villages where they were building latrines or digging wells, to put on their website and get the word out about what they're doing. I got a taste of just how difficult it can be to make things happen here. Nobody has a watch, or a calendar, or a phone, and forget about email. So you basically just drive the two or so hours into the bush, and you hope that they're there when you show up. If not, you may have to drive around trying to find them, or you may have to just move on to the next thing. Working at the grassroots level with these rural villages is more work than they get credit for.

Most of the kids were afraid of us, but in one village they were extra-excited to see us when we rolled up. So of course, I rewarded them by taking lots of pictures (and letting them take pictures) to entertain them while the CHOICE people did their thing. They loved it, and I...well, you can see what a blast I was having.  Each time we snapped a photo, everyone would huddle around to look at it, then they would all squeal with delight. Two of the little girls started holding my hands, and one of them kept looking up at me, deep into my eyes, and then she'd begin spouting Swahili. Never have I wanted to be fluent in Swahili more than at that moment.

This weekend was full again. We took a trip to Shimba Hills Nature Reserve, and since we're technically living here, we got to pay the resident rate ( = significant savings) to get in. With our trusty park ranger guide, Frederick, and his trusty shotgun in tow, we explored the reserve in style.

We got to see lots of animals...


...and we got to hike to a waterfall and explore around it.

None of these animals have been artificially placed on the reserve, and I love that about Kenya. What you see is the real deal. We decided that Kenya's new motto should be "Kenya keeps it real!"

We also took a boat ride to Kisite Island (just a few miles off the coast of Kenya/Tanzania) to do some snorkeling. I don't recall ever seeing live coral before, but if I have, it was nothing like what I got to see that day. It was just so vibrant and colorful and alive. After that, we opened the sail of our old-school boat and sailed all the way back to the marina. I didn't bring my camera for this leg of the journey, but others did. I'll add some pictures in once I get them. Instead, I got to fully live in the moment and enjoy the incredible, peaceful wonderfulness that is sailing on a ruddy sailboat with our Kenyan crew. Here’s a snippet of the conversation Bekah DC and I had during our sail:

“Hey, remember that one time we went sailing off the coast of Kenya on an African sailboat?”
“At sunset?”
“Right after we went snorkeling?”
“When the temperature and breeze were perfect?”
“Yeah, that was fun.”

Relief Society this week was all about disease prevention. Nothing too crazy this time, but I was really impressed with the knowledge and understanding all of the women had about how to treat/prevent the diseases in this area. We talked about the major diseases that can be found around Mombasa - and how to stay away from them. 

I don't know how all the local ladies were feeling at the end, but us mzungus had turned into a bunch of hypochondriacs. We all were feeling like we wanted to rush home and disinfect and sanitize every inch of our apartment that surely must have been suffering from major infestations and diseases. We found a cockroach the other night - the first bug to show its face in our flat apart from the usual flies and mosquitos. (No sightings since then, but speaking of cockroaches - have any of you heard about this???) But the disease-ridden flies! And mosquitos! What if we have bedbugs?! Did we leave this fruit out too long?! Can we bathe in our water?! Or wash our clothes?! (Oh wait, our water wasn't running that day. Well, no problems there!  But yes, if you're wondering, we can.)

We've calmed down a little bit since then. Well, most of us have. Basically, I know I'm doing what I can to be cautious, and outside of that, I refuse to live in fear. I can actually feel the security blanket of prayers on my behalf, and there's power in that. My halfway point is tomorrow - I've got one month left here, and it’s going to be a great one.

P.S. I've gotten multiple requests for things to bring back from here...and I've forgotten every last one of them (except a magnet for grandma!).  Could you please refresh my memory?  You know who you are.  :o)

Ninapenda baba yangu

Thanks for being the greatest.

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.

Time to come clean...

For those of you who may still be thinking I’m living in a mud hut, I need to fess up. I’m not. I may spend a couple nights in one before I go, but the Nyali Beach area is a little nicer than that. I actually kind of live in a double-gated community (which sounds pretty cool, until you learn that almost everything here is gated). To make up for my façade, I’ll give you a tour of my real digs.

This is where I sleep (complete with mosquito net), although the mattress situation has changed. Now I actually have a mattress that is too big for the bed, so it hangs off the edges and is bowed in the middle. Aaron calls it the soft taco. I’ve actually decided this is the most comfortable mattress in the house.

Here’s the front room/living/dining area…

The kitchen, complete with propane-powered hot plate and water cooler. Fortunately, we upgraded to a refrigerator that is slightly better-equipped to handle the high volume of traffic created by five people. Maybe only slightly. But I’m grateful to Louis for the upgrade.

And here is my shower. Speaking of coming clean - do you see the water running there, in the bottom right corner of this picture? No? Let me give you a closer look…

How about now?

This is how I’ve taken my shower for the last few days, by contorting myself under that little trickle in the cold water tap that I think is meant for washing one’s feet. Since I came here two weeks ago, our water has shut off twice, and for the last three days we’ve almost completely lost all water pressure, to the point that only the faucets close to the ground still produce water. We actually have a hot water switch we can flip on, but I’ve decided it must just be for show.

Now, I don’t mind at all that my showers here are cold. I actually kind of prefer it, especially after my morning runs to the beach. And I am very happy to have access to clean, running water. I actually feel a little bad complaining about such nuances even in jest, after seeing the water that village women have access to. With that perspective in mind, I’ll just chalk this up to being part of my African adventures. Anyway, on with the tour.

Let’s step outside. This is my flat – the one on the bottom corner. Most of our complex is actually empty, but the residents we have met are very nice. Aaron is locking the door, because he’s the only one strong enough to make the key turn.

Here is gate #1. It is manned at all times. Behind the gate, you can see your friendly neighborhood mosque. This is the one that has been so kind as to remind us five times each day when it’s time to pray. So far, they haven’t missed one yet (although I confess that half the time I sleep through the first daily reminder).

And up ahead is gate #2.

I hope you’ve enjoyed your stay. If you want to come visit, you can sleep on the little wicker couch in the front room.