In Kenya!

Well, I have arrived safely in Kenya. I have been here for almost a week already! I had written some posts on my laptop but am unable to transfer them right now... Anyway, we spent the first few days at Lake Nukuru National Park, having orientation and getting to know one another. It was wonderful! I saw baboons, vervet monkeys, giraffes, 3 lions, rhinos, hippos, warthogs, many types of deer, etc. etc... It was crazy. I was able to begin getting over my jetlag. The only downside was that British Air lost my luggage, even though I had a 3.5 hour layover... I got it on Thursday. But it was a good experience anyway, I had to learn to live on very little and I got super dirty, which will certainly come in handy here.

I also got to know the other Americans very very well. What a great group! One of my favorite people is another girl named Stephanie, who goes to school in Arizona. We're disturbingly similar people, and we have a lot of silly fun together. There are so many other great students though, and I'm glad to have gotten to know them well.

At orientation I learned a lot: specifically, where and what my internship will be. The internship begins in late October (earlier than I had originally thought). I will be working with widows and orphans near Kisumu in western Kenya, near Lake Victoria. The Kenyan NGO has meetings for the women and children (two separate programs, by the way), home visits, and income-generating activities for the women. I'm very excited for this! I think it is just up my alley. I also found out about my host-family for that duration of the year; they're in a very rural area and there are six kids, but somehow I still get my own room.

Yesterday we came back to Nairobi to be adopted by our host families. It was scary as heck! But mine is very nice. My mom is named Janet, and the dad is Michael. Their children are Valdo, Tamara, and Lovell, but Janet's sister Lillian and her 2 y/o daughter Gloria live there are well. Valdo is in 15 and at boarding school though, but still, it's a full house. I share a room with Tamara and Gloria, who sleep in the bunk above me. I still feel like a guest rather than family though...

This morning I went to church: WOW. It was very scary, to be honest. At one point I had to go up to the front of the church because it was my first day there, and shake the hand of the pastor. EEK. But hey, it was a good cultural experience and I think my host-parents will like it if I continue to go.

Tomorrow we go to school for the first day, to buy cell phones, get a tour of the city, etc. I'm excited to get started with a routine finally.

Some cultural notes: Time here is completely different. It's like rubber time. Everything revolves around tea time, and what's going on is eternally unclear and flexible. Trust me, it can be frustrating. Example: we went into the town of Nukuru on Friday to do a little shopping. We were told we would leave at 10, after tea. Well, at 10:30 we had tea. Then we didn't leave until 11:30. It's almost always like that, or just the details are fuzzy or they change. People are very relaxed and going with the flow. Now if you know me well, you know I am a control freak, and very punctual. I suspect I will have completely changed in that regard by the time I come home!
Also, relationships are very important here. Everyone knows everyone, family is important, they stop and talk to whomever they know in the road just to say hi and ask how their family is doing. Kind of funny, actually. Tea and religion are important as well.

Overall I'm doing pretty well. Thanks for all the comments people are leaving, it makes me really happy to see them and know that people are reading. From now on I should be able to update regularly, at least until I go into the bush, or "up country" as it is called here.

Love,
Steph