Thursday, September 15, 2011

Updates from Nairobi

I'm really bad at this whole blogging business.

Updates: I've been going to Kibera, I got braids, I gave blood at the hospital yesterday, and I'm going camping tomorrow.

I started going to the Kibera Girls' Soccer Club (which is really a school) with my friend, Jeremy, to help with the girls' play. The play was this Saturday (it was amazing, look at the videos on my Facebook). At first I was incredibly pissed off that people lived like that in the slums, and that no one was doing anything about it. But after being with the girls for a while, I realized that yes, it sucks that they live in a place like that, but they're making the best of it, and they're doing a great job of it. It's incredibly inspiring to see a group of young girls reap the rewards of all their hard work, and raise money for themselves.

That same day, in the morning, I visited the giraffe center and got to kiss some giraffes! We were allowed to put giraffe food in our mouths so the the giraffe could take food from us! I got some lovely pics, particularly of another guy in our class really going for it. He got along splendidly with that giraffe...



After the play, some of the other students and I went to an Egyptian restaurant and enjoyed some Tuskers while watching the Wisconsin football game online...until we lost the feed. Then we relied on updates from Grace's boyfriend, and Roy gave me updates on the OSU game. We stayed out for a while, and Chris and I had an unfortunate almost run-in with some men with AK-47s, but the night ended with all of us happily in our beds (except maybe Steve, he may have hit the floor first).

Also, I managed to find time to get braids last Friday. I tip-toed into the Kenyatta market, trying to avoid attracting too much attention (impossible, I stick out a bit) and after a few minutes found some ladies who were willing to attempt the challenge of braiding a mzungu's hair. At one point there were five ladies working on my head, it was quite the experience!

The final result!

On a darker note, the local hospital put out a request for blood after an explosion in a nearby slum caused by a oil spill. Over 100 people were killed, and many more were injured. A lot of the MSID students went to give blood and food to the hospital, and there were tons of people lined up there when we arrived. The hospital staff said the response had been great, and that they'd reached their goal for blood.

Tomorrow I'll be going camping with Simon's (one of our coordinators) family, in Ngong Hills. It should be a great time! We will be matatu-ing out there (a kind of crazy bus), and then piki-piki-ing (a motorcycle) to the camp site. Apparently we're going on a guided hiking tour, so I'm very excited for that.

The majestic Matatu.


That's all for now, I'm off to write some papers for class.

Mia

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