Jambo!

I boarded my Ethiopian airlines flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which was a 10 hour flight (without a personal movie screen, by the way, not a fan of this airline). I had only one visual entertainment option, which was the second worst movie they could have ever played aside from a plane crash flick. I don’t know what the movie was called, but it was basically about two 19 year old American girls who went backpacking around Europe; when they arrived in France they shared a cab with another boy who said he was traveling, as well, but turned out to be a mob spotter and the two girls were kidnapped and sold into prostitution. Awesome. I never even THOUGHT about something like that happening; thank you for adding this fear at the end of my trip. I’ve shared cabs with random backpackers along the way and haven’t had a problem, but now that idea is in my head so there will probably be no more of that unless I know they were on my plane. Ugh, fools.

Anyway, who hours later, I’m on my two hour flight to Nairobi. On the plane, I met two amazing people, a woman from MN who works for Operation Smile and a gentleman from New Zealand who works with World Vision in Sudan. Their lives are amazing and awe inspiring; they basically travel around the world saving lives; how much more fulfilling could your career/life be? Anyway, I dropped my stuff off after meeting the Manager, Ken, of the Bush House and Camp (my 7 dollar a night hostel on a gated property right outside of the Nairobi city center) and sat down to use the Internet when I met two guys, Vlad from Canada, and Ludwig from Germany. They were on their way to meet a young Kenyan college student to couch surf and I invited myself along, as travelers do.

We took a cab to the Kenyata Conference Center, which is a good place to go to get a view of the city. We had to wait for an hour before Oscar arrived, being that traffic here gets nuts around three. We then got in a Matatu, a local short bus for public transportation that’s basically a party van playing music videos with massive base levels and are decorated with images of hip hop singers and rappers. They also drive like maniacs, swerving between cars, accelerating quickly, and stopping too rapidly and closely to the cars in front of them. I was sitting shotgun, so I had a front row seat for the entertainment, the highlight being our near collision where we literally missed a car by a few inches. Since the jam was so bad, our driver decided to cruise up on the shoulder and then, with one tire on the top of a plank with a deep ditch in between the other tire which was cruising along the curb—like a vehicular tight rope act. We got to Oscar’s apartment in Meatland (I’m assuming that that’s what the area is called because there was a big sign outside with this written on it) and hung out there for a few hours with his cousins. We went around the market buying food and then he cooked a beef stew with ugali (like stiff mashed potatoes but made out of maize flour, like what I helped make in Thailand with the runners) which is all eaten with your hands. We also watched Kenya’s version of “So You Think You Can Dance?” called, “Can U Dance?” where they had a tribal challenge. This was interesting to watch the indigenous dances with their brightly colored, printed attire and expressive contractive movements. After, Oscar's cousin drove me back to the hostel and everyone else went out to a club. They tried to get me to come along, but I was so tired, having been awake for about 38 hours, smelly and greasy. I wasn't in the mood to be a spectacle; the only female Mazungo (whitey) in the room--no, no, no, not tonight.

I passed out until noon the next day and felt magical. I went into town because I was supposed to meet with Vlad and Ludwig to do some sight seeing, but there were cell phone issues, so I went to a grocery store for a while to find a snack. I then sat on a bench with my instant noodles to people watch when I met John, a 25 year old Kenyan. He started talking to me, telling me how his parents had died in a car accident two years ago and he works with flowers while his older brother works at the Hyatt Regency in Dubai and his sister in another hotel in Nairobi. He suggested a few things for me to do in the city and, since I had time to kill, brought me to the Sunday market. There they sell all hand made crafts, carved animals, paintings, jewelry, etc. They heckle a lot and it's more difficult to say no here than anywhere else because they reach you on a more humanitarian level rather than looking at you like an ATM. Luckily, John was there to get everyone to leave me alone. After, he brought me to the Cooperative Bank where there was a terrorist attack in August 2006; no a memorial park stands in is place. I never got ahold of Vlad so I went to a cyber cafe for a while. I had to ask directions from a group of people on how to get to Nakumut Lifestyle, which is a 24 hour shopping center with a grocery story and a cyber cafe, as well as other things. They were trying to figure out how to explain to me how to get there when the older man said he'd take me. Now, in India, whenever someone is "being nice" they want a tip. I'm really not in a financial place for this, so I said that I'd be ok. The woman then says, "Let him take you! He's not going to rob you! He's a born again Christian!" Ok, ok, ah, I'm sorry. He was very sweet but spent the entire walk talking about God and asking me about my relationship with Jesus. Um....I don't know. It's difficult to be honest here, that I'm pretty agnostic and basically find organized religion to be complete nonsense--man has flaws, humans can be selfish, and, I feel, that a lot of these religious texts have been translated to satisfy someone's agenda. Saying this to an preacher was...well...probably not my smartest move because it just inspired a more heated discussion. Luckily, the shopping mart was close by so once we arrived he shook my hand, said "God Bless," and let me on my merry way.

When I got back to the hostel, I met three cool Dutch girls, Cami, Dani, and Mari, who had been working in Uganda. Dani and Cami were leaving the next day and Mari came for a boot call...lol. Anyway, they were on their way out to dinner and invited me along. We went to a nice restaurant called Carnivore, where you paid maybe 20 dollars to get soup, salad, bread, a baked potato, and unlimited meat that they walk around carving off of skewers fresh off the grill. This included sausage, lamb, chicken wings and legs, ribs, beef, ostrich meat balls and crocodile--afterwards, dessert! It was amazing and we were all stuffed. However, the only downfall of the night was our cab ride to the restaurant. They had been using the same taxi driver and though he was reliable. On the way we were in the far right lane on a highway; a bus put on his blinker to merge and the driver, Simon, tried to speed up and pass until one of the girls yelled at him to watch out. The, the same thing happened with a SEMI-TRUCK! We were literally almost crushed because median consisted of a tall curb and a steep hill. All four of us yelled out, which is saying something since we're all used to, and rarely phased by, terrible driving and bad traffic. After, he almost ran over two trafic cones and a strip of nails. Needless to say, we didn't call him to pick us back up.

The next day, I tried to go for a run but failed due to an intense amount of traffic (pedestrian and vehicular). I went with Mari into town to try and find a money exchange and a Lonely Planet book, but we both failed, so we sat and had a drink until she got on her bus back to Uganda. I headed home and said goodbye to Dani and Cami, hopefully we'll all stay in contact on Facebook. Especially because Dani has a friend at Nike who might be interested in me (fingers crossed) and Mari has a lot of film friends. Plus, Mari and I got along really well and we had some interesting discussions concerning religion and philosophy.

I spent some more time wondering around the city the next day. I typed up my blog (here ya go!) and found a company that I can hopefully use to Hike Mt. Kenya. I was going into multiple shops to see where I could find the best prices when I accidentally entered the wrong building and a man stopped me and showed me where to actually go. I thought he was working for the company, but he had actually trailed me and must have been some sort of guide. I only found this out when I was leaving and he asked me if I wanted to see somewhere else. When I said no he agreed, saying that the last place I was wasn't very informative and I probably won't get a better price. Creepy. An odd way to go about it via Western standards, but the people here are generally very friendly and helpful. They love taking to the Mazungu, welcoming me to their country and loving that I'm from "Obama Country!!"

FOOD CORNER

Mabuyu- This is like a dried fruit with a pit in the middle and is coated with a sugar/pepper powder. I seem to be the only one who enjoys this food. It's a bit sweet and chalky w/ a spicy after taste once you've eaten a handful. I tried to offer it to some of the Kenyan women at the hostel, but they laughed at me.

Ostrich Meat Balls- Light grey in color, tastes a bit like pork (not chicken).

Crocodile- Light colored meat and very tender. The texture is a cross between chicken and fish and there are a lot of bones. It was quite salty, but this could have been due to how it was cooked.