I’ve been working on this one on and off for the past couple of weeks… finally got around to adding some pictures and other brewing thoughts… nope. This one doesn’t have any profound connections or deep dives, just some fun observations from my first few weeks here! Additionally, it isn’t a masterpiece, since I’ve been adding to it slowly, “today” is almost never referring to the same day!

My very first initial thought: I live in a beautiful country. Woah. That is very strange to type out. I live… not in the United States of America. Before I left, my mentor told me to write down my first impressions. “Things you find strange, or strike you as totally different.” She said… the idea? The longer I live here, the more I will take for granted the incredible things that will become normative in my day to day life. Below you will find thought fragments, pictures, and even some complete sentences about some observations I have made in the past few weeks since getting here to Kenya 🙂 Welcome to the rambling mind of Amy…

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The first exciting wildlife sighting was actually on my first day here… baboon crossing the road as I walked to the mall on my first day here! I was tickled, I hear they’re actually a nuisance. Think an African version of the raccoon… but hey, I still thought it was awesome. A few days later, the little guy below was enjoying a snack from the garden as I was on a tour of some of the ABS (Africa Based Support) offices with my organization.

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There are lizards that crawl on the walls. I was listening to a lecture on culture, and all of a sudden, a lizard is scurrying across the ceiling line of the wall. Also, about twenty minutes ago when walking into my room, there was a little tiny baby lizard about an inch long scurrying across the hall right outside my hotel room (but like, actually inside… ya know?).

The tree hyrax sounds terrible. Like a woodpecker on steroids, alternated with a dying anything. Cat. Dog, squirrel- you name it. Also, it comes out around 8pm and calls almost all night long. Maybe. I fall asleep eventually, so I can’t really speak into when it stops. Click below if you want your ears damaged… it really gets going around the 20 second mark… (Tree Hyrax call – YouTube)

There have been quite a few songbirds I’ve seen… the fun one to watch are the wagtails… their name describes their behavior- their tails truly wag up and down! Today I found a beautiful white feather on a walk with an iridescent green tip. Definitely showing up the grey and white seagul feathers I usually see!

Someone taught me when I was young that Africa was hot. They are wrong. It has been a lovely 55-72 here in Kenya… mostly on the colder end of that range, with some rain sprinkled in. Apparently south of the equator it’s actually winter right now, which, the portion of Kenya I’m in, is. So, my shorts I packed in the bag for these three weeks are not being worn, and the sweatshirts are. At the same time. The one day it got remotely sunny I was thrilled, and then promptly got sunburned. My sister was right, “The sun will be stronger there, you’ll get burned more easily!!!” But alas, I forgot to listen in the incredible 97 minutes of sun I’ve seen.

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There are different car/bus horn sounds. Some are typical like you may be accustomed to, but the surprising ones sound like an old fashioned “a-ooga” in rapid succession. Maybe this is a specific warning sound, like, “This bus is about to stop… be ready to get on!” Someday, I may know!

One of the two styles of public transportation busses look like a 50’s style VW camper van (right). The other form of public transportation (left) are always elaborately painted, and all are stuffed full of people. That’s what happens when a 15 minute ride only costs about a quarter.

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All the juice I have been served is fresh. Which is amazing. Also, more like a smoothie than a juice, since sometimes it’s puree’ed instead of squeezed. Passion fruit juice is my favorite so far- tangy and sour!

I haven’t figured out the traffic rules or patterns yet- but they DEFINITELY drive on the wrong side of the road.

People sleep in the median of the street. Or like, on the side of the road… the road medians seem to be a meeting place of sorts? Also, this grass is used as grazing grounds for goats, sheep, donkeys and cattle.

Today, I was riding around with a friend, we entered a brief traffic jam where a herd of cattle was being moved… using the road.

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Another experience with the public transportation- people whistle at you as a pedestrian as the bus drives by. At first affronted, it was later explained to me that they’re simply letting you know that the bus is coming and you can wave them down to stop for you to get on if you’d like. They whistle at everybody!

The hotel staff are SO. KIND. Hospitality is highly valued at this location and the staff are the picture of professionalism. They notice things and go out of their way to make sure we are accommodated. Example: They noticed there were many kids in our group, they got their hands on a trampoline for them to use (yep. In Kenya… shocked me for sure!). We were playing volleyball with make-shift lines on the grass (haphazardly strewn garden hoses and shoes for corners)… the next day, there were lines painted with some sort of oil… none of us had asked, yet still they appeared!

It get’s dark early. Like, 7pm… makes me sad thinking about my 10pm dusk I’m missing in the pinnacle of Michigan summer. I’m wondering when the sun sets in December… will I have later days then? Or not so much since I’m near the equator?

We (including workers not going to RVA once training is finished) visited my future home as a training group and I fell in love.

The road to get there rides like a Kentucky Highway. The view of the Rift Valley is stunning. The landscape/scenery changed vastly as we drove out of Nairobi and up towards Kijabe.

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The buildings were all a lot closer together than I expected. The playground is my childhood dream. My house is adorable- with gardens straight out of a fairy tale!

The campus is enchanting.

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I truly am not sure if I’ll make it through the next two weeks of training, my anticipation for my new home is growing exponentially.

I’ve also been pleasantly surprised learning about other workers within the organization that I’ve been able to interact with while here! It has also been moving seeing the great need, even still, for more people to share the good news with unreached people all over the continent.

One of my favorite ministries is the English school that uses the Bible as a textbook- the desire for language in that area is so strong people of all faith backgrounds come to learn English, knowing the Bible will be the teaching tool (it isn’t a hidden fact or anything). Talk about a cool opportunity to open the door for spiritual conversations, while also meeting a real need and desire of the local people in the community of language learning! It’s been neat to hear about the work others are doing as it gives context to where some of my students are coming from.

A few more random thoughts I’ve had since beginning this post over two weeks ago…

• Fresh papaya doesn’t seem to have much flavor, or a very good texture. You may have a different opinion, but that’s mine!
• I do love passion fruit, and passion fruit juice! Tangy and sour, it’s kind of amazing. Also, mangos taste WAY better here, or maybe I just don’t know how to find the ripe ones in the grocery store.
• The outlets are a funny shape. I’ve seen European style before coming here, but these are new.
• Lots of rice gets eaten.
• No two recipes ever quite tastes the same… I don’t think our cooks use recipes, I think they have guidelines in their heads for flavors, but just kinda make up the amounts as they go… everything has been incredibly delicious, but I have chuckled never quite knowing what I’m about to eat.
  

You can get WAYYYY more than I thought you could! People kept telling me, “You can get almost anything in Nairobi.” and I didn’t believe them because of the mantra of “Africa” I’ve been told my whole life. Fun fact: Don’t ever believe everything you hear about somewhere you’ve never been… check out this TED talk on “The Danger of the Single Story” if you’d like some perspective! (The danger of a single story | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – YouTube)

I thought I would likely lose weight when getting here since I’d be eating a lot less processed food, but alas, the grocery store is full of amazing chips and candies I fill my stomach with. Also, all the food I’ve been served has been delicious. Also, we have had “Chai time” at 10:45 and 3:45, complete with sugar filled tea, mandazis (think doughnuts) or samosas (think pizza pockets with a ground beef filling). I am definitely being fed well!

I CAN get Pringles here… but why not try the tortilla chips? They’re a quarter the price! Price is also something that has been interesting. It is doubly important to watch prices since I can get two of the same things for vastly different price when comparing a local(er?) brand to an imported from the UK/USA brands. For example, I was looking for a chocolate covered ice-cream bar and grabbed a Cadbury brand… then put it back for the local(er?) brand. Cadbury, 300 Ksh… the other brand for the exact same type of ice cream bar? 80 Ksh. (1Ksh is about a penny).

I found a yummy little coffee shop less than a mile away I’ve walked to a few days in the mornings before sessions begin. It’s not quite a starbucks, but it’s SO close! It sure has been fun to have a mocha every once in a while- something I thought for sure I’d left behind in the states! A different friend walked with me today and explained that the name, “Brood” actually is really close to the Afrikaans (and another language I don’t remember what she said) for bread! Here, I had thought they had a clever association to the word “Brewed!” Nope. They are actually FIRST a bakery, second a coffee shop! The more you know!

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I’m sure there will be many other things I find and see that strike me as odd or different, so maybe I’ll edit this and add more to this later, but for now, I think we’re ready to post 😉