Home is where the heart is...

And our hearts are in the USA! We have had great experiences here in Kenya and have learned so much. This time has given us a new perspective on life and has made us even more aware of how blessed our lives are. We have met many great people and been able to do some good we think. But now that our time is up we are very very happy to be coming home to our wonderful comfortable life in the U.S. Let us all be grateful for living in a country where we have so many opportunities to learn and prosper and work and improve our lives to almost any extent we desire. We are truly a blessed nation and we have so much to be greatful for.

Although our time in Kenya is over we still have several things to share with all of you so keep an eye out for new posts. We will continue to share experiences and pictures after we get back home.

Village Life

The original Yehu office and our home in Mwambalazi.

So we survived the village! I won't lie, it was rough. The people who live like that are tough people - we are less tough! The hardest part was not sleeping. It was so hot with no fans and we were both in a bed just barely bigger than a twin with a mosquito net that didn't really fit over it, so it was pretty miserable. We walked about 15k (we think that's about 10 miles) and with no sleep it was brutal. Other accomodations included solar electricity which gave us a little light at night and no running water. We had to take what we wanted to drink with us. The bathroom was like and outhouse, but no toilet, just a hole in the ground! That was a challenge for some of us. :)

Our bed that we didn't sleep in!

The "toilet".

Other than the aforementioned challenges and general really hard-ness it was a great experience. We are glad we went, glad we stayed just one day and just 2 nights and glad that it's over. We met with 3 centres (groups of women or men) and saw how Yehu disburses loans, and collects payments and savings, etc. We also went and visited some of the businesses that the clients were running which was very interesting. Emily bought a kanga from one lady and some treats from a man with a food stand (both were clients).

A Centre Meeting

The Centre Chief conducting business. Justin looking interested. (We couldn't understand a thing.)

Buying a kanga.

It was hard to belive that people live like that, and that is actually how about 95% of Kenyans live. At the office where we stayed we kept seeing people walk by with water jugs and then coming back with it full on their heads, so we asked one of the employees in the office to take us to see the well. It was just a hole that had been dug at the bottom of the hill to catch the rain water. The people use that water for drinking, cooking, and bathing. It was amazing.

Laundry at the well.

For me one of the neatest things was how bright it was at night time. A few hours after sundown we would walk about a half mile to eat dinner at a little restaurant (a very small mud hut with some small hand made bench seats and tables). We did not need flashlights for the walk. We could see the road, and everything around us with ease. I couldn't believe how bright it was. The sky and stars were very clear and beautiful.

Saturdays at the Beach

It didn’t take us long to find the beach and make it part of our routine. While the actual city of Mombasa is an island, it doesn’t have any beaches. However, where we live in Nyali, just to the north, the beaches are beautiful soft white sand including a large reef and the warm waters of the Indian Ocean.

We learned the hard way that staying on hotel property is the best way to enjoy the beach. They are very welcoming and accommodating especially if you spend some money there. We love to do laundry in the morning and then reward ourselves with lunch at the hotel, poolside, overlooking the blue water. Our first week at the beach we were so excited to feel the sand in our toes we headed straight there and little did we know that as soon as we hit the sand we were the prime target for the beach boys. Unfortunately these beach boys won’t sing us a good song, just the “welcome my friends, come see what I can sell you” song that we’ve heard so many times. We walked about 20 yards and were not left alone and could see several more headed our way so, disappointed, we headed back to the hotel. We have since learned to enjoy the beach from our favorite hotel, Mombasa Beach Hotel. We have made some friends with the staff and learned that if we leave our things at the hotel and look like we have nothing with us we are mostly left alone as we enjoy our long walks on the beach. It is so nice to be able to relax and finally have a good reason to feel hot and sticky!

I'm SO excited to be at the beach!

One of our first weeks, still a little pale!

Last week we gave into the tourists in us and rode a camel! We have seen them every week and it was something I couldn’t go home without experiencing. I thought it might be romantic, like riding horses along the beach, but it was way cooler than that! They are such huge animals! Our camel’s name was Bob Marley and he likes mangos and bananas. He got down on his knees so we could climb on and then when he got up with his back legs I was looking at the ground. Then he got up with his front legs and it felt like we were 10 feet in the air. It was a very cool experience.

We have only suffered the occasional minor sunburn and have thankfully not noticed any side effects from our anti-malaria medicine that can cause sensitivity to the sun! The beautiful Kenyan coast is something we have enjoyed getting used to and will miss a lot.

Nakumatt

A place where we feel a little more at home is the Nyali Nakumatt. This is where we do our grocery shopping and it is very much like a small version of Wal-Mart. (Even grocery stores in Kenya are amazing places, Dad!)

They have everything from bread to entertainment systems, hardware to yoghurt. We can find things like Kellogg’s cereals (which we don’t buy because they are about $15 a box), whole milk in a bag, Heinz ketchup (again super expensive), maize flour, Twix (that melts as soon as you step outside), laundry soap, insect killer, packaged meat (not the animal still to be cleaned), pasta and Prego, etc, etc. When we first arrived it was suggested that we shop at the Nakumatt because the markets were not safe. While we still stay out of the markets, we’ve found several fruit and vegetable stands on our way home where we like to by those things fresh. We’ve learned that Nakumatt usually gets their produce from the markets. That little tip has saved us from stock-piling too many fruits and veggies that go bad WAY faster in this hot and humid climate than at home. Unfortunately we still tend to get the mzungu price so it doesn’t really save us money! We usually shop about once a week and round trip takes us about 3 hours. I will not miss that when I can load my groceries into the trunk and be done for 2 weeks in about 30 minutes!

Loaded with groceries on our way back home we take boda bodas (bikes with seats on the back) to the matatu stage (bus stop) where we got on a matatu that takes us home.

The Amazing Matatu

This majestic creature can be found in all parts of Kenya, both rural and urban areas. It can move at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour and follows no laws of man. Its roar can be heard from miles away and although they are many they travel alone wherever they go. It is commonly used for human transport and can carry up to 22 passengers – at least that’s as many as Emily and I have witnessed. Legally they are only allowed to carry 14.

The routes are supposed to be painted on the side (you can kind of see it says "Docks" behind the door), but it is always good to double check with the conductor when you get on.

Matatus are the main form of public transportation. They are similar in shape and size to a Volkswagen van but they appear to be made by Nissan. They have five compact rows with three small seats in each row. Each matatu has a driver (who doesn’t count as a passenger) and a conductor (who does). The conductor takes your money and alerts the driver when passengers want to exit, or alight, as they say here. You can let the conductor know you want to get off by tapping on the metal sides of the van.

It takes skills to get in and out!

The matatus have a wide variety of horns and sounds which they use to get your attention so you will board their bus. The conductors will often try to talk you into going wherever their route will take you to get you in the van. If there are several matatus going to the same place the conductors will try to convince you that their van is better than the others and herd you in that direction, although the price is never dropped.

Matatus don’t seem to follow any rules of driving. They are constantly cutting others off, stopping at any time to pick up a passenger and speeding as much as they can. Time is money after all. Although it is illegal they try to pack as many passengers into the van as possible if they think there are no cops ahead. As I mentioned the most Emily and I have been on with is 22 passengers.

The total today was 22, our high score! This was taken from the back row which contained 4 people.

This was a kid from church - don't worry I hardly ever do this to strangers.

We take matatus wherever we go each day. We know the prices for most of the routes we use by now but the conductors often try to over charge us. Our co-workers tell us that it’s because of the color of our skin and everyone assumes that white people, or colored people, as they say, have lots of money. This has been true with pretty much everything we have tried to buy for the first time. For example, the first time we took a bicycle ride (another form of public transport for short distances called a boda boda) the riders tried to charge us 200 Ksh each. I think we ended up paying 40 Ksh each and we later found out that the going rate is 20 Ksh. We have come to love price tags and despise bartering since we don’t know what a fair price is for most things.

Well we got a little off subject with this one but we feel that the tangent was apt.

What time is it? It’s laundry day!

So we have a very nice stackable Kenmore washer and dryer unit. Both of them have glass doors so you can see the clothes spinning and the neighbor kids like to watch it for hours on end.

I may have embellished a little bit. We actually haul our laundry up to the roof of our building where we have a large sink all of our own. We wash and rinse our clothes by hand and then we hang them on the line to dry. Neither of us is very experienced at doing laundry by hand, in fact we had never done it before coming to Kenya. We have, however, developed a pretty good system and it goes pretty fast. (About an hour to wash and hang one load. Then we wait several hours for the clothes to dry before we can put them away.) We always worry that we’re not getting them quite clean enough or that we’re not getting all of the soap out but we’re sure we use WAY more water for our laundry than our neighbors.

We always have to wash the sink before we can wash our clothes.

The dry cycle takes 3 hours for button-up shirts, 5 hours for t-shirts, 8 hours for pants!

After washing our clothes by hand for five weeks we have determined this. Now we have actually DONE laundry. All you washing machine people have never actually DONE laundry. You have loaded a machine that does it for you, but this is the real deal. (Any readers who have done laundry by hand may now pat themselves on the back) Don’t misunderstand; we don’t have anything against washing machines. In fact, we’re very much looking forward to enjoying that luxury upon our return home. We just think it’s a funny phrase we use when we don’t, in a way, actually DO the laundry.

Our laundry room... dirty clothes on the sheet in the bed frame, clean clothes in the suitcases and not-quite-dry clothes hanging on the line.

Mmm…mmm…good!

We have eaten many new things in Kenya. They have a staple of rice and beans. The rice is soft and sticky and the beans are pinto beans that are stewed with tomatoes to give the juices and the beans a good flavor.

Their other staple that every Kenyan woman must know how to make is ugali. If a woman gets married and cannot make ugali she is sent back to her family until she learns how. Ugali is simply maize (corn) flour added to boiling water and stirred to make a kind of dough (think grainy playdough). You eat ugali with your hands and it goes with a variety of different things including kachumbari (sliced tomatoes, onions and peppers drowned in the juice of a lime), skuma (boiled and seasoned kale – like spinach), cabbage, and some kind of meat – we’ve had fish.

I had to prove my worthiness as a wife! My attempt at ugali.

The best meal according to a Kenyan is nyama choma – translated literally it’s grilled animal, but it just means any kind of meat. They are not picky about their meat and it often includes or mostly consists of bone and fat.

Another great Kenyan dish is pilau. It is rice with certain spices that give it an orange color and nyama choma. We’ve been told that it is common to slice a banana in with it and when we tried it we were very surprised that it was very good.

They eat everything with chapati. Chapati is like a thick tortilla, but more flavorful. They like to tear it into bite-size pieces and cover it with beans – either pinto beans or a kind of bean soup that tastes like lentils. The chapati soaks up the juices and it’s really good.

They love to drink hot things (tea, coffee, cocoa). There is a saying in Swahili, “When it’s hot, take it hot. When it’s cold, take it cold.” Well, it’s never cold, so we’ve been hard pressed to find anything cold! We haven’t tried anything we really didn’t like which has been a pleasant surprise! The abundant and very sweet bananas and other fruits have been a highlight, and good for us too.

A passion fruit! We had only had the juice until we got here.