Hellos! (8/16/10)

I have arrived in Kenya! Sorry for the long delay in this, but this week has been really busy and I was not able to get internet on my computer until today. Posts will hopefully be more regular now, but I’m can’t make any promises, but I’m sure that you would like to know what I have been up too this week.

I will start by telling you about London. Yes, I went to London!! Our flight from MN had an 8 hour layover there, so we had a chance to see the city. It was really great because we met a woman on our flight who was also going on to Nairobi and whose daughter goes to Bethel! What a small world! She had never been to London either, so we took the tube to Piccadilly Circus (thanks Sarah!) and walked around for a while. We saw all the good stuff: Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abby, statues, Big Ben, the London Eye… and other things that I didn’t know what they were. I really liked the city. It was old and had a lot of character. But then we left.

Our plane landed in Nairobi at 6:30 am their time after we had spent 2 nights “sleeping” on the plane. We took the university bus to the campus about an hour away. When we arrived, we were greeted by upper classman students singing and playing a vuvuzela (the horn from the world cup that was really loud and annoying). We went right into orientation and did stuff with that for the rest of the week. It was boring.  A lot of the things we learned we already knew because we have been to college already, but it was great to get to know some people.

All of the people that we have met so far a very friendly. We stick out like sore thumbs, so many people come a greet us. I have started to learn some Swahili words. Here they mix English and Swahili in the same sentence, so I think I’ll pick up some from just talking to people.

I’m also leaning a lot about South Korea while I’m here. There are 3 students from a school there who are here this semester too. The girl, Sarah, has been teaching us things about South Korea and shared some of her Korean food with us. This is definitely a multicultural experience. Oh and there are also a lot of students here from other African countries.

Some things that I don’t like to far: the food is always the same. We have rice, and stew and cabbage. Sometimes there are different things in the stew, but it always tastes the same. For breakfast we have 4 slices of bread with jelly and butter and an egg or sausage and we have lots of tea. Also, the toilets don’t flush well, and they run out of toilet paper a lot.

Things I like: everyone greets everyone in a group when they see them, usually with a handshake. There have been multiple people who have told us that if we need anything, just ask them. The weather is AMAZING! It is in the 70’s and sunny with a slight breeze everyday. It’s a lot like fall. The first few days were a bit chilly, but now they are great. They say it will heat up, but not much above 85 degrees or so. I am very happy about that! And it isn’t humid! There is a food called chipati (I have no idea how to spell that). I really like it. From what I can tell, it’s just fried maze flower and water, but it is surprisingly good. They only serve it sometimes, but it helps make the stew and rice better. We had some pineapple once that was really good too.

Let me explain the reason for the title. It is not a typo. In Swahili when you say hello to a group of people it is plural. When they translate to English, they also make it plural. We have heard many “Hellos” “Good Mornings” and “HIs” since we’ve been here.

This is a boring, but informative, post and I will try to do better in the future.