Day 3 “Rocks in our shoes”

We were awoken at 7 am by the loud birds at our windows and a wet dusky smell. Rachel and I made breakfast and sent off the Bob and Matt for Garissa near the Somalia Border. After we sent them off to install bio-sand water filters (link) and bring medical supplies we met our housekeeper for the time Jen. She was ringing our doorbell, which we thought was the phone. She explained that she would help provide services, which we definitely didn’t expect and we explained that we would probably use her when the rest of the team came because we had been preparing our own food, doing our own dishes and cleaning ourselves. After that, we had a meeting at 1030 with Jackie Muthaga (fundraiser/ site coordinator) to go over our meeting at 100pm with the Daystar Nairobi Campus Students for a social event followed by an informational session explaining how to apply for our student grant for community development projects.

After Lance returned, Rachel, Duncan, and Michael and I walked to the local Nakumatt (a large grocery store with fast food like restaurants on the top level). The walk was wonderful and long, but we were able to get a taste of the local community. One thing that was evident once again was the diverse population. There were beggars, street workers/venders, guards, commuters, students, and business men and women alike. It had all the noise and smells of a bustling city but with feel of an African village. We made it to the Nakumatt, despite our near death by crossing the street. On the top level were restaurants like Buddha’s Garden (Thai like food) and Lip Licking Chicken (a sort of version of KFC), also a cart vender called Hot ‘N Corny (not sure what they sold). We ended up choosing a place called Zinc I had beef with rice and vegetables. Anyone who says they go to Africa and lose weight is crazy the food here is amazing. It took a long time so it definitely was not like fast food in the states.


We then walked back to Daystar and set up for the student event which Rachel and I ran with help from Lance, Duncan and Michael. There was a great turn out especially because school was out and most students at the Nairobi campus are nontraditional students. There was about 25-30 students and we explained about how to apply for the community development grant that would help the students with a project in their hometown. We will be awarding $500 at the end of our trip to a group of students for a hometown project. We had fun with all the students and met some pretty remarkable people. Many of the women were looked down upon for being in school because in their community it was not proper for women to get an education. Therefore, they had a lot of perseverance. One of the students explained that her mother sent her to live with a pastor for 7 years at the age of 9 to avoid female circumcision (a tradition in the Masai Tribe). She was then reunited with her mother who was now a widow and looked poorly on by the community. However, finally they accepted her and her family.

Once we finished our amazing meeting with the students we came back to Lancaster, I think that our jetlag finally caught up with us. Some of the students came to visit with us, one of them named Dyana (who we met in 2008), her fiancé Richard, Colin, Peter, and Gilo. We all decided to go and get dinner together at an Ethiopian Restaurant called Habesha. To get there we got into a Matatu which is like a taxi but with a 15 passenger van where you run and jump into. Rachel had never had Ethiopian so she was a little apprehensive, so we tried to stick with flavors that weren’t too spicy. In case you’ve never had Ethiopian food it is all shared. The dish itself is made of Injira (fermented spongy rice bread) and you use the dish to eat the lentils, meat, and vegetables. In the end she liked most of it. We had so much fun with all the students and ate more than our fill of food. All of us talked about the things most people don’t at dinner, politics, religion and cultural views. However, everyone was excited to share their own opinions and views. We then took the Matatu back to Lancaster. When we got back we found out our last piece of luggage was found and Lance, Duncan and Peter went to retrieve it. Rachel and I headed to bed to prepare for the next day and as tired as we were, the excitement of everything to come kept us waking up at all hours of the night.