Amboseli

Over the past two weeks I haven't have any computer access for I have been traveling in Amboseli and Mombasa.  After I spent three weeks with my urban host family, we spent a weekend on the compound then headed off on a two week excursion exploring Maasai culture and coastal culture.  The free weekend on the compound was actually pretty stressful because we had to write a paper on our urban home stay before our departure early Monday morning.  Despite all the work we had we found time to go to the Junction in our town of Karen.  The Junction is a very modern mall with a Planet Yogurt, Nike Store, Casino, and other more expensive African gift shop stores.  We also took a trip to Kazuri- a really cool boutique that sells hand made beads.  It was a nice weekend to have on the compound but I wish I didn't have to rush my urban paper- oh well YOLO (you only live once) for all you oldies.
         We left Monday morning in safari vans and proceeded to travel for about five hours until we reached Amboseli.  Amboseli is the home to an indigenous tribe called the Maasai as well as one of Kenya's most famous national game park- Amboseli Park. The Maasai is a tribe that still practices pastoralism (cattle grazing), live in dung huts, and do not have any running water or electricity.  For food they depend entirely off their cattle or go to the market once every Tuesday.  In Amboseli we stayed in banda/tent things on a huge campground.  We had an awesome staff that were experts in Maasai culture and they taught us about the challenges the Maasai face from pressures to modernize, land encroachment, poverty, and threats from the government to turn their land into plots for agriculture.  One of the first days we were in Amboseli we visited a cultural manyatta.  This is essentially a tourist destination for white travelers to view the Maasai culture- their indigenous dances, houses, food, and beading.  However, this site is a completely mockery- it caters to the tourist thought that these indigenous people are savage and backwards.  They would wear tons of beads on their ears, neck, ankles, and wrists. They would also wear traditional Maasai clothing of pieces of fabric intricately wrapped around their body. They over exaggerated everything they told us and did. Not everything they did was a false representation of their culture- all of their perhaps savage or primitive traditions were practiced many years ago but they have modernized some since.  For example, they no longer drink blood or dance on no occasion, or just live off eating meat, they also attend school.  However everything they portrayed to us was for us to be entertained- we paid $10 to visit and so they wanted us to get our money's worth.  We were able to see how the Maasai really live when we stayed with a family for a night.  A girl from the SLU trip and myself stayed with one family along with a guide who was able to translate from Kimaasai (their language) to English. We stayed in their dung huts, helped heard cattle, cooked chipati, and engaged in a traditional women's job of beading bracelets and necklaces- we were even able to make our own. On our down time I would chase the baby chickens around their fenced off plot.  Inside their plot of land about 200 meters in diameter was a cow pen, baby cow pen, and two dung huts.  The fencing was made out of thorn bushes and the mom and dad each had their own house.  It really was an awesome experience to live the way this group has been living for thousands of years.  When one thinks of Africa- the image of the indigenous tribe Maasai comes to mind.  The Maasai represent a romanticized view of Africa- men and women with enlarged earlobes decked out in beads and headbands leading 50 cattle around the dry African land. This was truly a once in a lifetime opportunity because the Maasai culture is slowly evolving.  Education has played a huge role in modernizing the Maasai group.  Children that go to school and move on to college will eventually be employed and thus will not return to their hut. In turn future generations will not be integrated into the Maasai culture and so this culture, in its original form, will cease to exist.  Their are certain elements that will remain such as their traditional practices of beading, and their language.  But their markings as Maasai such as the elongated ear lobes, removed front 4 front teeth, and burned circles on their cheeks will no longer be in practice.
          Later on in the week we were able to interview local farmers on their lifestyle of farming and the challenges they face from wildlife interferences.  The camp we were staying at was in the middle of a wild life corridor.  A corridor is a strip of land that allows animals to migrate between one national park and another thus we saw a ton of animals.  While running with the usual crew in the mornings, we ran past giraffes and zebras, and occasionally ran past huge elephant tracks.  So, farmers faced threats from all of these animals- especially the elephants. The next day we hopped in our safari vans and went to Amboseli National Park where we rode with our heads out of the top of the car acting like the biggest tourists ever. Whatevs. We saw tons of zebras, elephants, impala, gazelles, wildebeest, buffalo,  hippos, and indigenous birds. This was hands down the funnest part of the trip. We were inside the park for six hours and I was never board there was always something to see or something to learn about a certain species of animals or plants. 
        In all this Amboseli trip was really amazing and educational.  What I didn't enjoy very much about the trip was the bathrooms- they were in straw huts and bats hung from the ceiling.  Breakfast, lunch, and dinner was made for us everyday and it was delicious.  But, at dinner time when we were exhausted and trying to enjoy our meal, weird looking bugs kept dive bombing my head like kamikazes.  Every night I'd have anxiety attacks because of the presence of so many bugs!!!! After dinner we'd  play cards for a long while and then head to bed and wake up early to go for a run before the day's activities. I always love driving through rural places where the children rarely see white people.  As we were traveling in our safari cars, school-aged children would sprint after screaming HOW ARE YOU, HOW ARE YOU! They are always so excited to see white people however if you talk to them they will ask you for money or beg something from their mom's crafted jewelry.

Here are some pics from this trip

End of Urban Home Stay

Yesterday, the urban home stay component came to and end- and it was a bittersweet ending.  I was stoked to be back on the compound and around the other students but I am really really lucky to have had such an awesome host family.  The Okello family, despite being a very rich urban family, is very down to earth, knowledgeable, and accommodating.  They were not pretentious or greedy as may be the case for other host families- other family's kid were bratty or the parents were snobby. I really lucked out, as I mentioned before I had two host sisters 10 and 12 and an older sister who was away at boarding school.  The girls were so mature and knew a lot about Kenyan society and I had some really intellectual conversations with them about presidential elections, gender roles, and other current events such as the current public hospital strike.  By the time I left yesterday I felt like I was completely part of the family, and I had a routine that kept me going.  Maxwell and I would talk about current events, the house-help Katherine and I would watch Triumph of Love- a spanish cheesy soap opera, the girls and I would bake, and the mom and I would talk about her worries about her eldest daughter in boarding school.  I got along perfectly with everyone in the family, and I can tell that I am really going to miss them.  Looking back, it was so much different than my rural home stay... The food was pretty much the same breakfast: sweet potatoes, mandazi, corn flakes, bread and jam, and of course CHAI and so much of it! The maid would pack me a snack everyday, and I would bring my lunch stipend to buy lunch everyday.  After school Josephatt, our driver, would pick the girls up and then me, then bring us back to the house.  The family only had one car and everyone needed to be picked up at different times which is why they hired Josephatt to drive the car.  Depending on the traffic, it would take us one hour to almost two and a half hours to get home from school.  Since no one pays attention to traffic lights, the police manage traffic and often take bribes.  Recently, the president has been passing thorough Nairobi as well as the Ethiopian president and the South Sudan leader because they are all collectively building a port on the coast of Kenya. So, traffic has been very bad because the roads would have to be closed down. Anyway, I would take chai when I got home and do my homework at the big dinning room tables with the girls.  At around 7:30 I'd go for a run around the neighborhood which was only about 400m so it was like running around a track. Lights lined the outside of the neighborhood, and we had Masai guards that would walk around so it was completely safe for me to go running.  Sometimes when I would pass the guard's post they'd run with me for a little bit. I eventually got tired of it so I turned my runs into workouts- when the Masai guards would try and run with me I'd start sprinting to shake them off. Other times when I got sick of the neighborhood loop, I'd run at the Arboredom close to where I take classes.  This park has an extensive network of trails and is patrolled by police officers so once again I feel safe running with a friend there.  I even got to meet and run with some Kenyan marathon runners- it was so cool! Then after running I'd shower, eat dinner, do more homework and go to sleep. But before I sleep, I'd always get a knock on my door and the two girls would come in and give me a hug.  I am so glad that they speak English- the girls are completely fluent and they only speak English mixed with a little bit of Swahili around the house.  I am able to understand everything even when they speak in Swahili.  The absence of a language barrier helps for great discussions. Then that's my day! I'd wake up at around 6 and repeat it all over again. Traffic in the mornings is terrible too, it usually takes us more than an hour to get to school and the girls are always late getting up.
          Almost every night we'd had ugali, spinach, and gizzards.  This was my least famous meals- the gizzards were all tendon-y, and the spinach tasted like wet laundry.  On top of that ugali is kinda like wet, really thick bread, and I didn't like that either.  The ugali, spinach, and meat would all be rolled together using fingers and eaten together  I didn't care for the mixture, needless to say I didn't eat much for dinner while I was here.  Another thing I am not going to miss is the lack of hot water and power outages.  Sometimes there would be no water at all, but normally we had water and it was only cold.  The power would also randomly go out and during the weekends it would go out for over 3 hours due to power rationing. Other than that it as pretty easy to adapt to the lifestyle here.
          One day my host sisters and I made peanut butter chocolate cookies.  Chocolate chips don't exist here so we bought chocolate bars and cut them up.  It was hard to measure out ingredients because they didn't have measuring cups- they didn't do alot of baking, mostly cooking dinner. Plus, the family is so busy with school (school is on Saturday's too), and work that they don't have a lot of time for leisure activities. On the weekends the parents are so exhausted from work that they don't feel like doing anything other than sleeping on the leather couches in the living room.  Another time we made vegetable and meat pizzas for dinner and on the last morning I was here I made them chocolate pancakes- all of our recipes came out really well! I was happy to have the girls doing something else than homework and watching Hanna Montana- yes they have plenty of American shows here as well as music. 
        I felt very comfortable here, and I felt like I belonged.  When my dad or mom would introduce me to people they would introduce me as their daughter.  When a lady asked my host sister who I was she said that I was her sister. It was so cute and I really felt like I was their sister. We got so close throughout the three weeks I was there- we bonded over cooking, making fun of the trashy soap operas, and complaining about the traffic.  I definitely plan on seeing them again before I leave Kenya in May. 
       One day we went to a village market which wasn't much of a market, it was more of a super outdoor ritzy mall.  The mall was swarming with white people and it was almost shocking to see so many.  We are so used to being the minority and by now we are comfortable with it. Then we come here and we are the majority- it was a weird flip flop. This mall had outdoor restaurants, frozen yogurt, and tons of jewelry and clothe shops.  This was nicer than any mall I have ever been to in the U.S. and it not something I expected to see in Kenya.  For lunch I ate a turkey, avocado, and swiss cheese sub sandwich and it was better than anything I could get at Wegmans! It was great because previously before coming to the village market we were hiking in one of Nairobi's forest and we were hungry, and hot. We were all sharing what foods we missed from the U.S. and I said Wegman's subs- so this place answered all of our wishes haha.
       On Monday I will be traveling to Amboseli and later on to Mombasa.  We will be living with a traditional pastoral group, and we will stay in dung huts for a night.
 

Soccer game and Host Sister Vanessa (11)

Host Family and Soccer Game

            Yesterday I went to a football cup qualifying game of Kenya versus Togo.  My host dad Maxwell is a huge fan of football and goes to every single Kenya Harambee Star’s game (the National team).  Doesn’t matter what time or what day, Maxwell will always be in the VIP section of every game like the die-hard fan he is.  Football is always playing on the tv- whenever he isn’t blasting Nairobi’s number one hits 100.3 kiss on the radio that is.  When he told me about the game I jumped on it- I have never been to any big sporting event before! I invited my friend Matt who is a soccer player and we went along with Maxwell and a couple of his colleagues from work.  A couple days before the match, Matt and I decided that we couldn’t fully enjoy the football game without going all out- face paint, jerseys, and flags.  We spent the entire day on Tuesday walking around Nairobi in search of the Kenyan team jerseys- which was not an easy thing to do. Every store that usually carries them was sold out because of the upcoming game but we were determined that one store would have them.  After the day was over we were empty handed.  Everyone who tried to help us would always lead us to their shop or their friend’s shop- if you bring a mzungu (white person), you get paid. Every time I ask for directions or where to find something I am never lead in the right direction.  They are always so very eager and excited to help but they don’t actually help- I usually end up in the middle of a market as men and women are pushing necklaces and beaded belts in my face.  I always find it quite difficult to escape the mob of a market, the don’t take no for an answer and will do anything they can to lure you into their shop.  They’d say “looking’s free,” “you are a respectable American girl, I give you good price,” or “you are a student, I know you struggle so I give you student price.” Obviously these discounts are complete rubbish.  I tried to buy four post cards and they offered 1000 kshs or $10 USD.  We are always overpriced and it is very tiring trying to bargain.  Anyway, we gave up looking for jerseys and supplies because we kept on getting turned around in circles and or followed by store owners. 

            The day before the game my dad decided to skip work and help me look for jerseys.  He took me down into the ‘no-go-zone’ part of Nairobi where we easily found a couple stores that had Kenya jerseys.  I am lucky that he went with me otherwise I would have never found them.  Since Maxwell owns his own business on fire protection, he runs his own hours of operation, which I found most convenient during this time. 

            The day of the game Matt and I were set with our jerseys got Tusker flags and bandanas and was ready to go.  We sat in the VIP section with Matt which wasn’t must different from the regular seating but it was higher up and the barbed wire fence wasn’t in the way, and most importantly we were away from the mobbing crowed in the first couple rows.  We counted the mzungus as they came in- and no wonder why white people sometimes receive a bad name as being clueless because this British family was dressed in textbook tourist attire wandering aimlessly trying to find their seats.  Usually Kenyans yell “wazungu!” (white people) when they see any group of white people, and so we yelled it to this family and everybody cracked up.  Usually it’s the Kenyans who yell at mzungus.

            The game was so much fun and such a riot.  Whenever the Kenyan team would touch the ball the crowd would go crazy and run around and lite flares. Everyone was wearing a Kenyan jersey and many painted their whole entire bodies the Kenya- red, black, green, and white. 

         My host family stay has been such a wonderful experience so far, I couldn't have asked for a better family.  One day my host sisters and I made peanut butter and chocolate cookies.  The first batch burnt but then the second batch turned out great and the girls ate them all up.  It has been such a different experience than the rural home stay life. It is hard to imagine that these contrasting life styles exist right next to each other. The rich live right next to the poor.  My only complaint of this stay is the traffic as I've mentioned before.  There is so much of it that when I arrive home, I am so exhausted from sitting in the hot car that I don't want to do anything.  Nothing too exciting happens- after all, I am here to learn and experience the urban lifestyle which entails alot of waiting, and work.  Sometimes my parents don't get home until 12 AM in the morning because of work- and get this, they are not paid overtime.  School has been busy so far.  Since we only have 7 weeks to fit in a semester's worth of classes, each day is filled with school work.  However, I do find time to go out to lunch and go to markets.  A couple days ago I found these awesome cheetah skinny leg jeans that have a gold shimmer haha.  I wore them out the clubs in Westlands and fit right in! The outfits that girls wear out in Nairobi...boy...if only your bother saw you.  The clubs are not much different than the ones in America...(like I'd know..). There is a bar area and a dance floor area, and many have outside seating areas or white tents to smoke hooka in.  The only difference is the dancing.  They like to do what is called the "bend over" which is exactly how it sounds. They bend over and put their arms up by their shoulders and kinda slowly shake their butt and arms. Sounds silly. I haven't been able to post alot since the internet here is very bad but I will keep all updated. I return back to the compound on Friday and will have more free time to write!