Nairobi - Tuesday - Day Four

Got up early to catch a ride out of the Rift Valley - 40 minutes of standing on the side of the road before a truck came by with room for us in back. A young Maasai man started chatting me up until mama Grace said, "You ask a lot of questions." The ride was pretty quite after that!

Arrived in Ngong just in time to see the bus David told me to take pulling out of the stage. Waited about 10 minutes for the next one. Got to Nairobi and called David. "I'm at the Hilton." I said. (where we'd agreed the night before to meet). "Didn't you get my text," he said. "I told you to get off in Hurlingham." Me, "Oops."  "I'm coming," David said.

So he arrives I climb in his safari van and we start driving. I call the man I'm supposed to drop off some stuff for at a down town barber shop, give the phone to David so he can get the directions. He hangs up and points out the window... this is the building. HA! I didn't gloat but how wild is that! We ended up, because of my not picking David's text... exactly where we needed to be to deliver the package. The spirit was moving.

Funny thing is we had to go around the building to get to the entrance... the traffic in Nairobi is so bad that I got out at the beginning of the block, because we were not moving, went half way down the block to the building, delivered the package on the first floor and was back at the van before David was at the other end of the block.

We then went to meet British, the brother of Abdirahman - a friend in St. Cloud. Abdirahman had sent me with a phone for British. You can jeri-rig american phones to work here. I brought an old one of mine too and British took it with him to get them both "fixed". He also insisted that I come to his home and have dinner with his family soon... so excited... Somali food!

After doing some shopping and making sure my debit travel money card worked and a little email, David dropped me off at Jacqui's. We had lunch at Prestige Nakumat on Ngong road. Nakumat's are like Walmarts in the states. I hung out there waiting for my friend Allan, who is this amazing young pastor. He then insisted on escorting me back to Ngong, which was fine with me because David had given me a huge bag of stuff I had let with him in February and I had to lug it back to Ngong. Had a great time with Allan.

Grace decided we should stay in Ngong because if was getting late. I cooked stew for Grace and her son Sammy, who is getting married in a couple of weeks. Then talked about business, because Sammy has connections in the media community in Kenya and we will need some assistance with getting a new website up and running. Another reason we didn't go back to the farm is that a fundie (worker) came Tuesday to put a ceiling in my room to keep any other rats wth ninja ambitions from ambushing me while I sleep!

I made banana pancakes this morning Wed. and then came to town to get to work on contacting the Kenyan NGO coordinating board, with some questions about changing the name of Grace's organization. I was also able to meet up with Lilian's son Calvin. He is Buddha's older brother. (That's a long story for those of you new to the blog - check out older posts for info on Buddha). He was in Ngong for the birthday of one of his classmates. Other than that, I've been attached to a computer at the cyber.

I can see outside from where I'm sitting and the sun is out so I'm rushing home to wash the clothes that I left in the bag at David's - they're all musty smelling.