First Week

On Friday, my first day back in Kenya, I met with Grace and John in the afternoon at the farm and in the morning I put away and organized my 150 pounds of stuff from the states.

I’m not sure I have the words to express how good it feels to sleep with my sheets and comforter from my bed at home. You may be saying to yourself, why waste precious pounds on bedding? I have only one word in reply, quality! If you like scratchy ill-fitting sheets, over-priced synthetic blankets and comforters…Kenya is the place you should come to by your bedding. My rock hard mattress is bad enough at the very least I wanted to snuggle into comfortable, soft bedding. I am very pleased with my decision!

I gave my new day-glow orange helmet a test run on the way to my afternoon meeting with Grace and John. We had a good meeting about budgets and next steps. When Njenga arrived to take me home, Grace announced it was time for tea, so we had tea and talked about Grace’s newest addition to the farm – banana trees. It takes nine months for banana trees to produce fruit for the first time, so time will tell if we are able to produce bananas at Kimuga Farm.

Thanks to Nyquil I was able to wake up rested and decided to go for a run on Saturday morning. Not a particularly bright idea as my lungs had yet to adjust to the altitude. I did a quick loop up Zambia hill (which goes up for about a half a mile and then ran around the top of the hill, racing some little boys at the top…I won – okay, so I had a head start…but I still consider it a victory! Then came home and took a shower and headed to Bomas past Karen to buy a new phone and buy some groceries for my daughter who I was going to visit at boarding school the next day.

Bought an Android phone with Bluetooth to use as a modem so I can surf the web at home. I can’t make the Bluetooth work of course. But will take the phone and the computer to the Mac store and have the geeks do it for me.

Came home and ate a salad and watched “The Sleep Cell” with my fave actor Michael Ealy for the umpteenth time! If you’ve never seen this mini-series check it out!

I awoke rested again on Sunday thanks to the Saturday night Nyquil coma. I had made plans to meet my friend Jacqui in Karen and go to Karen Vineyard Church, but she had car trouble and couldn’t make it so I took the matatu. The service was nice and I met some great people. I’ll go back to PCEA Enchorro Emuny next week, but couldn’t make myself get up at 7:30 to attend that service.

After church as I was waiting for the matatu to go back to Karen town, a young man introduced himself to me. He said he’d seen me in Ngong “a lot”. He sells T-shirts in front of Barclay’s Bank – which I pass often as it is in the center of town.

A helicopter with a Minister of Parliament and his deputy crashed in Ngong forest, about 3 kilometers from Ngong town on Sunday morning. I heard about the crash on a matatu on the way to church, but didn't know who it was until I got home and turned on the TV. MP Saitoti is the representative from the area where I live. A surprising number of Kenyan politicians have died in air transport accidents.

I got home and ate lunch and went to Ngong to buy some fried chicken to take the Wezesha kids who attend school at Joram GM Academy in Matasia. I spend about an hour and a half with the kids. As I was asking permission from the teacher on duty to see the kids… I saw Judie come running from the girl’s dorm to greet me. I know this sounds really lame, but I absolutely love it when my kids come flying into my arms…it makes all the adolescent angst I put up with so worth those few minutes of bliss when I hold my beaming children in my arms.

Omondi who didn’t know I was coming, surprisingly also was all smiles and hugs…he usually sulks off somewhere to make sure he gets plenty of attention when he does decide to make his presence known.

The rest of the kids, Njoki, Soni, Moses and Sitelu (Alice is at home with typhoid and malaria), were excited to see auntie and hear about “over there” (the US) and of course eat fried chicken. Chicken is a real treat for boarding school students who rarely get beef and never get chicken as part of their school menu. The kids had a long list of needs which Judie recorded.

I tried to get through Sunday night without Nyquil but unfortunately I didn’t sleep a wink. So at 6 a.m. when I finally got tired, I set my alarm for 8am so that I could call Grace and see if our meeting was still on for 10 am. Luckily for me she was called to a meeting and suggested we meet in the afternoon so I slept until noon! Then I went to Ngong and did some email while I waited for Grace. We had tea and made plans for the week ahead. Then I ran into my friend Hassan and asked him if he’d like to go shopping for the Joram kids with me. He agreed and we spent the next few hours buying toothpaste, socks, underwear, shoes, etc. in various stores all over town.

I kept the items at my friend Stella’s shop. She had sent me with money to buy compression stockings from the US. You’d have thought I’d brought her a diamond ring…she was so excited!

I ran into a whole slew of people I know in Ngong today. I probably talked to 25 people or more who I know here. It’s easy to feel isolated and alone when you live in a culture so different from your own, but on days like today when people are waving and saying hi and welcoming me home…the loneliness fades away and I’m filled with a sense of belonging. The nomadic chameleon is home.