Life in Kenya: The Good, The Bad, and The Elephants

The view from my doorstep at the CYEC

Welcome back to the new sensation that’s sweeping the nation: Reasons Why Chance Hasn’t Updated His Blog!


1. Waterfalls. They take precedence over computers.
2. It’s hard to tell small children that you’re too busy to play soccer.
3. There’s no way my parents would be wondering what I’m doing. 
4. Writing or watching pirated DVD’s for 50 cents: which would you choose?
5. Computer chargers love to break when you’re two hours away from the nearest Mac store.

So I’m sorry, everyone, and once again, I’ll try to update more often so that I won’t have to write essays like I am today! In this installment: Thomson Falls, leadership workshops, and an elephant orphanage.

The Mau Mau Cave 

Schedule

Living at the CYEC has been an exercise in patience, to say the least! I mentioned “Kenyan time” in my last post, and what it means is this: any time you think something is at a particular time, it’ll be an hour or so early or late, or postponed to the next day. There’s not the sense of urgency and planning that there is in the USA, and it’s probably been the biggest change I’ve had to get used to while being here. I was asked to give an explanation of my day-to-day life, but I can’t, because no two days have been close to the same! As I mentioned in the last post, I get up around 7-8 a.m., have some breakfast, and embark on whatever adventure we have for the day. Sometimes, this entails remodeling a shop for the kids, planning out a leadership program for the prefects at the center, or instituting a reward system of points for good behavior. Other times, this entails sitting for three hours, waiting for one person to show up so we can do something. Yes, it gets frustrating. The afternoon is the same news, except with the addition of kids around 4:00 p.m., which is admittedly awesome. There’s nothing like walking through a group of eight-year-old children, and having them all yell “Gitu!” and follow you. Since Chance is hard to pronounce for Swahili speakers (I’ve been called Charles numerous times), my nickname for most of the kids at the center is “Gitu.” I’m curiously okay with this nickname, because in Swahili, “Gitu” means “strong,” or, literally, “giant.”

My new jersey at the Gor Mahia game!

Meals and Food

            With the meal plan that we’re on at the Centre (It’s the British spelling!), we can eat all three meals a day with the kids. That means that for breakfast, it’s bread slices with tea. Lunch is a mixture of white rice, and some kind of bean. Supper alternates between rice and “ndengu,” which is a type of pea, or “ugali” and “skuma.” “Ugali” is cornmeal, left to soak until it becomes the same type of texture as mashed potatoes. “ “Skuma” or “sukumawiki” is stewed kale. “Sukumawiki” literally means “stretch the week,” because skuma is so cheap, you can eat it all week if you’re broke! You might think, “Chance, with these simple foods, surely you’re losing weight?” Try again! One interesting fact about Kenya is that there are shops EVERYWHERE. They are much smaller then what we’d think of, mainly little stands, but they’re very handy, because they usually have a completely random assortment of items. At the one across from the Centre, I can get oranges, eggs, cooking fat, laundry detergent, cell phone minutes, toilet paper, spices, and whatever else came by on trucks for that day. The exchange rate is eighty Kenyan shillings to one American dollar. The average cake, cookie, and piece of fruit goes for about five shillings. You can do the math! Other delicious Kenyan foods that I have tried have been “nyama choma,” which is barbecued goat, “matoke,” which is a type of banana that tastes like a potato, “chapatti,” which is a fried bread similar to a tortilla, and “mandazi,” which is a sweet cake similar to a doughnut. With all of these new foods, and the lack of a gym within 100 kilometers, I’ve had to resort to running on country roads and random sets of push-ups to keep some semblance of shape! I guess it just means I’ll have something to work for when I get home!

Feeding time at the Elephant Orphanage

Weather and Location

            Surprisingly enough, the average weather at the Centre is 70 degrees ,with slightly cloudy skies. Nyeri, the town closest to where we live, is situated in the middle of the Aberdare mountain range. Our elevation is about 5,000 feet, which makes some days downright chilly! An interesting side effect of being on the Equator is that my skin doesn’t tan as all, as Kansas sun is harsher during the summer than Kenyan sun is. It rains for a short amount of time almost every day, which leaves everything nice and green. The Centre is in Thunguma, which is basically a collection of small shops and houses along country roads. Nyeri is only about a couple of miles away, and is where we do most of our shopping. Nyeri is two hours north of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

Me being....well, me, at Thomson Falls

Weekend Trips

            My team and I have been able to travel to cool places around Kenya almost every weekend, and they’ve definitely been some of the highlights of my trip so far! Our first two weekends in-country were spent hanging around the Centre, which is an adventure in itself. On the weekend of June 8-10, we went on a trip to a cave near Nanyuki, Kenya, which was used as a center for rebels during the Mau Mau Uprising against the British during colonial times (I’m getting into the history here). It was about an hour-long hike either way through elephant stomping grounds and lush forest. Unfortunately, the only animals we saw were birds, lizards, and bugs! The view of the cave made up for it all, with a huge overdrop, framed by a nearby waterfall. Speaking of waterfalls, the next day, we traveled two hours to Thomson Falls, which I can only describe as breathtakingly beautiful. You could view the falls from the top, where I took some fantastic photos, but the real adventure was climbing down to the base of the falls, and standing in the spray of the water! The valley, the falls, the trees and water… It was one of those times I just stood and thought of how lucky I was to be in this scenic country. This last weekend of June 15-17, we traveled back to Nairobi to take in the city. Friday, we spent most of our time at a juvenile center for young offenders in the city. I had the chance to play soccer and speak with quite a few of the youths, and the main impression they made on me was how similar they would be to anyone back home. The kids at the juvenile center, the kids at the CYEC, the kids I meet back home in Herington… If not for the color of their skin and the language they speak, they could be interchangeable. That night, we ate at Havasha, an Ethiopian restaurant, which will be marked in history as the place I fell in love with goat meat. On Saturday, we walked to the Maasai Market in downtown Nairobi, which is a huge bazaar of crafts and goods. Haggling is expected in Kenya, and I had to bargain my hardest to get a good deal on all the presents I bought for people back home! That afternoon, I found myself cheering on the home team at a soccer game for a team based out of Nairobi. Their name is Gor Mahia, and they beat the rival Tusker team 3-0 in penalty shots! I’ve never made so many friends, so quickly, as when I purchased and wore a Gor Mahia jersey in the middle of the stands. After sampling some of the local nightlife that night, we made our way to the elephant orphanage the following day. The foundation that runs the orphanage saves baby elephants and rhinos from the wild, until they are grown enough to care for themselves. You haven’t lived until you’ve run your hand over a elephant as tall as your shoulder, which is being bottle fed by a park worker!

Whew! If you’ve made it this far, you’re either a good friend, extremely bored, or Grandma. (Hi, Grandma!) As I promised last time, I’ll try to update more often than I have been! Thanks for reading, and don’t be afraid to comment or ask me any questions that you may have about the CYEC or my travels.

Kwaheri!

Chance

Thomson Falls. The rainbow is real.