Welcome to Nairobi

“Do something that scares you every day.” I believe this is a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt. Mom can verify. This quote has been hanging on my refrigerator at home for some time now and I had dismissed it of having any real value until today. If you want to truly meet yourself, move in with a Kenyan family. Throughout orientation, I had put the host family experience in the back of my mind. Whether it was to be in the moment at orientation or because I was subconsciously nervous, anxious and scared as all get out, I don't know. I think I’ll go with the latter though. We left around 7:30 to head back to Nairobi and we all started to become nervous/anxious/excited/and scared out of our minds the closer we got. To top off my anxiety, I found out on the way that my host Mom was going to be late because she was picking someone up at the airport and the airplane was delayed. But of course, we were about an hour and a half late so almost as soon as I got my stuff off the bus, Abdul grabbed me and told me that my Mum and Dad we waiting for me. It is now time for introductions. My family consists of:
Mabel – Works for a German engineering firm named Gauff
Daniel – Owns a real estate company
Laura – 23 and works for a cell phone company named Orange while waiting to graduate in July
Keith – 17 and is finishing Form 4 (senior year) in October
Carrey – 15 and will be going off to boarding school in a few weeks to start Form 1 (freshman year)
I met Daniel first who helped me load my stuff into their Subaru Outback and then I met Mabel when I got into the car. We exchanged quick hellos in the car but then we were off to the house. Between the honking of the horns, making colorful gestures at other cars and diving in and out of pot holes, there were a lot of questions being thrown at me about my family, school and everything in between. The house. We live in a townhouse complex at the south west end of the Dennis Pritt Road and Rose Ave intersection. For those of you fluent with google earth or google maps, I invite you to look it up. We live in a ward called Kilimani which is known for being one of the safest areas in all of Nairobi. This is because it is heavily inhabited by embassies and because of its close proximity to the State House (3 blocks away). The Royal Thai embassy is about 200 feet away and the Iranian embassy is just down the street along with the Somali High Commission. There are many more embassies around as well as headquarters for other organizations such as the Red Cross. Our compound is fully walled in with a large metal gate that is staffed by a security guard round the clock. Charles is my favorite guard although he always wears a Minnesota Twins hat. I’m going to change that soon. There are about 10 townhouses in our compound and ours is the second on the left: House #4. The house has a very traditional Kenyan layout. The first thing you notice is the very large living room/family room off to the left that has couches and chairs to fit about 15 people or so. There is a large dining room table as soon as you walk in and the kitchen is at the back end of the dining room. Everything is very colorful and alive with energy. There are traditional Kenyan paintings on the walls and an endless amount of greenery in the family room makes you feel like you have arrived in Kenya. The focal point of the room is of course, the big screen TV. Kenyans love their Spanish telenovelas and music channels. After taking in the sights of the house for a few minutes, I took my suitcase and bags up to my room. I had found out a few days ago that I would be sharing a room with Keith. I thought I might not like that at first, but I actually have loved it. There are four bedrooms upstairs and our room is about the size of my dorm room freshman year. Nothing to complain about at all. Mama Mabel came up to my room as I started unpacking and laid down the rules right away. She told me right away that I was her son and that I should tell her about anything that makes me feel uncomfortable or offends me right away. We are a family now so we should start acting like it right away. I met Carrey (who Keith and I later nicknamed Tinker Bell) and we spoke briefly but he disappeared shortly after. Once I finished unpacking and put away all of my stuff, Mum, Dad and I went out to the Grandparents house to meet a bunch of family. This was quite the experience. This house, which is fairly large, is home to the Grandma, a couple of Mum’s sisters and their kids. Before I sat down, I was offered food and drink of which I was forced to accept. After a quick bite to eat and a coke out of the bottle, I met Cousin Syd. He’s my age and is studying aerospace engineering at a college in Nairobi. As we talked for a while about music and stuff, I notice Mum and Dad slowly falling asleep on the couch. Then they were totally asleep. Syd told me that there was a huge party there the night before as a goodbye for one of the aunts who was going back to Atlanta in a few hours. As Mum and Dad took cat naps on the couch, Syd and I continued our conversation about music and other random stuff. Syd, actually DJ Syd, also moonlights as a DJ on the side. He is planning to throw us MSID kids a party in the future. Should be a good time. After a few hours of napping, Dad woke up and we decided to head across the street to watch the Man U and Arsenal game. Football is huge here. This bar across the street was a tin roofed hole in the wall that was lively as ever. It was a lot of fun to watch as the fans downed Tusker after Tusker and rooted on their team. After the game we went back to the house, ate dinner and then went home. It had been a long day so going to bed felt so good.