Nairobi

Alhamisi 16 septemba

KiSwahili word of the day is: Karibu. Meaning is "you're welcome", but in East Africa, it really is much more generous and people saying it whole-heartedly welcome others to share in what they have.

Today I saw the elephants again! So great, and they had a new rhino named "Shida" that was adopted here when she was 2 days old, she was premature and only 25 pounds, so crazy.

We got a free ride on our way out when leaving in the back of a pick up truck. Beats getting eaten by lions. I went with 2 Americans and an older woman from Australia who came to find a long term volunteer position in hospice care here. She's really sweet and I really respect her opinion on things, especially because she has much more experience than I do. She was criticizing me for always telling the shop keepers that I would come back, which I honestly do intend to do when I say this, but she says so many people come here and make promices that they never fulfill. She said it is therefore more honerable to not make any promices at all, no matter how small.

She also criticised me again on the bus because I was asking the matatu driver if we were getting the "mzungu price". She was saying a few extra cents does not make a difference to us, to which I retorted that everybody should get the same price, its only fair. She said she believed that everyone should have the same standard of living, but clearly, do not... is that fair? She got me there... and even though for this it was only a few cents, it really is the Robin-Hood connumdrum: Is it fair for the poor to cheat or steal from the rich? Ultimately, I don't think that anyone should be able to rise above because they were cheating, but in this case, I was fine with handing over the collector the stated price.

Conversely, earlier in the market I was trying on these GORGEOUS necklaces, great craftmanship and really high quality beads. But simply could not afford them at all. The same woman was telling me essentially that this price was too high and he was somewhat cheating me, but I really felt that the necklace was worth the stated amount and in good conscience, I did not want to rob an artist of money that he really did deserve.

Ijumaa 17 septemba

KiSwahili word of the day is "Amani", meaning peace. Usually written on the back of matatus or dalla dallas.

Today was really eventful. I stayed an extra day in Nairobi to go to Hell's Gate national park and bike with the other American girls I met the day before. They are leaving for safari tomorrow, so first we went to the safari office, then Jim from the safari co. escorted us to the bus stand below Moi Ave to get the right matatu to Naivasha.

The bus area was so hectic in a really exciting way. I was just remarking how wonderful everything was, all the different people and the brightly colored shops and matatus driving everywhere. Just in front of us was a matatu that was having difficulty starting, and of course there were people absolutely everywhere.

The matatu suddenly lurched to a start. A man had been passing in front of it and we saw his arms flail upward and he went down like a rag doll. It happened so quickly then time stopped. Everything was quiet and people came out of the shops and from the sidewalks and gathered around the fallen man. I grabbed hold of one of my new friends' hand and firmly looked away as we passed.

"It happens, ya?" was pretty much the response from Jim. It just made all the dangers of bad driving suddenly real. Being in the bus area no longer was exciting because I felt like death was everywhere.

And with that, I was ready to get out of Nairobi.

We waited in the matatu for an hour and a half, waiting for it to fill up so we could leave. The three of us just wanted to get the hell out of there. The drive was gorgeous. We passed along the rim of the rift valley and during our waiting time, made friends with a guy on the matatu who was really mellow and welcoming. He enjoyed quality American shows like "Ellen", "Oprah", and "The Kardashians", so funny. Also it was nice to talk to the other girls and hear about their travel experiences.

We unfortunately didn't get to bike that long because we spent so much time waiting to leave, but we biked to the gorge and saw zebra, pumba, and a lot of different kinds of birds.

I am excited to leave for the coast tomorrow.