week one part one

my life is so exciting that it needs two blog posts. so get ready.

mom, dad, and will all went to o'hare to drop me off. we got there around 1:00, and my flight didn't leave until 4:20. we said our goodbyes and then i stood in line to get through security. that didn't take long and i waited 2 hours to get on the the plane. the plane landed in amsterdam early the next morning, i had a 4 hour layover (naptime) and then boarded the plane to nairobi. we arrived in nairobi around 8:00 pm. there were about 10 other msid students on the plane, so we all got our visas stamped and collected our luggage together. we got on a bus and went to a hostel for then night. the first thing i realized about kenya was that the drivers are CRAZY! every time is tea time in kenya, so when we got to the hostel at 11:30 at night, we had to drink tea. the last thing i wanted to do when i was just on a plane for 15 hours is drink tea.

the next morning we woke up early, went to downtown nairobi to exchange money and get our residence passes, and left to lake nakuru national park, where we stayed for 3 nights. we had orientation during the day and then went on safaris in the late afternoon. we saw lots of baboons, lions, zebras, giraffes, rhinos, buffalo, among other things. it was so cool.

i didn't really like the food at orientation. kenyans eat most of their meat on the bone, which i don't really like. they also eat alot of ugali, which is made out of cornmeal. it looks like mashed potatoes, but definitely does not taste like mashed potatoes. it's a filler carbohydrate, so it doesn't have any taste and is meant to be eaten with other food to "fill you up". i just cannot get over the tastelessness.

on friday morning, we had an excursion to a rural community where we learned about one of the tribes of the area. we also stopped at a market, and all the kids yell "mzungu, mzungu", which means "white person"-- they obviously don't see very many in the rural areas.