week one part two

saturday morning we left the park to come back to nairobi. our host families met us at nazarene university, where i'll be taking classes for the next seven weeks. my host mom and brother picked me up and took me home. i was really nervous to meet them, but she gave me a hug right away. the house is about a 15 minute walk from the university.

i live in sunview estates, which is a gated community of probably around 200 houses (actually like duplexes). it is a middle class neighborhood. my family has a tv, running hot water, a toilet, electricity, etc. i have my own room which is nice. most middle class families have house help, which cook, clean, babysit, etc. since the unemployment rate of kenya is so high, for middle class families, hiring house help is seen as the right thing to do.

saturday afternoon i watched tv and played dominoes with my 10 year old host brother, sean. he's very talkative and outgoing. sunday i went to church with my family, which was interesting. it was an outdoor service, and there was probably close to 400 people there. it was "olympic day" so my host dad ran the 1500 m run and there were other games and running events also. you know those kenyans... ;) we had fish for supper, and it was on the bone, which was interesting. my host brother just had the fish tail sitting on his plate, which was kind of hard to look at... not the most appetizing thing in the word. i told me family i didn't like ugali so they made me rice, which was great.

monday i met with the other students at the university and we took a bus downtown (20 shillings=20 cent bus fare) and bought cell phones and got internet modems. yay!.. now i have internet. :)

this country is seriously indescribable. i have to keep reminding myself that this is a third-world country. sidewalks are non-existant outside of the downtown area, there are only well worn dirt paths. garbage is everywhere. drivers are crazy and there are traffic jams everywhere. tin-roofed shantytowns can be found everywhere. it's been a truly eye opening experience and has really made me appreciate what i have in life.

i also found out where i'll be going for my internship after classes are over. i'll be interning at msambweni dictrict hospital in msambweni, which is along the coast of the indian ocean. what i have been told is that i'll just follow doctors around all day, doing things i'm not trained to do. it'll be a great experience because even medical school students don't get that kind of hospital experience until their third year in school, and i'll get it as a pre-med student.

i can tell already that this will probably be the hardest, though most rewarding thing, i have ever done in my life. i have already experienced many things i would never have been able to in the united states, and i'm sure new experiences will happen all the time.

until next time, emma.