just laura

Countdown to Kenya: Three days!

Thursday: Bill and I went out to Antones to see the Scabs show and it was much fun! It was Chris H’s birthday, so I was hoping to drag him and Alyssa out as well, but alas… the life of young parents meant they needed to stay home with baby Tyler. As it was, they missed a fun show and as always, it was great hanging out with Bill.

Friday: I was productive, sorted, and finished uploading my CDs!

Saturday: I was productive, packed my first bag, and uploaded some of Sameer’s music!

(happy new years!)

Sunday: I’m hoping to be productive, pack my second bag, run errands, and pack boxes for storage!

Sometimes I’m entertained by these things. Brandon tried it and it worked pretty well for him. “The object of this meme is to post the first sentence from each month of the last year. Sort of a Meme Year in Review.” From January to December:

Well, it’s that sad time when my holiday is coming to an end and I know the real world of work is lurking right around the corner. I guess I was supposed to post something like this a month ago, but a month ago I was still soaking up the sun in Egypt. How fun am I? OMG! After a long and lovely weekend (that included lots and lots of driving), I’m now home! I’m thinking seriously about where I want to travel after I eventually quit my job. I turned on my old laptop tonight to get a file from my machine. To recap, my “vacation” in Texas was good though as usual wasn’t exactly slow, quiet, or relaxing. I’m still sick. We were just talking about this at the bar last night. What to say about this week that doesn’t sound melodramatic? I returned home from Baltimore tonight after 10 long days of training.

How I get as many hits as I do is beyond me. I’d say I’ll try harder next year to be more interesting, but really, I won’t likely be posting much next year. Is it bad to have a new year’s resolution for 2007 instead of 2006? Maybe I’ll just try to be a better blogger the year after next. :)

Just a note to let y’all know we made it safely to Nairobi after the 30 hr trek from Austin. We slept 12 hrs last night, ate mango and bread for lunch, and are going on a tour of a local school in 45 minutes. It’s blue skies and warm here. Draught and famine are the news headlines affecting rural areas, and even causing water rationing in Nairobi. Monday morning at 7am we leave for our village. Not much else to report yet. Hope y’all are well!

Most posts are probably going to be on the www.travelingcat.com site for a while… seeing as how internet access in my Kenya village is reported to be limited.

Here’s a little about the experience thus far…

Karibu! (welcome)

Hello again! We’re still in Nairobi for another day, which makes me feel like I should live it up while here in the land of electricity, running water, and internet access. Yes, the community house in Nairobi has all these modern conveniences. Not to say it’s modern, fancy, or bug free… but it is quite comfortable, has mosquito netting for our beds, and shares a block of land with a church, a soccer field, and a car repair/junk yard business.

The house is only a few blocks from a public market, so this afternoon I borrowed a key from the sisters, said goodbye to Cindy, and killed some time with a walk through the nearby market. It had the kind of crafts I’d have expected to see if I’d thought ahead and guessed about what might be present. I saw old women sitting on the ground weaving colourful baskets. I saw young women trying to sell batiks and necklaces. There were young men carving giraffes and lions out of rosewood and ebony. And there were old men who were making shoes… which was much more interesting to me this afternoon. It was like a how-to for shoe making, all in one bustling, dusty, smelly, crowded outdoor market. One guy in a stall would use a knife to shred a car tire into strips of rubber for the soles of shoes. Another stall would have animal hides hanging in the breeze tanning for the leather uppers. The next stall had men cutting scraps of leather and sewing them on old foot pump Singer sewing machines. And another stall had men staining leather with dyes for shoes that could be black, red, or blue. After that you’d have a guy with all measures of clasps, clips, and fasters appropriate for any style of footwear. One artist I saw even did leather work and pounded rose shapes into the shoes and painted strips to mimic a giraffe’s spots. I suspect that kind of fancy giraffe pattern shoe is good for tourists, though I can’t be sure as I was the only muzungo (white person) in the whole market.

I probably spent an hour and a half there talking to various friendly vendors before heading back to the house. When I got back there was a lively soccer game going on with teenage boys (who were quite content to use a basketball in place of a soccer ball). There was also a slew of girls and younger boys along the sidelines, who promptly mobbed me once I sat down to watch the game. They all spoke some English, and even the five year olds English was much better than my limited five words of Kiswahili. They were very sweet (see photo above), they wanted a million pictures taken of them (mostly showing the peace sign with their eyes closed), and were helpful teaching me words for play, game, soccer, etc (all of which I promptly forgot).

Eventually I headed home, we had leftovers for dinner (more beans and rice, for the third meal in a row), and we called it a night. Tomorrow we’ll visit another community house in Langata, and maybe see giraffes or take a nature walk. I’m hoping for giraffes, but a nature walk would be a lovely second choice. For now, I’m signing off and going to read for a while before bed. G’night all…

The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.
– Henry Miller

I’ve posted on www.travelingcat.com today! Yay CyberCafe!