Nairobbery (Don't read this one to Grandma!)

Oh, that's funny, man sitting next to me on the matatu, I have the exact same Vera Bradley wallet! WAIT A MINUTE...

Good news is me and my wallet made it home safely, but not after quite the little adventure.

I try to avoid matatus whenever possible (the combination of carsickness and sketchy characters onboard makes them a less than desirable method of transportation for me) but yesterday I got caught in the rain and hopped in one to get home without a second thought.  I was in the front seat, squeezed next to my seatmate, as you tend to get packed in like sardines in matatus.  The tout, the guy who collects the money and generally harasses the passengers, was sitting behind me and started messing with my seatbelt.  I turned around to stop him and had a few short words with him, and in retrospect these few seconds when my attention was elsewhere is when it had to have happened, and the tout was totally in on it.  I was just boppin' along to the music, having a good time and thinking, "Oh, I should totally take matatus more often! This isn't so bad at all!" when I see an adorable little Vera Bradley strap sticking out from between the legs of the guy next to me! Oh, NO YOU DIDN'T.  I grabbed it back first, asked questions later.  I started yelling at him, because you're supposed to make a big deal of thievery here so that the public will help you.  The man's response? "Oh, that's yours?" Ugh.  I turned around and loudly told the tout what had happened, thinking he would rush to my defense, but he just sat there, cause, you know, he was totally in on it.  I made sure my phone and everything else were with me and said I wanted to get out, NOW.  Some ladies riding in the back of the matatu were really sweet and made sure I was okay before I got out.  Then I called my favorite new taxi driver, an adorable old man named James, to come pick me up on the side of the road, and thankfully all ended well for me and my wallet.

Unfortunately that's not all that happened yesterday.  Around 1AM I hear these crazy demolition sounds REALLY close to my bedroom window.  I looked outside, and about 15 feet away, just past the gate to our compound (which borders the Kibera slum), the rows of tin-built shops bordering us are being torn down.  Bizarre, I thought, as I tried to get back to sleep.  Then, a short while later, I hear all sorts of war whoops and crazy yelling.  I go to wake up my host sister to find out if we're in any danger, and she explained that the city council has been wanting to get rid of those shops forever and they apparently chose the middle of the night to do it because during the day the people wouldn't have allowed it.  Well, they totally got caught and a small riot was breaking out!  This morning when I looked outside my window I couldn't believe the destruction.  Hundreds of Nairobi's poorest people have lost their only livelihood now that their shops were destroyed, and my friend Joseph was explaining to me that almost all of them will be too poor to start over now that their things have been looted and wrecked.  It looks like a tornado blazed through my neighborhood, I'm kind of in shock right now.

The view from my window

Here's to hoping that today is less eventful than yesterday...

The Internship Begins

I had my first day of my internship yesterday!  I'll be spending the summer at KEMRI, the Kenya Medical Research Institute, and UNITID, the University of Nairobi Institute of Tropical & Infectious Diseases.  I was paired with my mentor, the wonderful Dr. B, an incredibly sweet woman who I can tell will teach me a lot.

My main focus will be assisting her with a research project involving breastfeeding in HIV+ women.  As I was being introduced to the project I couldn't believe my good fortune to be working on something that interests and matters to me so much.  I'll have the opportunity to work in some Nairobi City Clinics a couple of days each week and I'll spend the rest of my time in the UNITID building.  I share an office with some of the coolest Kenyan nurses who are such a big inspiration to me already.

So far I've been busy completing my human subjects training, which gives me clearance to ethically do research on people, attending a couple of lectures Dr. B. has given to U of Nairobi public health graduate students about writing research proposals, and getting to know my coworkers and how everything works.

I was expecting more bumps and hiccups to be honest, but things have gotten off to a really great start (knock on wood!).

eye love you

Anifa is sunshine for my soul.

A Week in Heaven

Hey all!  I'm back in Nairobi now after a week with my family on the coast in Msambweni.  I'm having a hard time putting the bliss I felt this past week into words; all my attempts feel cliched or inadequate, but I'm going to try!

The week started off with an adventure: my bus arrived in Mombasa at 9pm, when all the public transportation to the south coast had stopped running.  Thankfully my Baba is ever-resourceful and after meeting me at the bus station commandeered a passing matatu, convincing the driver to change directions completely and take us the hour drive to home.  When we arrived in Msambweni I instantly started to get choked up.  All of my cousins had stayed awake for my arrival and gave me the warmest welcome ever: I was home.

Some highlights of the week:

Meeting my new baby sister Sakina for the first time

Giving big love to my little guy, Suleiman

Eating the freshest mangoes, handpicked by my cousin Abee

Enjoying Auntie Tima's chapatis all day, everyday

It was truly wonderful to spend time with my Kenyan family.  It's so amazing to me, the love that can grow in a year.  Fifteen months ago we hadn't yet met, and now they've taken up permanent residence in my heart.  Leaving them to return to Nairobi was SO hard: Suleiman's goodbye shouts of "I LOVE YOUU DADA MOLLY!" (dada means sister in Swahili) melted me.  The good news is I'll be visiting them for a weekend in July, and spending another week there in August-- this is the first time we parted ways and known when our next meeting would be, making things infinitely easier.

Zurich

I'm finally in Nairobi!  The journey went smoothly and I made it to Kenya without any trouble (AND, my luggage made it this time!).  I was lucky enough to spend a whirlwind 24 hours in Switzerland on my way here, and wanted to share a few pictures from my mini-European vacation.

Msambweni Sunshine

Some procrastinating during final exam week led to the creation of this video- check it out :) I can't wait to get back to this place next week!

Go to Saigon, go to Kenya

“I beg young people to travel. If you don’t have a passport, get one. Take a summer, get a backpack and go to Delhi, go to Saigon, go to Bangkok, go to Kenya. Have your mind blown. Eat interesting food. Dig some interesting people. Have an adventure. Be careful. Come back and you’re going to see your country differently, you’re going to see your president differently, no matter who it is. Music, culture, food, water. Your showers will become shorter. You’re going to get a sense of what globalization looks like. It’s not what Tom Friedman writes about; I’m sorry. You’re going to see that global climate change is very real. And that for some people, their day consists of walking 12 miles for four buckets of water. And so there are lessons that you can’t get out of a book that are waiting for you at the other end of that flight. A lot of people—Americans and Europeans—come back and go, ohhhhh. And the light bulb goes on.”

-Henry Rollins