I flew in on the 30th. I'm just now getting around to blogging because Delta broke my laptop between Raleigh and New York City when they insisted upon taking my carry-on luggage at the last minute.
Also, internet here is quite bad, and we've been busy.
Flying out of NYC was a good way to say goodbye to the US. The Amsterdam airport is quite suave. I bought a water-powered alarm clock so I could lay across two chairs and a table and sleep for a while there. There were very few Africans on the plane between Amsterdam and Nairobi, which was a bit strange. The food on my flights was alright, though for one meal they fed me 5 separate carbs (roll, granola, hot pocket, coffee cake, couscous), and they continue to think being vegetarian means you don't want dessert. The movies were pretty terrible/ I'd already seen all the good ones they offered. I was able to finish a couple books for school, though (Out of Poverty and Dead Aid).
We got our Visas in the airport, which didn't take too long. We were lucky in that the airport was way quieter than it usually is. We met Lynsey, our AU Abroad director and teacher of Politics of Culture in Kenya, and Victor, a Kenyan who is co-director of the program. She left and we rode the program's bus to our new home in Westlands, a Nairobi neighborhood with a large concentration of expats. Our apartment is across the street from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. When you tell people you live in Westlands, they know you're rich (by Nairobi standards we are all very rich, even if we're middle class in the US.) Most assume we live in Westlands because we're white.
Our apartment's name is Njema Court. 'Njema' means 'fine' in Kiswahili, and is a common answer to the greeting, "Habari?" or "News?/What's your news?/ How are you?" I have a small room to myself, which is very nice, especially because of how little alone time we get on this highly-scheduled program. Kelsey S. and Maria share the master bedroom, which has it's own bathroom, and I share a bathroom with Megan, who has her own room. We have a nice kitchen, pantry, and sitting room. Our apartment has a balcony overlooking a very pretty farm field with lots of birds flying around, and with the gym on our right so we regularly hear its music blasting. There's also a footpath shortcut that crosses under us, and we see Kenyans using. I've purchased a birdfeeder, though it doesn't attract any birds yet. I'm planning to buy a tree so they have someplace to hide.
A maid comes every day but Sunday and does dishes, cleans, tidies, and makes our beds. Here you're basically expected to have a maid if you can afford to employ one, because it creates jobs. We also have someone to do our laundry twice a week. It's quite cold at night, and we don't really have enough blankets, but it should be getting warmer soon. We're in a drought, but the rainy season is supposed to come any day now, and with the rain comes the warmth. We're looking forward to it so we won't have to breathe so much dust all the time.
There's no electricity in our apartment on Sundays, except in the gym. I'm not really sure why, but I know power shortages are common here, so it's probably an energy-saving measure. When we arrived from the airport we had no electricity because of an outage, and had to unpack and settle in and choose rooms in the dark. There's no hot water in the kitchen, and to get hot water in the shower you half to first turn on the hot water heater for half an hour. We try to do so sparingly, because electricity is so expensive here, and to shower at the gym when possible so the hot water's free (;
I've been going to the gym regularly, and most days have a free personal trainer who's employed by the gym! It's awesome. He pushes me and tells me what exercise to do and how many sets, and has taught me to use all the equipment. We also have a pool, but it hasn't really been warm enough to use yet. The lockers have a sauna and steam room.
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