First Days in Kenya

*Updated on Sunday with photos!!!*

As I finally sit down to write this post it is almost bedtime on Saturday. I can hardly believe that this is the end of my second full day in Kenya. (I tried to stay up and write yesterday, but I kept falling asleep!) Thankfully, jet-lag is not keeping me down. Rose has kept us busy and we have already gotten to do and see so many things in Eldoret. We arrived in Eldoret on Friday morning and will stay here until Monday morning—then we go on our first safari! Last night I had my first full night’s sleep in days—and I slept all through the night, which I hope I can do again. These two have been so fun and so full. I know that I can’t share all the details, so I may fill in with other posts later. And I’ll post pictures too—as soon as I can get the internet connection to speed up a bit…

Arriving in Nairobi...

Our travel went smoothly and we arrived in Nairobi Thursday evening. A very kind driver named Peter was waiting for us outside of baggage pickup, holding a sign with our names on it! He loaded our bags into his van and drove us about 20 min to our hotel. There was a slight mix-up at the hotel and they had only one room (with one bed) reserved for us (three people). It was no problem—they had a room with two beds at their sister hotel next door. Could the three of us stay in the room with two beds? No, the hotel has a strict policy that a room for two people has only two people. Sigh. We split up and made plans to meet in the morning. When Charity and I arrived at our room with two beds we saw that the beds were not your typical American double/queen beds, but rather something just larger than a twin. We showered off almost 24 hours on international travel and got a good five hours of sleep—we still had one more flight to Eldoret!

Eldoret, Day 1…

Hospital tour, lunch at Cool Stream, grocery store, travel agent, Imani Workshop, traditional Kenyan dinner

Rose (and a driver from the IU house) picked us up at the airport in Eldoret just after 9 a.m. on Friday morning. We had made it to our destination! I was so happy to see Rose! We loaded up our bags one more time and hit the ground running! We first went to Rose’s house, called Hilltop, which is located just down the street from the IU House (the home base of the Indiana University partnership in Kenya). We got a tour and settled into our rooms. (Thankfully there were no issues with our reservations here!) We put on our walking shoes and made our way down the dusty roads to Moi Teaching & Referral Hospital, where Rose works in Casualty (Emergency department). She gave us a fabulous tour of the hospital and we got to meet many of her co-workers and fellow IU medical staff along the way. It was difficult to see the cramped wards and people lining the halls, waiting to be seen. It is standard for patients to share a hospital bed with another patient—or even two. (If there are 3 to a bed, then someone sits in a chair near the bed and they take turns in the bed.) It was good to see what Rose’s work is like and see where she spends most of her time here in Kenya.

After the tour we walked behind the hospital to a restaurant called Cool Stream where we ate our first Kenyan meal! We all went with Rose’s suggestion: grilled chicken (on the bone), rice, green, and chapatti (flat bread, like a fat tortilla or Indian nan). It was wonderful! The restaurant is set up under a thatched roof, so there was a nice breeze and I even saw a humming bird flying around the ceiling. After yummy food and lots of water we were ready for an afternoon in the city.

The view from the median as we waited to cross a main road in Eldoret, Kenya.

We walked from the hospital to the city center of Eldoret. Is a busy, bustling place! There is lots of traffic—made up of cars, trucks, bicycles, motorcycles, and pedestrians. They drive on the left side of the road in Kenya, which means that when walking on the sidewalk (or path next to the road) one should “keep left”, which was challenging for us to get used to. After daringly crossing the streets a couple of times, we reached the travel agent’s office. It was closed—they were probably on lunch. So, we went down the street a little farther to the grocery store, which was amazing! It had everything—and it was air conditioned. This was a very modern grocery store. We picked up some snacks and headed back to the travel office. They were open now and we each paid for our trip. It was so nice to have someone local plan everything for our travel within Kenya, our hotels, and safaris.

We took a taxi to our next stop, Imani Workshops, part of the IU-Kenya Partnership. Imani means “hope” in Kiswahili and hope is what Imani Workshops seeks to offer to those with HIV/AIDS in Kenya. We got to visit and tour the actual workshop where women and men were making fabric bags, paper, and jewelry. Please visit the Imani webpage to learn more about the project. While at Imani, we also got to shop (the money goes right back into Imani)—and you can too! Imani Workshops products are sold at Global Gifts in Indianapolis and other stores around the US.

Charity, Rose, and Amie learn about the products at Imani from our fantastic guide.

An Imani Workshops artisan making paper from papyrus.

Earrings made from bottlecaps - at Imani Workshops.

Back at the house we had some time to wash our feet (the roads are very dusty!) and rest just a little. Then, it was off to join a big group of IU staff for a traditional Kenyan meal: nyoma choma! Nyoma choma means “roasted meat”. At the restaurant a few people from the group went up and selected our meat for the evening: 5kg of goat (a Kenyan delicacy) and 2 chickens. We also had ugali (a dense, bland starchy substance that tastes really good mixed with everything else), a potato dish, cabbage, greens, tomatoes, and onions. We had plenty of food and had a very fun evening getting to know everyone.

Are you tired? I was! That was my first day in Kenya. And now it’s time for my second day to end. I’m off to bed. But, I’ll be back soon!