How did my time here fly by so fast? It’s Sunday evening and I’m a bit on edge thinking about the fact that I leave in three days. I remember the first day I got here, stepped out of the cab and slowly started to see my expectations for Kenya fall apart…not in a bad way but actually in a good way. The best way I can think about explaining it is, for example, when you’re leaving for college you have this picture in your head of what your dorm will be like, what your classrooms will look like, etc. and when you arrive, you realize it is completely different and foreign. Well, I got a similar feeling because: A. I am in a different country on a different continent and B. it comforted me to have a picture in my head but once I saw it would be different I was a bit unsettled. Now, however, I know where the dishes are and where to find the coffee so it’s safe to say I’ve found myself a third home here in Nairobi.
Personally, I’m not the biggest fan of Nairobi but the main reason I have fallen in love is Kibera. Who would have thought I adore a city because of its slum…much less the second largest slum (arguably the largest) in Africa. The other day I had the best chai I’ve had yet in Kibera at a little café and I also went to the viewpoint where you can see almost all the slum. It is very interesting because, as with most heavily impoverished areas, just outside of it is fairly nice housing. From the viewpoint, the contrast is stunning to see multiple story apartment buildings looking out over heavily impacted tin shacks. Apparently the government initially built the apartments so that they could get rid of the slum and have the residents move into the new housing, but that was a terrible idea considering no one in Kibera could afford the apartments. Even though I’ve been working in Kibera for the past five weeks, I got a whole new perspective seeing it from above.
BREAKING NEWS: I actually have another volunteer with me at the school! It’s just nice to have some English speaking company although I do love my boys. Besides the extra volunteer, there is not much news to report back from the school but I know come Wednesday, I’ll be quite emotional leaving the students. As for my last weekend in Kenya…well today I did absolutely nothing but watch movies, journal, and chat with some volunteers. Yesterday (Saturday), however, I, along with Liz, her boyfriend Kyle and my friend Laura, hiked Mount Longonot in Naivasha. Naivasha is about an hour and a half from Nairobi so we started the journey up to the crater at around 11. I decided that after no exercise minus walking everyday and a 14k bike ride the past five weeks, this hike was a little ambitious but once I started there wasn’t really any going back. Hiking up to the crater took about an hour and once we were there we had to hike around it to get to the summit. Around the crater took us about two hours, it’s slightly treacherous at times but the view is totally worth it. The craziest part is that Kenyans were RUNNING the entire thing, half of them in their business attire…ties and all. Yea…what the?! That was my reaction…I also was impressed by the women in jeans, flats, and even wedges who were hiking. Now it seems like if they were able to climb in that attire that it would be a breeze but I promise you it is not. In fact, I just learned this morning that two people died a few weeks ago hiking around. By the time we reached the summit I was a bit out of breath but very excited and the summit’s height is about 9000 ft. In total, the hike took a little over four hours and although I complained part of the time, I was grateful to have the experience. It was the perfect beginning to the end of my time in Kenya. I can’t believe it is almost over or that in one weeks time I will be hanging out at home with all of my family. I couldn’t be more excited to see everyone and be home for awhile, but I am definitely sad to leave a country that has only been good to me.
On our way to Naivasha I saw a billboard that read: “Believe me, you’ll get there. Slow down!” I was immediately reminded of my Grandpa Dawson who would have said the exact same thing…makes sense coming from a man who once got in trouble for driving too slow. It couldn’t be more true though considering when I started, I thought six weeks would take forever and now, I blinked and it’s almost over. Well, I plan on slowing down these next three days as much as possible because before I know it I’ll be home…sending all my love to the states!
