PHONE CONTACT INFO:My phone number here is 0720 339 301 and you will need to dial a prefix for international calling to Kenya which you can google. The number will not change when I go to Tanzania as far as I know. It is free for me to receive long distance calls, but I cannot call out - just text. It is too expensive.
The best thing about the hostel that I am staying at is that everyone likes to travel in packs. So 6 of us, (one Dane, 2 americans, and aussie, a canadian, and a brit) all went to the Elephant Orphanage and the Giraffe Center yesterday and it was awesome. We took the matatu to the city center, a bus to the orpanage and hitchhiked to the Giraffe Center with a photographer who had an AWESOME Indiana Jones Safari truck (I wouldn't usually do this alone, but there were 6 of us to one middle-aged woman). The elephant orphanage was glorious and I got to play with the babies. At one point one of the elephants got loose and an elderly woman had a heat stroke. The Giraffe Center was the best and I managed to maintain full-on face to giraffe tongue contact for the longest time of anyone the keeper had seen that day.....possibly ever. I will never wash again. Later you might get to see the 400 photos of giraffes and elephants that I now possess.
Today we went to the Maasai market. The market I went to last time was actually the yaya market. The markets are remarkable in that they host a billion hand-made items (most of which are the same) and are sold primarily on the merits of their very very pushy owners. Being a white person you are subject to the Mizungu tax (meaning that everything will be a bit more expensive because they think you have much more money and you probably do. I thank my Israeli sale tactics for teaching me good bargaining, but I still often look at the items that I have bought and wonder "why would anyone want a decorative gourd that looks like a zebra?" I have also found that people want to trade. Today I bought a small decorative gourd for 2 hair bands and 70 bot (approximately a dollar). I also purchases a stone hippo for 1 hair band and 50 bot (slightly less than a dollar). Now I have a stone hippo and a gourd and wonder why I have nothing to put my hair up with. Eh...I came out much better than the others. It isn't possible to buy nothing there. It gets tiring if you are there for more than an hour. Every new vendor you pass, "Look at my things ma'am, you want nice earrings? No? Here, something more different...." The people definitely have a sense of humor though and you can banter with them and have fun conversations. I have had a few men offer to find me a husband too! I have thought about buying a few hundred dollars worth of crafts before I leave and selling them on the street in NYC. It would be easy to make a profit to donate to the orphanages or to come back and do more volunteer work.
I have met so many people here who work for other NGOs. There is one a few hours from here that works to sell water purification equipment affordably to all Kenyans. It looks like they may get funding from the UN and they are presenting it at the summit in Nigeria in a few months. Very impressive stuff. I plan to call them when I am done in Tanzania and see if they need assistance. I would have to pay for my room and board though and I don't know where I will be financially then. They are looking at doing something similar in Thailand too. I really want to find a way to do that sort of work.
I am taking Akamba bus lines tomorrow to Arusha, Tanzania. I should be there by about 1 or 2 pm. The cost of the bus is about 1000 kenyan shillings (around 17$). There I will meet up with my project coordinator, the great Mr. Tossy. I had the option to go back with another American today, but she was a bit of a Berkeley snot. She lived with the Maasai and taught in a school for several months, but all she could do is complain about how she is going to go home and be out of shape and how she has lost her glorious tan. I came to rather dislike her....ALOT.
Anyway, right now I am wandering the streets of Nairobi with the Aussie at our hostel. It is really interesting here in the city to be the only white people you can see in a crowd. The responses are good though. I mean you watch your shit as you would in any big city, but people are friendly and always willing to help you. Outside of out hostel I think I might have seen maybe 15 other white people. Everyone speaks both Swahili and English here...they will speak more Swahili in Tanzania. People keep telling me that I will know it fluently in like 6 months... I don't know about that though. So far Nairobi has been great. I hope my project is good. I am ready to crap in some holes!
