Nairobi Orientation

Tuesday afternoon Marla and I travelled with Randie and another SOTENI intern who’s working in the Cincinnati office, Mark, to the Cincinnati airport. We spent the morning packing up the donations we would bring. We had a box filled with medical supplies (mostly sutures) and then boxes of papers for Marla’s research study. Every time we packed a bag or box we put it on top of a scale to make sure it was less than (or exactly) 50 pounds. Eventually we had to rearrange luggage and placement in order to fit the maximum amount of donations we could.

Our first trip to the check-in counter left us with this tally:
Box of medical supplies: 52 lbs.
Bag of documents/donations: 59 lbs.
My suitcase (actually my bag fit inside a larger suitcase so that we could fit more donations we needed to bring): 51 lbs.
Marla’s suitcase: 50 lbs.
Word from the check-in employees: No sympathy.

After cutting open the box to take out a few items, removing some donations from the document bag and taking out three SOTENI t-shirts from my bag, we made the limits. Of course, we didn’t want to waste any bag, so we stuffed everything we could in one of Marla’s carry-on bags. Good thing they don’t weigh carry-on, though, because we probably had as much stuff in our backpacks as in our checked luggage.

Total luggage:
Checked: 4 items
Carry-on: total of 5 laptops (going through security twice was absurd), to loaded backpacks, one duffle-like bag weighing about 8938 lbs that we could wheel on top of the laptop bag, and one plastic bag that originally only had snacks but soon accumulated one stolen airplane pillow and two similarly acquired blankets. Heck of a load.

The plane rides themselves were pretty uneventful. We did get to fly over the Alps and then Marla happened to open our window shade as we were crossing over the African border, which was pretty spectacular. Beyond that it was desert until we landed in Nairobi. Favorite quote from the plane ride: Danish safety talk – “High heels must be removed before exiting a plane in an emergency.”
After getting off the plane, filling out our swine flu form, and waiting in the visa line for a while as one family kept sneaking into the front of the line, we got to baggage claim. We had strategized this process and got two carts beforehand. We were pretty pleased with ourselves when we managed to get all of our luggage successfully. We pushed it all through customs (which meant passing our customs forms to a security guy who never looked at us as he spoke to another traveler), and met Edward, the Program Director.

We squeezed into a taxi, dropped our things off at the Ufungamano House and the SOTENI office, and went to Fiesta (an Italian restaurant, much to my surprise) for dinner. We had our first real miscommunication when we tried to ask the security guard at the Unfungamano House where the restrooms were, which he didn’t really know and thought we needed to shower and went off to find the answer. Turns out the bathrooms were in our rooms, we just hadn’t realized it yet. The same security guard, who was probably younger than I am, was kind enough to struggle to the third floor while carrying two of our suitcases. It was clear that they were very heavy, but he refused to let us lift either bag. It was after 11pm when we got back. Sleep was in order for sure.

We spent today in the SOTENI office where we met Marion, the Business Manager, and Edward again, and went through more information regarding the work we will be doing here. We went to lunch at mid-afternoon, which cost three of us approximately Ksh450 (Kenyan shillings) total, equivalent to approximately $5.76 (1USD=Ksh78). Pretty remarkable.

The only bad news so far (knock on wood) is that my cell phone and wallet were stolen sometime during our flights. Nairobi itself is pretty similar to most cities, although traffic is incredible. I’ve seen several traffic lights, and I think only one was operating and I’m pretty sure we went through it even though it was red. They also drive on the opposite side of the road, which has been a little unnerving so far! I’ll be in the city until Saturday, when Mo, another intern who got back from the village of Mbakalo today, will travel to Mituntu. We’ll be there for almost two weeks, and we’ll be staying with one of the village coordinators there.

If anyone’s interested in sending mail, you can send it to this address (it takes about 10 days to get here from the US):
c/o SOTENI KENYA
Grace Hyndman
P.O. Box 26412-00100
Nairobi, Kenya

Baadaye! (see you later!) (I’m sitting next to a Swahili dictionary…)