It’s Monday, let’s start the work!
Door: daniellelooije
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Danielle
04 April 2011 | Kenia, Nairobi
Before I start my daily Kenya blog I need to explain that I switched this blog to English. I am travelling with non-dutch speaking friends and it would be nice if everyone involved in the project and our activities could read my experiences today.
That said let’s start at this morning where we woke up at 8.30 and I found out I had 3 giant blisters on my feet. They were hurting and I was worried. What to do, leave them like this and go trough the pain or pinch them and risk an infection. After consulting with Kinga and Susan I chose the last. I was happy I made the choice because it immediately relieved the pain, but the downside was… I have to wear socks! Most people who know me well also know I hate socks, especially with this weather.
After getting dressed, including socks and all starts we went to the restaurant and had our breakfast. Again it was really great and tasty, it’s good to start your day with a nice meal. However, this day is different then the earlier days. It is Monday which means we have to start working. So after breakfast we needed to start arranging meetings with the organisations. Because we had to move a meeting with one organisation which was actually planned we had the day free to plan other things and Kinga thought it was a good idea to meet the partners which are involved in this project.
Before we called them we first took a look at the conference room where the training will be tomorrow. Actually it was a really large and nice room with a lot of windows, and after the sound check (yelling while Kinga was standing outside) we also knew it was sound proof. We can scream as loud as we want to during the crazy days that will come ;-). After everything was ok Vivianne started to call the partner organisations. Because her phone was charging at the reception and Wibo had a phone without a working microphone I installed my Kenian simcard and charged it with credit. Yes, peeps, I have my own Kenian phone number now. Which means automatically that I am not reachable on my Dutch number, so please email me or ask me for my Kenian number if needed.
As you might understand I can not tell to much about my experiences at the organisation we visited. As the topic of our training is really sensitive, especially in this country we discussed that I will not give to much information in this blog about it. However, I do want to tell that the organisations and the people are fabulous, and I bought a really cool book about traditional kenian ways for improvement of health. You must see it when I am back home! Oh yah, and on our way we bought a really beautiful bouquet of flowers for them at a place where white people probably never come.
After leaving the organisation in a really cool neighbourhood of Nairobi (beautiful nature and a really relaxed atmosphere) we left and devided. Kinga and Susan were heading back to the hotel because we had a meeting at 4pm and Vivianne had to go to her law school to get documents. I was really exited to see this school so I asked if I could come with her. We went all together with a cap to a sort of mall and there we devided. First we went to a supermarket to get some lunch and snacks (a chicken sausage bread and Pringles for me) and then we headed to the busses. Although yesterday I got some kind of trauma of the bus the cap seemed really boring to me today and I was actually exited to go with the bus again!
And I was right about that, because we made the most crazy and amazing bustrip you can ever experience. We went on a small bus with about 20 seats. It was not only bumpy as in the other busses, but in these busses they also play really loud music. It was just great, and real Africa Africa. I felt almost deliberated being in this crazy situation and just enjoying it. I was almost disappointed when we had to go off.
We arrived at the law school of Vivianne. It is a school where you need to go after University if you want to become a lawyer. It was a really nice environment. Students can get houses at the campus and even some teachers live there with their families. The environment was nice but of course there were also horror stories. I heard that some times they have to make exams in 40 degrees and with suits on (you always need to wear official clothing at this school) and we say a note saying that diplomas of graduates from 1986 – 2007 could now collect their diplomas. Vivianne also says she has to wait for more then half a year to collect her results. And we are complaining if we don’t get out grades in 3 weeks!
Vivianne got the documents and so we left and headed to the city centre. This time not the crazy little bus but our familiar green citti hoppa. It was at the busy jam time and so we got into a jam ofcourse. We saw some nice things though. For example one really shabby person who looked awful. Vivianne told that these people are actually perfect drug couriers, because they look so awful no-one would like to inspect them. Apperently these awfully dirty looking people might be just really rich drug dealers! It was awful but at the same time smart and funny to me ;-).
When we didn’t get anywhere anymore because of the jam we decided to get of the bus and just walk to our destination. It was nice, just walking aside the cars where in the Netherlands you would never think of getting. I felt relaxed where normally I would be stressed. We went to the place where Vivianne and Wibo needed to book their ticket for the bus to the town of her parents, Eldoret. We went to a king of nice looking building, and had to go through it to eventually end up in a really hot sweaty place where the tickets could be bought. I luckily found a place under a van to wait. I didn’t really pay attention to what they were doing, but when we left I heard Wibo say that he would put in a good word for the person behind the desk. Apparently this person liked me and he wanted them to take me back there and all kinds of stuff. We had a good laugh about it many times during the night.
Then on to the hotel. On our way to the bus we visited another supermarket and then went to the buses, same place where we got on the bus yesterday evening. It was a good ride and the first time I bought the tickets. Yes, it is a big deal in a Kenian bus to me! Of course again we got in a traffic jam, and we took almost an hour to get to the hotel, normally just a few minutes drive. But finally, after also a walk we got at the hotel. There we met two other women from a partner organisation. We had some drinks and then the left and we stayed on the terrace to have a small diner. When it got chilly we moved to the dining place, same place as where we had breakfast. I had the tomato soup which was actually made of real tomatoes and you could taste it, not like the soup in the Netherlands. We had a lot of fun and had strange stories like the shaggy dog story of Susan (youtube it, it it so funny!).
And then our day ended. We are now still preparing for the work tomorrow and I am really exited. I hope I can tell you more about that tomorrow.
Hugs to everyone from Nairobi
That said let’s start at this morning where we woke up at 8.30 and I found out I had 3 giant blisters on my feet. They were hurting and I was worried. What to do, leave them like this and go trough the pain or pinch them and risk an infection. After consulting with Kinga and Susan I chose the last. I was happy I made the choice because it immediately relieved the pain, but the downside was… I have to wear socks! Most people who know me well also know I hate socks, especially with this weather.
After getting dressed, including socks and all starts we went to the restaurant and had our breakfast. Again it was really great and tasty, it’s good to start your day with a nice meal. However, this day is different then the earlier days. It is Monday which means we have to start working. So after breakfast we needed to start arranging meetings with the organisations. Because we had to move a meeting with one organisation which was actually planned we had the day free to plan other things and Kinga thought it was a good idea to meet the partners which are involved in this project.
Before we called them we first took a look at the conference room where the training will be tomorrow. Actually it was a really large and nice room with a lot of windows, and after the sound check (yelling while Kinga was standing outside) we also knew it was sound proof. We can scream as loud as we want to during the crazy days that will come ;-). After everything was ok Vivianne started to call the partner organisations. Because her phone was charging at the reception and Wibo had a phone without a working microphone I installed my Kenian simcard and charged it with credit. Yes, peeps, I have my own Kenian phone number now. Which means automatically that I am not reachable on my Dutch number, so please email me or ask me for my Kenian number if needed.
As you might understand I can not tell to much about my experiences at the organisation we visited. As the topic of our training is really sensitive, especially in this country we discussed that I will not give to much information in this blog about it. However, I do want to tell that the organisations and the people are fabulous, and I bought a really cool book about traditional kenian ways for improvement of health. You must see it when I am back home! Oh yah, and on our way we bought a really beautiful bouquet of flowers for them at a place where white people probably never come.
After leaving the organisation in a really cool neighbourhood of Nairobi (beautiful nature and a really relaxed atmosphere) we left and devided. Kinga and Susan were heading back to the hotel because we had a meeting at 4pm and Vivianne had to go to her law school to get documents. I was really exited to see this school so I asked if I could come with her. We went all together with a cap to a sort of mall and there we devided. First we went to a supermarket to get some lunch and snacks (a chicken sausage bread and Pringles for me) and then we headed to the busses. Although yesterday I got some kind of trauma of the bus the cap seemed really boring to me today and I was actually exited to go with the bus again!
And I was right about that, because we made the most crazy and amazing bustrip you can ever experience. We went on a small bus with about 20 seats. It was not only bumpy as in the other busses, but in these busses they also play really loud music. It was just great, and real Africa Africa. I felt almost deliberated being in this crazy situation and just enjoying it. I was almost disappointed when we had to go off.
We arrived at the law school of Vivianne. It is a school where you need to go after University if you want to become a lawyer. It was a really nice environment. Students can get houses at the campus and even some teachers live there with their families. The environment was nice but of course there were also horror stories. I heard that some times they have to make exams in 40 degrees and with suits on (you always need to wear official clothing at this school) and we say a note saying that diplomas of graduates from 1986 – 2007 could now collect their diplomas. Vivianne also says she has to wait for more then half a year to collect her results. And we are complaining if we don’t get out grades in 3 weeks!
Vivianne got the documents and so we left and headed to the city centre. This time not the crazy little bus but our familiar green citti hoppa. It was at the busy jam time and so we got into a jam ofcourse. We saw some nice things though. For example one really shabby person who looked awful. Vivianne told that these people are actually perfect drug couriers, because they look so awful no-one would like to inspect them. Apperently these awfully dirty looking people might be just really rich drug dealers! It was awful but at the same time smart and funny to me ;-).
When we didn’t get anywhere anymore because of the jam we decided to get of the bus and just walk to our destination. It was nice, just walking aside the cars where in the Netherlands you would never think of getting. I felt relaxed where normally I would be stressed. We went to the place where Vivianne and Wibo needed to book their ticket for the bus to the town of her parents, Eldoret. We went to a king of nice looking building, and had to go through it to eventually end up in a really hot sweaty place where the tickets could be bought. I luckily found a place under a van to wait. I didn’t really pay attention to what they were doing, but when we left I heard Wibo say that he would put in a good word for the person behind the desk. Apparently this person liked me and he wanted them to take me back there and all kinds of stuff. We had a good laugh about it many times during the night.
Then on to the hotel. On our way to the bus we visited another supermarket and then went to the buses, same place where we got on the bus yesterday evening. It was a good ride and the first time I bought the tickets. Yes, it is a big deal in a Kenian bus to me! Of course again we got in a traffic jam, and we took almost an hour to get to the hotel, normally just a few minutes drive. But finally, after also a walk we got at the hotel. There we met two other women from a partner organisation. We had some drinks and then the left and we stayed on the terrace to have a small diner. When it got chilly we moved to the dining place, same place as where we had breakfast. I had the tomato soup which was actually made of real tomatoes and you could taste it, not like the soup in the Netherlands. We had a lot of fun and had strange stories like the shaggy dog story of Susan (youtube it, it it so funny!).
And then our day ended. We are now still preparing for the work tomorrow and I am really exited. I hope I can tell you more about that tomorrow.
Hugs to everyone from Nairobi
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