My Kenyan Home

So today is the second day of my home stay. I’m staying in the Fort Jesus Estates in Nairobi, Kenya. I have an absolutely amazing host family. My mother is Constance, and she helps run a feeding center for orphans in Kibera. She has five children, of whom I’ve met three. Faith is the oldest and works as an accountant, Phyllis is a college student studying software engineering, Yvonne is a college student studying journalism, and the two I haven’t met, Tracy and Emmanuel, are both in high school. I find myself getting along with them very well, and we’re already joking around, dancing and singing together already. I’m trying my best to fit in, speaking the few words of Swahili that I can, and eating sukumu wiki (sautéed spinach with tomatoes, onions and garlic) with ugali (maize flour) by hand. You take a chunk of the ugali and ball it up, and then pick up things with it. It was an interesting first try.

Yesterday, I got to the house for the first time, we had some lunch, and I took a nap. Last night, I got a feel for my neighborhood and then we had dinner and we watched a movie. This morning, Faith and I went to Nairobi Baptist Church, which was a good experience for me to go see a church service in a different country.

I just got done doing my first set of laundry. Moreso than warm showers, the thing I think I won’t take for granted again are washing machines. Here, it is a long and draining process as all of our clothes have to be washed by hand. First you have to soak the clothes in water. Then you scrub laundry soap in bar form on the clothes, then you scrub…for a long time. Then you soak it back in the water to get rid of the soap. Then you move the clothes to a couple buckets to wash the remaining soap off, draining the water at each bucket. After this, you move the clothes to another bucket, take them outside, and let them air dry. It took me over an hour and a half, with assistance from Yvonne, to get my clothes done. In particular, you have to lay jeans down on the ground, apply the soap, and then scrub with a scrub brush. It’s hard work.

I’ve truly enjoyed my last couple days here in Fort Jesus. I’ve already learned a lot, and know I have so much more to learn. I hope that you are all doing well, and enjoy your washing machines!