My Average Kenyan Day

I had a few requests from people to hear what my average day was like, so I thought I'd give you a little preview.

I wake up at 7:00 a.m. to get ready for school, but I'm often up earlier as the little boy who lives next door seems to like to wake me up. I get ready, and eat breakfast with my host sister Faith. For breakfast we eat something like toast with butter or mandazi (Kenyan doughnuts, if you've ever eaten a beignet, it's like that without the powdered sugar). I'm usually out the door by about 7:45 with a 30 minute walk to school.

I like to walk through the Toi (Toy) Market to get to school as it's on my way, and we start class at 8:30 a.m. Usually, we have three classes a day, two hours each. It may depend on the day, as we only have two classes on Wednesdays.

I only take classes with other students from my program. We are taking classes in Kiswahili, Development and Country Analysis of Kenya. After our first class in the morning, we take a short tea break and then have another class. After our second class, we have an hour lunch break. One of the advisors for our program's wife is a caterer, so we either buy food from her like beans and rice, ndengu (lentils) and rice, chapati (mix between a tortilla and pita), beef and rice, or we go to get something to eat at a grocery store or local restaurant.

After our third class of the day, a group of us students will often go somewhere together to spend some time before going back to our homes. One of our favorites is Java House, a coffee shop/restaurant chain in the city that sells real coffee, a rarity here.

I then come home and will eat dinner with my family, watch some television, do some homework, and then it's back to bed to get ready for the next day.

I hope you're all doing well! I miss you and hope to hear from you soon!

Kwaheri!