Jambo, jina langu ni Spencer! I have arrived in East Africa and have already fallen in love. This place is not only beautiful, but also the people are so welcoming and enthusiastic for life! I arrived in Nairobi at 6:30am Wednesday morning, after a total of 17 hours of flying, and 9 hours of layovers (all my other classmates have included this so I figured I’d keep it going…). My first interaction with a Kenyan was a customs officer who took me out of the line and pointed me to the Fast Track lane…check. My second was with my visa officer who told me that I have a beautiful smile and I will be successful here if I just keep smiling…check and check. As I walked out of the terminal I saw a smiling face that oddly reminded me of a classmate of mine…MAMA SHAMIM!!! (Here, you address women whose child you know as Mama+child’s name) as well as a sign drawn by Mimi’s 10 y.o. sister, Natasha, that said “Karibu Spencer Lucker” (welcome). Thus begins my adventure in the EAC.
Nairobi was an interesting experience, and I definitely don’t fully feel “here” yet. I slept all morning and early afternoon, and then Mama took me on my first experience on a “mutatu” (public mini-bus), to the city center, and to the supermarket. I got to see many of the govt. buildings including the Kenyan Central Bank, Dept. of Finance and Admin, Treasury, and the Dept. of Education, which evidently houses some top level bureaucrats about to be arrested for corruption of $2-4 billion in aid from Britain…things are getting interesting. Once phone and SIM was bought, Mama overloaded my basket with food and juice at the store worried that I would starve on the journey to TZ…Kenyan and Jewish mothers have much in common.
For dinner, I met up with Fernando and our two new friends with Village Life (VLOP) who will also be in Shirati for the next two weeks (James) and 6 weeks (Sam). James just finished his first year of med school at Cincinnati; Sam is a freshman at Brown. We went to the Kenyan version of a Brazilian steakhouse…Carnivore! (Shout out to my LR boys who love Gaucho’s…this is even better) For Ksh 3300 ($25), we had all-you-can-eat MEAT, everything that you would normally have + camel, ostrich meatballs, ox testicles, and crocodile. The ostrich was out of this world (like a leaner lamb), ox balls pretty good (tasted very good, but consistency of a mushy Vienna sausage), camel had good flavor but too chewy, and the croc was like chewing on mini-ribs of dried tuna, chewing as in squirrel chewing a nut (try to visualize my action)…food coma, here I come!
Thus, ends my first “city/tourist” experience in East Africa.
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