Peanut buttah (Sept. 2)

I really wish I could post more pictures. We haven't had internet for the last couple days, and what we have now is slow. So for a while, the blog may be wordy and boring :( I actually haven't taken many pictures because it hasn't been a good idea to carry a camera around the city. Hopefully I can manage to upload some soon.

Exciting start to the day…we had peanut butter at breakfast! Seems like a small thing, but you’d be surprised how many of us had been commiserating over missing it. The food has been pretty good for the most part, but protein is the one thing we’ve been a little short on. We’ve had a lot of beef (at least we think it’s beef—it might be goat) but it’s nothing like American meat. After this protein-packed breakfast, we walked to the SIT office. We’ll be spending most of our time there over the next couple months. The building was a lot smaller than I expected. I’m not sure where we’ll have lectures because none of the rooms looked big enough to house us all at the same time. Could be cozy!

We broke up into small groups for formal Swahili lessons. We were in class for 3 hours, broken up nicely by the standard chai break at 10:00. I could get used to this steady stream of caffeine. We returned to the hostel for lunch, and then a few of us took a quick walk toward the Toi Market. This area reminded me of Kibera with its dusty streets, and bustling markets. Here, instead of produce, the stands are piled with secondhand clothing and shoes. I’m nervous about trying to buy anything, but eventually I’ll get up the nerve. Clothing from shopping malls is super expensive here, and most people buy their clothing from these markets regardless of their social class.

During the evening we got a lecture on staying healthy during our time in Kenya. Malaria, schistosomiasis, snake bites, tetanus, HIV—our heads were swimming with scientific words. It was a little scary, but it’s better that we are aware of even the rare diseases.

We received the names of our host families. We’ll meet them tomorrow afternoon! I have two young siblings (a boy and a girl), and I can’t wait to learn more about them!