Karibu (you are welcome)

I have had some great moments since I arrived a few days ago.  Some more memorable than others and not always for good reasons.


My first day here was a whirlwind.  After traveling for 26 hours to make it from Chicago to Kisumu, I was supposed to be picked up by Victor, a driver for NRHS (Nyanza Reproductive Health Society).  Unfortunately, Victor kind of forgot to come get me and by the time he remembered I had already borrowed a phone from a Kenyan Police Officer and contacted Matt and Nelli (friends from UIC that live in Kenya) to come pick me up.

After Matt collected me from the Kisumu airport (which is a tiny little regional airport) he took me the house I am staying in to drop my stuff and then over to his and Nelli's place (right next door) to have breakfast.  They made delicious fruit smoothies with homemade yogurt and banana bread.


They took great care of me for the rest of the day and I got to see Leta (their beautiful daughter) again, who I hadn't seen since she was a week old.  Before having dinner together, we all took a walk around the neighborhood.  The weather was beautiful.


After dinner, we were sitting around drinking wine and the wind started really gusting and we had monsoon like rains. By about 11 pm the rain let up some and Matt walked me home down the muddy road back to my house.  When I got into the house it was pitch black so I started to feel for the light switch on the wall and clicked one - but nothing happened.  I then tried the one next to it and the light came on.


I had tracked mud all through the house since I had been in flip flops and despite taking my shoes off at the door my feet were covered in mud.  I grabbed the mop to clean up the mess when the doorbell rang and 4 Large Kenyan Men with billy clubs were at my house.


Through an open window I asked what I could do for them and they go, "Are you alright, Miss?"  I couldn't imagine they were asking about the mud situation so I looked at them relatively dumbfounded and they then stated that I had rung the alarm from inside the house.  I clearly had no clue what they meant so one of them said, "May I come in to show you?"  My first thought was HELL no you can't come in here man with the club! But I decided that since I had to mop to defend myself with in case of emergency that I would be ok.  So he came in the showed me this:

As you can imagine - in the dark it would be easy to assume both are light switches!


On day #2 (August 29th), Matt, Nelli, baby Leta and I took at trip to the Nakumat Market, which is a a huge grocery/all purpose store.  I got groceries and acquainted with what is available here - which is a lot more than the last time I was in Kisumu.


As part of the trip, I bought a large jug of water to which you attach a pump for drinking water.  When I got home, I set up the water jug in the kitchen and then got the pump out of the cabinet.  I was jut about to put the pump directly onto the jug when I decided to check inside the part that would be going into the water to make sure it was clean.  THANK GOD I checked because there was a cockroach inside the pump!!!!  


I rapidly dealt with the situation by flushing the cockroach out with sink water and then promptly washed the hell out of the pump with lots of soap.  Later that day I was sharing this story with Matt and Nelli and they both responded with You need to get DOOM! (Not to be confused with the 1990's computer game, Doom, in which you try to wipe out Nazi Germany and ultimately kill Hitler)


They proceeded to share a story with me about how one evening they heard some noise and so Matt went to check on it while Nelli stayed upstairs and as Matt was coming back up the stairs they saw a cockroach the size of a bird at the top of the steps and Nelli with ninja like qualities grabbed the DOOM and terminated the cockroach in a few sprays.  This stuff is clearly toxic for both humans and insects, because cockroaches have been around for a bazillion years.


So yesterday I made a quick stop at Tuskees Market and bought myself some DOOM.

I

I am hoping that I will never actually have to use the Doom since I am sure it will give me some horrible side effect due to toxicity.

More to come...