Saturday:
Today we went in the morning to MCDC- the Mathare Child Development Center, where I will be spending a month starting Monday or Tuesday. Mathare is the 2nd biggest slum in Nairobi.
There is a clinic right next to the church, which is in a not-that-great-but-not-really-a-slum-yet area. I met James, who is a “clinician” (somewhere between a doctor and a nurse) and runs the clinic. There’s a school building on one side of a courtyard, and a clinic area on the other. Then we went around the corner to James’ sister’s apartment, where I will be staying for my time in Mathare. Beth lives on the 3rd floor of an apartment building, and she and her friend have two tiny, tiny rooms that are basically a small area with a bed, separated from the living room area by a curtain. The living room area has just enough room for a couch (against the bed curtain) and 2 chairs against the wall. There’s a tiny closet and a table with a heating coil for cooking. The 2nd room is basically the same thing. The rooms adjoin, but the door is blocked by the cooking table. Down the hall is the washroom, to which you bring your bucket of water you heated on the coil to shower. Beth has her own washroom, which is locked unless you have the key, so ..there’s no shower, but only a couple people use the washroom. Time for my first real Kenyan bath!
James says his sister is an excellent cook, she can cook Kenyan and American food. We’ll see about that. :-P So I’ll be having lunch every day at the clinic, and then dinner with Beth and her friend, I guess. And the apartment is close enough to the clinic that as long as it’s daylight, I can walk there by myself.
I have not yet determined if there is electricity. :-P Pictures will come once I move in...I felt like it would be awkward/rude to start taking pictures of this girl's apartment the first time I went in. I'm not THAT much of a tourist. :-P
So after seeing my living quarters we took the Colorado group with us to visit a tea farm in Limuru, about a half hour away, and higher up in the mountains. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL there! The farm was built in the early 1900s by the woman who owns it’s grandfather.
We got to drink some of their tea, then she talked to us about how they grow, harvest, and process the tea, then we went on a tour through the tea crops and also the chunk of original jungle that they’ve preserved, it was pretty cool! Pictures will be on facebook and Picasa as soon as they will download!
7 comments:
interested in how the tea tasted!it is me NA, the only one probably interested in the tea! Like I am reading a novel. I can picture all you write. In all you do and see go with Joy in your heart and know God's blessings are upon you...XXOO
I don't know enough about tea to be very accurate in my description...but apparently there are people who stay at the factory and every hour they taste a certain amount of tea with a certain amount of water so they can constantly monitor it...and they are so sensitive they can tell when things are slightly wrong and fix the problem if necessary!
it did not taste any different from what i've tasted before...the tea is shipped to Mombasa and bought by companies like Twinning and Lipton, so I just got it earlier in the process than most of the US does!
Ooo tea!!! It sounds like you're having a good time :) I understand completely being rudely awakened at dawn--a construction project is happening right outside my window. Who knows when it'll be done!
i wanna know if after moving into beth's apartment if we'll still be getting updates from you!
yes! I have a USB modem that gives me internet anywhere! :)
haha... "anywhere"... me too. :P
pooooooooo. I hope mine works better than yours. :-P
I'm going out of the big city but it's still not as rural as where you usually are..hopefully that'll help!
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