Day Three

May 1^st, 2010

5:22 AM (Nairobi)

10:22 PM (April 30^th, Pacific)

Boy did I not sleep last night. If it wasn’t the lone mosquito that kept on singing in my ear, it was the two Americans who whispered to each other for the beginning hours of the night. I did manage to sleep a couple of hours, but ended up waking up at 3:22 AM and laid there like a starfish. Around 5:00 AM the two Americans woke up and we started chatting about Healthcare and theme parks. Not exactly the thing I wanted to do at 5 in the morning, but my brain was definitely not going back to sleep.

I got totally up and brought my PC down to the kitchen and listened to the street life that slowly woke up around me. What I find remarkable is the swiftness of the sun here. It doesn’t believe in Dawn, as for one minute it was dark, and suddenly it was bright out.

Virginia got up around 6:00. She asked if I slept okay, which I lied and said yea. She said good and asked if I wanted to have a shower. Great idea I thought, sitting in the airport for 20 hours in the same clothes isn’t exactly sanitary. She told me to grab the kitchen bucket and start to warm water for the shower on the stove. If you want warm water here, you have to work for it. In fact, you can’t just stand under a faucet while steamy water comes spraying out. What I’m going to have to do is stand in the tub, and use a sponge to clean myself from the water in the bucket. I’m not complaining, just as long as the water is hot, I’ll be fine.

6:06 AM

I don’t watch The Big Bang Theory, but I have heard of the characters. The two Americans I’m glued to the hip too are exactly like that tall guy with the big forehead and the other guy with the glasses. Their conversations make me wish I had a voice recorder just so you guys could hear this phenomena replica. I do remember one conversation they had this morning that kind of went along like this:

American 1 (“Glasses”): Dude, I could drink infinite Diet Coke.

American 2 (“Forehead”): And accommodate enough Aspartame to make your liver explode.

American 1: I’ll just drink double infinity to fix it.

American 2: Dude, double infinity doesn’t exist. That’s like saying going to the end of the space multiplied by two.

American 1: Considering I would be coming back, that would be double infinity.

American 2: There’s not enough fuel in this planet or the technology for you to accomplish that task

American 1: You probably didn’t hear, but NASA has just recently created…….

At this point, I had already turned on my iPod.

After a drive through the city, we went to a Hotel for orientation. During this time, the members of VICDA explained safety concerns, travelling tips, customs, some language, and basic survival skills. Despite being fatigued, I listened profusely because the information may one day save my life. Around the table were 14 other volunteers: 2 volunteers from Vancouver (why are so many people volunteering from Vancouver?), 4 from Australia, 2 from America, and the remaining 2 from New Zealand.  With a delicious lunch, and some great weather, my first full day in Nairobi was pretty great. In the afternoon when orientation was over, the 5 of us walked to a local supermarket to use the internet. Every minute costs 20 shillings (which converts to about 25 cents, and here’s a little more trivia: the currency symbol here is “-/”  ).  I quickly checked my facebook and logged off. One of the Vancouver girls used it for 40 minutes, apparently messaging her entire family tree. Then she noticed that she didn’t bring any money, so being the nice guy, I spotted her a smile and 120 Shillings. Luckily she’s cute.

One more day of orientation and my official program starts. Basically what I’m doing for the next 28 days is working at an Orphanage in the western section of the city. Although my specific duties are still hazy, I know I will be teaching the kids, playing soccer, building extra rooms (the site is under construction and needs more help), and basic cleaning. Doesn’t sound too tough. I’m just worried about the whole culture barrier thing. My Swahili is completely rough…. so I best practice before I go try and teach. Thanks to The Lion King, Hakanu Matata is pretty much the only words I know. Actually let me test myself:

Very good: Sana Maznuri

Very: Sana

Good: Maznuri

Hello: Jambo

Thanks: Sante

Sorry: Pole

Slow: Pole Pole

Yup, that’s the extent of my language knowledge. It’s about time for some Kenyan dinner and perhaps more Swahili practice afterword.

10:14 PM

Probably for the first since I was 6, I’m actually tired before 12:00 AM. I forced myself not to snooze during the day so I could catch up to this time zone (at one point I failed: during the car ride home from Orientation, my eyes cemented themselves shut).  My goal is to get to sleep by 11:00 PM in order to have maximized energy for my first day at the orphanage. Nevertheless, there’s a bird right outside my window that has tremendous determination to have consistency with his chirps.  Seriously, every 3 seconds he does his ringtone. Why buy a metronome when you can just adopt this determined bird.

10:25 PM

I’m going to kill this bird.

10:38 PM

I think I’m going to miss the two Americans tomorrow. Listening to their conversations and stories makes me chuckle subtly. What I noticed is, whenever Forehead is about to tell a story, he always begins with “did I ever tell you the time where I…”. Here’s an example from earlier.

American 2 (“Forehead”)- did  I ever tell you the time where my buddy got a DUI and his grandma gave him 5 dollars?

American 1 (“Glasses”): *snickers* what?! No!

American 2: Yea, my friend got busted driving under the influence, and when he told his grandma, she gave him 5 dollars!

American 1: Is she going through the first stages of dementia?

American 2: Oh most definitely, she probably thought he got some academic award. Haha.

What I find odd is Glasses finds the story surprising even though Forehead pretty much told the punch line at the very beginning.

10:42 PM

I think Glasses may have seen what I’ve been writing about. I thought I was being sneaky, but at one point I caught him over my shoulder reading what probably will make him cry tonight. About 5 minutes ago, I saw with my peripheral vision Glasses talking to Forehead in a charade-like whisper. Unless it was some flirting going on, I think it was probably about me.