GAWD, ITS HOT!

Went to Kenya with Adam and met his college roommate. We had a lot of fun. Nairobi is awesome! Had some great food (got some sushi, which I didn’t have in the states), watched a movie in a real cinema, hung out in real shopping malls. When we were in the mall, we decided to look in at the Japanese restaurant to see if we wanted to eat there and ran into one of Adam’s friend’s parents. He knows everyone everywhere. Don’t think there is a country we could go to without running into someone who knows and loves him. So, they had us eat lunch with them and invited us to their house the next day. Had some good vegetarian sushi. They live in Karen, which is a suburb of Nairobi and is named after Karen von Blixen, the woman who wrote Out of Africa. You might have seen the movie with Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. I’ve watched the movie before and knew it was at the base of the Ngong hills, but 1. I didn’t know where the Ngong hills were and 2. didn’t realize that the expanse of wild land she lived on is in Nairobi! one of the biggest and busiest capitals on the continent. The mom took us to Karen Blixen’s house and we took a tour of it, then we went to the Giraffe center, but it was already closed. I was so excited to play with giraffes, so I was super disappointed. Ya’ll know how much I love animals. Then we went back to the house and had a nice big dinner and then went back into his old roommate’s part of Nai and met up with other friends for the night.

We left on Monday to Dar Es Salaam and when we got off of the plane we got hit with a wet, stifling heat. We had to endure this heat the entire week. Every morning we would wake up early, sticky and disgusting and never could just lay in bed and relax, had to jump up and shower and get out of the house! Did a lot of visiting family; dad, sisters, and brothers. One day we went to the beach and it was great! The only time I wasn’t constantly covered in a layer of sweat. Went swimming and then lay in lounge chairs with an umbrella and a nice cool breeze. The beaches are beautiful, the water is nice, but if you want to spend time in the city or pretty much anywhere else, it’s HOT! Went to a shopping center so we could walk in the air conditioning, sat at an outdoor restaurant with a breeze and fans and even choose our lunch location one day based on the fact that they had AC. It was nice to meet the other side of the family and see Adam’s old house and school and stomping grounds AND they have a Subway restaurant! We ate there twice and it was wonderful. Didn’t have any Subway when I was home, but I got some in Tanzania! One evening, Adam’s sister and sister-in-law took me to a kitchen party, a party they have with only women before the wedding. I’m not going to go into details, but it’s a party to teach the bride things she needs to know to be a good wife. I was there for a different night, but one night it is all about cooking. It was a very interesting experience and I was glad they brought me and that was the night I got home and finished watching the movie I had started on the flight from San Fran to Amsterdam. Adam was out with some of his brothers when I was with some of the sisters. When he got home, we went out and met up with one of his friends at the fancy bar we went to the night before, only the night before it was a lot less crowded and a bit more fun. And that night, a girl said hi to Adam and then came over to him later in the night and asked if he was from Kigali. She recognized him! Haha

Overall, the vacation was really nice. Had some fun and good food, met some of Adam’s friends from middle school all the way up to college and got to meet the other side of the family. But we were both glad to be back in Rwanda with the wonderful climate and be able to use a blanket again!

HOME! and a terrible flight

Went home, saw friends and family and it was great, but too short. I was sooo not ready to be back on an airplane! And everything got mixed up. In Seattle, I asked for my bags to be checked all the way through because I had a 23 hours lay over in Amsterdam and didn’t want to be carrying them around with me (I packed a LOT). She tried doing it and it wouldn’t let her even though the night before we called KLM and asked if they would be able to keep the bags during a 23 hour lay over and they said yes, anything less than 24 hours. Well since the time change and everything, I left Seattle on the 7th and didn’t leave Amsterdam until the 9th so it showed me having 2 days of travel and the computer wouldn’t let her check the bags through. We tried a million things and then she finally went and asked someone else and he said to check them to San Francisco and try doing it there. That I did, but when I got to San Fran, I wasn’t on my flight any more; my name was there, but I wasn’t booked! She must have unbooked me from my flight when we were trying to figure everything out, so I had to call Alaska airlines and get things situated, but while I was on the phone the lady at the desk said, Oh, okay, I got you, so we hung up (Auntie K and her friend met me at the airport and helped me). Checked the bags through and had some lunch, a sourdough bread bowl! Yum! I also got pasta to take on the flight with me because since I was unbooked I was unsure if they’d have my vegetarian meal. Turns out they didn’t, but I got a good seat, a 3 seat block to myself! Got into Amsterdam, played around the airport, got bored, went out and got more bored and it was FREEZING! I was so cold, I bought a long sleeved shirt and scarf from H&M. I wanted to go out and see the city, but figured if I was dying in the airport, going out into the elements probably wasn’t a good idea. So, I sat and read, fell asleep, ate a sandwich, looked in shops, etc. Then when I went to catch the train, it didn’t show up! I had someone waiting for me at the train station to pick me up and I was late! I felt so bad! When I finally got in, he drove me to Adam’s cousin’s house and I hung out with his wife and the two kids. She is really cool and I really enjoyed talking to her and the kids are so cute! His cousin got home right after I went to bed, so I didn’t see him until morning when he took me to the airport. Again, I wasn’t booked on the flight, and I was afraid I’d have to call Alaska again to figure it out, but Europe is a lot more lax than the states, and the guy she called just put me back on it. Thank goodness! I got through security pretty quickly, but still had to zoom over to my gate. This flight was FULL! And I got a crappy seat. In the middle of the middle behind the bathrooms, so no seat in front of me with a screen. As I was getting ready for landing, a guy came and sat in the seat at the end of our row (he moved earlier because the lady next to me had a baby and they wanted her to have two seats) and pulled up the screen that was below the seat!!! I spent 10 hours on the plane thinking I didn’t have a screen to watch things! I kept thinking, I should just ask if they have a portable one to bring me, but never did and on the previous flight, I started a movie and didn’t finish it because I though, Oh, I’ll just finish it on the next flight! Bah! But Adam’s brother in Tanzania had the movie, so I watched it at his house and it was actually better because I could finally hear what was being said. I hate those crappy headphones they give you on planes. Made it back to Kigali with no problems and Adam met me at the airport. I felt bad because he had to work the next morning and my bags didn’t show, so I had to spend about an hour trying to figure out how to get them back. Got one the next day and one the day after.

last week in Rwanda before my travels

During a nutrition training I got asked what food category urusenda (chili pepper) is in and I said, none really, its just kind of for taste, then one boy said something and everyone giggled. My driver translated for me and I guess it’s said that if you eat urusenda then your sex will be hot. Hahaha. My driver loves to make jokes and always has to explain them to me afterwards. On the way to the meeting with the youth health workers, he told me that one of the mountains was called ibisi by’umucecuru (unfertile land of the old lady, or something like that) and he doesn’t know why. He thinks that an old lady must have lived on that hill. We forgot to tell the CHA’s that they needed to come back tomorrow for a lesson on growing mushrooms (we started a mushroom project to help get more protein into a persons diet) and so we drove up the path they were walking on and he yelled out to two of the guys, “hey, give me that money back!” (we give them money for transportation when they come for a training) and the guys looked so sad and started to reach into their pockets. He then told them he was joking and they all had a good laugh.