Thu 09/10
Today has been the most uplifting day so far because not only do we have a shedule of how things are supposed to proceed but the shedule is also being followed. The second swahili lesson was followed by a talk with Chofi the project manager who makes a very good first impression and knows both our projects very well. The downside however is that we now have crammed days and only leave on Wednesday.
The nights have become noticably cooler and I think I even cought a small cold. This weakend I am also supposed to meet my host father Peter, which will hopefully be good as due to the nature of my project, I will be working very close to him. I was also told that Kathuni is not known for suffering from malaria, which means simple measures such as sleeping under a mosqito net etc. should be sufficient combined with Lariam.
As I am writing our house mama is preparing dinner, which is chicken bought alive on the market today. It is a special occasion because two of the KVDA members leave for Barcelona tomorrow for the international meeting of voluntary associations. I do not look forward to telling her on Sunday that I will not be attending church mass with her and the other volunteers...
Fri 09/10
After a couple of days of keeping to the shedule we left an hour late to the German embassy to chat with Mr. Kraemer and receive our "security passports", which in theory will keep us safe because on it it says:"Mqenye hati hii ni raia wa nchi Ubalozi wa Jamhuri ya Ujerumani" (put simply we are under special protection of the embassy). Hopefullt we will never get into a situation in which we have to rely on those written words. All three of us were surprised by the suspicion that the guards but also some employees had towards us, however friendly all in all.
When we got back the swahili lesson started delayed which meant that by the time I met with Silvia Moeller, a family friend whos children also went to Kabira (my school in Kampala/Uganda). She now works for the american peace corp volunteers in the medical department. Meeting Sylvia was great as she made me feel like I have a close contact in Nairobi and just in passing showed me a delicious restaurant. I hope to see her work place soon.
Telling people I have lived in Kampala for three years is generally of great advantage as both countries share a close relationship and many Kenyans have been in Uganda. Since leaving it in 2000 a lot has changed, which I was told not only by our dear Ugandan friend Olivia but also from people in Nairobi, as one Business School student put it "Makerere university in Kampala is the Harvard of Africa".
On my return to the house we had our common diseases in Kenya lesson, which really was like a lecture in medicine with a hint of "never forget though that all that air was created by god" rather than giving us concrete advice. Interesting nevertheless though because his approach to medicine was much like an article I read in the Spiegel on evolutionary medicine, which basically builds on the statistic that 75% of world wide medical cases could be prevented/cured at home with a change in lifestlye to more exercise etc... (Der Spiegel Nr. 40/26.09.09 "Geheimnis der Gesundheit")
Two hours later and in a time frame of roughly 5 minutes the clouds opened and caused the most hecktick city I have ever whitnessed to calm down as the rain soaked roads slowly transformed to mud and emptied.
I received further information about Kathuni today. I now know my P.O. Box is 36-Machakos and the full name of my host father is Peter Kioko.
Swahili sentences of the day! (yes I progressed to whole sentences!)
mimi ninaandika - I am writing
mimi nimeandika - I will be writing
mimi niliandika - I was writing