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Ubuntu

Week 2 from Nairobi

May 21, 2012

Ivey Logo

It’s already been over TWO WEEKS in Kenya, and time has really flown by! We’ve learnt so many things about the Kenyan culture, landscape and way of life – it’s incredible.  At times it has been hard to adapt, but we are all enjoying the experience.

Things we have learnt:

The concept of “Pole Pole”, which means in English “Slowly Slowly”.  It basically means that not everything is going to be on time, whether it is showing up for class, meeting for lunch or getting picked up to go somewhere…..so watch out Ivey, next year’s new excuse for coming late to class is: “Pole Pole”!

A saying usually followed after “Pole Pole”, is the famous Lion King phrase: “Hakuna Matata” or “No Worries”.  The Kenyan people are very relaxed and flexible, making life here pretty easy going.  Some of us still need to further adapt to this way of life and others have gotten used to it a little too much!

Things we NEED to learn:

For the past two weeks we’ve been drinking Mango, Pineapple and other tropical fruit juices found at the local grocery store. It was a strange adjustment at first since we found these juices to be abnormally sweet.  One of our Kenyan friends, Vincent, came over and poured himself a little bit of juice and the rest of the glass with water.  When we asked why he pointed to some writing that said JUICE CONCENTRATE in Swahili. Naturally he thought this confusion was incredibly funny, but it clearly points out that we are far from mastering the local language!

Other Noteworthy events last week:

Some group members traveled to a local village near lake Victoria for the weekend, where they stayed with our program co-ordinator, Pamela and her husband.  This was an especially unique experience as they were charged down by over fifty laughing children who had never seen a white person before. After a weekend of being deemed “guests of honor” however, Eric, Marc and Tom were more than ready to get back to normal.

The rest of team (Robert, Adam and Andrea) traveled to Nairobi on Saturday, where they had an amazing day! In the morning, they ventured to the Masai Market, where numerous vendors sold their wares. From Masai war clubs to Batik paintings and animal figures carved out of ebony, there was no limit to the number of touristy souvenirs to buy. Then the group went to an elephant orphanage, where they were able to play, feed and shake hand-to-trunk with baby elephants – a truly unforgettable experience!  The last stop of the day was at the Giraffe Centre, where they fed these 4m tall animals, ate lunch and had to keep their eyes open for giraffes peering in through the window to try and take a bite!

Overall we have had an AMAZING time and are looking forward to the upcoming week, the highlights which include:

  • Teaching a session on communication and interpersonal skills
  • Visiting the Canadian embassy to meet the Senior Trade Commissioner for East Africa
  • Going to Nakuru where we will get started on writing our “Local Live Case” and hopefully fit in a safari!
  • Dropping into a cultural festival put on by the National Museum of Nairobi

So stay tuned friends, we’ve got many more stories of adventure coming your way!