Arrival in Nairobi, Kenya

I‘ve finally arrived in Kenya! My plane landed in Nairobi last night and I am now living at the St. Mary’s school in a Kenyan slum with almost ten Sisters of Notre Dame. Most of the Sisters are Kenyan, but there are a couple that are American as well. All are very friendly and I am enjoying my stay here.

I didn’t get much sleep on the plane and after some brief greetings. We had hot chocolate, tea, coffee, and cake and I went straight to bed. Ryan and I slept last night in a small locked room (for security) under mosquito netting. We were visited during the night by a cockroach and a very large slug at our door. After tossing several times we got a few hours of sleep and final woke up at around 1:00PM.

I had tea and biscuits (shortbread sugar cookies) for a late breakfast and received my pre-paid cell phone that is now working. I can now receive phone calls and text messages!

Cat, a former volunteer in Malava Kenyan took us four current volunteers out for lunch at a very small roadside Ethiopian restaurant. We ate two orders of spicy beef and one order of mild beef served with a spongy bread. To say the least the food was delicious!!!

Later we had a tour of a The Starehe School for girls from Sister Margaret who teaches there. It is a secondary school for girls and boys whose families can’t afford to send them to school. All funding comes from donations to the school.

We had a brief meeting about scheduling for this year with Cat and some of the Sisters before sitting down to dinner.

For dinner we ate a traditional Kenyan meal. We ate ugali (maize porridge), white rice, whole tilapia, tilapia fillets (pronounced FILL-ettes), soup, kale, and spinach. For dessert we ate slices of fresh pineapple and plums.

We ended the evening with prayer and now I am heading off to bed as I am very tired and have to catch up on much needed sleep.