Chapattis

The disadvantage of being on my own in Nairobi is that it’s not that safe to travel around on my own, especially at night. So up until now I haven’t really done an awful lot (anything) past dark because it’s such a hassle getting home. Which is why this week has been a big improvement with the arrival of another volunteer. Kimberley arrived on Monday and is staying in the same house and working at SMAK too. So the past few days I haven’t been relying on other people chaperoning me around the place. I’ve supposedly been chaperoning Kimberley. Hmm. The first day we got a matatu by ourselves it changed route and I got off at the wrong stop. The second day it stopped for a long time while the driver fixed something. The third day it started making a crazy noise and the driver lifted up the front seats to reveal the engine making a racket sounding very dodgy indeed. We eventually had to get out and waited over half an hour for another matatu. Usually the journey is uneventful and if anything out of sorts happens Sophy demands to know what’s going on and sorts things out. But we got home safe on our own each time regardless!

My Nairobi social life has come on leaps and bounds in a short time and I spent neither Friday nor Saturday evening sat at home in Buruburu for a change. We had dinner in town on Friday and on Saturday met up with some other volunteers and spend the afternoon and evening with them. At the last minute we found ourselves at the French Cultural Centre (Alliance Francais) for a concert by an Italian singer who was born in Mogadishu, has an Ethiopian mother and an Italian father. She was a bit like an older, African, not-as-good Shakira. And she talked a bit much. But it was fun to see some live music! Afterwards we went for some Ethiopian food, which was very good. And we met some new people. Successful Saturday! (Although we were still home before midnight)

Today we were VERY good girls and stayed at home and made a billion chapattis. Ruth offered to show us how to make them and taught us how to roll up the dough and divide the mixture and fry them. We then discovered she’d made more dough than usual and went off to do other chores while we sat in the kitchen for HOURS rolling out and cooking a total of around 60 chapattis on a little charcoal jiko cooker on the floor. Afterwards we went outside to catch the sunshine but realised we’d missed the whole afternoon flipping African pancakes inside. Oh well, now we’re chapatti experts so it all balances out.

Enthusiasm for learning

Getting a bit tired 30 chapattis in

 Amongst other bits and pieces I’ve been working on I’ve made a couple of blog sites for SMAK. One for SMAK itself and the other for Ibrahim, resident bead expert. (Click here and here to have a look) They’re both a work in progress. Last week we also went to the National AIDS Control Council (NACC) open forum meeting. There were a lot of people present from a wide range of organisations working in various ways to support those affected by HIV/AIDS. The meeting was long. Not helped by the introduction which involved EVERY single person in the room introducing themselves to the room, including us. And there were well over 100 people there. The aim of the meeting was to involve some of the participants in planning the next few years of action against AIDS in Kenya, so hopefully something good will come of it.

Next weekend we are finally leaving Nairobi to visit some girls in a small Eastern town and then we are off to the rural West for a few days straight after. So I should have something interesting to say in the next post!