Once Intrepid Traveller

*Note: second of two posts. See below*

Well, I think I have experienced Kenya in two days. Well… maybe not, but I’m definitely off to a good start.

Yesterday started with a Kenyan breakfast, not so different from Brazillian breakfasts – bread and tea. The tea here is made with milk rather than water.

Brenda came at 10 to pick me up and we made our way by Matatu into town to meet up with the others. I was able to withdraw some more money and then, when the others arrived, we were off to the museum!!

The Kenya National Museum was GREAT!! At least to me, and most readers here will know why. They had some nice exhibits about Kenyan mammals and birds, and a very good exhibit on different aspects of Kenyan tribal culture. And then…. they had HIM!!! Who might I be referring to? Well none other than Turkana Boy, an amazingly complete Homo Ergaster skeleton. I didn’t just see a model… I saw him!! Plus they had the actual actual skeletons of proconsul, Homo habilis, the black skull and a homo erectus. It was amazing!!

Then, we headed for some Ethiopian food for lunch. It was really cool. There was a thin layer of a pastry made from rice, topped with meat. It is eaten with the hands and you simply rip off a piece of pastry and grab a bunch of meat.

Then we headed to the Maasai Merket. There was the usual harassing of tourists, but I managed to get some great stuff – a new bag, two pairs of earrings and two necklaces.

Then it was time to head home. I knew we were having chicken for dinner. Why? Because there was a chicken in the house! We had it with chipate, a thin tortilla like staple of Kenya.

The Matatus which we use to get around are really something. They are decorated in many different ways (often with pictures of musicians or super models) and they play very loud music, usually in Swahili. Brenda told me that female drivers are very rare.

Today, I went to Church with the ladies of the house. There was much singing, which was really cool. They asked all the guests to introduce themselves, so I had to stand up in front of everyone! They were really friendly though, and they made an effort to do more in English. One really nice guy sat next to me and translated. He said he was a grade 9 teacher at a local highschool.

After we got back, if was off north! The whole household, plus Ken and Patrick headed towards the Maasai lands. We went to an amazing restaurant and had Kenyan beer, meat that was roasted over the fire and goat meat cooked inside intestine and eaten with salt. There was a corn and flour mixture and some potatoes mixes with veggies to go with it. The restaurant was up on the top of a hill at the edge of the rift valley, which made for some amazing views!! Plus, there were some Maasai vendors from which I bought more earrings (apparently I can’t resist) and some Maasai dancers and singers that came around to the tables and preformed. It was really cool to see, and I got some nice pictures. We headed back just in time to catch the sunset over the rift valley. Gorgeous.

So, all in all, I have managed to experience a lot in my first few days here. Tomorrow is my first day of “work” though I will be doing more learning than teaching for now.

Bye for now.

P.S. Apparently it's extremely hard to upload pictures. I might try later, but this might be text only for the time being. I am writing posts regularly, but don't always have a chance to upload them, so I'll post again when I can. :)