day twenty two

This week has been full of ups and downs and round-and-round...

I think the biggest challenge I've faced this week has been dealing with my own irritation at the stupidist thing - I am seriously over everyone shouting at me "Hey mzungu" or "Hey pretty lady, how are you?" or being called Mary or Miss California or any other terminology which clearly points out that I am white, I am completely foreign, and that I will never fit in here, no matter how much Swahili or Kiluyah I learn, even if I wear local clothes and take matatus and eat as the locals do... I will always stick out like a sore thumb.

I think the tipping point was on Saturday. I had decided that I should get out of Kakamega/Iguhu and go see something different, so I jumped on the matatu and made my way to Kisumu, the third largest city in Kenya after Nairobi and Mombasa. Kisumu is located on the edge of Lake Victoria which apparently has hippos in it. After having traveled to several foreign countries where I don't speak the language and have managed to have a great time, I thought this excursion would be no different. Yeah nah, never again am I going anywhere on my own. The shouting, the pulling of my arm (literally), the jeering, the constant fear of being charged the mzungu price and thereby not buying anything, and the fact that I was feeling slightly under-the-weather meant that whilst it was a great lesson learned, I would've preferred to have just stayed in bed all day. In the end I cam home and had a small tear fest and the devouring of Tim Tams whilst watching a Jane Austen movie.

Chillin' lakeside at Railway Beach in Kisumu - the breeze coming of Lake Victoria was glorious

However, not everyone here makes me feel out-of-sorts - I am making some good local friends which make feel right at home here in Kenya, especially my host family. Sure, there are some frustrations, like the constant argument over the apparent lack of food I consume, but overall I am ridiculously blessed. They happily teach me Swahili and local recipes, play scrabble and cards, take care of me, stick up for me and generally have accepted me as part of the compound family.

Making a ridiculously large amount of Kitheri 

Sunday afternoon scrabble session

Learning to make Chapatis with Anita (yes, I live with another Anita)

Another up from this week was my first experience of driving in Kenya! Holy Swiss cheese! The rural roads are something like I've never experienced - I swear whilst driving today I was praying for God to just get us home safely. Speaking of roads, whilst on the way to Kisumu the locals of Tigoi decided they were sick of all the traffic and dust, so they blocked the road and refused passage through for any vehicle, which meant that the cars, buses and matatus banked up, and eventually we all had to turn around and make our way passed using a different route.

Don't know if you can see, but the locals have placed huge rocks across the road to block traffic

Lastly, the mvua (rain) has started, albeit in dribs and drabs, but the shift in the air is tangible, as well as in the community. Oh the smell and the freshness and the biaridi  (cold) makes me so happy. There was huge sheet lightning tonight, so I whipped out my camera and attempted to take some shots - a lot more googling of camera settings is required but basically you can see the enormity of the storm. That is definitely one thing I love about Kenya so far, is how vast the sky seems.

Umeme - lightning. The windows in the bottom left are of one of the houses in my compound.