Since we had no power last night, I didn’t take a shower (due to the lack of hot water). We watched an hour of Out of Africa (the 1985 movie). It was kind of hilarious with the dramatic Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. I totally could have taken a cold shower, but I decided to just crash at 9:30.
I rolled out of bed this morning at 9:00 feeling really grungy since I was out in the field yesterday. It really made me think about those who live in the slums full time. They don’t have the luxury of a hot shower, ever. I got to experience that for one night.
For breakfast I tried some delish grapefruit. It had a huge rind and wasn’t nearly as bitter as the grapefruit at home. We decided to accompany all three kids and Wallace to their dental appointments and then go shopping afterwards. It made for a very strange but awesome day.
We drove through downtown Nairobi to get to the dentist’s office. We entered a hospital complex complete with gate, fence, and barbed wire. I have come to realize that this is totally normal. Any nice building will be guarded. We entered the building and scaled three floors to get to the office. The building had basically every doctor’s office anyone could ever need. We went to a maxillary-oral-facial-everything surgeon. It cracked me up that they went to him as their dentist. It seemed like overkill, but I love it. All three kids and Wallace went into the office. Thirty minutes later they left and said that they were going to get x-rays. We waited in the office for about an hour and then decided to explore the hospital. I love how open and aired out everything is. It had a very nice vibe. The hallways frequently open up into outdoor areas.
We left the hospital around noon and drove to another part of downtown. We went to an x-ray office at 12:45 in a 17 story building. All three Mzungus were confused about why we were at another x-ray office, but Faith and Victory got x-rays done at this office. We waited in the room for over an hour. Charity, the head teacher from Kosovo, joined us at this point. She was going to spend the day shopping with us. I really don’t understand what all went on as far as dental appointments go, but eventually we were finished 3 hours later. I will never complain about waiting in a dental office again. I get in and out with my brothers in an hour. Plus it’s only a 30 minute drive at home, but here we drove for over an hour. Oh how I miss the convenience of America.
Once this was all said and done, we started walking around the downtown area. It was gorgeous and so clean. We decided to eat at Java House. I had an amazing burger complete with an egg on top. I was in protein heaven. I loved that we were served our milkshakes first. Dessert before dinner is a great idea!
After Java House, we all hopped in the car again and drove across town to a market. As we drove, I could instantly tell when we had left the wealthy district of town. All of a sudden the air was polluted with exhaust and the sidewalks and roads had potholes. Everything became instantly grungy. It was an odd thing to experience.
We pulled up to this wall on the side of the street and Wallace let us out. We entered a walled open air-ish market. It was terrifying. We rolled into the market, three blind Mzungus and four Kenyans. Instantly we were accosted to look at jeans, try on dresses, and check out shoes. Since I already don’t like shopping, it became clear to me that this was going to be a very interesting day.
We approached the first booth and Julie began looking at skirts. (She needed to get some professional looking clothes since she will be teaching some classes.) The men who owned the shops were taken aback by the three of us. We were the only white people there and when we tell Kenyans that we went to this market they are surprised and laugh.
We checked out the stands for about 2 hours. Afterwards, we walked through a rougher part of downtown. The traffic was insane. Herds of people cross the streets in random places. Eight mutatus seem to fit across in three lanes. Charity navigated us through the situation, but at one point we almost all got sandwiched in between three mutatus. It was wonderfully terrifying.
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