Arrival in Nairobi

I arrived in Nairobi, to find no one waiting at the airport for me. Of course there is no reason for Phanice to wait for me there if she doesn't know exactly when it will be there. And I find out that she moved just a few days prior, so her home wasn't as tidy as she wanted it.

I called her. After being asked by several tourist guides to go on a safari with them, she arrived. I gave her a big hug, but she seemd quite timid.

The air was warm and the sky was sunny. Quite a contrast from a dreary winter in Minnesota. I was skipping to summer early! Or at least the illusion of one - as the rainy season had just ended a week prior in Kenya.

We got to her place via taxi. The roads surrounding her apartment building were unpaved! Just muddy from the rains, and off what is called "outer ring road" in Nairobi. The road is not far from the airport, and just south of downtown. It is busy with foot traffic that I rarely see in the USA. But it was actually slower than most days, as it was Sunday.

After getting baggage situated at her place, Phanice went straight into making me breakfast. She was trying to make me pancakes, and proud that she had practiced several times prior. But when she dropped the batter on the skillet, she smoothed it out with a spoon - thinning it. So I decided to help her out in making true American pancakes. :)

She had never had something as fluffy as our pancakes, and since maple trees are scarce in Kenya, we made do with jelly.

Phanice did not have a refrigerator, so foods like butter and jelly were made to not be.

We also went out for further shopping. She seems to be in a rush all the time, but that is what most people in Nairobi are like. You have to walk fast and aggressive or get run over and stuck at a standstill. Just down the road from her house was a market where we bought vegetables. We even stopped at a place and bought ice cream - not comparable to that in Minnesota ( home of Dairy Queen and Princess Kay of the Milky Way ).

And I also took a matatu for the first time! That was interesting, though I hear it used to be worse when they crammed people in over the van's limit!

We had dinner, and I realized that ugali is not something as desirable in my diet. I prefer rice or pasta - even grits - to ugali. But perhaps there is a way to make it palatable or get used to.