Karibu Kenya!

A group unloading from a matatu on Ngong Rd. near the office of ESD and the guest house in Nairobi

I made it to Kenya! That is about all that I can summarize right now. I am awash in new smells, new sights, and the constant fear of being run over. The roads are crazy here and pedestrians don't stand a chance. But no need to worry, just hop on the local "Citi Hoppa" and its a few minutes ride from the ESD office on Ngong Road to downtown Nairobi. The first thing I did when I got to downtown Nairobi was to find some ugali (a hardened poridge like substance based on corn meal). I don't know why there was any hurry to find it - I'll probably be eating it daily for the next ten months if Kirubi is right.

My waiter at the restaurant, Omar, decided that the rest of the customers could wait - he was going to spend lunch with me. He sat with me the entire lunch asking questions about what I was up to and sharing plenty of insight about Kenyan and Somali culture. I'm surprised by the ratio of employees to customers at the stores in Nairobi. The supermarket near my guest house had at least one employee working on each aisle along with two employees at each checkout counter, even though there were only about ten people shopping at the time. It sure made it easy to find things!