The morning after.
Took a shower, arranged my bug sprays neatly in a row to determine which ones to use for spraying clothing (that's permethrin) and which ones to spray on your skin but not your eyes (that's DEET and picaridin). It seems I overpacked because Rochelle and Ginger don't use mosquito repellant while staying in Kenya- apparently it's dry enough most of the time and at a high enough elevation to where mosquitoes aren't around, unless it's after the rain or if you leave your window open at night, which makes me suspicious that what they're saying is actually true... if you look at the malaria prevalence, I believe it is mostly in northwest Kenya rather than where we are.
The breakfast at the hotel buffet bar was quite lovely. I started off with bran flake cereal in milk, with a glass of pineapple juice. Then proceeded to the hot bar where I grabbed a bit of everything- baked beans, bacon, grilled tomato, potatoes, eggs, sausage, sausage roll, arancini, grilled veggies, arrowroot and sweet potato with a glass of tropical juice. This was when Rochelle & Ginger finally arrived to breakfast. After chatting with them, I continued to grab a bowl of fruit salad with a glass of orange juice, and finally had a yogurt parfait because we were waiting for Phillip to call us indicating when he would arrive. Apparently the typical Kenyan habit is to arrive fashionably late just like us Asians (I think the latest I've ever arrived at any social gathering was 3 hours, if you don't count not going at all even after RSVPing yes).
Since we were all waiting anyways for Phillip to arrive, we all went back to our rooms, brushed our teeth and grabbed our luggage to check out of the hotel.
Driving in Kijabe is something to adjust to. The driver sits on the right side of the car, with the stick shift used by their left hand, and cars drive along the left side of the road. People also walk along and cross the highway! People will try to overtake vehicles, and you feel like you will almost run into the car in the other lane before you can return to your side. On top of that, you're buckled in a waisted seatbelt, so no over-the-shoulder strap is going to protect you from launching forward in case of an accident...
The roads, buildings, and houses varied in quality driving from Nairobi to Karen to Kijabe. It was very reminiscent of when I traveled to China for the first time in 1997 to visit my parents' hometown and tour parts of Asia. Dirt roads, dilapidated houses, with varying income inequality. It seems like these cities in Kenya are on the up and up, catching up with the rest of the world. Also, there are various cute farm animals grazing alongside the highway as well! Goats, sheep, cows, donkeys, chickens, ducks, etc.
I was on edge for some reason the entire time because I assumed we would start work right away after arriving in Kenya. I mean I was only going to be working for 3 weeks so I felt like I needed to make the most of my general pathology experience worthwhile. Surprisingly, today was supposed to be a relaxing day of preparation. Our first stop entailed going to a Westernized shopping center/outlet with your familiar fast food spots like KFC and Burger King. One thing to get accustomed to is security all around town. Whether it was at the hotel or at this shopping center, security guards stood at the entrance with metal detectors ready for you to pass through. I was reading online before this trip that you also really shouldn't take pictures of government buildings and people without their express permission- things to think about to stay out of trouble while in Kenya. At this center, I was able to go to a currency exchange counter. One thing to remember when coming here is that your bills need to be younger than 2009 AND they cannot have any damage to them. They rejected one of my old bills and a new bill with a 5 mm tear in the middle. The exchange rate is currently great, though, at 156 KES (Kenyan shillings) for every $1 USD.
Not only did Rochelle forget to pack a lot of things, but I also forgot to pack sunglasses. Luckily, there was a sunglass store right across the supermarket. The lady taking care of me there was very attentive- wiping off every pair of sunglasses before letting me try them on. I ended up purchasing the earliest, and cheapest pair I could find for $14 USD?! Someone could work overseas and live here very comfortably with the great exchange rate. If you have sensitive eyes like mine, you're going to need a pair to avoid these harsh rays right near the equator. It was great finally wearing them so that the dust wasn't hitting my eyes while riding the van with the windows open. I'm very heat intolerant, and it reached around the 80s F that day, so any air in the car would have been helpful. Moreover, I caught some kind of bug from my sweet but germ-infested nephews and didn't want to get anyone in the car sick (more on this later).
I don't understand why people don't love grocery shopping. It combines two of my favorite things: food and shopping. Interesting aspects of the Kenyan grocery stores compared to the U.S.: the variety of color seen with their produce, and the variety of their fruits and vegetables (e.g., bananas and plantains rather than the genetically non-diverse kind we have at the store). The produce here is charged by the kilogram, so you have to bag and weigh them at a central counter where they append a sticker to the bag with the final price on it. There is not only milk in the chilled section but milk sitting on the counter at room temperature. Even the eggs sit on the shelves at room temp. In terms of cereal, corn flakes seem to be the predominant purchase. I think I realize why now after having chosen one cereal that almost looked like Quaker Oatmeal Squares (only $2 at Fred Meyer!). The amount of cereal in my box could last you 5 days if you don't fill your bowl to the brim...
Rochelle and Ginger got hungry, so after making all our purchases and dropping them off in the van, we stopped at Artcaffe. Rochelle ordered a watermelon/pineapple w/ mint and passionfruit salad and sour passionfruit drink w/ an accompanying shot glass on the side containing simple syrup. Phillip ordered a hot chocolate, and Ginger got a roasted red bell pepper soup w/ garlic bread. I only wanted cold water, but everyone offered me some of their food, which I never refuse ;).
Soon after that we departed for Kijabe, which was 50 km away, and took around an hour to get there depending on traffic. Seems like we brought the Seattle rain with us, which was refreshing to have the window open driving up to our lodge, but before we reached our destination we had to drive through dirt roads with potholes and muddy pools of water. There's no elevator to our place, so after laying down some of our carry-on bags, we moved all the grocery bags up first and then moved all the luggage to the bottom of the stairs before transporting all of them up in as few trips as possible up three flights of stairs (there's no elevator :(...).
Something Phillip advised Rochelle and Ginger to do in the past is to wash all our produce with a bleach/water solution for 10 minutes and then rinse them under tap water before setting them aside in these baskets to dry.
There wasn't much else to do today, so we walked 5 minutes down the road to the hospital for a quick tour of the pathology laboratory, said hi to the personnel who were still working there, and walked up the road to get to the local market. It's at this location where several women were sitting around the perimeter inside the building, each with similar but slightly different produce for sale. How this produce ends up in this little flea market is that the women go to a market even higher up on the hill where it is cheaper, purchase it, and resell it down here. Plenty of folks don't go because they know the price is cheaper up top, but for those of us who are lazy and don't want to walk that far to grocery shop (only to have to walk just as long back home), this place will suffice. And who can complain if you're from the U.S.- the total cost of our grocery haul was 1250 KES or around $8. EIGHT DOLLARS for all those fruits and vegetables!?
Rochelle & Ginger love wine (particularly cabernet sauvignon), so it was wine o'clock upon returning to the apartment. Dinner that night was every human for themself, so on night one, since I didn't think to have any easy dinner ingredients, resorted to cereal and milk with a pairing of the Bota Box wine that was already opened. Then I made a meat and cheese sandwich for myself, but honestly, I was so jetlagged and tired from not sleeping on the plane that I could have passed out and been fine not eating.
Shocking things: (1) Rochelle washing her feet in the kitchen sink (she said they were dirty), and (2) they store their bread in the freezer. I thought I was strange for storing my bread in the refrigerator to make it last longer and not mold, but the caveat to that is the bread can get dry. However, they put their bread in the freezer, take out some slices hours beforehand to thaw it, and then eat it. I think I'm too lazy to have the foresight to set bread slices aside for my meals, but to each their own!
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