First of all, sorry Hal, but I am by no means blending in, haha. When every I walk down the street, all the children shout "Mzungu" meaning "white person" or "how are you". The problem is that a lot of them do not understand the response to "how are you".
Now, to discuss travel here in Kenya. If I were asked to describe it in one word, I would say, "unpredictable". To illustrate, I will tell you about my trip back to Nairobi early this month. My host family needed to go to Nairobi for my host mother's graduation. (From now on, I am going to refer to my host parents as Momi and Dadi, and my actual parents as Mom and Dad) I also needed to get my Worker's Permit, so I left a day earlier. Dadi brought me to the bus station in the morning and helped me get my ticket. The bus was about 15minutes late, but that is pretty punctual here. Throughout the journey, we would stop randomly, sometimes for a bathroom break, sometimes just to let people on or off. At around 1pm, we stopped for lunch. As far as I heard, they never told us how long we were stopping for, so I ate as quickly as I could and always kept one eye on the bus I then arrived in Nairobi around 4pm. Also, I should mention that during the journey, I saw two different packs of Baboons on the side of the road. The rest of the day and next morning was pretty uneventful.
In the afternoon of the next day, I was waiting for Dadi and the little girls to arrive after I had received my word permit (Momi was already in Nairobi, staying with a relative). Up until this point, the only plan I had heard was that Dadi and I would get a hotel room, while Momi and the girls would stay with a relative. So, I was a bit surprised when Dadi called me and asked if I could stay with the Country Representatives for another night. Since I did not want to inconvenience the Reps by asking them the day of if I could stay another night, I asked why we weren't getting a hotel. Dadi immediately said that would be ok, but I learned that when you think you know what the plan is, it is quite possible it has changed.
The next morning, Dadi and I waited in Downtown for the rest of the family to join us before we left for the graduation. The rest of the family was a little late in arriving, which caused Dadi, and then Momi once she arrived, to say that we were going to be very late. However, I have come to learn that that is not as big of a deal here as in the U.S. (Every Sunday we go through pretty much the same routine, which results in Momi and Dadi repeatedly saying, "we are extremely late," because we are leaving for church about 30 minutes late.) When the rest of the family arrived, we boarded a Matatu (a large van that has a general route like a bus, but does not have specific stops) to go to the graduation. On the way, we encountered a traffic jam. Other matatus were driving off onto the shoulder of the road to bypass the jam, so our matatu tried to do the same. Unfortunately, the drop from the pavement to the shoulder was a bit larger in our section of the highway, so the axle got stuck on the drop off. We then spent about 10 minutes trying to get the Matatu moving again. During this time, some Massai that were walking by stopped and tried to help a bit. Eventually, we got the Matatu free, with the use of a jack borrowed from a different matatu. When we arrived at the graduation, it turned out that we weren't late, because the ceremony was also running late. The whole ceremony was supposed to take about 3 hours, but we were able to leave after Momi's name was called half way through. It seemed that was what most people were doing. The only people that stayed for the whole ceremony were the ones with their names near the end.
That night, Momi, the girls, and I were going to take a night bus back to Migori (Dadi had some work left to do the next day.) Our bus was supposed to leave around 9:30, but we did not leave until 11. At around 1am, we stopped for a bathroom break. They announced that we would be there for 15 minutes, so I got off to go. It took me a few minutes to find the bathrooms, because people kept misdirecting me. I think they were trying to direct me into the bar, thinking it would cause me to buy something. After a couple minutes, I found the bathroom, but as I came out, I was a little confused. Where the bus had been when I entered the bathroom, was now just a large empty parking spot. I began walking towards the highway, wondering where it could have gone. As I walked, I found other passengers similarly confused. I called Momi, and she told me that the Bus had gotten onto the highway, and was parked just on the other side of the highway. When I got on the bus, I learned that they had switched drivers, and the new driver had tried to take off immediately, but the passengers quickly protested that there were some people still in the bathroom. After that, the rest of the trip was uneventful, and we arrived in Migori around 7 in the morning.
In the end, I learned that no plans here are set in stone, which can be very relaxing, because it means you do not need to worry much about the future. However, for this same reason, you need to always be sure that you know what is happening currently, because plans may have changed in the last 5 minutes. And, if you don't stay informed on what is happening, you may find yourself standing outside a bathroom on the highway, looking at an empty parking space, wondering where in Kenya your bus has gone.
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