Missing Internet and Sleep

September 4, 2009

Yesterday was my first day at the University! Although, the day didn’t start off as exciting. I tried to fall asleep at 11pm, but didn’t fall asleep until 5am, and I had to get up at 7am. Now, I am not going to even try to sleep at regular hours; it is so frustrating. So today I slept from 6pm to 9pm and I am planning on staying up until I am very tired. I haven’t sleep for more than 3 hours straight since Sunday night.

Yesterday and today I rode with my Mama’s friend to the University. It takes me 10 to 20 minutes to get to school in the morning, which is a lot faster than some other K students. Many live far away, including three who live in Karen, a town many miles from city centre. The longest voyage to school is 2 or more hours. Orientation at the University consisted of introductions, program information, campus tour and Nairobi walking tour. Rufus accompanied us, as well as the current Nairobi student to study at K. Enoc, Humphrey and Peter were selected students to be our campus and Nairobi guides. They have been so helpful! They are happy to answer any questions we have and go out of their way to make sure we see important things and understand everything. The walking tour included visits to ATMs and buying cell phones. The K group all got Safaricom as our service provider. There are four main companies (others are Zain, Yu and Orange). Everyone here has a cell phone. It is appropriate to send important or formal messages through SMS (texting haha). Almost all phones are pay as you go. It is a cell phone culture, perhaps more than the United States, because everyone has one, uses it regularly and must SMS. So many stands sell phones and even more that sell minutes. Huts in the slum Kibera, sell vegetables, soda, and credits for phones.

Since it rained yesterday, there was a mad rush to the Mutatus at rush hour. There is no reason for this rush, other than when it rains, people know other people will be rushing. The traffic jam was horrendous. Car and vans were facing every direction but it was absolute stand still. Our mutatu turned around many times. Some mutates are pimped out – they have loud music, tv screens with music videos and darkened windows. You may ask why they would put so much money into their vehicles. Well, adolescents seek out the cool mutatus; they would not be caught dead in a plain mutatu. Pimped out mutatus draw in more riders. Yesterday and today my mutatu was pimped out. The music is so loud the bass pounds your heart. My mutatu ride was very painful. I was so tired, had to pee and got a headache. It took an hour and a half to go home. I ate dinner and went to bed. I woke up at 1am, and luckily my host brother was awake eating dinner (he has irregular sleeping patterns), because the worst part about not being able to sleep is being so lonely and not having internet. I miss people the most then. Internet is a good distraction for me and I am addicted, so I really miss it then as well. I have been reading Kenya guidebooks and studying a Nairobi map. My host brother and I watched “Friends” late last night. I was able to fall asleep again at 4am – I was so happy!

Today orientation consisted of academic introductions. Only four of the eleven of us have not taken a Kiswahili course. It has been embarrassing since people who know that we are students expect us to know some. We got our photos taken for our IDs and went to lunch as group. It was delicious. I had a Kuku burger, chicken on a baguette bun with sauces, and chips aka French fries. There is no ketchup and if you have ever eaten a burger or fries with me you know I like fries and burger with my ketchup and I’m sure that you’ll have so much sympathy that you’ll send me some ketchup…. Please. Also, mango juice is my new favorite drink, especially since I overdosed on Root Beer floats this summer and could not drink them anymore.

After lunch we went on a driving tour of Nairobi, which sounded fun, but turned out to be embarrassing in the city. We rode in safari vans, and might as well have been in safari jackets and bucket hats. The tour then went to Karen (pronounced Car-in) and the wealthy neighborhoods outside of town and that part was extremely informative. I haven’t seen anything like it here. Some neighborhoods are so ritzy; they have mansions even to American standards. Every house is gated and was amazingly maintained. Many of the Ministers live there.

I found out today that my debit card is not working in any ATMs. All my transactions are denied and I have no idea why since I alerted my bank I would be here. Therefore, I cannot buy the thing I really really want – a jumpdrive modem that receives internet from Safaricom. It’s about 4,000 KSH, about $53, plus megabyte credits. If anyone knows how I can reduce my megabyte-downloading while surfing let me know. Hopefully next time I update I will have internet on my laptop!