Harambee!

Tell me that is not the Titanic as it crashes into the iceberg.

Hello friends!

I'm officially in the global city of Nairobi! The flight went great! I got a whole row to myself from Dubai to Nairobi and took full advantage. I laid down across all three seats like a five year old and took about 3 hour long naps and missed the endings to both The Descendents and The Rum Diaries.  Just before landing, however, I gazed at a pretty pink sun set over a sea of clouds shaped like the titanic (mid-crash) and a jellyfish. Once we were below the clouds I could view a sprinkling of orange lights lighting up the city.  From what I could tell during the dark, winding ride to the guest house in which we are staying, Kenya is awesome. Just like I expected. The air is cool and crisp, there is a slight breeze.  So far, all of the people we have met have been extremely courteous and  friendly.

I love how they speak here.  Their speech has very little emotional inflection (at least what would be detectable to an American native-English speaker) but is filled with calm and warmth.  It's very soothing.  This made getting through customs and immigration better than how I remember going through in Italy and the US.  There is far less shouting and suspicion involved.

In Nairobi, this process included filling out a form that had a section for me to fill in my father's name if unmarried. I will be asking a Kenyan about this tomorrow, I'm sure. I should have asked one of the three people who drove us to the Methodist Guest House which is where I'm staying for tonight and tomorrow night.  I hope to introduce them if they allow me to use their photos and names.

One of the drivers told us that their local football (soccer) teams is called 'Harambee Stars'.  A couple of weeks ago at a fellow student's fundraiser, I learned that 'harambee' (pronounced Ha-RAHM-Bay) is a Swahili word and Kenyan phrase that means 'all pull together'.  It is used to define a type of event (like a fundraiser) that brings people together to collect funds and resources and give to a community member so that he or she may go off to school or work and become successful. During this celebration, everyone will shout 'Harambee! Harambee! Harambee!' The hope is that the person will return to their nascent village and use their new skills, talents, and knowledge to give back to and serve the community.  I really like this concept of help and community and was pleasantly surprised to hear that it is such a large part of their culture that it is used in the name of their soccer team.

Til tomorrow!

Erin