Achieng'

Jambo!!!

It is sooo hard to put these last couple of days into words that give this experience any justice, but I will try. I will start off my saying that I am having to the most amazing time and it has been quite an experience already. Kenya is what I thought Africa would be like, but nothing like I expected it to be. First off, it is sooooo beautiful. It is so green and has views of valleys and mountains that are just amazing. Even just walking along the roads, the surroundings are just peaceful and calm. The 7 hour drive from Nairobi to Kisumu was definitely an adventure, but it gave us a chance to see more of Kenya and a lot of villages in between. We even saw some baboons and zebras just hangin out by the road. When you get to the city there are people, animals and children and choas everywhere. Many of the houses and stores are made out of mud bricks or sheet metal. The nicer ones are made out of concrete. It is hard to imagine these has homes, but they are. There are some houses that look like they just came out of an L.A. suburb though. It is pretty random. It is as if the family just buys the land and builds whatever they can afford. The people here are kind. We have gotten a chance to meet some very entertaining Kenyans. Many of them just watch us and are just very curious. The kids here are sooo cute. A few of them dropped by the center today and visited the library. Joe, one of the interns is living at a school so we went up there today and the kids were so excited to see us. they all came to the window of their classrooms and waved to us. A few came out to introduce themselves. Many of the younger kids are just starting to learn English so the little ones were really excited to talk to us. A few of the kids that live around the center run up to us when we come down the road and they just like to touch you and ask you questions. I can not wait to start working with them. When you get to the middle of the city, there are a lot of orphans wandering the streets and begging for money. It is really heart breaking. We had orientation today and are going to continue making community observations and talking with the people of Kisumu for the rest of the week. Collectively we have come up with some cool project to do including work with their youth club, the local schools and working with the women in community. I am beyond excited about this. The people that run the center are beyond awesome. Victor, Allan and Steve are the main ones that work here. They have been great about escorting us around the city. They have even "baptized" me with a new "local" name. Achieng' pronounced a-chee-ang. It is Lou, the main tribe and local language for most of the people that live in Kisumu. It means born in with the Sunshine. Most of the names are based on what time of the day you are born or what kind of day it was.

Well, I could go on forever and have about a million stories, but they have just put on the music and we are going to show our new found friends some recent dances from the states lol!! In short, this is going to be such a crazy, exciting, emotional and amazing 7 weeks if they are any thing like these past few days... I will post pictures soon!