Spring in Kenya

It is getting hot and the mosquitoes have arrived. The windows in my room have screens, but they aren't completely flush over the window and every morning I wake up with more mosquito bites. Sometimes when I am just about to fall asleep I am awakened by the buzzing of a mosquito near my ear. That snaps me awake, but when I turn on the lights I can't find it. So now I don't open any windows. The issue is, there are still mosquitoes in our apartment.  We can't figure out where they are coming in from.

I think we have finally entered the short rainy season that was supposed to begin in the beginning of October. Almost everyday (but mostly at night) it rains really hard. It always makes me stop and watch because it is so different from rain at home. 

And then it stops and the sun comes out. Rain is much needed here so I can't complain and actually  it has the added bonus of bringing temperatures down slightly.

This week we went to Kazuri beads where women make beads out of clay and paint little designs on them.

It was started as a way for women to earn a living. The beads were very beautiful but also rather expensive.

One of the large birds we saw one day

We are here on a tourist visa which means we are allowed to stay for 90 days. However, at my professor's request, we are here for 97 days. I mentioned this little visa problem to her before we left and she said it wouldn't be a problem...When I asked her what I needed to do to extend our visa, she was rather alarmed and said she wished she had known this earlier. 😑😑😑 

She had me reach out to someone that would know what I need to do, and I got all the information. It sounded simple: create an account, log on and request a visa extension, pay the money, then take the receipt to Nyayo house (where the immigration office is) and get our passports stamped...But it wasn't that simple. I tried for a few hours to create an account and log in. It just wouldn't let me. Finally, (by 2 am) I gave up and instead opted for google's AI advice, which was to go there first thing in the morning, before it opens, print off my tickets and bank statements, hope for the best in taking the lift (it asked me if I could walk the 17 flights because the lifts are slow and crowded), and when I get there, tell reception that I am asking for a grace period extension and that I need it done manually because I had a glitch in the system that wouldn't allow me to log in.

How it actually worked: As soon as we got out of the uber, there was a man waiting there wanting to assist us. But my uber driver had already talked to a security guard who would take us to a printing kiosk. The other man kept following us until the security guard literally pushed him away. We printed the documents and went to Nyayo house. The security guard there asked us if we had completed our application, (which we hadn't) and said this other guy would help us get our applications sent off. He walked us a couple blocks away from Nyayo house to a very small and cramped office with far too many people in it. It was stifling hot and every time someone came in or left, Malachi would squish his heat emanating legs against me. After we sat there for at least 40 minutes, a worker there took me to a bank to make the payment. I felt we were getting taken advantage of, especially when she told me the price of their service. I refused to use that bank that would only take my credit card and not debit so she sent us off to a different bank. At this point, I decided to go back to Nyayo house (instead of the bank) and not talk to the security guard and see if we could just get them to do a our application manually. The lift was a little scary--at one point it just stopped with a jolt and stayed there for a few minutes. But we made it and contrary to the what the security guard said, they did manually process our application. 

Since we are nearing the end of our time, we decided to go back to the Maasai market to get some more souvenirs. That place sucks the life out of you. Everybody is trying to get you to buy from them and most of the products are very similar. They act so friendly as they ask ridiculously high prices and tell you they are giving you a deal. I mostly let Lizzie handle all the transactions, but once they started telling her that if she bought something they would be able to get lunch, she caved. We got a pretty good haul, but fear we may have to go back one more time.

It was pouring rain on the day that we were supposed to go to Mathare and do park activities. We switched gears and planned for another library day, but by the time we got there, the rain had stopped. So in spite of all the protests from the reds, we headed down to the park. The library boy pulled a large suitcase behind him full of books.

The children this time were harder to engage. I think it was because they were a little younger and couldn't understand us.

But we managed to get them involved when we pulled out the speaker to play freeze dance. They picked a song and then they all started doing the same dance moves. It was entertaining.

Today we were invited to a birthday party of a girl we met here. She is Kenyan Canadian and recently moved back from Ottawa. The party turned out to be mostly a family affair which was a little awkward, but it was also kind of a cool cultural experience. They sing a different birthday song where everybody dances and it goes on for a bit. The birthday girl was not impressed and seemed rather upset during the singing. She went home shortly after.

I got to try nyama choma (roast goat) for the first time. It was yummy. 

We have only 2 weeks left here. I need to plan a little vacation for us, but we are having a hard time deciding between the options. I hope to get that all figured out in the next couple of days.