The tricky part of writing a post based on the last three weeks or so is that I can’t possibly capture everything that happened.  And these last three weeks were fairly fantastic. 

First the less interesting part- the week spent in Nairobi.  We continued our classes, but we focused on Swahili and cultural topics because we were about to leave for the rural village stay where it was more important that we know a few cultural intricacies rather than particular health or development knowledge.  So the last week was spent largely in class and preparing for our trip to the coast.  On the September 21^st (a Friday) we had a free afternoon before getting on the overnight bus from Nairobi to Mombasa.  Getting on the bus was an interesting experience, as we were loading our bags and climbing on, a police officer walked over and started yelling.  We couldn’t quite understand what was going on for a few minutes, but he was looking for the bus driver because he had parked the bus on the edge of the road, and apparently the Kenyan president had just driven by, so that was unacceptable.  But he had a giant stick in his hand and was waving it around and putting it right in peoples faces, so all we could do was apologize.  He wasn’t just upset at the driver, it was all of us too, because apparently we should have been saluting, but we definitely didn’t know anyone noteworthy had been there.  Anyway, it was an interesting insight into how the Kenyan Police handle issues. 

The bus ride actually wasn’t that bad, I think a lot of us slept pretty well. We arrived in Mombasa around 7am and then went to the SIT office in Mombasa to brush our teeth, eat some breakfast and relax for a few minutes.  Once the shops opened up, around 9am, we headed out in a few different groups with staff members from SIT Mombasa leading us around to do some shopping.  In the village we stayed in it was inappropriate to wear any of our Western clothes, so we needed to find a few local things.  We all bought muumuus (long flowy nightgown type things) and khangas, which are two pieces of rectangular fabric, one of which gets wrapped around your waist, and once gets wrapped around your chest and head.  After a few hours of shopping in some incredible heat, we had lunch and then got on a bus to drive us about an hour and a half south to the village of Shirazi, where we would spend the next 10 days. 

When we arrived in Shirazi, all of our families were already gathered around one of the main buildings in the village and were waiting for us.  So we very quickly collected our bags and sat down on a giant grass mat.  There wasn’t any beating around the bush- our director just immediately started calling out student names and pairing us up with our families.  I was called somewhere in the middle of the group and met my mama and gave her one of the most awkward hugs imaginable because she is literally only about 4 and a half feet tall.  But we grabbed my backpack, mosquito net, jug of water, and candles, and started walking to her home.  When I got to their home, they let me get a little settled in and then they gave me one of their family khangas to wear, and then we just spent the afternoon and evening trying to get to know each other.  I didn’t figure out exactly who was a member of my immediate family until the end of our time in Shirazi (which I know sounds ridiculous, but I swear, its not!) because there are so many children in and out of every house all the time that it is hard to tell who actually lives there and who doesn’t.  Even meal time and bedtime aren’t helpful because kids ate with us all the time who I knew weren’t a part of the family.  Anyway, in my family there was Mama Zedi, and then three sisters: Saumu, who was about 15, Mwanapili who was about 9, and Rukia who was 4.  My mama was a widow, so there wasn’t a father in the house.  They also gave me a Shirazi name (all the other students got one as well), so for the 10 days there I was called Saumu.  Yes, that was also my sister’s name.  So it got a little confusing, but she was my namesake, so it was still kind of sweet!      

Their home in Shirazi was very simple, but provided all of the necessities.  It was a simple mud and stick house, but it had several rooms.  When you walk in the front door, there is a very small hallway with one room to the left and one room to the right.  I actually had the room to the right all to myself while I was there, which was nice but made me feel guilty since everybody else stayed in the other room.  In my room there was a small bed, a little table, and a grass mat to cover the dirt floor.  The whole house had a palm frond roof, but my room also had a layer of World Food Programme bags that had been stitched together to give a little protection against rain.  I never actually saw the other room to the left, but I am assuming it is very similar.  The little hallway room area is the multipurpose room of the house.  It has a dirt floor, but whenever we sat there they put a grass mat down.  This is the space where we sat to talk, ate, played cards, and where everybody did homework- it was the only sitting area in the house. 

Then there was another door out the other side of the hallway that led to an open, outdoor area that was used for cooking, washing dishes, doing laundry etc.  It was a large dirt area that was more or less open.  Then off to the right was the kitchen.  It was covered with a palm frond room but didn’t have a door, so it was still very open.  They had a little fire pit area in the corner of the kitchen and then the other walls were stacked with drums of water, the few pots and pans they had, and the few food items they had.  Then there was my favorite room of the house, the shower.  It was an open area with palm frond walls that came up to about my shoulders, but then there wasn’t a ceiling.  There were a few large stones and logs in the ground that you stood on as you poured water on yourself from the bucket in the corner.  Even though there were some very large millipedes and spiders in this area of the house it was great because as you were showering you had a view of a bunch of other homes and the palm trees- it was pretty stunning.  And then off of the shower was the bathroom, literally just a hole dug into the dirt.  And that was the house! 

I don’t know how best to sum up the 10 days in Shirazi, so I’ll just try and go over some of the highlights and main challenges. 

We had class Monday- Saturday while we were there, which meant we had Swahili every morning from 7am-11am (we met earlier so it wasn’t as hot) under a giant tree.  We had lunch with all the students under a giant mango tree that was right on the water- this is a coastal village very near the Tanzania border, if I didn’t mention that.  A couple of afternoons we had activities, but mostly we were supposed to be working on research projects.  Everybody had both a group research project and an individual project to work on while we were there.  It was really interesting trying to conduct research in a village where we have very little command over the language and cultural practices.  But a lot of times, we just ended up going and sitting on the dock and playing with some local kids in the afternoons- much more enjoyable! 

On our first full day in Shirazi, we all met up and all we were told is we were going to go to a beach to go swimming.  So we loaded up a boat with about 10 of us and no SIT staff member, and then boat started plugging along in the inlets that led out to the main ocean.  For some reason we all thought it was a short ride- we were very wrong.  After about 45 minutes in the boat, the driver started slowing down the boat.  In the middle of the open ocean.  We were a little confused and concerned.  And then we realized what was going on, but we didn’t quite believe it.  The driver was pulling up to a sandbar that only comes up out of the water at low-tide: it is a disappearing beach.  But when we pulled up, even the shallowest points were still a food or so under water, so we just started laughing uncontrollably as the boat dropped us off literally in the middle of the ocean.  We couldn’t take anything out of the boat because there was no where to put it, so we just ran around and we couldn’t help but smile and laugh.  It was pretty incredible.  After 15 minutes or so the boat with the rest of our students and one of the SIT staff members came, and by that time there was some sand that had come out of the water.  We spent a couple of hours there just playing in the crystal clear water and then laying on our own private white sand island.  Absolutely incredible.

Oh goodness, the clothes was another highlight of the time in Shirazi.  Even though we all bought clothes to wear in Mombasa, almost everyone’s family still insisted on giving them clothes to wear.  And this resulted in some pretty comical things.  I really only had three spectacular outfits, the rest of them were fairly normal.  A normal day was wearing a muumuu with khangas over it, so we were well covered up.  We were staying in a Muslim village, so it was important to be modest and keep our heads covered most of the time.  But there was one day that my family gave me what one of my friends later described as a very long sequined negligee.  It was pale pink and COVERED in sequins, a sheer fabric, and it had spaghetti straps.  But mind you, my shoulders may have been exposed and my shorts were visible under the sheer fabric, but you better believe they had a matching scarf to keep my head covered.  Oh boy.  Then one day they gave me a khanga that was completely tie die.  Someone described what I looked like by saying that I looked like an exploded bag of skittles.  It was a little vivid.  And then the best outfit they saved for my last day.  Oh lordy.  It was a polyester floor length dress that was blue and white.  It reminded me of a child’s Halloween costume, except adult sized.  It also had a matching headscarf to match its spaghetti straps (one of which broke during the day, therefore exposing my bright pink sports bra… classy.  But I sewed the strap back on that night).  It was so hot in the Shirazi sun, but it was pretty comical.  While them dressing me was a little strange, it was done with so much love, it was totally ok.  They were just trying to show that we were a part of their family and they tried to give us their nicest things so we would look “good” while staying in the village.  It was actually pretty darn sweet. 

We also got to experience piki pikis in Shirazi.  Oi.  Piki Piki means motorcycle.  We had to ride them.  I have had not so pleasant experiences with motorcycles in the past (basically I'm just terrified of them) and so I was not too thrilled when we were told we would have to ride on the back of a piki piki to go visit a health clinic in the next village over.  So, the poor guy who was driving the piki piki had to deal with my death grip as I climbed on the back and one of my friends got behind me.  It was only about a 10 minute drive through the jungle to get there, but that was enough for me.  I was laughing hysterically, but mostly so I wouldn't cry.  The views were amazing though, I will say that.  The tour of the clinic was relatively uneventful, but then there was the piki piki ride back.  I was feeling slightly more comfortable at the beginning of the ride back. That is until we drove through fire.  Literally.  My friend and I just screamed a little and went "why yes, of course we just drove through fire on a piki piki on a dirt path in the jungle".  Yikes.  It was definitely an experience!

Let’s see, what else.  Oh- the food!  So. Much. Coconut.  Amazingness.  They make rice with coconut milk, beans with coconut milk, fish with coconut milk… yum.  They don’t have much food and there is very little variety, but coconuts are in abundance- they just climb trees and get them.  My family taught me how to grate the coconut (in fact I still have a cut on my leg from that coconut grater) and then make coconut milk.  There is a lot of fish in the village because it is coastal, but other than that, there isn’t really any protein.  We had beans once when I was there, but you could tell that was a special occasion.  And on my last night we slaughtered a chicken, which was an even bigger deal.  On my first day in the village, Mama Zedi told me that she doesn’t always have enough food, so when she doesn’t she goes to her mama, and when her mama doesn’t have enough food, she goes to my mama’s house.  That is a pretty foreign concept coming from the States, and it was pretty humbling.  But it makes sense- my mama was a widow, and I still don’t understand where she got the little money that she did have, but somehow they are still scraping by.  Needless to say I went and bought them a ton of groceries before I left.  Eating in Shirazi was a very interesting thing too, they put all the food on one big platter and everybody washes their hands with a cup of water, and then everyone says “Bismillah” and everyone eats off the same platter.  It was definitely a bonding thing, since we were all huddled around the same plate. 

On our last day in Shirazi I had to go and do a little work in the morning, but I came back to my house around 1pm.  My mama had made an appointment for me to go and get henna before I left, so we went to her friends house.  They do piko, which is like henna but it dries black, so it is much more obvious.  This woman drew with piko from my fingertips to elbow and then from my toes to mid-calf.  It was beautiful.  While she was drawing on my feet, she stopped for a minute and said, “Oh, wadudu!”.  Wadudu means bug in Swahili.  There are little bugs called jiggers in Shirazi which get under the skin in your feet and grow there.  And I had one in my big toe.  Lucky me.  But my mama came over and saw it, so after we went home when my piko had dried, they told me to go get a needle (luckily I had one in my sewing kit) and I sat down in the hallway sitting area.  My 15 year old sister, Saumu, took the needle and picked the little bug out of my foot.  It hurt, but it wasn’t too bad.  But then she found two more in other toes, so she took those out as well.  And then, I found out, they had gotten some brown/orange henna like we have in the states and they took a little stick and colored in some of the piko designs on my hands and feet with the henna.  I can’t quite describe how or why, but from Saumu picking the jiggers out of my feet and then my whole family helping put henna on me, it was just the perfect way to spend my last night there.  It was all done with so much love and caring, it was so wonderful.  Then we had our huge dinner of pilau and chicken, played our last game of cards (I gave them a deck of cards and taught them to play a few games- go fish was their favorite) and exchanged some gifts.  I gave them a few toys, a notebook, a new paraffin lamp (I don’t think I mentioned, but hopefully you got the picture that this village doesn’t have electricity or running water), and a bunch of groceries.  I still don’t know how they afforded it, but my mama had a hat, purse and fan made for me.  It was so sweet, they were so excited to be able to give me something, and I will definitely keep all three of the gifts for a very, very long time.  That night I also promised I would find a way to send them a bunch of the pictures I had taken throughout the week, because they don’t have any pictures of their family. 

I don’t really know what else to say about Shirazi.  Some of it was overwhelming, there were constantly kids crawling all over us, Swahili was a little tricky, but overall it was great and I really loved my family.  My mama was so incredibly sweet I can’t even begin to describe it.  Saumu is very serious about her studies and really wants to go to secondary school next year.  She was also who taught me how to do the most in the village- how to cook, how to wash dishes with dirt (yes, they don’t have soap, so they wash with dirt) and she dressed me every morning.  Then there was Mwanapili who has the biggest smile imaginable and just wants to play games all the time.  Rukia is a typical whiny, but actually very sweet four year old.  She took a while to warm up to me, but when she finally did, we had some precious moments of her meeting me at school and then holding my hand as she walked me home. 

I don’t know if or when I’ll be able to, but I really hope that someday I get to go back to Shirazi.  They were all so welcoming and happy to have us there- I really did feel a part of the community, which was fantastic.  I was surprised I didn’t struggle more there with the lack of conveniences that I am used to, and some really, really big bugs (including the ones that were living in my feet) but my family made all of that more than worth it. 

When we left Shirazi we went back to Mombasa for a few days and had a lot of health lectures there.  We didn’t have Swahili all week and instead just focused on some NGO visits and learning about the Kenyan healthcare system, which was interesting, but with 6 hours a day of lectures on the same topic, we were already to be done by the end of the week. 

And now we are back in Nairobi and spending the weekend with our families here before we start classes back up here tomorrow!

Sorry for the really long post- next time I won’t wait three weeks to write again!!