Sifahamu Kutumia Choo

So I successfully moved in with my new family! I live with my Mama Zahra (which is pronounced like Sarah, go figure!). I also have a 14 year old sister named Fatilna, who’s in standard 8 but she left on Monday to move back in to boarding school. That makes the house a lot lonelier because she was super sweet. She gave me a bracelet on my first night at home. She also broke my camera, but I’m waiting to get upset about that until I take it to the camera store somewhere in Nairobi to see if they can fix it. Only problem is that I have no idea how to get from my neighborhood to downtown or when to do it since we have class all day.

Look, it's me in front of the Nairobi skyline, and Uhuru Park.

So back to the family: I have my mom and my sister who left for school and I also have an older brother who’s 22 and taking time off from school. He’s living with our grandmother, though, while I’m here because the house only has 2 small bedrooms and so I would have to sleep with my mom if he was home. His name is Chuna (spelling or pronunciation, no idea). Our house is nice but modest…I’ll put pictures up if and when I ever get my camera fixed. I’m also becoming a pro at bucket showering since our house has no running water.

My mom is great and very concerned for my health and safety. She keeps telling me that she’s my Kenyan mama and she’s super excited to cook all different food for me while I’m here. I’m actually concerned that I’m going to come home fat. You should see the way people eat here, plus it’s all starch. My family keeps asking me if I’m on a diet when I don’t take so much food, and then they give me more anyway. It’s mildly disgusting.

Mama also won’t let me run around my neighborhood since it’s in Kibera and she doesn’t think it’s safe, so I have to figure out how to run from our school building. At least I have a half an hour walk to and from school every day so I get some exercise in.

What else? We started real school on Monday so we have Swahili classes all morning and then a lecture for a few hours in the afternoon. Learning so much Swahili it’s overwhelming, but my brother and mom are trying to help me with it.

I fell in a drainage ditch on the walk to school the other morning: check that off my Nairobi bucket-list.

Tonight I’m supposed to learn how to make chapatti, but so far my mom hasn’t actually let me help do anything, instead I sit in a chair in the doorway to our 2x2foot kitchen space and watch her cook. Wish me luck!

Kwa heri. (Oh and if you’re wondering what the title has to do with anything, it relates to the fact that I couldn’t understand how to use the toilets in our house since we don’t have running water so they don’t flush, still workin’ on it.)

This looks like a secure way to transport our belongings, right?