Back in Mbita

Well, I’m back in Mbita – it will be nice to be here a little while. I forgot my camera when I went to Kisumu (grrr!), so I don’t have any more pictures today, but I will have some after tomorrow with the interviews. Kisumu was great – some many stories, where do I start? Becca had a contact in Kisumu – Kelsey – who lived in Kisumu for 2½ years working for a non-profit that ran a girl’s football club. Anyway, she is back this summer visiting people and lives with 2 other American’s who have lived in Kisumu for almost 3 years. They let me crash at their place for the weekend, which was AWESOME. So nice to have a little bit of a place that feels familiar – we even at pizza for lunch! Which was pretty amazing, actually. It was a really relaxing weekend – we went out to dinner on Friday and on Saturday, I went into town to buy my place ticket back to Nairobi in August, but otherwise, I just hung out, read, took a nap, talked with the girls…so nice.

The power was out all over Kisumu yesterday (no one really knew why) and so when I went to the main Jetlink office to buy my ticket, they weren’t operating. “But you can go to our other office,” they said, “Above the Safaricom offices.” When I asked where that was, they said, “In the mall, by Omega supermarket.” Um, yep, still have no idea what you’re talking about. Anyway, one of the girls I was staying with, Elizabeth, and I decided we’d try to find it and set out walking. Well, you know where it was? Right across the street! Not sure why that woman couldn’t have just said that. I had to go up this outside staircase, through a parking garage – it was REALLY tucked away, but they had lots of signs pointing me to it. And I was able to get a ticket for about $30 cheaper than if I had bought it online, so that was good.

Morgan, one of the other girls at the apartment had actually lived in Mbita for about 4 months and she knows a couple of other Americans who are living out here now, so I may contact them, just to hang out with someone who can sympathize with things once in a while. J She gave me lots of ideas for food too – ugali and sakuma and eggs and cabbage can get kind’ve old after a while. Oh, and of course, Blue Band and white bread for breakfast with some peanut butter.

I took my first matatu on my own this morning! Felt pretty good – I’m actually getting more comfortable with getting transportation now. I know what prices things should be, so I don’t get taken advantage of as often. Especially here it’s easy – there’s a bazillion moto’s driving around, so I can just flag one down really quick.

Tomorrow is the first day of interviews – so excited! I’ll let you know how it goes…