Jay@Kenya: Random Post

This post is pretty much random, with random photos. Just wanted to share life here.

Is there witches in Kenya? Maybe not because they cannot find broomsticks here. All brooms are pretty much handmade and binded like the photo below. Everyone bends down and sweep with these brooms at an angle (not straight up, but lean toward one side and sweep to use more bristles. There are many brooms of various sizes, including small one that we use to "sweep" water into the drain after our bath.

Just a random photo but wanted to share with you the kinds of roads we have here. Only downtown Machakos and the main roads connecting major villages are paved (even they are unmarked and poorly done). Everything else is simply dirt, and rough with stones and ditches (in the middle of the road) from the rain.

The plant below seem to be of cactus family. I was told that if you break a strand, and get its oil on your skin, it would irritate and burn your skin. These plants along with the ones that have like 2 1/2 inch thorns are usually around properties to keep animals (and humans) off property. There are often loose barbed wires going through these plants as well.

See the huge thorns? They are everywhere. Dead branches of these plants are laid around properties, even on top of some walls.

I guess since there are no garbage refuse service, people pretty much burn their trash (after reusing whatever that can be reused), and toss them. These sights are everywhere and they saddens me.

Outlets here are of the British type. Three thick prongs giving out 220 volts. All outlets have their own "switch" I guess to protect electronics during non-use or to save electricity. Most of our electronics can take 110 through 220 volts (if there are transformers in them) like the Macbook adapter in photo below. All they need is an adapter to change the prongs. Other electronics such as hair dryer, TV, etc., that do not include transformers will fry if you just put an adapter on it.

Hey New York City folk, heres your challenge, show me a cockroach bigger than this? Good thing there is not many cockroaches at my home, but I hear there are some more at other trainees' homes. This photo was taken at the Garden Hotel, one of the fancy ones at Machakos.

My full week load of clothes that I hand washed. Jeans are the killer. They hurt my knuckles when they are used to "wash" the fabric against my other hand. I learn to "economic-ize" my clothes so that if my clothes I wore are not that dirty or I did not sweat too much, I would wear them again. Also certain fabrics are not so great for hand-washing (like pure cotton) because they stretch. I seem to favor couple shirts I got that are 50% cotton 50% polyester cuz they wash so easy and dry so fast.

Hand-tilling. I have no clue how much he makes when my baba hired him to do the side of the house and the land behind him. He took two days to till the land.

It is not in Kenyan's culture to hang our underwear outside. I was taught to hang my underwear in my room. Actually my baba told me to wash my underwear same time I bathe, but I rather not. So I wash my week worth of underwear at once outside, then bring them inside my room to dry. It takes two days to dry them inside, sigh. Good thing I brought like 14 pieces so I can wear fresh one everyday!

Walking on the roads always attracts curious kids. I am in a fishbowl. They say so many things that I have no clue, but wave back with smiles. I am sure some of them may be insults, but I think most of them said nice things.

Group photo. One kid could not stop looking at me, even when I told him to look out front.

Toys for kids seem non-existant. They play with anything they can get their hands on. Some of things I thought would be so unsafe, but seem not to be a problem for them nor their parents.

My booster card for this week. Hugs to my mom and dad. I enjoy these booster cards and kept my hands off them until the next card is due. Sorry about the rotation, no time to edit the photos.