Last Sunday I moved in with the Kimani family for our three week urban homestay component. Both my host parents work for a marketing company, my host sister Ciku is 11 and on the swim team, my host brother is 16 and part of debate club, and my host cousin Kevin just graduated university where he studied physical sciences. My family also hires Jackie to live in the house and do the cooking and cleaning. Jackie is the sweetest and I've really enjoyed getting to know her. Part way through the week Elle, another SLU student, joined my homestay after hers didn't work out. Another sister!
During the week we've been traveling to The United Kenya Club in the center of Nairobi to take classes. All my classes have been interesting, but I'm especially enjoying the biodiversity conservation class, no surprises there.
On Friday we visited Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) which is an organization dedicated to community development through sports. MYSA has youth football teams as well as professional men's and women's teams who compete internationally. Some of the winnings go towards paying school fees for youth in the community. We spent the day at MYSA touring the facilities, playing football, and chatting with the players.
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| A little snapshot of the house I'm staying in, very nice to say the least. |
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| My family has three dogs - Foxy and Tofu pictured here, and a third big dog named Rue. These two bark bark bark allll night long right outside my window. I've decided it's time to invest in some ear plugs. |
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| There is an outdoor cafe where we take classes which makes a great spot to do homework and eat lots of mandazi and chai. |
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Playing football at MYSA! Luckily for us the teams were a mix between KSP students and the pro athletes. We were also lucky to be invited to some of the athlete's homes in Mathare, one of the many slums in Nairobi.
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On Saturday my host family and I went hiking at Ngong Hills on the outskirts of the city. We started the hike just as the sun was coming up and finished before the heat descended. Saw some massive buffalo along the way, thankfully from a distance.
 | Group hiking photo!
 | | And a selfie with our mom! |
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 | | After the hike we stopped at Ngong Market for some fruits and veggies. The layout is similar to a farmers market but indoors. First and second floor were farmers selling their fresh produce and dried beans. Third floor was clothes and more shoes than I've ever seen. |
 | Went over to the neighbors in the evening for a bbq. Absolutely adored the cheese board complete with honeycomb from their bees. Enjoyed some local beer too.
Sunday afternoon we visited the Nairobi National Museum. Did a thorough tour of the Kenyan history, ecological, and wildlife photography exhibits. The king fisher displayed here is one of the species we saw while in Tanzania.
 | Elle and I held some snakes at the live snake exhibit! I think I was a bit more psyched than she was haha.
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 | | Oh no what if the glass disappears between me and the snake?! Elle and I got a laugh over some Harry Potter references. |
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