Almost Settled in Nairobi

Even though I’m not exactly moved into my apartment and settled in, I thought I would post something here about my experiences so far. The internet connection is slow and intermittent, so no pictures yet, but hopefully when we move into our new apartments we will have a strong enough connection to upload a few pictures.

We’re staying in a temporary apartment right now because our actual apartment is not available until Monday. The apartment is comfortable – 3 big bedrooms, a nice living room, and a decent kitchen. Everything is furnished, and our next apartment will be also. There is even cable TV, complete with Food Network! Though apparently our next apartment will not have such luxuries.

We live in a pretty nice neighborhood and are very close to 3 huge grocery stores and two major shopping centers. There is even a fantastic natural foods store nearby! I bought an avocado at the produce market yesterday for 20 shilling, which is around 25 cents. You can bet I will be eating well here. The market had an amazing selection of fruits and veggies, including all kinds of things I have never seen before. This summer will definitely include several fun cooking adventures!

There are plenty of fantastic restaurant options, including several Indian and Ethiopian options – I am pretty excited about that. I went to check out the local gym today, since running on the streets seems nearly impossible. They charge $100/month! I’m seriously considering it, though, because it’s pretty nice and they even have a great spin studio. I should have brought my spinning shoes!

So I have my first meeting in Kibera today, the informal settlement (aka slum) that I will be working in all summer. I am excited and nervous to to see this place that I have imagined in my head for so long. I will blog more about those experiences later.

Eric and I also had a fantastic time exploring Tanzania and Rwanda during the last two weeks. I’m working on editing down close to 3000 photos, so it may be a little while before I can upload them. I managed to whittle a set of 800 down to around 400 just yesterday, though, so it might be sooner than I originally imagined.

And well… I guess that’s it for now!