Finally I have internet...

originally written on 18th June (yesterday)

One week passed again… I’m starting now my third one here. Hard to believe – every day is very busy, with all new people, feelings, impressions. I can only reflect at the end of the day, when I realize there’s no internet again (says: “no connection or connection is restricted”), so have to replan the evening – these are the times when I stop to think: what have I done today? And what will I do tomorrow?
Though one thing I’ve learnt very much here: each of my plans should be highly flexible. Friends or family from home used to ask me: when can we talk? And the usual answer: I don’t know.

The Kenyan way is the hakuna matata – as I’ve already mentioned. It means a large scale of freedom. Freedom from planning (that’s how they can organize a successful conference by having venue and chair only 3 days before the conference starts…), freedom from rules, from restrictions, from systems. If you’re thinking in the “European way” it’s very hard to understand. I’ve just realized how planned, structured and systematic I am compared to them.
But basically it’s not about no planning at all – sometimes they do plan! It’s just the matter of “here and now”. It’s the matter of passion, of emotions.

I’ve never seen more emotional and passionate people than Kenyans are. If you’re open to them, you can get lots of love, energy, care. They live from their heart. And they love from their heart. And one more thing: I’ve never seen stronger people than they are. Whatever happens, life must go on. They are somehow fighters. Entrepreneurs.
To be honest, after spending my first week with the strong support of my Danish predecessor (my beloved daddy :-)), Kristian, I was really scared of what will happen with me after he’s gone back to Denmark. Well, now he’s in Rwanda for a week. And I’m still alive! My biggest thanks to my MC team, to Jam, to Shivo, to Renee and her family… all those who take care me so much in each of my days.

Today was my first day when I’ve felt I’m on track. Meaning that got up in the morning, knew what I was to do during daytime, finished my work for today in time, could have some chat with friends, went out for lunch with Jam, got home then went to shopping… home… yess, it’s still an issue. Now I’m back to that place I was taken for first – and where I will spend my next 1 year. Though I think when Kristian comes back from Rwanda, we still have to find out something for one more week. But somehow now I don’t feel bad about this. I think I’ve got used to not getting used to things. Something that I have definitely developed in is the ability to easily adapt to new things.

Lots of friends from Hungary are asking me about the biggest cultural shock that I have had so far… Now I will tell a few of them J The first was when I realized, there’s no hot water for washing up. The next was having no shower for a few days, and cleaning myself from a small pool (I don’t know its name in English – fürdőkád) basically created for babies. Then when I realized that washing machines are not commonly used here, meaning that clothes have to be washed by hand. And my favourite one: the matatus! That is a cultural shock for first time, but after getting used to them, it’s an experience, a fun. It’s a rodeo on the roads each day, with loud rap, hiphop or raggie music next to your ears.

My biggest adventure with matatus so far was when I was coming back to town from Mombasa road (it’s a road going out from Nairobi) from a job interview, I was with Shivo. The whole job interview was like a bad joke, I think I’ve never had any worse performance than this – I don’t know the results yet but I’ve rather started to look for something else. So the matatu adventure. It was a very big jam, and the driver thought it would be faster to go down from the road, just into the dust, and take over all the other vehicles in front of us. The only challenge was a big stone there, however, he didn’t really take care about that, went on it. Imagine a 50 cm stone, with a matatu on it. I thought the matatu would fall on its right side. Instead, we heard something like “sssssssssssss” and the tire, left back, was off… So the next half hour was about fixing the new tires. And you know what…? People were not surprised on this small accident. Neither was I…

Thanks for all the comments on my blog – to all of you who posted or/and will post in the future! It’s such a good feeling that you read it, and also it’s very good to hear from you. Oh, and some answers:
Andris, yeah I promise I will upload the photo when I see my first “living” giraffe! (and I hope soon I can upload your pictures from Kenya too ;-))
Kriszti, the pictures are from my “second place”, I’ve spent there only 4 days.
Boca, I don’t have yet a Kenyan hair style, but you can expect photos of Kenyan-hair-Viki from IC ;-)
Cori, I promise I will take some more pictures, as soon as I will be ok with all these moving and safety stuff.