A slow but interesting two days.
Yesterday ended up being a wait-around-for-people-to call-and-come-over day, so my walking was curtailed. Good thing - my calves and knees were protesting yesterday's abuse. I worked on the training materials, Cantar, the sports program director for Kibera, came to pick up ropes for the Kibera teams, and we made arrangements for me to visit when I return to Nairobi in 2-1/2 weeks.
Then waited for dear Nduta, who thrives on African time. She had been waiting on her mechanic to make a simple repair that turned complicated because of all that had to be removed to reach it. She had hoped he would have a car she could borrow, but ended up having to wait till the repair was completed. We spent a few hours talking AAC, and made plans for a visit to her son's old school - a progressive private school for children with disabilities.
After some quality time with my computer, I learned from Tom that the afternoon Nairobi-Arusha-Moshi bus doesn't actually go to Moshi, so decided it would make more sense to stay one more night at the International Guest House, get my phone issues taken care of (you don't want to hear my litany of complaints), and try to find a replacement for a missing battery contact strip in one of the donated devices. The strip must have fallen out at home when I removed the batteries in preparation for the trip.
Tom also suggested that I leave the suitcases I need for Mombasa with him for the few days I'll be in Tanzania. Good plan - I was dreading traveling with two heavy suitcases I didn't really need. He will put them on a bus to Mombasa once I arrive there.
Back upstairs to bond with my computer once more and another repacking session to see if I could fit all I needed for Moshi - jump ropes, language materials, books and my own personal belongings - into my smaller carry-on suitcase. It worked - with the help of a collapsible travel backpack that folds into a 3 by 4" case.
Bonding with the computer, however, was less successful. I allowed myself to become possessed (two+ hours worth) trying to get an onscreen keyboard program to work properly for me. Once I was finally ready to admit (temporary) defeat I realized I hadn't completely finished packing the suitcases that were staying in Nairobi. Final bedtime: 5 AM.
Wednesday, we (Tom, William, one of his employees, and I) drove into central Nairobi to look for the battery component, buy more phone credit (since mine seemed to have vanished), and exchange some of my US currency. Tom and I finished with the last two tasks in no time and returned to IGH. Two hours later, William returned. He had finally found a place to cobble together a functional replacement piece.
New guests came that evening. Mack, a young Canadian (I think) works in finance in Japan. He belongs to a group called Most Traveled People, and this current trip has so far taken him to Bhutan, India, and Kenya (his 66th country). Then he's on to Rwanda, Tanzania, South Africa and Uganda. We talked for more than two hours about traveling, food, space travel, politics and the pros and cons of a cashless economy.
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