Christmas and a happy new year

I haven't said much about christmas, mainly beacuse there wasn't much of a celebration. But I got three nice presents, talked to my family on the phone and sang a few christmas carols, so all in all, not too bad. Tonight is the New years Eve, and we have tried to find a place where they will actually celebrate a bit. And, in contrast to Europe, that has not proved to be an easy task. But today we found some Americans to have a beer or two with tonight, and we are very happy about that. I'll try to post some pictures of the party later. For now: I wanted to post some pictures from christmas, but after trying and failing 5 times, I settle for this one, of a pretty flower in Sigowet. Ingeborg thinks I am a bit obsessed with flowers, taking pictures of them all the time, but they are really beautiful, so I cant help it!

Beautiful surroundings

This country is so beautiful! I am truly amazed by the green hills, flowers and vegetables growing evrywhere. This picture is not from Sigowet, however, but from Tessalia a few miles away. Me and James are walking towards the small hilltop lying just ahead of us. It has been raining more than usual in December (mostly at night), making the roads muddy and slippery. White clothes are not recommended.

Home

We love our home. We have a big house completely to ourselves, with three bedrooms (we look forward to having guests!), a big living room (where the extremely purple sofa stands), a nice kitchen, a toilet, bathroom and a long hallway which connects all the rooms. We need to buy some tape and pins to be able to put pictures and posters on the walls, because Norwegians are not used to bare white walls in every room. And carpets are a must when timber or any kind of wood is non-existing in the house.

People

The Kenyan people are extremely friendly. Almost everybody we meet in the streets or anywhere else greets us and wants to shake our hands. It’s impossible not to feel welcome here, although it is a quite strange feeling to be the only two whites in this area, and hence impossible to become invisible.

Here I am in Tessalia, visiting some friends. I know, I am extremely white compared to them.

Food

Eating is a pleasent necessity most of the time. However, we had been told a number of stories about the famous Kenyan (African, probably!) dish called ugali. It’s made of corn flour and water which they boil until it becomes a stiff porridge/mashed potatoe looking dish that the Kenyans eat with their hands. Our Swahili teachers called it “a tasteless cake”, and that’s really what it is. We were served ugali for the first time on the 23rd, along with boiled rice, some vegetables and a bit of meat. It’s not that it tastes bad, it just doesn’t taste anything. I’ll survive eating it a number of times, as long as I’m not forced to eat 0,5 kg of it each time, as they do. The very good news when it comes to food, is that Ingeborg and I have a nice little kitchen of our own where we can cook anything we’d like. Our stove and fridge are in perfect order, and so far we’ve made a number of successful dishes, such as scones, soup and salad. And we have plenty of yoghurt in the fridge, so I’m in no immediate danger of starvation. The pictureS show me having dinner at Josephine's house (can't remember if ugali is present at the table, I will look for a better picture of it anyway) and me shopping at Nakumatt, a gigantic food (and everything else, reminds me of Obs!) store in Kisumu.

Sigowet

Finally - an internet cafe I can rely on...(tried three different places today before I found a computer that will allow me to upload pictures to my blog...so I really hope you'll like them) Here I am, trying to be friends with the locals...:)

Saturday we arrived in Sigowet, our home for the next 10 months. Sigowet is so tiny that I�ve not been able to locate it on any Kenya map I�ve seen, no matter how large the scale. But if you have a map of Kenya in front of you, find Kisumu just east of the Victoria lake, then follow the road slightly South-East 60-70 km, and there Sigowet lies, on the road to Nakuro. Sigowet consists of a broad road, lots of green hills with farms, and a few small shops that provide the inhabitants with the basics: corn flour, umbrellas, phone cards, cabbage and mattresses.

The countryside of Kenya

And so it begins, my year in Sigowet, Kenya. We arrived in Kisumu on the 23rd, got picked up (two hours later then announced, but I'm slowly getting used to the world famous African time) by our next door neighbour (and head of the school which Ingeborg will be working in), Sammy. Since arriving in Sigowet, we have learned quite a lot:

• houses here don't have carpets on the floors, and we are desperately looking for one to put on our cold, cement floors.
• When Kenyans buy basic food, they always include at least 2 kg of sugar. Why? To put in their chai, which they drink at least 4 times a day. Our gigantic bag of sugar will last more than the year we will stay here, I think. The Wazungu take their tea black. Or with milk only.
• It is impossible to hide anywhere when you are the only two white persons in the area. Not that I need to hide all that often, but blending in anywhere seems quite difficult at the moment.
• Kenyan children are seen, but rarely heard when there are adults present. At Christmas, there were about 6 young children in the living room, along with 3 sets of parents. Not a sound from the children until they were alowed to leave the room to go out and play.
  

And this was just the beginning...I have tried to write a bit during this week in Sigowet, and saved the text on a stick which I of course forgot to bring with me here, but it's in our hotel, so hopefully I'll remember it tomorrow. I have to admit that I miss not having internet in Sigowet.
And this was just the first week.

Oh, almost forgot: really nice that some of you leave comments here! (And one last thing: the man sitting next to me here at the internet cafe, just asked if he could touch my hair. And now he tells me that I remind him of a "very beautiful moviestar". He he. Strange feeling to be this "popular", if you could call it that.)

Making friends

Happy roommates

Me and Ingeborg in Nairobi. I am very lucky to be here with someone who finds playing games, making new friends, eating nice food and listening to music as much fun as I do.

First student, then teacher

Here I am, studying Swahili in the tiniest classroom I've ever seen: Two desks and the room is full. I should probably brag a bit in Swahili by now, so here goes: Mwanafunzi huyu ni mwaminifu. Nilisema mzima.

Last day in Nairobi

Aahh...a blog I can rely on, finally...Hopefully my friends and familiy will be so kind to put lots and lots of nice comments here.

After 10 days in Nairobi, I am leaving the comfort of the big city and head for Sigowet, a few miles east of Kisumu. I have completed 8 days of Swahili learning, a crash course as they call it. And I'm quite exhausted by the amount of grammar that I've taken in this week, prefixes, suffixes, noun classes and personal pronouns are swirling around inside my head. Luckily I haven't started to dream about it yet. Tonight will be our last day with easy access to everything, think we'll have ourselves a beer or two to sum up our experiences in Kenya so far.