Soccer Tournament

Today was the day of the soccer tournament which occurs for about 8 weeks during June and July.  Stephen (Maurice’s brother), Job, and Julius were supposed to come and pick our stuff at 8 am so we woke up at 645 am despite knowing that people are often tardy in Kenya.  They ended up coming around 9:30 (sigh).  They helped us to carry the equipment and then we headed over to Obambo primary school. What I realized so far after 2 days is that people tend to say “How are you” before saying “Hi”.  Also, because we are foreigners, they call us white people,  mzungu in Kiswahili.  We asked them if Rashma and I would be considered a Mzungu because we are East/ South Asians.  The high school boys immediately identified Rashma as a 'Hindu' and me as 'China'. We laughed. 

Stephen in bright neon shirt, his friend Ernest in the centre and Julius on the right

Our friend Peter making a funny face

Osaore Kanyawegi

June 20th 

We left Amsterdam, carrying 37kg backpack in total.  We thought we couldn’t make it to the metro and was tempted to just get a cab. We were told that the cab to Schipol would be around 40 euros which seemed insanely expensive for a poor student like myself.  We decided to suck it up and carry our monstrous bags for just 6 euros and save up.  Upon arriving in Schiphol, I was so frustrated that it didn’t have unlimited wifi.  Maybe it is not a common thing to have in Europe.  We waited about 3 hours for our plane, becoming slightly anxious for the actual part of our trip.  KLM and Kenya airways have a partnership so we went on Kenya airways.  The plane was extremely spacious and more comfortable than KLM which was a surprise to me (for some reason). Possibly because I associate Kenya as a developing country and expected their services to be at a lower quality. 

At Schipol.  We were so tired and didn't really care about what others thought of us sitting on the ground. 

June 21st 

The moment I stepped out of the Kisumu airport, I finally felt like I was in Kenya.  The soil was reddish brown, and green everywhere.  People riding in mutatus, motorcycles (Boda bodas), goats on the roads, scorching hot sun and people honking and waving at us because we are muzungus (white).  The children were especially excited to see us.  They waved, yelled out “How are you” and everyone in the community wanted to shake our hands. This place definitely knows how to make you feel welcomed.