Day One

Salma took me for a walk after breakfast. We took paths through the forest: the weather was warm, the dirt is a bright red, and the exercise made my jet-lag much improved. I met her cook’s children, ages 2 and 4. They are fascinated by my hair and spent a good 10 minutes playing with it. I gave them two of the bouncy balls that I brought and they really enjoy them. The eldest, Yella, is learning some English: her grasp of colors, numbers, and of native Kenyan wildlife is pretty good (zebra= zebla, giraffe=gilaffe). The younger, Junior, brought me a book to read to him. It was in English, about hippos, and I think the only word that he knew from it was hippo. After a brief rest, Salma invited me to go to the “Village Market” which is one of the local malls. It is enormous! The food court has food from all over the world- Thai, German, Chinese, African, American, and apparently there is a waterpark attached to the back. Throughout the mall runs a fountain/stream and the majority of the place is outdoors. Inside is a giant supermarket, where I purchased a new SIM card (I still have yours, Maggie) and minutes for the phone. Then, because Salma and her husband, Larry, were going to see The Proposal, I bought a ticket and saw it again (please don’t shoot me, Kevin). It somehow got better the second time around, maybe because I didn’t have any preconceptions about it being good. We then visited some of Salma and Larry’s close friends (the owners of the Village Market), then came back to the house and watched Out of Africa, which is significantly better now that I’m not 8 years old (sorry Mom).


Words added to Swahili vocabulary:

Kantu: sit (taught to me by Junior)