My life in Kisumu.

It’s Africa. That is the sentence I have heard many times during the last month. In a good and a bad situations.  It has been funny to realize how quickly a human can adapt some things. But other things take a long, very long time. Anyhow after few weeks here I found myself in the middle of the traffic and I was not even scared. It was just normal, not even a rush hour. I don’t still want to see a passing but by foot I am more than fine.

And actually it is pretty nice just to walk. Africans like to walk but they are doing it more easy-going way than we do. But in fact finnish walking speed would be too much in the heat. At first it was quite hot and I got burned so easily. Then when I got used to the hotness then  the rain season and “winter” came. Still Kisumu is more warm than many places in Kenya and I am happy because of that. Last week in Nairobi it was really hailing.

We started our training in the place called Blue Cross Society. It was surprising to see how they were working among the street children. I was so happy to see that there is hope for those cute boys with the sad eyes of despair. The rude truth is that it is still rare to have a chance for better life. There is almost thousand street children only in Kisumu. And the background stories of these kids, wow. One was raped, an other was abused by the step mother. The one who got lost from his mom, was the lucky one.

The people are so friendly. Many has invited us for a lunch. I think the people are the best part of this culture. One worker of Blue Cross invited us to use her kitchen and showed us how to make traditional bread “chapati”. It was complicated but so delicious!

Sightseeing? Yes. Already in the first weekend we went to the Victoria lake and we saw some hippos bathing. Thw wildlife is really worth of seeing and we are looking forward to do an actual safari. But there is animals outside of the National parks too. By the road to Nairobi we should many zebras and monkeys. It was really good decision to take a bus even though it took seven hours. We also saw the biggest tea plantation on the way to tha capital

 

All in all. I am sure this is the time I won’t never forget. And I really hope that back in Finland I would be very pleased what I have.