I thought it was about time for another update on my life in Nairobi.

Life has been extra busy lately. I had a busy week of creating more student profiles for our child sponsorship program at Mathare Family Hope Center—this was the week after I returned from the Congo. The week after that, I spent with my classmate Michael Shepherd in Masii, Kenya. It is a village that is close to Machakos (if that helps any). There I helped with a Vacation Bible School for over 400 students of all ages. I helped teach a class for the grade 10 students.

I have been back in Nairobi lately and I have been working on more child sponsorship work, I taught the morning Bible study at a church in Kosovo last Sunday, and as always, my favorite, I’ve been cruisin’ around Nairobi on matatus.

Yesterday was the worst day of traffic that I’ve experienced. I was trying to board a matatu at about 8:15am, but it was a challenge. Apparently there was a big UN conference at the UN place, and that’s exactly where I was trying to board a matatu. There were a bunch of presidents and other diplomats attending, so they had a huge police force stopping traffic to let them through. It took about 1 1/2 hours to get to downtown then another 30 minutes to Mlango Kubwa, where I work.

Returning from work that night was even more fun. When I arrived at my matatu stage there was the yellow, piece-of-crap, 30-seater beast waiting for me. I refused to get on it since it has broken down the past two times I’ve ridden on it. This proved to be a bad choice considering not another matatu would come by for over an hour. Finally some guy made an announcement and the line began quickly dispersing. I asked the guy next to me what was happening and he said, “The matatu isn’t coming” and then he left. Oh great! So I asked the guy behind me (hoping that he would be a little more helpful) what was going on and he gave me many more details. He said because of traffic the matatus wouldn’t be coming downtown and he said he would show me where to load for the 108 along Ngara road. We walked and talked for a long time. He told me all about his business and then he told me all about the dangers along River Road at night. He also let me know about all the business that I could take care of in “third world Nairobi”, (as he called the old part of Nairobi). He said I could get a fake ID, fake passport, fake driver’s license—basically anything fake, and he said they were fast at their business. I told him that I appreciated the information and would store the information for future references.

We made it a far distance down Ngara (past the “coward” section, as my friend called it, where people stand if they want to pay the correct fare) and waited. Finally an empty 108 came but they said they weren’t going to UNEP (which is where I needed to alight). This is where my friend bid me farewell and left. Now I was standing in an alley perpendicular to Ngara road with very few people around me—none of which were going to UNEP. As I looked at the sky, realizing that it would be getting dark soon, I was hoping and praying that a 106 would find its way into this alley. Luckily I didn’t have to wait too long before I was comfortably seated in a soft seat, along a bumpy, pot-hole infested, unforgiving alley-way. Home free!!

Last week as I was visiting friends in Bondeni (part of the Mathare valley), I asked them if any of them liked “kichwa ya mbuzi” (goat head). Much to my pleasure, they loved it, and they knew exactly where to get it. So I said, “next week”. Well, today was next week, so we went to the “best restaurant in Bondeni” and ate some good goat head. They didn’t serve the brain but we had the eyes and any other meat that could be taken off of the head. It was soooo good!! I recommend it to anyone! All it needs is a little salt.