Meet the Family

It is 8pm on Sunday night and I have just spent the first weekend with my host family. I live with a family of 4 plus a house staff of two. Billy and Joyce Olong and their son Steven, 7 and Sam 2. The boys are adorable but very high energy and quite curious about me. Steven is interested in everything US and watches the Disney channel all the time. His first question to me was about Hannah Montana. Currently Billy is away on business (he travels for weeks at a time) and won't be home until the end of the month. Joyce is a bit aloof but I think some of it is just cultural plus she is dealing with two high energy children and even with help I can tell she is tired.

Now you are all probably wondering what my new digs are like. I am quite fortunate because I am living with what would be considered an upper middle class Kenyan family in a 2500 square foot home with 3 1/2 bathrooms, marble floors and a huge kitchen. My room has it's own on suite bathroom and a veranda. However there is one issue that is making it a bit tough and that is they do not have air conditioning and rarely even turn on the fans because they are used to 90 degree plus heat with 80% humidity! I am not though am hoping I will get used to it eventually. Since they are a very modern Kenyan family they have satellite TV and get over 100 stations from all over the world. However they have a habit of leaving the TV on all day at top volume and spend hours at the time in front of it. I guess given it is considered such a luxury they want to use it all the time.

As to the house staff Carolyn is a nanny to the 2 year old and does most of the cooking. Rashid takes care of the cleaning as well as all laundry. I am happy about the laundry since they still do it the old fashioned way with a bucket of soapy water in the backyard and then hang dry it. I'm not sure why since they have a brand new Whirlpool frig and plenty of money to purchase a washing machine. I've been told that this is cultural since they feel like it makes no sense to make doing a chore like laundry easier on the help. However it is hard on the clothes and takes so much time. Either way though I'm happy because he does everything for me so for 6 months I get my laundry done and folded!

Now as to the food. I'm struggling with Carolyn's cooking and what they eat. Breakfasts are very American though again they just have Nescafe instant coffee which seems so sad given where I am but lunch and dinner have been a bit tough for me. They eat white rice at every meal and usually this sauteed kale dish and sometimes sauteed cabbage. They also eat a lot of ugali (the corn mush I talked about). That part is okay though getting very repetitious. However the meat portion is awful. Yesterday they took about fish someone had caught in Lake Victoria and brought back for them and left it out on the counter in this sweltering heat most of the day then fried it whole. It was a a greasy, smelly pile of bones which I tried to eat but struggled. However the one thing they do prepare at most meals that is delicious is a fresh fruit salad which I love. I guess the good news is that I've already lost 5 pounds and have only been here for 9 days. Almost no alcohol and limited food intake are making a huge difference.

So Saturday was basically a veg day where we did very little but hang around the house. On Sunday I ventured out and first walked to the the Nyali Cinema Shopping Center which is less than 5 minutes from my house. It is very modern and as the name states has a cinema plex that plays first run western movies. I've heard it is air conditioned so when I cannot stand the heat anymore I'll just head to a movie. I had a very American cheese burger at a cafe in the center then wandered down the street to a very posh resort called the Tamarind. It is guarded by security and sits on a bluff overlooking the Bay of Mombasa. I guess because it mainly caters to rich westerns and I'm a mzunga (remember their word for white person) I was able to just stroll in and lounge by the pool. The place is paradise and an oasis from some of the more troubling sites in the area. I had a bottled water by the pool and chatted with a nice young professional woman banker from Nairobi who was there for the weekend. This hotel complex also has a very nice private health club which I am thinking of joining since it gives me access to the entire hotel as well as a spa and modern work out facilities. Also I am considering getting a scooter or bike to get around Nyali. It is quite flat and though I like to walk it is so hot and access to the beach is a few miles away so another form of transportation would be nice. After my little luxury time at Tamarind I came home and we all decided to head to the beach. I can now say I have swum in the Indian Ocean and it was fantastic. The water was like a bathtub, the sand pure white and the beach very clean. However I as the only white person on a beach with hundreds of people so boy did I stand out. Everyone was quite polite but I did get a number of stares.

So those are the highlights of the weekend.