Jambo!

Today is my second full day in Kenya.  I made it safe, I'm all settled in my place, and I intentionally had a crazy sleeping schedule on my 28-hour, five-city flight so I could sleep through the night once I got here.  It actually worked - I slept like a rock and was mostly awake for the whole next day.

Just to orient everyone, I'm working in Mombasa (It's an island. Sort of.) and living in Nyali Beach, just north of Mombasa. (It's the "rich" area, where supposedly all the white people live...although I haven't seen any other white people yet.) You can see them both here. Not such a bad living situation. I think it'll suit me just fine. So far, there are two other interns here that I live with, Aaron and Andi - an awesome couple that got married about four months ago and will be working here for a year.  

I'm at Yehu now, still trying to figure out what exactly I'll be doing. I just met with Adet, the CEO, and he gave me an overview of the kind of information he wants me to be organizing.  I've got a few manuals to read through and lots of tables of data to try review, and boy am I excited!  There is a man here who does the statistics now, Mr. Oman.  I'll be working closely with him, but I haven't met him yet.  In such a small organization, everyone has to be in several places at once!  Adet said that soon we'll get to do some visits to the villages where we give loans, to see how the process works and meet with the people.  That is what it's all about, and why I most wanted to come here - to see where this work really goes, how it's done, and who it helps.  I can't wait!

Over the next week or so, I'm going to try to get more oriented and take some pictures of everyday things (like my mosquito net-covered bed, the Nakumatt A.K.A. Wal-Mart, and the packed matatu taxis I ride to work, and maybe the massive potholes in the sidewalks), so you can get a feel for what life here is like.  Essentially everyone in the city speaks English and Swahili, so communication hasn't been a problem...that will likely only come up in the villages, and we'll always have people translating for us.

I'll try to include pictures as often as I can.  Internet is really spotty here, so it often takes more time than I really have to get it done.