"Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living. -Miriam Beard"
Oh, home, today I miss you desperately!
Ok, maybe thats a bit melodramatic. Truthfully, I haven't experienced and significant homesickness since I've been here. Knowing that my time here is so short, it doesn't seem worth it to waste any time here being sad. Of course I miss my family and friend, but with modern technologies, I probably keep in touch with my loved ones better now than I did when I was home.
What I do miss terribly are the conveniences of home. This story perfectly illustrates how life in Nairobi can make you yearn for the carefree way of life at home:
After I spend a good hour making a chicken-rice-stirfry dinner without using any Nairobi tapwater (harder than it sounds)I headed to my room to pack for the biking trip we are embarking on at the unearthly hour of 6am tomorrow. And to my avail, I had no clean underwear left. Impromptu laundry time ensued.
Only, if you remember, laundry can not just be chucked into the washer and drier. No. Laundry is a time-consuming, skin wrinkling affair. After I finished washing and wringing dry 14 pairs of underwear, I realized that they would not be able to dry in time for wearing/packing for the biking extravaganza. No, I couldn't hope for the luxury of a drier....unless....hmmm.... perhaps I could BLOWDRY them?
Yes. It's true. As I sat with the blowdrier in one hand and a pair of panties in the other, I started REALLY missing home, and so I composed this list of "Things I Miss" in my head for you:
(Please, enjoy these things twice as much for me while I'm gone!)
1) Having a washer/drier
2) Drinking tap water in the shower
3) Drinking tap water in a glass
4) Cooking with tap water
5) Clean tap water in general
6) Going to the beach
7) DQ Blizzards (Skor + Cookie Dough = HEAVEN)
8) Walking out my front door and being at work 4 minutes later
9) Mom tidying up after me (haha!)
10) Being able to walk down the street without being contantly apprehensive
11) Being able to have completely platonic friendships with boys
12) Feeling safe on the roads
13) Eating a good steak!
14) Straightning my hair! (My straightner blew the first day here!)
15) Being able to safely leave the house after dark
16) Eating crackers! (There's a strange lack of crackers, even in the "Mzungu"-grocery stores!
The other day I broke down in tears because I got so irritated at being taken advantage of by taxi drivers. A ride that should have cost me 400 shillings ($6.40) cost me 600 shillings ($9.60), just because of the colour of my skin. I got madder and madder on the way home in said cab, thinking about how essentially, that counts as rasism. I got more and more worked up on the drive, and was in tears by the time I got in my front door. I realized later that if thats the worst racism I experience in my life, I've got it pretty damn good, but it was the principle that bugged me.
So that's my current thoughts, in a nut shell. I miss life in Canada, but despite my complaints, things really are so great here too. As a matter of fact, writing this list has got me thinking about a future list of "Things I'll Miss About Africa"..... but I guarantee, handwashing won't be on it!
-Delaney xo
PS: For those of you wondering about the briefly mentioned "biking trip" tomorrow, I'm going to keep you in suspense. But don't fret, I have plenty of fruit bars packed..... xo
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