kisumu

i'm now in Kisumu after an 8hr bus ride from Nairobi yesterday. they bus ride was pretty cool, sat next to a lady called franki who's a teacher and knows everything to know about Kenya so got a free tour on the way. we passed the kibera slums on the way out again and also went through the rift valley. saw loads of towns and things, a couple of masai and zebras! the zebras were just next to the road amongst the cows and stuff, no-one else except us girls took any notice. Kisumu is nice, alot smaller than Nairobi but still the 3rd largest city in Kenya. we're here for the next couple of days and will be based here on and off when we go out the villages. its alot hotter here aswell but every afternoon generally it rains which is quite nice. we're staying in the new victoria hotel which is awesome and everyone there is so supportive of us and goes out of their way to help us out with anything. so far we've just been checking out the town. this morning we had an 'amazing race' through the city just to get orientated which was cool and saw the start of a marathon which had a couple of olympians in it. we've been eating pretty well too. ugali is the staple here (maize-porridge sort of) and heaps of vege's and stuff so definitely havent been going hungry. there heaps of street kids around who are all pretty cool. we'll be working with them alot in january and mel our group leader knows them all pretty well so they've been pretty cool with us. glue sniffing is massive here though so its pretty shocking to see some of the stuff that goes on. the culture shock hasnt been too bad but it will be great to get out of the cities just to feel a little bit safer and not get hassled as much. but there hasnt been any problems which is lucky for us.
anyway better go its about to pour. we've been getting boda boda's around the city for 15ksh (about 30cents) which is just us on the back of a bike. they're awesome. the drivers just tap on the cars to let them in but they're heaps of fun and cheap! but yeh brought my camera to upload photos and left the memory card at home!!! pretty damn stupid! so will be doing photos tomorrow!
love lots xxx

Kisumu, Kenya