Zipporah & Ann

On 11 Feb. Judy had Zipporah and Ann come to the flat for tea. On 19 Feb. they took Judy on an extensive tour of all the women's hostels (dorms) at Daystar Athi River. The hostel rooms are really quite typical of any dorm room in a small college in the U.S. -- bunk beds, a desk, storage units, and four in a room. What is different are painted concrete floor (easier to keep clean with all our dust and mud during the rainy season); large containers of water in and around the rooms to be used for flushing toilets and taking bucket showers when there is no piped water; and a laundry courtyard at the center of each hostel (complete with a row of sinks and clotheslines). Each hostel also has a study room with tables and chairs, plus a small TV lounge.

Zipporah and Ann surprised Judy by hosting a small tea in one of their rooms. It was humbling to be treated to homemade (by Zipporah) mandazis (a small fried dough) and the milky sweet tea (called chai). They had invited a couple of other women students to join us and we had an informative time of exchanging stories about safety in Nairobi. Each woman had at least one tale to tell of having something stolen or their safety being threatened; this was for the benefit of keeping Judy safe. One woman asked if she as a Kenyan would stand out in NYC the way Judy stands out as a mzungu (white) here in Kenya. Judy assured her in NYC she wouldn't even be noticed; however, in Rochester she might be noticed when she began speaking :-) Judy then shared some funny stories about American cultures.