Cars in Nairobi

Driving in Nairobi is absolutely insane. Just walking along the streets, you can easily see how hectic it is to be driving. People drive fast, cut other cars, lanes don't seem to exist and lights seem to be completely ignored. But the interesting thing is, it still seems to work. Alana and I had our first real matatu experience today (matatus are small, 12 to 14 people vans, which are usually filled with 15 to 20 people!). And as crazy as it looks on the road, it's not that bad when you're in it. It's crazy, that's for sure, but drivers have a way of communicating with each other which makes it totally normal to cut a car in the middle of a roundabout while changing lanes with people crossing in front. All that with music playing incredibly loud and people piled up on top of each other. Absolutely awesome.
Today was an overwhelming day, overwhelming in a very positive way. Alana and I had decided we were interested in visiting Kibera, which is the largest slum in East Africa and the second largest in all of the continent. It is also not acknowledge by the Kenyan government as an existing slum; apparently on maps it's just shown as a big forest, so you can imagine how difficult it is to try to improve the living conditions of people who are considered as non-existing. So we wanted to visit it, but we felt kind of touristy and very "Western" to want to go stare at people and the way they lived, but it really seemed interesting. So a woman working at our hostel told us about a friend of hers who offered visits of the slum, and we immediately agreed. This morning, though, we found out that it was actually a guided tour, which even offered to go have lunch in someone's house. Right away Alana and I were completely turned off, feeling like this was way too stereotypical, but we'd already agreed to do it, so we met up with this Dutch woman who was very nice, and we figured it wouldn't be so bad after all. She told us she worked for an NGO which was trying to raise funds to pay for tuition fees for young students in Kibera, and immediately I was hooked (of course.) We took a bus up to Kibera, and there we met our actualy guide, Joash, a guy our age who actually lives in the slum.
And fortunately for us, it turned out to be an incredibly interesting experience. We spent about 3 hours walking all around the slum, with our guide explaining many things to us, showing us the location of many development and aid projects, and presenting us to his friends and family. We talked about how they worked, what their traditions were, schooling, etc. Joash mentioned a few times he would love to come to Canada and be a soccer player, but when we he discovered homosexuality was accepted over there and polygamy wasn't, he wasn't so keen anymore on moving to our lovely country. Quite funny.
It was a really interesting experience because Alana and I both expected it to be really intense, hard and sad, but it wasn't. Kibera is an incredibly large slum, poverty is at a level I'd never experienced before, waste management is, from what I've seen, a huuuge problem, but people there seemed much happier, or at least more friendly and welcoming, than the people we've met in Nairobi. Joash's mother cooked lunch for us (we didn't have a choice at all, she told us "When you come here and you visit someone, you HAVE to eat with them." End of discussion.) It was really a lovely and very enriching morning.
We met again with our Dutch lady, with whom we took the bus back downtown, and then she dropped us in a matatu because we had planned in the afternoon to go to the UN. This might seem strange to you (or not), but we actually had a good reason. On the plane to Nairobi, Alana met a lovely woman who works for the United Nations Environment Program here, and as they chatted, this woman offered a tour of her workplace. Alana of course said yes immediately (thank the Lord) and so that's why we met up with her today. That's also how we got to do our first matatu ride all alone (the first one was with our Dutch friend), and it was hilarious.
So we got to the UN, got a visitor's pass (we felt sooo cool.) and met up with this woman, who gave us a quick tour of the building where she works. It's incredibly beautiful over there; it's about 15 minutes out of the center of the city, in a neighbourhood with many UN buildings, embassies and expat headquarters. It felt very strange to end up there, where fountains are running and there are yards of grass and trees, and a football field (we just didn't get that..) when we'd spent the morning walking on mud roads between houses made of tin walls. But hey, we figured we were at the UN, might as well enjoy it. And we did! After the little tour, the woman took us to her office, and we started talking about her actual job, how she'd ended up there, what kind of projects the UNEP implemented, etc. She told us the good and bad sides of the job, how bureaucracy was often terribly frustrating, but that projects were very stimulating. She even presented us to her collegues, and all of there were SUPER happy to hear that we were interns, and that we were interested in the UN. They kept saying that they were looking for interns, and that they'd keep our contact information, and that we could contact them anytime, etc etc... Alana and I were almost peeing our pants because we were so excited and amazed to be at the UN, talking to people who were actually interested in us and hoped we'd apply for an internship there. IT WAS AWESOME! We really couldn't believe we were there...
Soooo, it was really an amazing day, our last day in Nairobi, since we're leaving tomorrow to go to Elangata Wuas. I'm sorry, I know this was long, but I figure I won't right before a while, so might as well get it all out now!

J'ai ecrit en anglais parce que j'essaie d'alterner entre les deux langues pour satisfaire tout le monde, mais ceux et celles qui ont envie que je leur donne plus de details en francais, n'hesitez-pas!

Je vous embrasse! Take care everyone!
Julia