Today we started the day by visiting the emergency convergence facilities around Nairobi. These are places where we are supposed to meet up in case of an emergency in the city especially when we have no way to contact anyone. At one of the facilities a lot of amazing food was prepared for us including samosas, banana bread, and yams. I think the majority of the trip this far has been comprised of us eating. Mwangi went over some aspects of Kenyan culture with us and Victor led another safety/security information session.
After eating all this food we headed to lunch to eat some more, of course, and to meet representatives from our internships. I found out I will be working with an organization called Heshima Kenya. Heshima works with separated or unaccompanied refugee girls from East and Central Africa. While the organization has many branches, I will be working in the girls empowerment wing with the educational program and safe house. I met Fatuma at lunch and got to talk to her more in depth about Heshima and its programs and her background. There seems like there is a large need for the work I’ll be doing but there’s also a lot of flexibility to see where I can best fit in with the organization. I am particularly excited because most of the girls right now are from the Congo, which will give me an opportunity to work more closely on an issue and with people that I’ve been working with for the past few years. Also, on Fridays they teach seminars on a variety of different topics (next week is on reproductive health), which is something I will get to be involved in closely especially until I begin my full time internship in November. The meeting got me really excited to get to meet all the people at the organization and to dive into an amazing project. The food at lunch was also amazing, despite having eaten an hour before. It was a traditional Kenyan buffet, which allowed me to try all the main dishes, all of which were great!
After lunch we visited on of the largest malls in Nairobi, the supermarket, and the fresh foods market, where we bought food to learn how to cook Kenyan food. Back at the apartments we took a 20-minute break and then met up to begin cooking dinner. I chopped a lot of vegetables and made the potatoes (which were a huge hit!). Dinner was great, it was also a buffet style of Kenyan food but it was especially great to learn how to cook some of it! Some of our Kenyan staff showed us their dance moves at dinner too, which was definitely a highlight. Even though our day was pretty mellow, we were all exhausted and headed back to our rooms to relax a while before bed. It's crazy that today was the last day of orientation. Now we'll be expected to go to the store, get to classes, and travel to our internship sites all on our own. Its a little terrifying but also very exciting!
After eating all this food we headed to lunch to eat some more, of course, and to meet representatives from our internships. I found out I will be working with an organization called Heshima Kenya. Heshima works with separated or unaccompanied refugee girls from East and Central Africa. While the organization has many branches, I will be working in the girls empowerment wing with the educational program and safe house. I met Fatuma at lunch and got to talk to her more in depth about Heshima and its programs and her background. There seems like there is a large need for the work I’ll be doing but there’s also a lot of flexibility to see where I can best fit in with the organization. I am particularly excited because most of the girls right now are from the Congo, which will give me an opportunity to work more closely on an issue and with people that I’ve been working with for the past few years. Also, on Fridays they teach seminars on a variety of different topics (next week is on reproductive health), which is something I will get to be involved in closely especially until I begin my full time internship in November. The meeting got me really excited to get to meet all the people at the organization and to dive into an amazing project. The food at lunch was also amazing, despite having eaten an hour before. It was a traditional Kenyan buffet, which allowed me to try all the main dishes, all of which were great!
After lunch we visited on of the largest malls in Nairobi, the supermarket, and the fresh foods market, where we bought food to learn how to cook Kenyan food. Back at the apartments we took a 20-minute break and then met up to begin cooking dinner. I chopped a lot of vegetables and made the potatoes (which were a huge hit!). Dinner was great, it was also a buffet style of Kenyan food but it was especially great to learn how to cook some of it! Some of our Kenyan staff showed us their dance moves at dinner too, which was definitely a highlight. Even though our day was pretty mellow, we were all exhausted and headed back to our rooms to relax a while before bed. It's crazy that today was the last day of orientation. Now we'll be expected to go to the store, get to classes, and travel to our internship sites all on our own. Its a little terrifying but also very exciting!