The Weekend

Ninaandika tena (I am writing again), shocking I know, and after such a short time!

This weekend was really fun, so I thought I would share. On Friday night I went with a group of people from the University of Manitoba and John’s Hopkins to see an art show for a Tanzanian art form called Tingatinga. It is gorgeous art and the show was held at this cute little restaurant close by. They had wine and champagne and appetizers set out, couches and chairs to sit in, and really cool lighting. The artwork was amazing! I really like how the tingatinga art form displays animals and probably would have bought a painting if I had brought enough money along with me (thankfully I didn’t, because they are also expensive). The most interesting part of the show was the art pieces that showed different public health HIV prevention messages. For example, there was a picture split in half where one side showed a man going into a bee-hive without any protective gear on and getting attacked by a swarm of bees, and a picture on the other side of a man climbing into bed with a woman. The caption on the photo said “You wouldn’t get honey from a bee hive without protection so why would you have sex without using a condom.” There were many others as well with similar HIV prevention messages. I thought it was really amazing that public health messages had infiltrated this form of art. After the art show we went to an Indian restaurant in this complex that has flashing lights surrounding it and giant light-up palm trees on the tops of the buildings. It was a very interesting place, but the food was amazing! I have discovered that I love Indian food and can’t wait to explore more Indian restaurants when I come back home.

Anne, Damian and I spent Saturday afternoon exploring this huge Western style mall that’s located in Nairobi close the US embassy in the very wealthy part of town. It was really fun to step into the mall and feel like you were outside of Nairobi. For those of you know what it is, the mall even has a Mango! It was a Mango outlet, so of course, I was all excited about the bargain prices. I didn’t stay very long, but that’s probably a good since that also meant I didn’t spend as much money.

On Saturday evening I went to a concert that was put on to support stopping gender violence. The main singer was Oliver Mtukudzi from Zimbabwe, who is apparently really famous. I’ve never heard of him but I guess he plays concerts all over the world, including in the states. It was a great show and he was very entertaining. I didn’t understand all the songs, since they weren’t in English, but I did buy the CD so that I can learn more of his music. I guess he’s been singing and touring since 1977, so it was also impressive just to this older man dancing around all over the stage all night. It was also amazing to watch all the Kenyans dancing, they are so good and everyone has rhythm. It was much more lively than most concerts I’ve gone to in Seattle or the NW. Before the main artist, we got to watch a few other bands play and one of the bands reminded me a lot of Jamaican music. We also heard two famous Kenyan poets recite poems about women empowerment and the life of women living in Kenya. It was great poetry, but the itinerary for the night wasn’t well organized because it had the poets following the introductory bands and people were too excited after dancing around to the first groups to really pay attention. Overall, it was probably my favorite night in Nairobi so far!


This morning I went to a great church that I really enjoyed. The service was in English and has a Kenyan leading worship and an American (I think?) pastor. It was a great community and I stayed for a picnic lunch that they had afterwards to meet and talk with different people about various church small groups that meet all throughout Nairobi. There is one group that meets fairly close to my place and has more younger people than some of the other groups, so I think I am going to try going to it this week. I also joined the gym this week and am really excited because they have a class called Afro Step! It’s on Tuesdays, and I’m planning to go to that as well this week (or at least sometime in the near future).

Well, I think that’s it from the weekend!