So it has been a long while since I have posted on my blog. I am so sorry. I guess I am just getting into the Kenyan “pole, pole” mindset (which means slowly, slowly). Just kidding – I have been terribly busy. I am sure you know the phrase “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” That does not apply here. I have had a great mix of work and play. I would first like to update y’all on where I have been working. Since I last posted, I was working mainly at Madodo/Street Children in the Mathare slum. I was working with the boys to prepare them for their exams and interviews so they can be placed in schools. Yes – every student has to have an interview to get into any school, including primary school. I am pleased to say that all of the boys (15 of them) were placed into schools. One of the best things about this is that Madodo funds their schooling so the boys are going to school for free. Thus, I have been running errands with the boys in preparation for the school year to begin in January. I have taken half of the boys to the tailor to get their measurements for their school uniforms. Most of the boys were puffing out their chest during the measurements as they all were comparing their size. Even the boys entering grade 2 took part in this. I have also been doing home visits with the boys. I take a group of boys and, one by one, they take me to their homes so I can speak to their parent/guardian to make sure their home life is good and that they are staying out of trouble. These boys are so much fun. There are two boys around 3 years old who are arguably my favorite. One is named Ryan. I cannot pronounce the other boys name so I call him Leprechaun. Last week, I was messing with them when I was asked to run an errand. I came back maybe 15 minutes later to find bright yellow paint on the office chair, a couple of books, and the floor. The boys were nowhere to be found. I looked for them when I saw Ryan with yellow paint on the sleeve of his white shirt. He was hiding in the kitchen. Leprechaun was found by his mother (who is the chef) with yellow paint on his blue sweats. He tried to act as if he was not guilty but, as one would expect, that did not work out too well.  Again, the boys are so much trouble but so much fun to be around.

            Though I have been spending a lot of time at Madodo, I have three new places where I regularly work and one place where I occasionally work. One is called St. Maurus Academy in Mathare. It is a school for the mentally and physically handicapped. The students are from age 7 to 22 and have a varying degree of disability. There are a couple students with cerebral palsy, some with fetal alcohol syndrome, some with Down’s Syndrome, and some had their mental development arrested at a young age. All of the students are wonderful. I was able to take most of the students to a Special Olympics event in Mathare. They were so grateful and happy. I even got to participate in a three-legged race with one of the boys who did not have a partner. We did not win but that did not matter to any of the participants. There is one boy named Daniel from St. Maurus who is very good at soccer. No joke – he represented Kenya on their soccer team for Special Olympics International League earlier this year in South Korea! He is proud of that (and rightly so). He has invited me to watch his games in Nairobi sometime. I hope to make it there soon.

            I have also been working with the Missionary Benedictine Sisters next door. I can write an extremely long blog post about each of the sisters attempting to express their awesomeness but that would not do them justice. They have welcomed me as their brother and I have had some great times working, praying, and hanging out with the sisters. Anyways, Sister Emily asked for my help in organizing their store room. She is in charge of their fantastic primary and secondary school named St. Scholastica’s Catholic School. They have over 900 students in the school and they have one tailor that makes multiple uniforms for each of the students. That man deserves some kind of reward for his toil. I have helped him organize the store room so that he knows exactly how many of each clothing item he has in stock. This is not the most fun work but I know that it helps him tremendously. And everyone who works at the school loves having me work there. I have been invited to have lunch with them multiple times. I have accepted on a couple of occasions and we went to what was literally a shack on the side of the road. They ordered for me and I received a salmon fillet with kale and ugali. The first time, I was confused because I did not have a fork. I quickly realized that I had to eat with my hands. The trick is to use the ugali to pick up the other foods. It was a strange experience but the salmon was surprisingly good. Anyways, the teachers invite me to many things and I hope that I can visit some of them in their villages over the holidays.

            The Benedictine Sisters also run a dispensary called Uzima, which is Kiswahili for life. One of the sisters found out that I stuided Biology and referred me to the Superior of the House, Sister Rosa. She is in charge of the dispensary and placed me in the laboratories which are Biochemistry, Microbiology, Hematology, and Parasitology labs. Nerd moment – the workers showed me around the labs and every single machine and process they performed, I have done at some point in my college career. Props to the Belmont Abbey Biology Department (Dr. Reilly, Dr. McLeod, Dr. Ellington, Dr. Baker, Dr. Tompkins) and my Chemistry professor Dr. Martin-Schwan for preparing me much more than I had realized. In fact, the man in charge of the Hematology department tested my knowledge when I was looking for malaria in a patient’s blood sample. He asked me questions about immunology and was taken aback when I answered everything correctly. Yeah. I had some pretty sweet professors if I do say so myself. I love working in the laboratory and plan to spend more time in the dispensary.

            The last place that I work, though not regularly, is an AIDS orphanage called Cottolengo. It is in Karen, which is about a 45 minute (or 2.5 hours based upon traffic) matatu ride from where I live. I have only been able to work a couple of times as it is far for me. The center has about 100 kids who have been orphaned by AIDS ranging from 3 months old to 25 years old. The older ones do not stay at Cottolengo but have been so successful that some have just completed their graduate studies. Most of the kids have AIDS but there are a few who are lucky enough to be HIV negative. The first time I went to Cottolengo, the kids saw me and charged me out of joy. Everyone wanted me to hold their hand and hold them. It was so precious. What my job entails is to just make the kids happy. I help feed the younger ones, which includes bottle feeding the 3 month old named Vivian (talk about a happy and cute baby). I also take them to the playground and make sure they are having a good day. It is not too hard at all when the kids are already so joyful. When I leave, they walk me to the gate and try to leave with me. The poor security guard has to do damage control when they realize I cannot take them. The only truly bad part for me about working there is that most of the kids call me “Baba,” which means father. I think that they think I am looking to adopt them. If I had the money and the resources, I would love to take care of all of them.

            So in case you cannot tell, I am having a magnificent time here. I cannot believe that I have to renew my 90 day visa next week. Then, I apply for an alien resident card! I only have five more months left to spend in Kenya and I know that time will only pass by faster. There is no way, however, that I will not return to Kenya. I am constantly reminded how blessed I am for the opportunity to work and travel in Africa. I would not have passed this up for anything. Since this blog post has been a tad long, I will be posting in the next couple of days about what I have been doing for leisure and fun. Trust me, you will not want to miss out on some of the amazing stories I have to tell. Stay posted and thanks for reading. I truly appreciate it! 

            What a week and a half it has been. I went to Karen on Friday, September 20^th, with Deborah and Anthony to visit Stephanie. Kathie chose to work at a school for two months in Eldoret so Steph is in Karen by herself. We left on Friday afternoon after work to take a matatu into downtown Nairobi so that we can take a bus to Karen. The matatu stopped before we reached the bus station and we wandered Nairobi for about 30-40 minutes until we found the buses, which apparently change routes after 4 pm. Who knew? We finally got on the correct bus which, to our surprise, did not stop to let passengers on. That is right – all three of us Americans had to hop onto a moving bus with our backpacks. We were subsequently shoved to the back of the bus. Then it started pouring rain and in case you were unaware, most of the roads in Kenya are not paved. It was more of a roller coaster than a bus as we kept driving over large bumps. There was one point where Deb was practically standing up. By the time we got to Karen, it was late and we were hungry but were unable to find the restaurant we saw last time we were visiting. We all, not so secretly, searched for the KFC as there are signs all over Karen of Colonel Sanders. Unable to find KFC, we wandered until I found this place called Big Square. What a find. It was such a tourist trap but it enticed me more than anything. It was the first time we had a hamburger or a chicken sandwich since we have been in Kenya. And it was worth it! We ended up going there two more times that weekend. If anything is going to keep me from losing weight in Kenya, it will be Big Square. Told you – it was one of the best discoveries of the trip.

            I have had plenty of other misadventures but if I tried explaining them, I would have half a book. I will instead update everyone on my work. I continued my work at the Street Children Project in Mathare. We have been teaching the boys math, science, social studies, and geography. The boys made their own passports and is writing each of the countries that they “visited” in class. The first country they studied was Germany, as the teacher was our co-worker named Eva, who (you guessed it) is German. Last week, we taught the class on the United States and we got sooo many random questions. My favorite question asked was “why is a hot dog called a hot dog? It isn’t really made of dog is it?” Silly kids. We also had a catechism class where the catechist asked the boys when the Catholic Church began. The most common answer was 1990. So the Catholic Church, according to them, began a year before I was born. Seems legit. Other than lessons, we have been working in the garden. We had previously planted kale, baby spinach, red onion, and tomatoes. They are growing well and I cannot wait to harvest them in the upcoming months. We are about to plant maize and swiss chard. This should be a pretty nice garden if all goes well. Today, I played some music from a boombox (which definitely belongs to the late 90’s) for the kids to dance. It ended up being a dance competition and I was the judge. It was so much fun and some of these kids can really dance. I have also organized a football/soccer game for the boys every Thursday. Normally, they play soccer on Street Children grounds, which is about a 12 foot by 12 foot box. Now, they have open space to play on a field, with actual goals. I  could tell that they had a blast and would love to play all day, every day.

            Last Wednesday, I was invited to attend a conference on behalf of the Street Children Project on GBV, which is Gender Based Violence. It was an all day conference that touched upon different cases that some social workers are having trouble finding solutions for. I did not have a great sense of the way Kenyan women are treated until I heard some cases. Mothers and wives are beaten if they act out of place, which is determined by the husband and sometimes the male children. It is dreadful and is going to take a lot of work to change the gender views. Even if I spent all my time on this, I would most likely be unable to make a dent. But the knowledge I gained from this conference is invaluable and will be put to good use.

            On a lighter note, I want to talk about something that has been constantly on my mind: FOOD. Kenyan cuisine is not good. Everything is bland and made only as a source of food, not pleasure. A typical Kenyan dinner consists of ugali, kale, and some sort of mystery meat which is mostly bone. Ugali is hard to describe. It looks like hardened grits that have  congealed to an extremely dense cake. I am not picky about food but ugali is not good. It has absolutely no flavor. I love kale and have no issues with it. It would be better if spices were added. And meat is meat. I will eat it for the protein and that is about it. I do not want to paint a bad picture that I am not getting good food. The bar/butchery I mentioned before serves samosas. They are traingle pieces of deep fried dough with sausage and peppers and spices stuffed inside. My saving grace. And they cost 40 Kenyan shillings, which is 45 American cents. Extremely cheap and wonderfully delicious. I have also been exploring downtown Nairobi for restaurants. I went to an Ethiopian restaurant with Kathie and Stephanie, which was strange but delightful. You have to eat with your hands and the food is served on a plate of injare, which is kind of like fermented rice. You use the injare as your spoon to eat the cabbage, kale, potatoes, and four different meats. Everything was spicy and delicious. My plate cost less than $3 and I was stuffed. I highly recommend Ethiopian food. I also went with Deb to a place called Java House, which is essentially and upscale Panera. The food is exactly what you would find in a Panera but tasted better. I got a sweet tea! It was made using black currant.  I have no clue what black currant is other than splendid. And the tea was served with ice, which I have not had since I have been in Kenya. Crazy. Enough food stories for now though.

            My future looks bright. I am planning to start work in a dispensary very soon, taking care of sick people from Mathare. And hopefully, I can stay at Karen every now and then to work at an AIDS center for children. I am expanding my horizons but will definitely continue work at Street Children. The boys there are too much fun. In regards to trips, I am going to Naivasha on a weekend-long safari this weekend. And I am planning a trip to Zanzibar and Dar es Sallam in Tanzania  as well as a trip to the Rift Valley (which is rumored to be the Cradle of Life) and a trip just outside of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean. I hope to ride camels there. I still cannot believe that I have been in Kenya for almost 6 weeks. It is surreal and I cannot be more thankful for the trip and the work that I am able to do.

                                                                                                                                              

P.S. If you would like a baby monkey or other exotic animal, I will try to smuggle one back home. The animals are too cool to not have one as your pet. Again, if you have any questions or comments, send me an email at zacharybtaylor@abbey.bac.edu. I love hearing from y’all

I want to first apologize for not posting in over a week. I have been so busy. I finally moved into the house that will be my home away from home until April. It was so exciting since I no longer have to live out of my suitcase and have been able to unpack and decorate my room with pictures of friends, family, and my lovely trip to Italy. And in case you were wondering, I do have a Gryffindor banner hanging on my wall. Not ashamed one bit. Everything was in place and things were going to go smoothly from here on out. What a fool I was. The boys and I went to the bar to celebrate moving into our house. When we got back, the lock on the door had broken and we were locked out. And of course all of the windows in Kenya have iron bars on the inside to prevent theft and break-ins. Yeah, we were stuck and the only thing I could think to do was laugh. That is until I noticed the window to the shower had bars that were not in a grid pattern. There was a space between two bars where I could have possibly fit. So I borrowed a clothes hanger to unlock the window as it was locked from the inside. I was then boosted so I could grab onto the bars and proceeded to slide myself legs first into the shower. Again, I thought it would be smooth sailing. Until I got stuck between the bars. It was very brief and I was able to maneuver my way through into the shower. I made it inside the house and opened the door. It was hilarious and I am very thankful that no pictures were taken. The story does not end there, unfortunately. We all woke up and were ready to head to mass in the morning only to realize the lock (that we thought we had fixed the night before) had broken once again. This time, we were locked inside. I had to call Deborah to help us out and after about an hour we were able to break free. Anyways, enough about my misadventures. I want to explain the work I have been doing. I already stated that I have been working in the Mathare slum, at a place called Mododo/Street Children. I thought it would be a good endeavor to work in the shamba (the garden). I had some help tilling the soil and preparing a seed bed. Then I bought some seeds for kale, tomatoes, red onions, baby spinach, and swiss chard. We will get seeds for maize and beans after the planted seeds have germinated. Two days after planting, we already have some sprouts, though they are so tiny. Other than gardening, I have been playing with the kids and was even able to take them swimming in a very nice facility. They swam for hours and I could tell that it was the highlight of their week. My hope is to take them out of the slum at least once a week to go swimming or play soccer on grass instead of concrete. When I have not been working in Mathare or planning projects, I have been traveling and exploring downtown Nairobi. I was invited by the Benedictine Sisters in Karen to attend the first procession of two sisters into the convent. The mass was two and a half hours but was a very joyous occasion. And then there was a big celebration with a lot of food and cake. Seriously, the sisters were preparing and cooking for over 3 days for this celebration. And though the food was wonderful, it was the joy (especially from Sister Loice) that was intoxicating and made for a spectacular weekend. I will definitely return to Karen. In the meantime, I have downtown Nairobi to explore. I have only been a couple times (mainly to get pizza, which I miss dearly) but plan to travel there regularly. And I guess it is important to tell y’all that I went on a morning safari last week right outside of downtown. Yeah, I saw African animals in their natural habitat (aka not in the Africa section of the Asheboro zoo). Be jealous. There were baboons and giraffes everywhere. I got to see plenty of ostriches, a couple lions, three black rhino, zebras, impalas, antelopes, crocodiles, and other typical African animals. One of the coolest things is that I could see downtown Nairobi from most anywhere in the National Park. I am going to have to go on another safari soon. Once I get more internet, I will post all of the pictures I have taken so y’all can see some of what I have experienced in Kenya. For those of you who have made it through this long post, thanks for sticking around. I hope you enjoyed it – I know I enjoyed writing it.

P.S. There is so much more that I wanted to write but I do not want to write a book. If you want to contact me and ask me any questions, my email is zacharybtaylor@abbey.bac.edu. I would love to hear from you! 

Hello again. I know it has been a few days since I have posted anything but that is because I haven't done too much that would interest y'all. Until today. The boys and I spent about a week at the Tigoni Center getting to meet the monks there since we will be working at ministries that are extended from the priory at Tigoni. There is one monk that was exceptionally wonderful - Father Gabriel. He did his graduate studies at St. John's in Minnesota and immediately connected with us. His stories from his time in the States were so interesting and funny. He also took us into the city of Limuru to get a cell phone, Internet, and snacks. And yes, they do have Oreos - my saving grace. And yes, I do miss American food. I miss it a lot. Father Gabriel also took us to a bar called Hugz to have Tusker, the Kenyan beer, which wasn't bad. I got hit on by an African woman there - no big deal. 

Anyways, we left Tigoni on Thursday to move to the Amani Center, which is just outside Nairobi and will serve as our home for the rest of our stay. It is about a 3 minute walk to both Deborah (another missionary from Belmont) and a bar/butchery. You read that correctly - bar AND butchery. And it's pretty swank for Africa. We settled in a bit and then went to the bar with Deb to hear how her week went. 

Today, the guys and I went to Mathare slum, which is the second largest slum in Africa. It holds about 30,000 orphaned children in maybe a 3 km radius. It was dirty, reeked of garbage, and was just plain nasty. It is not something you would find, even in the worst parts of America. And of course, we got intense stares from practically everyone. The kids would shout "mzungu" and "how are you?" at us. Mzungu is translated as "white/brown person," though it is not a derogatory term. I actually found it endearing and I felt like a celebrity since all the kids were excited to see us and to shake our hand. In the slum, there is a school called St. Benedicts Children Centre that houses kids from 4-22 years old. Everyone was so friendly and joyful. I sat in a meeting with a group of people that live in Nairobi and clean the slums every week. These people are living saints. I am only here for 8 months to volunteer but these people live here and do so much more for the community than I could ever do or even imagine doing. I hope to work with them in the future. Hopefully, I will make it into Nairobi tomorrow to explore and grab some snacks. To be continued...

P.S. I just saw a monkey today. It was wonderful. 

Hello everyone! As you probably already know, I decided to leave the comforts of the US for the unfamiliar lands of Kenya for eight months. I hope this blog serves as a bridge between Kenya and everyone who would like to follow my adventures. Anyways, I wanted to introduce the title of my blog, The Matatu Diaries (a  matatu being a mini-bus that is a common mode of transportation in Kenya). My blog title is an adaptation of the title of the movie "The Motorcycle Diaries," which is a story of two people who travel on a motorcycle throughout South and Latin America. As they travel, they come to understand the identity of the countries and witness the life of the poor. It was the experience of a lifetime for the main character that eventually led to his major role in the Cuban Revolution. Now, I don't plan to go to Kenya to begin a revolution, especially not a Marxist one, but I do hope to impact the communities in which I will work. I do not know how much I will blog but I hope to post entries frequently because I will want to share my experiences with everyone and I hope people will want to hear about my travels. This first post will be longer than the others but I will try to be concise in the rest of them. 
Before the trip, I went on retreat at the Belmont Abbey monastery where I was living the life of a Benedictine monk. It was a nice week because I got to spend quality time with the monks. They are extremely excited about the trip and I am so blessed that I am able to go. I was not nervous but more giddy about the trip. Them, the day came when it was time to leave. I got to say goodbyes to the wonderful monks and some old friends from the Abbey. The day before, I got to have lunch and dinner with my family. Once all the goodbyes were out of the way, all I could do was look forward. It was a long trip, involving a barely-caught connection in Zurich, Zombieland, having my bags searched at security, and a most unfortunate chocolate incident on the last leg of the trip. But none of that mattered because I was finally in Nairobi! 
The girls went to their host convents and the guys (myself, Matt, and Anthony) headed to the Tigoni center, which is in the mountains north of Nairobi. It was colder than I had expected but the grounds were beautiful - filled with animals, tea plantations, and avocados. Since it has been quiet in Tigoni, I have been thinking about a statement that I can refer to when things get tough here (and they will get tough). I remembered a quote from the movie "The Tree of Life" that is especially moving and sums up the way I wish to live and work in Kenya: "There are two ways through life - the way of nature and the way of grace. You have to choose which one you will follow. Grace doesn't try to please itself. Accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked. Accepts insults and injuries. Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it too. Like to lord it over them. To have its own way. It finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it. And love is smiling through all things. No one who loves the way of grace ever comes to a bad end." This seems to be a great place to close my first blog post - all I ask is that you send up some prayers for me and my team and the Kenyans that we will be serving. Sending my love from Kenya!