Sunday was the first day I decided to venture outside the estate for my morning run. I got up at 5:30, being advised that the roads quickly got crowded in the morning. I figured if I couldn't get a good run in at 6:00 am on a Sunday morning, then there wasn't any time that would work. I was still nervous about leaving the neighborhood alone, but I felt pretty confident that I could follow the route to the market, and that only involved one turn, so what could possibly go wrong? It was still pretty dark when I started running, but the roads were fairly clear, although by no means empty. I've gotten weird looks the whole trip but a mzungu out for a run by themselves at 6 on a Sunday morning is weirder yet. A couple of matatus (there were a surprising number already out and about) thought I was running to catch them and stopped for me, but when they realized I was just running by the conductors almost all shouted encouragement. I'm sure it was an amusing and bewildering spectacle, and I saw all varieties of a combination of those two on the faces of the people I passed. I actually saw about 6 other runners, all of them in full sweat suits (it's the cold season here, which means at 6 am it's in the 50's, which warrants "bundling up"), which were the first runners I'd seen since I'd been here, so I guess there are other people that train here. From talking with people the concept of exercise is not foreign, as I guess a decent number of people jog casually to stay in shape or lift weights. In that respect Nairobi isn't as different from the US as you might think, but I believe that changes the farther away from the city you get. I got a much better feel for the route and the area running by myself than flying by in the matatu as we normally do. I feel quite confident with that route now and could definitely navigate it on foot, and maybe even in a matatu. I ran back home to the estate to make sure I wasn't venturing too far without knowing exactly how to get back. I ran in another direction over a bridge over some railroad track that gave me the most panoramic view I had had yet. I knew Nairobi was polluted but this was my first time a got a good look of just how hazy it was. It reminded of Taiwan, the same kind of crowded polluted city that Taichung was. The sun was just rising, and it was the same red-orange color that it turns in Montana when the forest fires are really bad. I had to loop around the small area I was comfortable with to get in a decent run, and decided I probably wouldn't run outside the estate again unless I found a better place to run. The risk of something bad happening, either getting lost or running into someone who wanted to take advantage of a stranger to the area, isn't worth running along the shoulder of roads at 6 am that quickly get crowded with vehicles that make it a pretty hazardous situation. I went to church with Junior to a large Pentacostal church he normally goes to. A fascinating thing I found talking with him is that the family doesn't go to the same church. They all go to separate churches, and I'm not sure if that's a cultural thing or something specific to their family. I hadn't realized before then how many churches there are around, and it seems to me there's a huge percentage of Pentacostal churches. My favorite church sign I've found is for the "Nairobi Happy Church" downtown, "a place of hope and happiness". Not sure what to take from that, but it's there, I'll try to get a picture of it if I get a chance, but I'm not even sure where it is, so we'll see. It's hard for me to comment on what was different about the church service because I had never been to one in the US, so I don't know what was different about it being in Kenya and what was different about it being a pentacostal service. It was far more subdued than many of the stories I've heard about in the US. We sat outside in the overflow section, which consisted of white plastic chairs set out under a large tent on an open dirt area just outside the church, from where we watched the service on one of two probably about 50 inch TV's with the sound piped out to us through speakers. We came a couple minutes late, and by halfway through the service the overflow section had over 1000 people, and I would guess there were probably at least half that many inside the church itself. It was a testimony Sunday, so we heard several testimonies, interspersed with songs and some short preaching. It definitely didn't follow the normal progression of most services I've been to, but it was a testimony Sunday so I guess it wasn't a normal service anyway. We were going to go to Mama Patrick's sister's house, but apparently didn't get a hold of her so I laid low for most of the rest of Sunday, and after the early start I couldn't even stay awake until dinner. Another funny cultural experience happened Sunday morning heading out the door to church. I had brought a set of nice clothes to wear to church: slacks, a button-up shirt, and my dress shoes, because I heard that was pretty important here, which it appears that it is. One my way out the door, Patrick's dad told me I should shine my shoes before I went. I'd never shined a pair of shoes in my life, but it was no problem because even if I had, Patrick's brother Anthony grabbed my shoes and began to shine them. When he was done they looked just about like they were new out of the box. It amuses me though that people care so much about what their shoes look like in a place where they have to walk through dusty areas to get almost anywhere. Indeed, by the time I got to church the shoes already had a light coat of dust, but still looked better than they normally do. You can see how much people like shoes also in the number of shoe stalls that are all over the city. It seems to me that only a certain number of shoe stalls can be supported, but I guess they wouldn't be there if people weren't buying the shoes, and judging from what I've seen of Patrick's shoe collection I can believe that people here do manage to keep the shoe vendors in business.
Nairobi or US, I don't think need has anything to do with how many shoes a lot of people have! I was amazed to find, after buying a shoe organizer to hang over the back of my bedroom door, that I had enough shoes, including bedroom slippers, to fill its pockets, which hold twelve pair. Think about it: sandals for hot weather, dress shoes, sneakers, work shoes, slippers, casual shoes. That's six pair right there.
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