Well I made it to Kenya, but not before an earthquake was felt in Columbus, OH (my step daughter felt it at work, but I didn't feel it at her house) and my flights to NYC and Rome were cancelled because of Hurricane Irene. I ended up leaving on Monday morning at 8:15 AM rather than on Sunday. I had to fly from Columbus to Detroit to Toronto to Amsterdam to Nairobi to Mombasa where a taxi was waiting for me to take me to Diani Beach (near Ukunda). We arrived at the house on Wednesday morning at about 1:50 AM. I slept until 11:00 AM that morning!
I had planned on going to get a bank account opened, look for an apartment, visit the school I'll be teaching at, and eventually look for a car. Unfortunately, Louis, my nephew's father-in-law, ended up staying in Utah because his wife is having health issues. He won't be here now until about Sept. 20. I was hoping he could help me get started on those endeavors somehow. Also, Wednesday was a Muslim holiday, the end of Ramadan, so everything was closed anyway.
Yesterday Kenneth, a Kenyan who works with Louis and lives here in the compound, took me to get my bank account set up. We got the paperwork and were going back today, but after some discussion, I'm thinking just using an ATM might be easier. Today, Kenneth took me to check out a few places to live. I may have decided on one that is comparatively nice except the area scares me a little. I will have a night guard and could hire a day guard if I choose, but the house has locks and metal bars up the ying-yang as well as alarm systems all over the house. I know I'd be safe IN the house, it's just OUTSIDE the house that worries me a bit. It's 50,000 Kenyan shillings - about $538 - per month which isn't that bad, but I was told I could get something nicer for around $300/mo., so that's what I had budgeted. That was WRONG information! There is someone moving in tomorrow for 11 days, so I will probably have to stay here until then.
I went to visit the Head Mistress of Word of Life Christian Academy where I am supposed to start teaching on Tuesday. Apparently, she has health problems and is in India. The teacher I was supposed to be working with quit in the middle of the school year, so I'm not sure who I'm working with or if they are even aware that I am coming. The house I'm considering is much closer to St. Joseph's Catholic Primary School, where I had originally wanted to teach. Maybe I'll just drop in there and see about working there instead.
The car is the next issue. I'm completely up in the air on that one, too. I was told last summer that I could get a decent car for around $2,000 and sell it three months later for the same. That sounded good to me. Unfortunately, I'm now learning that taxes, insurance, and registration (IF I can even buy a car as a non-resident) could be $1,000 and a $2,000 car would be pretty old or beat up, and then I'd have to deal with it breaking down. That, apparently, is not a good thing. Cars go in for repair and literally take months to get repaired and returned to the owner. So, I'm not sure what I'm going to do for transportation yet.
This post is getting very long, so I'd better stop. I've got more to say, but I'll save it for another day. One thing I need to say... In spite of everything that doesn't seem to be going quite the way I thought they would, I'm still happy I'm here. There have been good things, too, that I'll share next time.
Until then...
Kadi
No comments:
Post a Comment