This morning I met up with two volunteers, Chuka and Chogoria (the villages they work in), to wander around town before meeting up with a couple of other volunteers for lunch. It was my first time walking around downtown, so I was really excited to check out some of the shops and maybe pick up a few souvenirs. We turned down a dirt street lined with wooden stands and it was only a matter of minutes before a small group of chokora, street boys, gathered around us and started asking for money.
Chokora usually inhabit larger Kenyan cities with a sizable population in Nairobi. The boys spend much of their time begging for money, and when they aren't doing that, or at the same time, they're usually sniffing glue. Each city has a head street boy who takes a portion of each boys' earnings every day. If one of the boys can't pay, he beats them up. The boys buy glue from older women in town who purchase shoe glue from cobblers. They buy the glue in KSH 8-10/= hits which last about a day. The chokora carry plastic bottles, about the size of small flasks, for their glue. It is fairly common to see them with the mouth of the bottle glued to their upper lip so they can constantly inhale the glue.
Luckily these boys weren't sniffing glue although chances are that they were asking for money to buy some. We quickly gave up trying to get them to leave us alone and headed to the restaurant early to wait for two other volunteers.
The Pig & Whistle, as its name suggests, specializes in pork chops, but I went for the tilapia instead. It was delicious!
We ventured out to a waterfall a volunteer had told me about one of my first weeks here. He'd offered to take me there but was relocated before we ever got a chance to go. After a precipitous climb down a rickety wooden ladder we were still relatively far from the waterfall but the mist was thick as the water pummeled the rocks below. The volunteer who brought us said the water level was much lower last time and they were able to swim at the base and walk behind the waterfall. I might have to go back after the rainy season ends.
"It looks like something out of Jurassic Park" said one of the volunteers. It really did. I wouldn't have been overly surprised if a T-Rex had walked out of the trees...well maybe a little.
Chokora usually inhabit larger Kenyan cities with a sizable population in Nairobi. The boys spend much of their time begging for money, and when they aren't doing that, or at the same time, they're usually sniffing glue. Each city has a head street boy who takes a portion of each boys' earnings every day. If one of the boys can't pay, he beats them up. The boys buy glue from older women in town who purchase shoe glue from cobblers. They buy the glue in KSH 8-10/= hits which last about a day. The chokora carry plastic bottles, about the size of small flasks, for their glue. It is fairly common to see them with the mouth of the bottle glued to their upper lip so they can constantly inhale the glue.
Luckily these boys weren't sniffing glue although chances are that they were asking for money to buy some. We quickly gave up trying to get them to leave us alone and headed to the restaurant early to wait for two other volunteers.
The Pig & Whistle, as its name suggests, specializes in pork chops, but I went for the tilapia instead. It was delicious!
We ventured out to a waterfall a volunteer had told me about one of my first weeks here. He'd offered to take me there but was relocated before we ever got a chance to go. After a precipitous climb down a rickety wooden ladder we were still relatively far from the waterfall but the mist was thick as the water pummeled the rocks below. The volunteer who brought us said the water level was much lower last time and they were able to swim at the base and walk behind the waterfall. I might have to go back after the rainy season ends.
"It looks like something out of Jurassic Park" said one of the volunteers. It really did. I wouldn't have been overly surprised if a T-Rex had walked out of the trees...well maybe a little.