Traveling to MCF Ndalani

Written September 29th

We have made it to MCF Ndalani! We used the public transit system to get here and what a great adventure it was! Originally the plan was to leave Nairobi on Wednesday, September 18th and travel to MCF using the organization’s van. The van didn’t come so the plan changed and we found ourselves packed in a taxi with our very large bags and off to the matatu depot.

On the trip there we saw a whole different side of Nairobi and it confirmed our suspicion that we had been staying in the suburbs of Nairobi, the nice, clean part of Nairobi. The Nairobi that we saw that day had roads with massive ruts in them, children and beggars lining the streets, piles of tires smoldering, trash. Everything was dirty. It was a very eye-opening experience. It made me realize that many of the children of MCF lived on these kind of streets, desperately trying to survive.

The matatu depot was chaos. As soon as we pulled in and the drivers saw our faces, they were bidding to have us ride with them. Eric, one of the MCF beneficiaries who is attending college in Nairobi, secured a matatu for us. We watched as the matatu attendants loaded our four enormous bags onto the roof of the bus, and strapped them down with – we hoped – plenty of rope! Then into the vehicle we climbed. But the adventure wasn’t over yet, not by far. Before the matatu could left the station, it had to have enough passengers. So we waited for more passengers. While we were waiting, venders selling drinks, snacks, sunglasses, scarves, watches, stereos, dresses and bananas crowded to the window and tried to make a sale.

At last we were off, but only as far as the car parts section of town. There the driver loaded even more goods into the matatu. We had things on the roof, things under our seat, things on the seat, things under our feet. There was a lot of stuff and people in that bus!

The drive into the countryside was pretty straight forward. There were occasional police road blocks. We found out later that they are checking to ensure that the drivers had a license, appropriate insurance and that the vehicle was in good working condition.

After about 90 minutes we arrived in the tiny little town of Sophia. This was our stop. We climbed out of the bus and found that there were already men unloading our luggage. This was helpful, but it also posed a problem when their started to ask us for money as compensation for their assistance. We didn’t want to pay them, but I did have a bag of peanut M&M’s, so I pulled those out and gave some to each person. They were quite pleased with that, as were we.

We had to catch another matatu, so Lindsey, Redemptor and I (Redemptor is another MCF Kenyan friend. She escorted us the entire trip to ensure our safe arrival!) hoisted all our bags and carried/dragged them around to the corner to the next matatu. This one was even more crowded with people than the previous one. I sat between four Kenyan men at the back of the bus!

A few minutes later we were at last at our destination. Off of the bus we came, the luggage was unloaded. Some of the older boys from MCF provided some much appreciated assistance transporting our things down the lane to our new living facilities.

The whole trip from guesthouse to our room took about 5 hours. Afterwards Lindsey and I were a bit stunned at what we had just experienced. There were definitely a few moments of culture shock. We both firmly agreed that whenever we visit Nairobi in the future, we are going to take as little as we possibly came, because we don’t what to go through the ordeal with the luggage again!