Excerpts from Sarah Clancy's Letters Home:

The process of leaving was not a fun one because each time I tried to pack I was completely overwhelmed and ended up with tears in my eyes just LOOKING at the things I "needed" for six months. I had to say good-bye to a lot of peple I cared about, but the hardest good-bye would be the one to my parents. Actually, that good-bye was my favorite, because they were so excited for my adventure to begin that it was hard not to be excited myself.

Life is much quieter here than I am used to and this will be my greatest challenge in my home. I am somewhat disappointed by the lack of "action" in my house- particularly not having siblings around- but Mama and I have settled into a quiet companionship. We work side-by-side as she teaches me how to make traditional Kenyan dishes of ugali (white cornmeal heated so it sticks together) and chapatti (fried bread -- SO good). We laughed together over my first attempt at bathing with a basin of hot water and a small pail; she is amused by my reactions to life in Kenya and my attempts at Kiswahili-- I AM getting better!

While I could go on and on listing the similarities and differences between life in Michigan and Nairobi, the greatest for me is the precautionary measures I take to try and protect myself as a white woman. I can't be anywhere in public after six (after dark) and I really can go nowhere by myself. The high crime rates and frequent muggings indicate the desperation of the poor who prey on non-natives particularly. I wear no jewelry in the city and carry virtually nothing with me; I walk purposefully and do nothing that will attract any more attention to myself than my skin color already does. I am still stared at, a fact I find hard to ignore. I hope my eyes never cease to widen at the poverty that surrounds me and yet it is a way of life in Nairobi-- part of the reality I need to accept. I still find the city, with its poverty and dirt, intimidating at this point.

While poverty does surround me, I am surprised by the Westernization and modernization Nairobi demonstrates. Supermarkets stock Skippy peanut butter and Coca-Cola products alongside the traditional Kenyan staples, and the cinemas advertise Pirates of the Caribbean and Legally Blonde II. The young people I meet are interested in Eminem and 50 Cent, Friends (they're about five years behind!), American fashions and brand-name labels, and anxiously await Bad Boys II. Everyone who can afford a phone carries a cell phone -- the landlines are unpredictable, as is the running water supply! Kenya's British heritage is obvious with its emphasis on tea-time multiple times a day. The luxuries of the West are obvious and plentiful, and they lie directly beside the deeply-rooted poverty -- an irony I find difficult to ignore.