Day 1 Adventure

After breakfast, we walked around and explored icipe and it wa a much, much bigger than I had expected with research spanning fertilizer, bee health, plant sciences, human health, and sustainable agriculture (among many others).We met a nice lady named Lillian (she had actually called Rico's phone to tell him that she was ready for us!) and she was very helpful and kind. We were in need of local cell phones, so she arranged for Mombasa, a friendly younger man, to take us to the mall. My suitcase broke through airport security and she is working on getting me a new one.Going to the mall area with Mombasa was an eye-opening walk, that's for sure. Leaving the gates and security of the compound was scary; I had no clue what was on the other side of the walls. We set foot toward the mall on a street that was made for cars, not people. There isn't much direction and cars travel any way they choose.This is what the security gate to our compound looks like. As you can see, icipe is a very nice facility.Outside the walls, we went to the "mall" to get cell phones. This was our view outside of the phone store. This man was slaughtering chickens left and right! He would grab them out of the shed, put them in this cylinder deal, and then a few minutes later, grab one and put it in the boiling hot water to its death. He would then rip the feathers off and put it on that chopping table to prepare for a meal. What a sight! It was definitely interesting; I told Mombasa that I had chickens and he said good thing you didn't bring them with you! Needless to say, I'm probably going to steer away from the chicken for the rest of the trip...This is what the outside looked like on the streets walking back toward the compound.Overall, it was a weird but exciting experience leaving the walls and see the real lifestyles of many Kenyans. I don't think I'll ever get used to people staring, but it was nice that they were so interested in who we were! I'm glad that we had the chance to explore outside of the compound before we depart on Thursday.