Wow, so I have just finished typing my cover page and making last minute corrections on my 3rd, or was it 4th, final draft of my ISP. I am really really proud of it; I think that the last month doing research and interviews has been worth everything it took to come here. I have learned so much, not just about my specific topic (ethnic and political identity of the Swahili) but how to live on my own in a major city in Kenya, how to bargain for my daily food…the best place to go to get a dress tailored out of kikoi fabric…
I have also made a lot of friends!! I have been living in a hostel in Old Town, it is beautiful and breezy, right on the ocean where I swim and there is also a small chai stand where the owners know me very well. There is an old man who owns a jewelry kiosk on the “American corner” (called because of all the tourists…we live right near Fort Jesus) and he has given me many gifts of jewelry, mangos, somosas...generally everyone who knows us now is extremely nice to us, very generous and always helpful. The other friends have been the people who live in the hostel with me and two other girls in my program; they are 6 girls from the SIT Mombasa program. We have become very close the past month, and it is very sad that on Sunday we have to leave to go to our presentation sites and they will be going somewhere different, I feel like I have spent my entire research month working, celebrating and commiserating with these people and then we have to say goodbye!
I love this place, I love the neighborhood…I love the cheap and amazing food and I love the people and I love the smell of spices in the air and I love the turquoise sea and the dhows fishing on the horizon…I love how I haven’t watched TV in over a month, and I love that I don’t miss it either. I even love the sea urchin that stuck 20 needles into my foot and forced me to go to the hospital and have a chunk razor-bladed out of my foot with no anesthetic...lol. Everything here is amazing and I have never been so enamored with a place, nor have I ever felt so comfortable. Its going to be very hard to leave, I am very sad.
So I will be seeing many of you in just over a week, and if anyone wishes to read my ISP paper just shoot me an email and I can send you a copy.
Asalaam Aleikum!
Friday, May 8, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
MOMBASA
The past week can basically be summed up in one exclamation: This is the most wonderful and beautiful place I have ever been too! I know, it is really cheesy, but to explain I’ll just give you an example of my daily schedule:
7 AM: Wake up and work out with the two other girls in the hostel: go for a run,sprint up the 4 flights of stairs, crunches and push-ups, then do yoga on the rooftop. ** By the way, the hostel where I am living is in Old Town, one of the most beautiful parts of the city, and it is literally right on the water of the oldest port in Africa. The rooftop is wide and open, where you can see the entire city, port and out to the ocean.
8:30: Eat breakfast with the girls, usually fresh fruit and chai, on the balcony next to the living room and watch the ocean. This morning, we watched storm clouds come in and it is currently pouring rain! A huge difference to the extreme heat and humidity of the past week.
9:00: Go to the SIT office and conduct interviews with local Swahili people, ask them questions for my ISP and get to know their culture, community, religion and most importantly their political views. My ISP has really been going very smoothly, I talk to at least one person every day and I am really gaining a great overview of the political and ethnic sentiments of these people
12:00: lunch at the hostel or with one of my friends in the group, grab some local Swahili food (chapatti, beans and rice together costs just under 2 dollars!) and begin to plan our afternoon
1:00 – 5:00: Head down to Nyali Reef to lie on the white sands and swim in the beautiful Indian Ocean, afterwards head to any number of hotelis and grab a cold beer or soda.
6:00: Dinner at a friend we made here, Tom (who a girl in my group is living with) who is an AMAZING cook!
8:00: Out for drinks and then back to the hostel, go up to the roof and watch the stars and the ocean for a while before passing out and doing it all over again the next day!
Last night was special though; Mike’s parents actually arrived on Wednesday for the rest of the week, to vacation and see the sites and also to meet all of us. They are very friendly and nice people, they took us all out to eat at the most famous restaurant in Mombasa, and arguably on of the best seafood restaurants in all of Africa (as the brochure states). And I would have to agree…it was actually some of the best seafood I have ever eaten ANYWHERE! The amazing three course meal was out of this world…spicy crab coconut soup, then a seared salmon in champagne sauce, and a chocolate cornet in passion fruit juice… I am pretty sure that meal is going to hold me over until I get back home!
Speaking of home, from tomorrow there are only 4 weeks left in the program. The time is going to fly, but being here in Mombasa is making every day worth it. My goals for the next four weeks are 1.) Write a good ISP paper 2.) Enjoy every day here (meaning, go swimming in the ocean and lay on the beach) 3.) Explore the city and get to know more people and 4.) Fully appreciate every day the true awesomeness of where I am and what I am doing.
Miss you all…hope you had a great Easter and see you in 4 weeks!
7 AM: Wake up and work out with the two other girls in the hostel: go for a run,sprint up the 4 flights of stairs, crunches and push-ups, then do yoga on the rooftop. ** By the way, the hostel where I am living is in Old Town, one of the most beautiful parts of the city, and it is literally right on the water of the oldest port in Africa. The rooftop is wide and open, where you can see the entire city, port and out to the ocean.
8:30: Eat breakfast with the girls, usually fresh fruit and chai, on the balcony next to the living room and watch the ocean. This morning, we watched storm clouds come in and it is currently pouring rain! A huge difference to the extreme heat and humidity of the past week.
9:00: Go to the SIT office and conduct interviews with local Swahili people, ask them questions for my ISP and get to know their culture, community, religion and most importantly their political views. My ISP has really been going very smoothly, I talk to at least one person every day and I am really gaining a great overview of the political and ethnic sentiments of these people
12:00: lunch at the hostel or with one of my friends in the group, grab some local Swahili food (chapatti, beans and rice together costs just under 2 dollars!) and begin to plan our afternoon
1:00 – 5:00: Head down to Nyali Reef to lie on the white sands and swim in the beautiful Indian Ocean, afterwards head to any number of hotelis and grab a cold beer or soda.
6:00: Dinner at a friend we made here, Tom (who a girl in my group is living with) who is an AMAZING cook!
8:00: Out for drinks and then back to the hostel, go up to the roof and watch the stars and the ocean for a while before passing out and doing it all over again the next day!
Last night was special though; Mike’s parents actually arrived on Wednesday for the rest of the week, to vacation and see the sites and also to meet all of us. They are very friendly and nice people, they took us all out to eat at the most famous restaurant in Mombasa, and arguably on of the best seafood restaurants in all of Africa (as the brochure states). And I would have to agree…it was actually some of the best seafood I have ever eaten ANYWHERE! The amazing three course meal was out of this world…spicy crab coconut soup, then a seared salmon in champagne sauce, and a chocolate cornet in passion fruit juice… I am pretty sure that meal is going to hold me over until I get back home!
Speaking of home, from tomorrow there are only 4 weeks left in the program. The time is going to fly, but being here in Mombasa is making every day worth it. My goals for the next four weeks are 1.) Write a good ISP paper 2.) Enjoy every day here (meaning, go swimming in the ocean and lay on the beach) 3.) Explore the city and get to know more people and 4.) Fully appreciate every day the true awesomeness of where I am and what I am doing.
Miss you all…hope you had a great Easter and see you in 4 weeks!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
The Most Incredible/Beautiful/Amazing Week of my Life!
Hello everyone! I have to admit that my mind is pretty much fried and bent out of whack from the last 9 days. I have just finished my 10 page paper on how “development is a public health issue and public health is a development issue”, and the least I can say is “WHEW glad that is over”.
So now I am back to Nairobi from Tanzania, and I will be here for the next 2 days. Then I and 6 other students in my group will be taking the train to Mombasa and I will start my Independent Study Project! This weekend will probably be very unproductive. I’m sure we’ll all be exhausted from the train, and of course we will be celebrating Easter Sunday (so far we have a scavenger hunt planned…and we’re trying to find some sort of ham…pretty difficult in a city that is overwhelmingly Muslim). I will be in Mombasa until May 2nd, and then I’ll be coming back to Nairobi to write my 30 page paper for a week, I’ll be staying with another student in an apartment here that will give us internet, a gym and a pool. Basically the essentials to decompress, rationalize and reflect.
But about Tanzania! It took about 7 hours by bus to get there, including the hour it took to get through customs. The scenery changed SO dramatically from Kenya to Tanzania. We were driving through the dusty savannah one minute, and the next we found ourselves in the lush mountain valleys of Tanzania. We saw Mt. Maru and Mt. Kilimanjaro, and soon we were in the quaint town of Arusha. Everything is green and flowering, there is a light rain that is falling. It is really breathtaking. The entire week was basically exposure to landscapes that took my breath away. We stayed at the U.A.A.C.C., the United African Alliance Community Center. It is run by Felix Pete O’Neal and his wife Charlotte. Pete is an ex-black panther, he actually lead the party in Kansas City. Please Wikipedia him right now to find out more! He has led an incredible life, especially now during his exile in Tanzania. He founded the UAACC, and it is a cultural center for the town and it hosts a school as well as an orphanage. They are very wonderful people with a wonderful vision, it was inspiring just to be there! Also, Pete cooked us American food (and lots of it!) like barbecued chicken, mashed potatoes, and even ice cream! So basically, it was magical.
We visited the ICTR, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Here we saw the actual proceedings of court cases for perpetrators of the horrific genocidal violence in Rwanda of April, 1994. We could not see the accused, he was hidden by a curtain, but we were able to watch the proceedings and then meet with someone afterwards for questions and also a documentary. Very cool experience!
The next day we left to live with a Maasai tribe. These were some of the most wonderful three days! It took a while to get there, these people are pastoralists and live far from the city so that they can herd their cattle for long distances. The Maasai are a tribe that is found in the Great Rift Valley, mostly in Kenya and Tanzania. Because they travel so much with their cattle, especially during the dry season, they are not subject to border laws, and can move between countries freely. The land that we lived on was incredibly dry, but it was also cool and extremely peaceful. Their bomas (huts constructed in a circle, each family belongs to one bomas) are on land right between Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Maru. We participated in many cultural activities, such as dancing, bead making and even the sacrifice of a goat. The Maasai do not hunt animals, they only kill when a lion has attacked their cattle or goats, and even then they do not eat the meat. The only meat they eat is goat, and this can be as few as only 3 or 4 times a month, because a sacrifice only happens for special occasions such as visitors, a birth, a wedding or a death. Other than that, the Maasai warriors (men) drink milk and blood, and that is it! The sacrifice was very interesting, we as students didn’t participate in the killing of the goat (suffocation) but we did participate in skinning and the drinking of its blood. That night, we were invited to a party in the bomas where we learned their traditional dances and songs. A really cool fact about the Maasai: lions are afraid of them, because they rub animal fat onto their skin. A lion knows the smell of the Maasai, and knows that they will kill lions that attack their cattle, and will stay far away from the bomas.
The rest of the trip was excursions to see bush people, Ngorogoro Crater (the 8th natural wonder of the world!) Olduvai (where it is believed that the first humans came from) and seeing all sorts of amazing animals, giraffes, hippos, lions, wildebeest, hyena, zebra…and the last day we climbed 1/5 of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The climb was only 2 and ½ hours to the top, but it was amazing and beautiful. We all felt very accomplished! I am sorry that I don’t have pictures of all the things I’m talking about, but there should be some up on facebook soon. The last leg of the program is coming up now, and there is less than 6 weeks left! I can’t wait to see you all and tell you about my adventures in person, I hope all is well back home I miss you all very much!
So now I am back to Nairobi from Tanzania, and I will be here for the next 2 days. Then I and 6 other students in my group will be taking the train to Mombasa and I will start my Independent Study Project! This weekend will probably be very unproductive. I’m sure we’ll all be exhausted from the train, and of course we will be celebrating Easter Sunday (so far we have a scavenger hunt planned…and we’re trying to find some sort of ham…pretty difficult in a city that is overwhelmingly Muslim). I will be in Mombasa until May 2nd, and then I’ll be coming back to Nairobi to write my 30 page paper for a week, I’ll be staying with another student in an apartment here that will give us internet, a gym and a pool. Basically the essentials to decompress, rationalize and reflect.
But about Tanzania! It took about 7 hours by bus to get there, including the hour it took to get through customs. The scenery changed SO dramatically from Kenya to Tanzania. We were driving through the dusty savannah one minute, and the next we found ourselves in the lush mountain valleys of Tanzania. We saw Mt. Maru and Mt. Kilimanjaro, and soon we were in the quaint town of Arusha. Everything is green and flowering, there is a light rain that is falling. It is really breathtaking. The entire week was basically exposure to landscapes that took my breath away. We stayed at the U.A.A.C.C., the United African Alliance Community Center. It is run by Felix Pete O’Neal and his wife Charlotte. Pete is an ex-black panther, he actually lead the party in Kansas City. Please Wikipedia him right now to find out more! He has led an incredible life, especially now during his exile in Tanzania. He founded the UAACC, and it is a cultural center for the town and it hosts a school as well as an orphanage. They are very wonderful people with a wonderful vision, it was inspiring just to be there! Also, Pete cooked us American food (and lots of it!) like barbecued chicken, mashed potatoes, and even ice cream! So basically, it was magical.
We visited the ICTR, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Here we saw the actual proceedings of court cases for perpetrators of the horrific genocidal violence in Rwanda of April, 1994. We could not see the accused, he was hidden by a curtain, but we were able to watch the proceedings and then meet with someone afterwards for questions and also a documentary. Very cool experience!
The next day we left to live with a Maasai tribe. These were some of the most wonderful three days! It took a while to get there, these people are pastoralists and live far from the city so that they can herd their cattle for long distances. The Maasai are a tribe that is found in the Great Rift Valley, mostly in Kenya and Tanzania. Because they travel so much with their cattle, especially during the dry season, they are not subject to border laws, and can move between countries freely. The land that we lived on was incredibly dry, but it was also cool and extremely peaceful. Their bomas (huts constructed in a circle, each family belongs to one bomas) are on land right between Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Maru. We participated in many cultural activities, such as dancing, bead making and even the sacrifice of a goat. The Maasai do not hunt animals, they only kill when a lion has attacked their cattle or goats, and even then they do not eat the meat. The only meat they eat is goat, and this can be as few as only 3 or 4 times a month, because a sacrifice only happens for special occasions such as visitors, a birth, a wedding or a death. Other than that, the Maasai warriors (men) drink milk and blood, and that is it! The sacrifice was very interesting, we as students didn’t participate in the killing of the goat (suffocation) but we did participate in skinning and the drinking of its blood. That night, we were invited to a party in the bomas where we learned their traditional dances and songs. A really cool fact about the Maasai: lions are afraid of them, because they rub animal fat onto their skin. A lion knows the smell of the Maasai, and knows that they will kill lions that attack their cattle, and will stay far away from the bomas.
The rest of the trip was excursions to see bush people, Ngorogoro Crater (the 8th natural wonder of the world!) Olduvai (where it is believed that the first humans came from) and seeing all sorts of amazing animals, giraffes, hippos, lions, wildebeest, hyena, zebra…and the last day we climbed 1/5 of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The climb was only 2 and ½ hours to the top, but it was amazing and beautiful. We all felt very accomplished! I am sorry that I don’t have pictures of all the things I’m talking about, but there should be some up on facebook soon. The last leg of the program is coming up now, and there is less than 6 weeks left! I can’t wait to see you all and tell you about my adventures in person, I hope all is well back home I miss you all very much!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Getting Pushed and Pushing Back
March 25th, 2009
Firstly, I want to have a big shout out for my baby sister’s 20th birthday!!! Finally, I don’t feel quite like the oldest kid in our house anymore…but anyways, onto the important aspects of my life.
I’m not quite sure how to write about my past two weeks. I sincerely apologize if I am inarticulate or rambling in these posts, my internet time is a part of my budget and that means that I’m not afforded adequate time to write a blog worthy of my adventures, trials and tribulations!
Tomorrow will be the last day of what has been the accumulation of 9 weeks of learning, feeling, understanding, academic excitement (aka nerdiness), eye-opening experiencing. We have our Independent Study Proposal due on Friday, which is basically outlining what we’ll be doing exactly, where we’ll be doing it, research question, budget, methodology...etc. It’s been great practice if I ever decide to continue this kind of research and I apply for a grant or a fellowship, and now that I’ve been in Kenya getting more and more excited about what I’m doing, that is a venue that is very possible for my future. Since Saturday, I and 8 other students stayed at a hotel in Nairobi, and it was so amazing to experience freedom! We explored the city, made many Kenyan friends, lived it up basically. Then we remembered we had to do work! And that is why I have been on the computer all morning. But I wouldn’t have traded it for anything! It was so fun. One day, I even decided to explore on my own. I had gotten a contact from my African Politics professor at GW, so I decided to make my way across town to a foundation call the Heinrich Boll Building, which is a great private organization that supports organizations and publications that have to deal with gender equality, the environment, and sustainable development.
So I walked up the road from the hotel to catch some sort of transportation. It’s only 8 am and its already 85 degrees in the sun. I walk for about 20 minutes and I finally ask someone how to get downtown. I find myself asking for directions at least 15 times during the course of this excursion! I get on the bus, which is hard to describe. It’s packed to the edge with people, it’s hot and I’m punched with a hundred different odors at once. Not completely appealing, I’ve grown kind of fond of the body odor, the burning trash, the sun beating down on a sewage river…It’s all a part of this crazy setting that pushes me farther out of my comfort zone than I’ve ever thought possible. I am looking for Kimathi Road, which could be anything from a dirt path to the main road downtown I haven’t the slightest clue. Luckily, there is an elderly man sitting next to me who overhears a phone conversation I’m having, and he shows me exactly where to get off and how to get to the matatu station where I need to be. A matatu, by the way, is the main means of transportation in Nairobi, a major huge busy bustling city. A matatu is essentially a van that has certain routes, you can pick one up anywhere and it will take you according to its route where to go. Sounds simple, right? What you don’t know is that the matatu man (not the driver, the guy who collects the money and tries to “encourage” patrons to alight his matatu) will most definitely lie to anyone who doesn’t know what they are doing, and tell you that they are traveling in your direction when in fact you are going the totally opposite way. You find this out, of course, after you have paid them. Luckily, I have been prepared about this, and as I walk through downtown, admiring the beautiful buildings and taking in all the scenery (not too much though, that will get you accosted or hit by a bus—it would fit right in any German cautionary tale for children…) Then in the middle of the city is this parking lot full of dirty, smelly, rap-blowing matatus. It reminded me of a bees nest, this is their starting point, where they all come back to buzz. I’m being grabbed and handled, pulled in all directions toward no specific van, but I manage to throw off the men and the taunts with my favorite Kiswahili phrase “Potoa!” which is basically the equivalent of “GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!”.
From this point on the rest of my trip was without many hiccups, except for when I got seriously lost trying to find “Forest Road” which is actually two roads, split apart by a roundabout of death. If there is one thing you have to know about Nairobi, cars do not, will not, will never ever ever stop or even falter for pedestrians. In fact, they speed up. So I ran between alternating cars, matatus and buses for about an hour and found myself in a bad part of town. I realized this once everyone started staring at me, yelling “Mzungu!” and various other hawks. I turned on my heel and speed-walked as fast as I could back to the crazy roundabout. This was when I gave up on my search for Heinrich Boll, and started my way home. About 3 minutes later, I turned at a sign that said “Forest Road” and right in front of me was beautiful white house with a black gate adorned with pink flowers, with a sign saying “Heinrich Boll Foundation”. I almost cried! Through all of the dust and the sun and the confusion I had made it through an African city all by myself and I actually succeeded in my destination! The man at the front desk was extremely nice to me, and I left with a stack of publications that they gave me for free, just for being a student interested in Kenyan development.
My one successful day out of a series of failed attempts. One of the greatest lessons that I’m learning here is how to let things go, how to realize that not everything is in your power, and most importantly that patience is the greatest virtue. Patience not only puts things in perspective, it lowers your blood pressure and allows time for deep breathing. This doesn’t just apply to being in a strange country and not understanding the customs, it also has to do with the people that I am with all day long who do not understand patience. This place has really rocked me. I have been pushed, slapped, bumped, pinched, spit on, cursed at, hawked at…I’m hit every day by rocks and matatus and people. I’m wicked bruised, literally, and I’m sure my feet are permanently red-brown and dented from pebbles. I also can now fully appreciate what I used to do when I was tired, dirty and spent…I would shower and curl in bed and watch a good movie. This has happened once this trip and it made me so homesick I cried. Homesickness is a weird thing…it’s like someone comes up behind you and grabs you by the back of the throat and pitches you forward into the dust. You’re okay, but you feel shaken, confused and entirely aware of your surroundings for the rest of the day. It’s a haunt that can’t be cured; you just have to keep trying to feel your way around and not lose sight of what it is that you can across the world for. Well, I’ve been racking up quite the bill. I hope you are all doing well, and I can’t wait to come home and share my experiences firsthand. However, I still have a lot more to go!
P.S. If you want to see some of the places that I'm talking about, I was told that youtube is a great source. Just type in things like Nairobi, Kibera, Mombasa...etc and I'm sure you'll find some videos that would help to paint a better picture so to speak.
Firstly, I want to have a big shout out for my baby sister’s 20th birthday!!! Finally, I don’t feel quite like the oldest kid in our house anymore…but anyways, onto the important aspects of my life.
I’m not quite sure how to write about my past two weeks. I sincerely apologize if I am inarticulate or rambling in these posts, my internet time is a part of my budget and that means that I’m not afforded adequate time to write a blog worthy of my adventures, trials and tribulations!
Tomorrow will be the last day of what has been the accumulation of 9 weeks of learning, feeling, understanding, academic excitement (aka nerdiness), eye-opening experiencing. We have our Independent Study Proposal due on Friday, which is basically outlining what we’ll be doing exactly, where we’ll be doing it, research question, budget, methodology...etc. It’s been great practice if I ever decide to continue this kind of research and I apply for a grant or a fellowship, and now that I’ve been in Kenya getting more and more excited about what I’m doing, that is a venue that is very possible for my future. Since Saturday, I and 8 other students stayed at a hotel in Nairobi, and it was so amazing to experience freedom! We explored the city, made many Kenyan friends, lived it up basically. Then we remembered we had to do work! And that is why I have been on the computer all morning. But I wouldn’t have traded it for anything! It was so fun. One day, I even decided to explore on my own. I had gotten a contact from my African Politics professor at GW, so I decided to make my way across town to a foundation call the Heinrich Boll Building, which is a great private organization that supports organizations and publications that have to deal with gender equality, the environment, and sustainable development.
So I walked up the road from the hotel to catch some sort of transportation. It’s only 8 am and its already 85 degrees in the sun. I walk for about 20 minutes and I finally ask someone how to get downtown. I find myself asking for directions at least 15 times during the course of this excursion! I get on the bus, which is hard to describe. It’s packed to the edge with people, it’s hot and I’m punched with a hundred different odors at once. Not completely appealing, I’ve grown kind of fond of the body odor, the burning trash, the sun beating down on a sewage river…It’s all a part of this crazy setting that pushes me farther out of my comfort zone than I’ve ever thought possible. I am looking for Kimathi Road, which could be anything from a dirt path to the main road downtown I haven’t the slightest clue. Luckily, there is an elderly man sitting next to me who overhears a phone conversation I’m having, and he shows me exactly where to get off and how to get to the matatu station where I need to be. A matatu, by the way, is the main means of transportation in Nairobi, a major huge busy bustling city. A matatu is essentially a van that has certain routes, you can pick one up anywhere and it will take you according to its route where to go. Sounds simple, right? What you don’t know is that the matatu man (not the driver, the guy who collects the money and tries to “encourage” patrons to alight his matatu) will most definitely lie to anyone who doesn’t know what they are doing, and tell you that they are traveling in your direction when in fact you are going the totally opposite way. You find this out, of course, after you have paid them. Luckily, I have been prepared about this, and as I walk through downtown, admiring the beautiful buildings and taking in all the scenery (not too much though, that will get you accosted or hit by a bus—it would fit right in any German cautionary tale for children…) Then in the middle of the city is this parking lot full of dirty, smelly, rap-blowing matatus. It reminded me of a bees nest, this is their starting point, where they all come back to buzz. I’m being grabbed and handled, pulled in all directions toward no specific van, but I manage to throw off the men and the taunts with my favorite Kiswahili phrase “Potoa!” which is basically the equivalent of “GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!”.
From this point on the rest of my trip was without many hiccups, except for when I got seriously lost trying to find “Forest Road” which is actually two roads, split apart by a roundabout of death. If there is one thing you have to know about Nairobi, cars do not, will not, will never ever ever stop or even falter for pedestrians. In fact, they speed up. So I ran between alternating cars, matatus and buses for about an hour and found myself in a bad part of town. I realized this once everyone started staring at me, yelling “Mzungu!” and various other hawks. I turned on my heel and speed-walked as fast as I could back to the crazy roundabout. This was when I gave up on my search for Heinrich Boll, and started my way home. About 3 minutes later, I turned at a sign that said “Forest Road” and right in front of me was beautiful white house with a black gate adorned with pink flowers, with a sign saying “Heinrich Boll Foundation”. I almost cried! Through all of the dust and the sun and the confusion I had made it through an African city all by myself and I actually succeeded in my destination! The man at the front desk was extremely nice to me, and I left with a stack of publications that they gave me for free, just for being a student interested in Kenyan development.
My one successful day out of a series of failed attempts. One of the greatest lessons that I’m learning here is how to let things go, how to realize that not everything is in your power, and most importantly that patience is the greatest virtue. Patience not only puts things in perspective, it lowers your blood pressure and allows time for deep breathing. This doesn’t just apply to being in a strange country and not understanding the customs, it also has to do with the people that I am with all day long who do not understand patience. This place has really rocked me. I have been pushed, slapped, bumped, pinched, spit on, cursed at, hawked at…I’m hit every day by rocks and matatus and people. I’m wicked bruised, literally, and I’m sure my feet are permanently red-brown and dented from pebbles. I also can now fully appreciate what I used to do when I was tired, dirty and spent…I would shower and curl in bed and watch a good movie. This has happened once this trip and it made me so homesick I cried. Homesickness is a weird thing…it’s like someone comes up behind you and grabs you by the back of the throat and pitches you forward into the dust. You’re okay, but you feel shaken, confused and entirely aware of your surroundings for the rest of the day. It’s a haunt that can’t be cured; you just have to keep trying to feel your way around and not lose sight of what it is that you can across the world for. Well, I’ve been racking up quite the bill. I hope you are all doing well, and I can’t wait to come home and share my experiences firsthand. However, I still have a lot more to go!
P.S. If you want to see some of the places that I'm talking about, I was told that youtube is a great source. Just type in things like Nairobi, Kibera, Mombasa...etc and I'm sure you'll find some videos that would help to paint a better picture so to speak.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Just a quick note...
"Mr. Obama noted that the recently enacted stimulus package called for spending some $5 billion on the Early Head Start and Head Start programs — an investment that he said would be rewarded by lower welfare rolls, fewer health care costs and less crime, as well as better classroom performance. He said he would ask Congress to finance a program that would provide grants to states that improve their early childhood programs." - NY TIMES
One of my favorite parts of the day is going online and seeing what is going on in America and finding things like THIS!!! I just wanted to tell everyone back home that I am ecstatic about what is going on in our country, what now with stem cell research and the stimulus package...I can't wait to see the difference between what America was when I left and what it will be in the short 4 months that I am gone. I am so proud to be an American!!
One of my favorite parts of the day is going online and seeing what is going on in America and finding things like THIS!!! I just wanted to tell everyone back home that I am ecstatic about what is going on in our country, what now with stem cell research and the stimulus package...I can't wait to see the difference between what America was when I left and what it will be in the short 4 months that I am gone. I am so proud to be an American!!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Call Me Hafsa
March 8th, 2009
Let me start off by apologizing for this post, I will try to sum up the past 2 weeks in as great of detail as possible, but just thinking about trying to describe everything that I have done, seen, learned and experienced is extremely overwhelming! But I will try…
So about 2 weeks ago our group took the overnight train to Mombasa, which was in itself an adventure. The cars are tiny and very old, the train randomly stopped in the middle of the night (in the middle of the African bush) for 2 hours, no one knows why…the food was pretty much inedible but everything was made up for by the amazing view of a million stars and the sunrise in the morning. I am so sorry that I can’t post pictures at the moment, the view was incredible. We passed many villages, and people and children would run out of their houses to come wave at us as the train went by.
We get to Mombasa, the major city on the coast, and it is HOT. I have never felt heat like I did in Mombasa, and it was unrelenting for the entire 2 weeks. There was not a moment, except maybe in the middle of the night, where I wasn’t sweating. We walked the streets to get a feel for the city and we also shopped for kangas, the traditional dress which is basically a giant piece of cloth that comes in 2 pieces, one to wear as a skirt and the other to wrap around your head. They aren’t necessary to wear in Mombasa, which is used to scantily clad white tourists, but in Bodo they are required. Bodo is the coastal village where we stayed for 9 days, about 2 hours south of Mombasa, only 9 kilometers from the coast of Zanzibar.
So we dressed awkwardly in our new attire, we looked vibrant and also very nervous, we must have been a very amusing sight: 25 white students holding onto yards of fabric hoping to God they don’t fall off and expose us…and we arrived in Bodo. Bodo is basically a page out of a National Geographic Magazine. The streets are made of sand, palm trees are everywhere, the houses are built of sticks and mud, the bathroom is a communal latrine and the shower is a bucket beneath the shade of a baobab tree. We waited for our host families to pick us up, and I was the last to be placed. My mother’s name is Senema, and she is a very old but amazing woman. She taught me how to cook over an open fire, squat in a very impossible position for a person as tall as me, clean my clothes by hand and she taught me plants that can be used as medicine to cure anything from jiggers (parasitic worms that live in the sand and nest in your toes) to polio to malaria. She welcomed me into her home and was one of the most amazing people I have ever met. She named me Hafsa, and she treated me like her own daughter. At night after dinner by kerosene lamp, we would go visit my very very extended family (almost everyone in the village is related someway or another) and we would kucheza dansi (dance) in the streets with my brothers, sisters, cousins and any child of the village who was around. One night they asked us to sing traditional American songs, so we sang “Don’t Stop Believin”, “Build me up Buttercup” and “Wannabe”. It was one of the most fun and amazing nights of my life! The stars are probably the most notable characteristic of Bodo, you look up and I swear you could see the entire Milky Way and universes beyond, it was unlike anything I’d ever seen. I should add that no one in my family spoke ANY English…least to say I learned a lot of Kiswahili and the art of hand gesturing. We spent many days at a sandbar called Paradise Lost where we would swim for hours in the beautiful Indian Ocean.
At the end of the 9 days, everyone in our group was extremely exhausted. It was difficult to sleep, because of the mosquitoes, sunburns, sand fleas, jiggers and chronic diarrhea, but it certainly brought us closer together as a group! I can honestly say I have never felt so comfortable talking about bowel movements with 25 random people, and there are some stories I’m sure I’ll never tell again.
But we learned a lot, and on the last day our families presented us with hand made presents (hats, fans, baskets, fishing nets…etc) and painted us with henna and braided our hair. From Bodo we traveled to Mombasa, to recuperate from our adventure and wash ourselves. It was an amazing amazing experience, now I am back in Nairobi preparing for our ACTFL Swahili exam next week. We will be here for 3 more weeks, and then we head off on our educational tour to Tanzania. I hope everyone is doing well; I miss you all very much!!!
Let me start off by apologizing for this post, I will try to sum up the past 2 weeks in as great of detail as possible, but just thinking about trying to describe everything that I have done, seen, learned and experienced is extremely overwhelming! But I will try…
So about 2 weeks ago our group took the overnight train to Mombasa, which was in itself an adventure. The cars are tiny and very old, the train randomly stopped in the middle of the night (in the middle of the African bush) for 2 hours, no one knows why…the food was pretty much inedible but everything was made up for by the amazing view of a million stars and the sunrise in the morning. I am so sorry that I can’t post pictures at the moment, the view was incredible. We passed many villages, and people and children would run out of their houses to come wave at us as the train went by.
We get to Mombasa, the major city on the coast, and it is HOT. I have never felt heat like I did in Mombasa, and it was unrelenting for the entire 2 weeks. There was not a moment, except maybe in the middle of the night, where I wasn’t sweating. We walked the streets to get a feel for the city and we also shopped for kangas, the traditional dress which is basically a giant piece of cloth that comes in 2 pieces, one to wear as a skirt and the other to wrap around your head. They aren’t necessary to wear in Mombasa, which is used to scantily clad white tourists, but in Bodo they are required. Bodo is the coastal village where we stayed for 9 days, about 2 hours south of Mombasa, only 9 kilometers from the coast of Zanzibar.
So we dressed awkwardly in our new attire, we looked vibrant and also very nervous, we must have been a very amusing sight: 25 white students holding onto yards of fabric hoping to God they don’t fall off and expose us…and we arrived in Bodo. Bodo is basically a page out of a National Geographic Magazine. The streets are made of sand, palm trees are everywhere, the houses are built of sticks and mud, the bathroom is a communal latrine and the shower is a bucket beneath the shade of a baobab tree. We waited for our host families to pick us up, and I was the last to be placed. My mother’s name is Senema, and she is a very old but amazing woman. She taught me how to cook over an open fire, squat in a very impossible position for a person as tall as me, clean my clothes by hand and she taught me plants that can be used as medicine to cure anything from jiggers (parasitic worms that live in the sand and nest in your toes) to polio to malaria. She welcomed me into her home and was one of the most amazing people I have ever met. She named me Hafsa, and she treated me like her own daughter. At night after dinner by kerosene lamp, we would go visit my very very extended family (almost everyone in the village is related someway or another) and we would kucheza dansi (dance) in the streets with my brothers, sisters, cousins and any child of the village who was around. One night they asked us to sing traditional American songs, so we sang “Don’t Stop Believin”, “Build me up Buttercup” and “Wannabe”. It was one of the most fun and amazing nights of my life! The stars are probably the most notable characteristic of Bodo, you look up and I swear you could see the entire Milky Way and universes beyond, it was unlike anything I’d ever seen. I should add that no one in my family spoke ANY English…least to say I learned a lot of Kiswahili and the art of hand gesturing. We spent many days at a sandbar called Paradise Lost where we would swim for hours in the beautiful Indian Ocean.
At the end of the 9 days, everyone in our group was extremely exhausted. It was difficult to sleep, because of the mosquitoes, sunburns, sand fleas, jiggers and chronic diarrhea, but it certainly brought us closer together as a group! I can honestly say I have never felt so comfortable talking about bowel movements with 25 random people, and there are some stories I’m sure I’ll never tell again.
But we learned a lot, and on the last day our families presented us with hand made presents (hats, fans, baskets, fishing nets…etc) and painted us with henna and braided our hair. From Bodo we traveled to Mombasa, to recuperate from our adventure and wash ourselves. It was an amazing amazing experience, now I am back in Nairobi preparing for our ACTFL Swahili exam next week. We will be here for 3 more weeks, and then we head off on our educational tour to Tanzania. I hope everyone is doing well; I miss you all very much!!!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
A Million Different Smells
One of the most distinctive features about Africa is the smells. The moment you come out of the airport the wind hits you with sweet, tangy, spicy, dirty, hot, wet...its very overwhelming at first. But as you begin to settle down, moments when you'll catch something overpowering and new to your senses are rarer but also more poignant. On Friday our class took a trip to the Eastlands, which is one of the poorer areas of Nairobi. It is almost totally slum area. There are no streets, no buildings other than handmade shacks, no electricity and no running water. We visited an organization called WOFAK (Women fighting Aids in Africa). This organization is set up in the middle of the community to provide counseling, education and support to women, children and orphans who are HIV positive. We were not prepared for the day that we had ahead of us. The people who work at WOFAK spend long hours there and are not paid very well. But by talking to them you could feel how much they loved their job and how important they knew that their work was. We visited some homes in the slum of women who were HIV positive and dropped off some food for them. WOFAK provides free medical treatment, but it cannot afford to nourish the hundreds of women who have to take the ARVs. In this situation, the medicine meant to make them healthy ends up poisoning their bodies, because there is nothing in their stomach. When I entered one of the homes of a woman named Priscilla, I expected to feel ashamed or out of place. But we met her and her children and I found that I did not pity her, because she didn't pity herself or others. She was fighting for life, she wasn't going to give up thanks to the people of WOFAK, who come to visit her almost every day to provide counseling and to check up on her. I feel very lucky to have met her and her family, it was an experience that changed me, because I realized that just because these people are suffering and have gotten the short end of the stick in life, it doesn't mean they dont have the strength and the will and the support to fight back.
Yesterday was a complete 180. We visited Mathure, another slum in Nairobi, but this time we visited an organization called MYSA and its a club that provides a library, athletic facilities, and a complete music/dance/theater program for kids in the slum. It was a Saturday and the place was HOPPING. There were hundreds of kids there, and the volunteers who worked there showed us how they organized and fundraised for over 10 years and what they had completed was the most amazing recreation club I have ever seen. Any child in the slum can come and read books, or learn how to play soccer, or learn how to dance or play the guitar. The dance rooms are very small, without windows and with mud floors, but they gave us a great performance!! They told us that their programs were so good they were getting sponsors to bring them to the Netherlands and the United States, in St. Louis, to perform. They also just recieved a big scholarship to start up a radio station, where they will be able to broadcast news about the slums that they live in, inspirational news like women who feed their children on less than a dollar a day and also volunteer at the center, instead of what the world always hears which is violence and drugs. At the end of the day, I felt alive and so happy that even in the most desolate and deprived corners of the world there are people who care so much about one another that they would sacrifice anything to make things better for themselves.
I know this is corny, but these two experiences were like two new overpowering smells. In America, I always think of people in slums like Mathure being helped out by the UN or American NGOs or other good samaritan organizations from the outside. But what I saw in the last two days was not wealthy outsiders coming in to do their part for society, but people from the very bottom of the hole building a foundation around them and bringing themselves up. They don't rely on donations and aid, they rely on their own communities and their own strengths, self-reliance in its truest form.
Yesterday was a complete 180. We visited Mathure, another slum in Nairobi, but this time we visited an organization called MYSA and its a club that provides a library, athletic facilities, and a complete music/dance/theater program for kids in the slum. It was a Saturday and the place was HOPPING. There were hundreds of kids there, and the volunteers who worked there showed us how they organized and fundraised for over 10 years and what they had completed was the most amazing recreation club I have ever seen. Any child in the slum can come and read books, or learn how to play soccer, or learn how to dance or play the guitar. The dance rooms are very small, without windows and with mud floors, but they gave us a great performance!! They told us that their programs were so good they were getting sponsors to bring them to the Netherlands and the United States, in St. Louis, to perform. They also just recieved a big scholarship to start up a radio station, where they will be able to broadcast news about the slums that they live in, inspirational news like women who feed their children on less than a dollar a day and also volunteer at the center, instead of what the world always hears which is violence and drugs. At the end of the day, I felt alive and so happy that even in the most desolate and deprived corners of the world there are people who care so much about one another that they would sacrifice anything to make things better for themselves.
I know this is corny, but these two experiences were like two new overpowering smells. In America, I always think of people in slums like Mathure being helped out by the UN or American NGOs or other good samaritan organizations from the outside. But what I saw in the last two days was not wealthy outsiders coming in to do their part for society, but people from the very bottom of the hole building a foundation around them and bringing themselves up. They don't rely on donations and aid, they rely on their own communities and their own strengths, self-reliance in its truest form.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
First Week of School/ISP
Thursday February 12th, 2009
Hello everyone! The first week of “classes” is almost over. Every morning we have intensive Kiswahili from 8:30-12:00, with a break for chai in the middle. The way we are learning Kiswahili is really intense but at the same time relaxed and fun. We are broken into small groups of 5, and we have 5 teachers who rotate around, so we learn different styles, different accents, and different vernacular. In the afternoon we have a lecture or a field trip, today we are going to visit AMREF, the African Medical Research Foundation, and learn how to research and begin research for our Independent Student Project (ISP). I have decided to do my ISP in Mombassa, the major city on the coast. I wanted to do it there at first because it’s right next to the beautiful ocean (yay!!) but then I really wanted to do an ISP that was interesting to me. I did a huge paper last semester on ethnicity and politics in Africa, if one influenced the other and vice versa. I focused mainly on the tribes and peoples where the post election violence was the most intrusive, which is here in Nairobi and the Rift Valley. But now I am wondering how the post-election violence affected people outside of the nation’s capital. The coast and the rural villages on the coast are composed of an entirely different ethnic dynamic, so I thought it would be interesting to understand how they associate themselves politically. Questions about ideology, tribalism, ethnicity, education, awareness…as I continue to think about it, more questions came to mind. Let me know what you think about this! I am happy to finally find a topic that is interesting and also somewhat new. Also, two of my friends on the trip with me want to go to Mombassa for their ISPs, so it is also reassuring to have people to stay with. We’re planning on renting a room together for that month, so we’ll save money and also be there to support one another. And go to the beach together!! As for everything else, my homestay family is amazing. They taught me how to make ugali, the staple food of Kenya, and they will teach me how to make chapatti and other Kenyan dishes this week. Next week we have classes again, but the week after that we are traveling to the coast to live in a rural homestay in Bodo. That is going to be extremely interesting…but I hope you are all doing well and I’ll be in touch again soon!
Hello everyone! The first week of “classes” is almost over. Every morning we have intensive Kiswahili from 8:30-12:00, with a break for chai in the middle. The way we are learning Kiswahili is really intense but at the same time relaxed and fun. We are broken into small groups of 5, and we have 5 teachers who rotate around, so we learn different styles, different accents, and different vernacular. In the afternoon we have a lecture or a field trip, today we are going to visit AMREF, the African Medical Research Foundation, and learn how to research and begin research for our Independent Student Project (ISP). I have decided to do my ISP in Mombassa, the major city on the coast. I wanted to do it there at first because it’s right next to the beautiful ocean (yay!!) but then I really wanted to do an ISP that was interesting to me. I did a huge paper last semester on ethnicity and politics in Africa, if one influenced the other and vice versa. I focused mainly on the tribes and peoples where the post election violence was the most intrusive, which is here in Nairobi and the Rift Valley. But now I am wondering how the post-election violence affected people outside of the nation’s capital. The coast and the rural villages on the coast are composed of an entirely different ethnic dynamic, so I thought it would be interesting to understand how they associate themselves politically. Questions about ideology, tribalism, ethnicity, education, awareness…as I continue to think about it, more questions came to mind. Let me know what you think about this! I am happy to finally find a topic that is interesting and also somewhat new. Also, two of my friends on the trip with me want to go to Mombassa for their ISPs, so it is also reassuring to have people to stay with. We’re planning on renting a room together for that month, so we’ll save money and also be there to support one another. And go to the beach together!! As for everything else, my homestay family is amazing. They taught me how to make ugali, the staple food of Kenya, and they will teach me how to make chapatti and other Kenyan dishes this week. Next week we have classes again, but the week after that we are traveling to the coast to live in a rural homestay in Bodo. That is going to be extremely interesting…but I hope you are all doing well and I’ll be in touch again soon!
Monday, February 9, 2009
Host Family
Hello everyone! Today we had our first day of "school", with Kiswahili lessons in the morning, a 2 hour break for lunch, and then we had our first Society seminar with a professor from the University of Nairobi on the Linguistics and history of Kiswahili. It is such a fun and interesting language!! I really hope that I am going to be fluent by the time I leave Kenya. I have only been here for one week and I have learned much already. On Saturday I met my host family, and they are absolutely wonderful! Their last name is Chelanga, and they are from the Kalenjin tribe in the Rift Valley. My mama is a school teacher, and she is so nice and she makes amazing food, and she promised that she would teach me how to make a real Kenyan dinner. My baba is an accountant at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, and he is very friendly and loves to talk about America with me. I have three younger brothers, George, David and Brian. Brian is only 10 but he is a great footballer, and he is very sweet and teaches me a lot of Kiswahili words. I have a younger sister too, her name is Faith and she is only 6, but her birthday is on the 18th and everyday she asks me to countdown the days until her birthday, which I will be there for so I am very excited. My host family took me last night to the Rift Valley to meet their cousins, and everyone was very hospitable and friendly. They speak Kiswahili all the time, and some Kikalenjin (their tribes language) so I couldn't understand much but I caught a few words. I walk to school with some of my friends, and I will be heading back now because it will be dark in about an hour and I want to help prepare dinner, tatuonana! (See you later!)
Friday, February 6, 2009
February 6th, 2009
Hello everyone! It has not even been a whole week since I’ve been gone…but it feels like I have been in Nairobi for a month. Everyday we learn so much about Kenyan culture and customs, like traditional food and how to wear a Kamba, which is somewhat of a bathrobe, and how to barter in the local open markets. Yesterday we visited Kibera, the world’s biggest slum, and it was very exciting to be able to walk around and talk with the people. It was a place I would have NEVER gone to before, the slums are by far the worst living conditions that I have ever seen. But you learn how to interact with the people, and knowing Kiswahili helps a lot. The biggest difference about living here so far is getting used to everything being so dirt cheap! Fruits like mangos, pineapple, passion fruit, and papaya…everything that back in the U.S. is very expensive here is only the equivalent of about 10 cents. We went out to a bar nearby the other night, beers are about $1 and mixed drinks are about $1.20. We took a Matatu the other day with one of our Swahili teachers, which is basically a van that crams people into and drives extremely fast! It’s much cheaper than a taxi, but you have to know how to use them. It seemed confusing…hopefully I’ll get the hang of it in a few days. Tomorrow we are going to meet our host families. The areas that we are living are all very close to the school and very close to this internet café where I am writing this blog right now. P.S. I know I promised pictures in the last blog but it took too long to load so I abandoned it!!! I promise I will get around to it once I have a more permanent setting and I feel comfortable going to the internet café alone, as of now I’m with two other people and it is time for us to head out, so I will check back soon I hope everyone is doing well!! I miss you all so much!!!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
The First 3 Days
Jambo! The time now is currently 5 am in the morning, and if you are wondering why I am blogging so early it is because this is the only time that the internet works at a decent speed, and also the jetlag has screwed up my sleeping pattern! But aside from adjustments, Nairobi is everything that I had imagined! The air is sweet and there is always a breeze, the sun is always shining and the temperature is around 26 degrees Celcius (80 degrees Fahrenheit). This week we have orientation, so we have been living at a Christian Missionary Compound in the richest part of Nairobi. It is very beautiful and rural here, the pictures that I am putting up are of the building and gardens, and of the Giraffe retreat we visited yesterday. Our Adminstrative Directors (ADs) Odoch and Jamal are extremely welcoming and helpful, and Mama Mary is also a comfort to us. They have been keeping us very busy, we have already had a Kiswahili class and various orientation seminars. They have been feeding us very well too! There is always fresh mango, banana and pineapple at every meal, and at 10 am and 4 pm we have tea and Nyana, which are sort of like those fried dough balls you get at Chinese restuarants, just not as much sugar. Today we have a very exciting task. They are splitting us up into groups of 3 or 4 and dropping us off in random locations in Nairobi. Our goal is to find out as much as we can about the place, and give a presentation later tonight, but we will be completely on our own in the city. SIT's program is all about independent learning, as well as gaining as much experience as possible directly from the city and the people. Yesterday we exchanged money and bought cell phones, it is very expensive for me to call out but you all are welcome to call me!! If you are looking for good rates, check out www.mobilecaller.com for United States to Kenya calling at about 5 cents per minute. My number is 001 254 734 259 770. Remember though that I am 8 hours ahead of everyone back home in the States! I miss everyone very much, but I am so happy and excited and busy here there hasn't been much time to be homesick, so please don't worry at all. Will post back soon...enjoy the photos!
Thursday, January 8, 2009
For Family and Friends:
Hello everyone! I created this blog to keep everyone updated on my semester abroad in Kenya. Hopefully I will be able to log in from time to time and post photos, give updates on how I'm doing, and also get some feedback from you all. I leave on January 31st and I will come back on May 17th. I am very excited but also very nervous, I'm not really sure what to expect, but I do know how much I'm going to miss all of you. So check in, stay in touch, and I will try to share as much of this experience as I can with all of you.
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