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.

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!

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!)

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!!!

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!