COASTIES BECOME COASTIES.

So CLEARLY I’m laxing in my commitment to blogging (and journaling) which is a shame, but you understand.  I believe that last entry was at least three weeks back, when I returned from Mount Kenya? So let’s start there.

That following week, I spent some time at friend’s houses in the evenings, mostly cooking dinners. In particular, I made the best guacamole of my life one night for Mexican food Thursday. It was incredible. I used to not even like the stuff, but this was seriously one of the better things I’ve tasted since abroad. (Go figure). Which brings me to a new discovery, I LIKE COOKING. I knew that I wanted to learn about a year ago, but with the gift of a cookbook for my birthday and the subsequent moving in with the Sister, cooking did not happen. Why should it when you have a passionate veggie chef at your fingertips? But Kiley and my deal will not last much longer, because when I get back to Minneapolis, I shall cook. So that’s exciting news. The following night we went to a neighbor’s house for a dinner, to which she invited about 20 young people, which was awesome. We all sat around for five hours drinking wine and eating the most plentiful Kenyan meal I’ve had to date. It was really good to meet a bunch of teenagers and twenty-somethings, who later invited us to an event the following night. THE SIX A.M. PARTY.

So the Six A.M. party is a monthly dance party held at various outdoor locations around Nairobi that has a theme (and a fat cover charge). Long story  short, its basically just a rave that goes until the sun comes up. This one was themed Kikoy culture, which is a linen like sarong that can be wrapped or worn in about a thousan different ways by men and women alike. Upon hearing this, the 7 or 8 girls that were left in the city for the weekend, committed ourselves to this crazy party and all got Kikoys the following day. It turned out to be such a fun night and we danced until six, as promised.

The next week was our last week of school, which included surprise Swahili exams, earlier and more thorough than we had been informed. After the initial shock of having to do an oral interview the following day, it seems my class all did pretty well. We haven’t gotten scores from that or the written portion yet, but that rounded out our academic classroom portion of the semester. My friend Mwende and I got tattoos that week, and that too was a bit of an impromptu decision. I was just going to be there for moral support, since it was her first and she wanted someone with tattoo history to be there to check that everything was kosher. But, as you may know, once you are inked, its kind of addicting. So as I sat there, I decided to get one too, but a tiny simple one at that. It says Amani, which is my Kenyan name, which means peace. Its about an inch long on my right side ribs (super painful) but only took about five minutes and was real cheap. And regardless of the doubt about getting a tattoo in a foreign country, the artist had been working for 12 years, and I inspected the new needles, ink and sharps container, and looked as his work before agreeing. It was a bit of a risk for all those paranoid people back home, but I felt good about it, even with my tattoo skeptic hat on. It’s all healed up now, and really petite and hidden, and I like it a lot. There’s a picture in the recently uploaded Facebook album if you’d like to check it out.

On the last day of classes, we were taken out to lunch by our director and wonderful professor, Doctor Jama, to this fancy schmancy Indian restaurant in Westlands. Holy buckets, so good. It seems this blog post is going to be filled with all of these ‘best meals ever!’ comments, but I promise you, they all really felt that way. We were so spoiled that day. He is the bomb. Then the following night, almost all of my classmates and I met up at a bar in Langatta that we had been to before with an outdoor patio, to party for our last night in town. It was so good to be with everyone as we all celebrated being down with school and danced out our nerves of moving and separation. They also had a big screen, which was playing sketchy music videos all night, that was hooked up to some sort of text message song request system to the DJ. So needless to say, as we got a little tipsy, the odd text messages and shoutouts kept finding their way onto the screen. We had so much fun, and reveled in our last night as a group.

My new friend Ashley, and my friend Laura and I treated ourselves to really awesome lunch and coffee and ice cream on our last day in the city. The food was a bit of a splurge ($7) but totally worth it. Then we found an awesome café called River Café in this lush green valley in Gigire, and I got my legs waxed for the first time. Thought I might as well try it sometime, and if I’m going to try it I’d rather pay eight dollars than 80 in the States. And my friend Robin goes there every months so it was a good referral.

The next morning, we were all off to our meeting points for the departure to our prospective new towns. Nine of us to the Coast, with two other groups heading toward Mount Kenya and Lake Victoria, around Kisumu.  The  bus ride to Mombasa was a nervous one, during which I read my new favorite book, The Brothers K, almost the whole time. Then when my friend Embe (Ava) suddenly got off the bus, it really hit us that we were pulling into town and she was off with her new family. We all alighted in town, and met up with our Mamas there. My mother, Kate, was so enthusiastic to see me, I could tell immediately that we would click. She is so warm and has a really good sense of humor, and its nice to be with a younger family. Something about the fact that we are only ten years apart in age changes the whole vibe. SO Kate’s awesome.

Then I have two little sisters who are around two years old, and an eight year old brother named Eddy. The transition to having younger siblings has been an interesting one, especially since growing up I was always the youngest child. But I have my own room with two beds and a big wardrobe so I feel pretty spoiled here. My house help, Salome, doesn’t speak any English, and I can hardly understand her Kiswahili so we don’t communicate much. But the girls are a joy, and I’m surround by a constant sing-song chant of a-TI, a-TI, a-TI, which is what they call me. Kate and I were joking earlier tonight, about how I have to be careful about picking up Swahili words from them, since they are barely two and their pronunciation or the words themselves are usually very off. But I’ve gotten used to being peed on, or getting a little barf shower during dinner, which is a necessary preparation for me to make as I approach the childbearing decade myself.

My internship has been the most challenging and frustrating part of my stay in Mombasa so far.  There is no work for me to do, and I spent my entire first week wasting time and asking for remedial tasks to do. I am just really bummed that I am wasting so much of my time, and they don’t really have any project going on that they need assistance with. I think I was just poorly placed, so I am in the process of meeting with a few other organizations in the area to see if I can be better utilized. I don’t want to be a brat, because I know its not uncommon for Kenyans to read the newspaper or take tea during the day for hours instead of working but on Thursday I just wanted to scream ‘IM WAY OVERQUALIFIED TO BE TYPING RIGHT NOW’. It’s just kind of a bummer, since we only have six weeks on the coast.

I had a wonderful weekend at the beach with my friends, and lots of plans for the week to come. The water is so warm here, its incredible. White sand beaches, and not too far from where I work. I can take a matatu to the beach for about 50 cents anyday. So I think I might be making it a regular stop on days that I ditch work early for lack of things to do. Remind me to tell ya’ll about the accident in the next post, but my computer is going to die soon. That’s all for now! Love from Mombasa.

-amani

Camping x3

I can’t believe this is the first time I’m writing on the blog since the Superbowl Victory of the Century. So much has happened since then, so I will try to be as comprehensive as possible. But I’ll probably leave a ton of stuff out so, Sowwy.

The weekend after that post we went to Simon’s resort in the Rift Valley called Savannah Sunset Resort, outside of Ngong. It was not actually camping though, since the tents had beds and sheets and pillows! Plush. We had a wonderful hike, and got to go to Simon’s compound at the bottom of the ridge. We met his Mom and Step-Mothers, and a couple of his little siblings. I really bonded with a little girl named Sarah who was five. We were in love. I gave her one of my Silly Bandz and took a bunch of pictures with her. Such a little angel. The rest of the time there was very relaxing, and good to have all of us in one place for a trip. We spent the night on a clearing beneath the bluff drinking and dancing around the fire. It was so much fun getting tipsy off of really warm Smirnoff Ice’s and attempting to dance along with our friend Kamou. The best part was that Jane, Simon and Abdul-Aziz joined us, so it was a blast to dance with them and hang out in a semi-social setting. The music was immensely random so we were rocking out to African music, Cher, Aqua, Enrique Iglesias, all mixed together. A great time, really. I hope to bring Kiley back here when she comes to Kenya.

Then the next week we had midterms in Kiswahili and I got a 92% which I was really proud of. The classroom phase has been flying by and I am having a hard time believing that we only have a week and a half of classes left before we move. I really hope that my Kiswahili gets a lot better when I move to Mombasa, because although I think I’m doing well, I just don’t feel like I know very much still. Next weekend is when we will all relocate for our individual internships around the country, and I will be moving to the coast. My internship situation has changed since I last wrote about it though. Right now, I’ll be having two internships with coalition organization in the city of Mombasa. The first is with an organization called Peace Net and the other is the Coast Interfaith Council of Clerics. Both will be around peace building and cross cultural community dialogue. Kenya has dealt with endless ethnic conflicts in the last half century, and the post-election violence of 2007 really intensified that. There is a huge issue in Kenya with a lack of nationalism, because most people identify first as their tribe (one of 42 in the country) and Then as Kenyan. This also means that everyone is either bilingual or trilingual, first in their Mother Tongue, then Kiswahili, then English. So my internship will likely be leading community workshops and dialogue in peace and justice work with Christian leaders, Hindu leaders, Muslim leaders, and leaders in Traditional African Religions. The strategy is to tap these leaders as social resources for the communities to encourage cultural understanding and diversity. I’m really looking forward to it, and I am the only student here with two internships. I’m really proud of that fact though, and will stay busy, because one of the continuous MSID complaints is that since NGOs don’t function in the same way as non-profits back home, there is often not a lot of work for MSID interns to do. Both of the organizations approved me as an intern so hopefully there will always be things to do.

The following week after Simon’s, we had a field trip to a farm, in which we got to tour the greenhouses and hang out with the animals. I made so many Cow friends. Its been really nice to get out of school at least one day a week to go on various field trips. We also got to visit the US Embassy last week, which was apparently the first time that’s been allowed in 13 years. I hated it. The whole place was so grossly clean and smelled like Pinesol. Everyone seemed like they had a stick up their butts. It was so bizarre to look around and see not one, but eight trash cans within sight. That’s more than I see on my 45 minute walk to school each day. The way our hostess was treating the Kenyans was so rude and degrading, which has been a big issue for me since I’ve been here. There’s so much white privilege here, and I can’t stand when people are so demeaning to locals here. Its such bullshit. Then there was this store that you could only go into if you had a certain Official Status that has imported items from the states. Lots of wine and Doritos, etc. It really pissed me off when I say Purina dog food though, as if dogs can’t eat the Kenyan dog food!? All the employees live in a gated compound with a tennis court and swimming pool and bar and restaurant, Rent Free. Their kids all go to the International School for whites only, all funded on the American taxdollar. I was so agitated the whole time we were there, because there were all these offices and no one doing any work. Plus the security to get it was really overkill. It just felt so self-important and like they had imported an American building into Kenya and made sure to keep it as exclusive and Western as possible. Ugh, I just really hated it.

The following weekend, I had my favorite weekend since getting to Kenya. Me and some of my girlfriends left on Friday after school to head to Hell’s Gate National Park in Naivasha. It was the most beautiful place I have been on earth. I loved it so much. This is allegedly the place that the Lion King is based off of, and I believe it. The whole weekend was so surreal. We got their really late, after a really stressful and long journey to Naivasha from Nairobi and arrived at the gate right before sunset. We were escorted to our campsite that was 6 kilometers away as the light disappeared. We took a shortcut up a cliff while there was lightning overhead. It was amazing, to be standing in the center of this giant valley as the sky lit up with electricity. We set up camp that night and woke in the morning to go on a hike through the gorge. This was so incredible. We ended up walking almost 30 kilometers that day on a three-hour hike through the gorge, which is around 20 miles. We had a guide who took us through the gorge, and painted our faces with traditional Maasai paint that he mixed from a rock we found in the gorge. There are geothermal hot springs and wonderful geological sites. Plus the rest of our class came the next day and we partied all Saturday night. It was really great to wake up on the cliff surrounded by peeps. Some people went mountain biking and climbing the next day, and overall it was an incredible weekend. DEFINITELY taking Ki there for a few days in May.

Then this past week, my close friend Cal and I planned a trip north to the area around Mount Kenya. This is the location of a third of my classmates’ internships and it’s the second tallest mountain in Africa. Kilimanjaro is the first which is also only 3 hours south from Nairobi, so Cal and I are hoping to go to Tanzania from the coast to hit up that mountain too. We stayed in a tiny town called Nanyuki on the equator, which is about the only notable thing about the town. It was really great to just travel with one other person, especially Cal, who is just as wild and nonchalant as I am. We got into town around noon and just bummed around looking for the highlights from our guidebook. Turns out these didn’t really exist, and we covered all of Nanyuki two or three times in a few hours. We did find an awesome handmade Scrabble Board and an awesome box. TREASURES. When it got later we walked about 4 (or 10) kilometers out of town to head to the Nanyuki River Camel Camp. This was a small campsite that is home to almost 200 camels and allowed us to camp there for $6 a night. One of the most interesting things about the weekend was meeting a woman named Kassie at the campsite the first night. She has been living in Namibia and travelling around Africa for thirty years by herself. She is a pilot and a potter and a painter and made a million dollars in Africa selling her watercolours. She also photographed for National Geographic, so that was a really awesome thing for me. We talked about photography and travel and she officially converted me to her lifestyle, which makes so much sense to me. I’ve always wanted a truck since I was little, and couldn’t really ever explain why. My real passion is photography but I’ve never really thought about pursuing it for a career. If money didn’t exist, I think I would just travel the world in a 4x4 and see new places and study cultures and communities around the globe. If I didn’t need to support myself financially, that would be the exact fusion of all my goals and passions. Kassie was very generous to us and fed us, and gave us nicknames, and left me with a really wonderful hardcopy of Life of Pi. She was a pretty hardcore Christian Scientist, so the conversations were very interesting all weekend, but when she made us watch The Secret with her, Cal and I had a rough time. She wasn’t perfect, in any way, but she was definitely a fascinating travel acquaintance to meet for the weekend. Our host Mohamud made us tea from camel milk and we had camel stew that first night. The camel pretty much tasted just like goat, if you know what that tastes like. There was a wonderful dog named Sheban (‘Very Smart’) who was so amazing. He was like an African Lassie. He would communicate, and lay by our tent at night and follow us all around camp. We rode camels on Sunday morning for a bit, which was really fun. They really hurt your crotch bones though, if crotch bones exist. The second night, we slept in this great little tree house over the Nanyuki River, after a small campfire and a bottle of wine. Cal and I had a really incredible weekend overall, and managed not to get lost, robbed or ripped off at all. Such a good weekend.

In all, I’ve been getting along with my family really well, and its going to be tough to leave my little sisters in two weeks. This coming week I think I am going to lead a mini-retreat at my house for some of my classmates before we all split up. Leave it to the social worker / community organzier to plan some ushy-gushy time before everyone parts ways J I’ve been finding a lot of cute clothes and started doing research for the 55 pages of papers we have due at the end of term. Money is really tight, but I hope that doesn’t limit me from experiencing Kenya while I’m here. I’m trying to keep up with all the Political Schtuff back home, and my heart goes out in solidarity to all the public union workers in Wisconsin organizing for their rights.

Amani, haki na mshikamano,

arf.

THE BIG GREEN AND GOLD BLOG POST

Hey Party People.

This past week has been an exciting one, as usual. There are new pictures on facebook if you haven’t seen them yet. I had my first serious day of homesickness last Monday, but luckily I have some good friends here who distracted me enough to get me over it. I find that having to be home by 6:30 pm every night (because of the danger that comes along with the sunset) can be really isolating. My family is really busy so I spend most of my time with my sister Cynthia, and she is such a doll. We listen to popular music together and she asks me questions that she’s afraid to ask some of the women in her family. I feel like I’m really building something special with her. Although Mama is busy from 7 am – 7 pm each day with work, this past weekend I saw that she really does want to spend serious time with me, even if its only a few minutes before bed. The lack of family time has been a bit of a catch 22 for me so far, but this past Saturday I insisted on no t.v. or movies and kidnapped my little sisters for a girls night. We played games and I taught them a magic trick (which we then practiced for about an hour after that), and listened to music and paged through magazines. I convinced Mama to let us all push our beds together and have a slumber party which thus led to secret chocolate consumption and staying up 2 hours past Angel’s bedtime. It felt really good to be a fun big sister for a night.

School work has been mentally challenging, and the day seems to take a long time. Since its divided into two hour blocks, the lessons tend to be really fast and dense, and I rarely put my pen down. That being said, I am learning so much. Last week in Kiswahili, we went out to a restaurant to practice ordering food and asking questions about the menu and pricing. We also usually get a half day at least once a week to allow us to work on our assignments (which naturally none of us actually do). This week I will hope to use my half day to go to the Arboretum outside of downtown Nairobi. The language lessons are pretty intense though, I usually have a solid exhaustion headache after leaving Kiswahili class, but our teacher is so patient and really tests us. I think I’m doing pretty well for only having two weeks of school so far. I’m proud of the Kiswahili that I know thus far.

Last Friday, we went swimming after school which was a really nice activity to end our week. Although we got stared at a lot while applying SPF 50, overall it was a really fun afternoon. Tom and I did some pretty pathetic dives (belly flops) that resulted in nice red marks, and a lot of laughs from locals and our friends. I had dinner with my friend Shelise’s family on Friday, which was a nice vacation from the white rice and French fries at my house. We went out to a bar called Sailor’s on Friday night, and met up with a dozen or so of our friends and their host brothers and sisters. Its always really fun to monopolize the dance floor and not worry about being sillypants. Saturday was spent walking around (getting very lost) in downtown Nairobi in an attempt to make it to the National Museum. In the end, we wandered for a bit, got some lunch, and ended up just laying in the Central Park for the afternoon, once we realized that the museum was not going to happen. We did get to walk around a roundabout for about twenty minutes whilst lost though, that was a treat. J

Sunday was all about the Pack. I took some naps during the day to prepare for a sleepless night with my team. We had no water or electricity all day so coordinating cabs and timing was a bit rough since everyone’s cell phones were dying, but we arrived at Masrawy at around 10 pm. Since we had 4.5 hours until game time, we mostly just smoked hookah and ate falafel and watched the clock until 2:30 am. Plus, with the knowledge that our Director / Professors has cancelled class for us the next day, we had so much fun. The owners of the restaurant shut the place down (or should I say kept the place open) for us until 7 a.m. and were so great and accommodating. They projected the game on the side of the big white tent and we all celebrated until sunrise as we watched the Packers win the Super Bowl. It was so great and exciting and really a blast. One of the most memorable sporting events of my life & a big highlight of the year. It was absolutely surreal to be celebrating the first Superbowl victory for the Pack since I was 6, while the sun rose over the outdoor restaurant. It was like an unimaginable secret garden. Plus a lot of Wisconsin chutzpah. God, I love the Packers. I was really proud to be a cheesehead that night.

Whatever was up with my eyeball has since disappeared. My eye doesn’t hurt anymore, but my feet do. I’ve been getting some really bad blisters on them, regardless of what shoes I wear. They are to the point of infections and continuous pain, but I’m working it out. It’s really difficult to find shoes that keep my feet clean and dry and don’t rub on the really long walk to school.  It’s been painful but if I practice a little more self-care, I should be alright.

This coming weekend, we will likely be travelling to the Rift Valley (the largest province in Kenya) to stay at the resort of Abdul-Aziz and Simon, two of our wonderful leaders. In addition to working for MSID, the two of them own a campsite and are hosting us for the weekend. We are so excited to stay there and camp outside, but especially to see Simon and Abdul-Aziz in their other roles. A group of my classmates went whitewater rafting in Uganda this past weekend, and I was pretty bummed to miss out on that (for the game) but am looking forward to this trip and possibly one to Hell’s Gate next weekend. Only a few more weeks until we transition to our internships, so I’m trying to soak up as much of Kenya as I can before moving to Mombasa. The coasties are probably going to be doing some significant travel before that, assuming I don’t run out of money. P.s. I’m running out of money. Oops.

This past week did bring a few challenges though, namely the fact that I spend 1000 shillings on postage and postcards to send some messages to my family, Adam, the Dowds, etc. and didn’t realize until about 3 minutes AFTER I dropped them in the mailbox that only two out of the seven had complete addresses. Silly silly. But for  real, dang, I spent like an hour writing all those out. Also, I got burned for the first time, but only slightly, and not at all since then. I’m pretty diligent with the sunblock, but I won’t apologize for accidently sitting in the sun for too long playing Super Jewel Qwest. Such an addict for that game. No worries, I made it to Level 50 yesterday and was greeted with the message ‘CONGRATULATION YOU ARE LORD OF SUPER JEWEL QWEST’. What a way to end Super Bowl Recovery Day ’11. Pure Bliss.

Besides that, not too much has changed here in good ole Kenya, and I will likely post again sometime next week after coming home from camping. If I do end up going to Hell’s Gate, I’ll keep ya’ll posted on the details for that. FUN FACT: The major motion picture THE LION KING (wahh!) is allegedly supposed to be set in Kenya at Hell’s Gate. Omigah.

Kwaheri,

Amani

#3

Hamjambo!

Hello everyone, it’s been another week since I’ve written and so much has happened! I started classes on Monday at the Africa Nazarine University in Nairobi. I’m not actually taking any classes at Nazarine though, it’s just the building that they let us meet in. It’s about a 45-50 minute walk from my house, and 15 minutes from the MSID office. I meet up with some other kids who live in a neighborhood beyond mine at around 7:30 am everyday (which is 10:30 pm your time). We have two lessons in the morning, 2.5 hours each, and one in the afternoon. They vary on a daily basis but include International Development, Country Analysis, Kiswahili and our individualized Tracks i.e., Environmental Science, Public Health, Microbusiness, Education, and mine, Social Services. The classes have been challenging, especially since the rest of my life here feels like an extended summer vacation, but all of the content is really interesting. Kiswahili is going well, but we build on it so quickly that I feel like I have so much information and knowledge already, after only 3 classes. There is a cheap cantina attached to the school, so I can always get a big bowl of ndegu and chapati (lentils and beans with a handmade thick tortilla thang) for less than 75 cents. We also have a tea break in the morning with lots of chai, duh.

If we don’t have afternoon classes, me and my friends might go out to lunch somewhere around school. We discovered this amazing hidden Egyptian restaurant in this grassy courtyard the other day and I figure we are going to become regulars there. The owner adores us, and theres complimentary hookahs with all the meals. He immediately let us plug in a laptop to the soundsystem and promised to invite us back for bellydancing shows and events in the future. He doesn’t advertise at all because he intends the restaurant to be a secret oasis, and they are doing really well for only being open a few months. Falafel sandwiches are only one hundred shillings and they let us drink beers. There’s a law in Kenya right now that has been recently contested in court, that alcohol is only allowed to be sold from 5-11pm. We have yet to be turned down when asking for Tuskers (the most common beer) but they usually don’t have enough cold ones to satisfy us. Traditionally, Tuskers are drank warm.

I was a bit bummed to miss my mom and boyfriend’s birthday last week, but was fortunate enough to be able to talk to both of them for a bit each on their perspective Days. I had birthday cards written out an everything, but haven’t made it to the post office downtown yet. Sorry, babes. It’s a bit of a bummer to be missing the 21 birthday of Sarah Rose, Monica, Jordan, etc. while I’m away especially because I love birthdays so much. Plus I’ll be coming back and still be ‘illegal’ for a few months until mine in August. I will party in solidarity on the equator for all of you.

We are all so excited about the Super Bowl! GO PACKERZZZZZ! We spent the last game at an internet café streaming it online until 2:30 am so next week we will likely just get a bunch of hotel rooms and party there. I don’t think it’ll even start until 3 am our time, but our Director is a big football fan and is likely going to cancel our classes on Monday for us. I’m so excited! The only sad part about this amazing gift is that I wish I could watch it in Minneapolis in the snow with my Sibling Summit. I don’t even have any spirit gear!!!! Hold it down for me, Wisco. Mama’s watching the game from across the world.

This past week we explored downtown Nairobi a little bit, in an attempt to get our bearings. It is always so busy and hustle bustle, which I love of course. One of the things that really bothers me though is that they have a serious shortage of garbage cans here. I’ve already written a reflective assignment from an urban scholar perspective about what this means for the community, water systems, and the collective ideology. The culture of littering is just so depressing to me, especially when the administration lacks the resources to have a quality trash collection service. Most people here still burn their trash, even at the National Parks. It is difficult to go from Seward to Nairobi and see the daily differences from an environmental standpoint.  Then again, I understand that recycling systems are the luxury of a society that can afford them.

Still struggling to quit smoking. Especially while drinking, plus smoking is allowed inside. They are so cheap and tempting! Let’s not talk about it.

I’ve really enjoyed getting to know all the people in my program, and I know I’m making lasting friends here. It’s great to have peers going through the same challenges with homestays and homework, etc. This is one of the major factors why I chose an experiential learning program versus being an isolated transfer student at some big school like University of Cape Town. Our days end early though, since everyone needs to be home before 6 pm when the sun sets. I’m lucky enough to come home to a kitten cuddle puddle almost everyday. I have never liked cats, but these 8 little babies are just too cute to not love. The one in the forefront is my brave little girl, who comes out to see me, then meowed to the others to emerge. MMMMM I wanna catz.

UPDATE: two dead kittens found in the yard today! Noooooooo

We have been going out a little bit on the weekends though! For all the little dance bugs like me, we had been looking forward to this all week. Last night we started up at a restaurant near Tom’s house, and I couldn’t resist the chance to have a burger and fries. Around 9:30 pm we went out to a bar in an area called Westlands that had live music, which was great. A bit of an older crowd, but that did not prevent us from being the only people dancing and singing along gathered around our picnic table. There is also an adjacent part with an empty dance floor, which we naturally took over completely. The music wasn’t too great so a lot of us left around 11:30 to go to a real club. This was the best decision we could’ve made. It was packed and so fun. The dancefloor was so fun, and all of us were just having a blast and a good sweat. So much fun. We didn’t end up leaving until 3:30 or so and it didn’t seem like anyone else was really slowing down. It was really great to dance with all my friends and be a little wild with them. Followed by a sleepover at Amanda’s and homemade doughnuts in the morning. So great.

Yesterday we spent the day on an odyssey to the Giraffe Center, which is in an area called Karen, where all the rich white people and ex-pats live. We stopped to get a snack at a stripmall there on our way, and we could’ve been in Wayzata. So weird. I have yet to have a cup of coffee here, and just typing that word makes me want it so bad. Anyway, we met up with a couple classmates at the Giraffe Center, and this has been one of my favorite things so far.  The center has a circular raised building and platform so that the giraffes can come right up to you at face level. We got to feed them and interact with them and I got my first giraffe kiss! So looks like we can check that one off the bucket list. It was so bizarre to realized up close that they are basically just these giant elegant (and evolutionarily advantaged) horsies! It was so great to be able to spend a few hours here, even though my lipstick got smudged a bit. Fun facts: Their saliva is antiseptic and their tongues are anywhere from 33-40 cm long. It was so so so great, and an awesome extra activity to share with some friends on a Saturday afternoon.

Then some of us went downtown to the Maasai market in Nairobi. This is named for the traditional Maasai culture that I mentioned in the last post, though majority of the vendors here and no longer traditional Maasai. I really wanted to get a conga (which is a traditional fabric dress wrap that can be a skirt or a shawl) but there were so many that I didn’t really decide on any. Plus the whole haggling thing is not super comfortable for me, especially since I know I’m such a frugal low-baller that no one really wants to sell anything to me anyway. It was an extremely overwhelming experience though, because there are hundreds of vendors all situated in this gated parking lot in the heart of downtown, many of whom are selling the same things. Immediately, everyone started yelling at us and grabbing us to guide us to their booth, and I wanted to just scream. It was annoying but I guess that the nature of being a mzungu. We stayed for less than an hour before I was just exhausted and kinesthetically overwhelmed. I bought one necklace for 100 shillings. But I’m sure I’ll be back there soon, and I’m not really in any rush to buy things yet. I do need to get some dresses and longer skirts though for when I move to Mombasa in early march. The high concentration of Islam in that community requires much more conservative dressing than what I can get away with in Nairobi. But its also almost 100 degrees everyday, so we shall see.

My eye hurts. I think I got some sort of infection or something. A few days ago it was irritated at school, probably from rubbing it with sunscreen on my face. Yesterday it was fine though, and I wore my contacts and everything. But then this morning it feels sensitive to the touch and it kind of swelling with a little bump on it. I’ll figure it out. Savannah (my closest friend here, today) lives with a hostmom who works at a chemist (pharmacy) so I can probably just ask her for something if I need to. There’s no need for prescriptions or anything here. Don’t worry. No, seriously, don’t.

The shower situation is a bit rough, but only because of the cold water. In addition, the water is turned off every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, in Nairobi so we have to conserve a lot. I have a big bucket with chilly water that I splash myself with, as fast as possible. I’ve never taken a shower and gotten out to dry off and still see so much dirt on my towel. I have to wash my feet constantly, and they are significantly cut up and blistered at this point. Definitely gives me a new appreciation for the warm showers of the states, but I wouldn’t trade this experience for the world. I just have to make sure to keep my mouth closed J If I need to, I use the leftover water to hand-wash some of my clothes and hang them on the porch off of my bedroom. It’s so nice not to have to shave while I’m here. Or where deodorant. Not that I do much of those things anyway.

I have to admit, I miss the anonymity of the city at home. One of the things I always really appreciated about metropolitan hubs & central business district in general (urban nerd alert) is one’s ability to adopt several identities in any given time period while in the city. Based in music, culture, ethnic enclaves, occupation, passion, education, etc. While here in Nairobi, or anywhere in Kenya for that matter, I can never do that. I will never be more than the sole white person in my neighborhood. I will never be able to walk down the street without random strangers grabbing my arms to see how my skin feels. I have to vary my walk to school each morning so than the men on my street don’t expect me on my route at 7:40 am every day. I can never be invisible. I am getting yelled at and stared at, especially since we have been trained to walk in packs. I miss being able to blend and stand out when I want to. I hate that when someone tells me how much something costs, I know its gouged by double. I’m tired of being pointed at and laughed at. I miss dressing a certain way one day, and the city allowing me to embrace a differing persona. I know these are intrinsic issues that come along with culture shock, but I wonder if I stayed here for 10 years, raised a family, bought a home, if I would ever feel like I fit in. The difference between the U with 50,000 students, and my life as a Kenyan is insane. I know that once I build a community, things will feel different. I guess, I just miss being invisible once in a while.

That’s about all I have for ya’ll right now, and I’ll have another album of pictures up by tonight or tomorrow. A lot of them are silly dancing pictures from the restaurant, but valuable nonetheless. I have lots of Kiswahili homework to get to tonight. I’m sending all my good Africa vibes to you guys back home.

xxxo,

arf

Ahhh it's real!

Believe it or not, I am really here. At times, it’s hard to believe it myself. I just can’t believe all of the things I have seen and learned and done in less than a week. It is so surreal that I left Chicago less than 7 days ago and now I am sitting in my bedroom in Nairobi writing to all of you! I will try to give you all the details I can (but honestly, I feel like I will likely be transcribing my entire journal onto this blog).

So after getting dropped off at O’Hare by C&J, I met up with all of the Chicago crew people, who would be flying with me to Amsterdam. I recognized a few faces immediately, and it was clear that we were going to click (out of commonality in nervousness I presume). But regardless, everyone seemed incredibly friendly and just as eager as I was to get going. The flight was long, but upon our arrival, we met up with all the other MSID (Minnesota Studies in International Development) kids in Amsterdam. Regardless of the fact that it was 7 am there, we quickly found a bar and ordered four pitchers of beer.  Before long, we all just kind of found each other. Two dozen twenty-somethings with giant backpacks (looking elated and lost) was probably not hard to miss.

The flight to Nairobi was similarly long and bizarre. To leave Chicago at 4 pm and arrive in Nairobi at 8:30 pm the following day was just really strange. By the time I got there, my body was so confused for having lived a day and a half (and ate four huge meals) in less than 16 hours of flights. The first time I looked out the window and saw desert beneath me was such a shock. Needless to say, the topography was incredible, as was the aerial view of the agriculture over Egypt. Good thing I just watched Signs and was able to recognize these designs and notify Mel in a jiffy.

We got into Nairobi at 8:30 pm, and were greeted by our MSID staff. I am continually so impressed by how much work they did before our arrival to arrange every single detail, and cater to each of us individually. I am so pleased with them, and they are so immensely qualified and committed to their work as educators, Khalif is our coordinator for the program and served as our leader for the first few days. He is such a gentle soul and genuinely cares about our well-being. Our main academic instructor is named Dr. Jama and he joined us after a few days. He has been with MSID for more than twenty years and impresses me so much. Jane, Abdul-Azizz, and Simon are our frontline staff for the semester. They are our main contacts for any concerns or issues we may be having. They are all young and vibrant and we have bonded with them a lot already. Jane is this gorgeous young woman, who was initially a bit off-putting because she is very sarcastic, but we have learned so much from her honesty. She has the most beautiful smile. Simon (who is my personal mentor for the trip) is this very soft-spoken man, originally from a pastoral coastal tribe called the Masai Mara. He is the leader for all of the coastal students (that’s me!) but the entire group will be together in Nairobi. Abdul-Azizz is the third staffer and he has brought me so much joy and laughter already. He is secretly my favorite so far. They are all so warm to us, and I have learned that Kenyans have an excellent sense of humor.

Jane, Me, Simon and & Abdul-Aziz after the last sunrise over Lake Nakuru.

After being picked up at the Jomo Kenyatta airport (named for Kenya’s first President after winning their independence from the British) by our staff, we travelled to a hostel hosted by the Wildlife Clubs of Kenya, just outside of Nairobi. It was too late to drive all the way to our destination that evening, so we stayed in the city and attended to some business downtown the next day. I was introduced to the phenomenon that is Kenyan tea that evening. There is a saying in Kenya, ‘Anytime is tea time’ and they really mean it. These people drink Chai like it’s their job. I guess that is just one of the effects of British oppression decades ago, as they take tea promptly at 10 am and 4 pm each day, and often with meals as well. Kenyans are notoriously late for everything, on average 45 minutes to an hour after they told you to be someplace or meet somewhere. This applies to every situation except tea. I’ve been putting cocoa in mine this past week when it’s available, and always lots of sugar. Its still so curious to me than Kenya exports some of the best, most potent coffee in the world, but you’d never find anyone drinking it here. I could really go for a good mug of coffee right now.

We then drove 60 miles (3 hours) to Lake Nakuru National Park for the rest of the week. This was the perfect way to transition into the African lifestyle, get to experience animals up close on daily personal safaris, build relationships with the other people on the program (who are so incredible, by the way), and relax and readjust. Everyone is from all over the country in concentrations from Nursing to Environmental Science to Biology to Political Science and the list goes on. Our entire curriculum is based in country analysis of Kenya, heavy intensive Swahili lessons, and international development and globalization theory. We spent four nights and five days in this absolutely idyllic setting, I felt like I was so spoiled all week.  For example, we were accompanied (and occasionally robbed) by dozens of baboons in our yard. I led 12 of my peers in sunrise yoga as a line of 45 zebra walked peacefully by. It’s truly been unbelievable. I’ll post all my pictures of facebook soon, but the cliffnotes include lions, water buffalo, rhinos, hippos, flamingos, etc. I am not surprised at all that I took 300 pictures in my first five days.

I knew that the driving here would be crazy, but I did not expect this at all. In addition to the fact that traffic laws are nearly nonexistent here, the streets are so packed with motorists and bikers, its wild. Death by auto accident is the number 3 cause of death for Kenyans. The streets are jammed with old vans and minibuses called mutatus, that usually cram up to 20 people into a van made for 7. On top of the fact that regardless of lights, lanes, or even direction of traffic, Kenyan drivers basically go wherever they want on the road. And to top it off, the traffic comes from the RIGHT! This is something I will need to retrain myself, as I become a Kenyan. My friend Cal nearly got smooshed on our first day in downtown because intrinsically we all look left before crossing the street. So you can imagine that driving in the left lane, clockwise around a roundabout with people, mutatus and bicycle traffic feels super weird.

One of my main concerns at this point is food. I definitely did not anticipate the food here. It is all carbs. Often times families base meals around things that are cheap and fill you up. Like potatoes, cabbage, bread, etc.  Like today, I was served a giant bowl of fries for lunch. Originally I thought this would be great, but then I met Ugali. Ugali is this cornmeal ricey starch substance that gets boiled down to a dense cake-like mass that tastes like absolutely nothing, and breaks like a nonabsorbent cookie. This is the central part of every Kenyan meal, and I reeeally don’t like it. Most of the time it is served with some sort of chicken in spiced broth or vegetables or sauce to dip it in. Plus, they eat so much! Three to four meals a day with two full plates at each. I have never gone through a meal without someone commenting at least once on how little I took or that I didn’t finish everything. There is so much pressure, especially from the host families to eat eat eat, because in Kenya plumpness is a sign of good health. Because of all the starch, it is a well-known fact that MSID girls often gain what they call the Kenya 20. Luckily, there’s a lot of fresh fruit.

Some of the group during our orientation week. 

On another health point, I hope that walking to school everyday will help out, plus all the soccer. Then again, when we were playing earlier this week I think I was in for maybe three minutes until I was so overtired I had to stop. Contributors: heat, altitude, ex-smoker. Even ten years of soccer couldn’t keep me in the Kenyan game for five minutes.  In other news: I quit smoking! It was a lot easier than I thought this first week, but I am a firm believer that a change in environment, plus all the distractions, have helped a lot. Only one other student on the program smokes, so it’s good that I’m not around it too much, unlike my smoker clique in MPLS. Cross your fingers for arf to stay quit.

Every day so far we have been up before the sun with activities all day; it almost feels like African summer camp. One of my classmates 21^st birthday was last night, which was also the last night in Nakuru, so we had a bonfire and celebrated. We sang songs and celebrated our last night together before splitting up for our homestays. It was such a surreal way to spend the evening, and celebrate with Marie for her birthday.

We went to markets in town bought mangos and bananas for ten cents each. They use Kenyan shillings here, which will take some getting used to, along with innumerable other things. Kenyans call us ‘mzungu’ which means wanderer or traveler and is a nonderrogatory term for a white person. Basically just meaning you’re a tourist and you don’t know what you’re doing. Some of the students have had an issue with the title, especially when walking on the street and a child yells ‘Look, a mzungu!’ and all the passersby laugh. It really doesn’t bother me though. I figure the resentment just comes from the fact that in the US, white young people have never been called any term before that really applied to them specifically, as it was always assume that one was white unless otherwise corrected. It is my opinion that this sudden racial categorization has caught many people off guard, as most young people are fully unaware of the astronomical white privilege they posses. It is the general opinion that white people in Kenya are filthy rich (and we are here as donors) or experts (people told me how smart I was at the market like 12 times yesterday). Generations of repression under British imperialism still influences the fact that although we are foreigners, it is assumed that white people are automatically in positions of authority. It is not an unlikely situation that an undergrad sophomore from Wisconsin would be pressures and preferred to perform a surgery in a Kenyan hospital, or a far more qualified post-medical school residency intern. So that puts a lot of the health care interns in difficult positions of flirty with the lines of what is legally and morally appropriate responsibility to assume on the job. Often times the lines our blurred, and if something bad happens during a surgery and a life is lost, the overwhelming sentiment is not of blame or anger, but that God must’ve had a plan for this person. That shiz does not fly in the U.S.

Speaking of internships!!!! I recently was notified of my internship placement, which will consist of the last 7 weeks of my semester after completing my 6 weeks of academic coursework in Nairobi, the capital. To my extreme delight, I was placed in the coastal city of Mombasa in southern Kenya, that is one of the most visited cities in the country, and on the eastern coast of Africa. I will literally be on the Indian Ocean. I am more than happy. Originally, I feared they would keep me in Nairobi because of the urban scholastic background, but Mombasa is a dream come true. It is extremely hot during the days (96 on average?) and real muggy and humid at night. This is compared to the 80 and 55 that much of the rest of Kenya experiences on the reg. SO looks like I’m gonna be buying some flowy dresses. I will likely be staying with a Muslim family (yay!) as at least 70% of the city practice Islam. What an amazing opportunity to learn, I can’t wait. Plus the crew of people going down there with me will be a blast. So happy I brought two swimsuits.

PRETTY GIRAFFE! There is a National Park right in Nairobi, which is so rare for how large it is (around 3 million people). This is where one would come to see the contrast of the Safari capital of the world, and the ballooning modernization and growth of an urban center. 

As I type this, I am sitting on my bed at the home of my first homestay. We got dropped off at school today and picked up by our families. I spent the day unpacking and having separate hangout time with each of my host sisters. Natasha, 24, is about to get her master’s in law, and even the brief conversations we had today were so stimulating for me. Then there’s Cynthia, who I share a bedroom with, and is your average 18 year-old. She recently finished high school but is waiting for her test results to confirm her commencement. She is fluent in French and studies that daily while she waits for results at the end of February. She loves modern American music, and we were jamming out to Drake, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Beyonce, etc., on the radio all day. My youngest sister is Angel, 12, who is a trip. She is so hyperactive and nosey, immediately she hid from me and left her friend alone (who came to the house literally for 1 minute just to see Me and leave). She goes through all of my things all the time, and is constantly distracted and moving on to a new activity every few minutes. My hostmother is Theresa, but I am to call her Mama, as it is disrespectful to call a matriarchal figure by her first name, especially with the age difference. Janet, 30, is their live in house helper. Since services are so inexpensive here, it is common place for families to have a house help (regardless of their socioeconomic background) who often takes on the role of cook, maid, nanny, etc. This is an aspect that I will really have to get used to, because I’m not really comfortable being served like this, but culturally this is the norm. I will likely spend most of my time with Janet and Angel, as the others are really busy and won’t be home much.  They have all been so welcoming and warm, I almost teared up during dinner because the 6 minute prayer was all for me and every aspect of my journey here from safety in travel, for my parents and sister, for school and learning, for comfort, flexibility and openness, and that I don’t get too homesick (all mentioned separately and thoroughly). They are so happy to have me and I feel the same. Plus Kenyan’s watch a ton of television and movies, so it is likely I will come home stocked with oodles of DVDs, roughly 40 cents each.

I’ll write more soon, but know that I am safe and happy and settling. School starts on Monday and I’ve gotta learn my way around town. Pictures soon to come!

All my love,

arf. from africa

#1

As I'm leaving in a few days, I am soaking up my last days of winter in Milwaukee before I go. I hope to post pictures and stories over the course of the next six months. Thanks for following me along on my big adventure. All my love, arf.