So it’s around 6:30 in the morning in Amsterdam right now. Hannah and I are just beginning a seven hour wait until our flight to Chicago. The flight to Amsterdam was ok overall. I got stuck in a middle seat between two businessmen flying to German for a cheese packaging show. So they talked about cheese a lot. There’s not much to do here in the airport but word is that there is a McDonalds in this terminal. I’m currently four months clean from McDonalds but that ends in about fifteen minutes. I suppose it’s time to talk about the weekend adventures of Kisumu:
Because we all had four fifteen page term papers due after our internships, we spent a lot of time thinking about working on our papers. There was very little action but we sure did think about it a lot. We also worked around 40 hours a week so our weekend travel was limited. The first weekend we hung around Kisumu and checked out the local watering holes. There aren’t many and they are a lot different than the clubs in Nairobi. Nairobi has a lot of very upscale clubs that at times made us look like vagabonds. When people go out in Nairobi, they go all out. Jeans and a t shirt are just not acceptable. Kisumu? Well the bars are usually pretty run down and the people inside them are usually less than reputable. (Quick sidetrack: I’m looking out the window at the airport looking at the grounds crew and its weird seeing white people working. The white people in Kenya are tourists or IGO/NGO staff for the most part and are definitely not heaving 40lb bags onto a conveyor belt. Let the readjustment begin.) We found some good spots the first weekend and also found my favorite restaurant called Green Garden. It’s definitely the nicest restaurant in Kisumu and the average entrée runs for about 7 dollars. It was good living. Good pasta and pretty good pizza. I went there a total of five times in six weeks. The next weekend was by far the best weekend of Kisumu and maybe of the entire four months. Myself and six other MSIDers made the journey to Jinja, Uganda to go whitewater rafting on the Nile. Grade 5 whitewater rafting that is. There’s not much more to say than that it was amazing. Definitely the craziest thing I’ve ever done. Talking to my friend Danny back in the states before we went, he said “Oh man you better be careful. I went whitewater rafting in Colorado on Grade 3 rapids and we almost flipped!!!” Well, we flipped on five out of the eight rapids. We wanted to flip so our raft guide made it happen. There are some great pics on facebook and I was also able to strap a waterproof camera to my life vest so there should be some good videos up when I get back. Overall, Uganda was awesome. We stayed at this really cool hostel on the Nile one night and in town the next night. Also, if you see a picture that I’m tagged in on Facebook taking out 1 million Ugandan Shillings, it’s true. I was a Ugandan millionaire. Dan forgot his debit card (there’s a lot more of that to come) so I had to spot him. 1 million Ugandan shillings comes out to be a little over 400 US. Whitewater rafting this summer anyone?? The next weekend was spent pretending to do work. I did actually go visit Dan in Maseno. Maseno is about a half hour matatu ride from Kisumu. We went up there to go to Mr and Mrs Maseno University. It’s this huge competition put on by Coca Cola to crown, you guessed it, Mr and Mrs Maseno University. The guys part was basically a body building competition and the ladies part was what you’d expect. There were thousands of people there and the competition was emceed by a comedian who frequents the Kenyan late night show Churchill Live. It was fun for a while but then we were reminded we were in Kenya when the power went out, four times. One time half the lights on stage blew up. We left a little after 1 in the morning but we could hear it going on from Dan’s house until 5. The fourth weekend I went to Nyeri (three hours north of Nairobi) to visit my friend Paige. Nyeri is in the Mount Kenya region and for anyone who knows coffee, this is likely the best place in the world to grow coffee. We spent the first day walking around Nyeri town. Nyeri is at a much higher altitude than Kisumu so it was wonderful to escape the heat for a little while. The next day we randomly ended up going on a safari at a national park on the foothills of Mount Kenya. We had planned on going to this national park to go exploring for the day but we ended up on a safari bus for four hours. I finally got to see elephants. These aren’t your savannah elephants that you see on national geographic. These are mountain elephants. Yes, they do exist. It was really funny because they would try to hide behind a six inch wide tree to avoid being seen. They were very bashful. We chased one with the bus for a few minutes. We also saw our favorite animal, the warthog. These little guys are so funny to watch. When they see people, they freeze, stare at you for a few seconds, promptly turn their heads and then run in the opposite direction taking little steps because of their short legs. We got off the bus for a while towards the end of the safari and while we were sitting on a log, a warthog peaked his head out from behind a bush and came out to study us. He ran away after a little bit but came back later with a few more warthogs to check us out. We were convinced warthogs are the intelligence services of the animal kingdom. Overall it was a much needed relaxing weekend. I got to stay with my Nairobi host family on the way there and on the way back for a night so it was nice to get a real shower! The last weekend was a blur of paper writing. The Kisumu Krew spent a lot of time on this rooftop bar working on our papers. Again, not much was accomplished but we all got a serious start. One of the weekends at home was a unique and powerful church experience. I don’t remember which weekend it was but my host family had been talking about me coming to church with them for days. My host dad’s dad (Babu) has been sick for two years now and has been homebound. Because he hasn’t been able to go to church during that time, my host mom and dad decided to bring the church to him. Babu lives with one of my host dads brothers in a nice house with a front yard a little outside of Kisumu town. Tents were set up, the entire church choir showed up along with dozens of members of the congregation. Babu was wheeled out on the porch to get a front row seat. It was over four hours long but it was really cool to see an entire congregation rally around one person. That’s it for the weekends. Time for McDonalds.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Coming Home
I’m coming home. We’ve been in the air now for about an hour and a half. Looks like we are just crossing the Ethiopian border into Sudan. I still have a full 22 hours left on my journey back to Chicago so I figured I’d use this time to catch up on two months of blogging. We will start with my internship experience with Victoria Boda Boda SACCO.
Working at Victoria Boda Boda SACCO was an absolute roller coaster. Just when I thought I had things figured out, everything changed. Then just when I thought I’d seen an issue from the correct angle, I’d find out someone has been lying to me the entire time and my original thinking had been correct. That was of course until I found out about something else. Yeah, that’s what it was like. For starters, the first three weeks or so of my internship was dedicated to meeting as many of the clients as I could out in the field. This involved a lot of travel by piki piki (motorcycle). Many of the villages we visited were so remote that not even matatus went there on a regular basis or even at all. Sometimes we would take a matatu for an hour to one place and then have to piki piki our way for another hour to finally reach the clients. It was a lot of fun at first but then my butt started getting sore so it lost some of its zeal. Meeting the clients was an interesting experience because most all of them had the exact same story: they were pissed off that they weren’t getting their money, whether it was in the form of a loan or their savings. One of the more frustrating aspects of meeting with clients was the language barrier. We spent two months in Nairobi learning Kiswahili and it was rather useless in most places that we went. Some villages were so remote that they only learned their tribal language (Luo) and did not learn English or their national language, Kiswahili. It felt like I was back traveling in Ecuador or Mexico with Irving. I needed a translator everywhere I went. After compiling weeks of complaints, I moved on to the administrative and managerial parts of the business. I got to go through “the books”, sit in on board meetings (obviously I couldn’t just “sit in” on these meetings. My views were clearly known at all meetings) and work side by side with the manager. Victoria Boda Boda SACCO is going through some very difficult times right now. There is a 39% default rate on loans, employees are not getting paid and money is not being dispersed at all. There is a total freeze on all lending. After spending time with the staff and clients, I concluded that the problems were the managements fault. After spending time the management, I concluded that it was the staffs fault. After looking at correspondences between Victoria and the government, I concluded that it was the governments fault. And finally after I did some serious Professor Vasquez “critical thinking”, I concluded that I am happy that I do not run, work for or depend on a business in Kenya. Victoria is in a wild wild west showdown right now and neither side is blinking. The staff gets paid so little, if they get paid at all, that they have to look elsewhere for work or decided not to do their jobs to the best of their ability. They get paid the equivalent of about 30 bucks a month. Yes, a month. To live on your own and make just enough to get by, someone in the Kisumu are would need to make the equivalent of about 475 dollars a month. That’s just to get by and the staff at Victoria is only making 30 measly dollars a month. As of right now, the staff hasn’t been paid for three months. And if you are wondering if those lost months of pay get made up in the future, the answer is no. On the other side, the management is not getting the collection of money from the staff to pay them and the default rate is so high partly as a result of poor work done by the field agents. And the management sees no incentive right now to pay the staff more if they are not doing their work. Then the government came in and made everything worse. They made a promise to give Victoria a 10 million Kenyan shilling loan… two years ago. The money has never some. The management made a truly awful decision to sell hundreds of loan request forms to members to jumpstart the process. They figured that if the applications were completed before the money came, that when the money did actually come, all they had to do was distribute the money. While it may make sense to everyone across the pond, trusting the government is a fool’s mistake. I asked our manager, Richard, about why he did this many times and he never really had an answer. I had been in Kenya for a few months now and had the knowledge not to trust the government with a piece of paper but Richard, who has lived in Kisumu for over fifty years, decided to sell these forms without having a check in hand. Members paid 500 shillings to get these forms and the vast majority has never received a loan. That’s a lot of angry people who live on around a dollar a day. What was cool about my time there was that they truly valued my opinion and wanted my input on everything. This was not because I had proved to be a good problem solver or a good businessman (im a political science major if you forgot) but it was because I was white; a mzungu. They trust white people because they believe we all come from the riches of the west. One thing I did not realize until I got to Victoria was that I had a ton of business experience by virtue of living in the US for over twenty one years. We know what a good business is and how one works. We can look at an issue, like stealing from collections or not documenting petty cash expenses and know that’s not the way things are supposed to work. There was definitely not a shortage of issues to point out. At the end, I got to share my experiences with the board by reading through my final report. My final message to them was that if they wanted to run like a real business, they had to start acting like it. It starts with showing up to work on time, or at least being less than three hours late, doing what you’re told and actually giving a damn about the work you are doing. At that last point, I kindly motioned toward two board members who were sound asleep with their heads on the table. For those who were awake and were listening to my “New Way Forward” presentation, they were very receptive to my ideas and actually planned to implement a few of them right away. The most frustrating part about my time at Victoria was that I felt like I cared about the business and the livelihood of those who depended on it, staff and clients, more than the staff did. This is typical of Kenyans though, I am sad to say. Many who find themselves in a bad situation feel they have no resources or means to get out of it and end up becoming content. It’s frustrating because the way out is a clearly marked exit door with an instruction list attached to it. So that’s enough about my internship. If you want to hear more, believe it or not but there is a lot more. There are two reports and a ten page paper. Ps, I had a chicken pot pie for dinner. It was pretty good but as always, ill check back in a few hours to see how it’s doing.
Working at Victoria Boda Boda SACCO was an absolute roller coaster. Just when I thought I had things figured out, everything changed. Then just when I thought I’d seen an issue from the correct angle, I’d find out someone has been lying to me the entire time and my original thinking had been correct. That was of course until I found out about something else. Yeah, that’s what it was like. For starters, the first three weeks or so of my internship was dedicated to meeting as many of the clients as I could out in the field. This involved a lot of travel by piki piki (motorcycle). Many of the villages we visited were so remote that not even matatus went there on a regular basis or even at all. Sometimes we would take a matatu for an hour to one place and then have to piki piki our way for another hour to finally reach the clients. It was a lot of fun at first but then my butt started getting sore so it lost some of its zeal. Meeting the clients was an interesting experience because most all of them had the exact same story: they were pissed off that they weren’t getting their money, whether it was in the form of a loan or their savings. One of the more frustrating aspects of meeting with clients was the language barrier. We spent two months in Nairobi learning Kiswahili and it was rather useless in most places that we went. Some villages were so remote that they only learned their tribal language (Luo) and did not learn English or their national language, Kiswahili. It felt like I was back traveling in Ecuador or Mexico with Irving. I needed a translator everywhere I went. After compiling weeks of complaints, I moved on to the administrative and managerial parts of the business. I got to go through “the books”, sit in on board meetings (obviously I couldn’t just “sit in” on these meetings. My views were clearly known at all meetings) and work side by side with the manager. Victoria Boda Boda SACCO is going through some very difficult times right now. There is a 39% default rate on loans, employees are not getting paid and money is not being dispersed at all. There is a total freeze on all lending. After spending time with the staff and clients, I concluded that the problems were the managements fault. After spending time the management, I concluded that it was the staffs fault. After looking at correspondences between Victoria and the government, I concluded that it was the governments fault. And finally after I did some serious Professor Vasquez “critical thinking”, I concluded that I am happy that I do not run, work for or depend on a business in Kenya. Victoria is in a wild wild west showdown right now and neither side is blinking. The staff gets paid so little, if they get paid at all, that they have to look elsewhere for work or decided not to do their jobs to the best of their ability. They get paid the equivalent of about 30 bucks a month. Yes, a month. To live on your own and make just enough to get by, someone in the Kisumu are would need to make the equivalent of about 475 dollars a month. That’s just to get by and the staff at Victoria is only making 30 measly dollars a month. As of right now, the staff hasn’t been paid for three months. And if you are wondering if those lost months of pay get made up in the future, the answer is no. On the other side, the management is not getting the collection of money from the staff to pay them and the default rate is so high partly as a result of poor work done by the field agents. And the management sees no incentive right now to pay the staff more if they are not doing their work. Then the government came in and made everything worse. They made a promise to give Victoria a 10 million Kenyan shilling loan… two years ago. The money has never some. The management made a truly awful decision to sell hundreds of loan request forms to members to jumpstart the process. They figured that if the applications were completed before the money came, that when the money did actually come, all they had to do was distribute the money. While it may make sense to everyone across the pond, trusting the government is a fool’s mistake. I asked our manager, Richard, about why he did this many times and he never really had an answer. I had been in Kenya for a few months now and had the knowledge not to trust the government with a piece of paper but Richard, who has lived in Kisumu for over fifty years, decided to sell these forms without having a check in hand. Members paid 500 shillings to get these forms and the vast majority has never received a loan. That’s a lot of angry people who live on around a dollar a day. What was cool about my time there was that they truly valued my opinion and wanted my input on everything. This was not because I had proved to be a good problem solver or a good businessman (im a political science major if you forgot) but it was because I was white; a mzungu. They trust white people because they believe we all come from the riches of the west. One thing I did not realize until I got to Victoria was that I had a ton of business experience by virtue of living in the US for over twenty one years. We know what a good business is and how one works. We can look at an issue, like stealing from collections or not documenting petty cash expenses and know that’s not the way things are supposed to work. There was definitely not a shortage of issues to point out. At the end, I got to share my experiences with the board by reading through my final report. My final message to them was that if they wanted to run like a real business, they had to start acting like it. It starts with showing up to work on time, or at least being less than three hours late, doing what you’re told and actually giving a damn about the work you are doing. At that last point, I kindly motioned toward two board members who were sound asleep with their heads on the table. For those who were awake and were listening to my “New Way Forward” presentation, they were very receptive to my ideas and actually planned to implement a few of them right away. The most frustrating part about my time at Victoria was that I felt like I cared about the business and the livelihood of those who depended on it, staff and clients, more than the staff did. This is typical of Kenyans though, I am sad to say. Many who find themselves in a bad situation feel they have no resources or means to get out of it and end up becoming content. It’s frustrating because the way out is a clearly marked exit door with an instruction list attached to it. So that’s enough about my internship. If you want to hear more, believe it or not but there is a lot more. There are two reports and a ten page paper. Ps, I had a chicken pot pie for dinner. It was pretty good but as always, ill check back in a few hours to see how it’s doing.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Nairobi to Kisumu
Leaving Nairobi, friends and host family included, was very hard to do. Eight weeks with seeing my friends everyday and seven weeks living with my host family was an amazing time and it was coming to an end. Orientation was hard to leave just because we were all getting to know each other and it was weird knowing that we were not going to be with each other every second of every day. Leaving Nairobi was even worse. We were just getting used to and familiar with our families and the city and now it was time to leave. Looking back on the program guide, one week of orientation, seven weeks of classes and six weeks of an internship sounds so easy. But there is a lot of shuffling around and getting thrown into new environments with new people. I think the hardest part for me was just coming to the realization that a good chunk of the program was over. After our internships, we had a week of exams and then it was really over. I have enjoyed every second of this program and home now feels like a distant fantasy land. If leaving orientation and Nairobi was this difficult, leaving altogether will be quite a challenge. I’m not looking forward to that.
There are eight of us out of the 24 that are living in the Kisumu region. Four of us are in the city and four are on the outskirts. We left for Kisumu on Sunday morning and arrived there around 4:30. Jane took us to a restaurant across the street from the bus stage where we would meet our families. My new host mom, Mama Gift, arrived after we ate to take me home. It was about a thirty second walk. I am a fan of our location. There is a large estate of houses called Railways, right next to the city center. My new family consists of Mama Gift, Baba (Father) Gift, a three year old boy named Praise but we call him Junior, a 10/11 year old girl named Gift and then two older cousins, Daisy who is 18 and Otieno who is around my age. It is very common in Kenya for the parents to be called Mama and Baba + one of the child’s names. It is a lively house to say the least. Junior is a lot of fun. I was telling Keith, 17, and Carrey, 15, about my new family a couple of weeks ago. I told them I had a three year old brother and a 10 year old sister, “Not much different than you two.” Mama Gift is a teacher at a local private school and Baba Gift is a sales rep for a local radio station. Kisumu is a little bit hotter than Nairobs (Nairobbery is its nickname) but it has since cooled down quite a bit as the rainy season approaches. It’s still hot though. After a painfully bureaucratic process of security my internship, I ended up getting an internship at Victoria Boda Boda and SACCO (Savings and Credit Co-Operative). We had tried many other places before Victoria because it is a little ways away from the city but we either never got answers back or they made up some BS excuse. As we later found out and confirmed from higher sources of which I am not privy to know their names, I was believed to be a spy. While I like the title of being a spy, it didn’t work out to well. Corruption is on every level of business, public and private here. They were worried about an American spy coming in to check on their finances. While it is quite funny, it is also disturbing. This is supposed to be money for the poorest of the poor to help develop their lives. Victoria is a cooperative society which means there is nothing to hide. The money in the pool comes from all of its 1200 clients. There is no outside money or capital of any sort to be filtered away into someone’s pocket. Victoria has savings accounts and shares accounts. The savings are for saving and the shares accounts are for loans. As a member of the society, you are to contribute a minimum of 23 shillings, (about 27 cents or so USD) to your account (ie the big pool) six days out of the seven day week. While this doesn’t always happen for various reasons, Victoria has grown enormously in Kisumu. Many years ago (I have no idea how long ago) it was started as a cooperative society to give loans to parents so they could buy their kid a bike to go to school. Good schools in the outside communities are far and few between which leaves people less likely to go to school. Bikes also improve their quality of life as they can get places faster (grocery store, hospital, you name it). Since then they have expanded into a full micro finance institution. They give asset loans for houses and such, school loans, bike loans and what we call a biashara boost loan. Biashara means business and these loans are for micro businesses. So what have I been doing? I’ve joined the road warriors. We’ve been traveling around the outside rural areas of Kisumu to collect payments, run workshops on savings and loans, answer questions and to hear the members complains and comments. A cooperative society is not like a regular bank. Banks have outside investments. Victoria big pool of money only comes from the small contributions made by its members. With that said, only a certain few people can have access to a chunk of the big pool at a time. Some loan requests get delayed for months and those people get very upset. Last week I went out to a rural area where we met a youth group of motorcycle and bike taxis. They had been asking for loans to by a new motorcycle to replace a bike for a few months. The delays keep coming and that’s the nature of a SACCO. One man, about my age, came up to me, and made a passionate plea in Luo. I don’t speak a word of Luo so my coworker Nancy translated for me. Since I was from the rich USA, the man wanted me to give him a word of encouragement and reason to keep fighting to stay alive. I asked Nancy to repeat that again in hopes that I had heard it wrong. Nope. If you know me well, I am seldom rendered speechless. I always have something to say. After getting over the initial shock, it took me another 80 or 90 “Mississippi” to think of something to say. I told him that he had made the first step to bettering his like by wanting more and that Victoria will help him get there. “You just have to be patient.” Hardly inspirational words but he was satisfied. It is hard to be patient though when a good portion of your daily income is not going to food but is going to your savings. A big problem I see here is that some people are satisfied with their current living conditions. Living conditions of which we would find just plain awful. Wanting more is the first step and it was encouraging to see this youth group want more.
There are eight of us out of the 24 that are living in the Kisumu region. Four of us are in the city and four are on the outskirts. We left for Kisumu on Sunday morning and arrived there around 4:30. Jane took us to a restaurant across the street from the bus stage where we would meet our families. My new host mom, Mama Gift, arrived after we ate to take me home. It was about a thirty second walk. I am a fan of our location. There is a large estate of houses called Railways, right next to the city center. My new family consists of Mama Gift, Baba (Father) Gift, a three year old boy named Praise but we call him Junior, a 10/11 year old girl named Gift and then two older cousins, Daisy who is 18 and Otieno who is around my age. It is very common in Kenya for the parents to be called Mama and Baba + one of the child’s names. It is a lively house to say the least. Junior is a lot of fun. I was telling Keith, 17, and Carrey, 15, about my new family a couple of weeks ago. I told them I had a three year old brother and a 10 year old sister, “Not much different than you two.” Mama Gift is a teacher at a local private school and Baba Gift is a sales rep for a local radio station. Kisumu is a little bit hotter than Nairobs (Nairobbery is its nickname) but it has since cooled down quite a bit as the rainy season approaches. It’s still hot though. After a painfully bureaucratic process of security my internship, I ended up getting an internship at Victoria Boda Boda and SACCO (Savings and Credit Co-Operative). We had tried many other places before Victoria because it is a little ways away from the city but we either never got answers back or they made up some BS excuse. As we later found out and confirmed from higher sources of which I am not privy to know their names, I was believed to be a spy. While I like the title of being a spy, it didn’t work out to well. Corruption is on every level of business, public and private here. They were worried about an American spy coming in to check on their finances. While it is quite funny, it is also disturbing. This is supposed to be money for the poorest of the poor to help develop their lives. Victoria is a cooperative society which means there is nothing to hide. The money in the pool comes from all of its 1200 clients. There is no outside money or capital of any sort to be filtered away into someone’s pocket. Victoria has savings accounts and shares accounts. The savings are for saving and the shares accounts are for loans. As a member of the society, you are to contribute a minimum of 23 shillings, (about 27 cents or so USD) to your account (ie the big pool) six days out of the seven day week. While this doesn’t always happen for various reasons, Victoria has grown enormously in Kisumu. Many years ago (I have no idea how long ago) it was started as a cooperative society to give loans to parents so they could buy their kid a bike to go to school. Good schools in the outside communities are far and few between which leaves people less likely to go to school. Bikes also improve their quality of life as they can get places faster (grocery store, hospital, you name it). Since then they have expanded into a full micro finance institution. They give asset loans for houses and such, school loans, bike loans and what we call a biashara boost loan. Biashara means business and these loans are for micro businesses. So what have I been doing? I’ve joined the road warriors. We’ve been traveling around the outside rural areas of Kisumu to collect payments, run workshops on savings and loans, answer questions and to hear the members complains and comments. A cooperative society is not like a regular bank. Banks have outside investments. Victoria big pool of money only comes from the small contributions made by its members. With that said, only a certain few people can have access to a chunk of the big pool at a time. Some loan requests get delayed for months and those people get very upset. Last week I went out to a rural area where we met a youth group of motorcycle and bike taxis. They had been asking for loans to by a new motorcycle to replace a bike for a few months. The delays keep coming and that’s the nature of a SACCO. One man, about my age, came up to me, and made a passionate plea in Luo. I don’t speak a word of Luo so my coworker Nancy translated for me. Since I was from the rich USA, the man wanted me to give him a word of encouragement and reason to keep fighting to stay alive. I asked Nancy to repeat that again in hopes that I had heard it wrong. Nope. If you know me well, I am seldom rendered speechless. I always have something to say. After getting over the initial shock, it took me another 80 or 90 “Mississippi” to think of something to say. I told him that he had made the first step to bettering his like by wanting more and that Victoria will help him get there. “You just have to be patient.” Hardly inspirational words but he was satisfied. It is hard to be patient though when a good portion of your daily income is not going to food but is going to your savings. A big problem I see here is that some people are satisfied with their current living conditions. Living conditions of which we would find just plain awful. Wanting more is the first step and it was encouraging to see this youth group want more.
Mombasa
The next weekend after the tear gas: Mombasa. My friends Dan, Kyle, Hannah, Paige and myself made the journey to Mombasa. We had Friday off of class so we left on a night bus Thursday night. I slept for about ten minutes out of the seven and a half hour cruise. We got in a little after 5 am when it was still pitch black. We waited out in the bus lounge for a half hour or so until we went to our hotel. After a much needed three hour sweaty nap, we headed out on the town. Mombasa is hot. Really hot. In St. Louis in the summer when its 95 degrees with 90 percent humidity, no one goes outside unless it’s the walk to their air conditioned car. Life does not stop in Mombasa. In fact, people continue to wear jeans and long sleeve t shirts. I will never understand. The first place we went was to an old military fort called Fort Jesus. I could explain its significance but after writing down the tear gas story, I’m all out of descriptive adjectives. I suggest Wikipedia. We took a tour with a local guide for about an hour. It was hot so our level of attention was very low. After the tour we continued with the guide to see old town. As the name suggests, this is the oldest part of Mombasa that is where the first Arabs settled. After the tour we went back to the hotel for showers and naps. We ended up going out to a club right down the street from our hotel. Unlike Nairobi, you can actually walk around at night with a fairly high level of security. That’s not because of police but because of witchcraft. Yes, witchcraft. Mombasa is heavily populated by Muslims and they believe strongly in witchcraft. People are so afraid to break steal or mug someone because they believe they will be cursed by a witch. For whatever their reasons, it was nice to walk at night. The club was a pretty good time. The only bad part was the large presence of prostitutes. As Dan and I walked to the bathroom, we were stopped multiple times by women asking if we needed anything. We felt pretty good about ourselves for all the attention until we realized they were prostitutes. We had some good laughs over it and then continued to drink our Tuskers responsibly and listen to the Kenyan remixed music. The next day was beach day. We went south of Mombasa to a place called Forty Thieves Bar, Grill & Beach on Diani Beach. It was the best day I’ve had in Kenya in a long time. The beach was a perfect white and there was not a cloud in the sky. Paige and I rode camels down the beach, Dan, Kyle and I had bro talk while playing Frisbee and we relaxed in the water. If there is one criticism I have of the beach in Mombasa, it is that the water is like bath water. The Indian Ocean on the Kenyan border gets the sun head on causing it to be very warm. When I first did my Baywatch run and dive into the water, I was expecting a great deal of relief from the hot sun. Nope. Not even refreshing. It was definitely colder than the outside air though. What a great day it was. That night we went back to the hotel, showered and then went to eat. After that, we retired to our rooms and went to sleep. Paige found a tree house hotel near Forty Thieves that we are going to stay at for a few days after the program. Beaches, tree houses and tropical weather? I’m excited.
Tear Gas
After another three week break from blogging, I’m back again. Lots to talk about. I moved to Kisumu last Sunday but before I get to that, I’m going to back up a few weeks and talk about the end of Nairobi. As in the past, the weekdays have been like any other weekdays at school so unless you want to hear about subjects like the effect of negative ethnic politics on development or the strengths and weaknesses of the new 2010 Constitution, I will move straight to the weekends. Three weekends ago, the last weekend in Feb, I went to a Kenya Premier League soccer game with my Kiswahili teacher, Emmanuel. Gor Mahia is the most popular team in Kenya so we decided to go to that game. Gor is a really good team but is known for its rowdy fans. Last year, seven fans were killed during a clash with another team’s fans. Unlike most clashes in Kenya that result in death, this was regular citizen A killing regular citizen B. Not Policeman A gunning down citizen A as he was running away. Anyways, as we got to the stadium, I was getting really excited: it was opening day. After a long offseason, it was a new year for the KPL and Gor. The mood outside the stadium was electric. Gor wears a green and white jersey and since the opposition team was new and therefore had not but a single fan there, the line to the gate was a sea of green. I decided to wear my Kenya national jersey because I figured that would be a neutral jersey incase all hell was to break loose. This thought came to me before I knew that the other team, Posta Rangers, would not have a single fan. Walk around the stadium, I was called some rather colorful names, in English, Kiswahili and shang (Swahili slang). Emmanuel and my host brothers Keith and Carrey translated as fast as they could. Some of the nicer comments were “You wazungu… you do realize that Kenya is not playing, right?” and just a plain old “$*&# you”. Again, those were the nice comments. After we successfully bribed the ticket agent for tickets, we got in line to go in the stadium. As we were waiting in line, a police truck rolled up and out came the po po. Instead of police hats, they wore full helmets complete with a visor/shield. Instead of handcuffs, they each were packing four canisters of tear gas. Instead of a gun, they carried a reinforced night stick. As I found out later, they are not allowed to carry guns for the same reason prison guards can’t carry guns. They are afraid they will be over powered and the fans will now have a gun. This was another reminder of exactly where I was. TIA. Once we got into the stadium, we saw a huge group of people going nuts on one side of the field while they were singing the Gor anthem. Emmanuel asked me where I wanted to sit and I pointed to the mob. He clearly answered “Hapana”. That means no. He said this is where a bunch of drunks and thungs hung out and that it was a serious security concern to sit there. Especially for me to sit there. He pointed to the opposite side of the stadium where about a hundred fans were sitting and we went to sit there. I think I’ve drawn out this story long enough so I’ll get to the good part. Gor, who was a heavy favorite, found themselves down 3-0 in the 79th minute. After the third goal was scored, I said to Keith, “Better get the riot police ready”. As a joke of course. A few minutes later, the game was stopped for no apparent reason. We were all looking around looking for an explanation. In a few minutes we found out that fans were throwing things, bottles, shards of glass and rocks, at the linesman. He had missed an offsides call in their point of view so they retaliated. After a brief meeting of referees and linesmen in the middle of the field, they decided to keep the game going. But two minutes later it was stopped again. He was getting pummeled with bottles again. All of the players walked off the field this time. Fans from the rowdy side started throwing whatever they could onto the field and were coming down from the stands to the barbed wire fence that surrounds the field. The game was then officially called by the referees but the fun was only just beginning. A group of fans were shaking the gate to the field to try to get in. There was a huge chain locking the gate and the task looked formidable. From the other side of the field where we were sitting, I asked Keith if he thought they would get in and he said “They always do”. People were starting to run out of the stadium but Emmanuel told us to stay put because he didn’t want us to get caught in a stampede. Good choice. I said I also wanted to stay for the inevitable tear gas that would come if they got on the field. Again, I said this as a joke. After a full five minutes of attempting to break down the gate, they succeeded. The fans came pouring on to the field like they had just won the NCAA tournament. Most started grabbing the advertisement banners that surrounded the field and then threw them into the middle of the field. Enter the security forces. About twenty full SWAT geared po po started a march on the field. In a fourth of July spectacle, the tear gas started flying. In the movies, tear gas is thrown on the ground and then the gas starts to slowly come out. Not in Kenya. They explode like a firework. The fans started throwing them back at the security forces which made for quite the spectacle. About five or six canisters went off in total. The tear gas started spreading in the stadium and it was headed right for us. We stared running away but we did not succeed. It hit all of us full force. It stung pretty badly for about five to ten minutes. As the fans started to run away, we made our way down to leave as the situation appeared under control. When we got back to the house, my host Mom said this was business as usual for the KPL. This is another reminder of how far this country has to go. I could have told this story in about three sentences but I wanted to tell it all for my benefit. It will be a good story to look back on in the years to come.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
US Embassy Tour - A Brief Visit to the Homeland
About a month ago I put in an inquiry to USAID (United States Agency for International Development) about getting a tour for our group. Since our program is all about international development, I thought it would be cool to see where our tax money goes to help develop other countries. USAID is the largest foreign donor to Kenya. To give you an idea of what USAID does for Kenya, 99% of HIV/AIDS patients on ARV’s (Anti-Retro Virals) receive their medicine from USAID. While the sustainability of the program is in question, there is no question that USAID saves countless lives in Kenya. Anyways, a few weeks ago I got an email back from someone with an @usaid.gov email address with the greeting “Greetings Fellow MSIDer”. Come to find out, a grad student who did MSID-Kenya a few years ago never left Kenya and has been working at USAID since then. After chatting back and forth for a while, we decided that we would have her come and talk to us during class. She came on Monday to talk to us for about an hour and a half. Very interesting stuff and it’s a topic that I have become interested in. She was also able to get us in for a tour of the US Embassy in Nairobi today. After a lengthy process of clearing security, we were able to get into the compound and get a tour of the building. We didn’t get to go into any of the “this is where the good stuff goes down” places because they all require a certain security clearance but it was still really cool to see the building. We could definitely tell that we were back on US territory because everything was spotless and clean. The smell of Pine sol was very welcoming. While we were on the tour we saw a blind man navigating his way through one of the hallways. The lady giving us the tour guide stopped and said hello to him but quickly moved us down the hall to show us a picture. The US Embassy in Kenya was bombed in 1998. Hundreds of people died including around 14 Americans and about 30 or so Kenyans working at the Embassy. That’s not including the vast amount of people outside the building. The picture we were standing in front of was a large group of Kenyans who were the Kenyan survivors of the attack. In the front row was a man with the same walking stick. This man had survived the blast but had been so close to the source of the explosion that he became blind. All these years later, he still works at the Embassy. Things have changed considerable at the Embassy since then. It’s a few miles away from downtown now and it is a “blast proof” building which makes it look like a jail. The experience of being at the Embassy was great. Not only was it nice to be back on US soil but it was nice to see the life of a Foreign Service Officer. This is a career that I have recently been kicking around in my head. If there is one knock on the MSID program it’s that it will make you question everything that you thought you wanted to do with your life. I kind of figured this would happen but as I’ve told my Mom and Dad, I didn’t think it would hit this quick or hard. A lot of us in this program are in the same boat. While it may be frustrating it’s like starting a new journey. Who knows where it will take me. In other news, Carrey is leaving in a few hours to go to school near Kisumu. He’ll be a Freshman!!! They are actually called Form 1’s. Since he delayed for a few weeks going to school so that he could get into a better school (I’ll explain the education system here in another post) he will be coming back for midterm breaks in a week so it won’t be too bad. Time in Nairobi is winding down. I leave two weeks from Sunday for Kisumu. It’s gonna be a hot one.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Mom, I went to Church
Let’s talk about the Sunday’s. I left them out of the previous entry for a specific reason. Mom: with the exception of last weekend because I was traveling, I have been to church every Sunday. The first church I went to is called Winners Chapel. The rest of the fam had gone to their respective churches early which left me and Carrey to go by ourselves. What an experience. This church has a main sanctuary of around a thousand seats, possibly more, and then overflow seating that can take in 2000 outside in these huge tents. The service was a little over two hours long and a lot of it had to do with witchcraft. About 75 percent of Kenyans believe in witchcraft. They are the agents of the devil. People gave testimonies during the service in which they praised God for killing a witch in their village back home. Everyone erupts in applause. The sermon was very passionate. I’m not a hundred percent sure what it was about, but he was yelling a lot. Inside the tent was a flat screen TV with speakers. Kenyans love loud music and loud sermons apparently. It was so loud that I couldn’t make sense of what he was saying because the speakers were distorting so badly. Very interesting service though. I was definitely the only white person there so I got a lot of looks. That always adds to the experience.
The next church I went to was Carrey’s Dad’s church. It is a Nigerian Church in the Hilton hotel downtown Nairobi. What made this experience so interesting was that the pastor had come over the night before with his wife for a private prayer sessions. I went downstairs to sit in for about 45 minutes and I was happy I did. The way they pray is unlike anything I’ve seen. Everyone is standing, even if it was just five of us. Everyone sways back and forth, and everyone is very passionate about what they are praying for. The final prayer took about ten minutes. The rest was just question and answer time about things that were going on in their lives and what God meant by each thing that had happened. So the next day I went to the church. There was a small half hour bible study before the service and since the pastors wife knew me, she made me, Carrey and his Dad sit in the front row. As if I didn’t already stick out enough in a crowd of a few hundred Kenyans, the one white guy (me) was in the front row. Throughout the whole service, 4 hours in total… yes 4 hours, people would randomly come up and take pictures of me. Very awkward. This service was a special one because they had a guest preacher. This lady had some fire. She preached on and on about how men weren’t living up to their roles and how women need to find stronger men. She stepped down from the pulpit after about five minutes and spent the last hour and a half pacing back and forth about two feet in front of me. I was the only white guy there, in the front row and arms length away from a prominent female evangelist preaching about how men are the cause of the problems in Kenyan families, all the while people are coming up to take pictures of me. For 4 hours!!! After a short reception for visitors, I was happy to go home.
Going to Laura’s church two weeks ago was quite a treat. This church is called Mavuno and it would definitely be the church that I would go to if I lived here permanently. They are known for being very contemporary and for being focused on today’s issues. This service was all about what you need to do to accomplish God’s work. If you don’t have any money, there are serious limits to what you can accomplish. This was all about saving money and how to be responsible. The underlying point was the money is not evil but the love of money is what’s evil. If you say you want to do God’s work, be serious and build some wealth so that you can do great things. One of the men in the congregation was a CFO of a Nairobi based consulting agency. He came up and talked for about twenty minutes about how to save and the downfalls that Kenyans have fallen into. The pastor actually said, “Let’s be serious… Kenyans are awful at saving money as are African Americans in the United States. Let’s change that right here, right now.” The music was great, as was the music at all of the other churches I went to, and so was the message. People actually walked away uplifted and had a plan for how they were going to do the best work they could. I’m going back there this Sunday with the rest of the fam.
The next church I went to was Carrey’s Dad’s church. It is a Nigerian Church in the Hilton hotel downtown Nairobi. What made this experience so interesting was that the pastor had come over the night before with his wife for a private prayer sessions. I went downstairs to sit in for about 45 minutes and I was happy I did. The way they pray is unlike anything I’ve seen. Everyone is standing, even if it was just five of us. Everyone sways back and forth, and everyone is very passionate about what they are praying for. The final prayer took about ten minutes. The rest was just question and answer time about things that were going on in their lives and what God meant by each thing that had happened. So the next day I went to the church. There was a small half hour bible study before the service and since the pastors wife knew me, she made me, Carrey and his Dad sit in the front row. As if I didn’t already stick out enough in a crowd of a few hundred Kenyans, the one white guy (me) was in the front row. Throughout the whole service, 4 hours in total… yes 4 hours, people would randomly come up and take pictures of me. Very awkward. This service was a special one because they had a guest preacher. This lady had some fire. She preached on and on about how men weren’t living up to their roles and how women need to find stronger men. She stepped down from the pulpit after about five minutes and spent the last hour and a half pacing back and forth about two feet in front of me. I was the only white guy there, in the front row and arms length away from a prominent female evangelist preaching about how men are the cause of the problems in Kenyan families, all the while people are coming up to take pictures of me. For 4 hours!!! After a short reception for visitors, I was happy to go home.
Going to Laura’s church two weeks ago was quite a treat. This church is called Mavuno and it would definitely be the church that I would go to if I lived here permanently. They are known for being very contemporary and for being focused on today’s issues. This service was all about what you need to do to accomplish God’s work. If you don’t have any money, there are serious limits to what you can accomplish. This was all about saving money and how to be responsible. The underlying point was the money is not evil but the love of money is what’s evil. If you say you want to do God’s work, be serious and build some wealth so that you can do great things. One of the men in the congregation was a CFO of a Nairobi based consulting agency. He came up and talked for about twenty minutes about how to save and the downfalls that Kenyans have fallen into. The pastor actually said, “Let’s be serious… Kenyans are awful at saving money as are African Americans in the United States. Let’s change that right here, right now.” The music was great, as was the music at all of the other churches I went to, and so was the message. People actually walked away uplifted and had a plan for how they were going to do the best work they could. I’m going back there this Sunday with the rest of the fam.
I'm Back/The Weekends So Far
I’m back. It’s been a while since I’ve posted. Not only have I been busy with school work but I also have to keep journals for two of my classes which entail a lot of writing. Actual pen to paper so I can’t just copy and paste it into my blog. I’ve also been lazy. At the end of the night if there is a choice between writing stuff down or playing FIFA with my bros, FIFA always wins. My friend Dad and I talked about this exact subject just the other day. We were talking about taking pictures while out and about. In an amazing place like Kenya, it is easy to view a majority of the landscapes through your camera viewfinder if you are not careful. Some of the scenery is so amazing that you feel the need to take pictures of everything all the time. Sometimes you just need to take it in. This is how I’ve felt with writing things down. School has been crazy so I’ve just let the blogging go until now. With that said, I have a lot to say. The weekdays have been just like any other weekdays at school. Lots of work to do. We have school till around 3:30 then I usually go to this Egyptian restaurant around the corner for a cold soda and free wifi or to a Starbucks like café called Java. If I don’t go to either of those places, I go home for a much needed nap or to get some work done. The weeks fly by quickly. The weekends have been quite entertaining and exciting. So far we have had 4 weekends.
The first weekend we were very eager to get out and see Nairobi. Friday night was our first night out on the town. I went out with a bunch of the other kids from MSID and with my host sister Laura. We went to a nice place called Sailors. We had a few beers, hit the dance floor and lost about 20 pounds through sweat. Kenya does not believe in air conditioning or windows. Even in night clubs. It was a very successful night; no incidents whatsoever. Saturday morning we got up early to go to the Nairobi Giraffe Center which is not in Nairobi. The Giraffe Center is about a half hour outside of Nairobi and is a breeding ground for Giraffes. Giraffes are sent around the world from this place and it was really neat to get face to face, literally, with the giraffes.
The next weekend was quite different. Being that Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday and half of the MSID kids are huge Packers fans, we were able to talk Dr. Jama into giving us Monday off of school as the game was starting around 2:30 AM. Friday, myself and a few of my friends went to Carrey’s friends moms pool at her office complex. It was a hot day and it was nice to cool off in a freezing pool. Saturday we woke up pretty early to head downtown Nairobi to do the touristy activities. We went to the Nairobi Library, the Nairobi National Archives and the Kenyatta International Conference Center to see the Nairobi skyline. The Library and Archives were pretty cool but the Conference Center was the best by far. For a small fee of Ksh 300 (about Ksh 80 to 1 USD) we were able to get on top of the building, a skyscraper, to view the city from the helicopter landing deck. Very cool. Sunday night/Monday morning, we went to our favorite Egyptian restaurant to watch the Super Bowl. The owner, Isaac, was kind enough to host a private party for us in the early morning hours. I was fairly disinterested because I have a strong distaste for the packers and I’m not a huge fan of Big Ben. It was a fun environment and it was very TIA.
Two weekends ago we went to Simon’s family’s resort. It’s in a town called Ngong about an hour outside of Nairobi. Quickly google rift valley Kenya so that my description makes sense. The Rift Valley is basically a giant chuck of land that fell a few hundred feed leaving what looks like a tear in the earth from Northern Kenya all the way down to Southern Kenya. This resort is not what you would think of as a resort but it’s more like a permanent camp side along the edge of rift valley. Good hiking, great views and even better food courtesy of Simon’s wife. At night we had a raging TIA party around a campfire next to a huge rock wall. Very cool. It was nice to relax with some friends and enjoy the scenery. Saturday we went home and I stuck around with the fam to play some games and have some quality bro time. I’m getting very good at FIFA.
Last weekend was the most eventful weekend by far. Many of us MSIDer’s decided that we wanted to go to Hell’s Gate National Park. While it sounds intimidating, it’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. It actually gets its name because the Brits were so scared of entering that territory because of the feared Maasai warriors in the early twentieth century. A small group left on Friday after class but most stayed home Friday night to get up early Saturday morning. We left for downtown Nairobi to catch a matatu to Naivasha town at around 7am. We had a delightfully uneventful journey to Naivasha (a little over an hour) and then we caught another matatu to Hells Gate from there. We arrived at the park just before 10AM and the day went from there. We were able to leave our gear at the front gate which was very helpful, and then we left on our rented bikes to explore the wonders of Hells Gate. We biked around for a little bit, stopping occasionally to do some climbing and then finally made our way to the end of the park where the gorge is. FYI the movie The Lion King was based off of Hells Gate national park. We took a 3 hour tour of the gorge to find Pride Rock and to see where the stampede was that killed Mufasa. We found about 10 pride rocks and exactly where the stampede was but that’s neither here nor there. The gorge was amazing. Very sketchy at some points but a lot of fun. Check out the pictures I have up on facebook because trying to explain it would be very hard. What the pictures don’t show is the “tragedy” that occurred as a result of a man named Dan and his obsession with a Spider. Over halfway through the tour, Dan found a funny looking spider on our way back. He kept trying to take pictures of it but the spider would dance away at the last second. After over five minutes of trying to take a picture, Hannah and I were yelling at Dan to give up because the three other people in our group and the tour guide named George (yes George is a Gorge tour guide). Dan finally succeeded but by the time we ran ahead, they were nowhere to be found and there was a fork in the road. Long story short, we guessed wrong. About fifteen minutes later, at the exact moment we realized we were lost, a thunderstorm rolled through. Let me remind you that we were in a gorge, which is essentially a temporary dry river. When it rains, the gorge floods. And because we were in a gorge, I did not have cell phone reception. We decided that we needed to get to high ground so Dan, who was wearing my beloved Titleist Safari at the time, climbed a 60 degree slope to find a way out. After an unsuccessful bid, he slid down the hill. About a minute later, I realized my hat was gone. He went back to look for it but I told him it wasn’t worth it so he came back. It was getting to be a serious situation. We stood around for a minute or so thinking of what to do and which direction to head. We took the closest path that went up and a few minutes later we found the rest of the group, with the exception of George. Apparently when they realized we were lost, George went to go find us. Dan and I went back down this path to find him. About five minutes later we were all reunited. Great story but my hat is gone. Very sad. We made our way back to the gate about a half hour later in the pouring rain for most of it. Getting to camp never felt so good. As soon as we got back, we set up camp and made some hot dogs over the fire. Again, check out facebook for pictures of the camp. It was right on the edge of a cliff. We saw a b-e-a-utiful sunset followed by an impressive moon rise. I had a bad headache by the night time so I did not partake in the alcoholic festivities but everyone enjoyed themselves fully. The next morning we hung around the campsite for a few hours while the rest went rock climbing. We were lucky enough to get a ride back to the front gate from a Swedish family and a couple of Canadian guys. It was a much longer matatu ride home but we didn’t complain because it was nice to finally sit down. A great weekend indeed.
The first weekend we were very eager to get out and see Nairobi. Friday night was our first night out on the town. I went out with a bunch of the other kids from MSID and with my host sister Laura. We went to a nice place called Sailors. We had a few beers, hit the dance floor and lost about 20 pounds through sweat. Kenya does not believe in air conditioning or windows. Even in night clubs. It was a very successful night; no incidents whatsoever. Saturday morning we got up early to go to the Nairobi Giraffe Center which is not in Nairobi. The Giraffe Center is about a half hour outside of Nairobi and is a breeding ground for Giraffes. Giraffes are sent around the world from this place and it was really neat to get face to face, literally, with the giraffes.
The next weekend was quite different. Being that Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday and half of the MSID kids are huge Packers fans, we were able to talk Dr. Jama into giving us Monday off of school as the game was starting around 2:30 AM. Friday, myself and a few of my friends went to Carrey’s friends moms pool at her office complex. It was a hot day and it was nice to cool off in a freezing pool. Saturday we woke up pretty early to head downtown Nairobi to do the touristy activities. We went to the Nairobi Library, the Nairobi National Archives and the Kenyatta International Conference Center to see the Nairobi skyline. The Library and Archives were pretty cool but the Conference Center was the best by far. For a small fee of Ksh 300 (about Ksh 80 to 1 USD) we were able to get on top of the building, a skyscraper, to view the city from the helicopter landing deck. Very cool. Sunday night/Monday morning, we went to our favorite Egyptian restaurant to watch the Super Bowl. The owner, Isaac, was kind enough to host a private party for us in the early morning hours. I was fairly disinterested because I have a strong distaste for the packers and I’m not a huge fan of Big Ben. It was a fun environment and it was very TIA.
Two weekends ago we went to Simon’s family’s resort. It’s in a town called Ngong about an hour outside of Nairobi. Quickly google rift valley Kenya so that my description makes sense. The Rift Valley is basically a giant chuck of land that fell a few hundred feed leaving what looks like a tear in the earth from Northern Kenya all the way down to Southern Kenya. This resort is not what you would think of as a resort but it’s more like a permanent camp side along the edge of rift valley. Good hiking, great views and even better food courtesy of Simon’s wife. At night we had a raging TIA party around a campfire next to a huge rock wall. Very cool. It was nice to relax with some friends and enjoy the scenery. Saturday we went home and I stuck around with the fam to play some games and have some quality bro time. I’m getting very good at FIFA.
Last weekend was the most eventful weekend by far. Many of us MSIDer’s decided that we wanted to go to Hell’s Gate National Park. While it sounds intimidating, it’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. It actually gets its name because the Brits were so scared of entering that territory because of the feared Maasai warriors in the early twentieth century. A small group left on Friday after class but most stayed home Friday night to get up early Saturday morning. We left for downtown Nairobi to catch a matatu to Naivasha town at around 7am. We had a delightfully uneventful journey to Naivasha (a little over an hour) and then we caught another matatu to Hells Gate from there. We arrived at the park just before 10AM and the day went from there. We were able to leave our gear at the front gate which was very helpful, and then we left on our rented bikes to explore the wonders of Hells Gate. We biked around for a little bit, stopping occasionally to do some climbing and then finally made our way to the end of the park where the gorge is. FYI the movie The Lion King was based off of Hells Gate national park. We took a 3 hour tour of the gorge to find Pride Rock and to see where the stampede was that killed Mufasa. We found about 10 pride rocks and exactly where the stampede was but that’s neither here nor there. The gorge was amazing. Very sketchy at some points but a lot of fun. Check out the pictures I have up on facebook because trying to explain it would be very hard. What the pictures don’t show is the “tragedy” that occurred as a result of a man named Dan and his obsession with a Spider. Over halfway through the tour, Dan found a funny looking spider on our way back. He kept trying to take pictures of it but the spider would dance away at the last second. After over five minutes of trying to take a picture, Hannah and I were yelling at Dan to give up because the three other people in our group and the tour guide named George (yes George is a Gorge tour guide). Dan finally succeeded but by the time we ran ahead, they were nowhere to be found and there was a fork in the road. Long story short, we guessed wrong. About fifteen minutes later, at the exact moment we realized we were lost, a thunderstorm rolled through. Let me remind you that we were in a gorge, which is essentially a temporary dry river. When it rains, the gorge floods. And because we were in a gorge, I did not have cell phone reception. We decided that we needed to get to high ground so Dan, who was wearing my beloved Titleist Safari at the time, climbed a 60 degree slope to find a way out. After an unsuccessful bid, he slid down the hill. About a minute later, I realized my hat was gone. He went back to look for it but I told him it wasn’t worth it so he came back. It was getting to be a serious situation. We stood around for a minute or so thinking of what to do and which direction to head. We took the closest path that went up and a few minutes later we found the rest of the group, with the exception of George. Apparently when they realized we were lost, George went to go find us. Dan and I went back down this path to find him. About five minutes later we were all reunited. Great story but my hat is gone. Very sad. We made our way back to the gate about a half hour later in the pouring rain for most of it. Getting to camp never felt so good. As soon as we got back, we set up camp and made some hot dogs over the fire. Again, check out facebook for pictures of the camp. It was right on the edge of a cliff. We saw a b-e-a-utiful sunset followed by an impressive moon rise. I had a bad headache by the night time so I did not partake in the alcoholic festivities but everyone enjoyed themselves fully. The next morning we hung around the campsite for a few hours while the rest went rock climbing. We were lucky enough to get a ride back to the front gate from a Swedish family and a couple of Canadian guys. It was a much longer matatu ride home but we didn’t complain because it was nice to finally sit down. A great weekend indeed.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
From iPod to Kiva
TIA. This is Africa. I picked studying abroad in Africa; Kenya in particular, over more popular European and Australian destinations because I simply could not find a better place to carry out God’s work. I also really wanted to see the look on my Mom’s face when I told her that I was going to be living in Kenya for four months, but that’s beside the point. In all seriousness, what better place is there to do God’s work than on a continent that some believe He has abandoned all together? And after being here for three weeks, I have news for all the doubters out there: He has not left and Africa is alive. This beautiful and wondrous continent is alive with a passion for freedom, a desire for change and a hope to be finally released from their binding shackles. I also came to Kenya with my hopes of leaving my mark, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. And if there is one thing I have learned so far, it is that what I may see as insignificant can be life changing to a child on the streets of Nairobi or to a starving man in Kibera. Knowing this, all I needed was an idea to get my work done. I did not know that this idea would come in the form of an iPod tragedy. My iPod was stolen from my bed early the first morning we arrived in Nairobi. It was entirely my fault because I did not lock it away when I left the room. I was sad for a whole two days but then I was over it. As my Aunt told me, “Your iPod is replaceable; your experiences are not.” About two weeks later, I was contacted by my Dad who said that one of his friends had been reading my blog, learned of what happened to my iPod, and wanted to buy me a new iPod, fill it with music and send it to me in Kenya. What an incredible offer. I was so surprised and overjoyed when I read this email but I knew right away that I could not accept. Overall, it just wouldn’t feel right. Nairobi is home to the second largest slum in all of Africa: Kibera. Anywhere from 600,000 to 1,200,000 people reside on this government property. It is hell on earth. No running water, electricity or sewage system but filled with HIV/AIDS, crime and the most extreme poverty. When you have seen the true face of poverty, getting a new iPod just because I had my stolen just doesn’t feel right. I responded to my Dad’s friend with a counteroffer. I told him that I could not accept his offer but that I believed I had a suitable alternative: Kiva. If you have not heard of Kiva or do not know much about it, it is an organization that pools money from people like you and me all around the globe to loan it to business owners in need of new equipment, supplies or workspace. Loans start at just $25 and because it is a loan, you get your money back. Kiva works with lending partners on site to physically give out the loans. One of them is the Kenya Agency for Development of Enterprise and Technology (KADET), which is a partner of World Vision International. I will actually be interning for KADET during my last six weeks here in Kisumu, Kenya. I told my Dad’s friend that if he was still interested in supporting my “cause”, he could make a loan to a small business owner in Kenya through Kiva and KADET. I also told him that if he decided to make a loan through Kiva and KADET, I would make every effort to personally find this business owner. I can imagine that making a loan to someone halfway across the world can feel rather distant and out of touch so my promise was to track down the money and get a firsthand look at how generosity from the US is changing the face of poverty in Kenya. If I was going to make this offer to one person, I might as well pass it on to my community at home. The offer stands for all. To find a Kiva loan through Kadet visit http://www.kiva.org/lend. In the search box type in “kadet” and browse away. You can also find location specific loans by typing “Nairobi” or “Kisumu” into the search box. I will be in Nairobi through the middle of March and in Kisumu through around April 22nd, so if you choose to make a loan in either of those areas, please contact me at drew.a.collins@gmail.com to send all of the info. Thank you all and God Bless!
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Back to School
Life has begun here in Nairobi. Orientation was a blast and a semi vacation, but now that school has started, it’s back to the grind. A much easier grind than in Champaign that is, but a grind nevertheless. The weather here makes it much more bearable. The first Monday that we were back here in Nairobi (1/24/11), we were able to go downtown as a group and purchase cell phones, sim cards and internet modems. Being away from almost all forms of technology for a week was a really nice feeling. There was no urge to check my pocket to see if I had a text message or email on my phone. There was no checking facebook, CNN or twitter on my computer. It was a liberating feeling. But getting a Kenyan sim card and internet modem felt great. I was instantly reconnected to the world.
Classes started on Tuesday and I felt like I was in high school all over again. Six hours of class every day. Four hours of class a day in college is a lot so six is quite an adjustment. Our day is split up into three blocks of two hour classes. We have a morning block from 8:30–10:30, a tea break from 10:30-10:45, the mid morning block is from 10:45-12:45, lunch from 12:45-1:30 and then the afternoon block from 1:30-3:30. We are all taking the same four classes here taught by our faculty and faculty from the University of Nairobi and Kenyatta University. One of the classes we are taking is called Country Analysis. This class is taught by the most animated professor I’ve ever had. His name is Fred. He is a professor at the University of Nairobi and he is very passionate about his teaching. This class is designed to teach us about the history of Kenya, going back to pre colonial times all the way up to how Kenya fits into the global scene right now. It has been a very interesting class because we have been able to learn why things are the way they are today. Virtually everything is traced back to British Colonialism. Everything from political parties, economic conditions and corruption can be traced back to the way Kenya was colonized. Another class we are taking is International Development. This is the reason we are here. ID is taught by MSID-Kenya Program Director Dr. Jama. Dr. Jama is a native Kenyan who earned his Ph. D. at Washington State University. In addition to running MSID-Kenya and teaching one of our courses and teaching at the University of Nairobi, he also heads an Institute on International Development here in Nairobi. This class is about what development is, how it is achieved and how can development be improved. A lot of Kenya’s development comes from foreign investors and it’s quite interesting learning about the differences between US aid money and aid money from other countries like China. US aid money comes with strings attached. This concept is called conditionality. The US will say that they will give X amount of money to Kenya if they vow to fight and reduce corruption. Other European countries will give money on the condition that human rights violations are reduced. There are an endless amount of conditions that you can attach to your aid. China on the other hand, could not care less. They give money on no conditions which has allowed them to flourish in Africa. As you can imagine African leaders love free money with no strings attached. In this sense, there is a free lunch. China is just hoping that your free lunch will actually end up benefiting them in the future. I am very excited for the rest of this class. Our third and last major class is Swahili. We are split up into three levels; beginner, intermediate and advance. There are 18 of us in beginner and we are split up into three smaller classes of six people and a teacher. Having not taken a language since junior year in high school, it’s been a challenge getting that part of my brain working again. That’s all I have to say about Swahili. Our last class is only about once a week. This is our Track course which relates to our internships. There is an environmental track, a public health track, a social services track and a micro business track. I am in the micro business track and the class consists of me, our teacher George, and another one of my classmates. I’ve only had this class once and all we did is talk about political and domestic issues. Later on we will be going out into Nairobi and interviewing micro business owners about their experiences. I am really looking forward to this class as well.
How do I get to class you ask? It’s a good 30 minute walk alleys, gardens and sidewalks. No, I am not kidding about the gardens. All 24 of us are located in clusters of four or five so they all get to walk together to class. In Kilimani, the estate/city ward I live in, it is just me and my friend Paige. Her house is about ten minutes from mine so she picks me up every morning on the way to class. The first day was pretty funny because Carrey, a 15 year old, walked me to class. It’s really not a bad walk at all. It takes some people almost an hour so I feel pretty lucky. The morning is also one of the best times to be outside because the weather is absolutely perfect. We have the afternoon off tomorrow and it will be our first time going out on the town. Should be a good time!
Classes started on Tuesday and I felt like I was in high school all over again. Six hours of class every day. Four hours of class a day in college is a lot so six is quite an adjustment. Our day is split up into three blocks of two hour classes. We have a morning block from 8:30–10:30, a tea break from 10:30-10:45, the mid morning block is from 10:45-12:45, lunch from 12:45-1:30 and then the afternoon block from 1:30-3:30. We are all taking the same four classes here taught by our faculty and faculty from the University of Nairobi and Kenyatta University. One of the classes we are taking is called Country Analysis. This class is taught by the most animated professor I’ve ever had. His name is Fred. He is a professor at the University of Nairobi and he is very passionate about his teaching. This class is designed to teach us about the history of Kenya, going back to pre colonial times all the way up to how Kenya fits into the global scene right now. It has been a very interesting class because we have been able to learn why things are the way they are today. Virtually everything is traced back to British Colonialism. Everything from political parties, economic conditions and corruption can be traced back to the way Kenya was colonized. Another class we are taking is International Development. This is the reason we are here. ID is taught by MSID-Kenya Program Director Dr. Jama. Dr. Jama is a native Kenyan who earned his Ph. D. at Washington State University. In addition to running MSID-Kenya and teaching one of our courses and teaching at the University of Nairobi, he also heads an Institute on International Development here in Nairobi. This class is about what development is, how it is achieved and how can development be improved. A lot of Kenya’s development comes from foreign investors and it’s quite interesting learning about the differences between US aid money and aid money from other countries like China. US aid money comes with strings attached. This concept is called conditionality. The US will say that they will give X amount of money to Kenya if they vow to fight and reduce corruption. Other European countries will give money on the condition that human rights violations are reduced. There are an endless amount of conditions that you can attach to your aid. China on the other hand, could not care less. They give money on no conditions which has allowed them to flourish in Africa. As you can imagine African leaders love free money with no strings attached. In this sense, there is a free lunch. China is just hoping that your free lunch will actually end up benefiting them in the future. I am very excited for the rest of this class. Our third and last major class is Swahili. We are split up into three levels; beginner, intermediate and advance. There are 18 of us in beginner and we are split up into three smaller classes of six people and a teacher. Having not taken a language since junior year in high school, it’s been a challenge getting that part of my brain working again. That’s all I have to say about Swahili. Our last class is only about once a week. This is our Track course which relates to our internships. There is an environmental track, a public health track, a social services track and a micro business track. I am in the micro business track and the class consists of me, our teacher George, and another one of my classmates. I’ve only had this class once and all we did is talk about political and domestic issues. Later on we will be going out into Nairobi and interviewing micro business owners about their experiences. I am really looking forward to this class as well.
How do I get to class you ask? It’s a good 30 minute walk alleys, gardens and sidewalks. No, I am not kidding about the gardens. All 24 of us are located in clusters of four or five so they all get to walk together to class. In Kilimani, the estate/city ward I live in, it is just me and my friend Paige. Her house is about ten minutes from mine so she picks me up every morning on the way to class. The first day was pretty funny because Carrey, a 15 year old, walked me to class. It’s really not a bad walk at all. It takes some people almost an hour so I feel pretty lucky. The morning is also one of the best times to be outside because the weather is absolutely perfect. We have the afternoon off tomorrow and it will be our first time going out on the town. Should be a good time!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Egypt: A Kenyan Perspective
I realize I’m skipping ahead a whole week in my entries, but this Sunday has become more than just a regular Sunday. And have no worries, last week’s entries will be up soon. There’s no place I’d rather be to witness what’s happening in Egypt than in Kenya. In the United States, an issue in Egypt can seem so distant, but here in Kenya, the issue really hits home. While Cairo is very far away from Nairobi, about 2200 miles, the strong passion for democracy and freedom and the price it costs, rings in the heart and near memory of every Kenyan. Following the 2007 elections, Kenya broke out into deadly violence. The Kenyan government estimated that a little over a thousand people died but many believe the actual number is much higher. The outbreak of violence started when incumbent President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner over Opposition Leader Raila Odinga. Odinga’s people said that the election was rigged and violent clashes began on ethnic lines. Before I go any further, a brief history of Kenya is needed to fully understand what happened. Kenya is made up of over 42 tribes. When it was colonized by the British, they operated under the policy of “divide and rule”. Under “divide and rule” the British would keep all of the tribes separate so that they could not unite and coordinate a possible counterattack against the Brits. From the late 1800’s up until independence in 1963, this was the policy. This policy created heavy alignment along ethnic lines. Today, hardly anything has changed. Ask anyone on the street in Kenya over the age of 18 what they define themselves as first, their answer will almost always be their ethnic tribe first and then Kenyan second. Some of the main ethnic tribes in Kenya are the Kikuyu, the Luo, the Luhya and the Massai. Kibaki is Kikuyu and Odinga is Luo. Luo’s started killing Kikuyu and then the Kikuyu’s had numerous counter attacks. Over a thousand people were killed including two MP’s. If you think that US politics are bad when congress is always split on partisan lines, image an entire political system based on ethnic lines. It is this exact problem that is believed to have caused Obama’s dad to become an alcoholic. He was a doctoral student who could have possibly been chosen to run the Kenyan finance system but a Form 4 failure man was chosen instead because he was the same ethnic tribe as the then President. The recent post election violence was a result of the people being fed up with the system. A new constitution has since been past and reforms are on their way, but corruption still dominates the Kenyan political scene today. I spent a good part of the night talking to host Mum and Dad about the post election violence and how they understand what Egyptians are feeling right now. They are fed up with what has become the African system of government. Once someone gains power, they will do whatever they can to keep it. As Mum says, “There is something wrong with African people and power. They consider power an invitation to oppress and steal from the people for as long as they can.” One thing to keep in mind is that most African nations are new. I believe that many are quick to judge and dismiss Africa as one big problem that can’t be fixed. It has taken centuries for Western Nations, and in particular the United States, to get their countries running just ok. In 1826, then 49 years old like Kenya today, the United States was still an infant that had quite a bit of work to do. Yes Kenya and other African countries have had more tools at their disposal for developing quicker than the US did in 1776, but freedom has no time table and its costs can be limitless. Freedom is not free and many times, blood must be shed to underscore that point. What is happening in Egypt, Algeria, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan and other countries in the region is awesome. These people are finally fed up. Let’s hope they are finally released from their shackles and we can see what these people can really do.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Everyone Loves a Lazy Sunday
Kenya is more like the US than you would ever think. Sunday was spent just like any other Sunday at home. Although I was not allowed to go to church, because Mum said I needed to sleep, I sat around the whole day watching crappy movies (Step Up 3 and some other movie) and playing video games with Carrey as we decided that every Sunday was going to be spent this way. I also met Keith and Laura throughout the day. I cannot express how nice everyone is and how everyone will go out of their way to make sure that I am having a good time and am comfortable. Dinner in Kenya is always served very late; usually around 8 or 9. I spent most of dinner talking about life in the US, my first thoughts about Kenya and about what I wanted to do while I was here. After dinner, we watched the news, talked high politics and then I was off to watch the Bears Packers game at a local bar with a few of my classmates. The bar ended up not having the game so we all had to gather around a computer in a nearby cyber to watch the game. TIA. We got our first taste of Tuskers and despite the outcome, it was a great time. A great Sunday indeed.
Welcome to Nairobi
“Do something that scares you every day.” I believe this is a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt. Mom can verify. This quote has been hanging on my refrigerator at home for some time now and I had dismissed it of having any real value until today. If you want to truly meet yourself, move in with a Kenyan family. Throughout orientation, I had put the host family experience in the back of my mind. Whether it was to be in the moment at orientation or because I was subconsciously nervous, anxious and scared as all get out, I don't know. I think I’ll go with the latter though. We left around 7:30 to head back to Nairobi and we all started to become nervous/anxious/excited/and scared out of our minds the closer we got. To top off my anxiety, I found out on the way that my host Mom was going to be late because she was picking someone up at the airport and the airplane was delayed. But of course, we were about an hour and a half late so almost as soon as I got my stuff off the bus, Abdul grabbed me and told me that my Mum and Dad we waiting for me. It is now time for introductions. My family consists of:
Mabel – Works for a German engineering firm named Gauff
Daniel – Owns a real estate company
Laura – 23 and works for a cell phone company named Orange while waiting to graduate in July
Keith – 17 and is finishing Form 4 (senior year) in October
Carrey – 15 and will be going off to boarding school in a few weeks to start Form 1 (freshman year)
I met Daniel first who helped me load my stuff into their Subaru Outback and then I met Mabel when I got into the car. We exchanged quick hellos in the car but then we were off to the house. Between the honking of the horns, making colorful gestures at other cars and diving in and out of pot holes, there were a lot of questions being thrown at me about my family, school and everything in between. The house. We live in a townhouse complex at the south west end of the Dennis Pritt Road and Rose Ave intersection. For those of you fluent with google earth or google maps, I invite you to look it up. We live in a ward called Kilimani which is known for being one of the safest areas in all of Nairobi. This is because it is heavily inhabited by embassies and because of its close proximity to the State House (3 blocks away). The Royal Thai embassy is about 200 feet away and the Iranian embassy is just down the street along with the Somali High Commission. There are many more embassies around as well as headquarters for other organizations such as the Red Cross. Our compound is fully walled in with a large metal gate that is staffed by a security guard round the clock. Charles is my favorite guard although he always wears a Minnesota Twins hat. I’m going to change that soon. There are about 10 townhouses in our compound and ours is the second on the left: House #4. The house has a very traditional Kenyan layout. The first thing you notice is the very large living room/family room off to the left that has couches and chairs to fit about 15 people or so. There is a large dining room table as soon as you walk in and the kitchen is at the back end of the dining room. Everything is very colorful and alive with energy. There are traditional Kenyan paintings on the walls and an endless amount of greenery in the family room makes you feel like you have arrived in Kenya. The focal point of the room is of course, the big screen TV. Kenyans love their Spanish telenovelas and music channels. After taking in the sights of the house for a few minutes, I took my suitcase and bags up to my room. I had found out a few days ago that I would be sharing a room with Keith. I thought I might not like that at first, but I actually have loved it. There are four bedrooms upstairs and our room is about the size of my dorm room freshman year. Nothing to complain about at all. Mama Mabel came up to my room as I started unpacking and laid down the rules right away. She told me right away that I was her son and that I should tell her about anything that makes me feel uncomfortable or offends me right away. We are a family now so we should start acting like it right away. I met Carrey (who Keith and I later nicknamed Tinker Bell) and we spoke briefly but he disappeared shortly after. Once I finished unpacking and put away all of my stuff, Mum, Dad and I went out to the Grandparents house to meet a bunch of family. This was quite the experience. This house, which is fairly large, is home to the Grandma, a couple of Mum’s sisters and their kids. Before I sat down, I was offered food and drink of which I was forced to accept. After a quick bite to eat and a coke out of the bottle, I met Cousin Syd. He’s my age and is studying aerospace engineering at a college in Nairobi. As we talked for a while about music and stuff, I notice Mum and Dad slowly falling asleep on the couch. Then they were totally asleep. Syd told me that there was a huge party there the night before as a goodbye for one of the aunts who was going back to Atlanta in a few hours. As Mum and Dad took cat naps on the couch, Syd and I continued our conversation about music and other random stuff. Syd, actually DJ Syd, also moonlights as a DJ on the side. He is planning to throw us MSID kids a party in the future. Should be a good time. After a few hours of napping, Dad woke up and we decided to head across the street to watch the Man U and Arsenal game. Football is huge here. This bar across the street was a tin roofed hole in the wall that was lively as ever. It was a lot of fun to watch as the fans downed Tusker after Tusker and rooted on their team. After the game we went back to the house, ate dinner and then went home. It had been a long day so going to bed felt so good.
Mabel – Works for a German engineering firm named Gauff
Daniel – Owns a real estate company
Laura – 23 and works for a cell phone company named Orange while waiting to graduate in July
Keith – 17 and is finishing Form 4 (senior year) in October
Carrey – 15 and will be going off to boarding school in a few weeks to start Form 1 (freshman year)
I met Daniel first who helped me load my stuff into their Subaru Outback and then I met Mabel when I got into the car. We exchanged quick hellos in the car but then we were off to the house. Between the honking of the horns, making colorful gestures at other cars and diving in and out of pot holes, there were a lot of questions being thrown at me about my family, school and everything in between. The house. We live in a townhouse complex at the south west end of the Dennis Pritt Road and Rose Ave intersection. For those of you fluent with google earth or google maps, I invite you to look it up. We live in a ward called Kilimani which is known for being one of the safest areas in all of Nairobi. This is because it is heavily inhabited by embassies and because of its close proximity to the State House (3 blocks away). The Royal Thai embassy is about 200 feet away and the Iranian embassy is just down the street along with the Somali High Commission. There are many more embassies around as well as headquarters for other organizations such as the Red Cross. Our compound is fully walled in with a large metal gate that is staffed by a security guard round the clock. Charles is my favorite guard although he always wears a Minnesota Twins hat. I’m going to change that soon. There are about 10 townhouses in our compound and ours is the second on the left: House #4. The house has a very traditional Kenyan layout. The first thing you notice is the very large living room/family room off to the left that has couches and chairs to fit about 15 people or so. There is a large dining room table as soon as you walk in and the kitchen is at the back end of the dining room. Everything is very colorful and alive with energy. There are traditional Kenyan paintings on the walls and an endless amount of greenery in the family room makes you feel like you have arrived in Kenya. The focal point of the room is of course, the big screen TV. Kenyans love their Spanish telenovelas and music channels. After taking in the sights of the house for a few minutes, I took my suitcase and bags up to my room. I had found out a few days ago that I would be sharing a room with Keith. I thought I might not like that at first, but I actually have loved it. There are four bedrooms upstairs and our room is about the size of my dorm room freshman year. Nothing to complain about at all. Mama Mabel came up to my room as I started unpacking and laid down the rules right away. She told me right away that I was her son and that I should tell her about anything that makes me feel uncomfortable or offends me right away. We are a family now so we should start acting like it right away. I met Carrey (who Keith and I later nicknamed Tinker Bell) and we spoke briefly but he disappeared shortly after. Once I finished unpacking and put away all of my stuff, Mum, Dad and I went out to the Grandparents house to meet a bunch of family. This was quite the experience. This house, which is fairly large, is home to the Grandma, a couple of Mum’s sisters and their kids. Before I sat down, I was offered food and drink of which I was forced to accept. After a quick bite to eat and a coke out of the bottle, I met Cousin Syd. He’s my age and is studying aerospace engineering at a college in Nairobi. As we talked for a while about music and stuff, I notice Mum and Dad slowly falling asleep on the couch. Then they were totally asleep. Syd told me that there was a huge party there the night before as a goodbye for one of the aunts who was going back to Atlanta in a few hours. As Mum and Dad took cat naps on the couch, Syd and I continued our conversation about music and other random stuff. Syd, actually DJ Syd, also moonlights as a DJ on the side. He is planning to throw us MSID kids a party in the future. Should be a good time. After a few hours of napping, Dad woke up and we decided to head across the street to watch the Man U and Arsenal game. Football is huge here. This bar across the street was a tin roofed hole in the wall that was lively as ever. It was a lot of fun to watch as the fans downed Tusker after Tusker and rooted on their team. After the game we went back to the house, ate dinner and then went home. It had been a long day so going to bed felt so good.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Day Three and Four
Day Three and Four were much like Day Two of Orientation. We did mix up the morning sunset though each morning. On Day Three we did Yoga as the sun rose up over the giant Lake Nakuru National Park Hill. We did three sessions of orientation stuff with tea and snacks intertwined. Our second game drive ended up being awesome. We found three lions (simbas) on a fallen tree just off the path. Our bus got within ten feet of them which provided for some awesome pictures. We also got to go down to a “water fall” as Jane told us it would be. Unfortunately it is not the rainy season so there was no water flowing but because of that we were able to go under where the falls would be and explore the cave behind it. Day Fours sunrise was on top of a hill like mountain of which we could see the entire lake and all of the surrounding area. Again, I have great pictures and videos. Later on in Day Four, we were taught a real lesson. There are three different times in Kenya, all of which have specific characteristics. Before I list them there is a word and acronym of which you must become familiar with. The first is Mzungu. This is what Kenyans call white people. Everyone seems to have their own definition but from what I’ve gathered it means white explorer. This is traced back to early colonial times. It’s not derogatory and we are called this name all the time. The acronym T.I.A. is also very important. T.I.A. means “This Is Africa”. We say this all the time when something that would only happen in Africa happens. When you have to make sure that your doors are locked at all times, that the bus windows are closed and locked and that you leave no possessions out in the open for more than ten seconds for fears of baboons barging in your room, stealing your stuff or terrorizing the bus, it is appropriate to say T.I.A. Special Note: There are no baboons in Nairobi but staying five days inside an African national park provides special considerations. So, the three times are as follows:
Mzungu time: This is what all of us Americans view time as. It is appropriate to be a little early or on time but do not be too late or you will offend someone/lose your job.
Kenya time: If a dinner party starts at 6pm, expect people to be arriving from the hours of 8pm all the way to 11pm. No one is offended by this. It’s Kenya.
T.I.A. time: Who knows. There is no way to calculate how late this person will be. If you expect a bus to be there in less than 10 minutes (true story), expect it in 1 to 5 business days.
Now is a good time to talk about our bus. Kenyan buses are not driven like our run of the mill bluebird buses. They are driven like a combination of an ATV and an M1 tank. There is no pot hole, steep climb, tight passage, or dirt road that it will not take on. The ride is not like a roller coaster, it is a roller coaster. Hold on to your stuff because it will go flying in the next five minutes. Three people have also suffered minor cuts and bumps. This poses certain problems though with durability. As we were climbing the hill to see the sunset in the morning, the bus died four times. Luckily we were able to get all the way up but it was an adventure on the way down because there was no stopping, just free flying. We knew that this day we were going to go visit the Ogyeck (sp?) tribe in very rural Kenya. They are a tribe of hunters and gatherers who live in the forest that have survived despite the government’s efforts to force them out. Anyways, the bus was found to have a problem with the fuel pump. We were told that we weren’t going to be able to go but then a few minutes later we found out that we were going to try to make it into town on the bus so that we could shop around while the bus got fixed. About an hour later we were told the bus would not be fixed in time so we were trying to get another bus from our hostel to come pick us up. It was supposed to be on its way. Fast forward three hours. The bus finally gets there. Fast forward a half hour. We are on the side of the road about ten minutes away from where we are picked up. Another breakdown? No. The new bus driver didn’t know where we were going, a very rural place that no car should even attempt to travel, and he said the new bus would not make it there. But we also found out that the old bus would be done soon. We only waited for the old bus for about ten minutes which was nice but we did finally make it out to see the Ogyeck many many hours late. Jane even said that was not Kenya time, it was T.I.A. time. Ten minutes turned into hours. It was really interesting to see the Ogyeck. The government is on a mission to assimilate them into modern Kenya society so that the forest can be logged or so that the land can be used for farming or other development. They have resisted and are standing strong despite being forced to live by means outside their comfort zone. Recently they have had to start learning to farm. Being hunters and gatherers, nothing was ever needed to be grown. They are slowly learning and are managing to get by. It was our last night at Lake Nakuru so we had a camp fire, sang songs (we do that a lot) and had some bro pillow talk at night. Lake Nakuru was such a great experience but it was sad knowing that I wasn’t going to be seeing the people in my group every day. Tomorrow we meet our families.
Mzungu time: This is what all of us Americans view time as. It is appropriate to be a little early or on time but do not be too late or you will offend someone/lose your job.
Kenya time: If a dinner party starts at 6pm, expect people to be arriving from the hours of 8pm all the way to 11pm. No one is offended by this. It’s Kenya.
T.I.A. time: Who knows. There is no way to calculate how late this person will be. If you expect a bus to be there in less than 10 minutes (true story), expect it in 1 to 5 business days.
Now is a good time to talk about our bus. Kenyan buses are not driven like our run of the mill bluebird buses. They are driven like a combination of an ATV and an M1 tank. There is no pot hole, steep climb, tight passage, or dirt road that it will not take on. The ride is not like a roller coaster, it is a roller coaster. Hold on to your stuff because it will go flying in the next five minutes. Three people have also suffered minor cuts and bumps. This poses certain problems though with durability. As we were climbing the hill to see the sunset in the morning, the bus died four times. Luckily we were able to get all the way up but it was an adventure on the way down because there was no stopping, just free flying. We knew that this day we were going to go visit the Ogyeck (sp?) tribe in very rural Kenya. They are a tribe of hunters and gatherers who live in the forest that have survived despite the government’s efforts to force them out. Anyways, the bus was found to have a problem with the fuel pump. We were told that we weren’t going to be able to go but then a few minutes later we found out that we were going to try to make it into town on the bus so that we could shop around while the bus got fixed. About an hour later we were told the bus would not be fixed in time so we were trying to get another bus from our hostel to come pick us up. It was supposed to be on its way. Fast forward three hours. The bus finally gets there. Fast forward a half hour. We are on the side of the road about ten minutes away from where we are picked up. Another breakdown? No. The new bus driver didn’t know where we were going, a very rural place that no car should even attempt to travel, and he said the new bus would not make it there. But we also found out that the old bus would be done soon. We only waited for the old bus for about ten minutes which was nice but we did finally make it out to see the Ogyeck many many hours late. Jane even said that was not Kenya time, it was T.I.A. time. Ten minutes turned into hours. It was really interesting to see the Ogyeck. The government is on a mission to assimilate them into modern Kenya society so that the forest can be logged or so that the land can be used for farming or other development. They have resisted and are standing strong despite being forced to live by means outside their comfort zone. Recently they have had to start learning to farm. Being hunters and gatherers, nothing was ever needed to be grown. They are slowly learning and are managing to get by. It was our last night at Lake Nakuru so we had a camp fire, sang songs (we do that a lot) and had some bro pillow talk at night. Lake Nakuru was such a great experience but it was sad knowing that I wasn’t going to be seeing the people in my group every day. Tomorrow we meet our families.
Day Two
All of us guys (seven of us) decided that we wanted to wake up early enough to see our first African sunrise. We got outside at about 6:15 A.M. and watched the sun come up for almost an hour. The sunrise lived up to and passed all of the hype about African sunrises as you will see by my pictures. When we first got out there, there was a layer of mist/haze over the fields and all you could see was the silhouettes of the water buffalo. It was an amazing scene. It took over a half an hour until the sun was visible but with every minute that passed, new colors, or shall I say colours, appeared in the sky. We even saw a rhino while we were out there. One of the guys, Dan, apparently pissed off the rhino because he started making a fuss. Rhinos have a very interesting and distinct noise. Videos will show. The rest of the day was spent doing orientation activities, playing more soccer and Frisbee and of course, drinking tea.
Day One
We had to wake up pretty early on the first day because we had to go the Immigration office to register for a bunch of stuff. Before we left, myself and a few other people went out to watch the baboons play in the trees and to walk some of the trails on this hostel compound. It was pretty neat but not worth its costs. When I came back to my room, my iPod and headphones (not my good ones) were gone. I assumed that I had already packed them away somewhere else but that wasn’t the case. I went back to check again but again, it was nowhere to be found. I found out later that one of our program staffers went to check through everyone’s bed for lost belongings. She didn’t find it either so the iPod was either stolen or for some reason I can’t find it in my bags. Jane called the hostel after I told her about it and of course, they said they hadn’t found anything. Yeah it definitely sucks to lose my iPod but it was my fault entirely for not locking it away and I can also use my phone as an mp3 player. Mostly it was just a rude awakening to where I was. After we finished up at the Kenyan Immigration office, which took many hours, we got some lunch and made our way to Nakuru National park. It was a three hour journey with a pit stop at a good viewing point of rift valley. Rift valley is a very large area of Kenya where the land literally dropped off. We stopped off the highway for about fifteen minutes to take pictures and to get swarmed by vendors. It was a fantastic view. It reminded me a lot of being in the mountains in Ecuador. I took some really good pictures/videos. By the way, I’m taking a lot more videos than pictures. So be prepared for a lot of videos during story time. We arrived at Nakuru National Park at around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. We had to wait at the front gate for about 45 minutes while everything was getting settled but we were highly entertained. Once we pulled into the parking lot there were baboons everywhere. And I mean everywhere. We got off the bus to watch them play and fight which made for some great video material. After about 20 minutes or so someone started screaming “Baboon!!!”. I looked over and I saw that a baboon had taken someones water bottle and ran up a tree. It was yellow Nalgeen bottle. We watched for about five minutes while the baboon tried to take the top off. Baboons are very good with push this or pull that but twisting is not their forte. He/she baboon was able to rip off the piece of plastic that connects the top to the bottle but gave up after a while. The water bottle was sterilized, filled and reused within the hour. After all was settled with the park office, we made our way into the park where our hostel was. During the early 1900’s Nakuru National park was owned by a british farmer. He built a big house for himself and his family which is currently called the Guest House and a house/barn for the workers. This house was turned into the hostel for the Kenya Wildlife Club. There is a big room with 8 bunkbeds for the guys and two other rooms for the girls. It is completely fenced in, although the baboons don’t care, with an area of about three or four acres. This is a small fenced in area in the middle of a national park. Very rare and very awesome. Just outside the fences are countless water buffalo, zebras, impalas (small antelope looking animals of which the Chevy Impala was named after) the occasional rhino, and of course more baboons than you can count. The baboons are a part of the compound and you have to be very careful with locking doors and windows. When we are in our group activities they are usually less than fifteen feet away fighting and yelling. We had some tea when we got there, played some soccer and Frisbee and then ate dinner. After dinner we had our first orientation activity where the compound director talked to use about Nakuru National Park and about the Kenya Wildlife Clubs. A group of us stayed up for a few more hours talking and eventually broke out the cards to play spoons and turrets. It got pretty rowdy. After a long day it was time for bed
First Night in Nairobi
The journey begins. After getting off the airplane we headed off to clear customs. Once we cleared customs, we got our baggage and went to go board our bus that would take us to the hostel that we were going to be staying at for the night. We met three of our program directors on the bus, Abdul, Simon and Jane. They were very nice and told us what to expect in the next few days. On the way out of the parking lot, we were stalled because there was a car blocking the entrance. After about ten minutes or so of trying to find the driver, the gate attendant gave up and decided to use brute force. He enlisted the help of about six other guys and they picked up the car with their bare hands and moved it so the bus could get through. No joke. I couldn’t get to my camera in time so you’re just going to have to imagine seven Kenyan men picking up a car, about the size of a Honda Civic, and moving it about three feet. Once we cleared the parking lot we made the 30 minute journey to our hostel. All the dudes are in one room and all the girls are in another room. It kind of feels like being at summer camp at Blue Lake. Cold showers and a bunch of guys sleeping in one room. Lights are off in the room now so its bed time. 6:30 wake up. Yay
N America, Europe and Africa. All in a days travels
4:27 P.M. - We took off about ten minutes ago and are over Lake Michigan right now. Having been a slave to American Airlines for the better part of my life, I have not experienced the wonders of other airlines. I am on a KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) 747. It’s completely empty. I can’t remember the last time I was on an American flight that I didn’t have some sweaty beef cake on every side of me. There are two brothers in front of me who are about 12 and 8ish. The older one has been telling the younger one all about the airplane and how Boeing is a lot better than Airbus. He is correct. But this reminded me of my brother preaching to me as a kid all about airplanes. I used to quiz him on which airplane was which in American Way Magazine. There are personal entertainment systems on every seat which is nice. Gotta get caught up on my movies because this will probably be the last time I see American cinema for 4 months. In other news, right after my Mom dropped me off at the airport, I saw a friend from high school at the check in counter for KLM. He is studying abroad just outside of Venice, Italy and is on the same flight as me. Crazy. We are going to throw back a few in a little bit and reminisce of the days at St. Charles East. All is well for now, I will report back soon.
P.S. While writing this I was served my first drink. Ginger ale of course. It is about the size of a Dixie cup. Europeans really need to learn about American portions.
5:28 P.M. - Dinner has been served. I was offered chicken or beef. Awesome. I got the chicken. It was some sort of chicken soy sauce mix with a chicken Caesar salad. Not all bad but I’ll report back later. Right now we are traveling 658 MPH and we are a little ways north of Albany, NY. I did finally meet someone from my program. My friend from high school, Matt, is sitting next to a girl so I got to meet her. Just finished an episode of Two and a Half Men and now I’m watching Friends. Everything’s good for now.
6:53 P.M. - The lights have finally been turned off in the airplane so I am going to try to get some sleep thanks to an American Airlines First Class amenities kit. It appears we are just leaving Canadian airspace over St. Johns Island and will soon begin our trek over the Atlantic. 4 Hours 21 Minutes remain. Food sitting well.
10:10 P.M. - Fast forward many hours. 1 hour and 11 minutes to go. Just crossing into Ireland right now. I’m not sure if I ever slept but the last few hours have been spent dealing with a raging headache. It has been delightful. I was just starting to get to sleep when the Indian family in front of me decided that it was time for everyone on the airplane to get up. They were playing a 4 player game of Tetris through the entertainment system. Lots of yelling.
10:55 P.M. - Food is not sitting well. We are just north of Norwich and about 25 minutes from landing in Amsterdam and have just started our decent. All in all it was not a bad flight at all with the exception of the bad headache and the questionable chicken. Definitely and upgrade from my flight over the summer from NYC to Vienna. It looks like we are going to be getting in about a half hour early as well. It will be about a three hour layover in Amsterdam. KL 612 over and out.
9:38 A.M. - 4 pitchers of Heineken and 11 hours later I have found myself just under an hour out from Nairobi. Once we got in to Amsterdam, our whole group met up and we decided to do what college students do best and go find a bar open at 7 A.M. local time to have a drink. About 15 of us found a bar in the airport, downed some pitchers and chatted about our upcoming African adventures. The time flew and the next thing we knew it was time to board KL 565 to Nairobi. I fell asleep on the airplane as soon as I sat down. I don’t remember the takeoff or anything until just a few minutes ago. I am very proud of myself. We are just to the northwest of Juba, South Sudan (voting on the referendum ended two days ago and all signs point to the creation of a sovereign South Sudan) and will be crossing the border with Kenya in a few minutes. Even though this flight is packed in typical American Airlines fashion, it was delightfully uneventful. Snack time.
P.S. While writing this I was served my first drink. Ginger ale of course. It is about the size of a Dixie cup. Europeans really need to learn about American portions.
5:28 P.M. - Dinner has been served. I was offered chicken or beef. Awesome. I got the chicken. It was some sort of chicken soy sauce mix with a chicken Caesar salad. Not all bad but I’ll report back later. Right now we are traveling 658 MPH and we are a little ways north of Albany, NY. I did finally meet someone from my program. My friend from high school, Matt, is sitting next to a girl so I got to meet her. Just finished an episode of Two and a Half Men and now I’m watching Friends. Everything’s good for now.
6:53 P.M. - The lights have finally been turned off in the airplane so I am going to try to get some sleep thanks to an American Airlines First Class amenities kit. It appears we are just leaving Canadian airspace over St. Johns Island and will soon begin our trek over the Atlantic. 4 Hours 21 Minutes remain. Food sitting well.
10:10 P.M. - Fast forward many hours. 1 hour and 11 minutes to go. Just crossing into Ireland right now. I’m not sure if I ever slept but the last few hours have been spent dealing with a raging headache. It has been delightful. I was just starting to get to sleep when the Indian family in front of me decided that it was time for everyone on the airplane to get up. They were playing a 4 player game of Tetris through the entertainment system. Lots of yelling.
10:55 P.M. - Food is not sitting well. We are just north of Norwich and about 25 minutes from landing in Amsterdam and have just started our decent. All in all it was not a bad flight at all with the exception of the bad headache and the questionable chicken. Definitely and upgrade from my flight over the summer from NYC to Vienna. It looks like we are going to be getting in about a half hour early as well. It will be about a three hour layover in Amsterdam. KL 612 over and out.
9:38 A.M. - 4 pitchers of Heineken and 11 hours later I have found myself just under an hour out from Nairobi. Once we got in to Amsterdam, our whole group met up and we decided to do what college students do best and go find a bar open at 7 A.M. local time to have a drink. About 15 of us found a bar in the airport, downed some pitchers and chatted about our upcoming African adventures. The time flew and the next thing we knew it was time to board KL 565 to Nairobi. I fell asleep on the airplane as soon as I sat down. I don’t remember the takeoff or anything until just a few minutes ago. I am very proud of myself. We are just to the northwest of Juba, South Sudan (voting on the referendum ended two days ago and all signs point to the creation of a sovereign South Sudan) and will be crossing the border with Kenya in a few minutes. Even though this flight is packed in typical American Airlines fashion, it was delightfully uneventful. Snack time.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Leaving Today!!
At the gate right now getting ready to board. 16 hours of travel ahead. 8 hours to amsterdamn then 8 hours to nairobi. First full post to come.
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