The Large Gap

December the 21st

Sorry for the very large space of time which has occurred between now and the last time I wrote in this thing. This is due to a number of important reasons. First and foremost, I had university exams which, for the first time made up an extremely large portion of my final grade. This doesn’t mean, however, that I studied any more than I usually do, which isn’t very much in the first place. Nevertheless, simply thinking about these exams and pretending to myself that I was studying for them consumed a vast amount of my time these past weeks. Furthermore, I had an inordinate number of final papers to write, 5 to be exact, all due within a week of each other and from 5-15 pages long. I actually got quite into the writing of them and enjoyed myself more than I think I ever have before writing a paper, at least for the Geographies of Development final which was titled, Where is the Love?, after the Black-Eyed Peas song. Finally, my dog (katika US) alikufa, or died, somewhat unexpectedly. Many may already know this, but this event made for a few teary evenings and a fair amount of moping around. On the flip side, all of this is behind me now and I am feeling quite on top of the world at the moment. My internship is going to be quite fantastic at the GoDown I believe. I am leaving to climb the second highest mountain in Africa on Sunday, to reach the summit at sunrise on Christmas morning. The election is less than a week away now. Today I finally received my Christmas package which was sent a month ago. I am spending New Years on the coast in Mombasa. And I realized that I won’t be attending a single class until April which is the longest break I believe I’ve had since I entered preschool. The world is my oyster. Furthermore, I’ve also been reading a few travel books and have caught the bug in a big way and am planning a number of exciting excursions so long as the money holds out. Tanzania, Uganda or Rwanda with my host sister, Egypt, South Africa, Zanzibar and Lamu are all in the mix. Not that I actually have the money for all that, but at least some of it will happen.

Some exciting things that have happened in recent weeks:
I am now an official registered alien in Kenya. I have a special Pupil’s Pass in my passport and a big stamp acknowledging my alien status because I have been here for 3 months and visas run out after that time and you have to renew it, become an alien or figure something else out. They have all of my fingerprints 4 times given by me in a room full of men with huge guns and many many many papers filled out by me after a 4 hour wait. Yay Kenyan bureaucracy!

Speaking of guns, I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but they’re something I will never get used to. Soldiers and security guards walk around all the time carrying AK-47s and it freaks the hell out of me. It gives me reason enough to shut up and keep my head down though.

The weather is nothing short of amazing right now. It’s become summer, really. Not that it wasn’t great before, but in the past week or so it’s become really balmy and hot during the day, just like summer should be and I love it. Even though it’s hot, I just bask in the sunlight and think of all the shriveled-up, pale people in the Midwestern United States and smile.

We finished the OC season 2 last night…whoa, dramatic ending, and this show will forever be associated with Kenya for me even though it all occurs in California. I started up a new TV season, Weeds, courtesy of my Secret Santa who gave me the first 2 seasons.

Today we went hawker shopping to find stuff for our mountain climbing excursion. Found hiking boots, snacks, scarves, earrings, books, gloves, long underwear, a hot water bottle, a new watch. Spent a total of about $50. Expensive day in Kenya, cheap day in America.

I am so incredibly dirty all the time!! Having these braids only gives me an excuse not to shower very often since my hair doesn’t have to be washed. I realized the other day as I was standing in line at Nakumatt that in the fluorescent lighting my upper arm had a grey-tannish unnatural tinge to it because it was covered in a layer of dust. This is partially not my fault, sure, the not showering part is, but even when my skin acquires this color as it has on a few other occasions and I scrub and scrub, it sometimes refuses to come off…Joys of living in a smoggy, dusty city.

My taste for foods is changing so much. I get really excited now when we’re having rice and beans for dinner or sukuma-wiki and ugali. (Sukuma was the most disgusting thing in the world when I first came, it’s really bitter and dark green leafy stuff that looks like spinach but tastes nothing like it) I wonder if it’s going to be hard getting used to eating the usual foods I eat when I’m in the US again because I have really rich foods so rarely. I made no-bake oatmeal cookies the other day (since we don’t have a working oven), ate 1 ½ and my stomach felt like crap for the rest of the night, from all the sugar I think. Whenever I eat really rich foods now they’re more amazing than I can ever remember food tasting, but I can only eat a little bit.

Have I mentioned that I LOVE KENYA?! For some reason more than ever the past week or so I’ve really been in love with everything about it. The heat, the flowers, the people, my family, the relaxation about everything. I think it was partly finishing up classes and realizing I’m completely free and have no obligations and can do and go whatever and wherever I want

I was presented with an endearing gift from Rhoda today, a wooden statue of an African woman with her hair blowing in the wind and her head is partially chipping off. She’s had it for years but said she thought I’d like it more and said if I didn’t want it, she didn’t mind, but I love it. I named her Rhoda, after Rhoda and she stands guard at the dining room table.

Kenyans in general are a lot more blunt and upfront when they have a problem with something. I also love this quality in terms of speaking of race as well and they’ll just come out and say it. “This is this way because you’re white” For example, when I complain about not having anything to wear when we’re going out while my sisters are spending hours getting all dolled up, they say, “Seriously, don’t worry about it, you’re white, everyone will love you no matter what you wear.” In the US, we tiptoe around the subject of race so much and think we’re probably offending someone if we even mention it, and Kenyans have no problem talking about it. It seems a lot healthier to me. I get sick of political correctness.

Here’s a blip from my GoDev paper about how my perceptions of race have altered a bit:
“I grew up in a virtually racially homogenous community without a lot of direct exposure to other races and the effects of racial tension and came to Kenya in hopes of experiencing what it felt like to be in the racial minority in a place, which I certainly have felt. However, I will always be seen as privileged because of my skin color, which I am and never be seen as the economically disadvantaged racial minority, unlike racial minorities in the United States.”
This was something I didn’t really think about when I came to Kenya. I knew it would be a trip to be a white person in a black country, but didn’t really think about how the experience would be different from being a racial minority in a primarily white country. The difference is that whites are the privileged ones pretty much wherever they go. Even if I don’t fit in with everyone else, I still get preferential treatment sometimes-things like getting into clubs and not having to show my ID and begging them to let my sister in (who is 4 years older than me), or walking into the grocery store with a huge shopping bag and not having to turn it in to the bag counter (maybe they’re just sympathizing because they think I don’t know any better). Some things that might be the same though as other races experiencing being in the minority is the way you always question people’s motives for talking to you..do they want something from you or do they genuinely want to get to know you because they’re interested? Are they asking to take your picture with them because you’re their token white friend (a Somali couple asked me if I would have a picture with them yesterday while I was sitting in the park. When I asked them why, they said they wanted to send it back to their family and show them that I was one of their friends. I just laughed and thought it was kind of funny and chatted with them for a little while) I understand completely why being in the racial minority makes you paranoid about anyone who tries to talk to you. For awhile there a few months ago, I was a completely closed-off unfriendly jerk to anyone who approached me on the street and avoided making eye contact with anyone because it was always badgering you for something-money, a visa, to look in their shop. Then I started to feel bad when I realized how mean I was being even accidentally to people I knew who saw me across the street or something. It’s getting a little better now, and I’m a lot more comfortable in my surroundings to feel ok being friendly to people and not like I’m going to get ripped off if I actually smile at someone. I’ve been sharing a lot more laughs with people and a lot more random conversations with strangers because of it.

Masai Mara

Moja (1st), Decemba--i yie yie it's decemba!

This past week Wednesday to Friday we went to Masai Mara National Park for 3ish days. This was our last K-sponsored trip, the rest of our traveling we do is on our own. 3 of our professors came with us, Roseanne, Lillian, and Fred. I don’t think it’s the biggest national park in Kenya, but it’s the one that all the tourists want to go to because it’s supposed to be the best. The park is south of Nairobi about 3 hours drive and filled with all kinds of animals…the heart of Lion King. Hey, I found out the other day there is an actual place called Pride Rock, you know the place where the lions live in Lion King, it’s in Lake Naivasha about an hour away from Nairobi…I really wanna go.

Anyhow, in Masai Mara we did nothing but eat really delicious food, hang out at our “campsite” and go on game drives. It was so so so so much fun and I wished we could have stayed at least 2 more days, but I guess it’s expensive (not like K’s making a profit out of me going to Kenya or anything, I found out the other day tuition for international students at the University of Nairobi is something like 2,500 US dollars…and I’m paying K’s regular tuition price to be here? Anyway, that’s a rant for another day)

First we arrived at our “hotel” in the afternoon on Wednesday and got our “tents”. Ok, they were technically tents but, have you ever seen a tent that had a bathroom, shower and electricity? The bed was really comfy, they folded back your blankets in the evening and gave us all hot water bottles to keep us warm at night. We went to dinner at the lodge which was 4 courses of basically gourmet food-salad, soup, main course, dessert, with cheese and crackers and fruit salad at the end. If we stayed any longer than we did, we all would’ve gained 10 pounds because every meal was like that, and delicious so you wanted to eat it all.

In the evening we went on our first game drive, which consists of driving around the mara in our Land Cruiser with Juma, the same driver we’ve had for our other trips (we requested him for all our other trips after he took us to Mombasa and we all made friends with him) and looking at the animals we can see. There were little doors that opened on top of the Land Cruisers for standing up and picture taking and once we figured out that we could ride sitting on top of the Land Cruiser, it was really fun. How many times do you get to ride around on top of a car with the breeze and the sun and all kinds of animals? The path was also really hilly, so it was kind of a roller coaster too, adding to the excitement. Juma has taken groups to the Mara maybe 15 times so he’s a great tour guide, knew where to find all the animals and could tell us all about them.

We saw so many animals: all kinds of antelope, gazelles, impalas, élan, topis, wildebeest, zebras, ostriches, bushbucks, hippos, storks, herons, baboons, jackals, hyenas, and my favorites-twigas and tembos (giraffes and elephants)!!! There were probably a lot more that I’m forgetting. We missed out on the simbas (lions) even though we searched hard for them. Oh well, it was so fantastic and yes, looked just like the Lion King-hey, that’s most people’s relation to the way Africa looks. The plants and trees were great too, we kept passing these giant thorn bushes that had 2 inch long brilliant white thorns and giant dark black berries on them. We saw a herd of elephants taking a mudbath about 30 feet away from us! It was so cool to see the animals in a relatively untouched (I mean, apart from the Land Cruisers driving around) environment, rather than in a zoo, just doing their own thing. It made me really want to be a scientist and be able to study them.

In the evenings we ate dinner, hung out on our "porches," played cards, chatted with other people staying there, played Capture the flag, looked at stars after they turned the electricity off at midnight-clearest, brightest sky I've ever seen, ate the best brownies and chocolate sauce ever-or maybe it tasted that good because i haven't had anything like it in a long time, played with the bushbucks that hung out all around the campsite and were kind of like puppies but shyer, sat around a campfire and listened to a Kenyan guy play Bob Marley songs on a guitar.

We also went on a long game drive all day Thursday, it was gorgeous out and really warm and great breezes sitting on top of the car the whole day. Part of our reason for being there apart from checking out the animals was to study the relation between tourists and the Maasai people whose land the park is on. In a way, it helps to preserve their lands because they still can herd and graze their cattle and move freely all over the land, in and out of the park, and even between Kenya and Tanzania without a passport, wherever the grass is good because they’re a pastoral tribe. But mostly, it just commodifies their way of life and turns it into a circus act, tourist attraction, it was pretty sickening at times. Like Thursday afternoon, we visited a Maasai village where they showed us some of their traditional dances, gave us a tour of their houses and village and then we went to their market. Although it was interesting to see, we know they get paid just to show tourists this stuff and it felt so wrong being there, just that my presence as another package tourist there was destroying something. I guess I’m being kind of vague in the details right now, I’m going to write a paper on it in a week, so I might write more on this later. I got what I think will be a fantastic picture of the Maasai starting to come out of the gate of their village to greet us and right at that moment a plane flew really low right overhead-there’s an airstrip in the park for the super wealthy to come visit that way. It perfectly depicted these contradictions.

Patrick, Fred and I had a good conversation that night at dinner about all of this and the way that tourism can be executed in a positive way that actually benefits the community living there rather than exploits them, like if the hotel we stayed at was owned by local Maasai rather than the elite Kenyatta family-one of the richest families in Kenya. At least it’s Kenyan, not European, but still, it’s not much better. What I saw though, was some Maasai warriors dancing for us tourists like a circus act, being paid peanuts for it. I clapped along reluctantly like they expect us to, pretending I enjoyed it and wasn’t noticing all the contradictions and the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. It’s dehumanizing. Yes, they get paid for doing this, but they’re not doing the naming-ceremony dance because a baby is being named, they’re doing it because we paid to go on this tour. And it’s money that only gets them by, doesn’t sustain them for the long run, and which continues to keep them down and unable to get ahead. This is not positive development, it’s exploitation. And Fred said, this happens to the Maasai and wouldn’t to other tribes because they’re one of the minorities, and no one cares about them.

All in all though, it was a really really really good trip. It made me think more deeply about some things I’ve been considering a lot already during this experience. I am learning so much, but Kenya’s hard, it’s really hard seeing all of this injustice and harsh reality that you hear about. I’m having kind of a hard time even writing this, even though I’ve hardly gotten into the details. It’s sometimes hard to justify even having a good time here when there is so much unfairness. How can one be satisfied with their own life when there are other people right next to you being so used? Everywhere, it’s everywhere I go-in Nairobi, in the Mara, in the rural villages, in the slums, in the second-hand markets, in the communities like Karen that the white people use to try to close themselves off from facing the realities of the severe injustice. What is my place in being here? Do I even belong here? What am I doing here besides supporting an unfair system? I know I am learning, but is it enough? Can I even do anything to help change this system and these legacies and can my place as an American be used to help change this?

Weekend shopping, braiding, eating

Ishirini na sita, 26 Nov.

Fun weekend. Saturday morning Michelle, Gloria and I went out to the Toi (spelling?) Market in Kibera, which is a huge 2nd hand market where clothes are really cheap. Got really muddy and got quite a bit of stuff, like 6 new shirts for about $8 total, some used books to read-Roald Dahl, some Shakespeare, Mark Twain and a few Kenyan authors. All of our birthdays are coming right in a row-we’ve already had Rachel’s, Patrick’s, Annie’s, and this weekend was Piper’s, next week is Wills’, the following week is Erin’s.
So since it was Piper’s birthday a bunch of us came over to her house in the evening and made a fantastic dinner. We’d found actual corn chips at one of the grocery stores (the one in Karen, where all the white people live) and made nachos with guacamole, cheese, homemade salsa, I was in heaven. Then for the main course we made fettuccine alfredo, plus Piper’s househelp made chapati and dengu, which is most of our favorite Kenyan meal. Then her parents walked in, home from work with all kinds of soda and juice for us. It was a fantastic filling meal, Piper’s family is way cool, she has younger host siblings and her parents are really friendly and chatty. Then later we went out to Westlands.
Sunday morning I got my hair braided-it’s about 2 feet longer than it was before and perhaps the coolest my hair has ever looked (and it’s blonder-the hair extensions are blondish). And now I hardly ever have to wash my hair! Yay! It took about 3 hours to do, the woman who did it, Naomi really seemed to like me and she offered to teach me how to braid in Kenyatta Market, where she works. It’s heavy having hair this long, but I’m used to it by now. Sunday afternoon we went out for a family lunch, the first real family lunch we’ve all had together and I found out during it that it was all in my honor since we hadn’t really done this since I’ve been here.

Useful kiswahili

November 26

I told some Kenyan men off in Kiswahili today who were following behind me being extremely obnoxious and rude as I was walking home which made me feel kind of proud of myself. I won’t say exactly what I said, but basically I told them they should grow up and shut up along with a few other choice words. An older Kenyan woman was walking near me and started laughing at them. No, actually that’s a lie, she didn’t start laughing but she gave me a look and smiled like she admired my sticking up for myself.

Day after turkey

Ishirini na tatu Novemba
23 November

Today was a really good day. Some days up until now have been either Oh my god! This day was so amazing! Or Oh my god! This day sucked (there really weren’t too many of those) but today, and the last few weeks in general have been a pretty consistent, contented, non-sporadic Good. My sister Monique came home from boarding school this morning and is home for about a month. She’s the 15-year-old, I really like her. I wrote a really good paper this morning about development issues we witnessed on our Kisumu excursion. It was supposed to be 5 pages and I was close to 10…then I took out a few things, widened some margins, you know…this is a problem I don’t often have. I had a really good time writing it. Then I hung out with Rachel and Erin and then a few others wandered in after they got done with their internships for some good day after Thanksgiving chats and hanging out under our tree.

Thanksgiving yesterday…so much fun. The 10 of us got our afternoon classes canceled yesterday (I didn’t have any anyway) and got to go the Pan Afric hotel where we got our own little room and everything we’d ordered for Thanksgiving….so so so yummy. However, my stomach has definitely shrunk since I’ve been here. I ate as much or maybe less than I usually do on Thanksgiving and felt completely stuffed to the point of exploding for at least the next 6 hours. I ate nothing for the rest of the day. So yeah, what’d I eat? All the best stuff… We’d written up our ideal Thanksgiving menu about a week ago and the restaurant made nearly all of it. Stuffed turkey that would probably rival most of the turkeys you folks were eating, soup, salad, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, chocolate cake, ice cream and yes, mac and cheese!! And cheese and crackers (I have been quite cheese deprived these past months) The mac was so delicious…I never really eat it in the US but I’ve been craving it these past few months and this surpassed expectations. Ok, I’ll stop raving about the food, I was pretty stoked about the cheese though. I had everyone do the thing we used to do on Thanksgiving where we wrote on little pieces of paper what we were thankful for and then read them all anonymously during dinner. It was sweet and very thanksgiving-y. Then we sat around the table chatting for 2 or 3 hours feeling the genuine Thanksgiving vibe. Then that night after I gave the Aboks the hand-turkey card I made for them, Mom (katika US) called and I got passed around the Leonard-Revis thanksgiving table. Oh happy day.

On another note:
These are a few things I know I’ll miss about Kenya, or at least that make me laugh:
-Flowers flowers everywhere in every single color and vibrancy you can think of
-Baboons walking along the road (not downtown but on the way out to Karen I’ve seen a boon or two, zebras and the occasional ostrich too on our drives to Mombasa and Kisumu

-morning downpours out of nowhere, gorgeous afternoons
-dressing rooms in 2nd hand stalls where the vendor holds up a sheet for you to try on pants behind
-messing up Kiswahili words and somehow having the meaning always be something bad!
-hawkers tables with 18 movies on 1 disc for 150Ksh ($2) or earrings for 10Ksh
-our tree on the quad at the university
-grilled mahindi (corn) sold on every street corner for 5Ksh or less
-chapati na dengu
-chaotic matatu stages, like the one on Tom Mboya
-relaxing on rooftops, in parks, in pubs, in the K room
-Mangos
-scrubbing my feet before bed every night
-the look of surprise when you speak Kiswahili, or jump into a kiswa conversation people didn’t realize you understood

Matatus (Or ma3’s since tatu is 3 in kiswa and they used to cost 3 shillings to ride) I love them! They’re big white 14 passenger vans often with a yellow stripe painted on the side and the number route they drive. After dark it’s unsafe to drive in them because the drivers are occasionally drunk and can drop you off in the middle of nowhere (I haven’t done this, no worries, just heard stories) but they do have blacklights on the inside at night. They usually have meaningless words written in big letters on the outside like “The Hulk” or “Sparkletown”-I really don’t think anybody knows what these mean. Or they have pictures of famous people, usually American hip hop and r&b singers, or, in the case of a matatu I saw a few weeks ago, Barack Obama giving 2 thumbs up! Inside you’re always packed in, I’ve been in a matatu with 25 people riding at once (they’re supposed to hold 14) The music inside usually blasts your ears out, can be offensive and/or really terrible but always has a catchy, sunny beat, (usually because it’s reggae) and can be extremely entertaining-like when it’s a reggae version of Jesus Loves Me This I Know or This Little Light of Mine. Sometimes you make friends when you and the people next to you are singing the words. When you go the same routes consistently the matatu drivers know you and look out for you. They drive crazy, you sometimes think you’re going to die and the drivers of the different matatus fight over you because they all want you to ride in theirs. And they’re cheap and everywhere.

Background painting in Kibera

Saturday, November 17
This morning a group of us took the bus down to the primary school in Kibera where Erin’s internship is because the kids there are performing a play for Christmas. The school wanted Erin to help paint the background for the play, so she recruited Lisa and I, the 2 art people to help draw this background. We spent all morning and a good portion of afternoon painting Joseph being presented his coat of many colors, him falling in a pit, and him talking to the Pharaoh. It was a lot of fun, a rainy day, so we got pretty dirty-Kibera is muddy even when it’s not raining and the backdrop turned out great.
It’s fun getting involved with what other people are doing at their internships, but also stresses me out about my ownBad news about my internship at the GoDown, it kind of fell through because the supervisor for us resigned or something, I don’t know all the details, but it sounds like we can’t really do anything until January for it, and even then we’re not at all sure what we’ll be doing. No one seems really eager or willing to help or to help us develop a project with a specific focus. I’m going to talk to our supervisor at the university about it, but it sounds like we’re kind of on our own to come up with a solution.

Mwizi

November 15
Patrick isn’t sure if he might have signed some man’s death warrant because he tried to steal his phone yesterday. He was going to his matatu stop near Kangemi, where he lives and was hanging out joking around with some of the matatu drivers because he knows them and felt a hand reach in his pocket. He grabbed the hand and turned to look at the guy who twisted away. This has happened to me a few times too where I felt someone try to reach in my pocket or bag and as soon as I saw them and turned they laughed as if it were a joke and backed off. The man had gotten Patrick’s wallet partly out of his pocket but didn’t take it and then Patrick realized his phone was gone and pointed to the guy out of the crowd to the other matatu drivers he was with. They all set out after him through this crowd of people and finally caught up to him. In the meantime, another of the matatu drivers had found Patrick’s phone on the ground, the guy must have dropped it, so nothing was stolen from him. Still the group was pursuing this thief to beat him up, as is so commonplace in Kenya whenever a crime is committed in public. The mob mentality becomes so hot as soon as someone yells “mwizi!”-thief. The man was thrown out into the middle of the crowd that had formed and all these guys started kicking and hitting this guy. Patrick came into the middle and said “hey, I got all my stuff back, everything’s ok, stop” and he pulled the guy up off the ground, but the crowd just kept beating him up. One of the guys told Patrick that he should just get out of there because there wasn’t anything he could do. Patrick didn’t know what else to do and left. He tried to tell the people to stop beating up this guy and they wouldn’t. Today when he was telling the story before class, Fred, our poli sci professor said probably if Patrick hadn’t gotten his stuff back they would have killed this guy. A lot of times the mob will even burn a thief to death right there on the spot. It’s good that as soon as you realize you’ve been robbed people are really helpful to help you find the thief and not let them get away, the same way they did when I found out my camera had been stolen, but it’s so scary what happens when they actually do catch them. It makes me a little bit glad that my camera actually did get stolen and I didn’t find the person took it, because I don’t want to know what could have happened. As Patrick said, “I wanted my phone back, but really, is that worth a man’s life?”

People always talk about the need for security in this country, and it’s true, security is a big issue. But a country doesn’t build security by building more walls and barbed wire fences and hiring more Maasai warriors as their guards and getting more guard dogs. (The Maasai tribe have a really strong history as warriors) The reason for all this insecurity is because of the huge huge gaps between the rich and the poor here. Over half the people that live in Nairobi live in the slums like Kibera-that’s over 2 million people living in shacks made of sheet metal with no sanitation, electricity or roads. And yet the Kenyan parliament is among the highest paid government officials of any in the world-they get paid more than US politicians despite the widespread poverty. Less than 30% of the population have access to electricity, about 40% no access to clean water. If the country worked to build its domestic economy and create jobs for people-there are so many trained people here without jobs-unemployment is 25% nationally-this would do so much more to solve the internal security issues. Then you wouldn’t see barbed wire and glass glued to the tops of fences absolutely everywhere you go. Then people wouldn’t have to literally lock themselves from the outside in each night-outside walls and guards, inside gates, house doors and windows, gate to the upstairs, and finally the bedroom door. My house doesn’t lock this way each night, but some of the other students’ houses do. I’m merely protected by a giant wall with barbed wire fence, a night guard and a locked door.

This is why the political situation here, although I’m very interested in it, is very frustrating to me, because ultimately Kenya’s future and ability to further its development really lies with its leaders and so far it’s leaders haven’t done nearly enough in my mind to further Kenya’s situation and have instead acted very opportunistically and selfishly to build their own power and make more money for themselves and their small enclave of rich and loyal supporters. I don’t really like any of the candidates running for president, and I’m not really sure who I’d support. At this point, my mind is starting to change over to Kibaki, who is the current president running for reelection, because although he’s been involved in corrupt business, he also has helped the country move forward in a number of ways. And I’m not really sure what Raila would do with the presidency, it’s a little scary, because the president has so much unchecked power here, so it’s a really big deal who it is. We need a Kenyan Nelson Mandela who actually cares about the country and helping the people improve their situations. And we need a new Constitution that puts checks and balances on political power-not the one we currently have that was written by the British-Raila says he’ll do that within 3 months of the election if he wins, but honestly, all the candidates are literally promising the world to the Kenyan citizens, I don’t know how many of them will actually happen

Day to day

November 13

We had a great dinner last night at Haandi, what the tourbooks all call the best Indian restaurant in Africa, and I definitely agree. It’s mad expensive for Kenya, but the YWCA paid for it all because it was this meeting of all these people from all over the world meeting about the YWCA’s youth exchange program. I met people from Norway, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Kenya last night at this dinner. It was way fun, the people were pretty cool and so so so so yummy.

Our family room couch is gone and it’s really not cozy anymore. Aunt Monica took it (Rachel’s hostmom) because she sent her couches to get recovered 2 months ago and the guy who was supposed to do it basically stole them. Long story. Anyway, so she took our couch to replace hers. Now we have to sit in the straight-backed dining room chairs to watch TV or read or anything.

Stacey and I made a mini-documentary this weekend for a project on Women in the Media for Gender and Development class. (She brought a video camera) We interviewed all kinds of people on the streets of Nairobi and at the university about their perceptions of women’s portrayal in the media. It was so much fun and turned out so much better than we were expecting, the editing actually turned out really good. Plus we had some great conversations with a lot of people and might have made some new friends at the university. Making new Kenyan friends…always great in my book! And we did our presentation today and I think we blew Lilian away, she thought it was great and gave us contact info to show it to the head of the journalism department at the university because I guess she knows a lot of info about women’s role in media and media production-for our paper on the topic. It made me happy, and I expect we got a good grade..

Crossing streets in Kenya is an art. I find it quite similar to the game I used to play on my calculator in high school math class all the time called Frogger where you’re this little frog trying to cross an 8-lane highway with cars whizzing by. Yeah, that’s pretty much what Kenyan street crossing is like. You’ve gotta back up at times and dart at times and be decisive about what you’re doing and remember to look right-left-right instead of left-right-left (Kenyans drive on the left side) and wave at people, and put your hand out to block cars from hitting you and the entire road is never all clear at the same time so you just go at it lane by lane and hopefully there’s a median in the middle. No, its really not that scary, it just was the first few days.

Elevator doors in Kenya open and close so freaking fast! They always try and squish you! This has caused a few funny occurrences with me not jumping on fast enough and the doors trying to smash me and the people inside all sticking their arms and legs in the door and trying to pull me in, then us having a good laugh about it once I made it.

I think my blood is thinning like a Kenyan’s…even if its slightly cold in the mornings now, I always wear a jacket or sweater and a scarf because I get cold. It’s kind of a nice feeling though to wear warm clothes.

I am so much less aware of my race than I was even 2 weeks ago. I forget I’m white and everyone else is black a lot of times. It’s such a good feeling. Now I’ve just gotta focus on the Kiswahili learning, because that still is pretty shaky, but getting better and better all the time. My cousin Derek told me to let him know when I’m ready and he’ll teach me Sheng (Kiswa-English-slang, what the young people speak)

I like Kenyans so much!!! They’re so friendly and open and approachable in general, more than Americans are I think. And they’re never in the same kind of hurry Americans always are in, which makes them late a lot, but also willing to always help you out and nothing is ever more important than sitting and visiting. When they invite you for lunch, you know you might be there all day. I love it, we need to do that in America quite a bit more.

Hawkers

November 13

So from now up until the election there is this wonderful phenomenon of people walking the streets selling things for more than dirt cheap known as hawkers. They’re selling shirts for 50 bob (less than a dollar), 18 in 1 dvds for 100 bob (1.50, yeah the quality sucks, but for that price I don’t really care) Better yet the DVD collections have amazing (funny) names…such as the 18 in 1 collection I bought today titled..get this “Round the World Fistworld Struggle for Hegemony” It has movies like the Rocky movies and Fight Club, I liked the movies on it but I bought it partly for that title. Rhoda told me that as soon as the election is over, the hawkers will be cleared out because they’re actually illegal because they clog the sidewalks a lot, but right now Kibaki’s allowing them because he wants their votes. Kenyans, they know how to work the system, and I’m gonna take advantage while I can.

For the longest time I couldn’t understand what people were calling them with their accents. I thought they were saying ‘hookers’ not ‘hawkers’ I was like, “What? The hookers are out selling WHAT on the streets?!?”

Camera is gone

November 12

Way way way bummer news. Pretty much the worst thing to get stolen (besides my passport) did: my digital camera, out of my pocket at a club this past weekend. More than anything I was so bummed about the probably 500 pictures that were on it not downloaded yet, probably from the last 6 weeks or so. I don’t know if I’ll get a new one-they’re more expensive here than in the US and I’d just be terrified to take it anywhere again. I was dumb to bring it though, I should have been smarter, I’ve been really smart with everything up to this point. I might go the disposable camera route, safer anyway. That’s what Lisa’s doing-hers got stolen out of her bag about a month ago. Ironic that the two art majors and the ones who were most into the picture-taking got their cameras stolen. It's still just a pit in my stomach whenever I think about it. I’ll miss my camera…it was so nice and did all kinds of stuff and was super small and I haven't found the same model here anywhere. But, as Maude from Harold and Maude would say, “Here today, gone tomorrow so don’t get attached to things!” I was super angry the next morning after it happened, went for a long long run for an hour or so, saw my oral lit professor, came home and was in a great mood for the rest of the day. Ah, running, the cure for so many ills. By the way, I’ve lost at least 10 lbs, a lot of us have since being here.

KISUMU!!

November 10

This past week on Monday (Jumatatu) the Kalamazoo program took us all on a week long excursion to Kisumu, the third largest city in Kenya after Nairobi and Mombasa. Kisumu is northeast of Nairobi right on Lake Victoria in Luoland, near my family’s hometown. This is right in the heart of Raila Odinga’s (one of the presidential candidates) prime constituency so we saw all kinds of parades and demonstrations and yelled ODM!!! out the window of our LandCruiser a lot. Rachel even got a bike taxi back from town one day to lower the price when she showed them her ODM Hexagon pin. Yeah, have I mentioned, elections are heating up and it’s all people can talk about right now? Besides that, the two main candidates are pretty much in a dead heat right now.
ANYWAY, our LandCruiser got in a small accident on the way there in a gas station parking lot. It was kind of funny actually, our driver Isaac backed into a matatu parked in the very middle of the parking lot. It broke the whole back windshield of the matatu and there wasn’t even on a dent on our rock of a vehicle. The only slightly annoying part was just that it took like an extra 1 ½ hours to get it all sorted out with police and such. It’s already a super long trip to drive to Kisumu on a horrible road. We had lots of fun in the car though. We had one of our same drivers from Mombasa, Juma who is really fun and is never without a smile on his face, and Isaac turned out to be pretty cool too and felt awful about holding us up because of the accident. We’re requesting they drive us when we go to Maasai Mara in a few weeks.
We got to Kisumu in the evening just before sunset, staying at the Sunset View hotel and it was decent. It was funny to us that this is definitely one of the top end hotels in all of Kisumu, and yet it was pretty simple. The water wasn’t always on, there was no ventilation, at least in our room so it was kinda sauna-ish (Kisumu’s a lot hotter than Nairobi, it’s like the coast). We opened the window at night a little to get some breeze after we were all safely tucked under our mosquito nets (because screens in Kenya aren’t too common, although considering the heat and lack of air conditioning, I think they could be a wise investment worth considering) and there were mice that scratched in the walls. We did have a pool though, a nice lobby and really yummy food each night (except the first night, the food was horrible for some reason and took like 2 hours to come) The other nights it was a buffet and really good.
Tuesday morning we headed out to see the Kisumu YWCA and the programs they do there. We heard all about the programs and groups and then headed out to Nakumatt (equivalent of Meijers) to get rice, beans, water, ugali, schoolbooks, pens, pencils, etc, to bring to AIDS orphans and widows at one of the YWCA’s places a little way outside Kisumu. It was a fun but also weird day. I knew that we were doing a good thing getting this stuff for them, but kind of the structure of parts of the day felt weird to me, like we were the rich benevolent white people coming to bear gifts, essentially that’s what we were I guess though. When we came the women all came out singing and dancing out to the cars which was really cool. That’s traditional Kenyan greeting. Then we sat down in special chairs for us while they told us more about the programs there and we could ask questions. Then there was entertainment: all the kids performed songs and poems and skits for us, some of them illustrating the peer education program they have to teach people about AIDs and how its contracted, etc. Then we handed out the food. At first it was fine, we were just giving it out, eating bread and biscuits with them and getting to know some of them. I was hanging out with a big group of about 7th grade girls, I really really liked talking with them.
Then it got weird. They started making it so that the kids all had to line up to get their food ration from us and go up to this table and hold out their hands to receive it like they were receiving some kind of gift. It felt so paternalistic and made it so much more apparent basically how rich we were that we could bring them all this food. I know it was a good thing to do, I just hated how it was done. No wonder they think white people are loaded when we make such a big deal just about bringing them some food, like a big show of how nice we are. Then, to make matters worse, the widows who live there had made us this really nice lunch and we had to go inside to this different room away from all the kids to eat a big lunch of ugali, chicken, spinach, rice, etc. The kids were just outside hanging out eating their bread and stuff that we brought them. I didn’t want it to be like that, we should have eaten with them, eating the same food they did. But I learned later, that’s the way guests are treated, especially ones who bring gifts like we did and if they treat you as well as they can manage, it’s like a karma thing, they believe more good things like us will come to them in the future. Still, I had a lot of fun talking with the kids, hanging out.
In the evening we walked out to Lake Victoria and watched the sunset. The lake isn’t swimmable because there are invasive water hyacinth on the surface that cover the entire shoreline and make it look like the lake is a lot smaller than it really is. They’re really beautiful though, even if they’re invasive. Also the water’s kinda polluted. It was a gorgeous sight though, sunset over the lake with Uganda in the distance.
Wednesday we went in the morning to TEMAK, Teenage Mothers and Girls Association of Kenya, an NGO that shelters teenage mothers and teaches them marketable skills to be able to make a living. Right now they house 60 women and children but have a long-term construction project underway so that eventually they can house 700 people. One of the skills they teach women there is craftsmanship skills of all varieties. So we spent quite a bit of money.
Jamie had a scary accident there, during our tour she passed out from heat, fell through a door she’d been leaning on, hit her head and back on a toilet and had a seizure for like 5 seconds. She came right out of it right away and got right up, but it scared the crap out of all of us. She had a CAT scan at the hospital later and everything’s all right.
In the afternoon we went to the market stalls. The vendors were way cool there, so much less hassling than the ones in Nairobi, they were just chill and way more relaxing to bargain with. Then we out to the fishing village to see how the fishermen’s lives go, talked to some people, got a tour from one of the fishermen. We also had a boat trip out in one of the fishing boats!! It was so nice but way too short. Roseanne, one of our Kenyan professors who came with us, had a death grip on Patrick and I the whole time because she thought the boat would tip over. Lake Victoria!!! Birthplace of the Nile!
Evening, we relaxed, swam, ate some din-din and met these US doctors staying at our hotel working with Operation Smile that fixes cleft palates and Jamie got some medical advice about her episode. Also, there was this huge thunderstorm in the evening. It was super windy, pelting rain and the power was out in our room all evening and flickered on and off a lot in the lobby and corridors. The floor of our hotel room kind of flooded because so much rain blew in under the door making it feel a bit like the Titanic with the flickery electricity and everything. It was adventurous though and I had fun.
Thursday we drove out to Bondo about an hour from Kisumu, where Lilian is from, the other professor who came with us. We worked all day with community members on this harambee project finishing a primary school building at this big complex. We plastered walls all day, which is really difficult actually. We were all terrible at it and instead of slapping on the plaster in a nice smooth pack ended up kind of streaking in on and having most of the plaster fall on the floor. I think we were pretty entertaining to the Kenyans though and they were great. I did get my head cut open by some Kenyan guy’s trowel though when he was getting into the plastering and my head somehow got in the way. I shouldn’t say cut open, it was pretty minimal. Then we had a huge feast with everyone, community people, school staff and administration out at Lillian’s mom’s house. Her mom had my host mom’s job as YWCA director before she took over. Lillian actually used to live in my room when she was my age! Ha!
Friday we drove home. Kind of uneventful except the lunch place we stopped at made most all of our group sick the next day…the runs..I think it was the chips (fries). Oh and we also had to stop once and pull off the road with a bunch of other people because a “wide load” was going by. Yeah, wide was an understatement. They were the biggest trucks I’ve ever seen in my life taking up more than the whole road carrying in 3 pieces a giant ferry. Fun, eventful trip.

Recent Thought Developments

October 24

I thought that coming to Africa and seeing the influence of the West would really strengthen my radical liberal feelings and American cynicism, causing me to want even more badly to fight the System. But in a way, I’m feeling a strong sense of appreciation for the democratic systems we have in America, imperfect as they may be. We do have something valuable in America-a stable, peaceful government that the vast majority abide by, whether they like to or not. And we can voice our opinions relatively freely without fear of consequence-we’re not going to be immediately fired from a government seat for endorsing a presidential candidate. We also don’t have to worry about the military overthrowing the government the way many African nations do. Thus, African governments have to use a lot of their money keeping the military happy at the expense of economic growth and productive developments like education and roads. It’s such a waste, but I don’t really see an answer for it because if a country reduces the size of the military, the likelihood of a military coup just increases.
One evening I showed my sister this Ani DiFranco song where she goes on this long rant about America and her response was, ‘Gosh, you’re always so angry about America. Doesn’t seeing what we have here, especially in our government make you appreciate what you have?’ I said, yeah, but I’m cynical only because a lot of what goes on in the American government frustrates me because it doesn’t reflect what America claims to have-freedom and justice for all. However, I was taken a little bit aback though and thought it over awhile. She says she doesn’t get involved in politics because it’s so corrupt, but I argue with her and say, how is anything ever going to change if good, reasonable people like you don’t participate? Building Blocks citizenship lessons in action! Nevertheless, although I get annoyed by American governance, especially in recent years, I do appreciate the legacy we have. But the actual people in those positions really determine how well a government structure holds up, no matter how decent the system is.
One thing I have gotten infuriated by is the way the entire continent of Africa has been completely screwed by past Colonial rule. “Africa is not poor, Africans are poor”is the adage we have heard so much since coming here and it’s so true. And so much of it originates from Colonial rule-the British pitting tribes against each other, making tribes at least in Kenya today so afraid to trust each other, breaking up the existing decentralized governments on coming into Africa and creating a legacy of centralized, hierarchical, easily manipulated governments so that now, whatever tribe is in power gets all the perks from the government, overdeveloping certain institutions to maintain control like the military so that they’re still much more developed than they need to be. There’s a lot more but I won’t recite all of my poli sci notes here. Anyhow, these are a few kind of new yet kind of old, yet refreshed ideas I’ve been mulling over.

I came home yesterday angry at a lot of things in Kenya, it was just a bad day. Will got his backpack stolen in Kenyatta market and that morning Jamie and Stacey witnessed a man being beaten to a pulp by another man in a suit while a crowd watched. They said his face was half gone when it was over and he just staggered off. They were on their way to the matatu stop. And I was tired. And my eyes hurt, as they often do at the end of the day from the dust. And I was sick of my boogers being black every evening when I got home from breathing black fumes from trucks and buses. And I was sick of people associating “white” with “rich” and assuming I always had money to hand out to them or buy their stuff. And I was sick of men yelling stupid things at me and I was sick of a lot of other less important things.
But I was happy to see my family when I got home. My mom came home from Sweden yesterday and brought lots of presents, mostly of the chocolate variety. I also got Chinese bootlegs of the OC Season 2 and Sopranos season 1 for about $5. They're poor quality and my money is probably supporting something terrible, but for that cheap, I had to give into my moral apprehensions...I guess everyone does at some point. I never thought I would be one of those OC people, but Kenya has a way of getting you into American TV (or awful Spanish soap operas for that matter-I can’t say I like them, but I do know the storylines now and they are strangely entertaining). I have decided 2 things though when I’m back-I’m still not going to watch any TV and I’m going to spend way less time surfing the internet.

Day to Day

October 22

Something I just remembered: on our flight over here we were over the Sahara desert for like 4 hours. It was daylight and clear so we could see it the whole time. A little bit freaky. I thought, man, even if we crash and survive, we’re still going to die because there is absolutely nothing but sand!

There are these “sad trees” I really like because they cry. I don’t know what they’re really called. Someone told me the pores are so large in the tree’s leaves that they can’t hold all their water so they drip constantly. I used to think whenever I walked in the park under them and they dripped on me that it was starting to rain.

The US embassy has the nicest library I’ve seen here. The books are recent, they have computers with fast internet. The things you take for granted in the US.

Art Workshop at the Sudanese Refugee Camp

October 21

Saturday was magnificent. I woke up early, a little nervous and anxious. I was meeting this artist I met at the GoDown to go out into one of the slums outside of Nairobi near his house to do this art workshop with Sudanese refugee kids. He’s done this for awhile, paying for all the supplies and snacks he gets for the kids out of his own pocket. He’s in the process of trying to expand it and get outside funding so that he can pay for some of the kids to go to school (because they can’t go now. Technically up to secondary education is free, but you still have to buy books and uniforms and all, so if you’re really poor, you can’t go to school) First was the anxiety of getting there-I sort of knew where I was going and made sure to ask a number of people along the way. I got part way there, then was told the matatu I was on didn’t go all the way where I wanted to go, so I had to switch to another one and made it almost to the spot where this guy said he’d pick me up in his car. I texted him and he met me where I was. We went out to Riuru and met up with his wife and a friend in the church in the slum (which was a square room made out of sheet metal). There were about 35 kids about ages 5-12 (there were 60 last week, but a lot of them left to go swimming that day). We did painting. John led them in some painting and color exercises after we sang some songs and I introduced myself in Kiswahili, then I became the subject for the day. All the kids painted their interpretations of me. It was so much fun and they were really good! I want to see if I can get a portrait or two from him. In the process of the day I had red paint explode all over me, and the kids thought that was pretty entertaining.
Afterwards we drove to the open-air market nearby to pick up some veggies and they invited me for dinner. On the drive back to their house the car ran out of gas because the gas gauge didn’t work. Fortunately we were about a 10 min. walk from home. Rosemary made dinner in their 2-room house and I played outside with the chickens and rabbits and their 3-year-old son. 3-year-olds are the perfect age for me to understand Kiswahili (although his is better than mine)!! We had spinach with onions, tomato and nyama-choma and ugali. It was super yummy, and good meat.
Then I made it home on the 1 hour matatu ride alive. Then all the K kids came over for a birthday party for Patrick. A fun night indeed.

Market Day

Tuesday, October 16

The Maasai market every Tuesday is so much fun, but it takes a lot out of you and I’m always come home Tuesday afternoons exhausted and completely filthy from sun and dust. I get kind of annoyed with myself when I think about some of the stuff I bought sometimes because I’m not always sure whether I could’ve gotten a better price for something. I’m getting a lot better at being firmer, but I can definitely do better. One has to get into this whole culture of what bargaining is, because there are so many theatrics involved in it, there is a balance between being nice and not getting ripped off, because a lot of the vendors see your skin color and try their hardest to rip you off if they can get you to fall for it. And it’s my fault for being stupid if I don’t know any better. I’ve always got to put on my firm bargaining face and frame of mind before I go into the market. Some of the vendors are super cool though and even though they know I don’t always want to buy anything from them, they just like chatting for awhile. These are the ones I like to hang out with.
Usually whenever I’m out traveling, I’m always eager to talk to anyone who is willing to talk. I love smiling at people getting into good conversations with strangers wherever I go. But here, I find myself being much more purposely reserved and avoiding eye contact when I’m walking and such. Many times, I feel like everyone who comes to talk to me always wants something. They’ll talk to me for awhile and seem nice and great, and then they always ask me for something-to pay for their school fees, to help them get a visa to the US, for my phone number-Kenyan men are really bold! I have to be so cold sometimes and this is so different from what I’m used to-making eye contact and smiling at people, just sharing a smile or moment’s connection with anyone, it’s hard to reach out to anyone because I’m the obvious visitor here.

Sunset in the city

Monday, October 15
6:15 pm, nearly dusk

I’m in my great sitting place just enjoying the breath of it all, something I do about every other day. This is the best place to watch night descend on the city. I love that here I have the kind of time to really enjoy things like this. I got home and climbed straight up here without going to my room first, so it isn’t really like I’ve arrived home yet even though I’m sitting on top of my building.

I look down and see the busy evening traffic, the cars lined up waiting for the light to change on Nyerere Road. People are walking below me across the way by the park, home from work, home from school. Its busy below, yet I am separated from it all in my own little world. I am up about 5 or 6 stories with my feet dangling over the edge of the landing where all the building’s satellite dishes reside. I am almost even with the tops of these huge trees. Giant beautiful black and red birds glide overhead and land in the branches of the trees right in front of me. In the gap through the treetop where I’m sitting I can see the skyscrapers of the city. The evening sun has cast a brilliant orange light on them. Jackavin (or some word like that) trees are in bloom everywhere with their tiny yet vivid indigo blossoms, covering everything when they fall. A crane or a stork flaps away nearby every once in awhile. The birds are beginning to head home. Meanwhile the sky gets deeper and deeper blue while the moon begins to rise and the AON Insurance company behind me turns on its giant white neon sign. My shoulders are growing chilly and the skyscrapers in front of me no longer have their dazzling orange vibrancy. The cars down below have now cleared out and just drive by in a constant stream. The men in the street selling sim cards, car mats and snacks have gone. The streetlights down below me illuminate the darkening sidewalk. The cars still stream. The people still walk. Life goes on.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Sunday, October 14

We had a great day today, the fam and I. Kalanzo Musyoka, the 3^rd presidential candidate had his opening campaign rally today in Uhuru Park across the street. Since it was a Sunday, cousins were hanging out at the house when I wandered in in the morning. I wanted to check out the rally at some point just to see what it was like so Michelle, Chippa and I walked down there in search of ice cream. It was fun! Orange all over the place and thousands and thousands of people. It seemed a little more low-key than the Raila rally 2 weekends ago, but there were still a zillion people there. I was tempted to climb up some of the trees to see better the way that some people had done. We asked if they were still giving out T-shirts, but they said that was only in the morning. The guy said he’d get us some shirts later on though, so hopefully I have one coming! Then I had to study for my Kiswahili exam tomorrow so I headed over to Java House downtown because it’s about the only coffee house open on Sunday. I convinced Michelle and Chippa to come meet me later, insisting they would be helpful as fluent Kiswahili speakers. They didn’t seem so enthused, but must’ve been bored because they still showed up. I think they were surprised at how much fun we had. We probably stayed there 3 or 4 hours practicing Kiswahili and laughing about all kinds of stuff. Then chapati and ndengu (mashed beans and peas) for dinner, my favorite! (even though I accidentally told someone we were eating ndege which means airplane or bird, teehee) A lovely Sunday.

Happy Moi Day

Wednesday October 10

Yeah, former president Moi made a holiday for himself on his birthday, just like he named everything from streets in every town and universities and schools all after himself. We’ve been learning in political science about how the president here came to be revered and glorified as a god, his picture is required to be in every public building, you’ll get arrested for urinating in it’s presence (haha) and all the negative consequences of that, like making the president above the laws. Anyway, we get school off today! There was big debate over whether they should change it and not count it as a public holiday anymore because Moi’s legacy isn’t too admired by many, they might change it after this year.

It worked out well because Michelle’s birthday is also today so we went out last night and didn’t have to worry about waking up early in the morning for class. It was a really fun family outing-Michelle, Rhoda and Cheryl (my sisters) all went and Rachel (from K-our hostmoms are sisters, making us host cousins!), my host cousin Chippa, and Rhoda’s boyfriend. Today Rachel and Piper and I found this hotel up the road from my house where there is a pool people can pay 200 Ksh to swim in for the day. It was SO nice, and a beautiful day! (Most days here are beautiful and sunny) I think I’ll go there more often, there’s also a pool at the university that’s free, but I have to find where it is.

My mom went left this morning for Sweden for some kind of YWCA conference presentation and will be gone until the 23^rd. It’s funny that I just walked into the kitchen and thought to myself, “oh, we’ll have to cook our own food for the next two weeks. Wait, Mercy cooks all of the food” Mercy is our “housegirl.” They always refer to her by that title, even though she’s a grown woman. It’s interesting that I make that association with moms and cooking food, even though my mom here doesn’t cook any of the food.

A random observation: There are a lot of random holes in the sidewalks to watch out for as you’re walking. Lots of manhole covers are open often or just covers taken off of things I guess. Sometimes there are cones around them, but sometimes not, you just have to be careful. There’s also tons of construction all over the place, I think because Kenya is developing so rapidly.

I love palm trees. And these gigantic yellow flowers with blooms bigger than your hand in a huge archway at the university. I love all the plants here so much! I’m not missing the fall weather at home that I love so much when I’m there anymore. We’re moving into summer and wow, this weather is niiiice!

Eldoret Daytrip

Tuesday, October 9

On Saturday my mom, Michelle and a driver and I all drove to Eldoret for the day where my youngest sister, Monique, who is 15 goes to boarding school. It was long day-12 hours in the car for 3 hours spent at the school. It was so much fun though! I like riding in the car, just looking out the window and chatting. This was a really bad road though…and I thought the road to Mombasa was bad! Dad, you thought Shippy Road should have been renamed something else on our bike trip because it was so bad. Man, Shippy was smooth as ice compared to what we were driving on to Eldoret! You just had to slow down to about 5 MPH a lot to slowly drive over all the huge potholes and ruts. It’s sad that the roads are so badly taken care of, and that a trip that should take under 3 hours takes 6+ hours. It’s not like the state doesn’t have the money, it’s just mismanaged and not made a priority.

Anyhow, we got there in one piece and I got to meet Monique finally. She’s so great! She ran into the car, gave me a big hug and said “Alexandra!” when she saw me. We also met up with another sister, Cheryl who is 18 or 19 I think and goes to Moi University near Eldoret. Louis, a close family friend who also goes to Moi University also came. So now I’ve met all my siblings except for the 2 in the US. We had a really nice picnic lunch with all kinds of food! Chapati, fried chicken, pilau, beef, soda, mandazi (a little like donuts), samosas. It was amazing, we had good times eating and chatting and seeing Moni’s school-(they call her that too, Mom!) It was family visitor’s day, that’s why we came. Then a long long journey home that seemed to go on forever. We also brought Cheryl home with us because she just finished her semester so she’s home for the next 2 weeks. This is why I missed the rally in Uhuru Park on Saturday, there will be more though.

Happy birthday today, John Lennon!

Election Excitement!

Monday, October 8

One thing that has really excited me about being in Kenya is seeing all the challenges to overcome here and the way that the past few years have seen so much rapid growth. As I’ve mentioned before, Kenya gained independence from Britian in 1963 so it’s a very new country. I think it’s because of this newness, many of the Kenyans I’ve encountered have a very optimistic outlook for their country. None of them deny that the country has huge problems with poverty, tribalism, crime, corruption, effects of colonialism, etc, but all of those problems actually seem manageable with time, especially seeing how much positive development has occurred just in the 40ish years since independence. With the fervor for the elections growing more and more every day, I can see how hopeful many Kenyans feel about the future. President Moi’s 24-year presidency (dictatorship) which ended in 2002 put a damper on a lot of the political, social and economic development the country achieved after independence. But since that time, with Kibaki’s presidency so much growth has happened and I feel really excited for where the country is headed in the future. In my political science class (which is beyond excellent, by the way) we’ve had quite a number of “save-the-world discussions” as I like to call them, talking about solutions to the world’s problems. We all gave presentations last week about the ways that Kenya can overcome the colonial legacy left behind by the British and I felt so enthused by some of the answers we came up with. The world’s problems all seem so easy with discussions like that geared toward positive solutions.

Anyway, I feel really excited for the political future of this country and I hope that they continue with the track record they’ve had for the past few years. This past Saturday Raila Odinga (the candidate I’m supporting) had his rally to open his campaign in Uhuru Park, the huge park just down from my house where all kinds of events, political and otherwise, take place. (It’s funny to me as a US citizen that presidential candidates officially open their campaign only 2 months before the election, whereas in the US everything’s been heating up for awhile now and we’ve still got a year!) I unfortunately was out of town for the day with my family, but from what I heard of the rally it was fantastic. Nothing crazy happened, which was good, no riots or anything which is always the fear at these types of things in Kenya. The students who went to it said the air was really festive, cultural, celebratory and unifying. They stayed more on the outskirts of it all, which sounds like it was the more fun place anyway, where people were singing, dancing, partying, chanting and handing out all kinds of pins and orange flowers (because Raila’s party is the Orange Democratic Movement), celebrating. Right now Raila’s ahead by a lot in the polls, but all that can change really quickly (and Kibaki-his opponent and the current president-has ultimate control over when the election day is, and can do a lot to rig the elections). This is one problem with the unchecked presidential power in Kenya and something that really needs to be changed.

On the other hand, there is a lot of underhanded dirty stuff that goes on in the political realm. The health minister in Kenya is this really cool woman who speaks her mind and doesn’t really care what people are saying about her and she was sacked by the president on Saturday. The reason? She voiced her support for ODM, the president’s opposition. So much for freedom of speech. Also during the rally, the electricity in various parts of the city was turned off so that people couldn’t see the rally at home on TV…hmmm, very suspicious indeed. So the current president has a big advantage over anyone running against him because he enjoys so much unchecked power. It’s way exciting though, as you can probably tell by my lengthy descriptions of the Kenyan political scene.

Monday, October 8

I think that I am going to be a lot more participatory and vocal in classes after study abroad. This is a side effect that I hadn’t anticipated at all. It’s not that I’m completely silent in classes, but I usually am not one of the more talkative ones. Perhaps part of it has just been that I’ve been in classes now from 4-10 students so we’re all forced to participate in class discussions more. But a bigger part of the reason is that my level of confidence in everything that I do has grown immensely just in the time I’ve been here. I feel much more competent and confident about facing the world.

The GoDown

Friday, October 5

I might’ve just spent the best hour I’ve had so far in Kenya squished into the back of a Jeep with seven other people I just met stuck in Friday afternoon Nairobi traffic. We talked about all kinds of music, the elections, poetry, songwriting, recorded some stuff for a radio talk show and exchanged some phone numbers. Let me backtrack. I just got back from seeing where my ICRP internship for the next few months is going to be and I think it just may be the hottest internship I could possibly get. I am so excited!!

Part of our program here is doing an Integrative Cultural Research Project (ICRP) where we find some kind of local internship or develop a project for the purpose of integrating us more with the locals, improving language use, appreciating the cultural values, etc. We worked with our University of Nairobi program directors to find places we were interested in doing an internship. So I’ll be working at the GoDown Arts Center in the Industrial Area of Nairobi. It was started in 2003 for all different kinds of art and we just went down there today to check it out and sort of get a feel for what we’d specifically like to do there. They’ve never had interns before, but I think that’s going to be a really good thing because it opens it up a lot for us and, looking at the wide variety of stuff they have going on down there, I have lots of options. They’ve got a variety of dance and acrobatic troupes, a TV station, a radio talk show, music recording studios, galleries, and about 30 studios for local and international artists. There are various organizations having to do with the arts that house their offices and studios there, so I can affiliate myself with any one of them. (See www.thegodownartscentre.com, I haven’t looked at the website yet) I told them that I’m interested in doing some kind of community based art work if they have anything like that going on, so next week they’re setting me up to talk to some of the people doing work like that. One of the guys works doing art workshops in slums like Kibera and another is a dance troupe that takes kids out of the slums and teaches them how to dance. There were some other people too that I’m going to talk to. Mainly, I’m just so excited to be able to hang out down there all the time and see what all is going down at the GoDown (teehee) and in the art world of Nairobi which seems like it’s really been emerging within the last few years (everything in Nairobi has really flourished in the past few years, since 2002 when President Moi was finally gone)

Day to Day

Monday October 1, 2007

Kiswahili words and phrases are coming more and more naturally to me. I can say all the basic conversational things now. I’m not really capable of having that interesting of a conversation at this point in Kiswahili, but I can manage.

Each night before I go to bed I have to scrub my feet off with the washbasin and scrub brush in my room, particularly if I wore sandals that day because my feet get so dusty they’re completely brown by the end of the day. The sidewalk next to the park isn’t paved so it gets really dusty whenever it’s not raining and really muddy whenever it is.

I laughed when I saw my face on my University of Nairobi student ID. It’s so bleached out you can hardly see my face probably because the cameras are adjusted for Kenyan complexions. I remember in photography class when they taught us how to adjust our cameras for “ethnic faces.” I’m sure that was the case here. You’ve gotta take the skin color thing with a grain of salt. Mostly it just makes me laugh whenever all of us in the program are out walking somewhere in the city, like some giant walking white circus exhibit, everyone stares. It’s great fun.

I feel very complimented whenever someone tells me I did something like a true Kenyan. It’s the ultimate compliment. The other night my sister’s friend saw my ugali on my plate and said “Good girl! You’ve got a true portion of ugali there, no tourist portion!”

In Mombasa, Jamie and I finally figured out the trick to flushing Kenyan toilets as all of us had been having a great deal of trouble in this particular area. It’s all a matter of the FFF, that is, the Firm and Forceful Flush. I won’t even mention some of the other jokes that came out of this. Without the FFF, man, it’s never gonna work.

Mexican soaps broadcast in Kenya make for quite the comical evening. This top notch acting filmed at least 10 years ago is made even better by the fact that their mouths don’t follow what they’re saying since it’s dubbed into very expressive English.
Yes, you may perhaps think that I am wasting my time here watching this, but I insist, it’s quite a cultural experience!

I’m starting to get into really into hip-hop which is easily the most popular music here at least for the younger crowd. A couple of my sister’s friends are DJs at various clubs in town so I’ve gone to some slam poetry nights and I’m into it.

One girl in our K group constantly inserts the greatest puns into our conversations. I love it! No one bothers to make puns these days.

I spent this past weekend at the Nairobi International Film Festival which was amazing!!! And all free!! Lots of really good, powerful films, often with some kind of link to Africa in them but not always. It’s going on until Friday of this week! Yay!

Politics and Other Pursuasive Phenomena

Monday, October 1

Politics is a huge thing in Kenya at the moment because within the next 2 months a new president of Kenya is going to be elected. I am so much more up on the news here than I ever am in the US. I watch it each night in both Kiswahili and English. Each morning the headlines in the paper are always about the race. Mwai Kibaki, the current president is running for a second term with the Party for National Unity, while his opposition, Raila Odinga, is with the Orange Democratic Party. There are other candidates running too, but they’re the main ones. It’s so cool being in Nairobi, the center of it all and not experiencing it at a distance the way it is in the US. Our house is just across the street from Uhuru Park which is where all the political rallies take place, so we hear whenever there’s something going on there, and then see it on the news that evening. Yesterday morning a big caravan went by with Kibaki on it giving a speech from the top of a van. Later more trucks drove by with people singing reggae music about the praises of Kibaki. All the city is abuzz with all the latest election news every day.
It’s so interesting watching the election process unfold in a “developing country.” It’s similar in a lot of ways to the way it works in the US, but a lot of things are different as well. Basically, it’s a lot less formalized than the US. The candidates didn’t even declare they were running until a few weeks ago. Actually Kibaki just officially announced his campaign this past Saturday, while Odinga’s campaign launch is set for this coming Saturday. An interesting thing about this is that both of their campaign launches were supposed to be last week, but mysteriously Odinga’s got cancelled at the last minute. Very fishy. Another difference between the two is the way the youth get out and riot all the time at the rallies. Riots occur all the time about stuff like this, especially during elections. This is also the reason why our classes aren’t with other Kenyan students at the UoN. More so in the past than now, the university used to go on strike about various things and the students would take to the streets and riot. This could easily cancel classes for a month or so, which, if we were in those classes, would totally screw up our program. Anyway, it’s exciting and I’m eager to see how it all works out. (I think I’m for Raila although I’m not super certain about that.) Kenya got independence from Britian in 1963 and after that Jomo Kenyatta was the first president. The country really seemed to be on the right track to getting itself out of all the crap colonization left it with as best as it can. Then Moi became president and I guess he was ok at first, but then became like a dictator and ruled for 24 years and every single Kenyan I’ve talked to says he is a huge part of the reason for all the bad things here, mainly the corruption in the government became rampant because of him, and that corruption causes a lot of the other problems this country faces. I get the impression that the country just went completely downhill from anything Kenyatta helped it do when Moi was in power. The presidential power here is kind of an unchecked power and people here revere the president as a god, above the law. (in fact I’ll get arrested if I urinate in the presence of the president’s picture!) It’s kind of a blind trust in the president-much of it brought on by British colonization….which by the way, messed up this country so good. Nearly all the obstacles to the problems here are related in some way to European colonization. Anyway, then they finally got rid of Moi and Kibaki was elected in 2002 and he seems like he’s done his best to help out. It’s so hard to figure out whether candidates are good though, because when you talk to many Kenyans, much of it revolves around what tribe people are a part of and many tend to have loyalty only to their tribe regardless of a candidate’s political positions. (Another result of colonization, when the British did their best to pit the tribes against each other so that they would fight amongst themselves rather than unify against the British). Anyhow, I have yet to figure out the real story about each of these candidates. It's always a good conversation topic though.

Mombasa Safari

Monday, September 24, 2007

Last week our program took us on an all-expenses paid trip to gorgeous coastal city of Mombasa for Kiswahili camp. The eight hour drive started out on the world’s bumpiest road. Now this was no gravel road, this road to Mombasa. This was like rumble strips times 10. I didn’t know roads this bumpy could exist, honestly. My head kept hitting the ceiling and window and there were a couple times when I was sure this was my last day on earth. Only about 1 ½ hours was like that though and the rest felt like smooth sailing in comparison. (A new highway is between Nairobi and Mombasa is almost complete fortunately) I loved the ride though, apart from thinking I might die. The scenery looks just like the Lion King and there were baboons and zebras along the side of the road just hanging out, eating some grass and stuff. It was so cool!!!!!! I loved seeing the rural areas after only seeing the huge metropolis of Nairobi.

We stayed at the swanky Mombasa Beach Hotel right on the coast and certainly “not real Mombasa” where we had Kiswahili class each morning and fun outings and beach lounging and adventuring around the city all afternoon. It was way fun, especially to hang out with all of the people in my program all together and all the members of my family commented on how dark I looked when I got back. One afternoon we bargained with the guys on the beach for an afternoon of snorkeling. We went out on wooden sailboats handmade by our guides out of a single mango tree to the reef out in the ocean where we got snorkels and masks and got to look at some of the coolest fish I’ve ever seen, just swimming around in the reef. I saw the deepest color red starfish and puffer fish and little neon green and blue fish and zebra fish and rainbow-color changing fish, and gigantic vibrant shells with scorpions living inside that would reach out and these prickly dangerous looking sea anemones.
Another day we went on a nature hike in this reserve where we saw giraffes, monkeys, the biggest turtles I’ve ever seen that were 130 years old!!! All of them just walking around not in cages or anything. We saw hippos and antelopes and all kinds of storks and other birds. Then we saw snakes and crocodiles and other lizards. We went to Fort Jesus, the 16th century Portuguese fort and walked around the old town of Mombasa which was way cool. I wanted to spend a lot more time there than we did, but we’ll definitely be back sometime, probably on Christmas break.
Other than that it was lots of fun relaxing time and Kiswahili time chilling with our professors who are really really great to hang out with. All but one on our program is having their birthday while we’re here and we had the first while in Mombasa! So I think by the end we’re going to have this birthday party thing down! Best reason ever to throw a party! At the hotel restaurant at dinner the entire staff came out in a parade with huge torches and a cake and sang to her. It was a great night! This trip came at a perfect time in the adjustment process and was just what I needed then. I came home feeling so relaxed and ready to be in Nairobi again (although I was jealous our program wasn’t in Mombasa the whole time, mainly because of the beach and how cool the city is). Nairobi’s getting pretty cool in my book too though. Weather’s great, summer’s on it’s way.

the idea of time

I'm logging onto this and realizing how much time has really gone by and how different my thoughts are from just a few short weeks ago about Kenya. Already nearly a month has gone by that I've been here. I have a feeling time will only speed up faster and faster from here. It has felt very long and very short at the same time. I haven't written about our week in Mombasa extravaganza yet! I will soon, it was fantastic!

By the way, if anyone wants my mailing address here, email me at my kzoo address. Mail is great...hint, hint!
And email me updates on all the news in the mitten (or wherever you are)
So far my attempts to upload photos have been thwarted by a) slow computers b) my impatience and lack of effort c) not knowing how to upload more than one photo per post...any advice? email.

Chakula ya Kenya

(Kenyan Cuisine)

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Many of the typical Kenyan dishes are common throughout all of East Africa. The character of the foods tends to be simple and filling, with some kind of starch with meat although I try to get a lot of fruits and vegetables in there too. Kenyan meals nearly always include some kind of meat, usually beef or chicken. This was a little tricky for me to get used to because although I’m not vegetarian, my diet at home rarely included meat. The first 2 weeks or so, my fingernails started growing a lot more quickly than usual. I don’t know the reason, but something in my diet I assume, maybe meat? One traditional Kenyan food available everywhere is ugali, that I think I’ve tried to describe before. I didn’t really like it that much at first, but it’s delicious now. It always has to be eaten with something like meat and sauce or kale or cabbage, because it’s pretty bland on it’s own. We also have rice a lot or pilau which is brown rice with pieces of meat mixed in sort of like a stew. Chapati is also a common meal in Kenyan households, borrowed from Indian cuisine, similar to a tortilla with rice or chicken. Chapati is one of my favorite meals…Ninapenda chapati sana. For lunch often we go out and grab something quick from Nakumatt, the grocery store or a bakery or local joint, which are kind of hit or miss-sometimes I’ve gotten some pretty tough chicken stew. Often I’ll get a samosa or sandwich from a bakery-sandwiches are always considered appetizers by Kenyan standards and never a meal, so they’re usually really cheap.

Breakfast in my house is pretty simple, which I like a lot. I know some of the other students have elaborate breakfasts of tea, eggs, meat, fruit and ugi (breakfast porridge drink) every morning. I am happy that I get to walk in the kitchen, pour myself a mug of tea from one of the numerous thermoses around the kitchen (tea is the drink of Kenya…I probably drink 4 glasses a day) It’s made with milk and sugar and so doesn’t usually taste like the typical tea I’m used to, but it’s delicious. Then I pour a bowl of cornflakes or have some toast and jam.

In the city there are lots of nice restaurants of all varieties. There is a strong Indian influence, but it tastes a lot different than real Indian food, still good though. And there is a really nice American style coffee house that has really yummy and very American tasting burgers and toasted sandwiches. Also interesting to me is the wide variety of Mexican food available at the American place. It’s slightly more expensive than other restaurants (a whopping $4 for a sandwich, which isn’t bad obviously, but cheaper can certainly be found) With money I’ve found it’s wiser to not convert to American all the time, because you’ll think you’re getting a good deal and you’re really not.

I am surprised there are really no American chain fast-food restaurants anywhere. I’ve not seen a single McDonalds since coming here or any other American restaurants for that matter. I have seen restaurants with American names though, like there’s a Taco Bell, which is a bar that ironically serves no Mexican food, and the other day we saw a restaurant called Hooters that looked nothing like it’s American counterpart of the same name.

Maintaining

**Note-I added a lot of posts at once so they'll be in chronological order if you start with the first one added today. I'll get a few pictures up asap!

It’s amazing how much time one can kill just maintaining. I can wake up, make my bed, charge my ipod, handwash my clothes, hang them all up, read the newspaper, take a shower. And already it’s afternoon. But I’ve managed to avoid the constantly running television once again. Previous to this trip, I disliked TV most of the time, seeing the way it completely absorbed people and abandoned real human connections for for empty entertainment. In these past few weeks that dislike has grown into an infuriated hate. I am so frustrated by the barrier to real human connection the television provides, the ability to turn your mind off and numb it whenever you want—and at least in my house, thatgoes on a lot. “What else are we going to do?” my sister says. Talk? At least once in awhile maybe? I like the Kenyan news though, sometimes it's in Kiswahili and sometimes in English. They get straight to the point and never have the fluff stories you always see on American news stations. I'm getting better at getting conversations with my sisters going. I just get restless sometimes, especially after dark, which occurs around 6:30 each evening when it’s dangerous to go out and I'm stuck in the house. I watch TV with them sometimes, but other times go and write or read a book or do a crossword. It's forced me to be creative and I keep coming up with new things I can do with myself in the evenings.

I still value the artistry and creative potential of movies and TV shows, but most of what is on has no creative value, and in my opinion, pretty limited entertainment value as well. That might sound snobby or something (sorry for those who like Desperate Housewives and One Tree Hill), but it’s dangerous when it goes this far, it’s an obsession with something so empty. Also, I don’t want to let it hinder the relationship I’ve begun to develop with my sisters. I came here yearning for real conversations about real things with people, and I’m becoming bored talking constantly about American movies and American television. America is an expert at exporting it’s “culture.” That is one lesson I’ve learned a countless number of times even in my short time being here. Any advice on how to adjust to this way of life and not let it get me down?

I’m also feeling kind of isolated here. The 10 of us Kalamazoo kids have kind of been clinging to each other these past few weeks because it’s one of our only options. I think were all feeling sort of similarly. Yet we live far away from each other, and I don’t really want to spend all my time in Kenya hanging out with people from home. It’s difficult to integrate at the university because our classes are only with each other; there are no Kenyan students in our classes which makes it difficult to integrate oneself with the campus. My sisters are nice enough, but not always interested in including me and getting to know me. They have their own lives and don’t go out of their way much for me. That is nice in a way, because then I don’t feel I’m being a burden to anyone and I’m free to just do my own thing, but at the same time, it’s isolating constantly conversing within a small bubble-mostly with myself. It's getting better though every day. I know I'm a slow mover with these kinds of things and it just takes me some time. In the spring before we left, Kalamazoo had us write about what types of things we anticipated would be the hardest, or most stressful to get used to. I remember that I wrote about the Westernization or Americanization occurring at an exponential rate in Kenyan society because I'd heard from past students how surprised they were at how revered Western culture is there. So here we go, I guess I predicted well.

In other news, I learned how to ride both a matatu and a bus yesterday. They're pretty fun and a good time to chat with people even if the ride really toughens up your knees-esp. when you're 5'8 like me. and I saw the Nairobi National Park and lots of animals-namely, cheetahs and lions!!!! yay!! And we’re going to Mombasa tomorrow for 5 days to practice Kiswahili! The character of Mombasa is supposed to be much more rich and community-oriented than the commerciality/business orientation of Nairobi. All the tourbooks talk about Nairobi like it's the place where visitors always start out, but don't stay in for long because doesn't have much vibrant character. Most everyone who lives there are newcomers who've moved there from their tribes for work. That's the case with my family and most of the other families I've talked to. The Kenyan economy has been doing really well these past few years and so there is a rising middle class which is great, but the gap between rich and poor is still huge-especially when you see the suburbs like Karen (Blixen, Out of Africa fame) that used to be for the rich white plantation owners outside the city and then slums like Kibera existing nearly side by side. But the rising middle class will provide a kind of stability I think.