Uneventful

September 25, 2007

So, Africa continues. Not too much has happened since the last entry. We’re now into Week 3 of school. I have had no homework yet. Not even reading. So, pretty much, I go to class then bum around all day. Classes are still frustrating as everything we do is so inefficient and the teaching style here is so different. Pretty much a professor will read his notes and expect you to copy them word-for-word. I don’t really like any of my professors and the classes aren’t very intellectually stimulating.

After going to Kibera the first time, Mike and I got sick with this cough. The first week of coughing wasn’t too terrible. The worst of it was trying to fall asleep at night. The second week of being sick, things got bad. Around Wednesday of the second week Mike and I went to the medical center on campus and they pretty much just gave us drugs. On Thursday I was really, really sick and pretty much stayed in my room all day except for classes. Our RAs kept asking us how we were and telling us if we weren’t better the next day, they would make us go to the hospital. Now, yes I was really sick, but going to the hospital seemed a bit excessive. By Friday we were still really sick and were a little scared about having TB so we decided to hit up the hospital as suggested. I realized I left my insurance card at home, so I had to jump through so many hoops to arrange to get another copy and then work with the woman at USIU who is in charge of international students since we didn’t get USIU insurance and yeah it was just a lot of time wasted. But we figured it out. Then we went to see a different doctor at the medical clinic, and after talking to him, he said we really didn’t need to go to the hospital and just gave us different drugs. So I went back to sleep. Mike and I missed the first weekend of partying in Nairobi. Oh well. By Monday I was feeling better but still had a bad cough.

Things get pretty boring here so on Wednesday Mike and I decided to catch the USIU bus downtown and do whatever we could down there. Mike wanted to take some pictures too. We pretty much wandered around and got to know the city better. We also bought the first and second seasons of Scrubs for cheap. (Instead of Season 1, the disc we got had like 10 war movies instead. Oh well. This is Africa. Season 2 works just fine, thankfully.) It feels good to know I can find my way around the city now.

Thursday night (the biggest party night of the week) a few of us were bumming around and decided that rather than be losers, we would just go out and do something nearby. All the pool tables at Fifis were taken, so we walked down the road to Safari Park and the boys had a drink at Cat’s Club (C.C.s.) It was only like 1030 so the club was pretty empty and boring. So, we went to the casino. Mike and I didn’t want to gamble so we just hung out outside. Josh and Steven both won a lot of money playing slots. Eventually other friends came back from dinner at the ambassador’s house and were at C.C.s too. By midnight Mike and I were bored so we went back home.

Friday everyone went back to Kibera, but I stayed on campus. I thought Dijana and I were going shopping, but that got cancelled. Boring day. People were going gambling again Friday night so Mike and I watched a few episodes of Scrubs instead.

Saturday was my big adventure. Pach Pach, the Sudanese refugee I brought things to, invited me to come have lunch with him at his home. Mike and Dijana were both going to come, but Dijana ended up going back to Lake Naivasha for the weekend and Mike went to Nairobi National Park with KEI so I was all alone. I was nervous at first, but all turned out well. Pach Pach came all the way from his house to pick me up so I would be safe getting there. Very nice guy. We started walking down the road to USIU when some guy in a pick-up truck just sort of pulled over and Pach Pach acted like he knew him. I thought we were planning on taking a matatu so I figured a friend of Pach Pach’s appeared out of nowhere and was giving us a ride. It didn’t seem like a taxi so I was kind of confused. Very Africa. Apparently Pach Pach had met this dude once before and they were from the same area so the guy was just being nice and giving us a cheap ride to town. For about two seconds I was nervous that I was being sold or something. I lucked out. Anyway, we got to town, then went to the Hilton to grab a bus. I’m finally getting the buses now too. We hopped onto a 46 and took it to the end of the line. Pach Pach lives pretty much in a slum. He has a pretty nice apartment. A feast was waiting for us and we ate lunch with his cousin while watching Congolese music videos. Afterwards we talked for a long time about the U.S. and about various cultural differences. Pach Pach can never get married because in order to get married in his culture, you must pay a dowry of 25 cows and he can’t afford that. He also cannot date because that would be a distraction and could lead to devious things like sex and having kids outside of marriage. It sounded lonely. We ended up leaving an hour later than planned and I was a little nervous about not making it home before dark. Luckily everything worked out and I even got home earlier than planned. Overall, a very good day. I’m sure I’ll go back there.

Sunday Mike and I both woke up late but decided to catch a bus downtown to find the Masai market since we had nothing else to do. We ran into a lot of people on the way. We took the 46 bus to Ya Ya (and missed our stop) but eventually got to the market. We’re learning. I bought some gifts for people at home. I’m pretty good at negotiating prices. Mike bought a badass spear and got a good price. After about an hour we got on a bus back downtown, then only just caught the USIU bus home.

Monday was an interesting day. The new library opened on Monday. The building is sooo huge and looks really amazing. It only cost $1.75 million to build; this if for a building that would def cost like $30 million in the US. To celebrate its opening, Kibaki (the president of Kenya) came to the school for an entire day of celebrations. Unfortunately I still had to go to my 9:00 class. After class we went down to the ceremonies where we sat in the sun for hours. While Kibaki was on campus, we weren’t allowed in the hostels cause otherwise someone could shoot him or something. So we were trapped at this ceremony. I’m sunburnt now. After there was a BBQ and we got free lunch (after waiting in line for an hour.) I guess it was pretty cool to see the president.

Today the library was open for the first time. I waited in a line for nearly 2 hours just to get my fingerprint scanned since that’s how they let you into the building. Thank god that’s over. They don’t have the wireless set up yet and you cant plug into the internet with your laptop yet either. They said this afternoon, which in African means maybe tomorrow it’ll be ready. It’s not quiet in here either. They’re still hammering away to finish the building. It’s pretty cool though. There’s a lot of space. So I think I’m going to finally sit down and look over my notes from the last 3 weeks of school. It’s so weird to not have anything to do, so I’m going to make an effort to try and really make everything I’ve learned stick in my brain. Alright, here I go.