School Starts

September 11, 2007

Our pseudo-vacation has ended and classes have begun. Last week was pretty slow for the most part. Tuesday and Wednesday we just bummed around at school and picked up new international students. From Thursday-Friday I went to Naivasha and Hells Gate National Park with Mike, Dijana, Robin, and Ladu. Ladu is from Sudan and has a car here. He offered to take us home with him in December. This is exciting. Anyway, it took a while to drive there. We were stopped at a roadblock and were questioned by this police officer that looked like a general. He seemed friendly and sounded like he was joking when he told us it was illegal to not wear seatbelts in Kenya. Robin talked to him and apparently he was serious and we would have to each pay 6000 shillings as a fine. Robin took charge and paid him off and that was that. Ohhh corruption. I seriously don’t know what we would do without Robin.

We had planned to camp in the park on Thursday and spend all day Friday in the park exploring. We got there, Robin talked to the guys, and then decided for us that it would be cheaper to stay at this resort on Lake Naivasha instead. Things were going exactly opposite how we had planned, but that is the Kenyan way. We ended up camping at the resort, but it was a serious joke. It felt like we were just camping in our backyard or something. There was a pool and it was seriously a nice place. We ate food from the local market and then crashed pretty early. Friday Mike and I insisted we go to Hells Gate even though it appeared more expensive than we planned. We got there, drove through the park and saw lots of animals. There were zebras, giraffes, buffalos, antelopes, and baboons. Very cool. Then we parked at this ranger’s station and were able to get a guide to take us through the gorges and hot springs. We would have been so lost without our guide. Apparently parts of Laura Croft: Tomb Raider were filmed in the gorge there. The springs were cool. At one point the gorge was so narrow we had to take off our shoes and walk through the warm water. Then we hiked up to the top of a hill and were greeted by a Maasai community. They were amazing. They showed us one of their mud huts, explained about their lifestyle, and then danced for us. They were so nice. They told us we could come back and stay with them for a celebration if we wanted. We bought some jewelry and then headed back to the car. We did all that by 1pm and we were exhausted. Drove back to school.

Saturday the new international students went on a tour of Nairobi. Mike and I stayed behind and caught up on sleep, walked to Nakumatt for water and some other things, and used the internet at school finally. Rosa, Aaron, and Catherine returned from Lamu and we all caught up and gossiped and had fun.

Sunday I got a call from the refugee I was in contact with here in Nairobi and he informed me he was on his way to school to pick up the stuff I had for him. When I asked how soon he would be here, he responded with “ok thank you bye” and hung up. Typical. Mike, Dijana and I waited by the gate for a long time. Eventually the refugees showed up and I took them to lunch. They were both very nice and it was good to talk to them for a while.

Monday classes started. We were warned that professors don’t even show up on the first day a lot of the time. Dijana and I had class at 9 together. We woke up early and went to the library when it opened to get our books. That took sooooo long and was so ridiculous. I only have 1 book. Crazy. Went to class and waited for the professor until like 920. Then figured out we were in the wrong class. Found the right room where the professor finally showed up at 940. The first 20 minutes he talked about why its important to read for class and do you work and work hard. He said “do it for yourself, and if not for yourself, do it for your parents who pay your fees.” Yeah right. Then he preached to us about teamwork and how Jesus is God and Jesus believed in teamwork. Bad times. We never even talked about International Humanitarian Law. So my first class wasn’t great. Went back to the hostels after and Mike and I were people of action and got a whole bunch done on campus. Then class again at 530. The professor was an improvement. Very energetic and we actually talked about African development. The professor was hitting on me a lot and he made me his secretary (even though he kept calling me Tracy) and talked about how he was going to take me on a date to get coffee. Awkward!!! Then he dropped a bomb on us. He asked if we could just not have Wednesday classes cause it interfered with his schedule. So now we don’t have Wednesday class. I’m a little bummed cause this class was going to be amazing and I want to learn as much as I can. We’ll see how this works out.

Had another class this morning. Sooo much better. The professor is so smart. We talked about current events for a while. Then we each had to introduce ourselves. Then class ended. And here I am. About to go to lunch, then my last class at 120. Oh, did I mention the library isn’t open until the 21^st and there wont be wireless internet until next week and the computer lab is always PACKED? Yeah, great times. I’m out.

loves

Into Week 2

September 5, 2007

It’s been a whole week since I’ve had the chance to sit and jot down everything that’s been going on. It’s busy here, but great. Last Thursday we piled into the USIU van (driven by the great Julius Manga, the best USIU driver to ever exist. We all love him and he told me I could go live with him in the country. What a champ) and drove to a giraffe park. We got to feed the giraffes and pet them and if you put a treat between your lips, the giraffes will kiss you. It was really amazing. Then we went on a walk through the park, led by a guide, and we ran into one of the male giraffes (named Joc…we called him Old Joc haha) and were almost chased down. A bit scary but still very cool. We got a lot of cool pictures from that day.

Friday was the start of us really learning true Kenyan culture and it was a bit frustrating. It seems that there is always very little communication about what is going on so we are always pretty confused about where we are going, what we are doing, etc. Friday we really got a crash course in Kenya time too. Something you would expect to take maybe a half an hour will take at least 2-3 hours here. It can be a bit maddening. Friday we all met at 1030am to go to Machakos (a town in the country) to visit Robin’s family and go to an orphanage for the weekend. We all thought we were leaving Nairobi at 11 and were going to meet up with some of Robin’s friends from church, then drive to Machakos (a two hour drive to get 60 miles away.) Upon leaving the school we all found out that we were throwing a party for the orphans and had to pick up supplies. We went to a mall and were there forever. Then we went and ate pizza and we were there forever again. Robin then informed us we weren’t leaving Nairobi until 4pm. Robin constantly disappears too and we have no idea where he goes until an hour later he shows up from somewhere where he had to do some business. Kind of shady and weird. Anyway, we had to trek across Nairobi with all these bags of food (that we all had to pay for unknowingly) to where Robin’s mom’s bus was going to pick us up and drive us to the country. We were on time, and then Robin’s friends started filtering in. It was more than just a few friends; more than 20 people showed up. Then apparently we couldn’t be picked up where we were so we had to trek across Nairobi again and finally crowd into a bus. We probably didn’t end up leaving until 6pm. Once we arrived in Machakos, someone threw a rock at the bus and broke a window. One of the Kenyans insisted on removing the broken glass and I swear to god if we went over a bump John would have probably been impaled by this huge piece of glass. Anyway, we finally got to the house and pretty quickly figured out that this wasn’t just us and some of Robin’s friends going to Machakos for the weekend…it was a church retreat. Talk about awkward times. Thank god most of our group isn’t Christian and could be awkward together. Another thing about Kenyan culture is that no matter what you eat 3 meals a day. If you ship lunch and your second meal is at 5 o’clock, that means you just eat dinner at midnight. Sooo as soon as we got to the house, they started preparing dinner. We didn’t start eating until 1am. We were all so exhausted and just didn’t care about eating anymore, but we couldn’t go to sleep. What a day.

Saturday we were woken up by loud Kenyan hip hop at like, 8am. I don’t think Kenyans sleep. We left for the orphanage a few hours late. All of us were a little frustrated by what was going on, but a day with the orphans changed all that. At first I was holding the cutest little alien-looking baby named John. Then I had to go help prepare lunch and peeled sooooo many potatoes. I was really bad at it, but I really enjoyed sitting around talking for a long time about life with good people. I felt like a woman. Then more playing with children. I fell in love with a boy named Moses. The kids are all so amazing and happy. They take care of each other too. One kid started attacking me with a piece of string and this kid to the left of me just went up to him, yelled at him to stop, and then came over and patted me on the leg to sort of say “youre ok.” This kid had to of been only 4 years old. He was my little protector. A bunch of the boys went to town to get food and came back with two live chickens. Josh and John both killed the chickens. I watched although they did it rather inefficiently and it was sort of hard to watch. Near the end of the night Dijana and I talked to the woman who owns the home and she told us stories about 2 of the kids and just her motivation for helping the kids and afterward Dijana and I just had to go and cry cause it was just so heavy. Overall a good day though. At the end of the night we had to walk home and it was totally pitch black and we couldn’t see where we were walking at all. A few times I completely fell into a whole and seriously could have hurt myself. John and I were just both holding onto each other hoping we wouldn’t break our necks. Then, when we turned off the main road onto our small village road, we apparently went the wrong way and were attacked by guard dogs. Luckily no one was hurt and the owners came and led the dogs away but for a minute I seriously thought I was going to have to kick the fuck out of a dog. John came very close to being bitten. We finally got home and had a long time to chill before dinner was ready. Mike and I sat outside and talked for almost three hours. Mike’s probably my best friend here. He likes good music, movies, everything. He’s a film and television major and he always has cool stories. He’s from Denver. Anyway, we all finally ate dinner, then crashed.

Sunday Robin said he was going to take us to a place where the water from a stream went UP a hill instead of down. We all sort of didn’t believe it but figured wed see when we got there. We took one of these small 3-wheeled taxis way out into the country. It was so beautiful. We were dropped off and ventured down this path where we ran into some guys near a stream. Apparently we were in such a remote area that a few of the people we saw had never seen a Muzungu (white person.) THAT was cool. So we started jumping and climbing down these huuuge boulders. So much fun, but kind of scary cause if you slipped you would probably die. We all thought we were going to the stream where the water went up the hill but as usual Robin didn’t really inform us what we were doing so we were really only just walking on the rocks for the hell of it. We chilled near the bottom for a while. Eventually we turned around and went back to the road. Not surprisingly we had no way to get back to town so we started walking. A two hour walk to town. Yeah. We saw lots of goats and cows being herded through the mountains. My face got really burnt on that walk. Eventually we got home, at some leftover goat and then got on the bus and went home. Oh, and yeah, we never had time to go to this stream that goes uphill. Big surprise.

Monday Dijana, Mike, John, Ladu, and I went to Kibera. Kibera is the largest slum with over 800,000 people living there. John lived there for 6 weeks last summer and volunteered at an orphanage and made a documentary about the slum. So John took us there and had his friend, Peter, give us a grand tour of the place. A lot of the movie the Constant Gardener was filmed in Kibera. It was truly a heavy experience. You had to be very careful where you walked or you could slip into grow sewage water. The whole place was like a giant maze. Everywhere you go little kids shout at you and say “How are you?!” Except that they say it with emphasis on the ‘you’ and its cute. We had a really delicious lunch for less than a dollar, then went back to the orphanage to play with kids. I fell in love with a kid who wouldn’t talk. He was adorable. This orphanage was a lot different than the one in Machakos. There were way more kids, far less room to play, and everything was total chaos. Anyway, we left Kibera and took a matatu (sort of a Kenyan bus) back to Nairobi. We got to Nairobi around 630 pm and it was impossible to get a matatu back to campus. We started freaking out a little cause at 7 it got dark and was then very dangerous to be in Nairobi without a local. We trekked everywhere for a while looking for a cab but eventually the USIU bus was able to come pick us up on the way to the airport to get more new kids. We lucked out, we could have been in pretty big trouble. After that day of being Nairobi I felt like a pro at walking through traffic and dodging cars. Seriously, wow, I almost died a few times. We finally got home from the airport at like 1130. We left Kibera at like 5. Such a long time to get home. We reunited with the rest of the group. We’re such a family and it was hard to be separated for a whole day. Sadly three of our group went to Lamu today until Saturday and I’m seriously going to miss them.

Yesterday was a nice, relaxing day. I slept in really really late, went to Momma Rosie’s for a quick chapatti. Then an episode of Arrested Development with Mike. Then dinner with the group at Momma Rosie’s again. Then we all watched 300 together. Then sleep. I needed a break. Today is a similarly relaxing day. All we have planned is to get our library cards and user IDs/passwords for the school computers. Hopefully I’ll get the wireless shit set up. UGHHH Ok, time to go grab a samosa cause I’m hungry!

KISSES!

Exploring

August 29, 2007

Things are continuing to be amazing here in beautiful Nairobi. Yesterday afternoon we had a semi-orientation on the basics about the college. It’s cheaper to go to school here than Nairobi so I may just never come home! (Just kidding for those of you who would be freaked out about that.) Basically there are several kinds of international students. There are those in direct exchanges (like me and 6 students from American University who haven’t shown up yet), students in direct enrollment (like students from other African countries), and then those in the KEI program. Other than Aaron and Dijana, the rest of the people here are from that group. I’m not sure what it is exactly, but I do know all their weekend trips are paid for, they got a phone paid by the program, and other stuff. Regardless, we’re all really tight so far. Other than one girl, the whole group seems normal and really fun. Anyway, Patrick, the guy at USIU in charge of KEI gave us our orientation. Then we went and met the dean. Then we went and got registered or something for our IDs.

Then last night Patrick took us all out to dinner at a hotel nearby. The food is surprisingly good so far. I’m enjoying it. Patrick is also going to look into getting me an internship at the UN while I’m here, which would be badass. He also organizes the trips on the weekends and is going to give us advice for some trips were planning on our own.

This morning I woke up at 7am completely on my own and felt great. It was wonderful. At 8 a bunch of us worked out together. I hope we keep running here, it feels great, although its considerably harder since were at such a higher altitude

Then we went to breakfast at this place near the school. It's called Momma Rosie's. Food was delicious. Then we went to this place called Village Market, which turned out to basically be a mall, African style. Pretty westernized and rather boring. They had bowling, and Robin had never bowled, so we took him bowling for his birthday. It was so weird cause for the whole time we were there I kept forgetting we were in Africa.

OHHHHHH AND THE BEST STORY EVER!~!!!! on the way to village market, we saw all the houses for the ambassadors to the UN. Then, we drove down this street and got to see the UN. On the other side of the street was the US embassy. Catherine took a picture of the gate and immediately the guards started radioing people and like coming after us. They took her camera and we had to follow them to like the US compound or something. They had to write this big report, she had to delete the picture, they took pictures of the van, then we all had to get out and they took a picture of us. It was crazy. We were a little freaked out, but still laughing cause they weren’t going to do anything to US citizens. She got her camera back, luckily.

Tomorrow we see giraffes. This weekend we are going to the country to stay with Robin’s auntie. Robin claims there is a stream that flows UPHILL near there, but I wont believe it until I see it. A few of us are going to try and travel Mon-Wed of next week, but were not sure where yet. Dubai keeps coming up as an option and I guess its pretty cheap from here. Exciting!!

Through Day 2

August 28, 2007

Thursday: My last day of work. It was the most bizarre day of my life. Too many things went crazy that day. Everyone I work with took me to lunch at India House. It was nice. Alan gave me a keychain flashlight since the power goes out a lot. Patrick and Rebecca gave me an 80GB ipod as a bonus. Thursday was the Chicago-style hurricane and after work my sister and I had to drive to the North side to pick up the bag for the refugees. It took us forever to get there and we saw crazy destruction from the storm, like a roof right next to Lake Shore. The dude who was giving me stuff to take to the refugees lived in a commune. It took us forever to drive home. We had to cancel our dinner plans and picked up Portillos instead.

Friday: I started getting ready for Kenya. How typical of me to put all of that off until the day before. I really didn’t even get much done on Friday. My parents came home, I picked up my license at the DMV, and started collecting stuff I would be taking with me. My parents took Kurt and I to dinner at J. Alexanders.

Saturday: I was planning on staying up all night on Friday to get everything accomplished before I left, but around 2 I fell asleep and my mom woke me up at 7. Five hours lost. Oh well. I continued packing until Kurt came over for the last time. That was a hard goodbye. I cried. Then I rushed to Target and picked up stuff, then to Radio Shack for a plug adapter, then home to pack up. The guy at Radio Shack who helped me was really excited cause he lived in Kenya for 12 years. He gave me advice (and the wrong adapter. Boourns) Rebecca then drove me to the airport. She cried. Our flight was pretty empty. I slept on and off. Arrived in London at 8am their time. We planned on just hanging out in the airport for our 11 hour layover cause Dijana would need a visa to get into the country cause she’s Bosnian and we’re cheap and lazy. Anyway, after we got off the plane, we waited in a long line to find that we couldn’t have a carry-on AND a backpack (the lady in Chicago said it was OK) so we had to go somewhere else to check one bag. So, we waited in another really long line to be admitted into the country. Since we had to go into the country (technically) to be able to go to Check In to check our bags, they gave Dijana a transit visa for free. Sooo, we went and waited in the wrong line, then the right line, check our bags, then decided to go into the city since we had nothing else to do and when else would we have that opportunity. We exchanged our money, hopped on the Underground, and an hour later we were in London. We say Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the river, the ferris wheel thing, ate some lunch, walked around, then hopped the Underground back to the airport. The train ride and lunch cost us US$50 which is so ridiculous. Then another 2 hour wait in Heathrow, then another 8 hour plane ride to Nairobi. We were all so tired and crabby. I slept some on the plane. I watched 28 Weeks Later. Virgin Atlantic is a pretty badass airline.

Sunday/Monday: We arrived in Nairobi at 6am their time. It was still dark. We got our bags, exchanged some money, then found the person picking us up. We were all nervous that no one would be there, but he was pretty much the first person I saw. Good times. By the time we left, it wasn’t dark out anymore. The airport sort of looks like a jail. We got on the bus and started driving to the school. Once we got out of the airport I finally got really excited. Chris Brown was playing on the radio in the bus. Kenya is crazy. Like, there was a lot of traffic on the road we were on, so we just pulled over and drove on the side of the road (dodging light poles) to pass people. There are people walking everywhere. We saw some pretty extravagant hotels and buildings, and we also saw tiny shacks. I would never wanna drive here. People pretty much run across the street in between cars. There were a few times I really thought we were gonna hit someone. We stopped at sort of a 7-11 type place and got some food. Everything here is amazingly cheap. The biggest bill in shillings is a 1000 note. When we exchanged our money, all our money was in 1000s. My lunch and Dijana’s together cost about 250 shillings. That’s about $3.75 in US dollars. After that we started heading for the college. USIU is about 20 minutes from Nairobi. Everything is so beautiful. The sides of the road are total jungle. The school is right off Thika road, which is the worst road in Kenya (or Nairobi, I cant remember) for car jackings. The school is right next to Safari Park Hotel. That place is extreme. So huge. The school is guarded and you have to check in at the gate. The entire grounds are surrounded by electric fence. The guards have big guns.

Once we got to the school we were given our rooms. I’m on the second floor. Dijana’s on the 4^th. Aaron’s on the first floor, right by the entrance. My roommate is Kenyan and wont be here until school starts. The hostels are kind of confusing. Like, there are two wings. To get to my wing, I have to go to the second floor and go through a common room area. Everything looks the same and its confusing. I keep getting lost. After we put our stuff down, Robin starting giving us a tour of the campus. I cant even begin to describe how amazing and beautiful it is. There are palm trees and giant plants and flowers everywhere. Cats roam everywhere. And there are kittens. Very cute. Robin is so amazing. He introduced us to pretty much everyone on campus. Right now, other than staff, there are only a few of us international students on campus, and that’s it. They just built a new library and its SO HUGGEE. Seriously, in the middle of our tour, Dijana and I were like, this place is so much better than NCC. They have basketball courts, and a track, and a swimming pool, and a soccer field, and just about everything. The campus is huge on being clean. There are people cleaning everywhere. Someone cleans our room for us once a week. If you need anything, you just ask and everyone wants to help you. Everyone is always offering you tea too. Its really amazing chai. Robin had us over in his room and we had tea and he showed us pictures of his family. Later this week we are going to his family’s house and an orphanage. I’m really excited.

After our tour we took our first matatu (sort of like a bus) ride and then walked to Nakumatt, this store that basically has everything. Kind of like a Super Target. We picked up sheets, a pillow, a blanket, a mosquito net, and water. We took a taxi back. Im so glad we have Robin. He’s pretty much our guide for everything. Everyone speaks Swahili here, so Robin does most of the talking. Luckily they all speak English too. Robin is teaching us some Swahili. I can say thank you, thank you very much, and the numbers 1-7. Once we got back to campus, I unpacked, got my bed set up, then crashed for about an hour.

After our naps we went to Jambo Grill for dinner. (The cafeteria isn’t open yet, so we have to eat off-campus.) Another girl, Catherine, arrived the night before we did. She came with. She’s pretty awesome. She’s from Seattle, is a journalism major, and is Buddhist! All through dinner we just asked Robin questions. Theres a huge different between how we should act off campus than on. Like, swearing is cool on campus, while it’s a bad idea off. We also started talking about religion, and it came out that I’m atheist. He was cool about it, and he told me it’s a bad idea to tell people here, even on campus, cause they’ll all try and convert me. Apparently my roommate is really Christian. Should be an interesting time. At dinner I tried goat. It was pretty good. Really chewy. Once we were done, we took the school’s bus to go to the airport and pick up another girl, Ashley. She’s a Poli Sci major. We were having a lot of fun on the bus ride there. Aaron was so out of it. It’s so funny cause Aaron’s so tall and doesn’t fit in a lot of the cars. We got a picture of him in the matatu with his legs totally up against his chest to fit. We discovered that Aaron, Catherine and I all don’t drink. It was weird. Got to the airport, picked Ashley up, then drove through Nairobi. Saw Parliament. Saw the one building I always think of when I see Nairobi pics. We stopped to pick up food for the guy, Franco, who does hostel security. Robin and our driver (we call him Brother Mine, meaning my brother. He calls everyone Brother Mine or Sister Mine) got out to get the food and almost immediately we had some kids and a lady begging for money. One kid was sniffing glue from a Gin bottle. Odd times. Then we drove home.

I crashed almost immediately. Woke up around 4am freezing. Roosters were crowing already. There are a lot of dogs barking too. Had a hard time falling back asleep. Around 8am, Aaron and I went and ran. The track is pretty ghetto. Its dirt, uneven, and these guys were using machetes to straighten the edges. Took my first cold shower, then went to breakfast at the cafeteria. So far all the food I’ve had has been pretty good. Dijana is sick already. There are now 8 Americans here. Everyone seems pretty ok so far. Half of us are doing international relations and the other half are photo-journalism. There are supposed to be about 40 Americans, which is way more than expected. We are a little disappointed, actually.

Sooo pretty much I’m having an amazing time. The people are all soooooooo friendly. Everyone says hi to everyone. I love it. I feel bad for the Kenyans going to NCC. I can imagine how cold everyone must seem compared to here. The weather is nice. Its overcast but still really bright. In the morning and night its cold, but its perfect temperature during the day. Right now I’m sitting on the balcony, in a really comfy chair, off the common area on my floor. Its gorgeous. OH, and the view from my room is pretty great. I have a biiig window facing the campus.

Well, I’m going to go check on Dijana and then read or something. We don’t have much to do this week, but I like it cause I’ve been so stressed lately. Bye!