Photos

For anybody who still checks this, I've finally posted all my photos online. Here's the link:

www.snapfish.com

To log in, just use my info:
Email: FenwayN8@gmail.com
Password: photos

Just don't mess with editing or any of that stuff.

Enjoy! And let me know if you have any trouble.

See ya later, Kenya.

This is it, my last post in Kenya. Really hard to believe!

I just returned last night from my 10-day farewell tour, literally covering Kenya from coast to "coast" (the second being Kisumu on the coast of Lake Victoria).

Last week I traveled back to Bodo, the village where I stayed for 10 days in February. It was a nice chance to say goodbye to my family and friends there. Basically, I sat in front of the village home with my Baba for 2 days listening to a radio and watching baby Saidi's antics in the sand. We had a couple of great swims in the Indian Ocean, a couple sweat-soaked hikes, and, true to Bodo hospitality, frequent and endless meals of fish and ugali or rice. The heat and humidity were intense, and it is rainy season there, so it rained probably 50% of the time. My baby bro Saidi loves to play in the rain, and that was fun to watch (pictures/videos to come).

I was back in Nairobi for this past weekend. Friday night James, his girlfriend Jessica, and I went to a Tony Nyadundo concert at a local club. Tony is probably the most popular musician of local Kenyan music, a Luo from Nyahera, the village where I studied for ISP. So obviously, I've had a hankerin' to see him live for a while now. The show was great, although the only words I could understand (he sings in Kijaluo) were "Nyahera" and "Obama" (he loves to sing about the Senator, the pride and joy of all Luos). It was fun to be there and I think we surprised a lot of people with how excited we were about something that's purely Kenyan.

Sunday I traveled back to the Kisumu area to bid farewell to all my friends I met during ISP. Becky and Erastus (of course the greeting with Era was a little overboard and uncomfortable) met me at the Kisumu airport and we traveled to Kiboswa where I stayed for ISP. All the kids who typically awaited me outside of our home each morning for crayons and paper were extremely excited and surprised that I returned. Becky and I hiked through Nyahera on Monday, returning pictures to families who let us photograph them during my research. I also had a great chance to return to Susan's home in Nyahera and see her family one last time before I leave. They sent me back to Nairobi with a few things for their son Noah, who is now at a technical college here. I had a serious conversation with Susan's brother Moses about someday owning some land in Nyahera. It's cheap (maybe $1500 for multiple acres), absolutely gorgeous, and the people are in need of healthcare. Something for me to think about...

Yesterday I was in Kisumu town and returned the borrowed camera to George, arguably the world's most trusting and generous man. After arriving back at the airport soaked after a boda-boda (bike) ride in the rain, I had a tough goodbye with Becky and Erastus and headed back to Nairobi. Sometimes it takes leaving people to realize that they are among your best friends (that's about as deep as I get, folks). I'll miss Becky and, well, Erastus too, way too much.

So, my last day in Kenya now, at least for a while. I came home last night to find my Nairobi Baba at home from work in Sudan! This is the first time I've met him, and he seems like an incredibly smart man. Very African and very wise. Kind of reminds me of an African version of my Uncle Steve. Today I'm meeting up with my friends Martin and Sally to say see ya later (no goodbyes), then back to Jamhuri. I'm dreading leaving my family, Jacob and co. at the kiosk, and the mama who forces me to buy maize and peanuts from her on a daily basis. I have pictures of her and her beautiful daughter Vanessa and am leaving her with my phone, which won't work back in the states. She is always asking me to return from America with a phone for her, seemingly under the impression that they rain from the sky in the states.

I wish this were easier! I guess it just means that I absolutely have to come back someday.

(Maybe) a little more from back in the states. Pictures for sure! Take care and see you all soon!

Post-ISP stuff

This is the second of two posts today...the first is down below.

After printing and binding my final paper, I hit the town with Martin Mumo, older brother to my friend John Mumo (nice little Kenyan connection at school) from Lafayette. A fun night, unfortunately, also ended in the pickpocketation (my own word) of my phone, a deep slumber, and me nearly missing the bus to Mt. Kenya, where all 26 of us plus academic directors converged for ISP Presentations. But hey, no harm no foul right? I made it to presentations on time and, since the majority of the group has already headed back to the states, my friend Mollie generously allowed me to take over her phone. Plus, a Kenyan somewhere is now happily enjoying my phone. He/she probably considered that I would be unable to use the phone back in the states before raiding my pocket.

Presentations were a blast. We stayed at a beautiful resort called Naru Moro, typically used as a base camp for people climbing Mt. Kenya. While the majority of us originally wanted to go to a slightly less posh place than this, I think our Directors Odoch and Jamal forgot about democracy for a minute and chose the place where they could play pool and darts to their hearts’ content. So that’s what we did….about 7 hours of presentations for each of 2 days with a swimming pool, billiards, darts, great meals, and even some squash, in the spare time. A good way to end our time in Kenya as a group. And now I have decided that squash will be my new athletic passion back in the states. Which, for people who know me well, means saving up to buy the best equipment. And then, of course, dominating (I kid).

Back in Nairobi after presentations, we had a final group dinner at, of all types, a Chinese Restaurant. It was delicious. The following day a few of us visited our Academic Director Odoch in the hospital, where he was undergoing one of his final rounds of chemotherapy for colon cancer. Thankfully he’s going to be fine after all the treatment. As always, he was in incredible spirits...a jovial, all-around fun guy to be around.

I’ll miss Odoch and Jamal a ton. Odoch never really seemed to have any idea what was going on, but was always easy to talk to and unbelievably helpful. Jamal, on the other hand, was Captain Organization, and while very reliable, was slightly less warm and friendly. A great pair of Academic Directors and friends to us all. Luckily, the two are coming to the states in August for an SIT conference in Vermont. They’re planning on spending some time in Boston, which will undoubtedly draw me there also. Jon, James, and I are planning on taking the dynamic duo to a Sox game. Thinking of two Kenyans (who don’t even know what baseball is) sitting in the stands, drinking beers, wearing Sox caps, and eating hot dogs makes me happy. The Sox in general make me happy, but that’s another story.

Last Saturday, the 20^th, was peace-out day for most of the students on our program. See you later, not goodbye, right?

A few of us, myself included, are staying after for a little bit of independent travel. My travels include a short stint back in Bodo and a short stint back in Kisumu. Without Kyle, with whom I would have confidently tackled any new territory, I’ve decided to keep my travels to places I know well. And to the people I’ve come to know and love (and, in Becky’s case, those who would murder me if I didn’t return before leaving the country).

I'll be back in the states on Thursday 5/31! Kinda hard to believe. And kinda overwhelming, both leaving Kenya and going back to normal life in the states. Definitely pumped to see family and friends, though.

More to come! Maybe from America, but rest assured that you’ll have at least one more look into the depths of my soul. You know how much I love reflection…

ISP? Check.

Sorry for slacking a little bit, things have been pretty crazy as this semester has come to an end! Or maybe I just haven’t wanted to feel like things are, in fact, actually coming to an end. Wow. By popular demand, and by popular demand I mean my dad, I’ve poured my sweat, blood, and tears into a few more posts.

I finished up my ISP with remarkably little procrastination, mostly because it was by far the most enjoyable paper I have ever written. It was cool and nice change of pace to be producing something for which I am responsible for all of the content. Whereas the typical research paper at school involves reading others’ books and journal articles and developing new ideas from them, this project involved me doing the research and using what I found in the field to develop some new ideas. Also, I was entirely in control of the topic and structure for my paper.

The title turned out to be “Inexcusable Infections: Malaria, Children, and Barriers to Prevention in Nyahera Village, Kisumu, Kenya”. “Inexcusable Infections: _______” because a) alliteration is sweet and b) a colon makes any title considerably more intense. Inexcusable, mind you, doesn’t put the blame of malaria in Nyahera on the people inhabiting the village, but on our world as a whole and the actions we take that allow poverty, and thus eradicable diseases such as malaria, to continue ravaging certain populations. I found some interesting things, which I’ll highlight here should you care to read on…

• People in Nyahera (at least the 80ish involved in my study) tend to understand that mosquitoes transmit malaria and that bushy areas and stagnant water promote mosquito breeding. Nobody except one belligerently drunk man met in passing mentioned Anopheles (the species which transmits malaria) or anything about the malaria parasite, Plasmodium. But all mosquitoes, whether carrying malaria or not, can be deterred in the same way, so there’s no real harm in thinking all mosquitoes transmit malaria.
• More detrimental to the fight against malaria are peoples’ misconceptions about why children are more affected. In reality, it’s because young children have weak immune systems in general and especially to malaria, to which the human body can build up resistance over time with periodic infections. Lots of the people I spoke with attributed children’s plights with malaria to their carelessness (i.e. playing in stagnant water). If widespread, this could be a dangerous misconception, because children and adults are equally as likely to be bitten by malarial mosquitoes, especially at night when uncovered by nets. If families (typical in this village) can’t afford a net for everyone, they may cover the adults before the children for comfort reasons, when children are much more likely to contract severe malaria. Bad news.
• Climate and lifestyles in Nyahera contribute to malaria big time. The village is filled with bushy areas where mosquitoes can breed, crop fields (Anopheles can breed in the leaf axils of some plants), garbage piles in the markets or at matatu stages, and poor quality roads with huge, water-filled ruts. People collect rainwater off their roofs for drinking (this is what I drank the 3 weeks I was studying there) and let the water stand for weeks at a time. The majority of homes look as though they were designed by mosquitoes. There’s a gap between the walls and the corrugated iron roofs through which mosquitoes are free to fly and open windows with usually only a flapping curtain for privacy.
• A low percentage of the people I interviewed use insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) to protect their children at night. I found 56% coverage for children less than 5, still shy of the goal the UN set in 2000 for 60% coverage in endemic areas (like Nyahera) by 2005. Too few, too late.
• People in Nyahera don’t use nets because they simply can’t afford them. I was expecting to see some cultural barriers to using nets. An earlier study in “deeper” Luo land (further from Kisumu) found that people were nervous about mixing up bedding items (such as nets) between adults and children who have undergone puberty during washing sessions. Such mixing, according to the Luos in a 2003 study, causes infertility. Sleeping arrangements, with children frequently on the floors of living rooms or kitchens, also made hanging, opening, and closing nets each day a nuisance for the families in that study. I found none of this, just money issues.
• The money issues I found a little bit hard to believe. Nets are available at the village hospital for just 50 Shillings (about 70 cents) for children less than 5. After age 5, parents have to buy more expensive nets from town. Why not just buy the cheap nets when the children are of age and prevent infections for years to come?
• I have a strong suspicion that the free care offered at the hospital for malaria among children less than 5, although a great and necessary policy, may actually contribute to the low net usage. Why buy nets when your kids can always get free treatment? This is dangerous, as overuse contributes to the ability of Plasmodium to develop resistance to malaria drugs, and frequent episodes undoubtedly wreak havoc on young kids’ immune capabilities. I think the hospital should create a registry of families purchasing nets for their children under 5, and then later, when the children are over 5 and ineligible for free care, offer small discounts for treatment for those families which can prove they use/used hospital nets.
• Families in Nyahera are widely receptive of spraying residual insecticides, such as controversial DDT, inside their homes. The World Health Organization banned DDT in the 1980’s after decades of overuse in agriculture created worldwide environmental problems. However, DDT was huge in eradicating malaria from North America and Europe by the 1960’s. The WHO just lifted its ban on DDT in 2006 and now encourages its use in small amounts for controlling malaria. European countries, however, are threatening to ban agro-imports from Sub-Saharan countries using DDT for malaria, and thousands involved in Kenyan healthcare fear losing the “industry of malaria” (the disease accounts for 75% of hospital bed occupancy in Kenya) if it were to be completely eradicated. A predicament for sure. Regardless, it’s good to see that the people are receptive of a control tactic that, if widespread, could effectively eradicate malaria.

So there’s my ISP, in a nutshell. It’s a 45 page monster with lots more info than I gave here, should anyone have a hankerin’ for more malaria. Let me know and I can email it to you (from faster comps back in the states) or let you borrow a hard copy. I’m pretty proud of it!

End o' ISP (the research, at least)

The last three weeks went lightning fast. Too lightning fast. Now I’m back in Nairobi with T-minus 6 days until my 40-page final paper is due next Sunday (Mother’s Day shout out to Ma).

How did things in Nyahera end up, you ask?

I finished up my home to home interviews late last week, throwing down a solid 70-ish home visits in total. Once I felt like I had done enough straight-up interviews I switched to more in-depth studies of bomas (a compound featuring several small houses—usually polygamous wives and a few of the sons). In addition to asking my usual questions about malaria and water-borne diseases, I looked at factors around the boma that might contribute to the sicknesses. Things like sources of stagnant water (people often dig out trees and then leave the huge holes in the ground to fill up with rainwater), bushy areas, styles of housing and roofing (most homes were the traditional Luo style of tree poles and mud, corrugated iron roofs with mosquito-friendly space between the roofs and the walls), and bore-holes people may use for their drinking water. Now I have a whole lot of raw data and NOT a whole lot of ideas for how to interpret and analyze it. Got a week to figure it out…

Unfortunately, I left behind more than interesting research in Nyahera. 3 weeks in a village is a good way to make friends, in case anyone is struggling in that department. Although his excitement at having me as his visitor was at times a bit overwhelming (approaching uncomfortable), I’ll miss Erastus very much. He never quite got the picture that I wanted to REALLY experience what life in the village is like (i.e. do my own laundry, help with cooking, even milk the cows). On several occasions, I alterted Erastus to my intentions to wake up early and do my own laundry, only to wake up early and find that Erastus had woken up EARLIER and my laundry was already on the drying line. It was frustrating sometimes and made me feel like I was burdening him, but I’ve come to understand that everything Erastus did was out of genuine hospitality. Hospitality is a significantly bigger deal in Luo culture than anything I’ve ever experienced.

In an awesome coincidence, Nyahera turned out to be the home place of Susan, the house-girl/daughter in my Nairobi family. I spent a great few nights with her family there, meeting and speaking with her parents, brothers, and young nieces and nephews. My favorite was Toto, a tiny 3-year-old girl who, despite knowing not a word of English, laughed hysterically and loudly at everything I said. The family was busy preparing for a funeral this past weekend for a relative who had moved to Nairobi. You don’t even KNOW about Luo funerals…

As there are no public cemeteries, Luos who have passed are returned to their homes for burial. And returning does not mean a gloomy hearse driving slowly with the coffin inside. It means strapping the coffin to the top of a matatu, driving as fast as possible down major roads and village roads, filling the matatu with screaming relatives and friends, and honking the horn nonstop. It’s absolutely hysterical. Luos, I think, are big believers that the deceased person would want them to celebrate his or her passing, not stand around and cry about it. For this particular funeral, Susan’s brother Moses estimated that the family would slaughter THREE bulls to feed all of the mourners (or better yet…celebrators). I was invited, but couldn’t make it because I was planning to head back to Nairobi this weekend. Kinda kicking myself for that…it would have been a really cool experience. But regardless, it was great to meet Susan’s family and lots of fun to show her the pictures last night.

It was tough to leave behind the three families living within mine and Erastus’s compound and all the little kids I grew to love. There was grandma, who takes care of a little boy named Festus Okoth (my favorite of the wee ones). There were Ayub and Beatrice, who take care of the grounds and the shamba, and their little ones Kadogo, Isaac, and baby Lois. There were Samson and Rose and their little boys Titus and Emmanuel. And then there were hordes more children that seemingly appeared out of nowhere each day, possibly coming from miles away to chill with the mzungu. Each morning when I opened the door there would be a lineup of little kids patiently awaiting crayons and paper (sucked when I ran out of both of these), and each afternoon when I came back from research there would be a lineup of little kids not-so-patiently awaiting 10 seconds of me grabbing their arms and spinning them around violently. I get dizzy thinking about it again.

Toughest to leave behind was Becky, who became a great friend in our 3 weeks of research together. I was really nervous finding an interpreter, because I felt like the person would inevitably become tired of asking the same questions over and over and have zero fun. That was no problem with Becky—she loved talking to families just as much as I did. There was an equal amount of making fun of me in Kijaluo with the interviewees, which I couldn’t understand, and joking about them in English, which they couldn’t understand. On the long walks between homes in Nyahera I had a good time teaching Becky corrupted English (popular among young Kenyans is Sheng—corrupted Kiswahili). She is now a frequent user (abuser?) of English exclamations such as “SICK!”, “ILL!”, “PHAT!” (for older readers, these have come to mean their exact opposite, cool, when spoken with a certain enthusiasm and tone), “lame”, “weak”, and “sucks”.

The 10 days I’m spending (sans Kyle, which is weak sauce, United Airlines) in Kenya after my program ends are still relatively unplanned. Lucky for me, the world’s nicest man owns a camera shop in downtown Kisumu, and when I took my broken camera there to get it fixed, he discouraged me from trying to fix it in Kenya and is straight-up lending me his personal camera until the end of May. I could not believe this man’s generosity. He spends some time in America at a camera shop in Maryland, and as he will be there in summer ’08 and this is the stomping ground of two of the lovely ladies in my life (Abby, Katie), I promised George that I would take him to a baseball game that summer. He would accept nothing besides my word (no deposit, no payment, no nothing) for lending me his camera.

So anyway, this forces at least a day-trip back to Kisumu to return George’s camera. I think this development may also save my life, as Becky was plotting murder should I have been unable to return to Kisumu before returning to the states. So now I’ve got Bodo on the coast and Kisumu in the west as at least two of my destinations in those 10 days. It’ll be nonstop traveling, especially if I try to fit something else in there (…Zanzibar?...). We shall see.

Once I turn in my final ISP next Sunday, we head out as a group (it's gonna be strange to be with all 25 students again!) to a lake in Nakuru for a vacation-y wind-down period where we also present our research papers. That's for 5 or 6 days, then the program is over! I can't believe things have gone so fast. Most of the students in my group fly back on the 19th, but I'm here doing whatever the heck I want til the 30th.

Now that I’ve updated I don’t really have any excuses for not writing this paper. 40-pages vs. Nate, round 1…

But one more thing…Clemens for ½ season will NOT be enough for the Yanks to overcome the Sox. 20-10 baby! #1 in the ESPN power rankings. In case you forgot, I have ESPN and thus Sportscenter here in my Nairobi home.

Take care everybody.

Pictures

Kadogo! Her name means "small", and that she is. She lives next door to me in Kiboswa. She comes over every morning and colors with crayons that I brought.

Erastus in one of his strange picture poses.

Me with a cool goat--mohawk and long bead--and some Nyahera girls during field interviews.

Sarah Hussein Anyango Obama

One major plus to my Independent Study research is its proximity to Alego, a small village in the region Siaya, home to Barack Obama’s grandmother, Sarah Hussein Anyango Obama. Just this last weekend, two students studying in Kisumu town, my buddy Jon (studying Luo politics in Nairobi), and I were lucky enough to spend 3 days in Siaya and visit this lovely lady.

On Saturday, we arrived in Alego via car from Simenya, the tiny village where we stayed with Samm, our homestay coordinator in Nairobi, at his rural home. As we pulled up the driveway, heading completely unannounced to the home of the grandmother of one of the states’ most prominent politicians (I’m thinking you probably couldn’t do this for any grandmother of a US politician living within our borders), Sarah (age 85) was hard at work in her shamba, where the family plants beans and corn. She dropped her hoe and headed over to her small, humble home, barefoot and sweating, to welcome the four of us wazungu students.

We spoke with Barack Obama’s grandmother for 2 hours. She talked about the Senator’s visits back to his homeland, where he has helped to bury his mother and even build himself a small hut, his quest to discover more about his Luo father, Hussein Obama, and his prospects of becoming president of the US. Sarah was a little “hush-hush” about political issues, as she’s apparently been misquoted by some prominent American sources in the past. I laughed aloud when I thought about the idea of this 85-year-old Kenyan woman, who has spent her entire life working hard in rural Kenya, strolling through the White House while visiting her (maybe) President grandson. Crazy to think about. It was nice to hear that Barack is true to his roots, recognizing that Kenya is his real home, and it’s nice to think that, should he succeed in winning the Presidency, help will maybe proceed to this country in dire need. Can’t say I’ve made up my mind who I will vote for come Primaries or November ’08, but I also don’t think I’ll be able to say I’ve spoken with Hillary’s or Edwards’ grandmothers. A cool connection, for sure.

Pictures from ISP

Just a couple at a time, I guess. Me cooking some ugali and my favorite interview thus far, 3 young mothers and a grandmother. Plus kids.

ISP Happenings

Sorry for the lack of updates, not a whole lotta internet in the village. Things are great (especially research-wise) and interesting (both research and my living situation).

The living situation…I’m staying in Kiboswa, a tiny market community just down the “main road” running through the area from central Nyahera. Kiboswa is pretty classic Kenya. Commerce and, well, basically life, revolves around the two days per week considered “market days”, where hundreds of old women bring their produce or crafts and sit in the hot sun all day to make a few schillings. There are some rowdy rural pubs, a couple of Coke kiosks, and a few salons (I think my hair is reaching cornrow length now…uh oh…) also. It’s a fun little place.

I’m staying with my host brother named Erastus Otieno. He’s 22, lives solo in the compound where he grew up (the rest of the family has moved to downtown Kisumu recently), and teaches at a nearby primary school. Living solo, I think, has made Erastus a wee bit excited to be hosting me, his first American friend. Although it’s great to be appreciated and have somebody excited to host me, sometimes the excitement gets a little bit out of control. We have some strange photo shoots, per Era’s request, attempts to hold hands on the way to the market or the matatu stop is not an uncommon event, and there are some near-tears conversations when I explain that I’m leaving for a little bit (like last weekend, or tonight…I’m downtown staying with some friends). When I first arrived, Era showed me to the room we’d be sharing…a little nook with a less-than-twin-sized bed that we’d be sharing. I kinda put my foot down on that one and bought my own mattress for less than $10 at the market. Not a whole lot of independence is tolerated…Era won’t allow me to get my own rain water for a bath, won’t let me boil my own drinking water, and won’t let me do my own laundry. A nice guy, for sure, but I wish there was a little more space and understanding that I’m a capable dude…

Otherwise, though, the homestay is the straight-up rural experience I was looking for in this ISP. We live on a little plot of land with Granny Otieno, a solid 80-years-of-age and permanently bent into a right angle from years of hard work cultivating crops. She’s great, highly amused when I pull out a little Kiswahili greeting and always looking cute in her white robe and the hat she wears for her church. Also with us on our plot are Beatrice and Ayub, parents of 6-year-old Kadogo (“small”), who is absolutely tiny for her age, 2-year-old Isaac (petrified of me), and a baby whose name I don’t know. Kodogo usually comes and joins me when I’m reading in the mornings, and I set her up with some crayons and paper to draw. I bathe with and drink rainwater, collected with intricate gutter contraptions leading into huge pails. So far, no diseases, and it tastes pretty darn fresh.

For some reason Erastus wakes up at about 5:30 am, blasts the battery-powered radio, and stays in bed…I have no idea why. I struggle to sleep a little longer through the never-ending cycle of Justin Timberlake, Akon, and Beyonce, and usually get out of bed by about 6:30. I go for a short jog, looking out over a beautiful sunrise and Lake Kisumu, then return for a breakfast of bread and butter and dissolvable coffee in a hot milk/water mix. Milk comes from the cows kept on our land. Erastus leaves for school around 7:15 (usually a pretty emotional goodbye, just for a day), and I stick around and read for a while. I take a bath with rainwater in our cement bath compartment, then I head for Nyahera Hospital.

So far, the Hospital has not been a major contributor to my research. The Hospital staff is very hospitable, and I often find myself riding the matatu with many of them in the morning. They’ve set me up with my own little “office”, a family-planning room right next to the main consultation room, and I (sometimes) get to interview mothers of young children of babies suffering from malaria. Overall, though, the Hospital is not very busy (I guess that’s a good thing, or maybe bad, if people don’t have access), and I interview maybe 2-3 mothers per morning there. It’s been a good chance to catch up on some reading, though. I’ve been lacking in that department over the last few years/my entire life (love you, Mom). I’ve asked if there’s any way I can volunteer and do a little work to help out around the hospital, but so far that’s been unfruitful. Soon, I hope to interview the lead nurses/doctors there, which should be a pretty valuable contribution to the ol’ project.

Afternoons in Nyahera are awesome for research. I meet up with Becky, Erastus’s sister and a English-ly fluent 19-year-old who lives in Kisumu town. Becky and I trek through back roads of Nyahera surrounding the Hospital (the village is pretty huge), stopping at homes which strike us as welcoming to ask some questions. My interviews center on malaria and now water-borne diseases, which I found are a major problem in Nyahera shortly after entering my homestay here. Families are awesome, usually welcoming me into their homes excitedly and with open arms, and it’s great to sit down and talk with such a great range of Luo personalities each day. Sometimes we’re offered food (some ugali, sardines, and green vegetables) or some chai, and my interviews usually last for about a half hour with Becky’s trusty translations. I’ve got a good amount of interesting data already, through approximately 30 interviews conducted at both the Hospital and in the field…

Malaria occurs atleast 1/month among young children in the families here
About 50% of families use insecticide-treated mosquito nets for their young children
Many people don’t understand the cause of malaria, mosquitoes, and simply attribute the constant sickness their children confront to “cold temperatures”—cold here, mind you, starts at maybe 80 degrees Fahrenheit
A woman living in rural Kenya referred to the “dot com generation”. There’s no internet within miles of her home.
The Hospital should be distributing nets for free, but instead charges 50 Kenyan Schillings (maybe 80 cents), or the equivalent of maybe 4 days of food for families here
People would welcome sprays of insecticide on their interior walls and roofs, but they have seen no such efforts by the government or NGO’s
Drinking water usually comes from the river, rainwater, or a communal tap (treated with chlorine or untreated), and because families usually can’t afford WaterGuard chlorine treatment or extra firewood to boil water, kids are plagued by diarrhea (whether it’s cholera, typhoid, or dysentery doesn’t seem to matter)

Just some unofficial trends I’ve observed so far, don’t quote me until I finish with the final paper. But it’s obviously quite cool that family after family welcomes me into their home to ask them questions about the sicknesses plaguing their children with nothing, except a desire to come back here someday and address these same diseases with a more complete understanding of public health, to offer as a remedy.

Families are so funny. I once interviewed 3 mothers (maybe of the same husband) and a grandmother, and when I asked about the age of the well from which they receive their drinking water, all 3 young mothers turned to the elder grandmother. After she responded that the well was constructed in the 1940’s, I said through Becky that I was surprised she answered the question, because she looked the youngest out of all 4 women. That was a big hit with the ladies. I’ve started taking pictures of the families I interview, which I will print and return to them before I leave this area, and they love it. One grandmother took 20-minutes picking out a beautiful pink Easter dress for her 2-year-old granddaughter. It’s rainy season here, so Becky and I frequently find ourselves caught in 30-minute torrential downpours, and each time we are welcomed into a home to keep dry, occupying the time with discussions of Kenyan politics, American politics (lots of Obama hype here among the Luos), and differences between American and Kenyan life. It’s usually tough to talk to one another over the PANG PANG PANG of huge raindrops on the corrugated metal roofs of the homes.

After our interviews each day, I try to construct rough freehand maps of the areas in which Becky and I have done interviews, and I take pictures and attempt to map out major sources of stagnant water and drinking water. Pretty unofficial.

Overall, my stay in Kiboswa and the research I’m working on are very enjoyable. I’m learning tons, meeting great new people, and facing cool new opportunities each day.

I'm going to try and post some pictures next, we'll see how that goes.

Time to hit the village

It’s time for ISP—Independent Study Project—the heart and soul of SIT study abroad. A month of independent research in a Kenyan location of my choice with a 40-page monster as the final product.

I’m heading to Nyahera, a village in Western Kenya near Kisumu, to do some malaria research (both scientific and sociological) on barriers to prevention among children. As of now, the title of my ISP is “Inexcusable Infections: Children, Malaria, and Barriers to Prevention in Nyahera Village, Kisumu, Kenya.” In developing this title I came to an important realization—that a colon makes a title about 10x more intense.

I’m thinking that my “home base” at Nyahera will be the one small clinic in the village, population 10-13,000. So it’s like working at the St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Milford, or not like that at all. I hope that I’ll be able to do some volunteer work at the clinic, get a feel for malaria in the village, and soon start doing some fieldwork. The sociological aspects of the project will come through interviews of both adults and their children—getting a gauge of the peoples’ understanding of malaria’s causes, how it can be prevented, and the proper use of insecticide-treated nets. Today I wrote up some “Participation Agreements” in English, and Susan helped me translate them into Dhuluo, the native language in Nyahera which is currently complete gibberish and makes my head hurt. When I get out to the village, I’ll have to find somebody who will be able to come with me to interviews and interpret.

The harder science will come through some surveying of the village—looking at haphazard sources of standing water where mosquitoes can breed, their proximity to homes, and combined with the interview data, relating these pools (in hoof prints, garbage, bumps in the road) to prevalence of malaria cases among families and children. Dr. Waters, my professor at school who is advising me on this to help the credit transfer easily, even suggests that I incorporate some old-school mosquito larva counting methods in these pools….attaching a tin can to a stick and dipping it into a pool without the vicious little killers seeing me, then quickly counting the larva on top of the pool. People in this village are going to be talking nonstop about this crazy mzungu who plays in dirty water with his silly little tin can toy.

I’m staying with a host brother in the village named Erastus Otieno. He’s my age, lives by himself in the village, and works nearby. His parents recently moved out of the home into downtown Kisumu, so I’ll get to spend time with them, too. Not sure about other siblings yet. Our home is right on the corner of Kakamega Road, the route out of Kisumu and up the western wall of the Eastern Rift Valley. Confused? There’s a little market-type area near my home with the basic necessities and some sweet little pubs. Anyway, I’ll have to take a matatu or boda-boda to the clinic each day, because it’s a solid distance away from my house. I’m thinking boda-boda, for obvious reasons…because it’s fun to ride on the back of bikes. You should see the quads on these guys…

Here’s my schedule for the next month, so you can track me with thumbtacks on the map you have on your wall:

Friday, 4/14…Leave for Kisumu via overnight bus

Saturday 4/15…Meet my host brother Arakas at the bus terminal and head up to home sweet home in Nyahera

Monday 4/17…Start my volunteering at the clinic and try to get my research started

Friday 4/21…Meet Samm, our homestay coordinator here in Nairobi, in downtown Kisumu

Saturday 4/22…Head to Nyangoma-Kogel0, the village where Barack Obama’s family and family friends live. Search on google for something like “Barack Obama father sitting village”. Hopefully, you’ll find the picture of Barack and his late pops sitting in front of the family hut in the village. That’s where I’ll be.

Sunday 4/23…Back to Nyahera to continue research

Sometime around 5/6…Head back to my home in Nairobi for some serious writing sessions (me vs. 40 pages is going to be quite the battle)

Sometime in there…visit my Nairobi family’s rural home with Mama and Baba, who’s coming home from Sudan at some point

I’ve got some pretty legit reasons to be both pumped up and pretty nervous about this whole ISP deal.

Pumped up:

-Living in a village with a guy my age

-Learning how to make my own Kenyan food

-Studying malaria in a place where it’s kind of a big deal

-Experiencing a rural clinic first-hand

Nervous:

-Being solo with no other SIT students

-Knowing absolutely no Dhuluo and having to get an interpreter

-Finding a starting point for my research

Even with these concerns, I know that once I get started I will have no reservations…I really can’t believe I’m about to have this experience.

In other news, the Sox are looking pretty awesome. I can’t believe how good Dice-K was in his first start. Still can’t believe we get ESPN via satellite here at my Nairobi house, but I snuck in a little Sportscenter this morning and saw the highlights of opening day at Fenway. My favorite highlight: Big Papi giving Dice-K a little Asian head bow instead of a high-five or fist pump during introductions. He’s so cultured. Now, I’m eagerly awaiting 2 am, which, on the satellite program here for ESPN, says “Wednesday Night Baseball.” No way to determine which teams are showing in Kenya, but I’m really hoping it’s the Dice’s home opener. Haha, who ever would’ve thought I’d be thinking about watching the Sox in Kenya?

No guarantees for email response in the next 3 weeks, because it may be tough for me to get to downtown Kisumu cyber cafes. I’ll try to get there at least a couple times during my ISP.

I hope all is well for everyone at home/school! Take care.

Uganda Pictures

No idea how these are going to orient themselves, but here are some descriptions. You can play a fun game where you try to match them up yourself.

-Sipi Falls, Eastern Uganda (one from afar, one up close after an intense hike)
-Brian, me, James, and Jeff at Sipi Falls
-Me and Odoch rocking some Ugandan drums
-Baboon mama and baby in Queen Victoria National Park

2 new countries and 4,000 km later...

I got back to Nairobi last night after a tour of Uganda and Rwanda. The trip was amazing, and although I don’t really think I can do it justice hear on the blaaahg, I’ll try.

10 of the 26 students in our group elected to travel to Uganda/Rwanda, while the rest traveled to Tanzania. Odoch, one of our Academic Directors and a native Ugandan, led our trip. We traveled well over 4,000 km in just 10 days, mostly in our tiny matatu, barely fitting the 10 students plus Odoch, our driver Muna, and all of our luggage on top. I’d say we probably drove an average of 4-5 hours a day, with a couple of monster road days of 9-12 hours thrown in there. No complaints here though, because the time spent bouncing through potholes let me see some of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen. I’ll split them up by country and city/site:

Uganda

Busia- A small town on the Kenya border. We didn’t do much here besides cross into Uganda, but the cool thing about Busia is how it contributed to the development of boda-boda travel. Boda-bodas are old-fashioned (by American standards) bikes with an extra seat on the back. They became a popular mode of travel starting with the oppression in Uganda under President Idi Amin (see “Last King of Scotland”), when people frantically crossed the border into Kenya, avoiding customs and immigration by taking boda-bodas through the woods.

Sipi Falls- We spent a night at these beautiful waterfalls atop Mt. Elgon, which spans the Uganda-Kenya border. Our matatu started overheating as we drove up the mountain to our hostel, so we stopped to give it a rest. Some of us were taking pictures of the scenery when we heard a man say, “Now ME.” We turned and a Ugandan man was standing there displaying his hands, each adorned with six fingers. That was interesting. But anyway, we hiked to these waterfalls and those of us not scared of contracting strange snail parasites from fresh water took a quick dip in the pool at the bottom of the larger one. I think both falls were about 90-100 meters high.

The Nile- How many people can say they spent their 21st birthday on the Nile River? We stopped off to see some crazy rapids which, unfortunately, will soon be lost to a dam. Sometimes development is bad news. We were greeted at the rapids by some annoying/American/extreme/drunk outdoors enthusiasts shouting, “BEERS! BEERS! THESE DUDES WANT BEERS!” and got to see others tackle the rapids in their rafts. Lame program rules prevented us from doing the same, but the rapids were cool nonetheless. We also visited the source of The Nile at Lake Victoria, taking a small canoe around the lake and seeing lots of birds and some huuuuuuge monitor lizards—like komodo dragons/dinosaurs.

Kampala- The capital and largest city of Uganda. Although sometimes it seemed like the population of Maribou Storks (enormous, dirty, birds) may be higher than the population of humans. The storks, which I am convinced are actually mammals due to the ratty gray hairs sprouting from their bald heads, eat garbage and are comfortable standing within just a few feet of people. A few of us dreamed of a world where abductions by storks are common (people ducking and yelling, “STOOOOORK!” everywhere) and wished they were more of a threat to humans, but they’re actually harmless. Except for droppings, which landed on James and Tara one night while walking under a tree. Other attractions in Kampala included some tombs at the former home of the King of the Buganda people, the touristy Club Silk, where I was treated to my 21st birthday night, and the Ndere Dance Troupe, who are featured in Last King and put on an incredible 4-hour performance for us and other wazungu. Great dancing and drumming, beautiful Ugandan women, and delicious nyama choma (roast meat) at the performance.

Bushenyi- A small town in Western Uganda. Here we visited a great NGO involved with traditional/herbal medicine—a very popular choice (and seemingly effective in many cases) for people who can’t afford or can’t access Western medicine. The NGO we visited also works on sustainable forestry, harvesting the trees and producing its own medicine. Their most interesting herbal product is a strange green powder called “Sexual Power.”

Queen Victoria National Park- Here we had to take part in the prototypical “game drive” searching for the “big five” (lions, cheetahs, elephants, rhinos, wildebeest, I think). We saw lions from afar, resting as they had just killed and eaten. No cheetahs or rhinos, but we saw elephants within maybe 30 feet of our matatu on the side of the road, tons of buffalo and gazelles, and some hysterical baboons, also right next to us on the road. From afar, the baboons actually looked like one of the normal roadblocks in Kenya by police officers, looking for bribes from passing matatus and taxis. We also toured Lake Edward in the National Park, seeing hundreds of hippos, water buffalo, and beautiful birds. We were treated to FAAAAABULOUS commentary from a Texas man/know-it-all who thought it was necessary to name and describe each of the hundreds of different birds we saw.

Rwanda

The scenery- Rwanda is called the Land of 1000 Hills, and for good reason. The terrain and scenery are out of this world—lush green, tons of bananas, cool-looking crop fields, and mountains everywhere. I’ve never seen a more beautiful area.

Kigali- The capital and largest city. We stayed here for 2 nights. Kigali was the epicenter of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, making parts of the city difficult for us to stomach (see below). However, the city is beautiful—the roads are in much better shape than those of Kenya and Uganda, everything is very clean, and everything is built into the rolling hills.

The Genocide Memorial and Ntarama Church- These were tough, but as my dad said in an email, they’re “something everyone in this world needs to see.” In case, like me before this trip, all the information you have about the Genocide is from Hotel Rwanda, I’ll give you a quick briefing (skip it if you think I’m being annoying)…Rwanda has only one ethnicity, the Banyarwanda, as opposed to the many, many tribes in both Uganda and Kenya. Primarily due to colonialist powers (Belgium, in particular) wanting to control their colony more easily, the Banyarwanda became divided into two major “classes”—the Tutsis (the tiny, elite, cattle-owning class), and the Hutus (the peasant majority, agriculturalists). After independence, the Tutsis always led the government, with the former colonial powers supporting this minority and furthering the chasm between the social classes. The Hutus eventually revolted, taking control of the government and forcing Tutsis out of the country and into the former Zaire and Uganda. Tutsis trained in these countries, hoping to recapture the government by force. When they tried in 1994, Hutus initiated and carried out the genocide—mercilessly killing Tutsi men, women, elders, and children. Torture, mutilation with machetes, live burials, and burnings ran rampant. Radio propaganda made things much worse, encouraging Hutus to kill and kill.

The Genocide Memorial reminded me a lot of the Holocaust Museum in DC. The hardest part was a section with profiles on many of the children killed in the massacre, complete with pictures and plaques describing their personalities, hobbies, aspiration, and then a description of the brutal method by which each was killed. While difficult to stomach, the Memorial was very nice and had lots of important information.

Ntarama Church still haunts me. I knew going into it that it was the site of one of the largest slaughters of Tutsis during the Genocide, with 5,000 people of all ages dying during a Hutu attack. I expected that it would just be an empty church, and was pretty taken aback when we walked in and the church was filled with shelves and shelves of human skulls, the remains of the slaughter’s victims. Other sections of the church had piles of human clothes, smaller bones, and personal belongings from all of the victims. Powerful does not begin to describe it. A banner outside the church, written in French, read “If you knew yourself and you knew me, then you would not kill me.”

Gacaca Courts- Following a tough morning at the Memorial and Ntarama Church, we had a discussion with a government official working with the Gacaca Courts—the specialized judicial system set up to bring the 800,000 Rwandans suspected of genocide-related crimes to justice quickly and smoothly, helping the country move forward. It was interesting to hear how lenient some of the penalties seem to be for people convicted of killing (raping and murders involving mutilation or torture are taken more seriously) during the Genocide. Many are released from prison eventually, and even more surprisingly, are completely accepted back into society. Even victims’ families are willing to welcome killers back into their communities. There is a widespread belief that the devil was the instigator of the Genocide in Rwanda, and as long as people who committed crimes are willing to admit their guilt and repent, they are pretty much given a second chance. The more I think about it, this seems like the best way for the country to move forward.

Sorry to end the post on a pretty dreary note, but that’s what we saw in Rwanda. It definitely seems like people are working very hard to move on, which I found very encouraging. Plus, the country is gorgeous.

It will surely take a while to digest everything I experienced in Uganda and Rwanda. What an experience.

Gone-da Uganda and Rwanda

I leave for a tour of Uganda and a little bit of Rwanda tomorrow night with 9 other students from my group (the rest are going to Tanzania) and our Academic Director Odoch, a native Ugandan. I’m looking at the itinerary for our trip right now and am pretty ecstatic about the trip. Tomorrow night we drive overnight through the Rift Valley and to Kisumu, the same route I took two weekends ago. But this time we’ll continue to the Uganda border and cross through Busia early in the morning. Some highlights of the trip which we’ll hopefully get to (things tend to be pretty laid-back and subject to change in East Africa):

• Taso, a Ugandan NGO that was first on the continent to address HIV/AIDS, at least partially responsible for Uganda’s renown success against the epidemic
• Sipi Falls in the rainforest
• Source of the Nile and Bujagili Falls in Jinja, Uganda
• Nile Breweries (hopefully a tour and taste test included)
• Kampala, the capital and site of most of “The Last King of Scotland”, here we’ll meet up with the group of SIT students studying in Uganda this semester. We’ll go to the Uganda Museum, Kasubi Tombs, and we’ll get a personal dance performance from the Ndere Dance Troupe, which performed in Last King.
• Rwakarwe Rural Development Project (herbal medicine) in Western Uganda
• Queen Elizabeth National Park for a game drive and boat tour
• Kigali, the capital of Rwanda...where we’ll see the sites of the ‘90’s genocide
• Then back to Kampala and eventually Nairobi!

…All that in 10 days. There’s going to be a crazy amount of traveling, but it should be a very cool trip.

Jacob

Photo: Will (left) and Jacob sitting next to Jacob's kiosk

Jacob is a Tanzanian Maasai who lives in a separate little house within my family’s plot in Nairobi. He’s 25, and because he didn’t score high enough on post-secondary school exams to enter university, he had to move away from home in Tanzania to find work. His brother helped my family here build the home, and because my Mama has the tiny house to rent, Jacob has a place to stay until he eventually moves back.

Jacob operates a little red kiosk on the street corner outside my house where he sells everything…food, drinks, cell phone credit, etc. He works each and every day from 5:30 am to 9:30 pm, never getting to leave the kiosk and its immediate premises. Jacob and I have become some pretty tight rafikis. Each time I walk by the kiosk (several times a day), I greet him with some Kiswahili and then struggle to understand his responses and get laughed at by him and his friends hanging around the kiosk. Whenever I’m away from Nairobi for more than a day I get a message from Jacob on my phone saying something like, “Ma hope is that all is good for you. Ma end, fine.” He’s great.

Lately he’s been talking about learning to email me so that we can stay in touch once I head back to the states. So, last night I invited Jacob over to the house after he closed up the kiosk so that he could learn some computer skills and practice his typing. I opened up Microsoft Word and Jacob went to work, although obviously ashamed and embarrassed that he had to search for each and every key and type with one finger. I told him not to worry about it, that it takes lots of practice to learn the keyboard and type fast, and that lots of Americans (cough, my parents, cough) still type the same way. Here’s the message he wrote while practicing, directly copied and pasted from the Word document I made sure to save:

“Hi Nate how are your studies? Its my hope that you will enjoy your studies at the end. My dear Nate, I have decided to tell you so because the Kiswahili language is the one which is used in Tanzania as common language.”

To help him out with his typing skills while I’m not around and he can’t get to a computer, I drew Jacob a little diagram of all the keys he’d ever use on a computer on a piece of paper. This morning when I walked by his kiosk, Jacob had the sheet out on his counter and was “typing” away. I loved it. People here appreciate the littlest things.

Thank you, Madeleine Albright

I’ll start with the not-so-great news…I got to talk to my primary/American mom last night on the phone, and she read me a letter, signed by Madeleine Albright, notifying me that I was not selected as a Truman scholar. No dice. I’m really not upset about it at all, though. Making it to the finalist stage of the competition was a huge (and unexpected) honor for me, got me a round-trip home to the states courtesy of Lafayette, and gave me an opportunity to meet some really cool students who have done some amazing things (i.e. working for Paul Farmer and Partners in Health before even starting college, running for Maine’s state legislature…kinda outta my league). Not to mention, not winning makes my semester here in Kenya much less stressful and more complete…had I won the scholarship, I would have had to leave the program a week early for a mandatory leadership week in Missouri. That would have meant missing my group’s Independent Study Presentations (the most important part of our semester) and having to prepare and present mine a week early.

This also makes mine and Kyle’s post-SIT travel plans much easier. Had I gone back to the states for the leadership week, it would have been tough to convince the Truman Foundation to pay for my return to Kenya to travel. Kyle’s program in Ghana ends a week earlier than mine here in Kenya, so hopefully he’ll be able to travel over here, meet my Nairobi family and see some of the city’s sights. Then the plan is to travel through Tanzania, possibly through some Maasai-land and by Mt. Kilimanjaro, to the Tanzania coast at Dar es Salaam, and take a ferry to Zanzibar. We’d stay at cheap hostels in Zanzibar for a bit, hanging out on the beach and exploring the island. If possible, I’d love to return to Nairobi through Mombasa, stopping in to show Kyle the village (Bodo) where we stayed in late February and to see my family there once more before leaving Kenya.

30 grand for med school would have been pretty sweet, but there are other opportunities for money out there I have a personal letter from Madeleine Albright. Fair enough.

As far as Kenya goes, things are solid and looking only to get more solid.

This is my last full week in Nairobi, making me frantic to try and see some more of the city’s attractions. Before leaving for Uganda on Friday, I’d like to get to the Maasai-land just outside of Nairobi where there are villages and animals (the Maasai are the tribe you usually see when you’re reading about Kenya…lots of red cloth for their clothes, tons of beads, earlobes that hang down low, and dances that involve jumping incredibly high), and shop at the downtown Maasai market (famous for art, crafts, etc and high prices for wazungu…good thing I know how to bargain in Kiswahili). While struggling to do these things, I’ve got to get my ISP proposal done by Thursday. This means tons of research on malaria and insecticide-treated nets in Kenya and among the Luo people, background research on the village, Nyahera, where I’ll be studying for my ISP, and a plan for how I’m going to go about surveying the village and interviewing villagers in a language for which I don’t know a single word (Luo).

Regardless of tough assignments, it’s tough to get worked up in Kenya, where “hakuna matata”. Each day I figure out new things in my near future that get me extremely pumped.

I’ve started talking a lot with Sam, our homestay coordinator here in Nairobi, because his rural home is near Kisumu where I’ll be doing my ISP. He has friends who live in Barack Obama’s late father’s village, also near Kisumu. Sam is planning on going home while I’m out there studying, and has volunteered to pick me up in Nyahera, let me stay at his home for a night, and the next day take me to Obama’s village to see the family home and meet friends and family! Unbelievable.

My mama here in Nairobi will also be returning to her home with her husband (who works in Sudan and whom I’ve not yet met) while I’m out there, and my bro Kevin will be able to come down to Kisumu from his university in Eldoret. Another opportunity to spend time with my great fam and to see some more Luo people in their element.

Speaking of Luos, Raila Odinga, their political leader and a presidential candidate in the upcoming December elections just recently started driving around the country in a bright red Hummer. Given all the corruption in politics, people are kind of freaking out about how Raila got his Hummer (he claims that American friends gave it to him). Regardless, people are extremely excited about the ridiculous vehicle because it’s the first time they’ve ever seen or heard of Hummers.

I’m coming off of a pretty fantastic weekend. Saturday we visited MYSA, the Mathari Youth Sports Association….slogan: “Giving youth a sporting chance”. It’s a renowned organization in Kenya and focuses on kids in the enormous slum Mathari. MYSA organizes soccer leagues and tournaments for kids from the slums, and the center even has a library with donated books where the kids can get out of their homes and come and read. The staff and volunteers are all young Kenyans (about our age), mostly products of MYSA themselves. They gave us a great tour and introduction to the program, speaking about their efforts to educate the youth about HIV/AIDS, improve literacy, and produce world-class soccer players. MYSA feeds players into the club Mathari United, who have long been Kenya’s top soccer club.

At MYSA we got to watch an unbelievable performance by the drummers, dancers, singers, and acrobats involved in the organization’s arts program. They’re all kids…the drummers are easily more talented than the top drummers we see from major bands in the states, and the dancers and acrobats are probably the most athletic youth I’ve ever seen. One kid stayed in place and did probably about 10 back flips in a row.

We had been planning on going to the Kenya v. Swaziland soccer game on Sunday and invited the MYSA staff to come with us. My first pro soccer game was quite the experience. FIFA just recently re-recognized the Kenyan national team (the Harambee Stars...Harambee means unity in Kiswahili) because of a history of corruption involved with the club. The game had qualifying implications for the Africa Cup, a big tournament that’s coming up. It took place at Nyayo National Stadium downtown in Nairobi, packed with maybe 40,000 fans to (interestingly) show their die-hard support for a team that hasn’t played an official FIFA game in 2 years.

Kenya won the game 2-0, with goals soliciting some of the biggest explosions of sports fanaticism I’ve ever seen! People go absolutely bananas, starting up an endless wave around the perfectly symmetrical stadium (sweet for the wave), chanting like madmen, and lighting off sparklers that were clearly smuggled into the stadium illegally. We, with our limited Kiswahili abilities, started up a chant that became popular in our section of the stands—“Swaziland! Mnacheza kama mbuzi”, translated: “Swaziland! You play like goats!”. We got quite the kick out of ourselves. The game was a blast, and it was cool that we got to treat the MYSA staff to come with us.

Yesterday I gave Susan the day off and took responsibility for all kitchen activities. I think she really appreciated my help in cooking lunch and dinner, but was maybe a little bored because I was taking away the only activities she ever really does. Because she was sitting at the kitchen table silently while I cooked lunch, I brought down my laptop and she practiced her typing. She kept trying to help with dishes and cooking, so I repeatedly used the command “POTEA KITCHEN!”, or, “get lost!”. She thought that was pretty funny.

My culinary abilities blossomed with a feast of French toast, scrambled eggs, and fruit salad with mangoes and bananas for lunch, and then for dinner I invited a few of my friends living in Jamhuri over and cooked pasta with meat sauce, garlic bread, and salad. Ice cream, pineapple, and watermelon for dessert. Both meals were huge hits with my family and they couldn’t believe I knew how to cook anything…because a) no other American student staying here has ever cooked and b) men in Kenya are virtually worthless around the house, neither expected no educated to clean, cook, or even enter the kitchen. Eggs and pasta may be the only things I know how to cook, but I did a pretty damn good job, if I do say so myself.

Some good news from the states:

• Katie got atleast one of the two jobs she’s seeking in the Lehigh Valley for the summer, which will put us together at school and give her some decent work that’s not a southern BBQ restaurant


• Abby got offered a job at Teach for America’s summer institute


• Me, Preller, and Dane have one of the top picks in the housing lottery, so we’ll hopefully be able to get one of the sweet college houses on Monroe Street, right next to the gym and with a spacious backyard for whiffleball and grilling


• IT’S ALMOST BASEBALL SEASON. Can’t wait to hear how the Sox are looking and how the Dice fairs in his first outings.

More to come when I get back from Uganda (source of the Nile, first institution to recognize HIV/AIDS in the Sub-Sahara, day trip into Rwanda genocide areas, hopefully some animals)!

Take it easy.

Photos (from top): Me, Molly, Roy, Susan, and James at pasta dinner at my house; Girls dancing to drumming at MYSA; Me displaying culinary expertise; Roy, Susan, and Mama enjoying my lunch of French toast and scrambled eggs (note the orange soda Mama brought out...didn't exactly complement maple syrup)

Lovin' Kisumu (and my ISP plans)

Things really fell in place in Kisumu. First of all, I got a really good vibe from the city in just 3 days, making me really pumped to spend about a month in and around Kisumu during my Independent Study Period. It’s much smaller than Nairobi and therefore much more laid-back. If I had to make an analogy, I’d say Kisumu:Nairobi as Easton, PA:Philly.

Kisumu is in Western Kenya, Nyanza Province—right on Lake Victoria, which is huuuuge. The Lake has portions belonging to Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya…actually making for many problems for fishermen who find themselves arrested in the other countries for accidentally fishing across invisible and fairly arbitrary “borders” in the lake. When we (9 other students and me) got into Kisumu after our 7-hour bus ride from Nairobi through the gorgeous Rift Valley and a number of tea plantations, we were met by a local university professor who serves as SIT’s contact in the west, named Leah. I asked her which direction the Lake was from our hotel and she pointed out to a green field that looked like a tea plantation and said, “It’s right there!” I couldn’t believe it—an entire inlet of the Lake bordering Kisumu was covered entirely by green hyacinth. The locals lament the vegetation because of the problems it causes for the fishing industry and for the way it allows dangerous hippos (unfortunately we didn’t see any last weekend) to hide and get really P-O’d when boats bother them.

The people of Kisumu are primarily members of the Luo tribe, one of over 40 tribes in Kenya but one of the larger ones. Historically, the Luos and other tribes of the west have been snubbed big time. The early leaders of Kenya have been from tribes located in Central Province (home of Nairobi), and there’s lots of political favoritism because politicians want to secure the support of their own people. This has led to horrendous development in the west…tons of poverty, bad roads, malnutrition due to flooding and drought, and lacking schools. Nonetheless, Luos are great people and really friendly. They’re one of the more progressive tribes in Kenya, denouncing traditional circumcision practices that contribute to the spread of HIV and, although HIV, malaria, and TB present huge problems to the Luos because of poverty and ecological conditions, there is widespread recognition of the problems and efforts to eradicate them.

The heat in Kisumu is bananas. It’s at a much lower elevation than Nairobi, which is in the mountains, and smack-dab on the equator. At least it’s dry heat, unlike the humid coast, but the temps are above 30 C every day…not sure how that converts, but I’d say maybe 95ish? Thanks to the elevation, frequent rainfall, and Lake Victoria, mosquitoes breed like nobody’s business and malaria runs rampant.

So that leads me into my Independent Study Project. When we first got into Kisumu we had lectures on health and development from Leah and a woman named Rosemary, head of all Ministry of Health efforts in Nyanza District. I told Leah and Rosemary that I was interested in studying malaria in a village outside of Kisumu, and they told me about Nyahera—a large Luo village in the hills overlooking Kisumu and Lake Victoria. Rosemary wrote me a letter on Ministry of Health letterhead asking the Nyahera Health Clinic to take me in and support my research, and I jumped on a matatu headed up the mountains and into Nyahera.

The Nyahera clinic, operated by the MOH, is tiny but the only such institution for the entirety of Nyahera, a huge village in both land and population—a population that has neither vehicles nor money for transportation. When I walked into the clinic’s outdoor waiting area, there were countless mothers and grandmothers holding young children—coughing, crying, or with uncontrollable runny noses. I went into the office of the clinic’s chief nurse and clinical officer, feeling just slightly intimidated by the titles and the fact that I was a random mzungu, armed with my anti-malaria pills and notebook, entering a war zone of TB and malaria. I explained that I am an American student studying in Kenya this semester and that I am planning on writing a term paper (the word “research” tends to scare people around here) on malaria. I handed Esther, the chief nurse, my MOH letter and apparently that was a pretty big deal…she looked at the letter and asked, “So, you’ll start tomorrow?” I couldn’t believe how accepting the clinic was of a foreigner coming in to help. I lined up my time between April 12^th and May 12^th so that I can volunteer at the clinic and accompany MOH field workers in their visits to village homes to conduct surveys and research about malaria prevention, particularly usage of insecticide-treated nets (ITN’s).

Our SIT contacts in Kisumu set me up with a homestay in Nyahera, too! I’ll be living with a guy my age who lives and works in Nyahera and whose parents have moved out of the rural home and into downtown Kisumu. I guess I’ll have to learn how to cook my own Kenyan food, but I’m down with living simply for a month to really get a feel for this village and what the people face. The house is within walking distance of a little strip of rural shops and pubs, so I’ve got that goin’ for me. Several of my friends will be sharing an apartment in downtown Kisumu, and it’s only a 20-minute matatu ride from Nyahera, so I’ll be able to go into town on the weekends to hang out with them, too.

As if things needed to get any cooler, I got back to Nairobi and found out that my adopted sister, Susan, is from Nyahera originally. Once she graduated from secondary school she didn’t have the grades or money to attend a university, so she took on the responsibility of making money to support her younger brothers and sisters through their educations. She works as a “house-help” for my family here in Nairobi…cooking, cleaning, and doing laundry, but otherwise living like any other member of the family—she eats meals with us, watches TV, and gets along with Roy and Mama as if she were their sister and daughter. Lately I’ve been teaching Susan how to type and play music on my computer, and she’s really happy to learn and use a computer for the first time. She’s one of the hardest working people I’ve ever met, and the way she just accepts working for her family back in Nyahera as her personal responsibility amazes me. Although I feel terrible that Susan rarely gets to go home and see her family or village and I’m heading there to live and work for a month, it’s cool to have contacts and some sort of connection to Nyahera already. Susan’s going to send me with her family’s names and a relative home location (there aren’t any house numbers or street names in villages, so it may be a little bit of an adventure) so that I can find her family and bring them news and pictures of Susan and her Nairobi family. My Nairobi Mama’s home village is also close to Kisumu and Nyahera, and since she and her husband are planning on going “home” in late April, I’ll be able to come along and meet the rest of the Okech family.

Apparently there’s not a whole lot of English or Kiswahili in Nyahera, so I’m going to have to pick up a little bit of the mother tongue, Luo. Languages aren’t exactly my strong point, and I’m just finally beginning to feel more comfortable with Kiswahili, so we’ll see how that goes…

I have about a week and a half in Nairobi now until leaving for my educational tour of Uganda, between next Friday 3/30 and Saturday 4/7. We have some major papers and assignments due late next week which I’ve kind of been neglecting, so I’ve got a little catching up to do. It’ll be good to finally have a weekend at home here in Nairobi (after the states, Kisumu, and the coast in previous weekends), because I’ll be able to see a little bit of the city with Roy and Mama.

We’re all craving NCAA basketball right now and we set up a 100-schilling (approx. $1.20) per person pool with the brackets I brought back from the states. I picked Wisconsin to win the whole thing…whoops.

Sorry for the length of this post…if you made it all the way to the end I’m pretty impressed! I’m pretty excited about the idea of living, working, and researching in Nyahera and it was amazing how easily things fell into place last weekend!

Take care and stay in touch.

Nate/Mnate (my self-given Kiswahili name)

Photos (from top): Rift Valley, on the bus ride to Kisumu; Sign for the Nyahera Village Clinic where I'll be working; Lake Victoria, covered in hyacinth that shifts with the wind

Kenyan Santa Claus and Telephone Pole Fire

After a day of traveling from Nairobi to Boston, a nice day at home in NH with my 'rents and Katie, a 20-minute interview amidst 8 hours of sitting around at Northeastern University, and another day of traveling from Boston to Nairobi, I find myself back in Nairobi. No complaints here, though...it was great to see my folks and Katie (albeit for a short time and amidst interview preparations) and the round-trip tab was picked up by Lafayette.

The interview went well, I think. I'm relieved that the application process is now completely out of my hands, and I'll be fine with the outcome either way. The benefits of the scholarship are obvious, but getting it would make me have to leave my Kenya program a week early and would make my travel plans with Kyle in Tanzania after our programs really tough (possibly 3 round-trips to Kenya and back to the states in one semester). Plus, I wasn't even expecting to be a finalist and I'm grateful for the interview experience.

My body now has no idea where it is or what time it is, which makes preparing for my final oral exam in Kiswahili tomorrow fun (nevermind the 4-days I've just spent speaking only English and missing classes). I find myself getting sleepy in the middle of the day, then getting magical bursts of energy in the afternoon and night that leave me awake until the wee hours of the morning. Luckily, I've just discovered that my Nairobi family owns a water boiler and several cans of awesome Kenyan coffee...

Before I left for the states, I received a list of items from my fellow SIT students in Kenya that they'd like me to bring back from the states. Katie and I had a good time (probably her more than me, I get shopping headaches) at Target getting everything for everyone. This made yesterday quite fun, as I played Santa and distributed everything and watched everybody's face light up. Here's a sampler:

-Water bottles
-Sour patch kids
-Boston Globe Sports Pages
-NCAA tournament brackets (we have a 100-schilling per person pool going)
-Magazines
-Lipton Tea
-Gum
-A package for Emily that I received directly from her parents, whom I met in the airport holding a sign that said "Nathan Parker". I was pretty excited.
-"The Dice" (referring to the Sox' new pitcher, Daisuke Matsuzaka...a request by fellow fan Jon, who was elated when I produced a VHS tape of a Sox spring training game in which the Dice pitched)
-Jeans, khakis, and a shirt for my host dad, who works for an NPO in Sudan and whom I have yet to meet (requested by Mama)
-A book of Greek mythology for Colin's host family
-2 laptops that friends had sent to my house for me to bring back to Kenya
-Hershey's Easter bunnies for our Academic Directors and Kiswahili teachers
-Printed photos and frames for my host families in Nairobi and Bodo

The laptops made for some interesting experiences in airport security, forcing me to use FOUR of the gray bins where you put the loose items in your pockets to go through security and x-ray machines. Needless to say, there were some puzzled and impatient travelers and security guards in the busy Boston and London airports.

So now I'm happy to be back in Nairobi. But only for a short time...this weekend I'm traveling with others in my group to Kisumu, a city on Lake Victoria in western Kenya. It's where I hope to do my independent research for a month in April-May. Hopefully I'll be setting up research contacts and a host family in a village who will take me in for a while. I'm pumped to see western Kenya and to meet a new family. I'm only going to Kisumu for the extended weekend, then it's back to Nairobi for about two weeks until I leave for UGANDA for a week. I'm glad I have one last extended period to stay with my Nairobi family, as we've been traveling in and out of the city seemingly non-stop and I really enjoy staying with them. Plus, I've got Mama, Roy, and Susan all wearing Sox caps around the house (maybe just to please me, but maybe because they understand that they're now official members of Red Sox nation).

This morning there was a transformer fire in my Nairobi neighborhood, causing an entire telephone pole to burst into flames. It knocked power out in our neighborhood nearly all day but luckily didn't hurt anybody. It was crazy to watch as the pole just scorched with flames, people lining the streets at 6 am to watch it. I quickly grabbed my camera and went out onto the porch off of the room Roy and I share, only to see after taking some pictures that people on the street corner were looking up at me and laughing, wondering why this shirtless mzungu was so interested in an incident that, I learned later, happens quite often here. Sure enough, when I returned from jogging over an hour later, the pole was still burning and no city services had done anything about it. How's that for infrastructure? Crazy.

Hope everybody is having a good spring break! More to come when I get back from Kisumu.