Getting settled in

Photos: (top) me and my Nairobi siblings...Kevin (22), Roy (19), and Juliette (12)

Hujambo from Nairobi.

After a week of orientation-type things, I've finally settled in with my host family. I couldn't be happier. I'm in a neighborhood called Jamhuri, a 20-minute "matatu" ride outside of Nairobi. Several of the students in my program are in the same neighborhood.

My host momma is Millicent, and also in the family are 21- and 19-year-old sons Kevin and Roy, an 18-year-old adopted daughter named Susan, and a 12-year-old daughter named Juliette. My host poppa, George, works in Sudan and is usually away from home. Right now Kevin and Roy are home on breaks from school.

Tomorrow we start legit classes, with 3 hours of Kiswahili in the mornings and 3 hours of either Society, Development, or Health lecture in the afternoons. It will not be boring at all though, because it's a fascinating country and our lectures often entail excursions to interesting sites around the city and country. Next Friday we leave for 10-days on the Kenya coast, living with families in rural villages just outside of Mombasa.

The group is fun, the food is delicious, and my host family is fantastic. I hope everybody is doing well back at home/school! Take care and stay in touch.

Gettin' there...

Crazy to think that in 48 hours I'll be in Africa! I just finished packing (see photo, that's all I've got for the semester!). Tomorrow I'll be driving down to Lafayette to return Katie's car (my dad's truck, which I drove down to school last week, got stuck in the shop in Easton, PA and I had to drive her car home...fun to deal with just a week before leaving for Africa). Abby and Mike will be driving from Baltimore through Easton to meet my parents at our hotel in NYC near Kennedy Airport, so they're going to pick me up on campus and take me (and hopefully Katie, too) into the city. Unfortunately for my dad, he's got to get back to Easton from NH when the truck's finally fixed and bring it home. Getting me to the airport turned out to be quite the labyrinth.

My flight leaves Saturdy from NYC at 10:20 am, making for a nice early morning at the airport to meet the 26 students in my group. 12 hours later we'll be in Dubai, United Arab Emirates--one of the wealthiest cities in the world. Check out the Palm Islands, and "The World", man-made waterfront neighborhoods for the world's wealthiest people. I can't wait to see this city from the air. We have a 3-hour layover in Dubai, then a 5-hour flight to Nairobi.

Here's what the schedule for our program is looking like:
Week 1: Orientation outside of Nairobi
Week 2: Meet and move in with host families in Nairobi, start learning Swahili!
Weeks 3-5: Rural homestay on the Kenyan coast
Weeks 6-7: Return to Nairobi homestays
Week 8: Prep for Independent Study Project
Weeks 9-10: Touring Nairobi and Kenya for Independent Study resources
Weeks 11-15: Independent Studies (organizing our own travel, interviews, etc)
Weeks 15-16: Independent Study presentations, evaluations, etc

My extra time in Africa:
Kyle comes to Kenya from Ghana on May 15th and stays with or near me in Nairobi until the 20th, when my program ends. The two of us are then leaving for a romantic getaway (sorry, Katie) in Zanzibar for a week, and returning to the states on May 28th.

So, almost ready to go! It might take me a little while to get my feet on the ground in Kenya, but I'll update this as soon as possible. Feel free to email me at parkern@lafayette.edu or Bbfsman@msn.com if you want to say hi. I'll probably be purchasing a cell phone in Nairobi that can accept incoming calls from the states (might cost a penny or two to call, though), so I'll get that number out ASAP. Take care everyone!