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.

Pictures so far...

Home for a whirlwind of a weekend for my Truman Scholarship interview. 2 days of flying round=trip for a 20-minute interview. I got to see the 'rents and Katie though, so I got that going for me. And I got a chance to post some pictures from a fast computer...enjoy!






My house in Bodo



Susan, my adopted sister in Nairobi, and Mama



Me and Mama



Me and Susan



Me and some Bodo kids



My siblings in Bodo...Saumu (6), Biwti Ali (10), Saidi (1.5)



Me and my Bodo family



Me and Erin with her parents/my grandparents. Babu (grandpa) looks IDENTICAL to Morgan Freeman



Jamhuri, my neighborhood in Nairobi



Neighbor girl (5) carrying a baby in Bodo



Me and my baby brother Saidi in Bodo



Mama in Bodo



My sibs and neighbors in Bodo



Baba, Mama, Saidi



Saidi, my bro in Bodo, chillin naked in the sand



My sister Biwti Ali playing with her stilts



Best picture ever? Saidi is a genius in front of the cam



The Bodo sunset



Giraffes in a Nairobi center



They ate food out of our mouths....I promise everyone did it.



Kids in Bodo greeting us



Spider in my room in Bodo (huuuuge). Too bad I didn't get any pictures of the scorpions I slayed.



A Bodo classroom

Maisha katika Nairobi

(Life in Nairobi.)

I told you I was going to get back on track.

So, we're back in Nairobi now for our longest period of the semester. That means regular classes, or atleast as regular as they can get in Kenya. We usually have 3 hours of Kiswahili class in the mornings, taught to us by a rotating group of fantastic native Kenyans: Rose, Anne, Patrick, Peter, and George. My favorites are Anne, who may be the funniest and cutest (in a 40-year-old Kenyan woman sort of way, sorry Katie) woman ever, and Patrick, liked by very few students in my program because his teaching style is completely unorganized, but his facial expressions are priceless and I find his lectures quite entertaining. These teachers all came with us to Bodo and taught us there, and it was quite funny to see them hating the heat and sand, complaining all the time, and dressing like tourists while we students wore the traditional Swahili coastal garb. I say shamelessly that I sported a skirt-like "Kikoi" for the vast majority of our stay in Bodo, maintaining a nice air flow and helping me cope with the heat.

Our Kiswahili classes are separated by a 30-minute break for morning "chai", the Swahili word for tea. You wouldn't think that people in such a hot country would sip piping hot beverages each morning and afternoon, but there are apparently some physiological advantages to doing so. So I, now approaching 100% Kenyan, have learned to enjoy the chai breaks. Although maybe it's just the break from being bombarded with Kiswahili words...

All of us students usually walk about 20 minutes to Adams Arcade during our two-hour lunch break each day, a very western-like shopping center with restaurants that serve American food. I try to bypass the more expensive food and eat at a little traditional Kenyan cafe, usually for less than $2 US.

We return to our school (slash "center", actually just a random house in a neighborhood with an SIT sign on it) in the afternoons for another 1.5 hours of lecture, centering usually on development or health. We've had fascinating lectures so far on things like herbal medicine, Swahili weddings, the Muslim culture on the coast, the informal sector of the Kenyan economy, development projects on the coast, and just today, the effects of British colonialism on early, pre-independence development. It's all good stuff.

In the mornings here in Nairobi I wake up early (6:20! 8 am class next fall at Lafayette should be a piece of cake for once...) to run with a few of my fellow students living in my "neighborhood", Jamhuri. We run right past Kibera each morning. I'm sure we look like complete idiots to the many Kenyans bustling about early in the morning, a pack of 4 "wazungu" jogging slowly down the sides of roads in a country that boasts the world's best marathoners. As a matter of fact, the world cross-country championships are in Mombasa later in March and may be a possibility for an "educational excursion" courtesy of SIT. I hope it happens.

I get back home at night and usually do a little studying or watching Kenyan music videos with Roy, who gets home in the afternoons from his part-time job as a salesman. Usually it's dinner (usually some sort of meat with ugali or chipati and some type of salad with mayonnaise as the dressing) and then a little more schoolwork and bed, with trips to local pubs for African music and cheap "bia" thrown in here and there. I love how the Kiswahili word for beer sounds like a Boston accent.

So, I have a little excursion to the states thrown into my semester in Kenya, THIS WEEKEND. I have my interview for the Truman scholarship next Monday, so I'm flying home Friday night so that I get there on time and then leaving Monday night to come back to Kenya. This is weird for many reasons: the 8-hour time difference that's going to terrorize my mind, the likely 80-degree temperature difference that's going to give me some sort of sickness that nobody's ever even had, and the fact that I get to see my parents and even Katie (she's meeting me at the airport in Boston when I get there on Saturday and staying for 24 hours before leaving for her spring break, what a gal.). I'm excited and nervous, for both the interview and the consequences (school work, time difference) of leaving the program for a few days. However, my academic directors here in Kenya and the entirety of my fellow students here have been incredibly supportive. I've promised to bring back a few necessities from the states, such as a bag of Sun Chips and a Boston Globe sports page for my buddy Jon, a fellow sox fan.

Good news about coming home this weekend: I'll be able to post some pictures! You know you're pumped.

I've been thinking lots about my upcoming Independent Study Project, for which I am on my own to develop research methods, arrange accomodations, and hire an interpreter for over a month in April and May. I'm very excited about this and have developed an initial plan...

I've decided that my Independent Study needs to be another culturally challenging period for me, similar to that I had in Bodo. I'm planning to go out west to Kisumu, the third largest city in Kenya, and hopefully stay in a rural village of the Luo people, who because of their surrounding environment (climate, Lake Victoria, mosquitos) and lots of social and cultural factors, are extremely affected by malaria. For example, many men refuse to use bednets because they believe that doing so entraps and diminishes their virility. Also, many refuse to use the more common white nets and favor blue ones because they believe the white ones bring ghosts into their homes. I can't wait to interview people and study this more. Plus, it's a cool time to be staying amongst and talking with Luo people, as Barack Obama's father was a Luo and he is all the rage right now in Kenya.

Basi sasa. (That's all for now.)

Ninapenda Kenya sana.

(I love Kenya very much.)

What an amazing country and experience so far, just a month into my program. Sorry I've been a little lacking in the blog department, but now I'm settled in Nairobi for a while and should be able to keep up.

So, our program began with an orientation-type week in two different locations in Nairobi. First we stayed in a hostel in Karen, a "suburb" of Nairobi named after Karen Blixen (author of Out of Africa). We learned about the program, toured Nairobi a bit, and had our first "drop-offs" in preparation for our independent study projects later on. I kid you not, just two days into my time in Kenya, I was dropped off with two girls in my program at Jomo Kenyatta National Hospital, the largest public hospital in Kenya. We just kind of walked around with our jaws dropped for a while, amazed at the lack of security or cleanliness, long lines into various wards, and the completely different atmosphere from anything that exists in the states. Finally we were able to talk to the Head of Public Relations for KNH, and he gave us a 2-hour tour of the hospital's Comprehensive Care Center for HIV+ patients. We saw waiting rooms full of people waiting for status checks, prisoners in shackles being tested, and playrooms for positive children. It was an eye-opener for sure, and also a confidence booster to see that we could use our limited Kiswahili to ask for help. The people at KNH were incredibly and unexpectedly welcoming to three American students.

The second part of orientation was in a different hostel called Tumaini ("Hope"), this time near the neighborhoods in which we'd soon enter our homestays. It was useful to get to know these neigborhoods before moving in.

A week into the program, I moved into my homestay in Nairobi. I live in a district called Jamhuri ("Freedom"). It is right near Kibera, the largest "slum" in Kenya and one of the largest in Africa. Jamhuri's not the safest place by night, but I feel perfectly comfortable walking around and striking up conversations with its residents by day.

My family here in Nairobi is awesome. My mama is Millicent, and she has three kids: Kevin (21), Roy (19), and Juliette (12). She also has an adopted daughter, Susan (18), who is a house-help, having moved away from her family in western Kenya to make some money and return later. Kevin is at university and Juliette boarding school...I have met both of them already, but both are currently back on their campuses. Roy is working part time and awaiting entry into university later this spring. Roy and I share a room and, to my surprise, he knows significantly more about American pop culture than I do. He's into soccer and the family lives to watch English Premier League games on TV Wednesday and Saturday nights. You're probably wondering if I'm in Kenya right now as I describe my family, and you're completely right in doing so...the Oketch family could be sent to the states right now and fit in perfectly. Not what I expected in Kenya, but loving, welcoming, and fun. I couldn't ask for anything more.

Just a week into our Nairobi homestays, we took off for the portion of our program on the coast. We took an overnight train from Nairobi to Mombasa (17 hours to go half the distance across Texas, reaching mind-boggling speeds of maybe 20 mph), which was definitely interesting! Once on the coast, we headed by bus on sandy roads to the village of Bodo, population 500ish. Thus began one of the most memorable periods of my life so far...

We stayed with families in Bodo, all of which were Muslim and Swahili people (creators of the national language and often of mixed Arab/Indian/African descent). My family consisted of Baba (father) Saidi (just 26 years old), Mama (no older than I am), my sisters Biti Auli (10) and Suomu (6), and my baby brother Saidi (1 and a half). Only my father spoke English, so it was a great experience trying to communicate with the rest of the family. Motivating, for sure. My home in Bodo is made of sticks and mud, with palm frawns woven together for the roof. The family insisted that I have my own room, while they shared the only other room in the house, my sisters (I think) sleeping on just a mat on the dirt floor. The weather in Bodo was intensely hot, probably mid-90's each day with high humidity, and it felt as though the sun were about 3 feet above our heads. I poured sweat like a madman, alllllllllllll 10-days.

So, our time in Bodo consisted of intensive Kiswahili classes in the mornings (while the heat was still survivable), then afternoons to hang out with our families, fail miserably while competing against the village teams in soccer and volleyball, and work on our village research projects, mine consisting of interviewing villagers and fishermen about food production for the village. We helped the village with their ongoing construction project of a health clinic, and many villagers crowded around to watch as the wazungu ("white people") formed an assembly line to transfer an enormous pile of coral blocks from one location to another closer to the clinic site. My nights consisted of eating with my family, sitting on the ground and using our hands to share a gigantic platter. Erin, a girl on my program, and I always ate dinner together, because her parents in Bodo were my grandparents. They spoke NO English, so it was nice for her to have a break with some English. After dinner we'd hang out for a while and learn Kiswahili from our families, compare the hilarious differences with which our cultures interpret animal noises (I still laugh thinking about Baba Saidi making a pig noise), and listening to Kiswahili news on the radio. I'd return to my room every night and battle scorpions (kill count for the 10-day trip = 12, if you ever have problems you know who to ask) to the point that I had sweat through my minimal clothing. Despite how ridiculously tired I was each night, the heat was a formidable opponent in my quest for sleep. No complaints about Bodo, though...I can't believe how welcoming the village was to our group and I feel as though I'm now a member of the village and, especially, a family there. It was very difficult to leave the wonderful people and place. I wish I could post pictures from Bodo from the Nairobi internet cafes, especially those of my baby brother Saidi, but these computers make that difficult! You'll just have to wait.

After our time in Bodo we had four days in Mombasa, kind of the "happenin" place in Kenya. It's a huge port city, subjecting it to the same coastal climate as Bodo. The Muslim people of the coast are much friendlier than the busy mix of people in Nairobi, so it was a pleasant stay for sure. We had some interesting visits while in Mombasa, too...we went to Kemri, a medical research center and hospital in the rural district of Kilifi, where they are doing lots of HIV/AIDS and malaria research. On our last day we visited the Mboya School for the Cerebral Palsied (maybe not the most politically correct wording for such a center), which is a great organization that reminded me lots of Best Buddies in its mission and work. The kids at Mboya were excited to have visitors, and the teachers were passionate about their work and eager to explain everything to us. Most of the kids couldn't speak, but we helped them eat their snacks and encouraged them to do math problems and name-writing on their chalk slates. It was uplifting to see a program for children with mental and physical disabilities in Kenya, as I (perhaps ignorantly) didn't expect to see a whole lot of compassion for the differently abled here in Kenya.

So now, after a 24-hour train/bus ride (6 hours of standstill after the cargo train ahead of us went off the tracks), we're back in Nairobi. I moved back in to my home in Jamhuri with the Oketch's last night, and told them all my tales from Bodo (surprisingly, life in rural villages is about as foreign to them as it is to you or me). Now it's back to Kiswahili classes and lectures from various University professors and experts about development and health, with some Nairobi fun on the side. The pubs here are great, often with live African music and cheap African beer (Tusker and Pilsner are most popular native Kenyan brews).

A big surprise came while I was in Bodo when I found out that I'm a finalist for the Truman scholarship. This Friday I'll be flying home for the weekend, interviewing on Monday, then flying right back to Nairobi. I'm a little nervous for how much this is going to mess up my mind and body (8 hours difference and probably about 70 degrees difference between the two places), but I can't pass up the opportunity!

The rest of the semester is shaping up nicely. Late in March we embark on our educational tours. I hope to go to Uganda (with a side visit to Rwanda) with one of our two academic directors, but that trip is more limited than the one to Tanzania due to excessive traveling. But Kyle and I plan to travel to Tanzania after our SIT programs, so I feel as though I have a legitimate claim to a spot on the Uganda trip. Plus, who ever gets to go to Uganda???? This guy.

The last part of the semester will be organizing my own accommodations for my Independent Stuy project. I'm planning to study cultural barriers to effective malaria prevention/treatment in a rural district, most like with the Luo people near the western city of Kisumu. I can't wait for the research experience or to get to know another rural people.

So, that's all for now. Sorry it's long, but now you have something to satisfy that insatiable desire you have each and every day (maybe hour) you check my blog.

Kwaheri (for now) from Kenya.
Nate