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)
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