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.
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