http://voiceofkibera.org/
I really like the way this map turned out. The makers combined the KML files from http://mapkibera.org/ (which I think is the best thing in the world!) and the Ushahidi platform (http://www.ushahidi.com/, again another really cool project-the co founder keeps a really interesting blog: http://www.kenyanpundit.com/).
Oh, and I'm going to this movie tonight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWCbQjPJR2w
Friday, November 5, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
Facebook Photos
This should be accessible to everybody, it's a facebook photo gallery with some of my pictures from western kenya (more to come soon)
The past couple weeks part 1
The picnic I mentioned in the last post went very well. Somehow we were able to get everything together and feed and water about 85 people for 35,000 Khs (450$). The only problem we had was that we couldn't seem to cook the meat fast enough; although, this is due in part to the fact that Kenyans like their meat very well done (burnt to a crisp). Helping to manage a large barbecue in Kenya opened my eyes to two truths: without a car it is difficult to organize a barbecue (especially in Kenya), and leading people even those you know well can be extremely difficult. Enough of that-unless you have more questions of course...
During the barbecue and for the week following I fell relatively sick, I guess Montezuma got his revenge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveler's_diarrhea). On tuesday, thursday and friday of that week I had mid-terms in three classes: International Economics and Trade, African Authors Seminar, and Kiswahili. The first two went well (relatively easy essay questions), but Kiswahili was more difficult. Pretty soon Micaela's going to write a guest post talking about the basic structure of Kiswahili and its slang counterpart, Sheng.
Saturday evening my body decided to purge itself of everything inside of it other than vital organs (one can only hope). Sunday morning we left our apartment at 5:30 to catch a bus out to rural Kenya where we stayed for a week with a home stay family . We caught the bus at a crazy station in East Nairobi called Machakos. As soon as we arrived at the station we were surrounded by drunk men calling me Johny, hitting on all the girls, and asking which bus we wanted. The station was nothing but confusion and mud on this drizzly morning, it took us a while to shed the men, the confusion, and the mud and make our way onto our bus. While waiting for the bus to leave the station (in Kenya buses only leave once they're full), a series of vendors came on the bus touting their merchandise of hats, soda, water, candy. biscuits, flashlights, and locks (?). An hour after getting on the bus it filled up and we left the station. We passed through beautiful landscapes of hills, the rift valley, tea plantations, and sugar plantations (much less depressing than the sugar plantations in the Dominican Republic for some reason though). Along the side of the road stood the famous, although I don't really know why, crying stone http://www.letsgokenya.com/crying-stone.
Most of the time, however, instead of looking out the window I had my eyes on the man selling cures at the front of the bus. He spoke loudly without stumbling over his words with the conviction of a southern baptist preacher, telling us in Kiswahili all the benefits of his products. One could cure malaria and typhoid, another could clean the bathroom and your (he said this one in english) "private parts," and the third could cure sleeping sickness. He went on and on for over two hours without respite. His speech finally ended, a few Kenyans bought his cures, but I didn't have any money on me which is a shame because I wanted to buy a present for my mother. The bus ride lasted about 7 hours during which, as a passenger on the aisle, I was bashed in the face by the behind of every Kenyan on the bus. Eventually, we reached a village on the edge of the Kakamega forest and...(look for part 2)
During the barbecue and for the week following I fell relatively sick, I guess Montezuma got his revenge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveler's_diarrhea). On tuesday, thursday and friday of that week I had mid-terms in three classes: International Economics and Trade, African Authors Seminar, and Kiswahili. The first two went well (relatively easy essay questions), but Kiswahili was more difficult. Pretty soon Micaela's going to write a guest post talking about the basic structure of Kiswahili and its slang counterpart, Sheng.
Saturday evening my body decided to purge itself of everything inside of it other than vital organs (one can only hope). Sunday morning we left our apartment at 5:30 to catch a bus out to rural Kenya where we stayed for a week with a home stay family . We caught the bus at a crazy station in East Nairobi called Machakos. As soon as we arrived at the station we were surrounded by drunk men calling me Johny, hitting on all the girls, and asking which bus we wanted. The station was nothing but confusion and mud on this drizzly morning, it took us a while to shed the men, the confusion, and the mud and make our way onto our bus. While waiting for the bus to leave the station (in Kenya buses only leave once they're full), a series of vendors came on the bus touting their merchandise of hats, soda, water, candy. biscuits, flashlights, and locks (?). An hour after getting on the bus it filled up and we left the station. We passed through beautiful landscapes of hills, the rift valley, tea plantations, and sugar plantations (much less depressing than the sugar plantations in the Dominican Republic for some reason though). Along the side of the road stood the famous, although I don't really know why, crying stone http://www.letsgokenya.com/crying-stone.
Most of the time, however, instead of looking out the window I had my eyes on the man selling cures at the front of the bus. He spoke loudly without stumbling over his words with the conviction of a southern baptist preacher, telling us in Kiswahili all the benefits of his products. One could cure malaria and typhoid, another could clean the bathroom and your (he said this one in english) "private parts," and the third could cure sleeping sickness. He went on and on for over two hours without respite. His speech finally ended, a few Kenyans bought his cures, but I didn't have any money on me which is a shame because I wanted to buy a present for my mother. The bus ride lasted about 7 hours during which, as a passenger on the aisle, I was bashed in the face by the behind of every Kenyan on the bus. Eventually, we reached a village on the edge of the Kakamega forest and...(look for part 2)
Friday, October 15, 2010
PICNIC MANIA!
This Sunday the AU Abroad program in Kenya is holding a picnic/barbecue for people associated with the program and all the students' internships. For some reason I happen to be on the planning committee. There are 16 of us students and each one of us has an internship, which means about 100 people will show up the barbecue. Most Kenyans eat a lot of meat and drink a lot of beer. I've asked around and some people have told me that we need six bottles of beer and at least two chickens per Kenyan. The committee has stepped away from such hellish (and expensive-600USD for beer alone) estimates. Now we're looking at around one bottle of beer and 1.25 pounds of meat per person. We'll also have a lot of other foods at the barbecue. In other words my free time for the weekend has already been eaten up by the time it has taken me to write this post (and it's a short one).
If you ask questions about Kenyan food, eating habits and anything else I'll answer them!
If you ask questions about Kenyan food, eating habits and anything else I'll answer them!
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Projects
I'm using this post to tell people about the two main projects I'll be working on while I'm here in Kenya. In order to receive academic credit for my internship I have to put together and submit a grant proposal. As a student I want to try to write a grant that will help other students get through school. Many organizations already help families send their children through primary school, however, educational aid tends to stop there for some reason (paying jobs tend to want more than an elementary school diploma). Secondary school is supposed to be provided by the Kenyan government, however, the government fails to meet the demand and many private schools fill in the gaps. Families in informal settlements have trouble paying the lump secondary school fee at the start of each term and have in the past asked Action Now Kenya for short term loans to help them pay school fees. I want to write a grant proposal for a pool of money for these secondary education loans. The interest accrued from the loans will fall into a scholarship fund for one of the students who has received one of our educational loans and is heading off to tertiary school. I also want to try to make an internship/apprenticeship program for the students benefiting from the loans. I haven't yet worked out the particulars but I looking at 20-40 loans at 6,000-20,000khs (75-250$) per term. If people have suggestions or questions just write a comment (ps, i'm looking for possible donors/maybe a linkup program with US high schools).
The second project I'm working on is my final project for my class on urbanization. I once saw a really cool map of the neighborhood of Los Angeles. Each neighborhood had a little face on it. The faces had the skin color of the majority of the residents living in the neighborhood. The faces had other features--smile/frown, the shape of the face, the position of the eyes...--which represented certain variables like average annual income, average education level, life expectancy and so on. I want to make a similar but cooler map of Nairobi on a program like google earth. I want to interview a bunch of Nairobians and ask them to draw a map of Nairobi. If the person gives permission I will write up some notes on the interview, make a place mark for where the person lives and impose the map they drew over the satellite image of Nairobi. Hopefully, if I interview a lot of people from different parts of the city I can show how people living in different areas of the city interact with Nairobi spatially. If they focus most of their activity around one area of town that part of their map will be more detailed. On top of these interviews I want to take photos of the different neighborhoods and put links to the photos on the electronic map. I also want to find quantitative data to put into the map. A lot of other students in my abroad program are working on projects that could produce really cool information that I'll try to make maps out of. I'd really appreciate advice or suggestions with this idea because the input I've had from other students has been really helpful so far. Hopefully if it works out fairly well I could do the same thing for cities in the US.
The second project I'm working on is my final project for my class on urbanization. I once saw a really cool map of the neighborhood of Los Angeles. Each neighborhood had a little face on it. The faces had the skin color of the majority of the residents living in the neighborhood. The faces had other features--smile/frown, the shape of the face, the position of the eyes...--which represented certain variables like average annual income, average education level, life expectancy and so on. I want to make a similar but cooler map of Nairobi on a program like google earth. I want to interview a bunch of Nairobians and ask them to draw a map of Nairobi. If the person gives permission I will write up some notes on the interview, make a place mark for where the person lives and impose the map they drew over the satellite image of Nairobi. Hopefully, if I interview a lot of people from different parts of the city I can show how people living in different areas of the city interact with Nairobi spatially. If they focus most of their activity around one area of town that part of their map will be more detailed. On top of these interviews I want to take photos of the different neighborhoods and put links to the photos on the electronic map. I also want to find quantitative data to put into the map. A lot of other students in my abroad program are working on projects that could produce really cool information that I'll try to make maps out of. I'd really appreciate advice or suggestions with this idea because the input I've had from other students has been really helpful so far. Hopefully if it works out fairly well I could do the same thing for cities in the US.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
My internship
Around 11:30 AM on Monday a man wearing an orange teacosy on his head and a matching gown squirted a watery liquid into my mouth from a green stained plastic bottle. I'm as confused as you are right now, providing context won't really clarify things but I'll give it to you all the same.
I'm interning with Action Now Kenya (ANK), a small non-profit which provides micro loans and business training to people living in the informal settlements of Nairobi. ANK has three full time employees and four community workers who occasionally report back to home base. In 2007 ANK started working as a partner organization with the microfinance agency Kiva (http://www.kiva.org/). In this relationship Kiva dealt with the investors and ANK dealt with the clients (the people receiving the loans). Soon after partnering with Kiva, ANK and Kiva dispersed over $100,000 in small loans. The timing, however, was incredibly bad, just a few months later post election violence erupted in Nairobi (http://tinyurl.com/ycuwu5j). The fires, violence, displacement of people, and looting were most intense in informal settlements and so many of ANK's clients were unable to pay back their loans because their businesses were destroyed or looted. When Kiva asked for money from ANK to pay back the investors, ANK wasn't able to reimburse the investors at once and is still trying to do so today. On a positive note, ANK recently started a new loan program independent from Kiva. On Monday I went into Kibera to meet some of our current and prospective clients.
Kibera, and informal settlements in general, are difficult to explain so I'll save most of the details for another blog post. I'm pretty sure that over half of all small businesses in Kibera are either hairdressers or dressmakers/tailors, and so on Monday I met some hairdressers and dressmakers/tailors. I mostly enjoyed the dressmakers because they had beautiful old sewing machines and tended to employ/train other community members. I also met a doctor who runs a clinic which has been burnt down on two occasions and which he has rebuilt doggedly after each disaster. I met a man who makes the best Mandazi (less sugary but better than doughnuts) in Kibera. I met an old lady who sells onions at a stall at 10 cents an onion. I ate a lunch of chapati (kinda of like a tortilla) with beans and kale at the hotel (which translates to restaurant) of one of our clients.
I was also invited into the house of the husband of a prospective client. He happened to be a priest of a church particular to Kenya and was wearing an orange teacosy on his head and a matching gown (I guessed they had something to do with him being a priest, although I'm still not entirely sure). I'm telling you about the teacosy and gown mostly because I was taken aback when I first saw them but when I learned he was a priest they began to make just a little sense to me. On second thought maybe the hat looked more like a chef's hat, but not the kind that look like a soufflé, instead the kind that looks like a cylinder. In any case, in one corner of his house he had an elaborate alter with many differently colored candles, religious images, rosaries, and shepherds' frocks. I talked to this man for a while about his wife's business before conversation turned to his alter. He picked up or pointed to each item and told me its significance. Eventually, he picked up a green stained bottle and...you already know the rest. I found out later that the liquid was blessed water that had been boiled with special curative herbs. The whole incident was really quite strange.
After walking all over Kibera to meet clients I was happy to get back to my apartment and relax.
I'm interning with Action Now Kenya (ANK), a small non-profit which provides micro loans and business training to people living in the informal settlements of Nairobi. ANK has three full time employees and four community workers who occasionally report back to home base. In 2007 ANK started working as a partner organization with the microfinance agency Kiva (http://www.kiva.org/). In this relationship Kiva dealt with the investors and ANK dealt with the clients (the people receiving the loans). Soon after partnering with Kiva, ANK and Kiva dispersed over $100,000 in small loans. The timing, however, was incredibly bad, just a few months later post election violence erupted in Nairobi (http://tinyurl.com/ycuwu5j). The fires, violence, displacement of people, and looting were most intense in informal settlements and so many of ANK's clients were unable to pay back their loans because their businesses were destroyed or looted. When Kiva asked for money from ANK to pay back the investors, ANK wasn't able to reimburse the investors at once and is still trying to do so today. On a positive note, ANK recently started a new loan program independent from Kiva. On Monday I went into Kibera to meet some of our current and prospective clients.
Kibera, and informal settlements in general, are difficult to explain so I'll save most of the details for another blog post. I'm pretty sure that over half of all small businesses in Kibera are either hairdressers or dressmakers/tailors, and so on Monday I met some hairdressers and dressmakers/tailors. I mostly enjoyed the dressmakers because they had beautiful old sewing machines and tended to employ/train other community members. I also met a doctor who runs a clinic which has been burnt down on two occasions and which he has rebuilt doggedly after each disaster. I met a man who makes the best Mandazi (less sugary but better than doughnuts) in Kibera. I met an old lady who sells onions at a stall at 10 cents an onion. I ate a lunch of chapati (kinda of like a tortilla) with beans and kale at the hotel (which translates to restaurant) of one of our clients.
I was also invited into the house of the husband of a prospective client. He happened to be a priest of a church particular to Kenya and was wearing an orange teacosy on his head and a matching gown (I guessed they had something to do with him being a priest, although I'm still not entirely sure). I'm telling you about the teacosy and gown mostly because I was taken aback when I first saw them but when I learned he was a priest they began to make just a little sense to me. On second thought maybe the hat looked more like a chef's hat, but not the kind that look like a soufflé, instead the kind that looks like a cylinder. In any case, in one corner of his house he had an elaborate alter with many differently colored candles, religious images, rosaries, and shepherds' frocks. I talked to this man for a while about his wife's business before conversation turned to his alter. He picked up or pointed to each item and told me its significance. Eventually, he picked up a green stained bottle and...you already know the rest. I found out later that the liquid was blessed water that had been boiled with special curative herbs. The whole incident was really quite strange.
After walking all over Kibera to meet clients I was happy to get back to my apartment and relax.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Explanations for the last two photos
The first picture shows traffic running around a market. The photo only shows a sliver of the actual market which is a large triangle enclosed by three of Nairobi's highways. Vendors of second hand clothing arrive to the triangle early in the morning and set up their mobile tables and start selling their goods. The market is just outside the main section of town where all the tall buildings sit. People either jump off matatus or play frogger (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frogger) across the busy highways to get to the tables. I only brought 3 pairs of pants with me so I'm hoping to find another pair here one of these days (I haven't decided yet whether I'm serious or not).
In the background of the photo there's a blue van. This is a matatu. Matatus are the main mode of transportation around Nairobi. These vans can fit 14 passengers, a driver (this term is relative to nairobi, in the US we might call him or occasionally her an "attack driver"), and a conductor (again a relative term). Mataus usually have loud rap or 70s music playing and sometimes have tv screens showing music videos. Matatus also usually have bizarre stickers on the windows like "have you thanked a green plant today?", "God's love", "Jesus is Lord", "Chris Brown", "naked boy", "SMS only", "big gun", and "speed demon." Like ships, matatus have names, and the names of the vehicles themselves are sometimes even more amusing than their stickers. Some examples include: "Dark Knight", "Junior", "Lover Machine", "Hand of God", "Lady Luck", and "Death Trap." I'm going to start recording matatu names and stickers in a notebook (as soon as I get a notebook, that is).
Now that you've become acquainted with the vehicles themselves, you need to know about their operators, drivers and conductors. The driver and conductor of any given matatu can communicate better than any two human beings on the planet. The conductor sits next to the sliding door on the left side of the matatu and can easily hop out of the vehicle to allow passengers to exit or enter. Conductors tend to ride standing with their feet inside the matatus while their heads and upper bodies remain outside the vehicles. This way, they can see over the roofs of their own matatus in order to assess traffic situations and decide whether their drivers should create new lanes (between other lanes of traffic or on the unpaved sidewalks... there are no lines painted on the roads to designate lanes). The conductor usually taps a coin twice against the roof of the matatu to signal to the driver to stop to let passengers off or onto the vehicle. Signals to create new lanes, cut off buses, etc., are not always as easy for passengers to understand, and vary from matatu to matatu.
Matatus are simultaneously insane, hilarious, cramped, terrible, and wonderful. And you can't really get anywhere without one. Here's some links (oh yeah, these look clunky, how can I make them not clunky?) :http://www.google.co.ke/images?um=1&hl=en&rlz=1C1ASUT_enUS373US373&biw=1366&bih=667&tbs=isch:1&sa=1&q=matatus&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai= , http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=matatus&page=2 , http://www.worldhum.com/features/travel-stories/the-mad-matatus-of-kenya-20100315/
The second picture is of a street I use to get the the AU Abroad program office on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. I posted this picture because I wanted to show Nairobi's dust and pollution. There's a lot of both. Where there's no pavement, cars and feet stir the loosely packed dirt into the air. Grass doesn't seem to grow in most of Nairobi. If you walk around in sandals (I do) your feet quickly get red dirt tattoos around the straps of the sandals. All my shoes now look like dirt. After washing my feet in the shower I need to wash the shower to get the red dirt stains off the floor. The dirt is endless.
In addition to constant dirt, the cars, trucks, and matatus of Nairobi spew black smog. I kind of doubt gasoline in Nairobi is unleaded (correct me if I'm wrong), and after a day of walking around Nairobi my snot turns black. The smell of burning garbage isn't uncommon in the city and is constantly coming in through my apartment's window. Usually, ravines of litter run parallel to foot paths (packed dirt) along the sides of roads (although I imagine some of it will be washed away during the rainy season [it hasn't rained since I've been here]). During the twice daily commute the black fumes of vehicles intensifies the nausea associated with traffic.
Micaela helped write some of this post while I looked after some cooking pasta. She'll guest post sometime soon. She's also my constant editor (please don't blame her for my terrible writing though).
More soon.
In the background of the photo there's a blue van. This is a matatu. Matatus are the main mode of transportation around Nairobi. These vans can fit 14 passengers, a driver (this term is relative to nairobi, in the US we might call him or occasionally her an "attack driver"), and a conductor (again a relative term). Mataus usually have loud rap or 70s music playing and sometimes have tv screens showing music videos. Matatus also usually have bizarre stickers on the windows like "have you thanked a green plant today?", "God's love", "Jesus is Lord", "Chris Brown", "naked boy", "SMS only", "big gun", and "speed demon." Like ships, matatus have names, and the names of the vehicles themselves are sometimes even more amusing than their stickers. Some examples include: "Dark Knight", "Junior", "Lover Machine", "Hand of God", "Lady Luck", and "Death Trap." I'm going to start recording matatu names and stickers in a notebook (as soon as I get a notebook, that is).
Now that you've become acquainted with the vehicles themselves, you need to know about their operators, drivers and conductors. The driver and conductor of any given matatu can communicate better than any two human beings on the planet. The conductor sits next to the sliding door on the left side of the matatu and can easily hop out of the vehicle to allow passengers to exit or enter. Conductors tend to ride standing with their feet inside the matatus while their heads and upper bodies remain outside the vehicles. This way, they can see over the roofs of their own matatus in order to assess traffic situations and decide whether their drivers should create new lanes (between other lanes of traffic or on the unpaved sidewalks... there are no lines painted on the roads to designate lanes). The conductor usually taps a coin twice against the roof of the matatu to signal to the driver to stop to let passengers off or onto the vehicle. Signals to create new lanes, cut off buses, etc., are not always as easy for passengers to understand, and vary from matatu to matatu.
Matatus are simultaneously insane, hilarious, cramped, terrible, and wonderful. And you can't really get anywhere without one. Here's some links (oh yeah, these look clunky, how can I make them not clunky?) :http://www.google.co.ke/images?um=1&hl=en&rlz=1C1ASUT_enUS373US373&biw=1366&bih=667&tbs=isch:1&sa=1&q=matatus&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai= , http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=matatus&page=2 , http://www.worldhum.com/features/travel-stories/the-mad-matatus-of-kenya-20100315/
The second picture is of a street I use to get the the AU Abroad program office on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. I posted this picture because I wanted to show Nairobi's dust and pollution. There's a lot of both. Where there's no pavement, cars and feet stir the loosely packed dirt into the air. Grass doesn't seem to grow in most of Nairobi. If you walk around in sandals (I do) your feet quickly get red dirt tattoos around the straps of the sandals. All my shoes now look like dirt. After washing my feet in the shower I need to wash the shower to get the red dirt stains off the floor. The dirt is endless.
In addition to constant dirt, the cars, trucks, and matatus of Nairobi spew black smog. I kind of doubt gasoline in Nairobi is unleaded (correct me if I'm wrong), and after a day of walking around Nairobi my snot turns black. The smell of burning garbage isn't uncommon in the city and is constantly coming in through my apartment's window. Usually, ravines of litter run parallel to foot paths (packed dirt) along the sides of roads (although I imagine some of it will be washed away during the rainy season [it hasn't rained since I've been here]). During the twice daily commute the black fumes of vehicles intensifies the nausea associated with traffic.
Micaela helped write some of this post while I looked after some cooking pasta. She'll guest post sometime soon. She's also my constant editor (please don't blame her for my terrible writing though).
More soon.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Photos
I guess I'll post photos on my blog through the website picassa. Ask questions if you have any. Thanks.
http://picasaweb.google.com/112106311510324340502/ThoughtsAndStoriesFromKenya?authkey=Gv1sRgCNu5xq-BzvGi1gE#5520743230828007394
http://picasaweb.google.com/112106311510324340502/ThoughtsAndStoriesFromKenya?authkey=Gv1sRgCNu5xq-BzvGi1gE#5520743230828007394
Long time no blog
This post represents an attempt to explain why I haven't posted as frequently as I'd like.
Here is my schedule:
Monday and Wednesday: wake up at 5:45, leave apartment at 6:45 and get on some form of transportation, either one of Nairobi's bizarre buses or a matatu (I'll write a post about matatus soon) by 7:15. I get into down town Nairobi by 7:45 and catch a City Hoppa (one of Nairobi's bus companies) and get to my internship with Action Now Kenya (I'll post about this as well) at 8:30. I work there until 4:30 with a break for tea and a break for lunch. I then retrace my steps back to my apartment and get back around 6:30.
Traffic lengthens the commute. I'm trying to take pictures that will show the chaos of Nairobi traffic but without a helicopter I'm not sure I can really give you a good idea of what it's like.
On Tuesday and Thursday I wake up at 6:30 and leave the apartment by 7:25 so that I can walk to the AU Abroad program office and arrive in time for my 8:00 Kiswahili class. After class I catch a matatu to down town Nairobi and catch the shuttle service to USIU (the university I'm attending here). My first class, African Authors Seminar, runs from 11 to 12:40. My next class, International Economics and Trade, runs from 1:20 to 3. I then catch the shuttle back to down town Nairobi and take a matatu to Westlands, my neighborhood, arriving back around 5:30.
Again on Friday I have Kiswahili at 8 and afterwards I have Politics and Culture in Kenya, which is really a class on the process of urbanization in Nairobi, it runs from 9:30 to 12:30.
To put it succinctly I've been quite busy. I usually fall asleep against my will some time around 10 while trying to catch up on some reading, to the endless amusement of my wonderful roommates.
More blog to come!
Monday, September 6, 2010
woops, I forgot
About the lack of photos... until the past couple days I've let other people do the taking of photos. The next post should involve a lot of photos! But for now I'm linking to sasha's wonderful facebook gallery and blog!
links to sasha:
http://walkinmyeyes.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=262355&id=501389251&ref=mf
links to sasha:
http://walkinmyeyes.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=262355&id=501389251&ref=mf
Zebras, Naivasha, Ugali, and the Rift Valley
Over the past week a lot has happened and, until now, I haven’t had a chance to post anything. After my last post we left Nairobi for the town Naivasha in the Rift Valley. On the ninety minute bus ride I especially enjoyed the view when descending down into the valley. Due to the current dry season (I’m assuming) most of the grass is brown and doesn’t hold the earth well. Red brown dirt comes up into the air and tints everything you look at from a distance (of course everything you look at from close up in Nairobi is tainted by the dark brown of pollution). From a viewing location complete with what vendors assured us to be authentic Masai artwork, we could see the wide and pan-flat bed of the valley. The valley was brown dotted by green. We drove down the two lane highway passing slow moving trucks carrying produce until we hit the valley bed.
Once in the valley the green dots revealed themselves as trees. The trees fascinated me because they seemed entirely ordinary despite being unlike any trees I had seen in the United States. The trees aren’t tall, though, they hold their branches and leaves high up relative to their proportions. The leaved area of the forms short, wide triangles, unlike the bushy , round tops of most western trees. The trees feel ordinary because they looked exactly like the trees you see in the tv shows on African animals. When you’re watching the tv they feel exotic and different but when you’re looking at them up close they look ordinary. By the same token western trees, buildings, and people look bizarre and out of place here.
From where we entered the valley to the town of Naivasha we saw a few Zebras (which Kenyans as well as brits pronounce as ze-bras instead of zee-bras). Naivasha is next to the entrance to Hell’s Gate National Park (which I really want to visit!) a large lake (called lake Naivasha), and also a bunch of flower farms. The town itself has mostly unpaved, padded down dirt roads, although there are a few larger paved roads all of which are individually referred to by residents as “highway”. For me walking through Naivasha’s streets was a heartening experience. Every few blocks a crowd kids (usually ranging from age 4 to 11) would surround me and say “How are you?!” When I answered “good, how are you?!” they respond “how are you?!” Apparently their grasp of English was as broad as my grasp of Swahili. The kids on the older end of the spectrum talked fluently in English about soccer and US culture.
Despite being a working class town Naivasha lacked poverty and had a vibrant and colorful market. The lack of poverty surprised me because the main source of employment, flower farms, set up company villages and supposedly pay some of their workers only 100 shillings a day (80 shillings to the dollar). In other words many of the residents are poor by US standards but seem to live full and happy lives regardless. I’ll talk more about this topic in later posts. I heard about the wages of the flower farmers from a news story pointed out by Sasha (she takes good pictures: ) about a protest by the workers against the low wages (I think it happened September 4th).
We got back to Nairobi Thursday night and since then we’ve been learning how to use Matatus, to navigate the odd streets of Nairobi, and to cook fun Kenyan food like Ugali (ok not so much fun—you just cook and mix maize meal with water until it feels like hot play-do). Today we visited Kibera, the largest informal settlement in Nairobi, and I will try to write another post on that either tonight or tomorrow night. Ok, that’s it for now.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Landing in Kenya
I have a severe time constraint right now so this will have to be brief and I'm afraid I won't have time to upload photos.
My two flights--newark to amsterdam and amsterdam to nairobi went smoothly. On the second flight I sat next to man who apparently played golf with my friend Dylan Dethier in virginia when Dylan was on his expedition to golf in every state in the country. It was really fun to find that odd link.
The most stirring moment of the flight was when we flew over the northern coastline of Africa. The deep blue Mediterranean contrasted beautifully with the golden sand of Egypt. I was also amused by how straight all the roads through the desert were, no curves or anything. Probably because the workers just wanted to get out of the desert as quickly as possible. Flying over Egypt made me think of my two friends studying there this semester-Andrew and Glen (ps, read Andrew's blog it's awesome: http://atathakr.blogspot.com/)
I landed in Nairobi and eventually made it through the visa line and got through customs with me lemon verbena tea (green tea leaves that look suspicious)
I arrived at night so, for now at least, I don't really have much to report on Kenya itself, however, the apartments we're living in are really nice!
I have to leave it at that for now because I need to get ready for my orientation down in the rift valley.
Thanks
My two flights--newark to amsterdam and amsterdam to nairobi went smoothly. On the second flight I sat next to man who apparently played golf with my friend Dylan Dethier in virginia when Dylan was on his expedition to golf in every state in the country. It was really fun to find that odd link.
The most stirring moment of the flight was when we flew over the northern coastline of Africa. The deep blue Mediterranean contrasted beautifully with the golden sand of Egypt. I was also amused by how straight all the roads through the desert were, no curves or anything. Probably because the workers just wanted to get out of the desert as quickly as possible. Flying over Egypt made me think of my two friends studying there this semester-Andrew and Glen (ps, read Andrew's blog it's awesome: http://atathakr.blogspot.com/)
I landed in Nairobi and eventually made it through the visa line and got through customs with me lemon verbena tea (green tea leaves that look suspicious)
I arrived at night so, for now at least, I don't really have much to report on Kenya itself, however, the apartments we're living in are really nice!
I have to leave it at that for now because I need to get ready for my orientation down in the rift valley.
Thanks
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Books I'm bringing
I just wanted to make a short list of the non-text books (I assume I’ll write about my text books as I read them) I’m bringing with me to Kenya:
The Development Dictionary--a really good critique of development featuring Gustavo Esteva (who I got to meet!)
Emerson’s Essays—I hope it will serve as my spiritual guide
Wizard of the Crow—the epic novel by Kenyan Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Half a Life—by V.S. Naipaul who seems to have difficulty distinguishing between individual African countries proffering to refer to “Africa”
A Good Man is Hard to Find—by my mother’s recommendation
Blood River—also by my mother’s recommendation
Heart of Darkness—haven’t read it yet, now seems like a good time
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun—by Amazon’s recommendation.
I’m just glad to have my new kindle, it saves a lot of space and weight.
Packing Nirvana
Tonight I’ve been packing for Kenya. I’ve found that packing up for a semester (maybe year) abroad is much more human than packing up my apartment earlier this month. I remember looking at a huge number of bizarrely shaped containers spread across the living room floor. Some held lots of small details—my small plastic animals, extension cords, oddly shaped books, mugs, and other stuff—others held big objects like the toaster-oven or my bedding. So many boxes filled with so many objects. I felt chained down by all the stuff I had accumulated, as if I was incredibly materialistic and selfish. Why did I have that small bust of Thomas Jefferson? Why was that atlas so big?
Packing for Kenya has been different. One suitcase, one manbag, and one relatively empty backpack (although admittedly the suitcase is rather large). It’s all so compact and uncluttered. Simplifying my life, as Thomas Mikelson, Abdul Said, and my parents (ask about these people because they’re amazing) advised, feels liberating.
I’m happy and excited to travel to and to live in Kenya. I look forward to meeting Kenyans, learning about the culture and history of Kenya, travelling to the coast, travelling to the interior, and seeing mad(awesome) animals. The prime motivation for travelling abroad in Kenya, however, was the opportunity to uproot my perspective on development, international relations, and Kenya.
Friday, August 27, 2010
First Post
I told so many people that I was thinking about writing a blog that I can’t really get out of writing one. Sunday the 29th I’m scheduled to fly out of Newark Airport and land in Nairobi Monday. Internet access in Kenya should be relatively scare so, at least partially, this blog is an attempt to centralize my communication. I want this blog to represent my thankfulness to all the people who have invested their time and energy into me. While I don’t expect my observations to repay you for all of you help and guidance, maybe they’ll cover the dividends. Through this blog I hope to share what I will learn while abroad in Kenya.
I will leave home around 11 AM on Sunday and get into Nairobi by about 7 PM Monday night with a brief stop in Amsterdam. I’m dreading the long flights because, although I’ve experienced a longer door to door trip (the 48 hour Williamstown to Cochabamba Bolivia saga), I’ve never been on two flights as long as these one after another. I don’t enjoy the act of flying and try my best to forget about it as soon as I’m off the plane. On this trip, however, I don’t want to take flying for granted. I can’t imagine getting to Nairobi by any mode of transportation other than flying. I doubt I would enjoy being cooped up on a boat all the way across the Atlantic and around the Cape of Good Hope. So…thank you planes.
Another quick word on flying—walking onto a plane in one country and walking off of it in another country makes for an awkward cultural transition. Driving allows you to peer through the windows and observe the changing landscape and details. The changes form a narrative which begins at your starting location and finishes at your destination. Nothing feels odd or entirely out of place because the changes flow into each other. When you fly to another country, however, the contrast from your starting location and you destination is huge. All of a sudden people dress, talk and look different. There are new and bizarre smells and new food to taste. This simultaneously makes flying exciting (new adventures) and disconcerting (sharp contrast).
I admit that I’m looking forward to emptying my pockets in Kenya to see which tiny pieces of America came with me.
Before I can fly out I need to finish (start) packing and run a million other tedious errands. Thanks for reading and feel free to comment and ask questions,
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