Well, overall the week was uneventful, but I still have lots to say! Imagine that!
Lets start with last Sunday. I got up in the morning and met a few people from my group and we went to a mall called Junction to see a movie. The movie is called Nairobi Half-Life, and its the first Kenyan movie to ever be up for an Oscar (I think in the foreign language category- but it has subtitles). It is about a young man from a rural part of Kenya who moves to Nairobi to become an actor but gets caught up in gangs. It was a great movie and you should all definitely go see it when it comes out in the states. It was especially interesting though, because it was set in Nairobi, and obviously, we are in Nairobi. So we recognized places (perhaps more than we wanted to, especially in the violent scenes), scenery, etc. We all agreed afterward that the movie would have had a completely different effect on us if we had seen it in the states. I don't want to say too much and spoil it, because you should all definitely go see it, but we were a little shell-shocked, thats for sure. Anyway, go see it, its worth it!
Then this week happened. Again, nothing too exciting. We had Swahili every morning this week, but they weren't all lessons. We had a horribly long exam on Wednesday, and yesterday (Thursday) each class had to make a skit in Swahili relating to noun-classes. Ugh. Except, magically, everyone decided to play a game instead, so we actually got to play charades, jeopardy, and taboo in Swahili, which was actually pretty fun (even though I HATE charades). In the afternoons this week we have had some free time to do work, since we had a ton of assignments due this week and some due right after we get back from our trips (oh, by the way, I'm going to Uganda in about a week- so excited!!).
This is also the week where all of our Independent Study Projects (ISPs) got seriously underway. This weekend and Monday and Tuesday of next week is our ISP prep period, which is where we are all supposed to go to the location where we will do our research and make contacts, figure out where we are going to live, etc. So this week I've been talking with an organization called Marafiki (which means "friends" in Swahili) that works in an Internally Displaced Persons camp called Maai Mahiu. Maai Mahiu is also a small town that is about an hour outside Nairobi in the Rift Valley Province. This camp was formed following the post-election violence of 2007-2008, where more than 1,000 people were killed, and more than 600,000 people were displaced across the country. Five years later, there are still thousands of people living in this one camp called Maai Mahiu, and they are now classified as settled IDPs.
So through a happy circumstance, I found the organization called Marafiki which works in the camp at Maai Mahiu. They have build a school, are working on building a clinic, they run food programs, adult literacy programs, skill building workshops... I could go on and on. They are a relatively new NGO, since they obviously only originated after the post-election violence of 2007-2008. After playing a pretty epic game of phone tag with the founder of the organization, I finally met him yesterday afternoon to discuss what I want to do and the logistics of me working in the IDP camp. Izzo is a young guy with a degree in biomedical engineering that then decided to start Marafiki after the elections five years ago. We met and he gave me a more detailed history of the organization, what they do in Maai Mahiu, and how I can work with them. All I can say is, I am glad I found them. From what it sounds like, they are more than happy to accomodate me and my somewhat unorthodox request. Normally they work with volunteers, but I am really just looking for an organization to host me informally while I do my research so I have some established contacts within the area. Izzo has agreed to help me find a place to stay, to match me up with a translator, and to have someone within the organization work with me throughout my time researching. Oh, and what I want to research... right. I want to look at livelihoods within the IDP camp, which will be particularly interesting because this is a settled camp. While most people are still living in tents, they also own the land they are on. So what do they do to make it on a day-to-day basis? According to Izzo, most of the residents of the camp are farmers, yet the land they are living on in Maai Mahiu is very dry and infertile. I think it will be absolutely fascinating to look at how the thousands of people in this camp survive, and what they hope to do in the future. I'm SO excited.
So, what the tentative game plan is, is that I have the weekend here in Nairobi free to do some independent work, and then on Monday I'm going to take a day trip with Izzo to Maai Mahiu and get a tour of the camp, learn the basic function of things there, and look at living options for while I am there. It sounds like just the intro I will need to the area before I return to actually start my research! And then after we go to Uganda, we actually start our ISPs.
What I am planning on doing (and lets see if this actually works... it's Kenya, so I'm never really sure of what is going to happen until it is actually happening) is spending the first four days of our ISP period in Nairobi doing basic research on my own. Then I will go to Maai Mahiu for about a week and a half and start my field research. Then I will return to Nairobi for a four day weekend. There are four or five students that are staying in Nairobi to do their research and are renting an apartment, and they've said I can crash on their couch for a few days. The long weekend will be for me to touch base with my advisors in Nairobi, do a bit of online research if I need to (I doubt I'll be taking my computer to the camp), and it just so happens that the weekend I'm planning on spending in the city falls over my birthday and Thanksgiving, so I'll get to spend it with some friends- sounds pretty perfect to me! Then it'll be back out to Maai Mahiu to finish my field research for another week or so. Finally, I'm planning on spending my last week in Nairobi talking to NGOs and government offices in the city about IDPs to get a different perspective, as well as finishing my written report and preparing for my final presentation.
So. I don't know if that sounds as great to anyone else as it does to me... but I'm pretty psyched! We'll just have to see if it all works as planned. Even if it doesn't, I'm sure it will be an amazing experience, and I'm excited to finally have a decent idea about what I'll be doing for my last month in Kenya!
Anyway, thats my ISP.
Then, after spending a lot of time doing work and researching yesterday, I went and met some people from my program at a place called Brew Bistro, and we hung out there for a while- it is a really fun place, but because getting home safely is an issue, we left around 8:30. And last night, in a very impromptu fashion, I actually didn't stay at home- I went to one of my friend's houses in a part of Nairobi called Fort Jesus. Lets just say its pretty different from my neighborhood, and it is basically part of Kibera, the biggest slum in Kenya. Three of us spent the night with our friend, so there were four of us all together in two twin beds. You can imagine how restful that was. So now, after taking a taxi back home, I think I'm going to take a quick nap, shower, and then try and do something productive today- we'll see how that goes!
Lets start with last Sunday. I got up in the morning and met a few people from my group and we went to a mall called Junction to see a movie. The movie is called Nairobi Half-Life, and its the first Kenyan movie to ever be up for an Oscar (I think in the foreign language category- but it has subtitles). It is about a young man from a rural part of Kenya who moves to Nairobi to become an actor but gets caught up in gangs. It was a great movie and you should all definitely go see it when it comes out in the states. It was especially interesting though, because it was set in Nairobi, and obviously, we are in Nairobi. So we recognized places (perhaps more than we wanted to, especially in the violent scenes), scenery, etc. We all agreed afterward that the movie would have had a completely different effect on us if we had seen it in the states. I don't want to say too much and spoil it, because you should all definitely go see it, but we were a little shell-shocked, thats for sure. Anyway, go see it, its worth it!
Then this week happened. Again, nothing too exciting. We had Swahili every morning this week, but they weren't all lessons. We had a horribly long exam on Wednesday, and yesterday (Thursday) each class had to make a skit in Swahili relating to noun-classes. Ugh. Except, magically, everyone decided to play a game instead, so we actually got to play charades, jeopardy, and taboo in Swahili, which was actually pretty fun (even though I HATE charades). In the afternoons this week we have had some free time to do work, since we had a ton of assignments due this week and some due right after we get back from our trips (oh, by the way, I'm going to Uganda in about a week- so excited!!).
This is also the week where all of our Independent Study Projects (ISPs) got seriously underway. This weekend and Monday and Tuesday of next week is our ISP prep period, which is where we are all supposed to go to the location where we will do our research and make contacts, figure out where we are going to live, etc. So this week I've been talking with an organization called Marafiki (which means "friends" in Swahili) that works in an Internally Displaced Persons camp called Maai Mahiu. Maai Mahiu is also a small town that is about an hour outside Nairobi in the Rift Valley Province. This camp was formed following the post-election violence of 2007-2008, where more than 1,000 people were killed, and more than 600,000 people were displaced across the country. Five years later, there are still thousands of people living in this one camp called Maai Mahiu, and they are now classified as settled IDPs.
So through a happy circumstance, I found the organization called Marafiki which works in the camp at Maai Mahiu. They have build a school, are working on building a clinic, they run food programs, adult literacy programs, skill building workshops... I could go on and on. They are a relatively new NGO, since they obviously only originated after the post-election violence of 2007-2008. After playing a pretty epic game of phone tag with the founder of the organization, I finally met him yesterday afternoon to discuss what I want to do and the logistics of me working in the IDP camp. Izzo is a young guy with a degree in biomedical engineering that then decided to start Marafiki after the elections five years ago. We met and he gave me a more detailed history of the organization, what they do in Maai Mahiu, and how I can work with them. All I can say is, I am glad I found them. From what it sounds like, they are more than happy to accomodate me and my somewhat unorthodox request. Normally they work with volunteers, but I am really just looking for an organization to host me informally while I do my research so I have some established contacts within the area. Izzo has agreed to help me find a place to stay, to match me up with a translator, and to have someone within the organization work with me throughout my time researching. Oh, and what I want to research... right. I want to look at livelihoods within the IDP camp, which will be particularly interesting because this is a settled camp. While most people are still living in tents, they also own the land they are on. So what do they do to make it on a day-to-day basis? According to Izzo, most of the residents of the camp are farmers, yet the land they are living on in Maai Mahiu is very dry and infertile. I think it will be absolutely fascinating to look at how the thousands of people in this camp survive, and what they hope to do in the future. I'm SO excited.
So, what the tentative game plan is, is that I have the weekend here in Nairobi free to do some independent work, and then on Monday I'm going to take a day trip with Izzo to Maai Mahiu and get a tour of the camp, learn the basic function of things there, and look at living options for while I am there. It sounds like just the intro I will need to the area before I return to actually start my research! And then after we go to Uganda, we actually start our ISPs.
What I am planning on doing (and lets see if this actually works... it's Kenya, so I'm never really sure of what is going to happen until it is actually happening) is spending the first four days of our ISP period in Nairobi doing basic research on my own. Then I will go to Maai Mahiu for about a week and a half and start my field research. Then I will return to Nairobi for a four day weekend. There are four or five students that are staying in Nairobi to do their research and are renting an apartment, and they've said I can crash on their couch for a few days. The long weekend will be for me to touch base with my advisors in Nairobi, do a bit of online research if I need to (I doubt I'll be taking my computer to the camp), and it just so happens that the weekend I'm planning on spending in the city falls over my birthday and Thanksgiving, so I'll get to spend it with some friends- sounds pretty perfect to me! Then it'll be back out to Maai Mahiu to finish my field research for another week or so. Finally, I'm planning on spending my last week in Nairobi talking to NGOs and government offices in the city about IDPs to get a different perspective, as well as finishing my written report and preparing for my final presentation.
So. I don't know if that sounds as great to anyone else as it does to me... but I'm pretty psyched! We'll just have to see if it all works as planned. Even if it doesn't, I'm sure it will be an amazing experience, and I'm excited to finally have a decent idea about what I'll be doing for my last month in Kenya!
Anyway, thats my ISP.
Then, after spending a lot of time doing work and researching yesterday, I went and met some people from my program at a place called Brew Bistro, and we hung out there for a while- it is a really fun place, but because getting home safely is an issue, we left around 8:30. And last night, in a very impromptu fashion, I actually didn't stay at home- I went to one of my friend's houses in a part of Nairobi called Fort Jesus. Lets just say its pretty different from my neighborhood, and it is basically part of Kibera, the biggest slum in Kenya. Three of us spent the night with our friend, so there were four of us all together in two twin beds. You can imagine how restful that was. So now, after taking a taxi back home, I think I'm going to take a quick nap, shower, and then try and do something productive today- we'll see how that goes!
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