Karibu Kenya! "Welcome to Kenya!"
Megan, Caitlin, and I arrived safely at Nairobi airport at 9:30pm. After traveling for 20 hours together, we finally arrived the our new home for the next three months. Our adventure began in New York. We said our goodbyes at the security line and headed towards our gates. We had several hours to kill so Megan, Caitlin and I sat down, talked, and ate food. As the time got closer to board, we sat at our gate patiently waiting. As we took our final turns to use the bathroom, an announcement for the final boarding for Heathrow London came on. We then immediately realized we were sitting at the wrong gate! We rushed to the right gate and made it on the plane just in time. Off to a crazy start! The plane ride was approximately 6-7 hours long. I sat next to two older british women. They seemed very proper and extremely interested in their kindle readings. During the plane ride I wrote, read and listened to music. I got myself comfortable by placing one leg underneath me. Both the British women looked at me and looked at my leg. Immediately I felt just slightly judged, so I sat with both my feet on the ground for the rest of the flight. Everyone on this plane had a British accent. For the first time I felt uncomfortable. I have been to London before and never felt this way. Being on your own in a different atmosphere really does affect you. The flight attendant was not so nice to me once she realized I was not British. But other than that, the flight was smooth. We left New York with a beautiful view of the sunset and arrived in London with a gorgeous view of the sunrise. It was 6:30 in the morning.
We hung around Heathrow for a couple of hours, emailed family to let them know we were ok and half way to our destination. Before we knew it, we were waiting at the gate about to board our last flight to Nairobi, Kenya. And off we went.
On the plane I made a friend. He was a Kenyan who had been studying in London for the past 15 years. He was returning to Kenya to visit his family for a couple of weeks. We talked about the difference about our two countries. Where we have visited in the past, where we would like to go etc. He asked me questions about the states and I asked him questions about Kenya. It was amazing to see how two minds from opposite sides of the world think similarly, but yet so different. His perception of America is not as positive as us Americans think it is. Of course many people who see the negatives of the US still want to come to experience it. (This isn't the only time I experienced a Kenyan's perspective on the US.
After a painful 8 hour plane ride, we arrived in Nairobi, our new home. We were picked up by some men from our program and were taken to our apartments. We meet the rest of the student group and our orientation week began the next day at 9am.
This week has consisted of vital information to "survive" Kenya. We met our head of security, program director, orientation assistants, professors, and people we could trust in the program. We were taken around to the AU abroad center where we would be taking some classes, we walked around the neighborhood, drove downtown.
The next day we had a day full of guest speakers and our first lesson in survival Kiswahili. The first guest speaker talked about sexuality in Kenya, the second was one of the few clinical psychologist in Nairobi who talked to us about mental health and living in Kenya, and the final guest speaker was an AU alumni who spoke to us about networking while in Nairobi. My most interested guest speaker was the first one about sexuality in Kenya. Our guest speaker told us that in Kenya, homosexuality is not accepted. However, the younger generation coming in is becoming more accepting and understanding which allows those of the older generation to begin to open their minds a bit. OF course this is not the case for every Kenyan family. But, with the combination of young minds, support groups, and political figures coming out, anti-homosexuality is lessening. Since religion is a very larger component to the Kenyan culture, conservatives do not accept this at all. But there is more positive energy pushing for sexual acceptance than there was years ago.
Most of this day consisted of sitting. One of our orientation leaders made us play a game to help us move around a bit and helped them remember our names. Its called "pepeta". In kiswahili, pepeta means "dribbling". Essentially, the game is about us passing around an imaginary soccer ball saying, "Angie has the ball, she puts it here (place it on a body part) she pepetas (dribbles and thrusts that body part back and forth) and passes it to _____." It was the best game I have ever played. It was funny, smart, and simply enjoyable. We all couldn't stop laughing references to pepeta continued for the rest of that day and the following couple of days.
That day, jet lag hit me extremely hard. Jet lag is not a laughing matter my friends. It took most of the students, including myself the week to handle the change in hours. I am still not 100% accustomed yet. Feeling tired, headaches, and body feeling weak is difficult to overcome when orientation week is fast paced.
During this week we experienced two black outs in our apartments since we have been here. Wifi is not as accessible as it is in the US. Even the university we are studying at is not as reliable as we expected. But its ok! Go with the flow right!? When the public health students visited the University of Nairobi we met with the director of the School of Public Health. Dr. Ongore. He is presentation was filled with intellect and humor. In my opinion a wonderful combination. During his presentation, the power went out. We all giggled and he told us that this happens very often. But they have this saying. NEPA- Never Expect Power All The Time. He continued to make quick little jokes that took us completely off guard. For example, he told us he had a MBChB, MPH, and a PhD, the PhD stood for "permanent brain damage". We experienced another power outage during dinner, and when we returned home. But now we know, never expect power all the time.
When we visited the University of Nairobi, we got a tour of the University's library. We spoke to the head librarian and told us all the books that we have access to etc etc. Something he said took me off guard and upset me. He told us that the library had rules. One rule was that women had to dress up and not wear summer clothing so we do not distract the men. When he said that, the entire group of people we were with all looked at each other. We discussed it after we left his office. This was my first experience of the Kenyan culture on gender roles and perception. I understand that in my head and where I am from, there is no tolerance for that kind of comment. But here, it is accepted. It is a part of their culture. Accepting those kinds of differences from this culture will be extremely challenging.
Later that day we went into the city for a tour. Our head of security showed us the Hilton which is a well known landmark, incase we get lost. We then went to the KICC- Kenya International Conference Center. As a group we traveled to the top of the building and saw a magnificent view of the entire city of Nairobi. Everywhere you turned there was a new part o the city. What I noticed while up there was the amount of trees there were in Nairobi. In my opinion, Nairobi is fairly similar to Quito, Ecuador. However, the trees in Nairobi stand as one of the severe differences these two cities have. Another thing I noticed while above the city was the amount of pollution in the air. It was gray and almost dirty like. A lot of what we could have seen from they view was covered by the gray clouds that rested on top of them. Regardless, the view was beautiful. We all had fun taking pictures and just looking out into the city without speaking.
Saturday, we were informed more about security while studying in the city. We were told our procedures incase of an apocalypse occurred. We had plans and places to go. The most exciting part of my day was meeting my partners for my internship. I will be interning with another student, Allie at HESED. We both did not know what exactly what we would be doing, but either way we were excited. Today we met a volunteer, a staff member and an HR representative. They explained to us that for the first two months our focus is to create presentations about dental hygiene every friday to present to young children in schools. However, as we are doing that, we are preparing a project that we will be working on for two months and then implement in a rural village 10 hours away from Nairobi. We will be teaching, presenting and interacting with the members of that village for 5 days. Once those 5 days are over we will return to Nairobi. This is both exciting and nerve wrecking. I am excited because this is real hands on work that I won't be getting in DC. This is an opportunity not many people get. When I think of a public health internship in Africa, this is what I think of. Of course, I am only saying that now, lets see if I say the same thing in 2 months. Either way, I am blessed to have this opportunity and this experience. I will keep you updated about more information regarding my internship. I am excited to start this Friday.
I apologize for the long blog, hopefully wifi will be our Rafiki (friend) and not be flaky in the apartment. So, until my next blog, kuona baadaye! See you later!
Much love,
Angie
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