Thursday, October 23, 2008

Just Hilarious

So...the refugee camp that I decided to go to because it is too dangerous to go to the western portions of the country.

Remember my nice safe alternative?

You mean the one that has just erupted in violence?

Oh yea...that one.

Really, it's all just absolutely hilarious.

No big deal.

Raspberries

The word raspberry may have become my most commonly used while in Kenya. Whenever someone talks about fruits my mind wanders to images of me strolling through large open fields, skipping around with raspberries in my hand, and being in pure bliss. Then all too suddenly, I am reminded that Kenya has no raspberries.

But today...I found them. I got one of the two cartons of them, and am overlooking the fact that they all have a bit of mold on them, and am thoroughly enjoying the beautiful beautiful experience of this wonderful fruit. I also found kiwis and a pomegranate, but they were a bit out of my price range.

The moral of the story: don't take berries for granted because you never know when they will disappear from your life.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Maybe I'm a Spoiled Brat

....but I’m sick of waking up in the middle of the night, realizing that it is pouring rain outside, and beginning to feel guilty that I’m in a house with two blankets, a roof, and that I don’t have mud and human waste spilling into my hut that has about 10 people living in the space that should be made for one.

My heart shouldn’t break when I see a child drop a ball of fried dough, but it does because I know that that mandazi is probably the only food he’s going to get for the day, while I get to go eat 3 full nutritious meals, followed by ice cream if I want. And then I have enough money left over to go see a movie, or grab a beer or two, or buy whatever I want.

I’ve spent less than $50 of my own money in the past 6 weeks (keeping in mind that my housing has been covered and that $50 has gone to spending money on baking and restaurants)...this country is as cheap as you can get, and more than 90% of its population works in the informal economy and can’t afford any of these things.

I’m sick of having to question why I’m lucky enough to be a white girl from America, born to two well educated parents that have the ability to cosign my loans so that I can pick up and travel through the world, while everyone that I see here doesn’t even want to go to primary school because they know it’s not worth it. Secondary school for four years here costs about the same as my parents paid to send me to my private school for less than a trimester, and yet nobody can afford to send their children here. My house help, who completed secondary school, shouldn’t have to work in this house so that she can spend a few years saving up for a trade school- which costs less than $300 to complete

People shouldn’t just accept AIDS as a part of their society, and say that getting it is inevitable so why should we even protect ourselves. Knowing that it’s in the school curriculum, but none of the teachers understand it, and that most children don’t go to school and when my friends and I explain it to our families they are completely flabbergasted, makes me irate.

My Mama is one of the most educated women I have ever met, including those in the US. She’s visited the slums twice in her life, and is just blind to everything going on around her.

I’m writing a final paper on development and health, and I have no idea what development is. But I’m fairly certain that all our foreign aid, and the UN, and the awful governments set in place are doing nothing to accomplish any form of it. And I’ve resigned myself to the position of having no clue, and just deciding that I am going to enjoy pumpkin break because I am too frustrated to do anything else, which sets off the whole irate cycle again.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Realizing I Know Nothing

As some may have noticed from a post earlier this week, I wasn't in the best mood ever. I blame most of that on Kenyan maize, boiled or grilled- it still tastes awful. Or maybe it had something to do with going to visit a woman with AIDS, living in the slums, abandoned by her alcoholic husband, trying to raise 2 babies with absolutely no money and unable to feed them or herself. Or going out to dinner with a group of women who's husbands had cheated on them and then infected them with HIV, and it being totally okay because it's okay when men aren't faithful- no big deal. Or realizing that I live minutes away from the largest slum in all of Africa, and that the Kenyan government has just decided that millions of people in Nairobi alone just aren't worth providing basic services to, and furthermore let's just cut off the little supply of water they did have so that they can rely on a stream that is polluted with human waste and trash.

I'm realizing I actually know nothing, and that any of the information I learned in America really has no bearing on anything actually going on in Kenya (and I would imagine most places). I'm frustrated.

On the bright side it looks like I have a research topic. On the downside it takes place in the Dadaab refuge camp, which is the most populous refugee camp in the world, and I'll be there by myself. Now I have to deal with a lot of bureaucratic stuff. I have to get an NGO to be my partner, get permission from the UNHCR (after finding an NGO), and then finally get the Kenyan government to give me permission. And I leave for Tanzania next weekend, so I have a lot of work to do between now and then. Hopefully it all works out, and if it doesn't, I've decided I'm just going to go live in the slums and take African Dance Classes, and bake a lot of pumpkin bread which turned out delicious last night.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Batman vs. The Joker

Now I’ll preface this with saying I just watched The Dark Knight yesterday, but I really couldn’t help but notice how much John McCain looks like the Joker. He’s got that smug, wide, toothless grin behind which he’s thinking about how he can’t wait to be president so that he can bring down the best in our society, and make them into the worst. How he can’t wait to disappoint Joe the Plumber, take away our health care, make the rest of the world hate us even more, and well- the list goes on. But it’s okay because at least he’ll be going against all those PRO-abortioners.


So not the greatest image...BUT, you can't tell me that both remind you of crazy, insane, I'm going to destroy the world and all its people kind of people. And if you need further proof, go rewatch the debate and just look at McCain as Obama answers questions next to The Dark Knight.


Tuesday, October 14, 2008

No Big Deal

I really love Kenya. I do.

However I do not like the lack of health care and severely lacking communication skills.

Yesterday I made my first ever trip to a hospital. Not that I am actually sick enough to go to the hospital, but quality health care centers aren’t exactly plentiful here in Kenya (even though Nairobi is one of the medical centers of Africa- a somewhat frightening fact). Basically I paid a lot of money ( Kenyan standards which have recently become my own, not at all by American standards) to wait a long time, have my temperature taken, and to be handed a lot of medicine that I’m fairly certain won’t work. I’m pretty sure I have a worm living inside of me, and I’m pretty sure that my new Flora Norm medicine isn’t going to kill the bastard. Oh well. The uncontrollable burp fest that occurred for approximately 20 straight hours (a feat I never imagined possible, but oh it can, and it is not particularly fun), is at least under control for the time being, alleviating my classmates from having the smell the rotten eggs continuously coming out of my mouth. Gross I know; but if I had to suffer through it, so should all of you.

As far as communication skills; Our academic advisor decided to tell us TODAY that next week we are supposed to be going to our research sites to start getting ready for the actual month we are doing research. That means I don't actually have a place to live for a few days next week. In the next breath he also told us that I will not be allowed to go to the city that I had planned on going to. Fantastic. All of this info was known a little while ago, but like always- we’re not told anything because East Africans just seem to think that everyone is a mind reader.

So now I am planning on staying in Nairobi, where I can’t actually afford to live, and I don’t have a research topic. Fun.

I immediately decided that the only solution to my new problems was to take shots of whiskey. Too bad it was 9 in the morning and that would be inappropriate. Instead I’m just going to go see The Dark Night, sulk in the fact that I have a worm/amoeba eating through my intestines and doctors won’t help me, and that I am going to be homeless and stupid in a few weeks, and hope that miraculously NGOs, government agencies, and Kenyans start contacting me with the most valuable information in the world so that I can do my project.

On the upside, I found a place with fantastic smoothies and good cheese.

Oh, and tomorrow is my big Swahili test. Have I mentioned how I can't tell one word from the other.

No big deal.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Obama The Musical

Yes, it's true folks. Now in addition to the numerous Obama bumper stickers, Obama t-shirts, the smiling face of Obama on the backs of Kenya's matatus (East Africa's answer to lack of public transportation and a scary, scary adventure), and the already popular Obama reggae song on the radio, Nairobi is now adding Obama: The Musical to the list of items.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

My First Jewish Holiday

I finally got over the fact that my parents were not going to send me to public school when I was about 15. It may have taken a long time, but I realized that the bomb threats and gang violence were probably excellent reasons I shouldn't attend Longwood. However, I still have not gotten over the fact that all those years when the Jewish holidays came about, I was still putting on my ridiculously stereotypical Catholic school girl uniform. Never mind the fact that Catholics enjoyed many more religious holidays, and usually at better times (such as the day after Halloween, which would have been my favorite had my parents allowed me to celebrate the holiday), I was jealous that Long Island was full of Jews and that they and their friends didn't have to go to school.

Who would have thought that I would travel across the world, to a nation where many people don't even know that Judaism exists (and if they do are shocked at the fact that people actually follow it), and have my first Jewish holiday. My program is filled with Jews, and unlike my days on Long Island, I am now enjoying the fruits of it.

I was even going to go to the temple services with them (although I have a feeling that going to a temple in Nairobi is not exactly a great example for my first Jewish experience), but unfortunately my stomach has decided to go haywire for the past week and has experienced every possible ailment known for a stomach, on a rotating schedule that I haven't quite figured out. So instead of enjoying my first Jewish holiday, instead I lay in bed and watched the best of Jennifer Lopez and Kate Winslet, because China has poured the best DVDs into Kenyan society that include 36 movies on one DVD, and have titles like "Lopez vs. Winslet". I love it. Now I can watch Monster in Law and Quills without ever having to get up to change the disc. I've also caught up on all the sleep I lost when I decided to have a sleepover to watch the debate and pig out on American food. I would like to think we got up to watch it because we like to be informed citizens who care about what is going on in the world, but really I think we just wanted an excuse for an Oreo overload and a feta cheese fest.

Of course it was also nice to actually see the candidates, and not just read the newspapers in a country where most people have decided Obama is already president, and that there is nothing wrong with him (ask someone if they know his views and policies you'll get a mighty laugh). This is the country that just deported the author of an anti-Obama book and didn't even really attempt to hide that it was for bogus reasons. You gotta love corruption and government organizations that make up their own rules on each of their whims.

Hope all is well in America and that the economy hasn't completely collapsed yet. It really stinks to see prices rising in Kenya and the cereal that I had put off buying because I wanted to save it until I really craved it, is now actually almost out of my price range. That being said, my price range has radically changed in a country where I can easily live off of nothing, and spending the equivalent of $5 is absolutely appalling and almost unconscionable.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Thumbs Up for Escaping Marriage

The Swahili language is impossible. The language is actually extremely easy, with possibly the most basic grammatical rules of any language, but EVERY word sounds exactly alike.

For example: One could say nyoko or nyoka. One means snake, the other to abuse. Don't ask me which one is which because I still can't tell. Kumi means 10 and kuma means something that would be too inappropriate to post.

My personal favorite was when I was trying to say "Ningependa kuenda kuogelea." Instead I said "Ningependa kuenda kuolea". My sentence changed from "I would like to go swimming" to "I would like to go get married."

Not the greatest thing to say when you are in a very remote village, where a marriage for me could have easily been set up. Personally I don't think I could take on the duties expected of a Muslim wife in the middle of nowhere.

Other than those slight language glitches, the fact that I couldn't speak to my Mama or Grandmother at all, and how I was pretty clueless the first couple of days concerning how to act, dress, and where I should go to the bathroom my village stay was wonderful. I would go back immediately if I could, and if it weren't blistering hot all the time with terrible humidity. But then again, I was able to bathe under the stars and go skinny dipping off a deserted island in the Indian Ocean. Life could be a worse.

I just happened to be there during Ramadan, the holiest month of the year for Muslims and also a month of fasting. So every morning, anytime between 2 and 4 I had some nice knocks on my bedroom door and my Baba calling out "Mog" to wake me up. I'll never understand the food choices- steaming hot ugali (maize floor and water boiled together) so that I couldn't even eat it without burning my hands, and cold fish. Why one thing could be heated and not the other will be a burning question that I just don't think will ever be answered. I will also never understand why I now have henna all over my feet and hands, and my nails will be bright orange for the next few months in celebration of the end of Ramadan.

I loved my family, and even tho we couldn't really talk we got used to each other pretty quickly, and soon I was realizing that they weren't kicking me out of the kitchen area to go on a walk with my 12 year old uncle/cousin because they didn't love me, but rather because my American cooking skills pale in comparison with the work they do. I was put on child duty all the time, and that mostly consisted of me giving them my camera and letting them play with it. I couldn't figure out who exactly was related to me, but I got used to a core group of people that continuously liked to laugh at me and my inability to speak to them.

They also all wanted me to fast, and when me just saying "No, I'm not Muslim" didn't work, I attempted the "Well, I have to take medicine every day, and eat when I take it, so I can't fast." The village then thought I had malaria, and it took a few days to dispel that myth. The idea of ANTI-malaria medication just was not something my limited Kiswahili was going to express.

We also spent a few days in Mombasa where I didn't do much more than catch up on my ice cream intake, and eat so much food that I have made myself sick.

Now we're back in Nairobi, where I am appreciating my wireless internet and connection to world news more than ever. The lack of humidity is also doing wonders for my hair, which I woke up one morning needing to cut immediately. So I did, and now I have no hair.

Here are some limited pictures of my family I lived with. Hopefully I will be able to add some more in the next few days.