With only a week to go in East Africa, there are three posts that remain to be written: a post on my final project, an Ultimate Frisbee tournament this Saturday between all the teams a friend Olle and I have organized in the area (over 120 participants!), a final reflection on working in Kibera, and a reflection on my time in East Africa. These will come later next week, when hopefully I’ll have time between shopping and packing, the main priorities before getting on the plane on Tuesday.
Until then, enjoy the updated blog!
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Rafting the Nile
My final desired trip before I left East Africa was to go white-water rafting on the Nile River. In the first weekend of November, Aron and I jumped a bus for Jinja, Uganda; met up with our friend Tara at the bus stop on the other side, and met our friend Sarah who was in the area for business at the adventure office.
View from campsite
Through Nile River Explorers, for $125 (the most I’ve ever spent in a single weekend) you get three meals, housing for a night, and not to mention a full day of rafting on the Nile River.
And not just any rafting. During the course we were on for the day, we hit twelve grade four and five rapids, the largest you can legally go down. The four of us, plus two more Americans who filled our boat and our guide, flipped over three out of the twelve rapids, and I managed to fall out an additional two times.
When we were done rafting for the day, we were taken to the backpackers campsite on the mouth of the river for dinner and drinks. The place was filled with fellow rafters and campers who simply enjoyed the extremely affordable lodging. The evening was spent playing cards and sharing stories with many newly made friends. At 9:00 pm they showed a slideshow of pictures of the days events, and then a collection of video footage the company took as well. It was a lot of fun to watch our boat take its spill, over and over again.
Sunday we took our time waking up and heading out of camp. We took a cab the 10 kilometer walk to town, where we left our bags at the adventure office and then walked around Jijna, a quaint old colonial town with beautiful architecture and friendly people. After lunch, Sarah headed back to work and Tara and Aron headed to the airport to catch their flight home, so while I waited for my bus, I walked down to Lake Victoria, just to say I saw it.
Around 6:00 pm my bus came around, and arrived back in Nairobi at 5:00 am. I headed back to the house and got some sleep before being at the office at 9:00 for my last week of work.
Lake Victoria and old Colonial house
Monday, November 15, 2010
Nairobi Halloween
My expectations for the holiday were not high- considering I was on a continent that didn’t acknowledge the holiday, not to mention the American culture tied to it. That, of course, didn’t stop me from enjoying every minute of it.A great benefit of working in Africa’s largest slum is having Africa’s largest second hand market at my fingertips. Never has costume shopping been so much fun.
I decided on Velma, the clever mystery solver of the Scooby-Doo gang, before diving between the stall aisles because the simplicity of her outfit combined with the global acknowledgement of the character. Within twenty minutes I had five different orange “full-necks” (turtle-neck) to choose from, and finally decided on the one I had been able to bargain down the most. I bought the second red skirt I found and a pair of red socks. With my lense-less GPB sunglasses and my hair “cropped” short, I was ready for the night.
We began at Josh’s house, where he and his roommates hosted a Halloween pre-game. Although a fun time, I was d
isappointed with the costume turnout: 
only about 20 of the 50 attendees dressed up, an unexpected minority. Most of the night was spent making small talk about life in Kenya with the collection of young expat professionals. Interesting, but a much exhausted topic. As the party bus rolled up around 11:30 to take us out for the night, a few of us decided to stop by the Frisbee party first. I had received an email from the host two weeks prior, but waved it aside, knowing the crowd would be a bit older than I and obviously could not be as much fun as the younger group at Josh’s.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. We showed up to a drunken mess of a dance party rocking out to a playlist mixed with oldies and new Top 40s in the backyard. And in case awesome dance party didn’t automatically make it a great party, EVERYONE was in costume. Once again, the Ultimate community proved itself as one of the best to be a part of.
Hours of dancing and a few chicken fights later, we should have called it a night. Instead, we met up with friends at a club, managed to loose everyone I was put in charge of, and then called it a night.
Moral of the story: You can be 32 and AWESOME. Fun doesn’t have to end with graduation. And I love Halloween.
African Jack-o-Latern carving. Almost as great as the real deal
Diani Beach Music Festival
A few weeks ago my friend Josh half-seriously suggested we jump on a bus and head to the Diani Beach Music Festival, a chance to listen to some of Kenya’s greatest music on one of Kenya’s nicest beaches. I half jokingly agreed.
So on Friday Oct 23 Nicky, Josh and I got on a bus headed to the coast, concert tickets in hand, and that’s about it. It wasn’t until we arrived in Mombasa at 6:00 am that I began to seriously think about o
ur plan. Because of the festival, hotels jacked up their housing prices, and because we were all poor college students/recent grads, we decided to skip on the whole accommodation thing. The plan seemed flawless until I started falling asleep before the weekend even began, and all I wanted was a bed.
Things changed though when we finished the voyage from Mombasa to Diani. Getting out of the taxi and walking onto the sand made me realize who needs a mattress when nature provides the world’s softest elements?
The day was spent lazing by the waterside listening to great music and sipping on cocktails (home-made with ingredients from the super market across the street and not the beach bar). Over twenty young expats had come up from Nairobi, and throughout the day I made many new friends when not tossing the Frisbee or swimming in the Indian Ocean.
Nicky, Josh and I literally danced the night away, and were surprisingly not the last ones on the dance floor. During the closing act, Jam Sandwich- a British cover band, I would estimate there was close to 1,000 people singing/shouting along to the music. And come 4:00 am, 500 of those souls were still partying hard. I was impressed. Personally I made it until 5:00, and slept the final hour while we waited for our taxi to come pick us and take us back to Mombasa, put us on a bus, and head home.
Stupid and naïve way to travel? Probably. Worth it? Definitely.
Friday, October 15, 2010
That thing called work
Although I hate admitting it out loud, my time with Children of Kibera, and in Nairobi in general, is quickly coming to an end. With less than a month to go with work, I decided it was time to share what it is I’m actually doing in Africa.
My official job title is ‘projects assistant’, a fancier term and (more accurate one) for intern. Monday-Friday I come into our office, a building in the middle of a primary school that use to be a house, and help out with various tasks. In addition to updating the CoKF website and blog, I assist with and lead various other projects. Below are some of the project highlights over the past three months.
College Application workshop
CoKF sponsors 21 high school students from Kibera every year, sending the brightest students from the slums to some of the best schools in Kenya. For the 2011 application process, we have already received over 400 applications from local 8th graders, only ten of which will receive the scholarship.
My first project upon arrival in Kibera was to lead our high school scholars in a college application workshop. Through out the four days of meetings, the students went over how to apply to both Kenyan and American schools, receiving financial aid, and interview skills. Each student wrote at least four drafts of an essay answering the question ‘Who are you?’ through a story. Many essays tended to include events from the 2007 election violence; being accepted into the CoKF scholars program; or basic tales of life in Kibera.
A moment I’ll never forget from the workshop was one of our icebreakers, ‘If you had a super power, what would it be and why?’ After Drew and I gave our respective answers of ability to fly and invisibility, Zainab, one of the Juniors, answered “I wish I could go back in time so that I could stop discrimination from ever beginning.” The answer left us speechless. At that point, I realized these scholars were seriously something else, giving me even more determination to help them find a school abroad.
Ayany Primary School Computer Class
Another CoKF project is KiberaOnline, a project determined to help the youth of Kibera become computer literate.
Over the summer a volunteer group from DC raised enough money to set up a computer lab in Ayany Primary School, the fourth computer lab CoKF has set up in Kibera. In August I worked with the technician and the school to make sure all fifteen computers were up and running in time for the third trimester.
For five weeks in September and October, Drew and I went to Ayany twice a day every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to teach an introductory computer course to the teachers of Ayany, most of whom had never touched a computer in their life. When I first learned of the project, I immediately emailed my grade school computer teacher to ask for advice- I’ve taught sailing and I’ve taught dance, but computers take a completely different set of skills.
Thanks to the resources she sent me, we started off with the basics- computer terminology, a language I definitely took for granted growing up. Words like ‘click’, ‘drag’, ‘menu’, ‘open’ are as familiar to me as ‘stand up’ or ‘mailbox’, but were completely foreign to our class. We then moved on to basic mouse skills, using the program Paint to practice clicking, double clicking, and saving. We used Notepad to introduce typing and basic formatting, and eventually graduated to Word to learn complex formatting and inserting pictures/word art. In August I loaded a math game and a grammar game onto every computer, and taught the teachers how to get around the game, so once they’re ready, they can take their own classes to the lab. We finished the class with Excel, making recording grades, finding averages, and figuring out the top of the class a bit easier.
Although I would deem the class an overall success, the experience really made me think about education in Kibera, and development in general. On the second day, I asked the class to type “Hello, my name is teacher so-and-so”. I glanced at one of the computers and saw she had began the sentence with ‘hallo’. As I went to correct her, I glanced at the computer next to her, who had spelled it ‘helo’. I did a quick survey of the class, and out of our fifteen lunchtime students, only one spelled hello correctly.
Although English is none of their first languages, they do teach class in it. If I were teaching students, I could find it excusable. But I was teaching teachers, some even being English teachers, teachers responsible for the education of over 1,000 students. And I could find it excusable if it were a word like ‘gnat’, but hello is one of the most common words in the English language. That day it all of a sudden felt silly to be teaching how to insert WordArt.
By the end of the class though, I realized there’s a lot more to development than how to properly spell. Technology is such a powerful tool, from everything from developing simple motor skills to communicating with the outside world. This project was definitely the most eye-opening one of my experience.
End the Violence! Music Festival
For the past year, the Children of Kibera Foundation has been hard at work planning the second annual Kibera Music Festival that took place October 1st and 2nd. With thirteen secondary schools participating, ten local organizations tabling, over 1,000 guests attending, the festival was deemed a success.
Besides the students, many local artists and organizations came out to perform, including the Kibera Preforming Arts, JackyZebraz and the Conquerors. Even a group of Red Rose students preformed a traditional dance and a choreography to 'Waka Waka'. Groups were also invited to pass out information about their organizations. Carolina for Kibera, another NGO, conducted HIV testing for free!
My actual role in the event was minor. Pre-festival I helped make phone calls to encourage important guests to attend, as well as find judges, performers, and tablers (why yes, it was like Hilltop Madness). On the days of, I worked as stage manager, making sure all groups knew when to go on (and get off). The highlight of the event was seeing schools receiving their prizes on Saturday. Obviously contests like these are rare, and it was so great to see the kids so excited to win something. Second highlight was having so many friends turn up for the show- shout out to Aron, Ilana, Leah, Inslee, and Nick for attending (and double shout out if you read my blog…)
Dance Class
A few weeks ago I was on the phone with my 10-year-old sister, she asked “So Brendan, in Africa, for like work, are you teaching dance?”
Well yes, I am. Granted, that’s not all I’m doing, but it is one of my favorite parts. CoKF third large project is the Red Rose Children Centre, a primary school with over 100 students. Teachers’ salaries, class resources, and fifty of the students’ tuition are funded by CoKF. As mentioned before, our office is located in the middle school campus, meaning daily interactions with classes four, five, and six.
Once a week a take my laptop into the courtyard and invite the students to partake in our hip-hop dance class. We started off with Hoe Down Throw Down, a Miley Cyrus country line-dance with some modern twists. Then, in preparation for the music festival, we started 'Waka Waka', a world cup anthem on this part of the world. Watch the video below for the final performance!
Friday PE Class
A few weeks ago, donated soccer uniforms and cleats were passed out to some of the students in classes four, five and six. And by some, I mean all the boys. Needless to say, I’ve been keeping a better eye on the Friday PE classes.
Red Rose Library
One of the new rooms in the middle school campus is a library, and it has been my job to check in all donated books and to create a system and timetable for the classes to have the opportunity to use the books. Earlier this week I checked in the 700th book, a fact that excited me just as much as it did the kids. I can easily say the library is the hardest part of my internship. Not because alphabetizing fiction by author A-Z is challenging, but because it is difficult to not pick up a new novel every time I’m in the room. And by difficult I mean impossible. I’ve read at least a dozen children’s novels since the opening of the library, including Tuck Everlasting, Wayside School is Falling Down, and at least ten Encyclopedia Brown’s. If any donor is reading this, I thank you. So do the students, but me too.
My official job title is ‘projects assistant’, a fancier term and (more accurate one) for intern. Monday-Friday I come into our office, a building in the middle of a primary school that use to be a house, and help out with various tasks. In addition to updating the CoKF website and blog, I assist with and lead various other projects. Below are some of the project highlights over the past three months.
College Application workshop
CoKF sponsors 21 high school students from Kibera every year, sending the brightest students from the slums to some of the best schools in Kenya. For the 2011 application process, we have already received over 400 applications from local 8th graders, only ten of which will receive the scholarship.
My first project upon arrival in Kibera was to lead our high school scholars in a college application workshop. Through out the four days of meetings, the students went over how to apply to both Kenyan and American schools, receiving financial aid, and interview skills. Each student wrote at least four drafts of an essay answering the question ‘Who are you?’ through a story. Many essays tended to include events from the 2007 election violence; being accepted into the CoKF scholars program; or basic tales of life in Kibera.
A moment I’ll never forget from the workshop was one of our icebreakers, ‘If you had a super power, what would it be and why?’ After Drew and I gave our respective answers of ability to fly and invisibility, Zainab, one of the Juniors, answered “I wish I could go back in time so that I could stop discrimination from ever beginning.” The answer left us speechless. At that point, I realized these scholars were seriously something else, giving me even more determination to help them find a school abroad.
Ayany Primary School Computer Class
Another CoKF project is KiberaOnline, a project determined to help the youth of Kibera become computer literate.
Over the summer a volunteer group from DC raised enough money to set up a computer lab in Ayany Primary School, the fourth computer lab CoKF has set up in Kibera. In August I worked with the technician and the school to make sure all fifteen computers were up and running in time for the third trimester.
For five weeks in September and October, Drew and I went to Ayany twice a day every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to teach an introductory computer course to the teachers of Ayany, most of whom had never touched a computer in their life. When I first learned of the project, I immediately emailed my grade school computer teacher to ask for advice- I’ve taught sailing and I’ve taught dance, but computers take a completely different set of skills.
Thanks to the resources she sent me, we started off with the basics- computer terminology, a language I definitely took for granted growing up. Words like ‘click’, ‘drag’, ‘menu’, ‘open’ are as familiar to me as ‘stand up’ or ‘mailbox’, but were completely foreign to our class. We then moved on to basic mouse skills, using the program Paint to practice clicking, double clicking, and saving. We used Notepad to introduce typing and basic formatting, and eventually graduated to Word to learn complex formatting and inserting pictures/word art. In August I loaded a math game and a grammar game onto every computer, and taught the teachers how to get around the game, so once they’re ready, they can take their own classes to the lab. We finished the class with Excel, making recording grades, finding averages, and figuring out the top of the class a bit easier.
Although I would deem the class an overall success, the experience really made me think about education in Kibera, and development in general. On the second day, I asked the class to type “Hello, my name is teacher so-and-so”. I glanced at one of the computers and saw she had began the sentence with ‘hallo’. As I went to correct her, I glanced at the computer next to her, who had spelled it ‘helo’. I did a quick survey of the class, and out of our fifteen lunchtime students, only one spelled hello correctly.
Although English is none of their first languages, they do teach class in it. If I were teaching students, I could find it excusable. But I was teaching teachers, some even being English teachers, teachers responsible for the education of over 1,000 students. And I could find it excusable if it were a word like ‘gnat’, but hello is one of the most common words in the English language. That day it all of a sudden felt silly to be teaching how to insert WordArt.
By the end of the class though, I realized there’s a lot more to development than how to properly spell. Technology is such a powerful tool, from everything from developing simple motor skills to communicating with the outside world. This project was definitely the most eye-opening one of my experience.
End the Violence! Music Festival
For the past year, the Children of Kibera Foundation has been hard at work planning the second annual Kibera Music Festival that took place October 1st and 2nd. With thirteen secondary schools participating, ten local organizations tabling, over 1,000 guests attending, the festival was deemed a success.
Besides the students, many local artists and organizations came out to perform, including the Kibera Preforming Arts, JackyZebraz and the Conquerors. Even a group of Red Rose students preformed a traditional dance and a choreography to 'Waka Waka'. Groups were also invited to pass out information about their organizations. Carolina for Kibera, another NGO, conducted HIV testing for free!
My actual role in the event was minor. Pre-festival I helped make phone calls to encourage important guests to attend, as well as find judges, performers, and tablers (why yes, it was like Hilltop Madness). On the days of, I worked as stage manager, making sure all groups knew when to go on (and get off). The highlight of the event was seeing schools receiving their prizes on Saturday. Obviously contests like these are rare, and it was so great to see the kids so excited to win something. Second highlight was having so many friends turn up for the show- shout out to Aron, Ilana, Leah, Inslee, and Nick for attending (and double shout out if you read my blog…)
Dance Class
A few weeks ago I was on the phone with my 10-year-old sister, she asked “So Brendan, in Africa, for like work, are you teaching dance?”
Well yes, I am. Granted, that’s not all I’m doing, but it is one of my favorite parts. CoKF third large project is the Red Rose Children Centre, a primary school with over 100 students. Teachers’ salaries, class resources, and fifty of the students’ tuition are funded by CoKF. As mentioned before, our office is located in the middle school campus, meaning daily interactions with classes four, five, and six.
Once a week a take my laptop into the courtyard and invite the students to partake in our hip-hop dance class. We started off with Hoe Down Throw Down, a Miley Cyrus country line-dance with some modern twists. Then, in preparation for the music festival, we started 'Waka Waka', a world cup anthem on this part of the world. Watch the video below for the final performance!
Friday PE Class
A few weeks ago, donated soccer uniforms and cleats were passed out to some of the students in classes four, five and six. And by some, I mean all the boys. Needless to say, I’ve been keeping a better eye on the Friday PE classes.
Red Rose Library
One of the new rooms in the middle school campus is a library, and it has been my job to check in all donated books and to create a system and timetable for the classes to have the opportunity to use the books. Earlier this week I checked in the 700th book, a fact that excited me just as much as it did the kids. I can easily say the library is the hardest part of my internship. Not because alphabetizing fiction by author A-Z is challenging, but because it is difficult to not pick up a new novel every time I’m in the room. And by difficult I mean impossible. I’ve read at least a dozen children’s novels since the opening of the library, including Tuck Everlasting, Wayside School is Falling Down, and at least ten Encyclopedia Brown’s. If any donor is reading this, I thank you. So do the students, but me too.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Kibera Resources
Curious to learn more about where I’m working? Check out The Constant Gardner, a 2005 Golden Globe nominee, which takes place in the famous slum, as does Kibera Kid, a relatively new movie that I’ve yet to see but have heard good things about.
Robert Neuwirth devotes a chapter of his book Shadow Cities to Kibera, and Michael Holman's 2005 novel Last Orders at Harrods is based in a fictional version of the slum, called Kireba. Bill Bryson visited Africa for CARE and wrote a companion book called "Bill Bryson's African Diary" which includes a description of his visit to Kibera.
-Compiled with help from Wikipedia
Monday, September 20, 2010
Twenty-first birthday, Kenya style
Twenty-one: by many American standards, the most important birthday celebration in one’s life: the final birthday of importance, the age of an official adult- there is nothing in the world you can’t do because of age-restrictions. When in a college-environment, it’s the best birthday you’ll never remember.
The 21st birthday in Kenya, however, has very little significance for multiple reasons. First, the drinking age is eighteen, not twenty-one. Secondly, the drinking age is not exactly enforced- most Kenyans begin drinking and going out around sixteen. Thirdly- birthdays hold very little importance here. You may get a card or two, and a gift of socks or some other necessity, but even cakes are rare and parties basically unheard of.
The following weekend though, I had no problem telling every American I met at the bars that I had recently turned 21. Thanks to the kindness of strangers (and now friends), my initiation into adulthood is officially complete.
The 21st birthday in Kenya, however, has very little significance for multiple reasons. First, the drinking age is eighteen, not twenty-one. Secondly, the drinking age is not exactly enforced- most Kenyans begin drinking and going out around sixteen. Thirdly- birthdays hold very little importance here. You may get a card or two, and a gift of socks or some other necessity, but even cakes are rare and parties basically unheard of.
So for the actual holiday (9/8/10), I had very little expectations, and was quite satisfied with the day’s events. I shared a bottle of fine South African wine with my roommates at dinner, and then when out with my coworkers for my ‘first’ drink- a tequila sunrise. I wasn’t carded, no TOMBS stamp on my forehead- just good music, good drinks, and good company.
'Delicious' Long Island Ice Tea, thanks to Drew
Jeff, Johnson, Jos, myself and Drew celebrating at Sherlock's Den
'Delicious' Long Island Ice Tea, thanks to Drew
Jeff, Johnson, Jos, myself and Drew celebrating at Sherlock's DenThe following weekend though, I had no problem telling every American I met at the bars that I had recently turned 21. Thanks to the kindness of strangers (and now friends), my initiation into adulthood is officially complete.
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