Coming Soon...

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!

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

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 disappointed 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 our 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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Hell's Gate

In the beginning of September, I received an email from my friend Kevin, asking if I would have any interest in going camping in near by Hell’s Gate National Park, and roasting a goat. Sounding like an amazing adventure, I naturally said yes.

Six of us hit the trail Saturday morning, hiking three hours along a road under clear skies with a slight breeze. We came across a few herds of Zebras and spotting the occasional warthog. We stopped for lunch at the ranger station where we were met by our guides for the next 24 hours, two Maasai warriors. They took us on a great hike through the gorge, before bringing us to their village. We spent the afternoon drinking tea with the elders and playing Frisbee (naturally) with the children. With time, the sky slowly clouded over, until around 6:00 the sky just opened up and didn’t close until morning.

Unfortunately- our campsite was still a two hour hike away. When we realized the skies weren’t going to lighten up, we grabbed our goat and a few more guides, and headed off to the caves- in the rain, and in the dark.

I will never, ever forget that hike. With three headlamps between the six of us, we made our way back into the gorge, slipping and sliding down rocks that felt more like waterfalls than paths. Trying to keep our feet dry became pointless as we trekked through four knee-deep rivers. I have never been that wet (and fully-clothed) in my life.

When we finally got to the caves, a fire had already been started, so we quickly changed and huddled around the heat. After the preparation of dinner (I’ll spare you the details) we enjoyed a spectacular feast of goat and ramen noodles, and even made makeshift (birthday) s’mores. We listened to the ten Maasai warriors sing and share stories of their lives while sharing a few bottles of rum. After most of the hikers had fallen asleep, one of the Maasai took Daniel and I to teach us how to shoot his bow and arrow. I didn’t have the strength to bend the bow- definitely a bit more stiff than what we used at camp in Wisconsin.

As I was falling asleep, I could hear women and girls chanting in the cave down the gorge from us. We were told they were connecting Planet Earth with Mother Universe. The songs mixed in with the sounds of the pouring rain left me with goose bumps for the rest of the night.



Children in the village playing with birthday horns Kevin handed out. The video is off the children singing a rain song, but I'm having trouble getting it to work.

Kampala

A couple weeks into my stay in Nairobi, we all received an email inviting Team Kenya to participate in an Ultimate Frisbee tournament in Kampala, Uganda. The week before the event unfortunately no one had gotten their act together to make a team, but, seeing the opportunity to leave Nairobi for a weekend, renew my visa, travel to Uganda, and play Ultimate Frisbee for two whole days, I decided to go anyways.

Traveling on a budget always makes life a bit more interesting. I took the bus rather than fly (only twelve hours) and seriously enjoyed having the time to myself to sit back and reflect on the past three months. I also saved some bills by staying with the tournament director and his family for the weekend. Although originally from Rwanda, they had been playing Ultimate in Kampala for over ten years. Friday night we stayed up way too late talking American sports and the importance of athletics.

The tournament itself was an interesting experience. There were six teams and about 75 participants from around the globe- Uganda was heavily represented, but there was also a team from Rwanda, and players scattered throughout from Sudan, the UK, Germany, the states, Mexico, and Colombia.

My team went undefeated on Saturday, but celebrated a bit too hard, and were completely destroyed on Sunday (oh well). Loosing aside, I am really glad I went, just to experience the Ultimate. As I mentioned previously- the sport normally has an atmosphere of cooperation rather than competitiveness. But this tournament took Ultimate to a whole new level- never have I participated in a more intense series of games. Many rules were contested and debated, with one disagreement resulting in a fist-fight, something unheard of back in the states. It definitely left me with enough to think about on the twelve-hour drive home.

Team All-stars

Ultimate Community

Ultimate Frisbee- you are probably wondering- isn’t that the sport wanna-be-hippies play, the college students who were born twenty years too late? Why yes, it is. But it is quickly becoming much more than that- around the world thousands of players are competing at local, national and global levels. With more of a cooperative atmosphere than a competitive one (it is self-regulated- no referees, no umpires), the sport is quickly catching on.

So quickly, in fact, that I wasn’t half surprised to find a team in Nairobi. I discovered the group online, sent the director an email, and showed up to practice within a week of being in the city.

Back at Georgetown, my ultimate team is my family- I would do anything for any of the girls and vice-versa (like, remember my birthday when I'm not even on the same continent). They are my best friends, and I couldn’t imagine spending college with any other group. Naturally, I was nervous going to the first practice here- my expectations for ultimate teams were set pretty high. Luckily I wasn’t disappointed when I was immediately accepted by the Friday night crew- about ten players from the ex-pat community in their late 20’s to early 40’s. I went out with a few of the players that night, and to a house party the next. Recently I’ve found a group of friends closer to my age, but I appreciate the immediate community nonetheless.

With a mixture of Embassy workers, UN employees, and many in the non-profit world, I spend a few hours every weekend hanging with my idols- the people I want to be in ten years. It is difficult not to pound the players with questions as we’re running up and down the field. It is about 80% male, and about 80% American. I am easily the youngest by about five years. The level of play is good, with a mixture of beginners and extremely experienced. Two of the women, ages not to be mentioned, are slightly faster than me- making it challenging yet enjoyable to keep up with. It is such a cool experience and I am so glad I found the team.

We play on Fridays at the UN recreation field- on real grass surrounded by barbed wire. On Sundays, when we have on average about twenty players, we play at the International School Kenya- the most gorgeous campus I have ever been on. The setting and the team places Frisbee time in a completely different world- with the exception of being outrun by the occasional Kenyan and the altitude, it is hard to believe I am still in Nairobi.

First Business Card

I am the proud owner of my first business card! Besides my name being misspelled and occasional awkward formatting, I am pleased!

That's not my name

After twenty-one years of life, I have gotten every single response to my name, nothing surprises me anymore. But Kenya has put a new spin on things. It’s not the gender relationship that confuses them, but the actual name. Apparently Saint Brendan never got around to spreading his influence south of the equator. The name aside, Kenyans are also rather creative in the attention-grabbing name-calling. Sometimes I even know they’re talking to me. Here’s a collective list of things I’ve been called over the past few weeks:

Boyfriend
Brandy
Brandon
Breden
Brenda
Brenden
Brother
Dada (sister, Swahili)
Girl
Girlfriend
Lady
Madam
Meghan
Miss Babe
Mzungu (white person)
Obama
Sista
Sister Obama
Teacher
Wife
Woman

From the Bottom

It’s not that I’ve been trying to hide from the world- I love sharing stories and have enjoyed keeping blogs in the past. It’s not a time issue either. Yeah, internet is limited, but I have my laptop, and should be constantly typing and wouldn’t be that difficult to post every week or so.

Ironically what has kept me from keeping a blog is my increasing love for writing. Unfortunately, the more I write, the more I edit, and eventually come to the conclusion that if it is not my best work, it shouldn’t be shared.

With increasing pressure from friends and family, I finally gave in creating a site (about a month ago). Now that I’ve written a few pieces I am ready to share with the world, it is time to go public. Entries cover everything from people to places to stories to food, and everything else culture. I also have enjoyed using a variety of writing styles, keeping it interesting for me and the reader.

My biggest advice about reading these entries is not to try to sit down and conquer- a) you’ll appreciate stories more when you read them one at a time; b) no one should have enough time or interest to read about me for more than five minutes. Exceptions to clause b if you’re sitting in an economics class, you’ve read all the TFLN for the day, or you’re still looking for that one more excuse to procrastinate.

That, and start from the bottom up. Although my most recent post on Nairobi housing is intriguing, life will make more sense if you go in chronological order- starting with the entry ‘In the Beginning’ and going up.

Karibu Sana!


(photo taken while camping in a cave in Hell's Gate National Park, Kenya. Food in hand is freshly roasted goat)

Housing

I started my stay in Nairobi at the Ufungamano Christian Leadership Center. Although well located near town center on the University of Nairobi’s campus, I will never set foot in that place again. With a list of over twenty rules posted to the back of the bedroom door, a curfew of 10:00 pm, and after being scorned for not attending Sunday service, I realized the place was not exactly the best fit.

A week into my stay, I moved over to the Sandavy guest house, upon recommendation of my friend David, who had spent some time in the city before. The house was perfect- there was always a stream of people coming and going from around the world, the staff was the friendliest I have ever interacted with, and the food was great. Plus, there was wireless internet. Unfortunately the house was out of my budget for long-term stay, but if you were ever in Nairobi for a brief period of time, there is no place else I would rather stay.

Towards the end of August I started looking at the bulletin board at a local mall for furnished apartments. The first number I called had posted looking for a single roommate, preferably female. I went over to the apartment, only a five minute walk from the mall, and immediately knew I had found yet another home away from home: my bedroom is huge, the entire apartment was spotless, and in the pantry was five boxes of wine and Skippy peanut butter. Not to mention two great roommates, a Kenyan couple in their late 20’s who are self-employed tutors who offer preparation for the SAT, ACT, TOFEL, and other standardized tests.

Evenings have been spent watching Big Brother All-stars and teaching me how to cook traditional Kenyan meals. In addition to the staples of rice and beans, I’m close to mastering Ugali, a silly-putty like flavorless substance. One day Jack and Shi may even trust me enough to cook the meat. Maybe.