Workshop

From 9:00-12:00 for a week, Drew, another intern, and I led our twenty-one high school scholars in a workshop on the college application process, both Kenyan and American. We also covered essay writing, interview skills, and the topic of financial aid. I can easily say I learned just as much from these students as they did from me. During our first icebreaker, we asked them to introduce themselves and answer the question, ‘which super power do you wish you had any why?’ after Drew and I gave our answers of flying and invisibility, respectively. Zainab, one of the students, followed with ‘I wish I could travel in time so that I could go back and prevent discrimination from ever beginning’. Not exactly your typical 14-year-old answer.

For the essay-writing portion, we asked the students to explain who they are through a story. Essay topics varied from heartbreaking recollections of the 2007 post-election violence to the joyous moments of receiving their secondary school scholarship, and even others simply sharing stories of daily life in Kibera. One of the students, after telling a moving story about avoiding gang violence, concluded, “I never lost hope because at the back of my mind I knew that with hard work, determination, and optimism, I’ll pursue my dream career and prove them wrong that even slum children have dreams that they can pursue if they have an opportunity to go to school.”

Over the last few weeks, I’ve enjoyed doing one-on-one sessions with all of the students, and using the College Board college match program to find each student a list of five schools they should consider applying to, then going through Princeton Review’s Top 365 Schools to get even more detailed profiles. With new goals in mind, the students returned to school with even more determination to finish at the top of their classes.

Children of Kibera

The Children of Kibera Foundation was created by Ken Okoth, a Georgetown grad and the director of CIIE Dar es Salaam. Ken had helped us all settle into Tanzania, sharing cultural norms, helping us buy cell phones and other necessities, and even traveling with us occasionally. He offered an invitation to intern with his organization in Nairobi, dealing with education in the slums. At the time I was still waiting to hear back from the United Nations, the organization I had originally planned and hoped to be interning for. During the month leading up to August I still had yet to hear either a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ from the UN, so I sent Ken an email, asking if the position was still available.

And I am glad it was. Not just because I now actually have something to do while in Nairobi, but also because the organization has been a good fit. With such a small staff, there has been a good balance between structure and freedom with projects. Instead of simply making photocopies all day or filing things for other people, I get to do what I want, with only the bare minimum of guidance. For example, my first week at the office, my boss told me I would have the secondary school scholars for a week, and that I should plan a workshop for them. With that, I took it and ran (see entry above) in the direction of college applications, a concern a few of the students had shared upon meeting me.

The Children of Kibera Foundation focuses on education in Kibera, Africa’s largest slum. In addition to funding a primary school, it sponsors 20 of the slum’s top high school students to attend the country’s best schools. The organization also helps schools and other organizations open up technology labs throughout Kibera. Our most recent addition at Ayany public school will be one of my main projects.

Although I came onto this organization planning on doing more administrative work, I could never actually let go of teaching completely. Once a week I have been teaching a dance class to the junior high students, and we’ll have the opportunity to perform for an audience the first weekend of October! One of my main projects also involves teaching the teachers at Ayany basic computer knowledge (more to come on this). During the break I tutored our secondary school scholars in English, though this didn’t last long, considering my lack of understanding of many grammar rules (who versus whom, for example) and the lack of connection I felt with the students’ teachers (“you shouldn’t have gotten this wrong” was a common phrase while going over exams). By the end of the break, we were going more the creative writing route- writing stories and editing them to better please the audience.

Transition

School built, bags packed, and passport ready: it was time to cross the border. I had been looking forward to the seven-hour bus ride, the start of yet another chapter, though I cannot say I was exactly ready. I arrived in Nairobi at 9:00 pm on July 28 with no map, no guidebook, and no phone. I had the phone numbers of two family friends, neither of whom I had ever met.

During the drive I couldn’t help but create theories as to why I was traveling so ill prepared. Obviously the first one was stupidity. But beyond that, I believe there is a correlation between the amount of traveling and sense of adventure. The more I travel, the more difficult it is to encounter unexpected events, things that test my problem-solving skills. Why travel if everything is going to go smoothly?

Anyways, one of the family friends, Edward, met me at the bus, took me out to my first meal in Kenya, and helped me move into a guesthouse. By the end of the weekend, I was ready for work and to begin the next chapter on Monday.

Reaching Out to Humanity

With a week to kill between climbing Kili and starting my internship, I decided to return to Arusha and volunteer with one of the organizations we had been introduced to during the Georgetown tour. For seven days, from 7:00 am til 8:00 pm, I helped the Canadian organization Reach out to Humanity build a school for Maasai girls in partnership with MWEDO. Because it was the last week of the summer-long project, it was crunch time: I had no idea what I had gotten myself into. I was more exhausted that week then at any other point of the summer, Kili included.

Fortunately the week was not all work. Volunteers came from Ireland, Canada, the States, and Kenya; ages ranged from fourteen to sixty-five; and groups were families, friends, and single travelers. I learned valuable life lessons, like how showering is for the self-conscious and how to deal with incompetent men from all nationalities. On a serious note, my Kiswahili improved immensely as days were spent making conversation with the local workers and occasionally acting as translator. I had a great time, and would do it again in a heartbeat.

Pole Pole (slow-slow)

After saying good-bye to my peers, professors, and host family, I hit the road north once again. Though instead of having my notebook out and ready, I was decked out in hiking boots.

Before coming to Tanzania, I knew I wanted to climb Kilimanjaro. At 5,895 meters, it’s Africa’s tallest peak, and technically speaking, rather simple to climb. The original plan was for Mom to come out to join me, but as time became short and summer became busy, I had to give up on that idea. We’ll just have to wait to tackle thrilling adventures as amazing team until Amazing Race 18 (or whichever season we’re on).

Fortunately I met a group of girls who were planning on climbing around the same time I was, and so the five of us bargained a company for the volunteer price, finished our courses, rented our gear, and hit the Machame route in style.

The first two days were relatively easy: day one was a four-hour stroll through the park; the second day a fun three-hour semi-strenuous and rather vertical hike. It wasn’t until the end of day three that we began to feel the altitude, but compared to those around us, we were doing rather well (with the exception of Christine, who had been sick with a bug since day one).

At midnight on day four, Sarah, Maddie, Ruby, and I set off for the peak with three guides. We were lucky weather wise- no wind, clear skies, and enough moonlight that our headlamps were barely necessary. This final hike is so difficult to describe- never in my life have I wanted so badly to finish a task. None of us wanted to quit, and turning back was definitely not an option, but putting one foot in front of the other for six hours straight was mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausting. At some points our guides had to literally drag us up, our bodies wanted to stop.

When we finally reached the summit (the second team to do so that day), Uhuru peak, at 6:20 am, the sun was also just breaking the horizon. We reached the sign post within minutes of each other, and as soon as the last one made it, we all broke into tears- partially because of the lack of oxygen getting to our brain but also because climbing Kilimanjaro was all of our greatest life achievements to date, and will remain so for a long time.

After our fifteen minutes at the summit were up (any longer and you start loosing brain cells), we sprinted back down the mountain, passing dozens of hikers still going up. The sprint reminded me of racing down Mount Baldy, while wearing snow gear and following a path about thirty times as long. After we made it back to camp, rehydrated and rested a bit, we hiked two/thirds of the way back down the mountain, and hiked out of the park the morning of day six.

Climbing Kilimanjaro has been the most rewarding experience of my life. For the first time my blood, sweat, and tears produced concrete results: I reached the top of a mountain. I am so glad I did it, and would encourage anyone visiting East Africa to do so as well.

Road Trips

As much as I enjoyed classes and life in the fast moving city, the highlights of the program were easily our field trips.

A few weeks into the program, we spent a weekend in Bagamoyo, a major slave port a few hours north along the coast. We also spent three days in Zanzibar, the island paradise of Africa. Unfortunately it rained the entire weekend, but that didn’t prevent us from visiting a seaweed farm, playing soccer with a local village, and strolling through the narrow streets of Stonetown, an Arabian city on the wrong continent.

We concluded the program with two weeks in Arusha, a city twelve hours north of Dar es Salaam. We kicked off the trip seriously with a visit to the UN Tribunal for Rwanda, where we were given the opportunity to sit in on a trial. We listened to Colonel Bagosora testify on Kamera’s behalf. It was overwhelming to listen to one of the main actors of the genocide continuously avoiding answering questions while only a few feet away from us.

The trip lightened up with a visit to the East African Commission where an overly enthusiastic PR representative explained the benefits of the newly implemented free trade agreement between the five member countries. We also were given the opportunity to visit two NGO’s based in Arusha, Maasai Women Education Organization (MWEDO) and an organization dealing with HIV/AID survivors. And of course no trip to East Africa could be complete without a safari. The image and sound of a male lion slurping water out of a hole in a rock just a few dozen feet away from our jeep will forever be ingrained in my mind.

World Cup 2010

There’s no other place I would have rather been for the World Cup than Africa. For three weeks we would join dozens of devoted fans at local bars to cheer on the African team of the night. The cross-continental support for South Africa, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Cameroon and Algeria was overwhelming. The amount of advertisements and songs promoting a United Africa was endless, and you really felt it as fans coming from different backgrounds sang the same lyrics.

For the final game, a few friends and I went to the beach where a restaurant had set up a screen and about two hundred chairs. As we kicked back the Tuskers we cheered and groaned for Spain, the underdog, the favorite, and the winner, of World Cup 2010.