Hey I'm Here!

Before going into details of the last couple days, a snippet I wrote on the plane from LHR to NBO:
"I'm in a strange mood. Its inconceivable that my flight is connected in any way to the actual purpose of my trip. Travel always puts me in a bizarre limbo, bu this one is compounded by a dull queasiness in my stomach, like stage fright or that weird stomach flip right before you kiss someone for the first time.

I don't know what I'm afraid of, but something has my stomach turning and my mouth dry. I'm beyond excited to get back to Nairobi, but am clueless as to how to operate in this new, non-studying abroad context.

Also, traveling alone is no fun. Its full of more introspection than anyone needs, especially me. Definitely exacerbated by a seven hour layover in London, which as previously described, is a loathsome place.

What I'm listening to: Solo Dolo by Kid Cudi
What I'm looking at: the adorable couple sleeping next to me, his chin on her forehead. Not creepy."

I arrived in NBO 6:30am only to find, or rather not find, my bag. After searching for an hour and filing a claim report I left the airport. By then the cab I had arranged the day before had gone so I got a little ripped off on the ride to my amazing hostel: The Wildebeest Camp. For around $15/night, I get free breakfast, wi-fi, hot showers and beautiful grounds with gardens and a tv lounge. Plus great security, a major plus with $5k+ in gear with me. I then proceeded to pass out for 7 hours, read for Kafka on the Shore for 3 hours and then pass out for 7 more. Blame it on the jet lag and upset stomach. Photos of the hostel (taken from my camera phone....dont give me shit please):






Tuesday was a great day. Feeling rested I woke up early, still sans bag, grabbed breakfast and then headed to KGSA to meet Ryan and see whats up. First, I stopped by my host family and got to see Sini, Mom and Tracy. It's tough to say how great it felt to see them again, how unreal it seemed and still seems and how much it felt like no time had passed at all. I didn't realize quite how much I had missed them until just that moment. I then went next door to Jose and Adriane's house and got to see that whole family, which was equally amazing. Nathan, the baby in a picture I posted last time around, is now walking and yelling and understands Swahili well enough to do what you tell him. It was great to reconnect with Jose, with whom I'd sit with for an hour or more every night talking. Adriane was supa excited to see me, and we spent the better part of an hour pretending to eat each other's ears (long story).

Then I went to the school and finally saw Ryan (the director of KGSA on the US side, very good friend and one with whom I shared many meetings with this past summer in Madison) in Kenya for the first time. I also got to meet Jamie, a board member of KGSA and one with whom I've shared many emails with but never met in person. We spent the afternoon painting the new rooms-the school has doubled in size since I left to accommodate a new library and science lab. Teka, the headmaster and good friend of mine, then took us out to Miami, a lunch spot I used to go to most days with KGSA teachers. The owner recognized me and we shared some stories.

After that, Ryan myself and a whole lot of Badgers got together for drinks and Ethiopian. There were grad students doing research, a former MSIDer working at a school in Kangem (another slum of Nairobi), a friend of Ryan'sand waitress at Buraka, a favorite Ethiopian place in Madison visiting Ryan, and a few others. It was a great time.

An extremely loud and rude Belgian family sharing my dorm room at the hostel woke me up this morning with 30+ minutes of extended, intense whisper-speaking. I have since spent the last 6 hours and over 1000 KES (12ish USD-not a lot but roughly one day's budget) trying to track down my luggage. After an extremely frustrating series of phone calls my bag will be delivered today, but no one has any idea exactly what time.

Yay and bummer. I smell awful-tons of bug spray after 30ish mosquito bites the first night, combined with lots of sweating after walking all over in this 80 degree wonderful weather and wearing the same clothes for 3 days. Later today I'll try and give an update that has more than "today I....." but didn't want to make this any longer.

What I'm listening to: I'm Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass by Yo La Tengo
What I'm looking at: The mildly surreal and always melancholic portraits of Nadav Kander

Copyright Nadav Kander

Copyright Nadav Kander

Final thought so far: Kenya is amazing. Being back is incredible. I love it here.

And it begins

So I'm in ORD right now. Just stood in line for 1.5 hours to get my flight switched because I was going to miss my connection in Brussels. Now I get to wait 4 more hours in Chicago and then an awesome 7 hour layover in Heathrow (as opposed to 2 in Brussels). Woot. On the plus side..just had a great grilled veggie sammy and a whiskey sour. Might be a little tipsy.
Aaaaaaaaaand now I have a whole bunch of time to find a house for Tim, edit photos for the Web site (up soon really I promise) and other miscellany. Also, bought Kafka on the Shore today, so I might start that.

More as I feel like it.

Picha tu tena

B/w or color? can't decide


I'm shooting production stills for the Hot Sun movie, more to come


last but not least, a preview from a new sub-series I'm working on

My week is full of lots of little things, plus I'm sick, so I don't feel like writing too much. I'll give a full update soon. A couple of quick things: CFK fell through, because they are incredibly annoying to work with, so I'm meeting with another organization using Ushahidi called the Peace Caravan, more to come.

Kibera is very dusty, and the rainy season has officially arrived. Its rained 8 out of the last 11 days, so now Kibera is very muddy. Need some wellies.

I got robbed last weekend-I was walking home at night, and very close to my house had a missed call, so I called them back. Someone snuck up behind me and grabbed my phone and ran off. No physical harm or intimidation, so all is aok here.

Tutaonane baadaye.

Amenimake ama samo

This post is going to be just pictures. I'm still sorting through the weekend-it was a ton of fun, and I did a lot of different things. The pictures are from the orphanage (mother's love) my host mom runs on weekends. Its always a great time-the kids are crazy fun to hang around with. I start work tomorrow-classes are officially over. Look for lots and lots of pictures from Kibera in the next few days.

Also, in case you care-preview of the forthcoming blogpost-
1. More details about the research I'm doing on cell phone potential for grass roots outreach and human rights protection
2. More on tribe, ethnicity, etc.
3. A book recently came out called its our turn to eat, about the corruption in the Kenyan gov't-apparently its de facto banned in the country, and I've been trying to get my hands on it.
4.General details about working in Kibera.
5. Learning Sheng

The long road

This weekend, I went white water rafting on the Nile River in Jinja, Uganda. We dropped in 7km from the source of the river, and rafted 30km down. It was great.

Friday night, I took a bus from Jinja into Kampala to stay with a good friend from UW working there. I stayed in Kampala the rest of the weekend, and am typing this entry on the 12 hour bus back to Nairobi.

This blog entry is going to be the first in a new direction for the blog-I really want to start posting more about what and how I think about my experiences here, rather than just a laundry list of what I've done.

It's a good transition-I have my last week of classes, and then I start my internship. I'm also coming home, from a place that feels different, looks different, and a hundred different ways. I've also started reflecting and processing my time here, instead of just experiencing.

The landscape in Uganda is more raw and lush than I've seen in Kenya so far. The earth more red, the foiliage so dense and so green. Passing through, it looks and feels like the very landscape is still rebelling against the Idi Amin years, and the decades of civil war that have ravaged the North. This country has seen its share of violence and hardship, and you can feel it. In Kenya, there is a charged and dangerous edge to the air-of violence and desperation buried, smoldering. In Uganda, that feeling doesn't exist, or at least isn't immediately noticeable the way it is in Kenya.

I'm reading a book called Kwani? Vol.5 Part 1- its a collection of writings and photography from Kenyans and others recounting their experiences and reactions to the post-election violence. It's brilliant. Its helping me understand and synthesize my observations about Kenya so far.

Being in Kenya without hearing reference to one's tribe is all but impossible. Before coming, I knew it was an important facet to understanding Kenya, and I thought I knew, at least at a very superficial level, what tribe affiliation meant. I really didn't. It was based a lot on my idea of the Western connotation of the word tribe, and less informed by the idea of tribe as a marker of ethnicity. I'm also coming to realize how much of Kenya's modern understanding of tribe is based on colonial imposition of imagined or barely existent divisions among groups of people. I have more to say, but will put this up and add more once I put up photos.

Epic Party of a blog post....

Since I haven't really actually described details of my time here, I'm going to do that. It might be a bit (very) (just finished-very, very, very) long, so feel free to read in shifts. My apologies for pulling a Geithner on the blog so far(long on generals, short on specifics).

Kwa hivyo(so). This weekend, I was supposed to go to a tour of a coffee farm in Nyeri (the farm where Alterra gets their Kenya AA) but plans fell through at the last minute (we'll go sometime soon, don't worry). Instead, nilikaa katika Nairobi (I stayed in Nairobi).

This week was busy, in a confusing way-looking back, I did a ton, but no single day felt very busy. First, my sister Yvonne (18) was sick. I just realized I haven't talked about my homestay or family at all, so indulge me briefly.

My house: I live in Fort Jesus Estates, which is on Kibera Drive, in between the Karanja and Olympic matatu stage. My house building is split between 3 families, with four doors opening into a smallish central courtyard (10x15 feet). My home is split into two parts-1 door opens into to medium bedrooms(both around 10x10), and across the courtyard is the other door which leads into a TINY kitchen (3x6) with a stove, fridge and sink(no oven). Then there is a bathroom, living room (9x10) and my mom's bedroom. We have running water 2 or 3 days a week, and power outages are frequent and unpredictable-there were 3 this weekend and one during the week. Next door lives a family of five-Father, mother(both early 30s) , the house help, and two children, Adrienne, 4, and Nathan, 4 months, They have a living room and bedroom, and their kitchen and bathroom are across the courtyard. They rock.

Matatus are the craziest form of public transport. They are basically 14 passenger (allegedly-I've been in one that had 21 peeps in it) Nissan vans. There are a bajillion different routes, and are one of roughly 7 forms of transportation here, the others being bus, taxi, personal car(rare), tuk-tuk, boda-boda and bicycle. In Nairobi you mostly see the first four, with the rest becoming more frequent in the more rural towns/cities. Anyway, matatus are almost always decked out with crazy lights and super loud hip-hop or reggae, decals featuring big American celebrities and/ or slogans. They go almost everywhere you'd want to go, including many hours outside the city and into all the major slums, Kibera, Kawangware, Mathare to name a few. Price is subjective, and the first couple of weeks I always got ripped off, but I'm gradually finding the swing of things and almost always know what the price should be (somewhere between 10 and 40kshs.. or 12-50 cents).

My family: I have four sisters, all of whom I have finally met-Faith, 24 goes to college and works full time, and lives at home; Phyllis, 21, goes to Kenyatta University and lives there during the week and comes home some weekends; Sini(yvonne), 18, just finished high school and has to wait a year before going to college-she wants to study broadcast journalism; Tracy, 15, is a sophomore in high school and stays at school full time- she came home for the first time this week, and I finally got to meet her, which was great. I also have a brother, Bisi(Emmanuel) who is 13 and just started high school a month ago. He stays at school full time. My mom runs a weekend orphanage/feeding program called Mother's Love at Africa Inland Church-Kibera, which was completely burned down in the post-election violence, and is now rebuilt. She also runs a women's support group for poor mothers, many of whom are HIV+ and all of whom are jobless and living in Kibera. My father died in the 1990's US Embassy bombing.

Now onto my week. Tuesday, I went to the Airport to try and get this lens situation sorted out. It was a total nightmare, and fraught with customs corruption insanity. Two hours later, and out $30 in the bribing of some officials, I am still without my lens. I'm going back tomorrow or Tuesday to bribe the customs deputy commissioner the equivalent of $35 to get the lens, which is far below the $450 they wanted from me in the first place, and still less than the $200 our friend asked me for in bribes just before we left the airport.

Then Wednesday I got my haircut by a man who allegedly knew how to cut white people hair(he was a friend of a friend). That turned out to be a lie. He never once touched a pair of scissors, but was practically shaking out of nervousness the first 20 minutes. Anyway, I have roughly 1/3 in. of hair left, and my scalp is getting a nice tan. No harm done, but it did cost me 500kshs. which is 400 more than I could have paid around my house, had I known I was just getting a buzz.

Wednesday evening was my friends 21st birthday, so we all went out to a bar in Hurlingham, which is a pretty nice neighborhood West of downtown. It was sort of silly, since we had class the next morning at 7:45 am, and the drinking age here is 18. Plus, I had a lot of homework due the next day (sort of-I turned it in on Friday and some tomorrow, with no consequences, so no worries). It turned out to be a lot of fun, and they may have let us play flip-cup for 30ish minutes, though they probably didn't.


Thursday in class we took a field trip all over-we visited a dispensary (medical institutions are broken down from national hospitals with top of the line medicine->regional hospitals with most fixings->dispensaries, which are staffed daily with nurses and specialty doctors like dentists, opticians, etc. making monthly or twice monthly visits. Then we went to the site of half of Kenya's windmills (all 4 of them). They were high in Ngong hills and the view was crazy beautiful. One of the two windmills there was broken...the blade broke 2 years ago, and the Belgians(who donated the windmills and require that replacements come from them) have not yet shipped a new one. Thursday evening I went with some friends to a place called Casablanca-its a really swanky bar that reminded me a lot of Miami. That was a strange place, so I want to devote an entire post to it. Coming soon.

Friday I had no classes, so I spent the day catching up on homework I hadn't been doing during the week. I also went to visit my friend at her homestay. She lives in a development called High Rise, which was built in the last 20 years as part of the slum rehabilitation program. Initially, the buildings were constructed on area that used to be slum land. The residents were cleared off, and secure and clean, if small, apartment complexes were built, all with electricity and running water. They were intended to be replacement housing for the displaced slum residents, but they were priced out of the former land tenants income bracket, so wealthier people moved in and tens of thousands were displaced. Its an ENORMOUS series of buildings that sort of remind me of the projects right near La Guardia. Its also extremely photogenic, so I will be going back soon.

Friday night I went back to Carnivore-this time, it was Coast/Swahili night, and it was a blast. The music was great, the food was incredible-lots of nyama choma, or roasted meat. I had some msikisha(shis-ka-bobs) which were amazingly delicious. Then, some of the peeps on the program decided to get themselves crazy drunk and get sick and pass out. We made sure they got taken care of and home ok, but it was a pretty embarrassing spectacle. I might sound like a jerk, but I was really upset, and I thought it was really frustrating and annoying.

Saturday(almost done I promise) was fairly uneventful-I went to my mom's orphanage and played with the kids. It was great because they recognized me even without most of my hair. Plus, I remembered the words and dance to one of the songs they sing called Munga Wetu, or Our God. Saturday night I cooked dinner for my family. I made chicken fettuccine alfredo, which they loved. Oh, and we also had garlic bread. It was pretty tasty.

Then Sunday, I went to a photo exhibit called Kenya Burning. It was a collection of photos from 6 photogs documenting the post-election violence. This week marked the 1 year anniversary of the grand coalition government, which has accomplished absolutely nothing since its creation. The exhibit was phenomenal-some really really beautiful and haunting photos from some excellent photogs. I wrote this entry away from Internet, but I'll try to post some photos from the show this week. I bought the exhibition book and its very powerful.

Politically, Kenya has a long way to come from the violence of a year ago. The coalition might have bought some time, but the same issues still exist and are in some ways being exacerbated by the Global Financial crisis. Plus, more and more officials are being intimated in all sorts of scandals. The show gave me hope, however, because Kenyans seem have come a long way mentally from those days of violence. Time will tell, but there seems to be more and more people gravitating towards the need for a national identity, rather than uniting along ethnic lines. Ethnic heritage should play an important role in Kenyan life, but it has no place in politics.

Relevant links:
info on matatus
Kibera
Recent NYT article about the past year

Jungle Fever

So my weekend was completely amazing. We didn't have class on Friday, so myself and five other friends decided it would be fun to go to Kisumu, a town in Western Kenya that sits on the edge of Lake Victoria. Kenya 'owns' 6% of the Lake, with Uganda owning 44% and Tanzania the remaining 50%.

We took an 8 hour bus ride from Nairobi to Kisumu, which was lots of fun. On the way there we saw an overturned petrol tanker, this one was not leaking fuel, so no tragedy ensued.

Kisumu is this fantastic town. Its the third largest city in Kenya, after Nairobi and Mombasa on the coast, but it feels very much like an African Racine (for those of you in Wisco), without the hick vibe. I think it would make a great central place from which to make various backpacking trips around the Western Highlands. Its got a great past-its-prime feel, while still maintaining an strong and contradictory vibrant undercurrent. The streets are dusty, the building facades crumbling (in some cases). The city just had a very slow and relaxed manner to it. Very different from Nairobi.

Anyway, Friday night was relatively uneventful-the 6 of us stayed in a hotel, each sharing a twin bed with another person, with the entire night costing us ksh.250, or about $3.

Saturday morning we called a number given to us by some friends who had visited the area a couple of weeks ago. The man on the other end was none other than Captain Willy, owner of a long boat on Lake Victoria. He took us out for a two hour spin on the Lake, which was amazing. It was beautiful and leisurely, and everything a Saturday morning boat ride should be. Willy and his associate, John, took us to a Luo fishing village where we got to walk around and see a bit of Luo life, which was very cool. I think I just want to live in Dungu on Lake Victoria's coast, just for a couple of months. Or years. Whatever.

After the boat ride, we grabbed some tuk-tuks back into town(always a fun ride) and decided to take a matatu to nearby Kakemega, and camp in the rainforest. Yes. Camp in the rainforest. We got into Kakemega in the early afternoon and headed straight for the Forest (LINK TO INFO).

Luckily Devin had brought a tent with her, so we were mostly set. Unluckily, it was a three person tent, and we numbered 6. Further complicating the story is the fact that none of us (save one) brought a sleeping bag, but we made do.

At the gate of the park, we met some German doctoral researchers who offered to give us a ride to our camp site, which was awfully nice of them. We pitched our tent and then watched the sun set over the rainforest. Campfire then ensued, followed by the most ridiculous nights sleep I've had in a long time. We are not small people.

Early Sunday morning, we headed into the forest proper for a nice long hike (6 hours, and probably around 10 miles, give or take) It was insanely beautiful, and full of absolutely enormous trees and tons of plants.

We got a bit lost, but eventually found our way out and made it back into town with time to spare for one of number to crack the windshield with her head after going over a particularly gargantuan pothole, courtesy of local officials embezzling money.

We boarded our bus with sore bodies and a single-minded desire to pass out, as soon as possible. We had just finished eating peanut butter sandwiches for the 7th meal in a row in an alley behind the bus station, and we were all ready to catch a little shut-eye. Silly us.

The freeway was under construction for the first 6 hours of our journey, so our 48-passenger bus drove on the dirt road next to the highway for quite a while. I literally cannot explain to you the cacophony of noise the bus made, or the degree to which everything was vibrating and bouncing. It was the single most uncomfortable bus ride I've ever had, and it lasted all night. We finally got into Nairobi at 4am and grabbed a taxi home, giving me just enough time to collapse into bed for 2 hours of sleep before class. Thank god for the delicious coffee of Nairobi Java.

Thats all I've got for now. I've edited a couple of pics from the weekend, and those are below. As I edit more, I'll post them so keep checking back. I'd say I had a pretty good weekend. Next weekend I'm supposed to be hitting up the coffee farm Alterra gets there Kenya AA from, so stay tuned for more details. (especially Barrique's buddies and Alterra afficionados!)

Tutaonana baadaye.

Just words

Alrighty-a real blog update! I am officially one third of the way done here, and I've only updated my blog twice. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

First, my 16-35 is still not here-its been held up in customs for over a week. I promise as soon as it gets here, I'll post all sorts of scene-setting shots for everybody.

I'm suffering from these strange pangs of homesickness-I've never been homesick in my life, but now I find myself craving being able to sit on my own couch, and watch television that isn't poorly dubbed over Spanish soap-operas, WWF or absurdly low-budget homegrown Kenyan dramadies (I would maybe kill for one episode starring Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin). I would love a super-egg everything bacon/egg/cheddar sandwich from Gotham Bagels, or a butternut squash omelet from Sophie's. I miss my house mates, and everyone that has a key to my house despite not paying rent. Basically, I miss a lot of little things, just a little bit.

Having said that, life here continues to blow me away. It's weird to think that I have been here for a month. There are certain things that seemed so alien to me a month ago and now seem familiar, even boring(like the public transportation, pictures soon). Then there are the things that surprise me every single time I see them, like the (many) goats eating trash, while small fires burn a couple feet away. Or the view of Nairobi streets from above, and the seeming chaos and lack of crosswalks, or any semblance of working traffic signals.

These descriptions feel really clumsy, not good enough. I wish I had some photos to share, and starting this week I'm going to be shooting a lot more than I have been.

Luckily for me, Jama brings Newsweek, Time and the Economist(my new love) to class every week, and I have felt reassured by the fairly constant flow of great journalism (I'm a junky, what can I say).

I met with a photojournalist named Felix Masi, who used to work for the Nairobi Star and now shoots freelance for a bunch of wires. He's Kenyan and was packed with energy. We're going to be shooting together in the coming weeks. I'm also psyched cause I'll be meeting with Kate Holt (check her stuff out, its really great!) in a week or so. Also, biggest thing on the horizon for me-I just got the go-ahead from Alterra's green-buyer, so I'm going to be visiting a coffee farm, doing a tour, tasting, the whole nine yards. Being the huge coffee nut that I am, I'm pumped!

There's a ton more I'd love to talk about, but the post is long and I'm not feeling the words thing right now. Back soon.

Hey all!

Sorry about the delay between posts-it took me a bit to edit some of these and put them up, cause I've got a lot of little things to occupy my time.

I've been emailing a bunch of photojournalists in the area and am meeting up with a couple in the next few weeks, so I'll keep you all posted as to how that goes.

My 16-35 was supposed to come yesterday, but didn't and if it doesn't come today, I might freak out a bit. I literally dreamed about it last week.

Classes here are lots of fun-I'm in a development class taught by this great guy named Dr. Jama, and a Kenyan politics and history class taught by a hilarious man named Fred Jonyo, who has monogrammed every single shirt he owns.

I'll update with more details later today, but I wanted to get these pictures up. Talk to you soon!

Kenya!

Mambo from Kenya!

I know all of you have been waiting with baited breath for me to update the blog, and I'm sorry for the delay, but I had to wait a bit before I had a good enough internet connection to upload some photos. I won't give the full update here- I've sent out emails to most people, and if you didn't get one just comment and I'll fill you in.

I love it here! The country is absolutely beautiful. We had our orientation in Lake Nakuru National Park, about 3 hours outside of Nairobi. There we went on a bunch of game drives and I saw a ton of animals (photos below).

I just ordered my 16-35L, which should make its way to Kenya sometime in the next week or so, and once it does I'll upload more pictures of the city itself-the 70-200 doesn't lend itself to scene-setting. Its a sprawling city with a constant crush of people-there are around 3 million people in the city itself, and another 3 million or so living in the slums-1 million live in Kibera alone, which is only about 1 sq. mile. I went grocery shopping with my brother and sister (I'm living in a homestay just on the edge of Kibera, with four sisters and a brother) downtown on Friday and I couldn't believe the number of people pressed into this enormous grocery/everything store. I love love cities, so I am absolutely having a great time.

Friday night I went with some friends to a club called Carnivore-it was a cultural night celebrating a particular tribe, the Kalingi. The club was huge-there were easily 1000+ people there. The clubs here don't close, so we were out until 4:30. It was pretty amazing.

As I take photos, and stuff happens, I'll put it up here-look for updates about once a week, maybe more frequently as I get settled in.

Tutaonana!

Jake