September 7, 2008; Nairobi, Kenya — Greetings from Nairobi! After many months of planning and eager anticipation, the 2008 Lewis & Clark College East Africa program has officially begun. We are now in our fifth day in Kenya and quickly becoming accustomed to this region of the world that will be our home for the next three months. Our group consists of 23 students, our assistant program leader Cara Eandi, and me.
On Monday, August 31st, I had the pleasure of meeting most of the students in London and introducing those who had never been there to that great city. After we checked in to our flight to Nairobi we left Heathrow Airport and took the tube (London Underground) to the center of the city. London is a city that requires a lifetime to truly know. We had only two hours, but we did our best. Our walking tour included Hyde Park Corner, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. We then crossed the River Thames and back again and cruised through Trafalgar Square finishing with lunch in Leicester Square. After that it was back to the airport and an overnight flight to Nairobi.
We arrived early Tuesday morning at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport at dawn and were met there by David Sperling, our main contact in Kenya. Our first impressions of Nairobi came as we crawled through the morning rush hour traffic from the airport into the city center. Nairobi is a sprawling metropolis with many of the same problems faced by major American urban areas: expanding suburbs, garish shopping malls and housing developments, and congestion on every major road to and from the city. In many ways, Nairobi bears more of a resemblance to what we have left behind in the US than it does to what awaits us in the other parts of East Africa to which we will travel.
Our first few days were spent at a comfortable and well appointed guesthouse in western Nairobi. Swahili classes began on Wednesday as did Prof. Sperling’s East Africa area studies course. It has been a pleasure to see how well all the students are adapting to this new environment and the enthusiasm and diligence that they are bringing to their studies. On a more personal note, it is also a bit intimidating for me to become a student once again. I have decided to take the Swahili class with the students and try to learn the language along with them. We have four hours of intensive language training each day and it is a challenge merely to stay caught up. Fortunately we have four outstanding instructors and their patience, good humor, and high spirits have made the daunting task of learning this new language a lot of fun.
On Saturday the students were introduced to their home stay families and everyone relocated to Riruta Satellite, a western suburb of Nairobi where we will remain for the rest of the month. Riruta seems to have the feel of a village within a city. Most residents know each other and are constantly greeting each other in the street and stopping to chat. We are fortunate that all the home stay families live within walking distance of each other and of the house that we are using as a classroom (and in which I am living). Tomorrow we resume our studies in our new home in Riruta.
Local butcher shop in Riruta, Nairobi
On Monday, August 31st, I had the pleasure of meeting most of the students in London and introducing those who had never been there to that great city. After we checked in to our flight to Nairobi we left Heathrow Airport and took the tube (London Underground) to the center of the city. London is a city that requires a lifetime to truly know. We had only two hours, but we did our best. Our walking tour included Hyde Park Corner, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. We then crossed the River Thames and back again and cruised through Trafalgar Square finishing with lunch in Leicester Square. After that it was back to the airport and an overnight flight to Nairobi.
We arrived early Tuesday morning at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport at dawn and were met there by David Sperling, our main contact in Kenya. Our first impressions of Nairobi came as we crawled through the morning rush hour traffic from the airport into the city center. Nairobi is a sprawling metropolis with many of the same problems faced by major American urban areas: expanding suburbs, garish shopping malls and housing developments, and congestion on every major road to and from the city. In many ways, Nairobi bears more of a resemblance to what we have left behind in the US than it does to what awaits us in the other parts of East Africa to which we will travel.
Our first few days were spent at a comfortable and well appointed guesthouse in western Nairobi. Swahili classes began on Wednesday as did Prof. Sperling’s East Africa area studies course. It has been a pleasure to see how well all the students are adapting to this new environment and the enthusiasm and diligence that they are bringing to their studies. On a more personal note, it is also a bit intimidating for me to become a student once again. I have decided to take the Swahili class with the students and try to learn the language along with them. We have four hours of intensive language training each day and it is a challenge merely to stay caught up. Fortunately we have four outstanding instructors and their patience, good humor, and high spirits have made the daunting task of learning this new language a lot of fun.
On Saturday the students were introduced to their home stay families and everyone relocated to Riruta Satellite, a western suburb of Nairobi where we will remain for the rest of the month. Riruta seems to have the feel of a village within a city. Most residents know each other and are constantly greeting each other in the street and stopping to chat. We are fortunate that all the home stay families live within walking distance of each other and of the house that we are using as a classroom (and in which I am living). Tomorrow we resume our studies in our new home in Riruta.
Local butcher shop in Riruta, Nairobi