September 21, 2008; Nairobi, Kenya — This week I began teaching my course, HIST 298: The History of Modern East Africa. The students, for their sins, are being instructed by two historians. David Sperling is an expert in Islamic societies on the East African coast and is covering precolonial East African religion and culture in his course. Since I am a historian of the British Empire, I am teaching a course on the colonial and postcolonial history of the region. David had been teaching his course since the second day after our arrival and I have just started my lectures this week. In the first class, I discussed different examples of colonialism throughout history to help put the East African example in comparative perspective. In the second class I talked a bit about the changes in European society and about the first European exploration into the interior of Africa in the nineteenth century. I am glad for the opportunity to teach the students while they are on the program and to learn a bit more myself about this region of the world in the process. (Whether the students are glad to have me as an instructor may be a different story altogether.)
We have only been in Riruta for two weeks but it feels much longer. Our group is now reasonably well oriented to the neighborhood and many have found their favorite hangouts. A local pub called “The Office” serves room-temperature beer (“Tusker,” the Kenyan lager, which is quite good) and the proprietor, Freddy, and the regular customers have been very welcoming. I joked that it reminded me of the TV show Cheers. I must say, I never expected that Kenya would be the place where I would finally find the watering hole “where everybody knows your name.”
The students have been with their host families for two weeks and seem to have settled into their routine. Many of the students have remarked on the amount of television that their families watch. Some families that do not have running water in their homes have 50-inch plasma TVs that are switched on continuously for most of the day. The TV programming ranges from American and Kenyan televangelists to an addictive Mexican tele-novela (soap-opera) called “Los Dos Caras de Maria” (The Two Faces of Mary). Since I do not have TV I am definitely missing out. I keep up with the plot vicariously through conversations with students. I sure hope Ignacio and Maria get back together.
Riruta is west of the Nairobi city center and taxis rarely, if ever, venture into this area. Actually, the same is true of westerners in general. We are the only ones here as far as I can tell. Consequently we rely on the buses and matatus (privately-owned mini-vans) to get around town. The buses are amazingly efficient and after learning the routes one would be hard pressed ever again to resort to the over-priced taxis in this city. The matatus are even more interesting. Most of them (as well as many of the private minibuses) are elaborately decorated with ornate pin-striping, window decals, and pictures of famous people. Kofi Annan, Nelson Mandela, and Barack Obama have made more than one appearance on the matatus that I have seen. The matatus are usually packed with people and the music selected for our listening pleasure (and played at top volume, I should add) ranges from reggae to American and Swahili hip-hop.
Alas, on Friday we had our first casualty of the trip. Nothing serious, really. I escorted a student suffering from severe gastro-intestinal problems to Nairobi Hospital and the ER doc decided he was so dehydrated that he should be admitted and put on fluids until the lab results came back. He spent the night in a private room, was seen by the attending physician, and was discharged the next day. He’s fine now. What was most surprising was that the total bill for the initial doctor’s exam, the ER treatment, the private room, meals, IVs, drugs, and the attending physician’s fee was US $592. Amazing. And that was before the insurance claim was filed and in one of Kenya’s best hospitals (equal in quality to just about any US hospital). It did make me wonder about the prohibitively expensive level of the equivalent treatment in the US. I guess my advice to any uninsured Americans in immediate need of hospitalization is to try to be in Nairobi when it happens. They should be so lucky.
That’s it for now. Next week we leave Nairobi and head north into the Eastern Highlands. We will spend two days in Embu, circle around Mt. Kenya, and then spend one night in Nanyuki before returning to Nairobi. It will be nice to get out of the city for a bit. We haven’t left since we arrived.
As a final note I should add that many students have set up blogs while they are in East Africa. You can access them by going to the program website at https://moodle.lclark.edu/course/view.php?id=291 and signing in as a guest. Once you have done that, scroll down to Section 3 titled “Blogs and Photo Albums.”
That’s all for this week. Nitaandika tema juma kesho. Kwaheri.
Clinic and Pharmacy in Riruta, Nairobi
The students have been with their host families for two weeks and seem to have settled into their routine. Many of the students have remarked on the amount of television that their families watch. Some families that do not have running water in their homes have 50-inch plasma TVs that are switched on continuously for most of the day. The TV programming ranges from American and Kenyan televangelists to an addictive Mexican tele-novela (soap-opera) called “Los Dos Caras de Maria” (The Two Faces of Mary). Since I do not have TV I am definitely missing out. I keep up with the plot vicariously through conversations with students. I sure hope Ignacio and Maria get back together.
Riruta is west of the Nairobi city center and taxis rarely, if ever, venture into this area. Actually, the same is true of westerners in general. We are the only ones here as far as I can tell. Consequently we rely on the buses and matatus (privately-owned mini-vans) to get around town. The buses are amazingly efficient and after learning the routes one would be hard pressed ever again to resort to the over-priced taxis in this city. The matatus are even more interesting. Most of them (as well as many of the private minibuses) are elaborately decorated with ornate pin-striping, window decals, and pictures of famous people. Kofi Annan, Nelson Mandela, and Barack Obama have made more than one appearance on the matatus that I have seen. The matatus are usually packed with people and the music selected for our listening pleasure (and played at top volume, I should add) ranges from reggae to American and Swahili hip-hop.
Alas, on Friday we had our first casualty of the trip. Nothing serious, really. I escorted a student suffering from severe gastro-intestinal problems to Nairobi Hospital and the ER doc decided he was so dehydrated that he should be admitted and put on fluids until the lab results came back. He spent the night in a private room, was seen by the attending physician, and was discharged the next day. He’s fine now. What was most surprising was that the total bill for the initial doctor’s exam, the ER treatment, the private room, meals, IVs, drugs, and the attending physician’s fee was US $592. Amazing. And that was before the insurance claim was filed and in one of Kenya’s best hospitals (equal in quality to just about any US hospital). It did make me wonder about the prohibitively expensive level of the equivalent treatment in the US. I guess my advice to any uninsured Americans in immediate need of hospitalization is to try to be in Nairobi when it happens. They should be so lucky.
That’s it for now. Next week we leave Nairobi and head north into the Eastern Highlands. We will spend two days in Embu, circle around Mt. Kenya, and then spend one night in Nanyuki before returning to Nairobi. It will be nice to get out of the city for a bit. We haven’t left since we arrived.
As a final note I should add that many students have set up blogs while they are in East Africa. You can access them by going to the program website at https://moodle.lclark.edu/course/view.php?id=291 and signing in as a guest. Once you have done that, scroll down to Section 3 titled “Blogs and Photo Albums.”
That’s all for this week. Nitaandika tema juma kesho. Kwaheri.
Clinic and Pharmacy in Riruta, Nairobi