Erica in Nairobi

The Last Post.

2006-10-01T22:01:00.000+03:00

OK, make that one last blog entry next month! Well, I'm back in my house, back at school, back to "real life," and although it's really great to be home (and especially great to see my family, friends, and dog), there are definitely some things I miss about Nairobi and moments when I wish I was still in Kenya. But I'm so glad that I have this blog to remember my adventure by. I'm a terrible journal/diary-writer -- I've never been able to keep one up, so I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for reading and commenting and sending me e-mails about the blog. Knowing that you guys were reading it definitely helped me to keep it up, and now I have such a wonderful memento of my time in Africa. (Nobody's actually going see this thank you since I've been home for a month and I've seen most of you guys already, but I thought I'd still put it out there.)

So this officially ends my first foray into the blogosphere. My real life is just too boring and too busy for a blog (as evidenced by the ridiculous amount of time it took me to get my "last post" posted). But I definitely hope that I have another adventure worth blogging about sometime soon ...

erica-in-columbia

2006-09-03T03:35:00.000+03:00

I'm back in the US (and very sleepy -- door-to-door from my friend's house in Nairobi to my parents' house in Columbia took about 30 hours)! Stay tuned for one last blog entry next week...

Leavin' on a jet plane (part II) ...

2006-09-01T09:31:00.000+03:00

100 days, 30 blog entries, and 825 photographs later, I'm finishing up my final project at work and getting ready to head home! 24 full hours on airplanes and in airports, here I come -- type to you all from DC!

Reflections

2006-08-30T11:27:00.000+03:00

Well, as I finish things up here at work and start to pack up all of my stuff, I’ve been thinking about the things I’m going to miss about Nairobi and the things that I’m really not going to miss about Nairobi. So …

Things that I will miss about Nairobi.

1. The people. First and foremost, I will miss all the great people that I got to know/live with/travel with while I was here, especially Eleonora, Joe, Annika, Gillian, and Kristina. I’ll miss all of our jokes about cheese pies, masks, peeling hard-boiled eggs, “Kenya time,” the bible, and the mystery of the disappearing mouthwash.

2. The National Parks. What can I say? Nairobi, Amboseli, Aberdare, Mt. Longonot, Ol Donyo Sabuk, Mt. Kenya – these are some of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. The hiking’s been amazing, the scenery’s been amazing, the wildlife’s been amazing. The only problem is going to be deciding which of my photos I should print when I get home – I have to remember that I don’t have unlimited money or wall space!

3. The newness/adventure. As much as I’m looking forward to getting back to my “real life” in DC, there’s something so wonderful about being in a place that’s entirely new and completely different than the places that you’re used to living. I also love those moments of recognition when you realize that something that was so recently utterly foreign/unknown to you becomes familiar (i.e. seeing a Maasai walking down the street in traditional dress next to a guy in a business suit). It’s also great to experience a different culture firsthand. And there’s something pretty exciting/gratifying about successfully navigating your way through such a crazy city!

4. Little things. Indian food, pineapple, mangoes, the chocolate cake at Nairobi Java House, just about everything at Trattoria, shopping in the markets, no homework and no TV (and therefore plenty of time to go to the gym), getting tanner, Tusker.

Things that I will not miss about Nairobi.

1. The dirt. The soil in Nairobi is so fine it’s more like dust than soil, so it gets on everything. Add to that the fact that the cars pollute like there’s no tomorrow (emissions laws, not so much), and people burn anything and everything (including plastic!) out in little piles in front of their houses. After I’m done washing my clothes and I spill out the water, I swear it looks like chocolate milk – it’s disgusting! I’d really hate to see what the inside of my lungs look like right now.

2. The safety thing. Even though I’ve gotten used to the fact that my house has bars on every window, a huge wall around it, and a 24-hour security guard, even though DC isn’t really the safest of cities, even though I live in a relatively safe part of Nairobi, and even though I’ve not yet had any experiences where I’ve been really scared about my safety, it’s always kind of in the back of my mind. Shit happens here, and it’s happened to people I know while I’ve been here. I’m definitely looking forward to being home and just feeling a little more comfortable about my surroundings. Anyway, here’s hoping for an uneventful next 2.5 days!

3. The mzungu thing. Being a mzungu here, I feel so many conflicting emotions. On one hand, I feel so guilty to be so fortunate when there are so many people around me who are struggling to make ends meet. On the other hand, I hate that so many people try to take advantage of me/rip me off just because I’m mzungu. I hate that we live in a world where there’s such inequality that I can totally understand why someone who sees me wants to try and get some money from me. I hate that I’ve become a bit suspicious and quick to jump to conclusions that just because a lot of people are actually trying to take advantage of me/rip me off that that everyone must be trying to take advantage of me/rip me off. I hate that I don’t know what to do to try and make things better. For now, I’m going to be more vigilant about buying fair trade products when I get home, but that just seems like such a small drop in the bucket.

4. Little things. Mosquitoes, lack of good cheese that doesn’t cost a fortune (the imported cheese is so expensive domestic stuff is pretty tasteless), the international fee my bank charges me every time I go to the ATM, getting blonder (seriously, the sun is totally bleaching my hair – I’ll have to dye it brown when I get home), pretty much having one choice of beer (Tusker).

Things that I’m not sure whether or not I’ll miss about Nairobi.

1. Working for the UN. On one hand, I’ve been able to work on some really interesting projects this summer, and I really enjoyed working with my supervisor and the other people in my division. Plus, I have to admit, it is kind of cool to walk through the gates at the UN every morning and think to yourself, “hey, I work here.” On the other hand, this summer has made me a bit less optimistic about the capability of international law to solve environmental problems. I can’t exactly put my finger on what it is that’s made me feel this way, and I’m certainly not going to stop trying, but I just feel like I’m leaving here a little more pessimistic than I was when I got here. (I do generally go through peaks and valleys of optimism and pessimism about our ability to stop environmental degradation, so it could just be that I’m in a bit of a valley right now.)

2. Nairobi (the city center). Actually, it’s not that I’m not sure, it’s just that I’ll miss it and I won’t miss it. Going downtown is a good way to get an adrenaline rush – it’s exciting and crazy and busy. It’s also exhausting – the downside of crazy and busy. And to be honest, it doesn’t smell that great (see car emissions and burning trash, above). Anyway, there’s really no part of DC that I feel like I need to psyche myself up to go to, but there’s also no part of DC that I feel like, “woohoo, I made it, go me!” after I get back home.

3. Little things. The geckos in my house (on one hand, they’re cute and they eat the mosquitoes, on the other hand, they’re geckos in my house), the ginormous hill going down to my house (on one hand, it’s really annoying to have to hike up such a huge hill every time I leave my house, on the other hand, my glutes are in much better shape than they were when I got here), the weather (on one hand, I’m glad that once again, I missed the humidity and grossness of DC in the summer, on the other hand, it’s been pretty chilly here – it is winter – so I feel like I got a bit robbed of a summer this year).

Overall, I’m just really glad that I had this experience and I can’t wait to see all of you East Coasters soon!

Last Trip

2006-08-26T14:46:00.000+03:00

Last weekend, my roommates and I went on one last trip of the summer. We went to Tiwi Beach, just south of Mombasa and had a really great time. We rented a little cottage that was practically right on the beach, it wasn't very crowded, the weather was beautiful, and the water was perfect.

On this trip, the excitement came from getting to the beach, not by actually being at the beach. We decided to take the night train from Nairobi to Mombasa -- a lot of people have said that it's a really fun experience -- you get a sleeping compartment for 2 or 4 people, there's a dining car for breakfast and dinner, it's a lot cheaper than flying, and it's a lot more enjoyable than taking the bus. The only problem is, the train is notorious for being late -- really late -- but we decided to take our chances, and we got lucky, we were only about 2 hours late getting into Mombasa (which is practically on time for the Nairobi-Mombasa train).

The excitement part actually didn't happen to me, but to my friends Isaac and Cookie. They both did Peace Corps here in Kenya a few years ago and came back for a quick vacation before school starts in a couple of weeks. They were also headed to Tiwi Beach, and had a compartment a couple of cars away from ours. Around 4:00 in the morning, I woke up and noticed that we had stopped, and it was about 1/2 an hour before we started moving again. I didn't really think much of it at the time, but when we saw Isaac and Cookie the next morning, Isaac told us that the reason the train had stopped was that he had caught a guy hanging off of the roof of the train with his head and arms inside their compartment, reaching for Isaac's bag! Isaac yelled at the guy, the guy ran away (luckily he didn't have a chance to take anything), and they stopped the train so that they could look for the guy and anyone else stowing away on the roof!!

Now Lonely Planet Kenya warned that this could happen if your window wasn't closed tightly. And Lonely Planet (a.k.a. "the bible"), is really almost never wrong, but it was still pretty nuts to actually have something like that happen on our train and to someone I know!

After that, it was a very chill weekend -- a great last trip of the summer. I guess there was a little excitement when some monkeys broke into our cottage and ate some of the mangoes we had bought from the guy who came to our door every morning to sell fresh fruit and vegtables. Why is it that monkeys seem like such cute, sweet animals until you spend any time at all around them, and then all you think is, "damn monkeys!!!"? Also, I managed to twist my ankle on an early morning jog down the beach one day. Luckily it wasn't very bad -- no need for doctors, crutches, or x-rays, thank goodness -- but just once, I would like to get through the month of August completely unscathed!!

We decided to take the bus back to Nairobi, so that we wouldn't have to worry about getting to work late the next day if the train was really delayed. The bus trip was uneventful but with the bad roads and the hyperactive children sitting in front of us, I have to say that 14 hours on the train was much more enjoyable than 9 hours on the bus. However, there was no one hanging off the roof to try and steal anything from us.

Chilling in our train compartment before dinner.

View from the train as we approached Mombasa.

Palm trees!

Our cottage. (Photo courtesy of Eleonora.)

One of the most beautiful sunrises I've seen in a long time. (Well, since Mt. Kenya, anyway) .

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

2006-08-23T09:05:00.000+03:00

Unfortunately, I didn't have phone/e-mail access on my dad's actual birthday (the photo below should give you a clue about where I was), so let me take a moment to say (a few days late) ...

More on my trip -- my last one of the summer (!) -- soon, but for now I've got to get to work. I've just got a week and a half left to go and still have a few things I need to finish up.

Day 4 – Homeward Bound

2006-08-18T14:24:00.000+03:00

Distance hiked – 8 km (5 miles)

The reason that we had the descending route almost entirely to ourselves is that the bottom part is really, really muddy. It’s also too far to hike in one day with nowhere to camp along the way, so you have to hike out part of the way and then get picked up by a four wheel drive vehicle to pick you up and take you out to Meru, where you then get on a minibus for the 3-hour drive back to Nairobi.

So we walked for a couple of hours through a bamboo forest, keeping an ear out for elephants as we did. We didn’t see any, but one group of hikers had run into one on the way up (luckily it didn’t charge). The weather was great and I think that wind through bamboo is one of the most beautiful and peaceful sounds there is.

Unfortunately, before we knew it, we met up with an old Land Cruiser, and it was time to start the bumpy ride out to Meru. At that point, we met up with another hiker and his guide and porter, so it was a really, really tight squeeze. There was absolutely no air moving in the back where I was sitting, and my infamous motion sickness started to kick in – it wasn’t quite as bad as the ferry from Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam, but it was close. So we stopped so I could sit in the front with the driver where there was a little bit of air moving, and that made a huge difference.

The trip was long and so, so bumpy – I think that some of the ruts were over a foot deep. We only got one flat tire, though, and eventually we made it to Meru, stopped for lunch, and then got in another minibus to head back to Nairobi. Even with the bumpy ride, I’m glad we decided to take this route out – it was so beautiful.

This experience was by far the most amazing that I’ve had here in Kenya, and it definitely ranks up there in terms of life experiences in general. That said, it was nice to be home in Nairobi, take a long hot shower, drink water that didn’t taste like the iodine puritabs we’d been adding to stream and lake water for the past couple of days, and sleep in my nice warm bed!

We passed this sign as we were hiking. Could someone explain to me just exactly how you’re supposed to yield the right of way to a wild animal? (We didn't see any, by the way, but we saw a lot of elephant and buffalo droppings. And yes, I've now seen so many that I can differentiate the two.)

Stopping to change the flat tire. I'm on the left in the pink shirt, and quite frankly, just glad to be out of the vehicle for a while. (Photo courtesy of Eleonora.)

OK, well after that marathon of blogging, I don’t really have too much more to say right now, so type to you sometime next week. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Day 3 – It’s a marathon, not a sprint

2006-08-17T17:46:00.000+03:00

Distance hiked – 26 kilometers (16.2 miles)
Starting altitude – 4,200 meters (13,780 feet)
Highest altitude – 4,895 meters (16,060 feet)
Ending altitude – 3,000 meters (9,840 feet)
Distance ascended – 695 meters (2,280 feet)
Distance descended – 1,895 meters (6,215 feet)

We packed our bags, drank some tea and hot cocoa, ate a few cookies, and by about 3:30 we were on our way to the summit. We had put on so many layers of clothing that we looked like stay-puff marshmallow people as we slowly started the hike. It was definitely cold – around 20-25 degrees F – but as we climbed higher and higher and got warmer and warmer, we had to keep stopping to shed layers. To be honest, I didn’t mind the stopping – even a couple of steps made me out of breath (and I’m in pretty decent shape right now). As we climbed, my legs felt like lead and I knew my muscles weren’t getting as much oxygen as they’re used to.

But our guide took us at a really slow pace, stopping frequently, and none of us had any really adverse reactions to the altitude. And about three hours after we left the camp, we were watching the sun rise above the clouds – it was absolutely beautiful. We made the last push to the summit, took lots of photos, rested with some chocolate and cookies, and started the trek back down.

This would be our longest hiking day – 14 hours in total – and even though hiking down a steep slope can be just as physically demanding as hiking up, it was mentally so much easier. I was no longer worried that we might not make it to the top or that one of us might get altitude sickness, and with every step I took I knew that the air was getting thicker and more full of oxygen.

We were taking a different route down the mountain than the one we took up, and the scenery was even more spectacular. The route we took down was also much less crowded, which was very nice.

We hiked and hiked and hiked and hiked, and finally we made it to the Meru Mt. Kenya Lodge where we spent our final night on the mountain. Even though we were staying in cabins and at a relatively low altitude, it was actually the coldest of the three nights – I think because we didn’t have the body heat from all of the bunkmates we had up at Old Moses Camp and at Shiptons Camp. Still, I slept like a log!

Me climbing up the last stretch to the top. That white dot in the middle is the moon. (Photo courtesy of Eleonora).

Sunrise.

Me at the top. That’s Nelion to the right – the second highest peak on the mountain -- it's about 200 meters higher than Lenana.

View from the top.

View from the Chogoria route on the way back down the mountain.

Resting at Meru Mt. Kenya Lodge – what could be better than a fireplace and a beer after 26 km of hiking!?!?

Day 2 – Anticipation

2006-08-16T17:37:00.000+03:00

Distance hiked – 12 km (7.5 miles)
Starting altitude – 3,300 meters (10,830 feet)
Ending altitude – 4,200 meters (13,780 feet)
Distance ascended – 900 meters (2,950 feet)

We woke up early on Day 2 to a beautiful, sunny sky and started out on a very enjoyable hike. The scenery was beautiful as we hiked up Mackinders Valley towards Shiptons Camp. About halfway through the hike, we were finally able to see Point Lenana in the distance, and it was great to be able to see our ultimate goal. (That’s the first photo I posted of Mt. Kenya on the blog.)

After a few hours, fog and low clouds started to roll in, but luckily, it didn’t rain, so we stayed quite a bit drier than we did on Day 1. Except for me. I managed to find a patch of quicksand-like mud and fall into it. It looked like regular mud on the surface, but when I stepped on it, I sank knee-deep into really soft, squishy mud. I managed to pull myself out without losing either of my hiking shoes – they were getting sucked off as I tried to pull myself out – but my feet were pretty wet and muddy for the rest of the day.

As we climbed higher and higher, I definitely noticed that it was getting to harder to catch my breath as we hiked, which made me a little nervous about the next day. But we arrived at Shiptons Camp, again in one piece, dumped our stuff on our bunkbeds, and grabbed an early dinner so that we could go to bed very early – the plan was to wake up at around 3:00 the next morning so that we could reach the top of Point Lenana to see the sunrise.

I really didn’t sleep very much at all that night. I found that I was breathing very heavily just lying in my sleeping bag, and that the simple act of turning over onto my side would make me completely out of breath. This made me very anxious about the next day, when we’d be doing a very strenuous hike and gaining another 700 meters (about 2,280 feet) into thinner and thinner air. Luckily, I had my headphones with me, so I tried to drown out my anxieties about the next day with David Gray and U2.

Before I knew it, it was 2:30 and everyone who hadn’t gone up to the summit the day before was beginning to stir …

Hiking along Mackinders Valley.

Rock hyrax. Odd fact for the day – the closest living relative of the hyrax is not the marmot, possum, or rat, but the elephant!

Shipton’s Camp. (You can't really tell from this photo, but people's clothes are laid out on all the rocks to dry in the sun.)

The view of Point Lenana from Shipton’s Camp. (It’s the one in the middle with the two little jagged points on either side of it.)

Day 1 – What were we thinking?

2006-08-15T17:45:00.000+03:00

Distance hiked – 9 km (5.6 miles)
Starting altitude – 2,600 meters (8,530 feet)
Ending altitude – 3,300 meters (10,830 feet)
Distance ascended – 700 meters (2,300 feet)

I was so excited and really nervous as I packed just about every warm piece of clothing I brought with me to Kenya in preparation for our attempt at reaching Point Lenana, the highest point on Mt. Kenya that you can reach without being an experienced technical climber. It was kind of hard to sleep the night before we left, and I was still both excited and nervous the next morning when our guide, Josiah, arrived in a minibus to take us to Nanyuki, the starting point for our journey.

We arrived in Nanyuki, passing the equator a few kilometers earlier, and there was something somewhat comforting about being back “home” in the Northern Hemisphere. We grabbed lunch as Josiah and the porters bought the food we would eat for the next four days. (Someone needs to introduce dehydration/rehydration technology to Kenyan mountain guides – I felt so bad at the amount of stuff the porters carried, and it would have been a lot less if they just had to boil water to rehydrate little packages of food, rather than cooking from regular ingredients.)

We then switched to a four-wheel drive minibus to take us up a really bumpy road to the park gate. Now when we left Nairobi, it was nice and sunny. When we arrived in Nanyuki, it was fairly sunny there, but we couldn’t see the top of Mt. Kenya because it was covered in clouds. As we got closer and closer to the park gate, it got darker and darker. As we got out of the minibus to pay the park fees, put on our packs, and start hiking, it started to pour down rain. I’m talking monsoon-strength torrential rain. So we all got out our raingear, put it on, and waited for the rain to subside a bit, all of us looking like hunchbacks and/or turtles with our packs on under big ponchos and raincoats. It was at this point that I thought to myself, “what were we thinking?”

But the rain slowed down a bit and we started our hike to the first hut at Old Moses Camp. The hike was actually the least enjoyable of all 4 days because of the rain, and the fact that there was so much water streaming down the trail it was a bit like hiking up a river. But we all made it in one piece.

In total, there were about 40 or so other hikers (and their guides/porters) staying at Old Moses Camp. The main hut was one long building divided in half length-wise. One half was further divided into little rooms w/ bunk beds, and the other half was one long room with long benches and tables. We sat a while and played cards, ate dinner, and then got to bed early so we could wake up early the next day to try and make it to the next camp before it started to rain.

Us on the Equator.

Oh the rain! (Photo courtesy of Eleonora)

Old Moses Camp.

View from Old Moses Camp.

“Dining room” of Old Moses Camp. (Photo courtesy of Eleonora)

Stay tuned for Day 2 ...

... we did it!

2006-08-14T14:17:00.000+03:00

Wow -- what an amazing four days. We all made it to the summit with no injuries. I'm a little tired and sore, and I've got a bad sunburn on the backs of my hands (seriously, who remembers to put sunscreen on the backs of their hands?), but I'm honestly a little surprised at how good I'm feeling today.

This is us at the summit of Point Lenana -- 4895 kilometers (16,060 feet) above sea level.

Point Lenana is the one in the middle of this photo. (You can't reach the top of the larger peak on the right w/o serious climbing experience and serious climbing gear.)

More details and more photos to come in the next few days!!

Mt. Kenya ...

2006-08-09T08:23:00.000+03:00

OK, so some of you know that starting tomorrow, I’m going to climb Mt. Kenya with two of my housemates and another friend of ours from the UN. A few of you have expressed some concern about this endeavor – “Isn’t the altitude going to be a problem?” “Isn’t it going to be cold?” “Um, Erica, don’t you tend to fall and hurt your ankle when climbing mountains?”

These are all definitely concerns, but as you guys know, I don’t really do many things w/o thinking them through, so …

1) The altitude.

Yup, the summit is pretty high – about 16,000 feet. Altitude sickness and becoming too short of breath to make it all the way to the top are definitely possibilities. However, we’re going with a guide who was recommended to us by a friend of ours at the UN. Our guide used to work for the Kenya Wildlife Service and the Mountain Rescue Squad, so he definitely knows what he's donig. He told us there are three main things to remember – you have to keep your pace really slow (slower than you feel is actually necessary) in order to let yourself get acclimatized to the change in altitude, you have to eat a lot food, and you have to drink a lot of water. Also, even though the four of us are from sea-level places, we’ve all been living and regularly exercising at about 5,500 feet for the past two months, so hopefully are lungs are in pretty good shape.

Everyone in our friend’s group made it to the summit with no problems, so hopefully we will too. And in the worst-case scenario, you just have to turn around before reaching the top.

2) The cold.

Yup, it’s going to be cold. That’s why I’m bringing many, many, many layers of fleece, a sleeping bag, thermal underwear, a hat, gloves, etc. We’ll be staying in mountain huts on the way up and down the mountain, which I think will be slightly warmer than sleeping on the ground in tents. Also, I did recently survive a night of sitting in a sleeping bag on 2nd Street, waiting for Supreme Court tickets (I am such a dork) in Washington, DC in February. When we “woke up” (we didn’t really sleep that much) there was frost on the outside of our sleeping bags, and we got through that experience with all of our toes!

3) My klutziness,

Yup, I can be a klutz sometimes. However, in my defense, the first time I fell I was rock climbing, not hiking. Climbing Mt. Kenya – at least the way we’re doing it – involves no rock climbing at all. It’s just hiking. The second time, what can I say – I just rolled my ankle the wrong way – it happens. I will be as careful as possible, and if I do end up making an ankle twisting hat trick, at least I’m going up the mountain w/ a former member of the Mountain Rescue Squad, right?

Anyway, I am so excited. This is the thing I’ve wanted to do the most ever since I decided to come to Kenya for the summer. I’m just really glad that I met nice people here who also wanted to give it a try. We’ll be back on Sunday evening, so I’ll type to you all on Monday – hopefully with great photos and two good ankles!

AAAAKKKK!

2006-08-03T16:45:00.000+03:00

Anybody remember the construction out in front of Lafayette freshman year? The jackhammers at 7:00 in the morning? (Wow, 7:00 in the morning doesn’t seem quite as early now as it did back then.) Well, I’ve discovered something worse. The floor below mine at the UN is being changed from individual offices to an “open plan” and they are currently knocking down a cinderblock wall right beneath me. Here’s hoping they don’t accidentally knock out any of the load-bearing walls!!

Swahili

2006-08-01T18:36:00.000+03:00

Well, I didn’t leave Nairobi this weekend, so unfortunately I don’t have any new wildlife photos to post. I actually spent a good chunk of the weekend in my office working on finalizing clerkship applications (thanks again Mom for collating them and taking them down to school!) and working on my journal bluebooking assignment. Not so much fun. But, I did get some shopping done, which was great (more on this later).

So, instead of posting photos, I’m going to write about the little bit of Swahili I’ve picked up since I’ve been here.

Mzungu = White person

Wazungu = White people

Jambo = Hello – I might be paranoid, but I kind of think that when Kenyans say “jambo” to a mzungu, they’re kind of making fun of him/her, and that when a mzungu says “jambo” it’s kind of annoying to Kenyans – just as Americans who only learn “bonjour” and “merci” are kind of annoying to the French. So instead of saying, “jambo,” I say …

Salama = Hello – I really like the fact that this greeting comes from the Arabic word for “peace.”

Lala salama = Good night (literally, “sleep peacefully”)

Habari? = How are you?

Nzuri = Good/fine

Because just about every house has a security guard that stands watch at the front gate, and because my walk to/from work passes alongside about 1 km of the wall surrounding the American Embassy that is dotted with security guards, I pass a lot of them in the morning and evening. Sometimes I say hi in English, and sometimes I use some of the Swahili above. Unfortunately, I can’t for the life of me remember how to say “good morning” in Swahili, so that one always comes out in English. I look it up all the time, but I just can’t seem to commit it to memory.

Tafadhali = Please – People in Nairobi don’t really say this very often. I heard it more in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar.

Karibu = Welcome/You’re welcome

Assante (sana) = Thank you (very much)

Sawa (or sawa sawa) = Okay/sure/fine – People here say this ALL THE TIME. If there’s one thing I accidentally say when I’m back in the US, it will be “sawa.”

Hakuna matata = No worries – but if someone says “hakuna matata” to you, it’s often a signal that you should be worried (i.e. “you’ll definitely make it in time to catch that ferry, hakuna matata” means you might not catch that ferry).

Sipendi = I don’t like it

Sitaki = I don’t want it

Samahani = Sorry/excuse me

Khuli sana = It’s too expensive

These last four have come in very handy while shopping in the Maasai Market and the Triangle Curio Shops. Maasai Market is just a hillside downtown that’s stepped so that people can set out their merchandise – crafts like jewelry, bowls, carvings, bags, baskets, batiques, and masks – flat on blankets on the ground every Tuesday. It is so, so crowded, and the pathways between the merchants are so tight that “samahani” comes in very handy (both for when you need people to move out of yoru way and for when you accidentally bump into someone/step on their foot). The Triangle Curio Shops are a bunch of stalls that are permanently located on a triangle of land between three roads in Westlands (a suburb) that have the same type of crafts as Masaai Market.

In both places, people are always coming up to you and trying to get you to buy their merchandise. And they’re really pushy about it. So it can be kind of difficult once you’ve shown interest in something – or if you’re just standing waiting for a friend to buy a mask or something and haven’t shown any interest at all – and “sipendi” and “sitaki” work a little better than “I don’t like it” or “I don’t want it” in getting people to leave you alone.

Finally, “khuli sana” helps in the bargaining process. When I first started going to the markets, I really didn’t like it. A) I’m what you’d call a comparison shopper – I don’t buy the first thing I see, I like to think things over and compare different items. B) I hate bargaining/haggling. Neither of these are good things when you’re trying to buy things in the markets. You’ve got to quickly pinpoint what you want and then you have to bargain like crazy to get it.

However, after going a couple of times, I’m really starting to like it – it’s kind of an adrenaline rush, and it’s really cool to buy something and then see it for sale in a store for 2 or 5 or 10 times what you paid for it in the markets. I’m sure I’m still getting ripped off, and the merchants are like, “hahaha, stupid mzungu” as soon as I leave, but I know I’m doing the better than the tourists who stick to the “real” stores, so I’m happy. Also, just in case anyone is afraid that I’m ripping off the merchants, they’ll never sell at a loss, so I know that if they accept my offer of what I’m willing to pay, they’re making money off the deal.

Anyway, now that I’ve gotten the hang of bargaining, I have to be careful not to buy too much (I am on a student budget and I do have to get everything back home to the US in two suitcases in a month, after all), and I’ll also have to be careful not to come home and start trying to bargain with the clerk at the Gap about the price of a pair of jeans!

That’s it for now – lala salama everyone!

Lions and cheetahs and wildebeests (oh my!)

2006-07-26T17:36:00.000+03:00

So last weekend I went on my second (and final) camping safari. My housemates and I went to Masai Mara National Park -- probably the most famous park in Kenya, for good reason -- and we saw so much wildlife, including the annual wildebeest migration, when over a million wildebeests migrate from Serengeti in Tanzania to Masai Mara in Kenya after they’ve eaten all the grass in Tanzania. We didn’t get to witness them crossing the Mara River, but we saw probably hundreds of thousands of them roaming in big groups and some of them traveling single-file in huge lines.

The road to Masai Mara is, I think, the worst I’ve been on since I’ve been here (I feel like I say that every time I go on a new road). Seriously, this one was so bad, that when he could, our driver drove on the dirt next to the road, rather than on the road itself because of all of the potholes.

Once we got there, we stayed in a campsite for two nights that was much fancier than the one in Amboseli -- it had permanent tents with little beds in them. This turned out to be a good thing because it pored down rain both nights, but we stayed totally dry (and I doubt we would have in a little pup tent on the ground).

The campsite was operated my Maasai, and if you had to get up and use the bathroom in the middle of the night, a Maasai appeared next to you, seemingly out of nowhere, to take you to the latrines. I don’t know if this was just to keep people from getting lost and wandering off (the campsite was really dark), or to protect you in case animals came into the camp (people said they heard hyenas really close to the camp on the first night).

OK, I could go on, but I think I’m going to let the photos speak for themselves …

We saw three lions! This one was sitting on what looked like an abandoned road or bridge or something. (Don't worry -- that's a yawn, not a growl.)

We got a little closer to the cheetahs here than we did in Amboseli (and I figured out how to use the digital zoom on my camera).

Three cheetahs were sitting in the shade under this tree, which was really close to the road, so we sat in the minibus for a really long time watching them poke their heads up out of the grass, roll around, and sit up every once in a while. The cheetahs were adorable, but after a while I noticed just how beautiful the tree was, too!

Wildebeests!

This is us on the border between Kenya (Masai Mara) and Tanzania (Serengeti).

Hippos on the Mara River. At this point, we got out of the minibus and an armed Kenya Wildlife Serice guide took us down to the river (hippos are very aggressive and territorial). I didn't ask if his gun had tranquilizers or bullets in it, and luckily, we didn't find out.

Zebras -- I love the way they stand like this, it kind of seems like they’re hugging each other!

As we left the park on our last day, the light was just amazing.

That’s it for now! After two great weekends of traveling, I’ll be sticking around Nairobi this weekend and unfortunately spending a good chunk of it on my bluebooking assignment for journal (quite a bit less exciting than going on a safari, but I’m really not in a position to complain). Type to you all later!

Good Luck!

2006-07-24T12:16:00.000+03:00

Danny, Jeanette, Brad, and everyone else taking the bar exam tomorrow and Wednesday -- I’ll be sending you good vibes and extra brainwaves from across the Atlantic Ocean. I’m sure you’ll all do great! Hang in there, guys -- it’s almost over!!

Zanzibar!

2006-07-19T17:08:00.000+03:00

So I spent last weekend with two fellow interns in Zanzibar; it was a wonderful trip, marred only by a few transportation mishaps.

Mishap #1 occurred after we boarded the plane from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam and the pilot announced that there was a "minor problem" with the plane -- they couldn't start the engine. Now, I'm not an expert on airplanes, but I'd say that an inability to start a plane's engine would qualify as a bit more than a "minor problem." It did turn out to be more than a minor problem, but luckily, there was a spare plane at the airport, so they unloaded us from the first plane and onto the second, and two and a half hours later, we were off to Dar.
We only stayed in Dar for the night and caught the first ferry out to Zanzibar early the next morning. The island of Zanzibar is part of the United Republic of Tanzania, but has its own president and House of Representatives. One of my friends told me that the relationship between Zanzibar and Tanzania is similar to that between Scotland and the UK or Wales and the UK. (And it meant that I got two stamps in my passport instead of just one!) There are basically three main reasons for visiting Zanzibar -- visiting Stone Town, touring the spice plantations, and going to the beach. Being the conscientious interns that we are, we only had enough time to do the first two before heading back to Nairobi early Monday morning to go back to work.

Stone Town is the old part of the capital of Zanzibar, and it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, partially because it’s a great example of the fusion of many different cultures -- Swahili, Arab, African, Indian, and European. The architecture really reflected this mix and the city was truly beautiful -- not in a pristine picture-perfect sort of way, but rather in a lived-in, history-filled, slightly dilapidated sort of way. It’s full of tiny winding streets, great old buildings with intricately carved wooden doors, beautiful mosques, and lots and lots of shops.
We also just happened to be in Zanzibar for the Zanzibar International Film Festival, so on Saturday night we sat in an outdoor amphitheatre inside the old Arab fort to watch a documentary about a Ugandan dentist who is also an Elvis impersonator (apparently, he makes more money as an Elvis impersonator and enjoys performing a lot more than dentistry, but his parents don’t want him to quit his day job) and another one about female prosecutors and judges in Cameroon.

On Sunday we took a tour of the spice plantations and our very knowledgeable guide took us to see (and taste) ginger, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, cassava, vanilla, pepper, turmeric, neem, coffee, cocoa, lemongrass, and a couple others I can’t remember off the top of my head. Here are a couple of things I learned about spices this weekend: almost none of the many spices grown in Zanzibar are native -- they’ve been introduced from all over the world, and the island just seems to have a great climate for growing them); neem, although it can be used for just about everything under the sun -- insect repellent, soap, treatment of malaria (if brewed into a tea), etc. -- is one of the most bitter things I’ve ever tasted; and too much nutmeg will make you horny -- we didn’t actually find this one out for ourselves, we just took our guide’s word for it.
Other than not making it over to the east coast of the island to go lie on a beach for a day or so, I really only have one complaint about Zanzibar. I had said earlier that it’s hard to walk around Nairobi without constantly being asked if I want a taxi, but it was even worse in Zanzibar. As we got off the ferry in the port, we were immediately pounced upon by a hoard of taxi drivers and guides, all offering their services. One even followed us for a while as we walked to our hotel, trying to get us to take his taxi instead. and all weekend there was the ever-present “Jambo, sister! Taxi? I’ll give you a good price, hakuna matata!”
As we walked to the ferry on Sunday afternoon to head back to Dar for the night, I began to anticipate transportation mishap #2. I get pretty motion sick on just about anything that moves -- planes, buses, cars, subways, boats, roller coasters, merry-go-rounds, anything -- and although I felt a tad queasy on the ferryboat from Dar to Zanzibar, I was mostly ok. Since we were leaving at a different time of day than we had arrived, I started to worry that we had come over at low tide and that we’d therefore be leaving at high tide, which can mean rougher seas.
The second we pulled out of the harbor and started towards Dar, my worst fears were realized. I have never, ever been on a choppier sea, and I’ve never been so seasick in my life. At first, I thought it was just me -- I do have quite a history of motion sickness -- but then I heard the rustling of plastic which turned out to be the crew passing out little plastic barf bags to every passenger. My two friends (neither of them have a history of motion sickness, and one of them did research for her master's thesis in meteorology by going up in a small plane and flying around storms to collect data, never once getting sick) spent the two and a half hour trip puking into the barf bags and off the side of the boat. I spent the whole ride curled up in the fetal position, literally paralysed with motion sickness -- I felt so sick I couldn’t even move my arm to reach into my purse to find my phone to see what time it was (and therefore how much longer it would be until we reached Dar) or to take another Dramamine. You know that Adam Sandler song from the Wedding Singer that has a chorus that goes something like, “somebody kill me please, I want to die”? Yeah, that was going through my head for a good portion of the trip.

We finally got off the boat, found our way back to our hostel, went to a restaurant to slowly sip some sodas, and laughed hysterically about the voyage from hell. The next morning, our flight back to Nairobi was about an hour late, but I didn’t care. I’m generally a pretty impatient person (and I wanted to get to work, see conscientious intern, above), but I was just so happy to be on solid ground that I really didn’t mind. And once we were finally in the air, we even got a great view of Kilimanjaro from the plane! Even with the voyage from hell, it was a wonderful weekend and we had such a great time. But I’m never, ever getting on another boat as long as I live.

Zanzibar entry coming soon...

2006-07-18T17:35:00.000+03:00

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't posted about Zanzibar yet, it's just that I decided to quit my internship, drop out of law school, and become a spice farmer in Zanzibar, and I've been a little busy deciding whether or not to plant mostly cloves or cinnamon.

Just kidding -- it was a great weekend, but I've been a bit busy at work this week so I haven't had time to finish a blog entry. I'll post one -- along with photos -- tomorrow!

Mt. Longonot National Park

2006-07-13T08:13:00.000+03:00

So last Sunday I went with another group of interns and JPOs to hike Mt. Longonot, a dormant volcano in the middle of the rift valley. (For anyone keeping track, that's my fourth national park in four weeks.) Most of the way, the road to Longonot was pretty decent -- we were on a relatively new highway, but then we had to turn off onto a dirt road and drive for 13 kilometers on one of the bumpiest roads that I've been on since I've been here (and that's saying something). Also, they're building a paved road right next to the dirt road, so there were all these trucks and construction vehicles driving around and kicking up so much dust it kind of felt like being in a sandstorm (or how I'd imagine being in a sandstorm would feel). I'm also noticing a relatively large number of bruises on my arms and legs with no recollection of how I got them. I think it's from banging into the side of the car/whoever is sitting next to me as we drive down all these bumpy roads!

The hike was really steep (but that's good -- I need practice for Mt. Kenya), we went up about 2300 feet in elevation! And when we got to the top and could see into the caldera (the hollowed out part in the middle of the volcano), it was really neat because the ecosystem inside the caldera was completely different than the ecosystem at the base of the volcano. So as we were hiking around the path that goes around the edge of the whole caldera, if you looked down to your right, you saw the grassland and savannah of the rift valley, and if you looked down to your right, you saw a really lush, green forest inside the caldera.

Unfortunately, it was pretty cloudy, so I didn't get many really good photos. (Mom and Dad, it was a little like hiking through the clouds last summer in Grindelwald!) But I think it's often pretty cloudy up there -- as we were hiking, I heard what sounded like rain, which was strange, because I couldn't feel any. Then I looked up and I saw a tree that looked like it had rain coming out of its branches, and the ground under it was completely soaked, even though everything else around it was dry. I think the leaves from the tree take moisture out of the clouds and condense it into water droplets, so that the tree can basically water itself!

OK, Anuradha tells me I've been spending too much time in national parks, so she'll be happy to know that this weekend I'm going to Zanzibar (yes, I know how lucky I am to be able to type that phrase), so I'll be spending my time checking out Stone Town and the beaches there. (Oh, and Jennie, I hear you've talked Anuradha into going camping -- good for you and I think you should definitely take her hiking as well!)

(That's me and the view into the caldera.)

Photos of Daily Life

2006-07-11T08:11:00.000+03:00

OK, so I’ve had some complaints that all my photos are of wildlife/mountains/trees/etc. and not about my daily life in Nairobi and at the UN, so here you go …

Two of my housemates, Joe and Eleonora, and our housekeeper, James, cooking dinner. Notice the pineapple in the foreground – pineapples here are so good and so cheap (about 30 cents a pound, if I did the math right). We’re constantly eating them, and I’m getting pretty good at cutting them up!

Our water heater, which you have to turn on half an hour to 45 minutes before you want to take a shower.

The stuff I use to clean fruit and vegetables that aren’t going to be peeled or cooked. To be honest, it kinda makes your food smell a bit like bleach, so I’ve mostly been eating fruits and vegetables that I can either peel or cook. (Pineapples, mangoes, and bananas are good substitutes for apples, grapes, and nectarines, I can wait until I get home to have a nice, big salad.)

Village Market. This photo was taken in the morning, but on a weekend evening (or a night when the World Cup was showing), this place is packed. The food court (shown here) has just about any kind of food you’d want to eat, including some really good vegetarian Indian food. Village Market also has: a grocery store, movie theatre, bowling alley, pool hall, restaurants, water slide (!), and lots of little shops. It’s located right in between the UN and where I live, so it’s very, very convenient.

Garden path between T Block (where I work) and W Block at the UN. The landscaping here is really amazing – sometimes I feel like I’m coming to work in a Hawaiian resort or something like that. There are lots of little pools and some waterfalls, and there’s actually even a whole wetland. The actual offices are in long, 3-storey, concrete buildings called blocks, which are kind of ugly and not very Hawaiian resort-like. I think there’s 1 block for every letter of the alphabet (or at least almost every letter).

Me at my desk. See, I haven’t been eaten by wildebeests. I’m also wearing my new kikoi, a traditional East African woven cloth that you can wear as a scarf, shawl, sarong, or turban (haven’t quite figured that one out yet), that I bought for myself at the Maasai Market downtown. Shopping at the Maasai Market was a crazy experience and will get its own blog entry soon.

OK, I hope that helps you guys picture my life here a little bit better.

The O.C. in Nairobi

2006-07-06T18:06:00.000+03:00

So last Friday I moved again. (Yes, this is the third place I’ve lived since I’ve been in Nairobi.) Both of the host families I’ve lived with here have been very nice, but I am so much happier now that I’m subletting a house with a few of my fellow interns.

I’ve definitely gotten back some of the independence that I felt like I had lost when I first got here – our house is close enough to the UN that I can walk to work and I’m finally able to cook again. (As I was making dinner on Sunday for my new housemates I realized that I hadn’t cooked anything in over a month!!) And it’s also just really nice to live with people my own age again.

The house definitely has some interesting quirks – it’s actually got great hot water (as long as you turn the heater on about 45 minutes before you want to take a shower), but it’s got really, really horrible water pressure (it’s kind of a struggle every morning to rinse all of the shampoo out of my hair). Also, I’m living in the room of a 15-year-old girl, which has posters of the characters from The O.C. all over the walls. (I shouldn’t complain, though, my friend Eleonora got the room of the 15-year-old girl's twin brother, so she’s got posters of the Olson twins and a half-naked Jennifer Lopez.) On the whole, though, the house is great, I really like my housemates, and I’m glad that I’ll be living there for the next two months.

I spent pretty much all day Saturday trying to figure out what judges I should apply to for clerkships after graduation. It turned out to be a more involved process than I had originally thought (the law school’s manual on how to apply for judicial clerkships is 84 pages long!!!) and so I didn’t get quite as far as I would have liked.

But by Sunday I had had enough, so I “unplugged” myself and went to Aberdare National Park for the day with some other interns and JPOs (Junior Professional Officers). JPOs are great people to know, because like interns, they are relatively new to the area so want to get out of Nairobi and see the rest of Kenya on the weekends, but unlike interns, they have cars. Well actually, SUVs, which – as much as I hate to say it – you really, really, really need here, both for driving on dirt roads through national parks, but also for driving in downtown – to survive the potholes, and to muscle your way into roundabouts and other intersections, because traffic lights and traffic laws in Nairobi? Not so much.

Anyway, so our nice, very multicultural (Slovakian, German, Argentinean, Finnish, Italian, Kazakhstani, and American) group of JPOs and interns, after going through the very illogical and inefficient Smart Card buying process that we went through at Nairobi NP, we entered the park. (According to the BBC, even with the Smart Cards, Kenya loses $2.8 million a year in park fees that never end up making it to the park.)

Aberare was really, really different than Nairobi NP or Amboseli NP. It’s at a high elevation – we were at about 10,000 feet, – and it felt almost rainforest-like. We didn’t see quite as many animals as we had seen in Amboseli, but we still saw quite a few. It was kind of weird to see the same animals in such different habitats. Amboseli is flat, dry grassland, and Aberdare is mountainous, wet forests – so it was really, really weird to see an elephant in both places!

Here are two photos of the roads we took in Amboseli (top) and Aberdare (bottom) to show you how different the two landscapes are.

Well, that’s it for now. Have a great weekend everyone and type to you later!

Quick Post

2006-07-04T13:28:00.000+03:00

Things are pretty busy at work right now, so I haven't had a lot of time to add new content to the blog, but later in the week I'll write about my new house -- I'm renting a place with a bunch of other interns and am very happy there -- and I'll post some photos of my trip to Abardare National Park. (Hmm, is anyone sensing a theme to my weekends?)

For now, I leave you with this Erica in Nairobi reflection:

I can smell rain in Nairobi. Every once in a while at home I can smell the rain coming, but every single time it's rained since I've been here, I've thought to myself, "hmmm, smells like rain" about 5-10 minutes before it begins to fall. It's not exactly a useful skill -- when I wake up in the morning, I can't tell whether or not I'm going to need an umbrella later in the day, but it's still pretty cool.

Pet Peeves

2006-06-29T17:47:00.000+03:00

OK, so I hope that you’ve been able to tell from this blog that I’ve been having a great time here in Kenya. However, there are inevitably a few things that are annoying/frustrating about being in a new place, so here is a list of the few things that bug me about Nairobi/Kenya/the UN:

1. The photograph of the dead seal pup just outside my office.

There are beautiful photographs all over the UN compound, but I just happen to work in the part that features photographs depicting environmental degradation (pollution, erosion, dead wildlife, etc.) So just about every time I leave my office, I’m face to face with a dead seal pup that looks like it was crying tears of blood. Now, I understand that powerful images like this can really do a lot to get a message across. But I’m a vegetarian! Who goes out of her way to buy non-leather Birkenstocks! Who would never hunt a seal pup! Who has pretty much dedicated her life to protecting wildlife! I've already received the message, loud and clear.

2. The assumption that I must be in need of a taxi. All the time.

I can’t walk ANYWHERE, at any time of day, without being honked at (or “hooted at,” as they say here) and being asked, “taxi, madame?” Seriously, if I wanted a taxi, I’d ask for one. Actually, I’d call John or Godfrey, two very nice and reliable taxi drivers who never rip me off.

3. Diet Coke costs 10 shillings more than Coca Cola. (10 shillings is about 13 cents)

So not only might the aspartame be giving me cancer, but I also have to pay extra for it?!?

4. The lack of skim, 1%, or 2% milk. (A carry-over from one of last summer’s pet peeves about Geneva.)

Many of you know how much milk I drink, mostly because I love it, but also partly to try and counteract the effects of all of the Diet Coke I drink (see above), which Erin tells me is rotting my bones. Anyway, many of you also know of my distain for whole milk (“It’s like drinking cheese!”). I haven't had a glass of milk in about a month, which is very sad for me.

5. How early it gets dark here.

We’re really close to the equator, and it’s also winter here (and I’m using the term “winter” loosely), so it starts to get dark around 6:30 or 7:00, which is especially annoying since walking around/taking matatus is less safe after dark. I kind of feel like I turn into a pumpkin after dark and have to either already be home, or call John or Godfrey to take me wherever it is I want/need to go. Jess and Alec, I’m so jealous of the midnight sun!

6. The largest denomination of money is the 1000 shilling bill. (1000 shillings is about $13)

Not so fun when you have to pay your rent in cash. (Luckily, my rent here is significantly less than my rent in DC.)

Don’t let this post give you the wrong impression. All the good things here – great Indian food, fun fellow interns, safaris, a great boss, interesting work, amazing wildlife, lack of homework, and tons of cool places to hike and camp – far outweigh the bad.

Amboseli National Park

2006-06-26T17:18:00.000+03:00

So I went on my first safari this weekend, and it was absolutely amazing. I spent two days in Amboseli National Park, which is right near the border with Tanzania, in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro. Justice, our driver, was quite a bit more knowledgeable than Elvis, our driver from last week. He really knew the park, which at 1,260 square miles, is quite a bit bigger than Nairobi National Park. Also, he had a radio to talk to other drivers about sightings of the animals that are more rare and harder to spot. The two times that we saw cheetahs, just about every minibus and jeep in the park seemed to appear out of nowhere.

The good thing about Amboseli, though, is that vehicles have to stick to the roads, so if the animals want to get away from people, they can. There are some other parks where I’ve heard that the vehicles pretty much chase the animals everywhere. I couldn’t imagine having very much fun if I felt like I was harassing the animals, so Amboseli was a good fit for me. The cheetahs, for example, stuck around for a little while and then ran off to part of the park that was farther away from the roads.

It was really interesting to watch the other animals’ reaction to the cheetahs. I kind of assumed that all of the smaller animals would scatter as soon as they saw the cheetahs approach. They didn’t, but they became very, very alert as soon as the cheetahs arrived on the scene and just sort of stood perfectly still and watched them intently. The cheetahs moved very regally, but nonchalantly, if that makes sense – it was like they knew they owned the place.

The cheetahs were probably the coolest sighting of the weekend, but I also really liked the Thompson’s Gazelles. They’re pretty small and really cute, and they constantly wag their tails (I’m guessing to keep the flies away). But while other animals kind of swish their tales (like elephants and zebras), the Thompson’s Gazelles really wag theirs, and because of that and their coloring, they kind of reminded me of Ladybug (right after she’s come home from the groomer’s and has really short fur).

Anyway, in no particular order, here are the animals that we saw this weekend: elephants, zebras, cheetahs, wildebeests, warthogs, impalas, jackals, Thompson’s Gazelles, egrets, heron, cranes, pelicans, giraffe, ostriches, water buffalo, monkeys, and a whole bunch of birds I couldn’t identify.

A couple of things I didn’t realize: zebra are fat – you can’t tell when you look at them from the side, but if you see them from the front or the back, they’ve got huge potbellies, and wildebeests are really, really scary looking.

What else can I say? We camped at a small campsite inside the park (it was surrounded by an electric fence to keep out any animals that might want to try and eat us in our sleep). At night, I saw more stars than I’ve seen in I can’t even remember how long. And on the second day, we got a glimpse of Kilimanjaro, which is pretty rare, because it’s normally covered by clouds. They parted for about 20 minutes though, and we got to see the snow-capped peak. (Which had quite a bit less snow on it than I was expecting. Insert plug here for An Inconvenient Truth.)

I took over a hundred photos, but these are some of the highlights. I’ll try to upload the rest to a photo-sharing website and e-mail you guys the link when I do. (My internet connection isn’t that great here, so it might take a while).

OK, that’s it for now. Hope all is well! (Oh, and I just realized today that I've been here for a month already -- I can't believe it, the time has totally flown by)!

Out of Gigiri, Part II: The City Centre and Nairobi National Park

2006-06-23T16:22:00.000+03:00

So last Saturday, I finally went to downtown Nairobi. Some fellow interns and I decided that we'd spend the day at Nairobi National Park and checking out some of the markets downtown.

Nairobi National Park is literally right outside of Nairobi -- you can actually see the skyline from a lot of the park. But the park is relatively large -- about 45 square miles -- and it has quite a bit of wildlife (more species of birds that the whole UK, and four out of the Big Five -- leopards, lions, buffalo, and rhinos -- no elephants, though). We didn't really see a ton of wildlife, but more on that later...

You can't walk through the park, and none of us had access to a car, so we jumped into a matatu, having read that you can hire a car and driver to take you through the park once you get there. After switching matatus in downtown Nairobi at what I can only refer to as a matatu mosh pit, we were on our way to the park. (I've discovered that matatu drivers and "conductors" don't actually get a salary, they are paid a portion of the money they make from the fares that they collect on their routes. So, at the beginning of the line for a matatu route, there are a whole bunch of empty matatus, but no real line for which one gets start the route first, so the conductors run around trying to to gather up enough passengers for their individual matatu so that they can start driving. We were at a place where multiple matatu routes started, so let me tell you -- it was nuts!)

Anyway, we found our way onto the right matatu, got to the park, and asked one of the rangers if he could tell us where we could find someone to drive us through the park, and he brought us over to Elvis, who said he could take us through the park. So, we negotiated a price for him to drive us through the park for 2 hours, and we set off.

Almost.

In order to pay the admission fee to the park, we had to go through a very long, involved process. First, we had to get a rechargeable card, kind of like a SmartTrip, or the cards you use in laundry machines. Then, we had to go to the building next door and put money on the card, this took quite a while, as there seemed to be something wrong with the machines that the tellers were using to add money to the cards. Then, we got into the car, drove to the gate, and gave the guard our cards, who then ran them through another machine, to make sure we had put the right amount of money on them, and then waved us through the gate (without giving us back the cards). The whole process took at least half an hour and left us wondering, why couldn't we just pay the guard at the gate? I suspect that the answer has something to do w/ record-keeping and making sure that all park entry fees actually go the park, but I'm not sure.

So once we made it into the park, it was clear that Elvis had no idea where he was going. There are a bunch of dirt roads winding through the park, and there are markers at most intersections/junctions pointing out different routes and points of interest, but we didn't have a good map (Elvis had no map, we just had the small one in the Lonely Planet). So really, we kind of drove around fairly aimlessly for a couple of hours. That's not to say it wasn't cool, though -- the park itself was beautiful, and we did see some animals. It wasn't a great time of year or day for wildlife viewing in the park, but we did see lots of ostriches, a huge herd of impala, and a giraffe and an impala that were very close to us.

However, as we were driving, we kept coming to marker number 29, but from different directions. There were 3 different roads that converged at 29, and I swear we came at the intersection at least twice from each road. We kept coming to 29 even after Elvis told us that he was heading for the exit. Now, I'd like to take this moment to pat myself on the back for not panicking at this point. Hey Grant, do you remember how I was freaking out when we were lost in Manuel Antonio National Park when kept coming to the same sign, but from different directions? This was a somewhat similar situation (although it wasn't getting dark yet), but I didn't freak out -- I was able to help Elvis navigate our way out of the park. (Memo to Kenya Wildlife Service -- "Main Gate" or "Exit" might be a good thing to put on those directional markers.)

Anyway, we successfully made it back downtown and spent some time checking out one of the markets there. The word that sums up the experience of downtown for me is "exhausting" -- everyone keeps coming up to you and trying to get you to buy something (especially in the markets). But even just walking down the street, people come up to you and ask, "taxi, madame?" "matatu, madame?" Now, I was coming down with a cold at this point, so maybe that's what made it so tiring, but I have to say, even after a very fun day, I was glad to get back to Gigiri.

OK, so this weekend, I'm going camping in Amboseli National Park, which is down by the border w/ Tanzania (it has lots of elephants, and has a really good view of Kilimanjaro, so hopefully I'll have fabulous photos to share on Monday). And after learning our lesson with Elvis, we're going with an established safari company. Have a good weekend everyone and type to you Monday!

Out of Gigiri, Part I: Mathare

2006-06-18T12:40:00.000+03:00

OK, so as I mentioned before, I've been living/working/hanging out in a part of Nairobi called Gigiri, which is about 5-7 kms north of Nairobi's city center. It's where the UN is, where all the expats live, and where all the embassies are. Every house is surrounded by a high wall, many with electric fences on top, and most people have 24-hour security guards (askaris). It's still very different from home, but it's basically a peaceful, chill, non-threatening place.

So this weekend, I finally saw some of the "real" Nairobi. On Friday afternoon, I went with a bunch of other interns to Mathare, which is Nairobi's second biggest slum. Kibera is the biggest -- over 800,000 people live in an area the size of Central Park -- and as such, it gets a lot of attention (it was in the movie Constant Gardener, it's in Sarah McLachlan's World on Fire music video). But there are four other major slums in Nairobi, and Mathare is the second largest -- between 500,000 and 600,000 people live there (unsurprisingly, the documentation isn't really all that good).

About a year ago, UN interns in Nairobi started working with the Mathare Community Educational Development Organization (MCEDO), which runs a non-formal school in Mathare. "Non-formal" means that there is no support from the government. The children are taught by volunteer teachers, and the UN interns are trying to help MCEDO get books and other supplies for the kids. They were successful in getting the World Food Programme to donate two meals a day for the children, which makes it a lot easier for them to concentrate on learning since they aren't as malnourished anymore.

There are a bunch of other projects that the UN interns are working on (more on these later, and I might ask one of you DC people to do me a favor and stop by the Foundation Center in the near future to help me do some research on foundations/NGOs that I can submit some grant proposals to). But in addition to these projects, a group of interns goes every Friday to play with the kids/put on skits/talk about HIV awareness/tell stories/etc. This Friday, we were planting some bamboo outside of the schoolroom with the kids, and playing games with some of them on a donated computer.

Mathare was exactly what I expected -- I'd seen photographs before -- but it was still an overwhelming experience to actually be there, to see row after row after row of shanties, to see goats and turkeys and pigs climbing on massive piles of trash, to smell the burning garbage, and to see hundreds of children running around and playing in the midst of it all.

As soon as we got there, a huge group of kids ran over to us, to come see the wazungu (white people). I think that the first thing that every white person they've ever met has said to them is, "How are you?" (Which, to be honest, would be the first thing that I would probably say.) So as they came over, they started singing, "how are you, how are you, how are you" to us. They all wanted to hold our hands, so I spent most of the afternoon with about four kids attached to me. They were very interested in my fingernails, which are pretty long at the moment, and kept trying to lift them up as if to see what was underneath them.

It's hard to really put into words what I felt when I was there. It definitely wasn't pity -- pity is the wrong emotion to have for people who are making the best out of practically nothing and living their lives, many with smiles on their faces. I did feel scared that so many of those children might not ever know life outside of the slum. But I felt hopeful that some would -- a lot of the volunteers at MCEDO have lived in the slum their whole lives, but have managed to educate themselves and are working so hard to improve the lives of the children there. Like I said, it's hard to describe. Let's just say I was feeling a lot of things all at once.

OK, I'll write more about Mathare and MCEDO later, but this is getting pretty long, so I think I'll stop here for now.

Stay tuned for Out of Gigiri, Part II: The City Centre, and Nairobi National Park (complete with photos)!

World Cup and Kilimabongo

2006-06-15T08:24:00.000+03:00

First of all, thanks everyone for your comments and e-mails, they've been really sweet, and it's definitely easier to be so far away since I can still "talk" to you guys.

So people here in Nairobi crazy about the World Cup (probably not quite as crazy as the people where Erin's living, but definitely way crazier than the people back home). Every TV you pass is tuned into the matches -- bars and restaurants have even brought in extra TVs so that everyone can have a good view.

I decided to go watch the opening match at the German School, where some of the UN interns are living. When they mentioned that people would be watching the match there, I just kind of pictured a dorm TV lounge, kind of crowded with people (like Lafayette on wrestling night or Butlers Wharf on West Wing night). When I got there, I realized that I was thinking on an entirely incorrect scale. They had set up a projection TV in the gymnasium and the entire gym was filled with people. It's possible that every German and Costa Rican in Nairobi was there. Outside, they were selling sausages, doughnuts, and Bavarian pretzels (and Kenyan beer, go figure). It was nuts, but a ton of fun.

Then on Saturday, I went hiking with a group of people from the UN. We hiked up Kilimabongo ("buffalo mountain"), which is about 60 kms outside of Nairobi. It was great to see some of the smaller towns and the countryside as we drove there. The hike was great, but it was really, really hot (everyone keeps warning me that the "cold season" is coming, but Saturday was no indication of that). Anyway, here are some photos from the hike:

Some sad news

2006-06-12T15:37:00.000+03:00

OK, I know I promised photos today, but my grandpa passed away this weekend, so I thought today I’d write a couple paragraphs about him, and I’ll post photos and write about hiking and World Cup later in the week.

My grandpa passed away peacefully in his sleep, and I was able to visit him right before I left for Kenya, but it’s still hard to be so far away, and not to be able to be there for my mom and the rest of my family. But my grandpa was one of the happiest, most cheerful people I’ve ever met, and he was never one to dwell on the bad parts of life, so here are some of the good memories I have of my grandfather:

My grandpa loved food. He loved my Aunt Cindy’s raisin-filled cookies and my sister’s apple pie, although he always told her that she could use a little more practice (and that he’d be happy to eat her practice pies, if she wanted).

He loved growing all kinds of plants – flowers, fruits, vegetables, you name it. Last summer, he even took a stab at growing watermelons, and they turned out pretty good!

He was an amazing woodworker. For those of you who have been to my parents’ house, just about everything in it that’s made out of wood was made by him (or him and my Uncle Dave). He taught me how to use a lathe and jigsaw and all kinds of other tools in his workshop when I was little girl.

He turned me into a total corn snob. Every August, we would go to my grandpa’s house, pick corn from one of his friends’ farms, husk it, boil it (for 7 minutes exactly), blanch it in cold water (for another 7 minutes), cut it off the cob (making sure to cut enough that you get the whole kernel, but not so much that you also get the cob) and then freeze it right away. The whole family would have enough of “grandpa’s corn” to last the whole year, and it’s so good that I really can’t stand the taste of canned corn.

He taught me how to “drive” his golf cart. He loved flirting with nurses. He loved bird watching (and he really didn’t like rabbits and squirrels). He loved Penn State (although, not quite as much as my grandma did, I think). He loved his family.

He had infectious optimism and always looked on the bright side of things. You really couldn’t know him and not love him. He was a wonderful husband, brother, dad, grandpa, and friend, and he will be sorely missed by all of us whose lives were made better by knowing him.

Adjustments

2006-06-08T14:37:00.000+03:00

Some are relatively easy (i.e. looking right-left-right instead of left-right left before crossing the street). Others are a little more difficult (i.e. remembering that my computer doesn't like to multitask and that I have to limit the number of windows I have open so that it doesn't crash). Others are even more difficult -- the one I'm having the most trouble with is adjusting to what feels like a loss of independence since I've been here.

In DC, I cook for myself, I do my own laundry, I drive/walk/bike/metro/bus wherever I want to go, whenever I want to go there. Here, my food is made by a cook, my laundry is done by a maid, and although I can matatu/walk pretty much wherever I want during the day, at night I'm dependent on taxis and my host family's driver.

The control freak (um, I mean independent spirit) part of me is just annoyed at what I see as a loss of self-sufficiency, but there's another part of me that is just really fundamentally uncomfortable with the idea of people waiting on me. I have two hands, two feet and a brain -- if I'm hungry, I should cook something and then clean it up when I'm done; if I notice I don't have any clean clothes left, I should throw them in the washing machine and then move them to the drier when I'm done. It feels really, really strange to have someone else do these things for me.

I do know that the service sector is a very important part of the economy here, and that people's livelihoods (and lives, even) depend on their jobs as cooks, maids, and drivers. And I am happy that I'm able to bring business/money into the economy, but I have to tell you, it just feels really, really weird, especially when there are people only a few kilometers away from here living in abject poverty. I doubt this is something I'll fully adjust to in my three months here (and to be honest, I'd be a little freaked out if I did).

In happier news, I'm going to Ol Donyo Sbauk National Park this weekend, so I promise photos on Monday!

Happy World Environment Day

2006-06-05T17:17:00.000+03:00

It’s not that well-known of a holiday, but today is World Environment Day, so I thought this might be a good time to write a quick entry about what I’m doing here in Nairobi this summer (sorry if it’s boring for those not as excited about international environmental law as I am).

OK, so in a nutshell: since 1972’s Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment, literally hundreds of treaties (also known as multilateral environmental agreements, or MEAs) have been established to deal with a wide range of environmental problems – two pretty well-known MEAs are the Montreal Protocol, which deals with the phase-out of CFCs and other chemicals that deplete the ozone layer, and the Kyoto Protocol, which deals with climate change. But there’s also the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Basel Convention on Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, to name a few others, and the list goes on and on.

But even though we have all of these MEAs, environmental degradation is still occurring, and in many ways, it’s getting worse. So it’s time for what I like to think of as International Environmental Law Version 2.0 – we’ve got all these treaties on the books, now we have to figure out how to actually get them implemented so that we actually achieve improvements in the state of the environment. So that’s what I’ll be helping out with this summer – implementation and enforcement of MEAs.

One way of improving implementation and enforcement of MEAs is enhancing the ability of developing countries that have the will, but not the capacity, to comply with the MEAs that they’ve signed onto (by providing technical/legal/financial/institutional support and training, among other things). Another way is to improve coordination between existing MEAs to try and cut down on duplication of efforts and also take advantage of information and resources that can be shared.

OK, I hope that wasn’t too boring. And I have to add this disclaimer – because I’m a paranoid law student – this blog is in no way affiliated with UNEP or any other organization, it’s just my own personal thoughts and reflections.

In other news, I found a place to live for the rest of the summer (woohoo!), so more on that later.

Also, for more information on World Environment Day, you can visit http://www.unep.org/wed/2006/.

One week!

2006-06-02T13:19:00.000+03:00

So I've been in Nairobi for one week and I just realized that I've never actually been to Nairobi. If you think of DC as an analogy for Nairobi, I've been living/working/hanging out in Bethesda/Chevy Chase since I've been here. Hopefully I'll get to downtown Nairobi this weekend.

But for now, I'm definitely starting to know my way around this part of town. I took a matatu for the first time yesterday (and I even convinced the driver to let me pay the locals fare instead of the foreigners fare!). Matatus are Nairobi's form of public transportation -- they're minibuses that go along set routes, but they will pretty much pick you up or drop you off anywhere along the route (you don't need to stand at a matatu stop in order to catch one). Some of them are just painted white and yellow, but others have really crazy paint jobs -- I've seen 2 Bart Simpson matatus, 1 LA Lakers matatu, and 1 Bling matatu -- seriously, it just had the word "bling" and a bunch of $ signs all over it in sparkly paint. I promise photos soon!!

Other than that, I'm just looking for a more permanent place to live. My host family is not going to be in town all summer, and I'm trying to roll with the punches (sometimes a challenge for me, but I'm actually staying pretty chill) as I look for a new place. Anyway, that's taking up most of my time right now, but once I get it all sorted out, I'll write more and take/post some photos. All in all, things are going really well here and I hope all is well at home! Take care, everyone!

Arrival in Nairobi

2006-05-30T15:38:00.000+03:00

I'm here -- both in Nairobi and at UNEP! Everything is going well so far, but I think I'm in what could be called a state of sensory overload. It's not really a bad thing, it's just that there are so many new things to take in that I'm a bit overwhelmed by it all. So, as much as I'd love to shoot for articulate, or even profound, with this posting, I'm just going to try for coherent. So, here are some of the things that I've experienced or learned in the past couple of days:

- The UN in Nairobi is huge. I mean, I knew it was big, but I was really surprised when I saw just how extensive the grounds of the compound are. During your first week here, each new intern has to go collect a bunch of signatures from different departments all around the compound -- it's kind of like a scavenger hunt. I've gotten lost a couple of times, but I feel like that might be the only way to actually get to know this place.

- People in Nairobi are really excited about the World Cup, so I think watching it here will be a lot of fun.

- Kenyan mosquitoes, unlike their friends in Switzerland, but very much like their friends in the US, love me. I'm getting eaten alive. Luckily, the mosquitoes -- or mozzies, as they're more often called here -- in Nairobi don't carry malaria, but man am I itchy.

- 2Pac -- and rap music in general -- is huge in Nairobi. My "host brother" told me this as he was taking me on a driving tour of the city while listening to the latest (I think) 2Pac album.

- What Nairobi lacks in traffic lights it makes up for in crazy roundabouts.

- Almost everyone that I've met here -- especially my host family -- has been so incredibly nice and friendly.

OK, that's it for now -- my internet connection is not so good at the moment and I want to get this posted before my computer kicks me off line. I promise better postings with more information soon! Hope everyone is well!

Leavin' on a jet plane ...

2006-05-24T05:38:00.000+03:00

OK, I'm about to head off to the airport (which means the "oh gosh, what am I forgetting?" thoughts are starting to swim around in my head, but what can you do?). Send me good vibes for decent in-flight movies and I'll write again once I'm settled in Nairobi. Take care, everyone!