Some Impressions

Evan and I have ridden on a matatu now the last two Saturdays to town, and we have some basic impressions.  We spend a lot of time talking about Africa.  We don't have a tv, so we have time to talk.

Eldoret kind of reminds me of Alexandria, Louisiana.  The skyline is similar, with a few fairly tall buildings.  So, think of Alexandria, take away sidewalks, traffic lights, add sheep and cattle, and thousands of people walking all over the place, and you have Eldoret.

Something that seems prevalent is that in Africa, people seem to have trouble finishing things and maintaining things.  The built environment is always under construction.  For instance, we were driving to Eldoret and off the side of the road, a good ways actually, was a two story block building that is under construction.  It looked kind of like it was meant to be apartments, very small apartments, about six across.  So this was not a small building.  Obviously someone had worked very hard to build this, but it wasn't nearly finished.  In front of it was one man, working to do something, it wasn't clear what, but it was obvious that with one guy working on this structure it will take a very long time to finish whatever it is they started.  Multiply that one building by tens, maybe a hundred, on this one small stretch of Kenya, and you have some idea of what this will look like.  And then, once they have finished it, maintenance seems to pass away.  What a coat of paint could do for this place!

Another word that Evan and I have adopted is "random", in that people are constantly on the move, but their movements seem random.  Evan saw someone walking down the road with a suitcase on his shoulder, suddenly stop and put down the case and sit on it.  Nothing around, nothing even close.  But the movement is constant.  There is never someone not walking down our street.

But they can party here!  Friday night there was a party on "the decks", a very nice part of campus that we walk through daily.  There was a party there from 7:00 PM until dawn, and they went until dawn!  We heard them all night long.  Quite a bash, based on the noise!  Next time we are going, just to see what it's all about.

Time seems to be moving faster

One thing both Evan and I noticed in the transition to Africa was that time seemed to stand still.  We are in more of a routine now, and time seems to be speeding up a bit, which is welcome.

We went to town (about a 40 minute drive) yesterday for a lunch, a lecture, then a dinner with some other "visitors", which is what they call people like us who come for a while to work/study/teach.  Which is interesting, in a way, given the old TV show V which was about the visitors.  Sometimes I get the feeling that people we seen on the street expect us to unhinge our jaw and swallow a rat whole or something.  Anyway, there were no Americans at the dinner other than us.  The others were Canadiens, very nice people.  One older (yes, even older than me) couple is here to teach for the semester, and then there are three female students doing projects.  They are all living in town, which means I don't know how much we will actually see them.  We are much more on our own here than I thought we would be.  Nonetheless, the food was good, and we went to a Chinese Restaurant, the only one in Eldoret.  The owner and his wife are really from China.  It must be quite a story as to how they ended up in the middle of Kenya.

We are facing our second weekend here.  I'm not sure what we are going to do.  We haven't done any tourist things yet.  We may go to town on Saturday to get Evan a WiFi connector that you can get from the phone company to plug in to the laptop to get wifi.  Evan misses his friends, I know, and he misses his soccer team.  This has been harder then he or I ever imagined it would be.  Still, the people are very nice, and the campus is actually pretty nice as well.  So, it is difficult, but not without its pleasures and a little bit of fun.  The days seem to get easier, and hopefully that will continue.

Tea with the neighbor

Here in Moi, we take our fun where we can get it.  We were talking to the German lady who lives next door, and has lived in her house with her Kenyan husband for 26 years.  We were telling her the conditions of our house, and she couldn't believe it.  And then she invited us in for some good German tea.  Evan and I sat with her for about an hour, listening to her talking about the shamba (farm) that they are building in the country.  This is a very strange place, tough to wrap your mind around.  But it apparently will get under your skin, much like the red dust that covers everything, including us.  I told Evan to imagine that maybe the first hominids had walked upon that dust, channeling the line from A Charley Brown Christmas delivered about Pigpen, but I don't think Evan was convinced.

We both have developed a strong affinity with Kenyan tea, generally made with hot milk.  Amazingly good and addictive.  We will come back with very dark teeth, I fear.  As for me, I may not have any teeth left, as the beef here is playing havoc with my poor old choppers.

For my academic friends, I attended a 3 hour Senate meeting, which makes the NSU senate look like a well-oiled machine.  Long, very long....

Internet in my Office

I now have internet in my office, so I should be able to update anyone who is interested easier.  I forgot (or at least I can't find) the cable that links my phone to the computer, so I'm not sure about loading up pictures here.  Bummer.  I hope I didn't leave it behind.

Evan just found out that school goes until 5:00.  I don't think he is going to be very happy about this development.  I may face a revolt when I get back to the house. 

Final Destination

Well, we made it to the university last week, but have had a lot of computer complications.  The main way that both Evan and I have kept contact is through Facebook.  But, I can give a little more perspective here. 
Africa is so radically different than either of us thought.  And I've been here twice....  Still, I've not been here like this.  There is no doubt how incredibly hard the people of Kenya work, and how many are struggling to get an education.  What is interesting is that I'm not sure I can see a lot of progress from their extraordinary efforts.  But the people at the university have been very kind and helpful.  I thought for some reason that there might be a few more mzungu lecturers/teachers here, but there aren't.  There may be some at the campus in town, but here on the main campus, I think we are it.  So the isolation is a bit more than I had anticipated.  When you come to Africa for a safari, you are on the move in a controlled environment.  This isn't that.  So isolation is kind of important to avoid.
Today was Evan's first day at the school.  I don't know how it is going.  The main thing he wants to do is play on the school soccer team.  If that happens, I truly believe he will be okay.  Still, this is all a struggle, but interesting nonetheless.  I think that Evan and I will come out of here better people for this experience.  I know that we will be different!
Now that  I've connected, I will post more later.

Some impressions to share

Well, for those who are interested, now that we have gotten close to our destination, there are some impressions I thought I might share.  Firstly, this visit confirms my view that East Africans are incredibly warm and friendly people.  They have been very helpful, and greeted my questions with good humor.  I am also reminded on this trip just how mobile Africa is.  Evan and I stopped into a place this afternoon (Sunday) and we watched hundreds of people walking by, driving by, all going somewhere.  It seems that Africans do not just sit at home on a Sunday afternoon and watch tv.  They are out working or looking for work, or so it seems.  There is some aesthetic disconnect, though.  The landscapes are very interesting, but the cities are a wreck.  They seem to need a good cleaning.  How so much trash got left out is beyond me.  So it's a conundrum.  African's are incredibly proud people, but they don't seem to take great pride in their environment.  I'm wondering how this came about, and how it can possibly be changed. 

I've also talked to a couple of folks at Moi university, and it is interesting that they are facing the same issues academics in America face.  Asked to do much more with much less, facing students facing an uncertain future, and money problems.  Who can dispute the global village notion?  We do have differences, but amazing similarities as well.

Made it to Eldoret

Well, after an adventure in which we almost missed our plane to Eldoret at 7:15 on Sunday morning, we got here.  The town is a bit more rundown than I had imagined, though we haven't explored anything yet.  Evan is a great traveling companion, though he is very worried that we are going to get kidnapped or something.  So, exploring these towns and cities isn't hsi strong suit.  The biggest scare was nearly missing the plane, which would really have put us in a pickle.  When we got to Eldoret, the head of the geography department (yes, there IS such a thing), met us at the airport as planned, so that worked out well.  What hasn't worked out quite as well was the house on campus isn't ready, so we have to stay in a hotel until Wednesday.  African hotels are not the greatest.  We had to change rooms here, because the there were only a couple of lights working in the first room.  I brought flashlights, but I"m not ready to use them!!  And the pool that the geographer said we could use at this hotel could NOT be any greener.  I don't think we'll be swimming in it.  So the transition to the campus has taken a looooooong time, which has kind of unnerved both Evan and me.  It makes the days longer, makes the time drag by so slowly.  It's just the in-betweeness of it (how's that for a geographic concept?).  But, we will perservere.  We have to at this point!  Tomorrow someone is supposed to pick us up and take us to the campus, about twenty miles south of town.  There are about 6000 students there, classes have started, there IS apparently a school for Evan to go to, so I truly believe once we are there, things will be fine.  Getting there has been an experience!

Leaving for Eldoret

Well, we leave for our ultimate destination tomorrow morning at 7:15.  W fly to Eldoret, and then someone is supposed to pick us up and take us to the campus.  It is out away from town about 20 miles, so God knows what we are going to find there.  Today we drove around the city and went to the Nairobi national park adoption center.  There were lions, monkeys of various kinds, a giraffe, and others.  Hopefully we will be able to go to a real game park and see these critters in the wild.  I just don't know when....  Nairobi is not starting to grow on either of us, and I realize now why I did NOT want to spend a semester here teaching, but wanted to go somewhere else.  Maybe that decision will come back to haunt me, and if this is, in fact, the last post you see, then you'll know it did!!  but hopefully there will be access and other things at Moi.  I firmly hope and believe that there is SOME way for us to stay connected to the outside world when we settle inot our on-campus home.  So, hopefully, more to come!

Made it to Amsterdam

We made it to Amsterdam!  Long but uneventful flight.  Now we are heading out to Nairobi.  We are still anxious, and maybe having second thoughts, and then when we were getting off the plane here we started chatting with a young American woman who is going to live in a village in the middle of nowhere in Tanzania, no electricity or anything,  to teach.  We asked how long she was staying and she said at least until Christmas.  Kind of puts our 5 month adventure in perspective....  I'm looking forward to being in a bed, though, that's for sure!

Made it to Atlanta

Well, we made it through the first leg of the journey, and are sitting in the Atlanta airport, waiting through a seven hour layover....  We got to Alexandria at about 11 last night, after watching Evan's last soccer game of the season.  It was pretty dramatic, they were behind with about fifteen minutes left when Evan scored on a penalty kick to tie the game.  And then, as if they knew we had to get to Alexandria for a 6 AM flight, they went into overtime.  And then a second overtime...  and then penalty kicks, in which Natchitoches Central won!!!  A dramatic end to the season.  Joel and Evan both played well, and slept as well as they could, anticipating an early (4 AM) wake up call.  But here we are!!

Checking to See if this Automatically posts

Checking to see if my Facebook Friends can see my blog posts.

Leaving Tomorrow Morning

Well, Evan and I leave the country tomorrow morning.  We leave Alexandria at 6 AM for Atlanta, have a very long layover in Atlanta, and then head for Amsterdam.  We fly all night, and then leave from Amsterdam to Nairobi, Kenya, in the morning.  We will be getting to Nairobi at around 8 PM.  At least, that is the plan!!!  Hopefully this first part of the trip will go as planned.

We are both nervous and excited.  We've packed and repacked, but packing for six months is HARD!

I really have no idea what the internet situation will be in Eldoret.  This may be my last posting, who knows?  I hope not.  I hope to keep you posted as to how all this is going.  Think about us as we make our way to another hemisphere!

Introduction

This is my first blog post, a brief one just to see how this works and looks.