Catching everyone up on my adventures- I'm in Kenya! After about 24 hours on planes and in airports I finally made it. Flight #1 was about 8 hours from Dallas to Amsterdam and not too bad. Had two meals on the plane and watched all three Lord of the Rings movies. Didn't sleep much but I got to see an amazing sunrise over the ocean, so I'd say it was worth it. Flight #2 was about 7 hours from Amsterdam to Nairobi and was more cramped than the first. Mostly I was just exhausted from not sleeping. I finished up the LOTR trilogy, watched The Hobbit, and took a nap. Pretty successful. Going home I think I'll take the flight attendant's advice and drink some wine with my meals to help me sleep. Landed in Nairobi around 8:30pm local time. Two others in the program, Meghan and Emily, were on my plane so we went through immigration and customs together. Not much trouble there and I got to exchange some USD into Kenyan Shillings. We were picked up by Duncan, who works with Mukuru on the Move, and taken to our hotel to sleep.
Woke up today to Leslie calling our hotel room at 7:30am. Not a bad wake up call since I went to sleep around 10pm. Her flight had just landed and was at the hotel. She came up to our room to hang out before we left at around 11am for Limuru. Before going to Limuru, Duncan and Steve (our drivers), took us to a mall to buy phones and some water. This mall was swanky! We were wanded with metal detectors before entering the mall. They had pretty much everything that a good American mall has, including a huge supermarket. There was a kiosk selling that salt sea exfoliation scrub that are always in American malls. Pretty interesting how similar things are around the world- globalization at its finest. Or should I say Americanization?
We drove through Nairobi to Limuru, only about a 30 minute drive. I kept freaking out the whole time because I would constantly forget that the cars are supposed to be passing us on the left. That will take some getting used to. We are staying at the Jumuia Conference Center in Limuru, Kenya. The temperature is much lower here since we are at a much higher elevation than Nairobi. The difference between direct sunlight and the sun behind a cloud is staggering. After checking in to our rooms all the students (there are 9 so far) ate a very large lunch. They take their 4-course meals very seriously here.
Afterwards we walked down to St. Paul's University to take a look around. Very pretty but not as large a campus as I was expecting. We saw some students having class outside since it was so nice. After our brief tour some of us decided to go back to our rooms for a power nap, which did not work out so well for me. Could not sleep, which just means that I am going to sleep like the dead tonight. Four of us, Leslie, Meghan, Emily, and myself, decided to go out front to read. We found a great spot in the grass at a picnic table in the sun. We didn't do much reading and just ended up talking most of the time. We all remarked that we don't really know what to do with ourselves with no work or studying to do. We are all so accustomed to having a million things to do at a time. I'm really going to need some time to adjust to a more laid back summer than I have had in a long time.
Tomorrow is our fist day of class at St. Paul's University. It will be taught by three professors from Emory, John Blevins, Mimi Kiser, and Deb McFarland. A couple Kenyan professors will be joining them. In the class will be our team of 9 plus about 10-15 Kenyan students. I'm excited to see the differences and similarities in learning. I know that this is only the beginning of a great summer!
Stay tuned for more!
No comments:
Post a Comment