Maasai Mania
I had a really exciting weekend here in Nairobi. On Saturday, I went with the girls from the journalism club to a local photography studio where the owner has been giving them lessons on how to use cameras and video cameras, as well as basic information about photography and whatnot. They definitely enjoyed the experience and it was fun goofing around with them and taking pictures. Something I’ve also come to notice about working with these girls is the huge difference in the way they treat each other, compared to the way I saw my adolescent campers interact with one another the past three summers. I don’t see any cattiness or rudeness among the girls, and while I’m sure not all of them are best friends, they are so much less cliquey than the young ladies I’ve worked with in the past. Also, something that amazed me was how confident and self-assured they are. Last week, the girls put on makeup at the photo studio and got to take some model-esque pictures with all of the professional equipment at the studio. They showed me their pictures on the computer there, and there was not ONE mention of “Ew, that’s a bad picture of me” or, “I look chubby in this picture, please delete it!”, which are all common phrases I hear even from college-aged women whenever there is a camera around. These girls just seem content to be themselves and were happy just to have some lovely pictures taken, as they do not have regular access to cameras and other photo-taking equipment.
Then, on Sunday, I went with Simon to the village where he grew up, about an hour outside of Nairobi. Simon works for the administration at KGSA and showed me around Nairobi the first day I got here. He is so incredibly kind and welcoming, and so interesting to talk to. Anyway, what I thought was going to be a quick visit to the countryside turned into a really incredible day.
First, Simon brought me to Savanna Sunset, the campsite he and his brothers are working on opening on their family’s land. Simon has SIXTEEN (!!!!) siblings. His father has three wives, which is normal in the Maasai culture in which Simon was raised. In case anyone is unfamiliar with this, the Maasai are an ethnic group that live in Kenya and Tanzania. His family’s land had a lot of rocky, hilly areas that weren’t very good for farming, so he and his brothers decided to use it as a business venture and are opening a campsite there. We went on a small hike around the property, and Simon showed me where he used to sit when he was younger and read books, instead of watching his family’s goats like he was supposed to. He is a really interesting, smart, kind person and I really enjoyed spending the day with him and his family.
We left Savanna Sunset at around 2:30, and drove into town to pick up the rest of his family members. He mentioned something about attending a ceremony, but he didn’t elaborate, so I assumed he had an event to attend later in the day after I was gone. But as we drove further and further into the countryside, I realized that I would be attending the ceremony as well, so I was excited to see what was in store. Simon and his brothers bought this huge van for their campsite business, and all of the seats were filled with his siblings and their small children, who were absolutely adorable. We drove for about a half an hour across these big grasslands with some faint tire tracks instead of roads, but the car ride was like any other family road trip, with siblings arguing in the backseat about the fastest way to get there and complaining about Simon’s brother’s driving abilities. In his defense, he was driving an old van on dirt, grass, and rocks, trying to avoid hitting cows and goats the whole way.
We arrived at a homestead where there were a few small buildings and some pens with donkeys and goats inside. We arrived there late (Kenyan time!) so the ceremony, which it turns out was to honor a college graduation, was already in full swing when we got there. We walked inside the gate and there were about 100 people sitting in a huge circle around the young woman who had graduated, who spoke to the crowd in the Maasai language. The whole ceremony was not in English, so I couldn’t understand a word, but I paid attention as best I could and tried to clap at the appropriate times. All of the people there were members of Simon’s extended family, so I was extremely lucky to be able to attend this ceremony, considering I’m not related to them and I’m not even Maasai! My favorite part of it was the fact that most of the women were dressed in traditional Maasai clothing, including amazing, intricately beaded necklaces and bracelets. Simon’s sister encouraged me to take tons of pictures, and told me that they wouldn’t mind at all since it was a special ceremony, so I happily snapped away.
Simon told me later that this graduation in particular was a huge deal because the graduate was a young woman who got her degree from a university in Nairobi. Female education is a touchy subject for the Maasai, who still hold traditional values where women should be homemakers and caretakers. However, Simon told me later that much of what was being said at the ceremony commended this young woman for her hard work and for her achievements, but the community leaders that spoke still encouraged her and the rest of the young women there to come back and marry Maasai men, instead of marrying into other tribes. While I have no idea the exact words that were spoken from the community leaders, the ceremony was definitely a happy one, and everyone was extremely proud of this young graduate. It was an experience I’ll never forget! Simon and his family were so unbelievably gracious to let me accompany them to this family event and I’m so glad I got to be a part of it.
Baby Elephants and Baby Kenyans
Jambo everyone!
Things are going very well in Nairobi. I really like it here and it’s definitely a learning experience. I love working with the girls at KGSA. They are so, so, so sweet and pleasant to be around and it’s obvious that they have a real drive to learn and that they enjoy going to school. For them, going to school is a privilege. It makes me sick to think about my past three years as a counselor at an expensive day camp where my campers would complain day in and day out about every little thing, and I now interact with girls who live in one of the largest slums in the entire world, yet they never utter a word that could even be considered a whine or a complaint. They are so lovely and it is a pleasure to hear their stories and to simply hang out with and talk to them.
During my short time here I’m going to be focusing on blogging with the Journalism Club. How appropriate considering I’ve gained quite a bit of experience in the blogosphere over these past few months! On Wednesday I just gave a quick introduction into blogs and tried to emphasize what a useful tool blogs are in the digital age, especially for the girls in Kibera, as it is an extremely easy way for them to get their voices heard outside of the confines of the slum they live in. Blogs also serve as great writing practice and they’re a way for the girls to be exposed to new ideas and information, as well as write about things they want to write about.
Today, the girls went on a field trip so I had the afternoon off! I took advantage of my free time and went to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Orphanage, the Giraffe Center, and the Kazuri Bead Factory.
The David Sheldrick Wildlife Orphanage is a center that takes in baby elephants that have lost their mothers for various reasons, but mostly due to poaching. Some of the babies were found in the wild when they were only about three weeks old and had no chance of surviving on their own. The center is highly respected and is only open to visitors for an hour each day, during the elephants’ feeding time. The trainers walked out with six baby elephants who seemed very content – after they ate their lunch, they hammed it up for the crowd and played with soccer balls, sprayed water at each other with their trunks, and approached the audience to receive some attention. I had no idea elephants’ skin was so rough – they also have these wiry hairs growing on them, but they were still extremely cute!
Next was the Giraffe Center, where you can feed giraffes out of the palm of your hand. They have a gazebo about a story high so you can stand at eye-level with the giraffes. Very cool! There were also tons of little kids on field trips at both the elephant and giraffe sites, many of whom were all wearing matching Adidas tracksuits. Too. Cute. For. Words. I am convinced that Kenyan children are by far the cutest in the world. They just get more and more adorable every day that I’m here. I wonder if there’s a customs claim form for a child…. Hmmmm.
Finally, I went to the Kazuri Bead Factory. It was started in the 1970s by a British couple, who wanted to create sustainable employment for women in Nairobi. Most of the women working at Kazuri live in various slums in Nairobi, and the organization provides on-site healthcare as well as other benefits for these women. One of the managers took me on a tour through the different steps of the bead-making process, and they open the entire factory to visitors on a daily basis. All of the beads are handmade, but they are so uniform and precise that one would think machines created them. And the jewelry was absolutely beautiful!
All in all, I had a nice day in Nairobi. I’ve never traveled by myself before but it’s actually kind of fun. It also helps that there are always new people arriving at my hostel so there is always someone new and entertaining to talk to. I wish it were a little warmer though! For being so close to the equator, Nairobi is actually quite chilly. I suppose it’s technically their winter right now, and the large amount of air pollution might have something to do with it, but I was jonesing for some heat after braving the colder temperatures in Cape Town. I guess that’s just another reason for me to look forward to returning to America!
Kenya Dig It??
After my difficult and depressing departure from Cape Town, I landed in Nairobi on Sunday afternoon. I had to leave for the airport at 3:30 to catch my 6 AM flight, but a very kind South African friend of mine drove me there so I didn’t have to sob in front of a strange cab driver on my way to Cape Town International. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever cried so much in my life as I did last week. It was so hard to say goodbye to everyone, no matter the geographic distance that lies between us. I think I cried the hardest saying goodbye to Abbey and Madi, who are both living in my building in Madison next year… call me dramatic, but saying goodbye to them, whom I’d spent almost every day with since we landed in Amsterdam in January, really signaled to me that it was all over.
But alas, my feet are firmly planted on Kenyan soil and it’s time to move on to new things! In case anyone has forgotten, I’m volunteering at a school called the Kibera Girls Soccer Academy, which is located in this huge slum in Nairobi. I am staying here for two weeks before I go back to the US, and I will be mainly helping out with the Journalism Club as well as their magazine.
I’m staying at a hostel/campsite that’s about a 15-minute walk to the school. The hostel is beautiful; it was once a mansion built in 1935 (according to the number carved above the door in stone that I’m looking at right now) and is now a temporary home for travelers. There are two adorable dogs that live here named Fatty and Barney, with whom I have already (obviously) formed a close bond. I met some interesting people at the dinner table who work for the UN in Sudan, as well as a guy who works for an NGO here in Nairobi, and an older guy who teaches English to first-graders in Tunisia and who has lived in developing countries for the past 22 years. It’s a cool spot!
On Sunday, Simon picked me up from the airport. He does administrative things for KGSA and is in charge of volunteers like me. He is the nicest guy ever! I was exhausted yesterday after a long day of travelling so I just hung out at my hostel and went to bed early. On Monday morning, I met up with Simon and he took me over to KGSA to see the school and meet some of the girls. I met the principal and the teachers and introduced myself to each different grade.
Walking through Kibera was definitely an interesting experience, but once you adjust to seeing the extreme poverty, you realize that it’s just kind of a normal neighborhood where people live, work, and go to school. It’s not a dangerous place during the day, but I was definitely the only white person around! The cutest little kids would yell, “How are you! How are you!” to me, and I was met with the term “mzungu” several times, which means “white person” in Swahili. Nothing I can really do about that except smile, wave, and say “jambo”! I even received a marriage proposal, which I respectfully declined.
After we went to the school, Simon took me to the city centre. Nairobi is a very developed city with huge buildings and a really busy downtown area. He showed me how to use the buses and the route to take to get back to my hostel. We had lunch downtown and ate pilau, which is a traditional Kenyan dish of spiced rice served with a kale/spinach type of vegetable. It was really good and together our meals cost 350 Kenyan shillings, or about $4. The food at my hostel is also great. They serve a buffet dinner every night with lots of vegetables as well as some meat and rice. There are two shopping malls within walking distance of my hostel, which I still have to walk around and check out.
Kwaheri!
An Open Letter to the Mother City
Dear Cape Town,
First and foremost, I would like to say thank you. Thank you for what has been the most incredible four months of my life (so far!) and for the experiences that came with living on Rhodes Avenue in Mowbray. Thank you for providing me with ninety-degree weather and sunshine in February, for putting avo on pretty much all of your food, for showing me the view of Devil’s Peak every day on my walk to school, for giving me the phrase “is it” to incorporate into my vocabulary, and for adding Goldfish to my iTunes library. Thank you for Friday nights at the Assembly, Saturday mornings at Old Biscuit Mill, Sunday night movie-watching with my roommates and Monday night 39 rand pizza at Cocoa Cha Chi. Thank you for giving me a new appreciation for nature and everything that comes with it. Mountains will always hold a special place in my heart after my love affair with Table Mountain, Lion’s Head, and the Twelve Apostles that line the coast of the gorgeous city I got to live in for almost half a year. Thank you for reminding me that water and electricity are things that many people don’t have, and for teaching me a new set of conservative habits – I will never again leave a room without turning the lights off first.
Thank you for introducing me to people from around the world, and especially for bringing together my truly amazing group of roommates. The times I shared with the 17 other members of Charlton House this semester are some that I will never forget, with new friends who are now a huge part of my life. I anticipated meeting some great people during my time in South Africa, but I never expected to meet a handful of true friends who have made such an impact on me, or as our South African friend’s wise father put it, “left footprints on our hearts.” I learned how to be more tolerant of other people and how to pick my battles – at some point, you just have to accept the fact that a kitchen shared among 18 people will never be thoroughly clean and move on.
I expected to have a great time in Cape Town, but I didn’t expect to fall so head over heels in love with the city. I know I sobbed for days on end before my departure, but it wasn’t all out of sadness. Don’t get me wrong, I was utterly heartbroken that my time was up, but I left feeling fulfilled and appreciative of the time I got to spend there. The finality of it all was the hardest part to deal with, knowing that even if I visit Cape Town again, the experience I had will never be replicated, I will never again live in Charlton House, and the likelihood of all 17 of my roommates being in one place together again is realistically very slim. That being said, knowing from the beginning that my time in South Africa was so short allowed me to live those four months to the fullest and do everything with enthusiasm and an open mind. The motto “you only live once” might be the most appropriate way to describe my mindset in Cape Town – why else would I jump off a 216 meter-tall bridge attached to a rubber cord (aside from the fact that it’s totally badass)?
So thanks for the memories, Cape Town: from the tour of the Cape Peninsula when I was a pale newbie, to days at the beach, to a raucous Sunday at Mzoli’s meat market, to taking a tour of the wine country in the Boogie Bus, to the first of many “roofie Fridays” (this is not what it sounds like!) at Assembly, to sunset harbor cruises, to cheering on the Ikey Tigers at UCT rugby games, to crazy nights on Long Street, to climbing Lion’s Head, to making homemade dinners with my roommates, to the stunning view from the third floor balcony of Charlton, to rambunctious cab rides, to the minibuses, to Kauai smoothies, to driving on the other side of the road, to Mozambique, to the steps of Jameson Hall, to stealing news posters from lampposts, to calling traffic lights “robots,” to surfing with Great White Sharks at Muizenberg Beach, to the Cape-colored accent, to living in the garage, to causing a scene with my roommates at a pleasant afternoon braai, to braais in general, to ladiezzz niteeeeee, to driving along the Garden Route, to the world’s highest bungee jump, to Shop-Rite, to the saleswoman at the discount liquor store who became our close friend, to Kirstenbosch Gardens, to Signal Hill at night, to the dining room table at Charlton and the couches that everyone slept a full night on at least once, to Pig & Swizzle, to Beefcakes, to SHAWCO, to Hout Bay, to the V&A Waterfront, to Marcel’s frozen yogurt, to Cab Co, to 2-for-1 Wednesday nights at Stones, to sunsets on top of Lion’s Head, to Stellenbosch, to walking through the drive-thru of McDonalds in Obs, to a soccer game at Cape Town stadium, to 5 rand coins, to useless bronze coins, to being barefoot, to the bergie king and his gypsy queen who lived in our driveway, to the walk up the mountain to class, to TIA, to each and every member of Charlton House and everything in between, THANK YOU.
And don’t worry Cape Town, I’ll be back for you someday.
Soundtracks and Comebacks by Goldfish
Look how far we’ve come…
Hello people! I’m currently taking a study break to do a little MOTM update. I took my Psych final yesterday and I think it went well. Two more to go! Anyway, things are busy as we approach our final week in Cape Town. Even when I see those words typed out it still doesn’t seem real that I’m leaving next Sunday.
Last weekend I didn’t do much except study so that I could go to the Goldfish concert on Saturday night, with almost all of my housemates of course. They are a South African band and SO good. I had listened to a few of their songs before I went to the show and didn’t like them that much, but it turned out to be one of the best live performances I’ve ever seen. Their music is really unique – Wikipedia describes them as an “electronic and dance group,” but their songs sound a lot more complex than that. They used a lot of unexpected instruments like a saxophone and a flute but combined it all with bass-heavy tracks that I’ve come to favor so much as of late. The concert was one of my favorite nights in Cape Town; we were all glued to the dance floor the whole night.
On Sunday night we all sat together in the living room and watched a slideshow that Abbey made for our house. She spent a really long time making it on iMovie and gathered tons and tons of pictures from our entire semester. It was sad and funny and set to music, a combination that always, ALWAYS makes me cry. I am rendered helpless in the presence of any video montage, whether it’s during the Oscars or comes in the form of a cheesy commercial. I seriously wept through the entire thing, and now I have it on my computer so I can watch and weep as often as I want. Great!
Also, yesterday, Juran and I were eating lunch near campus and this girl came up to us while she was waiting for her food. She heard us talking and asked if we were American, and seemed happy and surprised to talk to us. As I suspected, she had just arrived in Cape Town like two days prior, and was still learning the ropes. This was obvious to me only by her genuine excitement to find Americans to talk to – as she will probably figure out soon, Americans are everywhere in Cape Town, and finding them around the city is pretty much expected. She also got really frustrated waiting for her food, which was yet another sign of her new arrival in Cape Town — patience is a virtue, my friend!
I’m not saying this to be mean or critical in any way, I just found the whole encounter to be funny. It brought me back to my arrival in Cape Town four months ago and reminded me of what a newbie I was back in the day. My roommates and I all reminisced about the stupid things we did when we first got here, like putting our bags on our laps in Camps Bay and holding onto them for dear life. As we soon realized, Camps Bay is one of the wealthiest areas in Cape Town, and clutching to your belongings is a little overdramatic, especially when you’re sitting at a restaurant in the middle of the afternoon. I am so jealous of the girl I met yesterday and the fact that she is just starting her stay in South Africa. I am still nowhere near ready to leave!
Breaking News!
Even though we are all starting to plan how we’re going to pack our suitcases, things are as lively as ever around here because we have a new roommate! His name is Blaize (yes, that is the actual spelling) and he’s from Zimbabwe. Not really sure why he’s living here, something about his girlfriend kicking him out and he’s friends with our landlord? Anyway, that is the most exciting thing that has happened to me recently so I thought I would keep MOTM alive in its final days…
CLASSES ARE OVER! Hallelujah! UCT, you’ve been quite the experience, but I can’t say I’m too sad to say goodbye to my class schedule. 8 AM lectures Tuesday-Friday? No thank you.
Last Wednesday was Election Day (the ANC won for the majority of South Africa, but the DA won Cape Town) so we had no classes. South Africans really knows how to milk their public holidays! A few of us went to an art exhibition downtown called Street. It was a bunch of different installments inspired by the streets of Cape Town. It was a small collection of art but there was some great stuff, including a particular installment of photos that we really enjoyed. It was a series of pictures taken on Harrington St. in Cape Town, during the day and at night. The subjects photographed held up a chalkboard with the words “I have a dream that one day….” And they filled in what their dream was. There were a variety of answers, from more somber ones like helping people or one day seeing Disney World, but also funny ones from young people at Assembly, the popular nightclub on Harrington St. As it turned out, we were at Assembly the night they were taking the pictures, and a few of my roommates had been photographed for the exhibit! They unfortunately didn’t make it in, but we recognized a bunch of our other friends in some of the photos, which was pretty cool.
Later that day, a huge group of us climbed Lion’s Head at sunset. Lion’s Head is a mountain right in the middle of Cape Town that we climbed a few months ago. There are absolutely incredible views of the city from the top of the mountain and there was a full moon that night, which is a must-see from the top of Lion’s Head. It still amazes me that we can take a 15 minute taxi ride from our house and climb a mountain with unbelievable views of the city. In fact, I could technically walk to the top of Devil’s Peak, another one of the enormous mountains in Cape Town, from my front door because we live right at the base of it. Not bad! I think being here has made me like nature a lot more. I am still in awe of Devil’s Peak when I see it every day. It always looks different and somehow more amazing than the day before. The mountains in Cape Town, especially in Camps Bay, just seem to go straight down into the ocean, and they are just so BIG. Of course Boston has natural wonders of its own, but they just simply don’t compare to the sheer size and grandeur of the ones I see every day here. Ibbie, get ready for some hikes up Mt. Monadnock this summer so I can get my fix! I know you must be thrilled right now because I know how much you love hiking and nature… maybe I’ll just bribe you with Skittles and Starburst like Mom used to do!
Anyway, we made it to the top right before sunset, but it was too cloudy to see the moon, so we hiked back down shortly after. It was tricky climbing down from the top at night because of all the rocks you have to climb over, but the lights from the city actually illuminated most of the mountain, which made for a beautiful hike. And of course, in classic college kid fashion, we went to McDonalds afterwards as a healthy, nourishing, post-hike meal.
On Friday night, with the last day of classes behind us, we went to Assembly…surprise, surprise! The music is sometimes hit-or-miss but I really enjoyed it on Friday, in particular these two DJs whose group is called Double Adapter. Assembly is definitely my favorite club in Cape Town – my housemates and I never fail to have a memorable night when we go there.
Then, on Saturday afternoon, my housemates and I went to see a soccer game at Cape Town Stadium, which was built for the World Cup. The Cape Town Ajax tied against the Maritzburg Pirates. The atmosphere was fun and lively, with plenty of vuvuzuelas (those long, plastic horns the crazy fans used during the World Cup) in the crowd. The stadium is right in the middle of Green Point, a nice part of Cape Town located right on the water. The stadium wasn’t very full at the game yesterday, but even so, it was sooo crowded by the stadium after it ended and very hard to find a cab. I can’t even imagine how insane it must have been during the World Cup – sad I missed it!
Looks like it’s about that time where I have to force myself to study. My finals are on June 1st, 7th, and 9th, and I leave on the 12th. Can’t BELIEVE that it is May 22! Ahhhhh.
