"NEPA: Never Expect Power All the Time"

Friday, September 5 and Saturday, September 6:

On Friday, our second to last day of Orientation we woke up to yet another day of rain and cold- the coldest yet!

Today was our day of orientation at the Universities we would be studying at. The Public Health students loaded into our van at 8:30 and department for the University of Nairobi, School of Public Health. When we arrived Sabina and Louise met us and would show us around and introduce us to some key people. We started our orientation off with a great meeting by Dr. Dismas Ongore, MBChB, MPH, PhD (which he informed us stood for permanent head damage – his humor was only beginning!). Dr. Ongore is the Director of the School of Public Health and will be directly overseeing our time at the University of Nairobi. He asked each of us our interests and expectations for the semester and said he will do everything he can to make sure our time here is enjoyable. We jumped right into the pretty typical “What is Public Health” lecture, one of my favorites, and it was great to get to know Dr. Ongore and his passion for medicine and public health. During the lecture we experienced another power outage when Dr. Ongore told us the great acronym: NEPA which stands for Never Expect Power All the Time which has only proved ot be true as the power went out again at the main campus library. After a brief introduction to our classes, it was time to head over to Main Campus where we would turn in some paperwork and receive another tour. Before we left for Main Campus we had the opportunity to see a few places where we could buy some snacks, as well as see the library that would be available for us to use – as soon as we have our Student ID’s by the end of the week.

We made our way to main campus where we met with Ezekiel, the same gentlemen who came and spoke to us a day earlier. We turned in our paperwork, and received a tour of the library at Main Campus and the resources that we would be able to use, since we will be considered full students at the University of Nairobi during our stay here. After stopping at the bookstore, we met our AU colleagues for lunch, and then headed out for our tour of city center. Victor took us through the city to a few key locations, first the Hilton hotel. A well known landmark that we are to use as our point of reference to get taxis or go around city center. Next, was an incredibly experience: going to KICC the Kenya International Conference Center. Thanks to Victor and his amazing work we were able to get to the Helipad – about 28 stories up. The view from here was absolutely breathtaking. Describing what we saw won’t do it justice. After spending time enjoying the sights and sounds of the city from KICC we made our way to dinner at Under the Radar where we had the opportunity of being joined by faculty from the School of Public Health. After arriving we were informed that if we so desired we were allowed to order drinks, this is where many of us enjoyed our first Tusker. When we returned to our apartment we were welcomed by yet another power outage, but we had Wi-Fi! So we were all able to catch up on our email and Facebook (as well as blogs).

Saturday was our last day of orientation with the beginning of the day and early afternoon spent visiting our emergency facilities (for security reasons I can’t say more than this).

For lunch we were first able to meet our internship partners!! I met Audrey who will be guiding and teaching me as well as Andrew who is the leader. I can’t wait to learn more about the Makina Community Development Project and get involved in their activities.

In the afternoon we explored Westlands – our main shopping area – and did our first grocery store shopping trip. We returned to our apartments where Sabina and Louise led us in preparing a traditional Kenyan meal in our very own apartments! This was undoubtedly an amazing way to end orientation week and prepare for classes.

I can’t wait to blog at the end of next week talking about my first week of classes and more about my upcoming internship at MACODEP!