Thursday, September 4:
Day 2 of Orientation! Today started with yet another grouped
walk to the Center. By now we were becoming familiar with both the walk and how
to walk in Nairobi. I never would have guessed that I would have to relearn all
the courtesy’s that I am so used to in DC. For example, when you’re approaching
someone you step to the right but here (similar to driving) you want to stay on
the left. Unfortunately, this led to a few instances of nearly bumping someone.
However, I think they understood because as I’m sure you can guess we don’t
exactly blend in.
When we arrived at the Abroad Center we kicked off the
morning with some survival Swahili, then had a guest speaker who came to
discuss the gay community in Kenya and how there have been shifts in opinion in
recent years. After his amazing talk, we had the pleasure of having a clinical
psychologist, Kirindi, come in and speak to us about mental health during our
time in Kenya. Kirindi, will serve as our main point of contact if we need her
and she asked that we all at least send her one text updating her on how we’re
doing. Not only was she so open and willing to work with us, she also gave an
incredibly amount of life advice that will most certainly stick with me far
beyond my stay in Kenya. Two of my favorite pieces of advice were:
- Life doesn’t get better, you get wiser. This seems like such a simple phrase but it stuck with me. This is certainly true for everything I am going to experience this semester. During my time in Nairobi I will get wiser which can make things easier, but the city itself will not suddenly change. It is about my willingness to adapt and learn that will allow me to get the most out of this experience.
- Take care of your monkeys. It is important that each and everyone of us take care of the monkeys on our back – this is where Kirindi comes in. She is familiar with culture shock, traveling, and even knows AU. She discussed with us that it is important to take care of anything that may be bothering us. If it’s causing a distraction or holding us back we need to take care of it – by reaching out. This is advice that I believe everyone needs to be reminded of now and then.
After Kirindi, a wonderful woman named Barbara came to talk
to us. Barbara is an AU Alum with experience in development and has been living
and working in Kenya for years. She discussed the shifting work of development
workers, and said that she has seen a rise for individuals with specialties in
public health – this was nothing but good news for me! After Barbara’s great
talk about networking, living, and working in Nairobi we enjoyed a wonderful
lunch at the Center. After lunch we were separated into two groups, based on
where we would be taking classes (for me that is University of Nairobi, School
of Public Health). We were joined by representatives from the University to
talk about classes and what we would need to do to be prepared for tomorrow –
our day of orientation at the University.
After meeting with the representatives it was time for more
survival Swahili, which included playing two games to get our blood flowing. My
personal favorite was “pepeta”, and it’s now been an ongoing game – thanks Sabina!!
After these games and survival Swahili it was time to head
out to dinner at Open House – an Indian restaurant in town. I had an amazing
dinner talking with Louise and Victor. Victor was great to teach us so much
about Nairobi and the area around it as well as the current political state and
structure. After an amazing dinner – we were all exhausted yet again and it was
time to head back to our apartment. We got one last laugh in when we all began
to get off the bus when Victor says “what’s happening?!” although he wouldn’t
admit it we are all pretty sure he fell asleep on the ride home – I guess dinner
was as good as I thought!
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