A Day in the Life...

... of a Princeton in Africa IRC-Kenya fellow comes to you fresh from my first week of work! Only five days in, and Rebecca and I have developed a steadfast routine. The photos that follow are snapshots of our day-to-day work life. 

Rebecca and I leave for work before 8AM and take a taxi to the International Rescue Committee Kenya office, about a 15 minute drive away. Nairobi is notorious for its congested traffic, so our commute varies on a daily basis. I sneaked the picture at left of Rebecca greeting one of our usual drivers on our way to work this past Friday. We end work around 5PM and usually walk home (depending on how late it is or how dark). It is a strenuous 30-minute walk uphill so that by the time we get home we're looking to collapse onto our couch before turning to dinner. 

Depending on our work schedule and daily agenda, we take an hour lunch around 1PM. Our office is located in an area of the city called Upper Hill, and there are a host of restaurants, eateries, and roadside stands to choose from. About once a week, we spring for the lunch at a cafe around the corner, but it's on the pricier side for our wallet-wise budget. Most days, we eat at "the veggie tent", a buffet-style lunch tent in the parking lot across the street from our office that offers a variety of vegetable dishes, usually paired with rice, chapati (a thick, round, flat-style bread), or potatoes. The plate at left is a typical example of such a lunch, though the helpings are so large that I've only been opting for one or two dishes with rice. 

Once we get home, Rebecca and I cook dinner; sometimes we'll stop on the walk home at the nearby supermarket or the fruit and vegetable stands across the street. I've found a 'new' (to me) cheese called halloumi, which we've been frying and cooking in various forms. After dinner we catch up on email or watch television, then hit the hay for an early night.

Standard Touristing

This morning, my roommate, a friend, and I trekked out at the healthy hour of 8:30 to do some sightseeing around Nairobi. Our early-bird-ness played to our advantage as the roads, typically choked with traffic, were clear and we arrived at our first stop in no time. The Karen Blixen museum is housed in, well, the house of Karen Blixen, author of Out of Africa. Blixen, a native of Denmark, lived in the house from 1917-1931 and ran the plantation's coffee business as well as managed the land. She is remembered for her insistence that a school be established for the children of the plantation workers (most of whom were Kikuyu) as well as her aptitude for treating illness among the communities that worked and lived on the land. Our guide remarked that Blixen was admired among local and colonialist communities for her determination and compassion. After leaving Africa in 1931 due to bankruptcy and illness, Karen became an established author in Europe; though she wrote under various male pseudonyms (the most well-known being Isak Dinesen). The 1985 film Out of Africa features Meryl Streep as Karen; a clip of the film's intro can be seen below. 

 After a refreshing turn about the sprawling gardens and woods of the Blixen museum, we headed for the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, home to an elephant orphanage. The trust is located in the grounds of Nairobi National Park, a sprawling savannah-like area that is home to a variety of wildlife including ostrich (we saw one on the drive in!), lions, warthogs (in kiswahili it's pumba!), gazelle, hyena, and cheetahs. The wildlife trust adopts baby elephants who have been orphaned, many by poaching, and raises them until they can be independent, about 3 years old. 

We had the immense pleasure of visiting the elephants during a feeding hour. You may be asking yourself, 'is that a picture of a 2-year-old elephant being bottle-fed?' Why yes, yes it is. There were 22 elephants brought out for 'playtime' and feeding, the youngest of whom were 2 months old. They were absolutely fascinating to watch, and, just as the keeper told us, each one had a distinct personality. Or elephant-ality, I suppose. Either way they were downright adorable. 

The keepers of the wildlife trust care for the elephants and acclimate them to independence in the wild until the elephants are 3 years old. Because many of these animals have suffered loss, are quite vulnerable, and need constant care the keepers sleep with the elephants every night. At right, you can see them romping about; they also came right up to the fence and seemed to enjoy being petted by ecstatic tourists. 

No Place Like a New Home

After 34 hours of travel (and a missed flight and re-routed stop through Istanbul), I've finally settled in my new home in Nairobi! I am living with another Princeton in Africa fellow, Rebecca, in the IRC guesthouse; our charming apartment is on the fourth floor of a quiet complex. It might be the jet-lag talking, but I felt at home the minute I walked through the door. Moving is never an effortless thing, and this move to Nairobi brings with it the most stable living situation I've had in four years. I have loved the exhilaration of moving to school in Los Angeles, to Rwanda, to study abroad, to LA again, to New York, and the occasional stop back to San Francisco in between. At the same time, it's been exhausting packing and feeling comfortable, only to move onto the next place. I look forward to getting to know this city and having the breathing space to feel settled for a while. More pics to come (and maybe even some stories of culinary efforts)! 

Kenya is located in what is known as East Africa (other countries in this regional grouping include Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania). Its coastal regions have been highlighted in international news recently because of increased insecurity posed by militant groups and extremists. Many of the country's refugees come from Somalia, which shares Kenya's northeast border. 

Nairobi sits just below the equator and is at an altitude of 5,450 feet. This makes for cool nights and no mosquitos (for this reason, malaria is not a threat in Nairobi). It's a city of over 3 million and is considered an international and regional hub for trade, business, politics, international relations, and cultures. The teeming metropolis sits next to some of the most stunning national parks in Kenya and is in close proximity to the Great Rift Valley and many lakes. 

With My Own Eyes

As this is an introductory post, I believe some context-setting is in order. I am currently slightly jet-lagged (though about to be so much more so) in transit to my year of service as a Princeton in Africa fellow with the International Rescue Committee in Nairobi, Kenya. This blog will serve as a forum for me to share my experiences of Kenya and my perspectives on the challenges, issues, and triumphs I discover. The title of this post conveys two things: 1) that this blog represents solely my views and in no way reflects the views of Princeton in Africa or the International Rescue Committee and 2) my motivation and impetus for moving 10,000 miles from all semblance of familiarity for 12 months. I was blessed to have had a rigorous academic experience at Occidental College and was challenged and empowered by my course of study, Diplomacy and World Affairs. I was given opportunities to expand my horizons by participating in the Oxy-in-Rwanda volunteer program, study abroad (Paris, France), and the Oxy at the UN program where I worked for the Rwandan Mission to the UN. The intellectual stimulation I gained through classes, various research projects, and conversation with my peers highlighted the complexities of the 21st-century world. While I will be forever grateful for the academic education I accomplished, I found myself at the end of four years frustrated by an inability to call upon authentic observations about the issues I was debating in the classroom. I completed my undergraduate education with the conviction that in order to make the maximum contribution and the most positive impact on the issues I'm most passionate about, I needed to see more of the world and its critical issues with my own eyes. 

I do not know what this next year holds and how it might change me, but I do know that I have an incredible support network of friends, family, and the Princeton in Africa (PiAf) community. I encourage anyone reading this to learn more about PiAf by visiting its website. I will spend the next year working for the International Rescue Committee's Kenya office; I have admired IRC's work for years and am thrilled to learn from and contribute to its programs and staff. You can learn more about IRC at their website. It is with excitement, apprehension, compassion, and joy that I conclude this first post; at my next I'll be reporting from my new home in Nairobi!