Over the course of the last two weeks we’ve started Kiswahili, Politics of Culture in Kenya, and our USIU classes (mine being Contemporary International Ideologies and International Business Operations). The first two mentioned courses are program courses in which all of 18 of us are together. Kiswahili is taught by Fred Iraki, a very bright linguist who has studied and taught all over the place. His approach is a communicative approach that is very interactive. We bring vocab we’ve heard on the streets to study it, and are learning to converse in both traditional and Nairobian Kiswahili and also in Sheng (Swahili slang). The vocab is definitely tricky in that it is not relative to anything I’ve learned before, but the grammar (thus far) is very strait-forward. It is probably one of the most phonetic languages as well.

Our Politics of Culture in Kenya class is taught by KJ once a week on Fridays. What I like about this class is that it combines social and development issues with what we are experiencing and seeing in our day to day lives, and also what we are not seeing. I think it will be a very interactive class, which is awesome. Our first assignment was to read three articles about the stereotyping and generalizations of “Africa” in the media and in literature and about the recent politics of Kenya. After reading the articles we were instructed to discuss them with at least three native Kenyans.

Tuesday was my first day at USIU. The registration process is full of tiring bureaucracy and trekking around campus turning in forms. My first class is at 9AM, meaning I have to get up at 6AM to shower (in coordination with my roommates) and be ready to leave the compound around 7. It’s a 15 minute walk from our compound to the matatu stage in the morning, from where we take the matatu to City Centre to catch the USIU bus that leaves at 8:15. Campus is very beautiful and they have a gorgeous new library (much nicer than ours at AU) that will be opened in the coming week by President Kibaki.

My first class in the morning is Contemporary International Ideologies. There are six mzungus (five of which are from our program) in the class and a lot of international students from surrounding African nations. Our teacher is…interesting to say the least. He definitely seems insightful, but nothing too profound has been said yet. We spent the whole class introducing ourselves (and still didn’t finish). Probably about 90% of the class aspires to be diplomats. I hope it will be a very insightful and interactive class. There is definitely a broad range of perspectives in the class, and hopefully everybody will be more vocal than in some of the classes I’ve been in back in the US.

My second class is International Business Operations, in which I’m the only mzungu. I met a cool guy names Collins that sat next to me. He is looking to finish up school this year and then go on to work for a business while pursuing a Masters in the States and hopes to get into real estate. We talked for a bit before the class started about the real estate business in the US. Our professor is a adjunct from the Nairobi University School of Economics. He spent a large chunk of time “breaking the ice” and then segued into talking about globalization and the criticism of globalization. I picked up on a few little differences, at least in articulation, from the way I’ve studied the subject (particularly his first-person reference of the developing countries). Hopefully we’ll continue to flesh this out and get some good discussions going. He said in the class he plans on giving 3-4 unannounced tests, to which the entire class shouted “NO!”. One girl in the class proposed take-home tests, which was agreed to after an overwhelming vote. I’m a little discontent about this in that everybody in the class has different access to resources for a take-home test (ie. Other students, internet access, etc.) and I feel at a bit of a disadvantage in that regard. I think it will be a challenging, but rewarding, class in the end.

After classes we grabbed lunch at a small restaurant around the corner from campus. We started to figure out our paperwork and turing things in before getting exhausted and giving up. We got on the bus back to town and after a long wait left back to downtown Nairobi. It started pouring rain on the way. We had to walk several blocks from the bus stop to our matatu stage in the pouring rain. When we got there a matatu pulled up for us and tons of Kenyans attempted to pile on (Kenyans hate the rain), but the tout was pulling them out to ensure all of us could get on. It was a very clear example of what KJ and Victor have told us about a “higher/superior” treatment of white people in Kenya left from colonial days. It logically seems like it would be the opposite case (ie. Take care of your own before foreigners), but it happens and it’s definitely interesting. We got back to Westlands and trudged through the mud and puddle-infested roads to get to the Sarit Center (the City within a City Mall) where we collapsed in the food court to just get a little break and then headed to the internet café. We stayed in that general area until our Kiswahili class at 7PM. I got back to the apartment for the first time in the day around 8:45 – well after 12 hours of pure stress.

This last Sunday we had a picnic/party at musician Eric Wainaina’s compound, where the new AU Abroad Kenya office will be sharing space. I met a lot of neat people, but my favorite by far was a guy named Howard. Howard is a freelance photojournalist who has traveled around the world, most recently Afghanistan and Iraq. He was full of great insight and just an awesome guy to talk to.