I have arrived!

Jambo from Kenya!

After a very long day of traveling, I arrived in Nairobi Monday night (Sept 1st) at around 10pm. I had to wait for about 45 minutes to find my luggage but several people from the group had either one or both of their bags lost. We all piled into a large bus provided by the Wildlife Clubs of Kenya (WCK) and drove about 30 minutes to the WCK Nairobi site. When we arrived, we all had tea and then went to bed. All of the guys in my room had trouble sleeping and I ended up purifying my water at 3am because I couldn't sleep. I think I got about 2 hours of sleep before we were woken up at 6am for breakfast. When we woke up there were over a dozen baboons running around the compound. At the time we were all pretty excited about them, but after being in Kenya for over a week now, I basically view them as if they were squirrels in America. Oh how quickly one can become an animal elitist!

We drove into Nairobi to pick up some things that people forgot. I made sure to purchase some toilet paper because I found out quickly upon my arrival that much of Kenya is a bring-your-own-toilet-paper kind of place. We had to go to the Immigration Office for our visas. As of Tuesday, I am officially a resident of Kenya.

We left Nairobi and drove about 3 hours to Lake Nakuru National Park. We stopped once at a look-out point over the Great Rift Valley. The view was pretty incredible! The stop was also a tourist trap so we white people were bombarded with people trying to sell all kinds of crafts and sculptures. When we arrived at the national park, we learned first-hand just how Kenyan officials ask for bribes as we were bounced around between offices for over an hour before we were finally allowed into the park.

Orientation went well. Each morning we would wake up and have breakfast as a group and then have orientation sessions. We would usually break for tea at least 3 times a day. The staff spent a lot of time on health, safety and security which I think worried a lot of the students. When we walk around town as a group - 32 white people certainly attract a lot of attention. One passerby in the town of Nakuru even said, "wow, that's a lot of white people!"

Three nights in a row we went on a "game drive" around the park. We saw just about every animal there is in Kenya - water buffalo, hyena, rhino, giraffe, water buck, impala, baboon, spider monkey and many more. I will try to post pictures when I can but the internet is very slow here and goes out frequently.

I started classes at the Nazrene University today. I will try to write about this soon.

Peace,
Dan

Leaving Today!

Well, after many months of planning, the day has finally arrived. I applied to this program back in October. In late December, violence broke out all over Kenya after the disputed election. When the dust settled in late January, over 1,000 people had been killed. For many months, there were talks that my program would be canceled. As I write this, I am finishing my last minute packing and will leave for the airport in 30 minutes.

I will be leaving O'Hare today at 5:30pm. Thankfully it's a nice, clear day so hopefully there won't be any delays. I have a 7 hour flight to London and then a 3 hour layover. I should arrive in Nairobi mid-afternoon Chicago time. Kenya is 8 hours ahead so it should be evening there. When I arrive I'll be taking a bus 3 hours to Lake Nakuru National Park for our week-long orientation. I will try to write as soon as I can but I am anticipating that it will be at least a week.

Thank you to everyone for your support. I know that I am bringing with me all of your thoughts and prayers.

P.S. If there are any topics/subjects that you would like to know about (ex. food, culture, music, etc), please feel free to send me an e-mail or comment on one of the blog entries.

Peace,
Dan

Kenya Video

Because many people have brought this video to my attention I figured that I better post it. I apologize for the addictive nature of this video. Also, since I'm sure someone is bound to point it out - no Kenya does not have tigers.
Only in Kenya Video

Where I'm Going

I will be studying abroad in Kenya in East Africa from September 1st - April 25 through the Minnesota Studies in International Development (MSID) program through the University of Minnesota. I will be taking classes through the University of Nairobi for 7 weeks. I will be taking courses in International Development, Swahili language, Country Analysis and Applied Field Methods. The entire second semester I will be conducting research through my internship culminating in a research paper.

Following the classroom phase, I will be interning with a non-governmental organization (NGO) in a rural part of the country for 5 months. My internship will be focusing on Public Health, primarily health promotion and health education. I hope to be doing community outreach based out of rural health clinics.

To orient you: Kenya is located in East Central Africa . Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia (to the north), Somalia (east), the Sudan (northwest), Uganda (west), Tanzania (south), Lake Victoria (west) and the Indian Ocean (east). The Equator runs directly through the middle of the country.