January 10th--First real day...

Saturday January 10, 2009

Where to begin. Today was intense. After 3ish hours of sleep last night, because my plane got in so late, I was awoken by the alien scream of some new fangled alarm. I couldn't rely upon my inner alarm clock to wake me, as I'm sure my inner alarm clock is now set to whatever time it is on the surface of mars. Anyways, I then went on a tour, of Nairobi, with a group of international students at this school. One of the local students told me Nairobi is approximately 4 million people, that or 6 million. Either way, it is one huge city. At first glace, it is rather reminicent of the united states. It has buildings like the states (no I am not living in a grass hut in the middle of some dessert, with IIT painted on a rock next to it), roads (although they don't have lines, and they drive on the wrong side), cars on those roads and people, but that really is as far as the simularities go.
The entire way of life is different:
--Police carry machine guns,because that's the only way people will listen to them. There was a van that was pulled over by a cop, the cop was speaking to him, and all of a sudden the van just started to drive away, the cop tried to beat him with his night stick, but because he didn't have a machine gun, the van was able to get away. It was a rather intriguing occurrence.
--Another international student didn't have any Kenyan Shillings, he only had one dollar bill, and we were at the Masai market. Bargaining is such a large part of their way of life, that the local merchants ended up giving him a hand made tapestry for that one dollar because they thought he was trying to bargain with them when he waved it around trying to tell them he would not be able to buy anything because he had no money.
--If you don't speak Swahili at the market, you will be royally screwed over. Moral of the story: bring a local friend with you when you bargain, and learn Swahili. Do both just to be on the safe side.
--There are no lanes in the roads. There are no rules to driving, other than: don't hit anyone. And this is with traffic that I would say is more congested than New York City. It's ridiculously crazy. Riding around with people is amazing. On the city tour I watched a public transportation bus hit another car (the public transport busses are like VW van size, so they didn't total the car), and every passenger climbed out to move the vehicles. Meanwhile, the vehicles stuck behind the accident honked at the pedestrians on the sidewalk nearby, and proceeded to drive around the accident on the sidewalk. The manner of driving is this really aggressive style driving that's extremely chill. It's not personal if you get cut off, everyone is going on their own business, but you try as hard as possible to be the one cutting others off. It's just how it seems to work.
--People here are so relaxed. It's so bizzare. Whenever I walk anywhere with anyone, they give me crap for walking fast. “Where do you have to go in such a big hurry, eh? Over there?You'll get their fast or slow.”
--It's not taboo to talk about things that our culture has exasperated beyond belief. Just because shit has happened, doesn't mean that you have to hush up about it. They frequently talk about things that are politically incorrect to talk about in certain circles in the states, and it doesn't phase anyone, they just go with it. It's an extremely open culture.
--Over roasted goat, cow, and a few beers, a discussion that ranged from God to the creation of gods, to apathy, to love, to the nature of humanity, to anything really, in a semi-buzzed state of mind was a common thing that didn't come close to offending anyone.I don't even know where to begin/go with all of this. I'm extremely overwhelmed, yet perfectly content at the same time. Well, perfectly isn't exactly the right term, more of a mostly content state of mind. I've had my culture shock moments, and little blips of insecurity, but nothing that a riveting discussion couldn't cure. I feel oddly at home here.
--Another random point: how the hell does a school that is in a developing country, with much less funding than any school in the states, in a city that has the largest slum in Africa, in a city that has one of the worst crime rates on the continent, have a much nicer, well kept, and safer campus than an extremely well off school in the middle of the United States?
--That's another thing, our school has a giant wall built around it with barbed wire on the top, so I can go on those midnight wanders around, and be perfectly safe, I just can't go off of the compound alone. Ever...that's something that i'm having issues coming to terms with. There are some places I want to explore on my own. I think I will have to do that later on in the semester.