Day Four

I (Charlie) made the mistake of taking a four hour nap between 6 and 10 PM yesterday. I missed dinner, and was awake from 10 PM to 4 AM, unable to sleep. I woke up extremely tired this morning, barely making it to breakfast. This has been a universal experience that cuts across the team. Jetlag and packed days of activities take their toll! We began our tour of the campus, walking around in the warm sun. We saw many buildings, lots with red clay roof tiles, around the campus. Mychelle, our guide for the tour (and trip), told us that the university is 54 years old, and that the university houses over 20,000 students, which does not include students who live off campus. 

One of the main monuments on the university campus had a beautiful quote on the front that stated, “Education is the power & strength of our society,” in Swahili “elimu ni nguvu.” This statement was extremely powerful, because it signifies the country and university’s commitment to empowering their citizens through affordable access to higher learning. This monumental building stuck out to me on this beautiful green campus, because we do not have anything like this at Hollins. It was motivating in the sense that it made me want to keep going in my own educational journey and strive for more. On our tour of campus, we saw many different hostels, schools, and administrative buildings. One of our favorite parts of the tour was a path with trees lining our way, caving into each other. It was significantly cooler in the shade of the trees. Our walking tour was very pretty, totaling around 5 km (3.335 miles) total and an hour and a half. (Charlie has been tracking steps and distances on the phone.)

There were many sinks outside of buildings, and it piqued our interest. Mychelle explained that they were there for hand washing during the COVID-19 pandemic. It made us think about how the rules and regulations in the USA had changed. It was recommended to wash your hands often, but nothing was really done about it. The response was to provide hand sanitizer or wipes (if anything), not to build hand washing stations. 

Another thing Mychelle told us, which we found funny, was that rugby players here don’t wash their jerseys after using them. They want the other team to be so thrown off by the stench that they won’t want to get close to them, giving an advantage for a potential win. 

We toured Kenyatta University’s library, which had five floors, four of which house books, and desks for studying. The top floor, which we all found to be beautiful but hot from the sun, had windows all around. We could see everything we had toured that morning via a 360-degree panoramic view of the campus and city! 

Next up was a lecture on Kenyan culture— the educational system and costs; major cities and their nicknames (Nairobi is the Green City Under the Sun!); and wildlife diversity. This was followed by a performance by the KU Rambolo Dancers, who are a dance company of students directed and accompanied by music department faculty. We got a taste of different styles of traditional Kenyan dancing and music, and we were pulled onto the dance floor to show off our moves. Zoe and Dr. Jalloh were taught to play a single-string instrument similar to a guitar with a drum at the base. (It has several names, such as a “siiriri” among the Luhya ethnic group.) Zoe was a better student than Dr. Jalloh. We ended the session with Dr. Mildred Nawiri leading us in one of her tribe’s celebratory dances for new mothers as a way to cheer our “birth” into Kenyan culture.

We got back from our lecture and dance, and all lights were out at the Kenyatta University Conference Center (KUCC). We were informed that there was a blackout in our building, and the generators were not working. Blackouts are very common across Sub-Saharan Africa, so while we weren’t expecting it, this was another unique experience for us. We were supposed to get dinner in our building, but they were unable to cook without power, so we were shuttled to a nearby mall for dinner. The food was delicious Somali fare. For example, Charlie ate chicken tikka with ugali (a traditional African corn-based dough that is boiled and typically eaten with your hands). As we ate, many cats began crowding around us, and we couldn’t refuse feeding them. There were six or seven cats hanging around us by the end of the evening, begging for food. Cats are the primary stray animal in Nairobi. We haven’t seen any dogs!

That night, we all fell asleep in the dark at KUCC with full bellies.

By Charlie and Zoe