Nairobi, Take two!

James and I in Kibera

Back in the organized chaos that is Nairobi and it’s good to be back! Our first day back was comprised of winding up session two projects and doing final exams and then for a treat they took us “out on the town” for dinner. Because of the strict risk management rules we aren’t allowed to do much on our own. So in order to give us some free time they took us to a huge country club-esque compound that had five restaurants, pools, karaoke bars, and dance clubs. I am fairly certain that we were the only people there except for a few white families out for dinner. A night out, indeed. In any case, it was a very fun night out given that we had no school work to worry about.  I split a delicious thin crust pizza and the cheapest bottle of red with the beautiful Anne Jeffery J We had the next day off and so they let us loose in a mall called “Westgate”. We spent the day shopping for a few necessities that we’d run out of, as well as souvenirs and ice cream! It was a bit surreal coming being in this bustling, air-conditioned mall after weeks of camping away from civilization.

The next day the real stuff started- we spent the next two days back in Kibera slum working with a few NGOs and CBOs doing very informal work and research. This visit was much better than the first one at the very beginning of the trip. I think it’s important to think of these communities simply as you would any other community instead of over-thinking it and defining it as some horrible, desolate place. I went in with that mindset and really enjoyed our visit this time. That may also have been due to the fact that I made a friend named James one day who walked around with us as we walked around Kibera. We visited the sanitation blocks in the neighbourhood of Soweto East- the neighbourhood that is acting as a test tube for slum upgrading projects that will be scaled up to the rest of the neighbourhoods in Kibera.

After this two day Urban Module we started classes for third session. This is the class that I am most excited for, the one I’ve been eagerly anticipating for the entire trip. It’s called Nutrition and Society, an enthobotany nutrition class taught by Professor Tim Johns. Tim reminds me exactly of Sean Connery except that he is exceedingly knowledgeable about plants and always has a laugh right below the surface ready to come out. The course looks at nutrition and also traditional African knowledge about nutrition and wild plants. It is right up my alley because it is at once a tough science class and a revealing anthropology class about the people in the communities that we visit. I appreciate its holistic look at nutrition and food security- studying either of these issues in a straight science OR arts way is extremely limited in use.