This week has been so busy! We started class on Monday and are at the school office from 8:30 am until 5 pm each day. Even though the days are long, I'm loving the teaching style and the material that we're learning. Swahili lessons start each morning at 8:45 and last until lunch at 12:30 (with a tea break at 10:30..Kenyans LOVE their chai) The lessons are extremely interactive with only 4 or 5 students in each class. There are 6 different swahili classes, divided by skill level, so everyone is learning at about the same pace in the classroom. There are 6 swahili teachers employed by SIT and each day they rotate classes, so I never tire of one teacher. The teachers are also so hilarious and keep the mood of class very light (while still teaching a lot.) They focus on speaking (instead of just writing or grammar) and we spend the 3 hours in the morning conversing with each other in swahili. I've learned SO much in one week. I feel like I learned more this week than I learned in a year of swahili back in the US.
The afternoons consist of health, development and society lectures as well as field trips to different NGOs and organizations around Nairobi. Yesterday afternoon a professor from the University of Nairobi lectured on the colonial history of Kenya and today we traveled to AMREF (African Medical and Research Foundation) for our afternoon "lecture" (more like field trip.) We finished the trip earlier than expected today and a few friends and I spent the rest of the afternoon at Java House (a coffee shop that has an extremely Western feel--we call it our little "slice of home") studying swahili together.
As the semester is progressing, our academic directors have begun to stress making a decision about our independent study projects (ISP). For those of you who haven't heard about ISP, this is one aspect that makes an SIT program unique from another study abroad program. The last month of my time abroad is reserved for a research project of my choosing. We literally can pick anything we want to study and go anywhere we want in the country for the last month to research this subject (except maybe dangerous areas like Turkana) Projects in the past have covered everything, ranging from the study of chapati (a traditional Kenyan bread dish) to the birthing practices of the Maasai tribe. I'm back and forth each day about what I want to study but am currently thinking about perhaps studying maternal mortality in a rural coastal village. Maternal mortality is a HUGE problem in Kenya (lifetime risk of maternal mortality : 1 in 38 Kenyan women) and is pushed aside by NGOs as the HIV/AIDs epidemic rages on in sub-Saharan Africa. I think it would be fascinating to talk to women in a rural village about access to skilled birth attendants, birthing practices and their beliefs of the causes of complications during childbirth.
All of these ideas, of course, could change tomorrow (those of you who know me well know that I change my mind...a lot) but for now that is what I am thinking about looking into for the last month. I'd love to combine the study with some sort of photography project in the village showcasing the daily life of the Kenyans I meet, but that would be something I would have to discuss with the community once I arrived to make sure I was respecting their privacy.
Finally, for a few photo updates:
This is where I take my BUCKET showers every other evening..it has been quite the experience.
This is our kitchen where Grace (one of the house helps) is washing dishes.
Our sitting room
This is my bed room, complete with princess stickers covering the walls and a beautiful blue mosquito net
The little diva herself, Milaika.
That's all for now! Until next time-
Megan
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