Category: Nairobi

Categories
Malindi Nairobi

Malaria Meds and Nairobbery

So for a little under a week now I’ve been in Nairobi for my one-year medical and dental checkup.  Conclusions:

  • I don’t have cavities.
  • I don’t have TB.
  • I have a normal heartbeat.

None of these things were actually in doubt, but that’s just about all that was tested.

I also finally changed my malaria medicine from Mefloquine to Doxycycline.  I did this for two reasons:

  1. Mefloquine seems to me to be bad news in general.  Even if you don’t get any of the common side effects that ~30% of its users report (vivid dreams, hallucinations, anxiety), it still accumulates in your nervous system, where it remains long after you stop taking it, just waiting for something traumatic to happen to trigger who-knows-what residual side effects.  The Peace Corps uses it as the default Malaria prophylactic, and they only switch volunteers to another medicine if problems are experienced or expected.  The US Army actually used to have the same policy, but they changed it due to the overwhelming number of problems, so they now default to Doxy.  This should be reason enough not to take it, but to make the problem worse…
  2. I hallucinated a little bit a few months ago.  This was a bit unnerving, although not at dramatic as it might sound at first.  Basically, I have a constant anxiety about people coming into my house.  When Deaf children or teachers want me to come to the door, they have to clang the metal gate to get my attention, but it’s a faint sound and it blends into the background noise of the metal workshop across the street.  It’s very common that I go to answer the door and no one is there, and vice versa, I don’t think anyone is there, so they grow impatient and they reach around, open the gate, and come right up to my open door, and if I’m napping, kids have even walked all the way into my bedroom and stood there until I’ve woken up, which can be startling, especially because I’m rarely decent when I nap in this equatorial heat.  I’ve also had experiences where I’ve turned the corner from the kitchen and seen a student standing in my living room or in the doorway; again, rather startling.  Add Mefloquine to the mix and not only does the anxiety level go up, but also I started turning corners and out of the corner of my eye, seeing people standing there, watching me, but when I’d turn to see who it is, I’d realize that I was just imagining it.  The worst was when I woke up and thought for a spilt second that a man was standing in the corner of my room.

I hadn’t had any of these hallucinations for a while, but I when I’d think about the general reasons to stop taking it, it seemed that it would be the best thing to do.  So now I’m on Doxy, which means I need to take a daily pill and I need to be more vigilant about sunscreen.  But it also means my complexion will improve!  Check out the Wikipedia page on Mefloquine if you’re taking it and I’ve worried you.

In other news, Nairobi seems to be just as dangerous a place as ever.  I had dinner last night with one of the newer volunteers, who is recovering from a mugging that he doesn’t even remember.  The leading theory at the moment is that he was smashed in the face repeatedly with rocks before he had a chance to see what was happening.  In any case, he looks good considering, and while he recovers, Peace Corps has put him up in, essentially, a mansion (3 stories, 3 full baths, hot running water, full-time security guard, etc).  I already err on the side of taking taxis more often than necessary, but now I feel even more strongly about not walking alone in Nairobi.  Prior to this event, it was easy to imagine myself reasoning with the muggers, slowly handing over money, phone, etc, to avoid any violence, but now that scenario has been thrown thrown right out the window.  The fact that he hid money in his shoe didn’t help this particular volunteer avoid violence. (Although it did help him with the cab fare after he regained consciousness… and yes, the taxi driver did charge him.)

I’m not sure what the percentages are, but it seems like at least one volunteer is mugged every month in Nairobi, although this is the worst one I’ve heard of so far.  I may regret sharing this story and worrying people, especially since I may soon be spending more time in Nairobi, but trust me— I won’t be walking alone at night, or even at dusk!

I don’t have any Nairobi pictures to go along with this post’s prose, since I lent my camera to a friend, but here’s one I took of a fellow volunteer in Malindi, where I spent a couple days before we travelled to Nairobi together:

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Categories
Malindi Mombasa Nairobi Watamu

Term Three Begins!

Today was the first day of the third and final term of the school year.  Out of 160 students, not many were here yet.  To be precise, I think 5 kids showed up.  This is relatively normal, as first week is really the “ramp up” week. We had a teachers’ meeting (which I rustily interpreted for the two deaf teachers) and then I ran some errands around town.

As I walked around I reflected on what I want to do differently this term.  Most significantly, I want to make a real effort to de-prioritize my own projects in favor of putting my weight behind other people’s ideas.  I’ve been here long enough to get a sense of which people I respect, so instead of working in my cave (AKA my house) on projects that I’ve concocted in isolation, I want to be an enabler for other people’s projects: people who have been here much longer than me, and whose ideas I trust.  The person I want to help the most is my counterpart.  He’s the youngest teacher on staff, and he’s Deaf—a product of the school he’s now teaching at.  He’s also a volunteer’s success story—a previous volunteer tutored him heavily here when he was a child.  He’s proven himself to be smart and reliable, and he has ideas for the community here.  We’re going to start small, and I’m going to help with the filming of the school’s video/print yearbook once more kids return from break, maybe next week.

I also want to put as much time as possible into the Nairobi project.  I’m in research mode right now, trying to get my hands on all previous similar efforts.  Anyone know where I can get a copy of this?

Anyhow, by changing my approach I think I can not only do some good for others, but I can help myself out a bit, too.  Developing workbooks for the class and picking software for after school computer time is fun, but because my peers (the other teachers, etc.) aren’t a part of that process, I think it makes them wonder what I do all day.  Working on more visible projects would improve my standing and, as a result, probably my own morale.

On an unrelated note, last weekend I got together with some other volunteers in Malindi and Watamu, which is an area about two hours up the coast.  Here we are bickering over the bill at the fancy Italian restaurant, where I has prosciutto and melon and olives as an appetizer!

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And here’s the Malindi airport.

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And, in no particular order, here are some random pictures that you may enjoy.  I figured you should catch up before classes start again.

Busted socket in my house (second one I’ve had to replace— why does this happen?!?!)

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Another Nairobi slum view from the train:

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Mombasa views from the bus: 

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I know monkey pictures are always a hit, so I’ll finish this post with one.  I took this picture from my front door.  There were four of these in my tree the other morning! 

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Categories
Mombasa Nairobi

All aboard!

I absolutely loved the train ride from Mombasa to Nairobi last week.  It was a charming and relaxing alternative to the bus.  It takes longer—12 hours instead of 8—but since I spent most of that time sleeping in a bed, I could find no reason for complaint.

Here’s the station prior to departure:

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Here’s my room.  This is second class, meaning that there are four beds in a room.  In first class, there are two.  Because so few people take the train, though, there is really no difference, as I had the entire room (all four beds) to myself and I used one of the beds for my luggage.  This picture was taken before dinner.  After dinner, one of the beds had been made and even had a pillow!

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Here’s a table in the dining car just before dinner.  It was nice to sit with strangers and enjoy a nice meal.  All the food is made right there on the train.

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In the morning I skipped breakfast, since I’m doing my best to observe Ramadan, but from my room I got an interesting view of the Nairobi slums, in stark contrast to my pampered train experience:

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The train was only a few minutes late, and far less hectic than arriving by bus, since the train station is a more mellow (and secure) location, which allowed me to look at a Nairobi map without painting a target on my backpack.

This was the first time I’ve been in Nairobi on my own.  I stayed at the 680 Hotel, which was a pretty nice business hotel walking distance from the office where I spent my days.  I walked around this area quite a bit—it’s a government-dominated landscape, with the Primer Minister’s office, the President’s office, parliament, etc, all around.  It’s a pretty secure area, at least from petty crimes.  On the other hand, it’s close is the old location of US Embassy building, which was moved after because it was bombed.  Surrounded by tall office buildings, people in a hurry, and clean sidewalks, I would occasionally forget where I was, only to be reminded by something distinctly non-urban American: a man carrying a slab of beef on his back, a one-legged man in tattered clothes, or a red light completely disregarded by all vehicles.

But not all my time was spent wandering around.  My work in Nairobi was very exciting.  I enjoyed being able to assist a very well-meaning, enthusiastic, and intelligent team of people.  I’m still new to the project, so I’m not sure which things are more secretive than others, so for now I’ll leave it at that, but I’m sure that I’ll have more to say later.  It was weird having to sign an NDA—something that was so common at my job in the US but I never expected to be a part of the Peace Corps experience!

Lastly, I found a bar/club/restaurant called “Tacos,” that has, believe it or not, tacos!  And they were quite good.  I highly recommend it to any travelers suffering from Mexican food deprivation, although if that describes you, and you are trying to observe Ramadan, don’t let it tempt you into eating lunch!