2008/02/08
2/5/2008
Last night Pesika and Nerea argued about the state of the country, how bad it was, who was killing whom (like I would really use that word), how corrupt it was and generally made me concerned. They are Lou’s from western Kenya, the tribe that supports Rila Odinga in the Orange Democratic Movement (the ODM), or “the Opposition.”
-the day after
I was concerned enough to call my father and ask if he had read anything, as I don’t have the internet, and asked him to call a friend who knows more about the country than I do. He said the situation hasn’t changed much from a general media perspective ( which might not mean anything). I went to bed feeling slightly nervous.
Today I met up with Mikey, who showed me first to a sketchy part of town, then to the Matatu stop where I could get on and find my way to the US embassy. We rode for twenty minuets outside of Nairobi, where I saw much more green vegetation than I had seen anywhere else in the already green city. When we arrived, it was a long rode which lead down to both the US embassy and, across the road, the UN … center (It was big). I went in the US embassy, which was one of the nicest complexes I’ve ever been in. Security was tight, and I couldn’t bring in my camera, but there were probably 300 people in an inlayed stone theater with a tan skin style stretching awning. The US ambassador to Kenya was there, along with several other high ranking US officials. He brought us up to date on the talks, and US operations, safety plans, and had time for almost an hour of questions from a verity of interesting people.
I now have my warden’s name and number if I need to get evacuated, and know the emergency numbers for the embassy (I already had those, but redundancy doesn’t hurt). Annan has 5 more days , I think, and we’ll see what happens after that.
After the embassy I went back to the LC at the University, met up with Winnie, and headed out to meet a member of the board of directors for AIESEC Nairobi. lucy is an old LCP and director of projects at UoN AIESEC, and she met with Winnie, Sylvia, and myself at a restaurant in Hurlingham. She redirected my attention to a few key concerns she had about the YES program, what my role was and where the LC needs to work on. The meetings was for projects in general, not just the YES program, so I got to sit in on there discussion of how UoN operates.
Aside from some direction setting points, she brought up the interesting Idea of AIESECers becoming investing groups, 50 here, 100 there, with 20 people ends up being a decent some to a start up company for a college student. If it has a reasonable return and goes back into the LC, it brings lots of business skills into the process, and creates some interesting outcomes, I don’t know who’s ready for that but I thought was an interesting Idea.
I walked home after the meeting (maybe a mile) and was called by two other Trainees in Nairobi who were planning a trip to Luma this weekend off the Kenyan coast. I need to look at the costs and the time line, but I read about it in Lonely planet, and it looks pretty cool, I’m thinking about it.
I also helped a guy with his bike on my way home when he shifted out of gear- derailed, and didn’t know how to get it back on or what geat to be in.
It’s 7:58, and I’m almost ready for bed. I did more today than I did yesterday, but night comes here so quickly. Once the sun sets, it’s not really that safe to be outside (or it cost money), and because the University is close “indefinitely,” (for undergrads) there’s not much going on there that I’ve found, I might look into it more, but I feel obligated to come home around 7. I brought this up to a member of the LC (by the way, LC means local community) and he said there would be more going on if they were in class, but right now it was an issues of travel- having to get out of the city every night takes time. I’ll work something out.
Last night Pesika and Nerea argued about the state of the country, how bad it was, who was killing whom (like I would really use that word), how corrupt it was and generally made me concerned. They are Lou’s from western Kenya, the tribe that supports Rila Odinga in the Orange Democratic Movement (the ODM), or “the Opposition.”
-the day after
I was concerned enough to call my father and ask if he had read anything, as I don’t have the internet, and asked him to call a friend who knows more about the country than I do. He said the situation hasn’t changed much from a general media perspective ( which might not mean anything). I went to bed feeling slightly nervous.
Today I met up with Mikey, who showed me first to a sketchy part of town, then to the Matatu stop where I could get on and find my way to the US embassy. We rode for twenty minuets outside of Nairobi, where I saw much more green vegetation than I had seen anywhere else in the already green city. When we arrived, it was a long rode which lead down to both the US embassy and, across the road, the UN … center (It was big). I went in the US embassy, which was one of the nicest complexes I’ve ever been in. Security was tight, and I couldn’t bring in my camera, but there were probably 300 people in an inlayed stone theater with a tan skin style stretching awning. The US ambassador to Kenya was there, along with several other high ranking US officials. He brought us up to date on the talks, and US operations, safety plans, and had time for almost an hour of questions from a verity of interesting people.
I now have my warden’s name and number if I need to get evacuated, and know the emergency numbers for the embassy (I already had those, but redundancy doesn’t hurt). Annan has 5 more days , I think, and we’ll see what happens after that.
After the embassy I went back to the LC at the University, met up with Winnie, and headed out to meet a member of the board of directors for AIESEC Nairobi. lucy is an old LCP and director of projects at UoN AIESEC, and she met with Winnie, Sylvia, and myself at a restaurant in Hurlingham. She redirected my attention to a few key concerns she had about the YES program, what my role was and where the LC needs to work on. The meetings was for projects in general, not just the YES program, so I got to sit in on there discussion of how UoN operates.
Aside from some direction setting points, she brought up the interesting Idea of AIESECers becoming investing groups, 50 here, 100 there, with 20 people ends up being a decent some to a start up company for a college student. If it has a reasonable return and goes back into the LC, it brings lots of business skills into the process, and creates some interesting outcomes, I don’t know who’s ready for that but I thought was an interesting Idea.
I walked home after the meeting (maybe a mile) and was called by two other Trainees in Nairobi who were planning a trip to Luma this weekend off the Kenyan coast. I need to look at the costs and the time line, but I read about it in Lonely planet, and it looks pretty cool, I’m thinking about it.
I also helped a guy with his bike on my way home when he shifted out of gear- derailed, and didn’t know how to get it back on or what geat to be in.
It’s 7:58, and I’m almost ready for bed. I did more today than I did yesterday, but night comes here so quickly. Once the sun sets, it’s not really that safe to be outside (or it cost money), and because the University is close “indefinitely,” (for undergrads) there’s not much going on there that I’ve found, I might look into it more, but I feel obligated to come home around 7. I brought this up to a member of the LC (by the way, LC means local community) and he said there would be more going on if they were in class, but right now it was an issues of travel- having to get out of the city every night takes time. I’ll work something out.
# posted by /Sean @ 6:48 AM 
