The Orange Hat

After living in Kenya for almost two months I have seen sickening prosperity and humble poverty, I have listened to pathetic ill-backed arguments founded on bigotry and been asked questions which I had no way of responding, I have inhaled the crisp clean air of unadulterated hills and had fowl piles of garbage block my path for no reason other than peoples unwillingness to mind their own waste.

I find that I love where I am, as I love anywhere I can call home, and I am tired of not giving back what Kenya has given me. I have idly floated along with a culture I enjoy and hate. I have accepted too much that I disagree with, and rejected some of what I need to discover.

It is time for me to act. It is also time for Kenyans to be on time. It is not acceptable to be an hour late for a meeting; thirty minuets late for work, or to arrive two hours after your clients arrive on time. It’s not about the time it self, it’s about the lost opportunities and the wasted potential. I have spent entire days waiting on people to show up for a meeting I scheduled just for them, only to have it rescheduled twice and then pushed a day back. I can’t work like that, not when I have control of my situation. I refuse to wait any longer, to be postponed one, two, three, hours because of someone else’s incompetence. Allowing the behavior I have seen to continue would only be rewarding tardiness. One time is ok, two times is fine if you call ahead, but six, seven, eight, every day – I cannot attribute such a behavior to external factors. If you’re reading this then be warned, I’m not waiting.

Clean up. Everything. I am not one to profess a room of orderly clothing, books, or even paired socks, but I do not, have not, and refuse to leave trash anywhere besides a can, bin, or dumpster. I see people throwing candy wrappers in the street, see dirty diapers on the sidewalks, and in the markets/slums, there are sewage rivers flowing down walkways- piles of garbage outside schools of plastic bags, organics, and human waste. This is not only unpleasant it is revolting. The worst part is there is no reason it has to be like this. Not only is it easily taken care of by putting you leftovers in a designated location, it raises property value, resolves unneeded jobs which can be put to better use, and is better for the environment. Friends of mine don’t think twice before tossing a can behind them. I will change this. Tomorrow is a meeting of many people I know and I will put forth the idea of “sustainability” something Africa is in dire need of and I hope desire of. Creating an environment with is not dependant on foreign aid, unneeded attention, or constant maintenance is possible; you just have to want it.

Open your mind. I try to respect you, please, please, please try to respect me. I do not openly make fun of your customs or practices, I’ve tried them, and I’ve tasted your food, drunk your drinks, walked in your school, and ridden in your Matatus. One of the main reasons I came here, to Africa, to Kenya, to a world away from mine, is to be immersed in a different culture. Would you also not find it incredibly different where I come from? I know my music is funny, and it’s not something I dance to, in face I really don’t want to dance to it, I want to sit back drink a beer or two and talk about my day of work, climbing, hiking, or what ever it is I do for fun while listening to what you did. I like to eat, I like to go out, but it’s not in the same context as you, and I’m sorry if you don’t like that you don’t have to come, but I’m going to invite you anyway, just like you invited me and I accepted. Don’t make fun of something different, and even worse don’t mock it. I will try to impose some of my way on you, and I hope you are sacred shitless and uncomfortable has hell when you experience them, then you’ll realize what it’s like for me in a land where I stick out like nothing else can- and I hope you learn to embrace it, and I hope you learn from it, and I hope you find more because of it.


Theses allusions are only the beginning, and certainly not the end of what is to come of my stay here. In the follow through I want a list of reactions, what it is that Kenya wants from me, what it wants me to take with me, what other people want me to take away and share with them. These are simply aspects I want to influence, and I want to influence me. Let the party begin.

Dunia's here! yey!

After some interesting days, scrambling around, working, and eating.... and more eating. I finally got to see my American friend :D

I'll sit down later and write my usual two pages of text, but funny notes:

-I'm called: "The Perpetually invincible 20 year old who can't spell worth shit" - I find this very funny, and for the most part true

-My mothers voice in my head is nagging me about eating to much fried food

-I'm working on interviewing several African's about their views on the American presidential race, if you have questions you think I should ask, feel free to post.

-Dunia taught me some more poses, and we stretched last night at 11 to wake us up before going out- yey new poses (yoga...ish stuff)

-I have a revived hatred for "bed bugs" and the "winged spawn of Satan" known as mosquitoes


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The unexpected
-Words in a non-poetic arraignment-

I came not knowing where I was going
I knew that I did not know
I’m still amazed

I love looking back, thinking about my conceptions of what the future to come would be, and the now being something completely and totally different

Problems don’t solve themselves, don’t look up for answers, ask for help when you need it, but inspiration is probably the most you can get- and I hope that it changes everything

I love my friends, and all that they’ve given me – more than I ever expected for and probably more than I deserve

I love my family and all that I’ve put them through, I’m sorry, I’m thankful, and I’ll see you soon.

Weather:
The Rainy season has begun. On Thursday I was trapped with fifteen other people at the university, in a very small room, for something like 2 hours while it poured outside. It now rains most nights, sometimes long, sometimes short ( I believe it’s the short rains – season) starting around 6 pm. There is no daylights savings time here, the sun only varies by about 30 minuets year round.

Reading:
I recently finished “Foundling” by D. M. Cornish. Shorter than I would have liked in such a well created environment, I was thrilled to find a new fantasy (or possibility science-fiction) author who did not use: Dragons, dwarves, elves, or magic [ in it’s conventional form], let alone the words.

The main character is boy of uncertain origins with a female’s name (Rossamund) who is recruited from his orphanage (which is aimed at teaching it’s students to enter the navy) into somewhat suspicious circumstances, and journeys in a very dangerous world populated by monsters which populate a world of immense proportions ( there are plenty of maps and an appendix which takes up 1/3 of the book).

The author creates odd and creepy technologies which humans use on themselves in a neromancer like fashion. Engines are powered by lab grown muscles, spies douse their eyes with sight altering chemicals which allow them to look through objects, surgeries are performed to allow people to shoot electricity through their hands at an enormous expense to their well being. Continents are created, history written to parallel a Greco-roman founding of Rome (an possibly Carthage), Latin interspersed throughout the novel in the naming of cities, people, and objects.

The new environment which Cornish creates is very mysterious even at the conclusion of the first book, and one I hope to revel in more in the upcoming sequel. I will not debate the adolescent audience of this work, but the effort put into the creation of this world is comparable to that of J.K Rowling’s fantasy world combined with the beginnings of Tolkien’s ring series, but written in a Dickens world with sprinkles of macabre delights.

Hearing:
It’s actually getting slightly better

Life:
Dunia arrived Tuesday; I didn’t see her till Thursday night, which Sharron the LCP of AIESEC USIU (where she’s working – and she’s staying with Sharron) dropped her off. We then traveled to the Parklands with Henry a fellow TN from Taiwan to see a friend. We caught up on life in the US, her travels, my stay in Kenya, stuff to think about when your in Nairobi (like walking alone at night), and other pleasantry’s.

I’ll probably see here again later this week – going hiking Monday (that’s Easter right?)

UoN seems to be the most active LC, and lots of TN’s come to us. It’s nice ☺

I write as If I speak, to an audience of myself or to people I presume read what I have written. There could be a name for this, but I haven’t thought to look it up. I think of this because once ~ two schools ago, across an ocean, in a land that has varying temperature along with an temperamental sun; known to be more persistent in the months surrounding July and in remiss in the month of Janus and his neighbors ~

`In a related note I’ve decided January is of the masculine persuasion’

a good friend of mine comment on the use of the ellipsis, which I just learned how to spell*. I remember it was particular to an article he was reviewing, and that the person who had written said writing had used the ellipsis in a stylized manner. I had never though about using an ellipsis in a reference other than a pause in though… like so.

This was a revelation to me then, as it is now, in the context of my writing.*** Because then it dawned upon me the audience I was and always had been addressing, was and probably still at some point is: Me. Now it is a memory I look back upon and realize how important it was because I care.

I’ve written possibly four works of literature that I was proud to show other people. At least one has been in the past month, the other three were in the past twenty years. In the same way that people brag about their accomplishments, and partake in activates they are proud to boast over; I actively seek hobbies I enjoy accomplishing. Writing for me was a task to battle through, but not something to show others. Arguing over who’s term paper took more sleepless nights to expunge an “A” from the grasps of Grammaticus Yagustus for me was comparing my struggles as a quadriplegic climbing Mount Everest to an able bodied person: I knew I had help obtaining my grade ~ Probably via my grammatically able mother accompanied by headaches and shouting~

I took no pride in what I did, and sad as that sounds, there are many papers I still do not fill me with a sense of satisfaction. In retrospect, I think this could be to lack of tangible audience****. A audience which I believe I have now, and because of this change of stage, it’s as if I just bit the apple, (Woah! Where did that biblical allusion come from?) and realized that I look absolutely foolish when I misspell a simple word, when trying to convey a serious message.

In reading other peoples writings I realize what I have been missing out on. Just as I watch my bother paint, I want to partake in this art form of “communication,” but also just wiring for the fun of it. This is probably more serious than I originally intended- but from writing over the past month I’ve discovered characteristics I didn’t know about myself.

I also have come to ask myself why I read other peoples writings. People I don’t know.

I’ve been in Nairobi for 43 days. Somewhere spent in an hospital, most are in the vicinity of the University of Nairobi, very few have been outside of the city. I have lived here, yet I do not feel that I have explored this amazing country, or even town, to the extent I feel possible. If I were to leave in fifteen days, I could not say I am well traveled in Kenya, that I know the city well enough to take my friends around to tourist locations (without a taxi) and I have yet to take the amount of pictures I have spending one week in California.

Now I sit in Dormans Coffee writing about it.
-this took almost two hours to muse over

Catch you Friday.

*I have no clue what the parameters of this sentence are. This is also the first foot note I’ve ever written in a non-referential context. I also feel somewhat snobbish using the words: presume, temperamental, remiss, persuasion, particular – and other words I have to rely on spell check to save me from looking like more of a dolt than I am (I say this with a smile on my face)**

**Because I interrupt my thoughts so much I am searching for more appropriate grammatical devices and symbols to show my more linear readers my intentions and thought flow. That I care about this, I find amusing and will subject it to further review (an asshole phrase), in the respect (another one) that this session at a coffee shop in Kenya started off about my musings about me reading other peoples writings

***Even as I write this it tickles me to think of myself as a “writer,” and I find myself on a tangent of self-definitions, and how there are very few people who will have read this far besides my mother and perhaps Mr. Abrahamson himself

****look! Real writing, without the pretentiousness of my fist three paragraphs. Oh and you can ponder over what that says about my character, because I certainly have


[I will change the layout to something orange-ish, but I like this layout better]

Like Bryan, I'm curious
I have to re-think the whole 3 post a week thing, I don't think that's going to work.
edit this later tonight, when I'm not working :)

-- right, I'll go make something tonight, I was just editing my HTML earlier, for fun, it got funcky-
:)

[What is Sean doing in Kenya?]
I am working for AIESEC Nairobi (a local chapter of an international student organization – which I am part of) as the Project Director of the Young EntrepreneurS (YES) program. The program is funded by a local bank, which is also paying my salary, and is partnered with several microfinance institutions and local businesses to continue a program that teaches recent graduates how to start and run a business. The program works through a series of classroom sessions, networking events, external trips, and the submission of business plans by the participants to be reviewed by our board of advisors for funding. We are also working on a way to track alumni and aid them with networking or any resources they might need. Local business owners, loan officers, accountants, business schoolteachers, and other relevant people teach the sessions.
There are also five international interns (with business and marketing backgrounds) that will be taught about the local realities and then mentor the students in creating a business plan. As of right now we are looking to finish in July, and I will be working on the final report and follow through alumni program afterwards.

[How often are you going to post?]
When I feel like it and/or 3 times a week (M/W/F) to keep me in track- and so my parents phone bill doesn’t sky rocket

[Where are you]
I am in a Nairobi suburb called Kilimani; there aren’t really neighborhoods, but gated complexes with four or five story apartments. I live in one of these called Elite Park, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it on Google, so don’t bother. If you want a relevant location look for the YaYa center or Hurlingham, I pass it on my way home.

[Why are you never on skype or AIM, and why are there so never picture uploads?]
The Internet is slow here – just about everywhere I go, so picture uploads are possible but they will be low res and you’re just going to have to deal with that. There’s also an 8 hour time difference so when I wake up it’s 11 PM in Atlanta. So I leave work around six that makes it 10 am in Atlanta. Oh, I also don’t have the Internet at home. I doubt a videoconference is possible, but we can try at some odd hour and I can sleep at the LC.

[Is your hearing coming back?]
From what I understand it’s nerve damage, so maybe. It has gotten slightly better, but not enough to make a huge difference. If it does, it will be slow and gradual, probably over the next month or two.

If you have any more questions ask, but that’s what most people have been asking

Now for my other thoughts:

I just got back from a conference, which are always motivational, and I realized I need to be more engaging. I taught a few people a difference version of a few dances (and realized I didn’t have the music to black betty or Bebot 0_o) but I could have done so much more – like LC cheers (which some colleges kinda had) and just relating fun thing that our MC and LC do. I also found some really fun stuff that Kenya does that we don’t in the US.

I realized that I represent the US more than I thought. Every time someone wanted to point out a bad leader there were pictures of George Bush and I eventually had to stand up and defend my country from all the slander that I felt was being directed towards it. I won’t spout my political views on here, but it still feels very awkward to have your country at the butt of so many comments.

I need to schedule my week more. I guess I thought about Mixmaster’s comment in his blog about having more habits- that I think could be beneficial to me. Little things like Sunday night planning session with myself, lists of weekly non-work related goals, and stretching in the mornings. I have a whole pile of papers I need to go through. I also need to proofread and sensor myself a little more, and try photojournalism with my slow upload.

Labels: AIESEC, Answers, Kenya

I just uploaded 9 pictures to my flickr account which is linked over ... <- there on the right[Edit- left] ( the picture box, click it!) so you can see where I've been for the past month. they're all small and I figured I'd make a comic to allow for lots of pictures in one upload (1 mb took almost 5 minuets)

I also just looked at the @GT blog, and realized that I wasn't seeing the posted pictures !!! .... (I'm in an internet cafe' and I'm almost crying) It's really hard to type in here, but I can\t express how much I love you guys, and yes, I am getting better... (so many new faces in there too, I can't wait to meet you all. I'll write more when I I get home and have a longer post, (more though out, but I thought I'd thank you while I was still feeling all emotiony

*sniff* love you guys

The Accomplished day

You know when you have one of those days that you just hit everything on your check likes and just want to shout out to the world “I did it!” Well yesterday was like that for me.

I woke up at the un-holly hour of seven o’clock, which is indicative of me wanting to accomplish something regardless of how droll this hour is, to get on a matatu and ride out to the US embassy in Gigiry, would have taken about 20 min, but I had to leave the embassy to have pictures taken, and when I returned there was a line of about five people, as to the none that were there before. So I go back in 10 days is the story.
Then at Uni I met with Fiona, Cheten, and Greg and worked on a problem we’re having with some the system to recruit people, which is still in error, but is being addressed now instead of ignored.

I ate… palo? A spicy rice, and then found my way to the Doctors office in the Parklands- had insurance troubles, but talked to my doctor.

Condition: I have nerve damage in my right inner ear, it will take time to heal, and nothing can be done to help this. Dr. Din’s major concern is my fractured skull, and keeping it free of infection so that I don’t get meningitis or something of that nature. The skull fracture will take a month or so to heal, but I can’t feel it and there seems to be no leakage. Balance is at about %80.

I go back to Uni, where a Chinese intern, Annie, is saying her good bys- she taught me how to say good by in Chinese, because she has to go back to the fatherland, and in the process I convince at least half of the people I work with that it would be a good idea to further their cultural understanding of Ethiopia (because I wanted to start the tradition of eating at a ”foreign” restaurant after meetings). It’s hard to change people’s ways’ when they are used to just going to a bar, but many don’t drink – so we ended up with maybe 15 people (a good number), lots of meat, some really bitter coffee, smoking incense that the waiter had to take away, and one or two good group pictures.

I was pleased with my day.





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My week at home vs. Life in Kenya

Sunday-
US: Probably out caving or climbing in Atlanta, come home at a late hour, or if I know I have hw I stay home ( not usually a night to go out) I remember lots of house meetings and cooking on Sunday nights in the ORGT house, there was also the AIESEC leadership meetings, which would sometimes end with Maddie cooking for us after we went out and bought stuff .
Kenya: Haven’t had many, but I’ve stayed home mostly, I’m trying to change that, but I still don’t think of it as a party night, I wake up at 7 every week morning.

Monday:
US: Class in the morning, lunch with at the office with Bryan and sometimes Kat, Work till 7 – rush over to the General participant meeting [GPM] (AIESEC) then go out to eat with the Local Community afterwards (usually someplace foreign (Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Mexican…and so on)
Kenya: work till about 7. (Meeting will start to take up more time).I think there’s something at the French cultural center but I’ve yet to go to it, Michelle showed me where it is, so I might start to go, but otherwise I’ve been going home after work.

Tuesday:
US: Class in the morning, Eat with Miss Chambers, after class I would climb or go hang out in ORGT (Georgia Tech’s outdoor club) maybe work on bikes in the bike shop until 6 when ORGT General Committee would start. That ended at 7. (On some days of the month the Local Caving Grotto would meet so I would leave early and go talk with cavers). Probably eat at home. Unless I went to the caving meeting then at Moes (Tex-mex…kinda)
Kenya: work till 6,The LC’s all meet at a bar called comfort Inn not far from campus, so it’s neat to meet other LC members in Nairboi (GT, tri this, it’s not a meeting, just talking and eating… if your making a inter LC community. After that Beryl’s been taking me down to Wilson airport, where I go to the Kenyan Mountain Club, which has dinner the last Tuesday of the month, and I’ve been planning my activates around what they do… so it’s good for the rest of the week. Someone drives me home.. maybe around 10-11

Wednesday:
US: Same as Monday, class, eat with AIESEC people, Work till 7, then The caving meeting, which ends with eating out, and Chris driving me back home to the ORGT house, we might eat again at home, play with Stich (Dog), Dean and Rob fight each other, or Rachel is playing Guitar. House meetings at 2 am are great.

Kenya: Work, …. Going to have our weekly Team meetings, which I have to plan for, then type notes, and put files up on the Yahoo group. But as of now not much, go home, eat… read… sleep

Thursday:
US: Class eat lunch with Emily, Climb or bike, Rock meeting at 6, then go climb OR ride bikes with “Faster Mustache” on the leisurely Thursday night rides, which tour Atlanta, and might end in Decatur, or at Johnnys. Then eat out. It's how I learned most of what I know about the city. So Eat out (not at home) – if it was cold, or there wasn’t any riding I would climb

Kenya: work, MSS (member session seminar [?]) followed by… shens. :p first week I followed members to Central after the meeting (a police bar) then went out .. clubbing I guess. This past week I convinced a good number of people to go eat Ethiopian, and try to instill the international eating part of AIESEC that I’ve come to love. I hope to make this a weekly installment.

Friday:
US: Class, work till 7. Last Friday of the month is Critical mass, where I go ride with 300 other bikes around town, then end at Johnny's and sometimes a party after. There’s usually a party at an AIESEC’ers house or Cole was doing something [Amy's house in Blueridge, or in Emory] sometimes travel to far off conferences, or a weekend full of caving. Never home, never alone… just how it was ☺

Kenya: This past Friday I went out with a group of Chinese AIESECers to a Chinese restaurant in the Westland’s, It was nothing like I expected. They said karaoke, I though like a large restaurant where people get on stage, I also though it would just be them. There were… 10 of us, and I got to eat good Chinese in Nairobi... which felt more natural than eating Kenyan food. They were surprised that I could use chop sticks… it was weird, but w/e. I think this is pretty much the same as in US, the start of the weekend-parties, travel, and be active.

Saturday
US: work sometimes, otherwise caving, climbing, biking (road or mnt. –sometimes races), travels, I get up earlier on Saturday than other days because there’s more fun to be had.

Kenya: working on it, it’s the weekend, so far I’ve done a little exploring, and we played basketball one day. Probably active stuff and travel :P