That Dhoruba Irene

Reasons why its good that I'm still in New York and not on my way to Zurich right now:

1. I didn't really clean my room before we drove to the airport. Now I have time to do that.
2. My new layover is in Doha. Not even the travel agent knew where that was at first.
     2b. I have 12 hours to get very well acquainted with the Doha airport
3. Right before I left I saw we had Tangled on netflix. Now I can watch that.
4. More family time
5. The real good byes won't be as tragic as the practice good byes. We got that out of our systems
6. I can say goodbye to my cat
7. I can say I survived a hurricane
8. I can finish Cutting for Stone so I don't have to pack it
9. I'll definitely remember to take my larium because my mother will remind me
10. I'm not alone in my disappointment (bonding)
11. I can write another blog post full of optimistic reasons why I'm ok with being back in my living room

Dhoruba means "storm". I bet you were expecting something offensive.

Stay here with us. Don't go abroad.

I am now leaving Monday night. JFK to Doha to Nairobi. WOOOOOO.

Leaving tomorrow...

First, please enjoy this orientation video emailed to us by the SIT people:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azVqekQBK8g
No really.

My plane leaves at 6pm from Newark, just in time to miss Irene. Hopefully. Earthquake and now a hurricane... 2012 is arriving a little early. People are worried about me leaving, but I'm now worried about everyone who's staying here. Try not to drown.

Anyway, I leave at 6pm Saturday and arrive at 6pm on Sunday, briefly stopping in Zurich. And yes, I am [insert what ever emotion you were thinking because, trust me, I am].

So ladies and gents who are reading this blog, this is farewell for now. But stay tuned for far cooler update when I actually arrive.

Kwaheri!!

Piffle

MY LARIUM INDUCED NIGHTMARE

Or lack there of. Between the hours of 2:45 and 6:00 last night/ this morning I was staring at my ceiling. Having gone to bed around midnight, there is no real reason I should have been awake. So I read a bit (Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. I recommend it), talked to people in Seattle, and watched the sunrise. Then, miraculously, I fell back asleep.

Good story.

So Saturday is inching closer. I should really have started packing yesterday, but there was an earthquake. Clearly I couldn't do anything since the aftershocks would probably knock over my nicely folded clothes and ruin everything. Honestly, didn't even feel it. Unless I am so scarred by the event that I repressed the memory and the haunting glimmer of a traumatic history was what was keeping me up last night.

Now it's a good story.

More information on the trip ahead: I will be MIA for the first week there. The crash course in culture is essentially a trip into the unknown (ooooooo). But SIT says contacting people will be unlikely. So do not fret. I know Gettysburg won't. I just signed the waiver saying that if I do disappear in Kenya it's not their fault. During the second week I'll move in with my homestay family and begin the course work.

I would really love to press fast forward to 6:00 pm on Saturday. Watching everyone post on facebook about  being back at school or that they are in their study abroad country is making me anxious. It probably wouldn't bother me as much if I was packing instead of being on facebook.

In other news, my little brother Michael was on TV last night. If anyone was watching the 9th inning of the Yankees game, he was the one still in the stands applauding after the other fans had given up and left. It ended up being a close game, but the Yankees lost anyway.

80 hours till take off.

Five Days to Go

As my friend Paul said “Just think about it like you’re going away to school and not coming back for Thanksgiving”. (Paul’s going to Ecuador with the SIT program. Because he’s awesome and is into the environment. Hi Paul.)

A lot of people think I am going to be in the middle of the jungle or chilling in a hut for the entire time I’m in Kenya. This is not the case. In fact, Nairobi is a very developed city. They have skyscrapers, banks, paved streets, and camera stores.

It's like Texas!

Sorry about that. I just like the picture. It was found during a google map search of Nairobi. 

But anyway, Nairobi itself seems to be your average city. It’s about 5500 ft above sea level, making it cooler than NY right now. Weather.com reports a pretty consistent high of 70-80 degrees F over the last two weeks. Lows can get into the 50s at night. Furthermore, I am going during the dry season. (There are not four seasons in Kenya. There are two: rainy and dry) Weather wise, I think we’re pretty lucky.

Sometime in September we’ll be leaving Nairobi to go to a village outside of the coastal city of Mombasa. I imagine this will be closer to what most of you are imagining. It will be in a “rural” area and we’ll have class outside. Also at some point we’ll be leaving the country to go to either Uganda or Tanzania.  

Today I said goodbye to my grandparents and my two uncles. The final To Do list was just written up a few minutes ago. Three people today have told me I’m not allowed to pull a Jolie/Pitt and adopt a kid in Kenya (I didn't realize people were worried about this). Tomorrow I also start my first dose of Larium. Now, apparently one of the side effects of this malaria medication is nightmares. Perhaps I’ll started a segment called “My Larium-Induced Nightmare” and relay what I dream. If nothing else interests you on this blog, this should at least. Only if I get nightmares though. Promising you exciting and illusory tales of my epic battle against an army of q-tips hell bent on invading Glatfelter Lodge to steal the sorcerer’s stone almost guarantees I won’t have any.  

Terrifying...

In case you were wondering

Two posts in two days. Might as well post enough to make it look like I’m dedicated to this while I’m still in the “shiny-new-thing” phase of this blog.

So, people keep asking me why the hell I want to go to Kenya. Psych majors usually go to Denmark, and Denmark is [clean/ cool/ established/ a place people actually go/ the place where your great aunt lives/ really good about health care/ in Europe/ free of refugee camps/ not in the middle of a famine]. Not like Kenya. What my family doesn’t realize is that they programmed me to want to go to Kenya. That’s right, I blame all of you. Here’s why:

1.      1. The first film I ever saw in theaters at the age of 3: The Lion King. Asante sana (squash banana) Mom and Dad!  

2.       2. My Uncle went to Somalia as a Marine. Clearly the total opposite reason of why I want to go to the Horn of Africa. However, at the naïve age of 2, he didn’t tell me his real reasons for going over.  Instead I heard about all the cool things he saw, the animals, the landscape, the people, ect. He even got me a necklace with little wooden animals on it. I remember playing with it all the time.

3.       3.  Another reason why it’s my uncle’s fault: Now he’s working with Peace Keeping Missions in that general area.

4.       4.  My Nana lived across the street from the family of a Kenyan diplomat ceria age 6-8 . The family had a boy my age and a son two years younger than me, and my Nana had a pool. They came over to swim all the time. The oldest one was the first person to show me where Kenya was on a map and said I need to visit some day and see his goat farm. The dad said they didn’t own goats, but I wanted to go anyway. I remember playing “Africa” on their front lawn when their grass got really long. Then one day they moved. (Since then, their house was bought by a family from the area, bulldozed, and replaced by a stucco McMansion. Their grass is always perfectly trimmed and sprayed by migrant gardeners.)

5.     5.   Fast forward about 14 years- when looking for places to study abroad, mom and dad said I could go anywhere but South Africa. My dad’s co-worker told him it was too dangerous. After more research I discovered the SIT Program, which offered WAAAAYYYY more countries in Africa than just South Africa. So “anywhere but” became Kenya, the place my 6 year old self really wanted to visit. The parents are not too thrilled about this choice either, but they should understand that they are part of the reason I’m going (see #1).

Of course I have more practical reasons for going. I can do my Peace and Justice Studies minor capstone over there and knock off a requirement for my IA major. If my ISP goes the way I planned, I’ll get a look into mental health in a non-Western country (take that Denmark).  I’ll also get to see various outreach and development organizations, something I will probably end up working with in the future.

Though I still think imaginary goat farms are a good reason to go. 

OMG Another Blog!

I never thought I’d get a blog.

But, here it is. Look at me, embracing technology when I still have issues turning on the TV (there are a lot of buttons. It’s never just as simple as pressing ‘on’). Here I will fill you all in on my study abroad trip to Nairobi, Kenya and the surrounding areas.  This way, on the chance I get to talk to any of you, you all can tell me about your lives rather than me gushing about mine. After all, you all have read my blog.

Let’s talk about the blog’s title. “Shikamoo” is a formal greeting in Kiswahili, the language I will be learning in Kenya. Now, you might be thinking, “Well, that’s a little presumptuous to have a title in Kiswahili. She doesn’t even speak it.”

Let me explain.

Shikamoo translates to something along the lines of “I touch your feet”. It is generally used by a younger person addressing an elder as a sign of respect. In English, we don’t really have a word that expresses admiration upon meeting someone. Sadly, imperialism botched the significance of the word. It became the way a servant addressed his master, making it somewhat of a controversial word. It’s like saying “I am not worthy”. This is okay when addressing someone you respect, but not when you are forced by a foreign invader with quinine and a gun. The amount the word is used is something I will find out once I’m there.

But while I’m there, I have no idea what to expect. At times it will be overwhelming, but it will be amazing. I want to be awed, shocked, and inspired by what I see. I want a heavy dose of reality after two years in a college bubble. To face this opportunity with anything less than respect for Kenya is almost impossible.

Shikamoo is the perfect word to describe my approach to the trip.

10 days to go.