Where do I begin...there are two half-empty suitcases sitting on my bedroom floor. I know the task I have ahead of me but I can't seem to get moving. Procrastination is my way of avoiding reality. How do I feel about packing up my life and moving to Nairobi for a year? Excited, motivated, anxious, hopeful, sad, I guess all of these can apply but most of all uncertain. Its not like I haven't experienced this melange of emotions before. Everytime something new is about to begin in my life I find myself going through the same process...it begins with the intial feelings of excitement that turns into this mood of lethargy I am in right now.
When I found out I would be moving to Kenya, I started scouring the internet for anything about this place. I google searched images of Nairobi dozens of times to try to visualize the city where I will be living for a year. I looked for books about Kenya or by Kenyans. Lately, there are two books that I haven't been able to put down. The first is the Lonely Planet's Guide to East Africa which conveniently has a long chapter on Kenya filled with the basic things that every potential tourist is interested in knowing...what type of weather to expect, where to go to get "decent" food, how to be culturally sensitive, and of course, a complete history of post-colonial Kenya in three pages. I know what I'm reading is probably not the most accurate description of Kenya; I know its something meant to give comfort to anticipating travelers who have no clue what to expect, but I can't help indulging. The other book I'm reading is Devil on the Cross, a vivid and complex novel by Kenya's most celebrated author, Ngugi wa Thiong'o who secretely wrote this story on scraps of toilet paper while in prison. The book touches on themes of capitalism, spirituality, corruption, poverty and echoes with pangs of patriotism of the author who evidently loves his country enough so to risk his career and his life to criticize those who have been responsible for tearing it down. I admire his writing and people like him who do things out of passion and self-less devotion to seeing ones people and homeland prosper. Its also an interesting way to be introduced to the realies of modern Kenya, the problems that plague it and many other African countries and issues that I might encounter in the line of humanitarian work.
Sometime during the Princeton in Africa orientation, someone said: "don't expect to change Africa as much as being changed by your experience there." Although I am not aimlessly idealistic about saving the desperate people of Africa--in fact, I think I'm more skeptical than most people would suspect--I don't want to spend a whole year just enjoying a slow-paced, relaxing life in Kenya, meeting people, taking time off from academia, traveling across East Africa, etc...I want my time there to have a purpose. I want to leave feeling like I accomplished or contributed something. In a word, I don't want this to be all about me, really I don't. But I've always noticed how things never work out the way we imagine. In anycase I'll should put expectations aside for now and finish packing.
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After graduating from college, I start my year long internship with the IRC at its branch office in Nairobi, Kenya. Though I've had to opportunity to travel in other parts of Africa, this is my first time in East Africa (other than Ethiopia where I was born). I hope to share my experiences/insights/adventures from this year with anyone interested in knowing what I'm doing or seeing part of Africa through my eyes.
