Footprints Across Africa: The Center of East Africa!

Nairobi...where the magic happens! Living in Zanzibar, it is easy to get wrapped up in your own little world and I forgot how much I miss big cities.

Nairobi...or rather, what I have seen of it thus far is pretty alright! When I was in Kenya back in 2007 studying at Kenyatta University (KU) I didn't really get a chance to explore the city as I was ushered around, with 16 other University of Ottawa students, in a KU bus. We stayed on campus which was outside of the city centre and the trip into the city from KU with a car, during rush hour took about 1.5hrs (on a good day!) Without traffic the trip should only take about 20 minutes...that's how crazy traffic is in this city. The first thing I have learned is how to cross the street in Nairobi...first, you look both ways, then when you realize there won't EVER be a break in traffic, you just start walking and hope for the best. My trick has been to wait for someone else also crossing the road and follow their lead!

Nairobi, and its people have been treating me well. For starters I haven't been called "muzungu" once in one full week (not blatantly at least!). In Zanzibar that would never happen so it's very refreshing to be able to walk down the street in peace! Last Saturday when I arrived, I met up with an old friend from KU, he was studying at KU when my group was there and he was our "go to" person for anything we wanted to know or do! He's pretty much played that same role for me this time around as well...thanks Mike :) On Sunday we drove around the KU campus just to reminisce...I forgot how beautiful the campus is and there have been some major improvements including the construction of more than 6 new buildings including a massive library. We were nerdy enough to want to go into the library but they only allow access to current students so we had to convince security that we are alumni and just wanted to look around.

KU Post Modern Library

For those of you who don't know, my main purpose of coming back to Nairobi is to studying Monitoring and Evaluation at the AMREF International Training Centre. The course runs for 4 weeks after which time I can hopefully call my self a specialist in something, or at least on my way to becoming a specialist!

The main entrance to the AMREF International Training Centre

The first week has been good even though we have just been reviewing the basic terms and concepts of M&E which can be a bit tedious if you already know these concepts! However, the really interesting part so far has been the group dynamics and group discussions.

One of the facilitators: Dr. Frederick Chelule

I didn't know what to think of the make up of the group before I started. I mostly figured that it would be all men however, in a group of close to 50 participants the gender ratio is pretty much even. Even more interesting is the fact that there are people from all over the continent including 4 "muzung's" (myself, a girl from the UK working in Liberia with Merlin, a Swiss girl working in Switzerland with Medair and a Bulgarian guy). I'd say that half of the participants are Kenyan's and the others represent the following African countries:

Tanzania
Ethiopia
Burundi
Sudan
South Sudan
Uganda
Liberia
Nigeria
The Gambia
Cameroon

If you pull up a map of Africa, you can see how dynamic the group is and the experience is very rich. Most people are managers at NGOs or work in government institutions, some people already work in M&E and others want to be able to train people on M&E. The funniest thing is is that I moved from Tanzania and I am staying in a guest house with the two Tanzanian men along with the guy from Burundi...at least I get to keep practicing my Swahili! Speaking of which, when I attempt to speak Swahili here people look at me like I have two heads as the language is spoken far less here than in Tanzania. For example, students in Kenya are schooled in English right from the primary level where as in TZ they are schooled in Swahili until secondary school.

So, I think that's all for a first week recap. Stay tuned for the coming weeks!