Tag: Nairobi

By eryon180

Here it goes! The last week in the big capital city of Nairobi. The last four weeks have been a mixture of awe, confusion and wonder, I can only imagine what the next month is going to look like.

During our last week, we focused on improving our Swahili. In order to do this, we went to one of the biggest informal markets in Nairobi called Toi Market. Toi is “karibu naa” or near the informal settlement of Kibera and provides self-employed jobs to hundreds of people. The products in Toi range from fruits and vegetables, second-hand clothes from the US and UK to bedding and TVs.  For a student though, Toi Market has proven to be really useful because the prices are cheap and the sellers are open to bartering the price.

...continue reading "Leaving Nairobi"

By eryon180

For ten days, my program went on a educational excursion to the capital of Rwanda, Kigali! In comparison to Kenya, the entire country is completely different. Kenya is mostly flat, consists of high temperatures and is very very dirty due to a lack of waste management. It is also dangerous as a woman to go out at night, so my days have been cut short around 7pm. However, Kigali is the opposite. The country is called the Land of A Thousand Hills, has a community-based garbage collection system and the police is integrated with the army so there is little to no crime.

...continue reading "Expectations vs. Reality"

By eryon180

For my research, I decided to look at the opinions and KAP (knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of the Maasai towards FGM or female circumcision in the town of Narok. The Maasai are among the highest practitioners of FGM in Kenya and in Narok they have rates of about 70%.

I want to understand why the Maasai practice FGM and what their viewpoint is. Often, anti-FGM practitioners look at the survivors but do not understanding the practicing communities. My hope is that my studying the Maasai, my research can improve anti-FGM advocacy by identifying voids in understanding.

...continue reading "How to Secure a Research Location (aka Maasailand)"

By eryon180

This weekend, we stayed in the village of Simenya! Simenya is located an hour away from the the ancestral home of President Obama and his grandma Sarah Obama. I was a little worried because I had the expectations that we would be in a hut, as we had seen passing along the road. We arrived at night during the rain with our mosquito nets and toilet paper in hand. I was placed with the village electrician who lived away from the main town.

...continue reading "Ah Simenya!"

By eryon180

During my classes, we were introduced to an on-going development project in the informal settlement of Obunga in Kisumu. The slum is located on the outskirts of the city near the fish factories. My class, along with a group of Kenyan university students from Maseno University went through the site to see the differences between the Nairobi and Kisumu settlements.

Since Obunga is in a swamp, the houses have begun to sink into the ground and many of them flood during the rain. At the end of the walk-through, we went to one of the largest informal enterprises in the settlement—fish remains processing. Since the slum is located next to the fish (samaki) filet factories, the people pay the factories for the remains to be resold.

...continue reading "Bring Me Back Some Samaki"