Monday, November 29, 2010

Excel for Kenyans




As previously mentioned, I have been helping M out in the lab every day since school ended. Due to some delays, he only just received many of the samples necessary for his work so he has quite the backlog and so I’ve been helping him work on lab experiments.

M’s work is just one of several projects ongoing simultaneously in the hospital’s labs. From what I can tell, they are quite active in research in the overlap between infectious disease and entomology since so many diseases here are mosquito/insect transmitted. The Center for Global Health and Disease at Case works quite closely with a number of Kenyan organizations in this research so M has gotten to know some of the researchers. Many of these researchers are PhD or Masters students in either public health or entomology and are doing thesis work. This involves a significant amount of data collection that they have to analyze for their theses. Word got around that I was assisting the primary investigator on M’s study with some of her backlogged data and I was asked to “show some students some basic Excel tricks”. No problem.
Fast forward a few days and I’m shown a flyer where I’m advertised as giving a full presentation for Continuing Medical Education (CME) at the hospital for doctors, hospital administrators, and the researching students. Now CME in the US is a requirement for medical professionals to keep up on their skills. Needless to say it’s taught by someone MEDICAL. I definitely don’t count. In fact by my estimation, I would actually the least educated person in the room based on degrees conferred. Perfect.

Now I spent the last 5 years working with Excel almost daily so I know how to analyze data. They wanted me to present, however, on data collection and data management. Not a whole lot of data collection in biotech consulting but ok, I can do this. So, I began by asking the students what they wanted to learn and kept getting the same response: “I want to learn to analyze my data in Excel”. Oh, that really narrows it down. Several promised to send me their data and copies of their previous analyses so I could see what they needed to accomplish. I’m sure you’ll be shocked to hear that no one sent me anything. In a lucky break, however, I did manage to sneak a look at one girl’s data while I used the bathroom in another lab so I had some idea of how she could reformat it more effectively for analysis.

I made up some dummy datasets and created a 23 slide presentation over the weekend. Although I’ve been in many more stressful business situations, I wanted to make sure I didn’t waste anyone’s time (doctor’s are at a premium in Kenya!) or reflect poorly on M or M’s lab (an actual concern given the status of wives in the part of coastal Kenya where the hospital is).

The presentation was slated from 12:30-2. We considered heading up there at noon to set up but realized that would be foolish. We headed up right at 12:30 and were met by an empty room. Eventually someone showed up with a projector and we continued to wait. People started straggling in around 1:00 and we started at 1:05. They all just kept saying “oh, we’re on Kenyan time” as they arrived late. No one had misplaced the time, this is actually a conscious choice to not show up on time though I suppose you have little incentive to come on time if no one else does. Didn’t really phase me since I expected it but it is interesting.

So, I proceeded to give my presentation as slowly as I could and tried to give a lot of examples. I was met with a lot of silence and stares. Definitely not my toughest audience but it was hard to gauge any reaction since no one had any questions. Later I approached several of the students and said I knew that the presentation had been pretty basic and I was happy to answer their more complex questions and they all said that they had actually learned a lot.

After talking with some of our missionary friends later, I think there are several possible reasons for the silence and the reality is probably some combination of all of these items. First, they didn’t want to embarrass me and asking a question could make it seem that I hadn’t taught the material well. Second, they don’t want to expose their own confusion/lack of knowledge in front of their colleagues. Third, I’m a young mzungu woman and the racial/cultural/religious/language barriers are huge in Msambweni which is a mostly Muslim, rural, fishing village.

Afterwards, I had to sign their CME manuals to verify their attendance. I tried to demure that it wasn’t really CME but they were insistent that they get credit for their attendance! So, I signed my name. Anyway, people seemed appreciative later and at the very least, hopefully it was a goodwill gesture for M’s lab.

We head to Nairobi via night bus tonight and then will travel to Kisumu for a half-marathon on Wednesday for World AIDS Day. Kisumu is in Western Kenya on the shores of Lake Victoria and the drive from Nairobi to Kisumu will include driving through the Rift Valley. After the half marathon, we plan to travel through some of the smaller national parks in the Rift Valley. We're going to try and post from the road but we are always mindful that you can never count on anything to go as planned so we shall see. Have a great start to the week!


View Mombasa to Kisumu in a larger map

Friday, November 26, 2010

Go Bucks!

While we haven't had much of a chance to watch OSU football this season, we found other ways to support the Buckeyes, and believe it or not, we found OSU fans wherever we went!

Masaai warriors for Ohio State:


On the Masaai Mara:


Kilimanjaro guides for Ohio State:


Sunrise on Kilimanjaro:




Lucy and Mungai are hardcore Buckeyes:


E is teaching them young:


GO BUCKS, BEAT MICHIGAN!!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

As you might imagine, Kenyans don't celebrate the arrival of the Mayflower on the shores of North America and the ensuing communal meal of Pilgrims and Native Americans. So it's just Thursday here, and we're in the lab getting some work done.

We may not be gorging on turkey, stuffing, delmonico potatoes, cranberry sauce, etc, and watching football (tear), but we still have so much to be thankful for. Here's just a short list:

We're thankful for our loving family back home (epecially our new Godson, Finn)

We're thankful for our great friends in the US

We're thankful for our dog Baker (and for my parents who are watching him while we're gone!)

We're thankful that we found a church to attend in Kenya, and thankful for the great friendships that we've made because of it

We're thankful that God has kept us safe thusfar in our trip, and pray that he will continue blessing us

We're thankful for the recent Kenyan cellphone price wars, which have made it affordable to call the US anytime!

We're so thankful that we've had this amazing opportunity to live for a short time on the other side of the world and to spend so much time together before my residency.

However, while this journey has been amazing, we're MOST thankful that we have so many people we love waiting for us back home, praying for us and cheering us on while we get the travel bug out of our systems (at least of the time being). We miss you all, have an extra slice of turkey for us (and watch a LOT of football), we love you, and we'll talk to you soon.

M & E

P.S. OSU-Michigan blog tomorrow...

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Chakula cha Njia (street food)

I love street food. It’s a fact. Were it socially and gastronomically acceptable, I would take all of my meals in the form of street food. When on our honeymoon in Thailand, E had to literally drag me away from the street venders and into proper restaurants, which was probably a good thing for our overall health. Thailand is very well known for all of the delectables available on the street, but what about Kenya?

I have to say that the street food scene here is not quite a vibrant as Thailand, but it does have some bright spots, nonetheless. Let’s start with mahindi choma, or roasted ears of maize. These are usually grilled with the husk peeled back over charcoal, the grill fashioned out of a discarded car wheel rim and some salvaged wire. After grilling, a half of a lime is dipped into “masala”, which is salt and cayenne pepper, and then rubbed on the corn. Like E mentioned before, the corn is not sweet, but is rather a firmer maize, and after being grilled, has a distinctive popcorn flavor. It’s really pretty tasty, and at 10 shillings (12 cents) per ear, a good deal. A typical maize hawker below:



Since were on the coast, the coconut is omnipresent. Actually not native to the Kenyan coast, it was introduced a few hundred years ago, and, like exotics are apt to do, flourished. There are actually two names for coconuts in Swahili. Mdafu is a young coconut, and nazi is a mature coconut. Street venders often sell both. Kenyans prefer the milk from the young coconut, but E and I both agree that the mature coconut is tastier. They chop off the top of the coconut with a panga, or machete, and you drink out of it like a cup. A few weeks ago, a man came into the OR with a bloody rag on his hand, and when he took it off, it revealed the stump where his thumb used to be. He was a coconut vender who got distracted. Apparently this is not uncommon, which is kind of terrible.

When getting off of the ferry in Mombasa, you can go up Mama Ngina Drive which follows along the water, and this place is lined with vendors selling cassava chips. These are made as you would expect, with thin shavings of the root dropped into the cooking oil, and then salted and served while still hot. They are delicious. I believe that Terra Chips have cassava in them, so you can pick those out and have a little taste of Kenya.

In Lamu, we came upon a vender who was being overrun by a mob of children and their parents. We were on our way to dinner, but I didn’t want to miss out on top-shelf street food. He was selling fried cassava chunks, over which he squeezed lime and added some masala. The result was amazing. Hot, tender, flavorful. We haven’t seen it since, but hopefully we will meet again.

Mandazi is fried, slightly sweet dough; a dead ringer for beignets if they had some powered sugar. Very common and popular in Kenya, as they are quite cheap, at five KSH or so. They’re pretty tasty, but we don’t really seek them out.

Sugarcane is served in little chunks with the tough outer covering cut off. I had never had sugarcane before, so didn’t know what to expect. You can pop the chunk in your mouth and chew to release all of the juice before spitting out the fiber. It’s very refreshing!

Samosas are just like the samosas that many people have tried in Indian restaurants back in the states (the little triangles of deep-fried, meat and veggie-stuffed goodness). We don’t really see them in Ukunda, as many people are from upcountry, where the Indian influence is not as strong, but they’re all over the place in Mombasa. When we took the bus up to Lamu, samosas helped to tide us over, as there were samosa hawkers at every stop. E looked around in vain for a vegetable of any sort on the bus ride but I was happy as a clam with my fried street food.

Some vendors sell nyama (meat) on a stick with some unknown sauce, but we’ve been warned by several sources that the safety of this particular food is suspect, and it just doesn’t feel safe, so I can’t comment on how it tastes. With street food, I feel like it’s good to “trust your gut”. I have a little routine at lunch with an older gentleman who’s trying to sell me his nyama: He puts the plate under my nose, and I say “si leo, labda kesho”, or “not today, maybe tomorrow”. Literally, this occurs five days per week. There’s a cultural thing here where you can’t really say “no” outright, you have to say “not today”, or something similar.

Though not technically “street food”, much mobile food in Kenya is purchased from small kiosks (see below). E and I decided that “small kiosk” was redundant, as I’ve never come across a massive kiosk, but it’s how all Kenyans refer to them. Anyways, they generally sell things like water, milk, fruit, biscuits, and groundnuts, or peanuts. Biscuits are a very popular snack here, thanks to the British. They’re basically sweet little buttery cookie crackers. I’m not certain, but I think that a cookie is called a biscuit here. They’re very cheap, and thus, very popular. Also, E informs me that it’s pronounced “bisk-weet” [the end rhymes with tweet] by the kids at school and it’s accompanied by juice, pronounced “ju-eece” [the ending rhymes with Greece].



Often found at kiosks, and by far the strangest street food of all, is small bags of rocks. That’s right, rocks. They even have them at Nakumatt. We’re still trying to understand their use, though we think it may have something to do with correcting mineral deficiencies.



The final street food that I’ll mention is the ephemeral sim-sim, or sesame ball. It’s held together by a small amount of sugar (obviously at one point melted sugar), and has a great nutty and slightly sweet taste. There is one woman in Msambweni who sells them for two KSH each, and whenever I see her, I buy her out, but for some reason, she is not frequently around. I think she’s underestimating her market. This scarcity lead me to the cockamamie scheme of making my own sim-sim, which will be a subject of another blog.

All in all, the street food here makes decent snacks, but you’d be hard-pressed to put together a meal. The maize is hardy and tasty, and I’ll often pick up some peanuts to tide me over, but our overall street food to normal meal quotient is quite low.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Local, Sustainable, Trash-fed?

The barnyard animals that regularly roam the streets can also be found dining on the trash in Ukunda or in other locales (this picture happens to be in the Maasai Mara but it happens everywhere, including in Mombasa):



Obviously, this struck us as quite odd as Americans but if you stop to think about it, maybe it isn’t so weird. As scores of articles and best-selling books have told us over the last few years, Americans don’t eat well!

Our method of raising animals on steroids, unnatural foods (grain for cattle, animal protein for chickens), and in massive lifestock pens makes for sick and unhealthy animals which we then eat.

Consider instead that Kenyan lifestock is often much more free range; remember M’s story about commuter goats? This means they get exercise, can choose their diet, and are not exposed to sick animals with regularity. Yes, it means they sometimes choose to eat trash but remember that there are fewer processed foods here. The trash they’re eating is mostly raw food scraps.

Kenyan animals are often left to breed “as nature intended” (sometimes in the middle of the road) so you don’t get in-breeding to create super cuts of beef or chickens with breasts so large that they can’t stand.

When you buy meat, it’s usually from an animal close to home. Lack of refrigeration and the prohibitive cost of transport means that most meat is local although this is starting to change as chain grocery stores are opening rapidly.

So, when you think about it that way, Kenyan animals may be as healthy if not healthier than American meat. I’m not advocating that we let cows loose in the middle of New York City but it does give us pause when we see something that appears to be “backward” that upon reflection may actually be “forward-thinking”.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Life is a (terribly potholed) highway!

In late October, mzee traveled to the states for a conference, and to visit colleagues at my med school. Seeing that I had relied on him for a ride to the lab every morning, this presented a problem. However, I got approval from the powers that be to drive the lab / government vehicles, so problem solved. Well, not exactly.

Though it pains me to admit it, a few weeks ago, I was a 28 year old, warm-blooded American man who didn’t know how to drive stick. Correction: I drove stick once in my aunt’s Mazda Miata (the little two-seater about twice the size of a Matchbox car) when I was 16. The ensuing 12 years have been in an automatic. My five-foot tall wife, on the other hand, could drive stick. Shame on me, I know.

No one asked me directly if I knew how to drive a manual, but I definitely didn’t broadcast that I didn’t know, lest we lose all opportunity to ever drive in this country. No big deal, I could learn, but Kenya is not the empty Wal-Mart parking lot that is recommend for starting drivers. First, they drive on the left side of the road (thanks, Brits!). Second, the drivers’ side is on the right. Third, there are literally no traffic laws. Fourth, there are always people / cows / goats / handcarts all over the place.

This being 2010, I of course Googled “learning to drive stick” and read a few sites with hot tips and tricks. All recommended going to a massive, vacant parking lot. Strike one. Whatever, I don’t need my hand held. After reading about the basics, E and I went out for a test drive (once mzee was out well out of the country and not able to witness the horror). Bear in mind E can drive stick, but because she’s not employed by the lab / she’s a woman in Kenya (mostly the latter), I am obviously the more qualified to drive, even without any experience. While I will admit to being of the sexist men-are-better-drivers camp, it was definitely not true in this case. Don’t tell any of the Kenyans, but she coached me a little bit.

The vehicle is an aqua ~2000 Nissan pickup, with several hundred thousand miles on it. These are not American miles, either. Some of the miles are from the commute from Diani to Msambweni, but many were tacked on to and from “the field” (read: horrendous, potholed dirt roads). The life of vehicles is much shorter here, and this is in spite of cheap labor for repairs.

In the driver’s seat, ready to follow all of the steps that I read about. Neutral, clutch, brake, ignition. Parking break off. Oh wait, this truck doesn’t have a parking break. Reverse, gas, off the clutch. A little stuttering, not too bad. 1st, pull to end of drive, turning right onto main road. E: “You might want to be on the left side of the road”, as a truck comes barreling towards us. Good point. Next thought: Shift well before redline. I look down at my tachometer, which reads “0”. My speedometer also reads “0”. The gauges are apparently decorative. I shift up a few times and we get moving at a good clip down the road. I obviously don’t want to stop or slow, so we just drive and drive.

After a few trips in each direction down the beach road, we head to the Nakumatt to pick up some groceries. Though the Kenyan equivalent of Wal-Mart, the parking lot is more like that of a convenience store, but less roomy. I barrel into the parking lot at an ungodly speed, with the fear of stalling obviously greatly impacting my frontal lobe function. I finally hurl myself into a parking spot, thankfully without hitting anyone. With great relief, I release the clutch, and the truck violently shutters and stalls. Ahh, second gear. Whatever, I wanted to stop here anyways. The rest of day one was pretty benign, with just a few stalls here and there.

With mzee gone, I also had to drive myself to work, which is about 30 km away, and one has to drive through Ukunda, interesting, to say the least. One has to keep a very close eye on all of the bikes, motorcycles, cars, trucks, handcarts, pedestrians, goats, cows, chickens, cats, and dogs, while simultaneously watching for the cavernous potholes, which could hide office desk, and avoiding wildly swerving matatus. Fortunately, the clutching and the shifting and all that jazz had started to become more natural at this point, so it wasn’t too bad, but it was still a bit of an adrenaline rush.

Light traffic:


The remainder of the drive down to Msambweni was less exciting, but even on a major freeway (two lanes with potholes, in Kenya), there are still challenges. Every few minutes, the matatu that’s driving in front will slam of the brakes and make a half-hearted effort to pull off the road to pick up a fare. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Fortunately, because we’re driving a government vehicle, we don’t have to worry too much about being pulled over by the police and subsequently extorted.

Now, I’m used to driving here and I don’t have a “fight or flight” response when sitting in the drivers’ seat. While I was apprehensive at first, it is really nice to be driving again, even if only occasionally when mzee is out of town, and not having to rely solely on matatus to get around Diani. Today I drove several lab people, including mzee, down to the lab without incident, so I think I’ve passed the test. E and I are planning to rent a car and drive between Kisumu and Nairobi in a few weeks to see a few of the lesser-known parks in the Rift Valley. There we may contend with a few zebra or the odd elephant, but I’ll take that over Ukunda any day.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Card Games

As a follow-up to yesterdays post, I thought I'd post some videos of the kids using our cards. They're actually less distracted by me shooting video than using my camera because of the flash and they're just so adorable that I love video anyway!

In this first one, they're using the alphabet cards. Many of the stronger ones already know their letters and the associated sounds well but some others don't. For example, Martin can find you a television (under the letter "t") but he'll tell you "'s' for television". Clearly he's not connecting the "t" with the first sound in television. They looooove this game because Mary makes it a story:


We also made cards with words on one side and a picture on the other. The the stronger ones are learning how to spell so we made cards spelling things like "cat", "pot", and "pen" so that they can try to spell and then check their work.

In this one, you can see Keccy counting the stars to find "10" and then flipping the cards to check her work:


Here is Joy, one of our strongest students, using the cards for simple addition:

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Ready or Not?



Like every school, we have our star students and our kids who need a little extra help. In Kenya, homeschooling is generally not allowed/frowned upon so the children go to school at 3 years old regardless of their readiness. In fact, the news that M was homeschooled generally elicits gasps from teachers at my school who can’t believe that a parent would ever want to do such a thing.

The blanket school attendance of 3-year-olds is somewhat suspect, however, since some of our 4-year-old children are blatantly not ready for school (I help in the middle of the 3 progressive sections of kindergarten – ages 3, 4, and 5). Some of the children in our class are beginning to read 2 and 3-letter words and to do simple addition while others don’t even reliably know the numbers from 1-7.

All instruction is given from the blackboard as children sit at small tables. I would guess that they hear about 50% of what Mary says and spend the other 50% of the time poking their neighbor. Nonetheless after the board instruction, their books are passed out and they “quietly” do their book work for the rest of the hour-long lesson. This system works well if the child is ready for school and generally engaged in his or her work. It seriously breaks down if you have a hyperactive or distractible child.

Martin is one of our weaker students (that's him with me reviewing the number chart). When class began in January (school runs Jan-Nov here with two 1-month breaks), he was on par with his classmates and knew the numbers 1-3. Most of the class can now count to 60. Martin couldn’t count past 4 reliably until 2 weeks ago and he still can’t count past 7 on a regular basis. I’m not a doctor but I’m pretty sure he’s got ADHD. I’ve never seen him make visual contact with the blackboard for longer than 3 seconds while Mary is teaching.

When Mary is alone, she really cannot work with any student individually for more than a minute or two before the next student needs her. Martin’s lack of attention span and inability to do work without someone hovering over him left him falling further and further behind.

He’s become my special project. You see, the teachers had decided that Martin was being lazy and purposefully defiant. I’m not a rocket scientist but I could tell he had ADHD and that he clearly has some issues in his home life (I gripped his arm once to get him to try and look at me and he started screaming like I’d shot him – NOT normal).

I admit, he’s completely maddening sometimes, but he actually is improving with one-on-one attention that I am able to give him while Mary juggles all of the other children. While I think attention disorders are grossly overdiagnosed in the US, Mary had no idea that a child could have a clinical inability to pay attention. To be clear, she’s a fantastic teacher, easily the most conscientious teacher in the school and the only teacher I have not seen use corporal punishment. She just thought he was being defiant and she had 20 other 4-year-olds to teach to count to 60 - a very real challenge.

The real downside of forcing kids this young to sit at desks and write for 4 hours per day is that kids that aren’t ready for that get left far behind. Academic achievement is absolutely crucial to getting ahead in Kenya. The teachers focus on the best students and push them ahead, unlike in America where schools are often accused of teaching to the weakest students. If the option is to try to bring a weak and extremely distracted student up to grade level or help a stellar student work ahead, they help the strongest student. We actually have a big problem of children copying from each other because they don’t want to seem like they don’t know. Here is how I’ve taken to administering dictation to two of our “cheaters”:



Mary and I have been brainstorming how to help Martin and she’s been incredibly open to suggestions from me even though I have no teaching experience. I’ve been working with him one-on-one every day and taking him outside the classroom when he gets too distracted. We’ve also just let him sleep several times when it’s clear that he didn’t get sleep the previous night. Our goal is to get him more focused and interested in learning so that when he repeats the class next year he’ll be able to keep up with his class. (he’s going to fail the standardized tests, that’s a given. Yes, they test 4-year-olds in Kenya)

In an effort to do this, I suggested to Mary that we make some visual aids to help Martin and some of the weaker children. One of the clearest issues holding some of the kids back is that they simply memorize the right words but don’t have any understanding of its meaning. So “four” is simply what comes after “three” but if I ask you to bring me four pencils, you can’t do it. Others can count by memory but cannot write the numbers because they have not connected the sounds. Mary was all for trying this approach so I headed to Nakumatt to get some supplies (Nakumatt = Kenyan Walmart).

Mary and I spent about 4 afternoons creating the number and letter cards without accompanying pictures and then “laminating” them with clear packing tape. M even got in on arts and crafts time when he stopped by one afternoon. He colored a xylophone and a zipper since we were nearing the end of the alphabet.

Our results are below:






The great thing about these aids is that we’ve actually been able to use them with all the children, not just the weaker ones. For example, the weaker ones use the cards to count while the stronger children use them to add; the weaker ones use the alphabet cards to practice their letters while the stronger ones start to spell (I'll post videos tomorrow). Plus, we’ve gotten the kids out of their desks and learning in a group which (in my admittedly American opinion) is superior when you’re four. Mary doesn’t have the money to buy these type of supplies on her own (notecards, colored pencils, and packing tape) but she loved the idea and is so excited with the results. I feel really fortunate to be teaching with someone so open to suggestions (and also the only teacher who doesn’t tell me to hit the kids when they do something ‘wrong’). Even though school is over for this year, Mary and I have already discussed how we can improve these aids and use them right from the beginning next year.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Borderline Behavior and Other Kili Observations



One of our first tasks during our trip was to cross the border from Kenya into Tanzania. Since Clementine had just done the reverse trip, she advised us that the TZ visa was $100 per person so we knew to be prepared. In case you’re wondering, every other country in the world is $50 per person. This includes the UK which colonized both Kenya and Tanzania for a significant part of the 20th century. The apparent moral of this story is that if you dominate and oppress people, they later give your citizens a break on visa fees.

We brought with us 16,000 KSH which is the equivalent of $200 and tried to hand it over to the border patrol but were told, “we only take dollars, euros, or pounds.” Wait, so you don’t take your own currency? Or the currency of the country we’re coming from? Yes, that’s exactly what he meant. When informed that we only had Kenyan shillings, suddenly they took them, except they wanted 18,000 (or about $225). When we protested, the official said “well, there’s a black market over there (pointing to a bizarre market that appeared to exist within the border ‘no man’s land’), go change your money there.” M and I exchanged looks that this government official had just told us to do something illegal and just handed over the 18,000 KSH. It is certain that he went over to the market, traded the KSH for dollars and pocketed the difference but our bus was leaving and we had little choice!

Apparently Tanzania has really maximized ways to take money from tourists because we soon found out that they charge $110 per person each day to be in Kilimanjaro national park and $20 per person each day as a “rescue” fee. Luckily this was all included in the price of our tour but this means that the park service earned $1,820 during the 7 days we spent in the park. This explains why climbing Kilimanjaro is so expensive and also why the porters survive on tips and donated clothing; the tour companies pocket most of the rest themselves.



The average porter earns about $7/day. They carry their own pack on their backs plus another 20 kgs (44 lbs) of guest bags, food, tents, etc. They typically carry the weight on their heads. And basically run uphill (see photo above). We were very thankful to have had the help of the porters during our climb but it was a little disconcerting having 11 people waiting on you. Based on discussions with other folks, we definitely had more porters than necessary because it’s the slow season and people need work. Things got a little stressful at the end because you’re supposed to tip each porter, guide, and your cook by the day and we had not accounted for so many porters. We gave all that we could and found out later than what we gave was actually very much in line with appropriate compensation (Europeans don’t tip much which makes Americans seem generous).

M also gave his ski pants to the porter who joined us for the summit hike (Ben, our guide, always takes one other person to the summit in case of emergency). The porter was hiking in warm-up pants in 15 degrees and other porters were sleeping in cotton sleeping bags or clothes several sizes too big or too small. Obviously my stuff didn’t really fit them so I couldn’t give them anything but they really do rely on the generosity of the hikers to outfit themselves. Not only do they not have the money to buy these items but it’s hard to procure clothing for freezing weather in the average East African secondhand clothing market (we asked, Ben laughed).

Not that all the weather was freezing. It changed wildly from 70 degrees to the low teens and from brilliantly sunny to white-out conditions. One of the most bizarre things was watching clouds blow up or down the mountain to envelop you. Below are some photos I took of M at 5 second intervals.








I guess it makes sense since we passed through almost 4 miles of vertical but it was really startling to see the change in scenery. Here are some of our favorite photos (as always, click on them to enlarge them):











And to answer McMom's question in the comments, one last photo:


We took that photo leaving the summit. If you click in, you can see the signpost in the top right of the photo. The cliff that drops off is the crater. Notice the flat narrow approach along the crater to the actual summit. Also, check out the shadow of Kilimanjaro on the plain below in the top left. Hope that helps!

Monday, November 15, 2010

Kili: The Recap



Hi all,

Friday afternoon we arrived back in Diani safe and sound. We reached the summit! It was such a thrill and a relief that neither of us got too sick, and the views from the “Roof of Africa” were amazing. I’m going to fill you in with a quick day-by-day recap of the climb, and then E will write about some interesting observations that we made during the adventure. Enjoy!

Day 1: We traveled by bus to Moshi, and were picked up by our tour company and taken to a nice little lodge at the base of Kili. The elevation was about 6,000 feet, so it was much cooler than the coast, which was nice. Our guide came to our room to see the clothes and equipment that we brought, which was a surprise, but makes a lot of sense, as he didn’t want the liability to taking poorly-outfitted clients up the mountain.

Day 2: Our guide and cook picked us up at 8 am, and we drove two hours to the Rongai gate, where we met our porters and were to begin our climb. This was quite a process, as there is a strict 20 kg limit per porter, so everything has to be weighed and put into baskets or bags, and the proper number of porters has to be determined. We ended up with 9 porters (more on that later), a cook, and a guide (Ben).
Elevation: ~9,000 ft
Hike Time: 2.5 Hours


Day 3: We woke up around 6:30, had breakfast of porridge, toast, eggs, sausage, and tea, and headed out. On this day we got our first glimpses of the mountain, as it is usually only visible for a few hours in the morning before the clouds roll in. See pic. The night here was quite a bit colder, so we ended up zipping together our sleeping bags for extra warmth (and so I could steal some of E’s room in her sleeping bag; I am owed 2/3 of the room based on size).
Elevation: ~11,000 ft
Hike Time: 3 Hours


Day 4: Later wake-up on day four, as we didn’t have too much hiking to do on the fourth day. After we arrived at camp, we decided to do an “acclimatization” hike up to about 13,600 feet helped get our bodies used to the higher altitudes.
Elevation: 12,600 ft
Hike Time: 1.5 hours

Day 5: We woke up in time for sunrise, and took so pretty amazing pictures of the mountain at first light. After pictures, we had breakfast, and headed out for another acclimatization hike since we’d be spending the night in the same camp. This time, we went all the way to Kibo Huts, which is essentially the base camp from where people make their summit attempts. The camp was about five miles away, and at 15,500 feet, it was by far the highest altitude we’ve ever been. We then headed back to camp at 12,600. We slept very well this night, likely because our bodies had started getting used to the altitude.
Elevation: 12,600 (sleeping); 15,500 (acclimatization)
Hike Time: 2:15 (up), 1:45 (back down)

Note the Mars-like landscape:


Day 6: Early hike to Kibo huts, this time by a different route. A thunderstorm rolled in overnight and it rained where we were camped, but after climbing about 1,000 feet, we came upon our first snow in Africa! I made a tiny snowball and ceremoniously threw it into E’s ear. We reached Kibo Huts by 10 am, and since our porters had not yet arrived, we decided to hike part of the way up the summit trail, just to get a taste. The rest of the day, we chilled, literally and figuratively, in our tent, as a raging snowstorm went on all afternoon. The whole time we were praying that it would clear quickly, as we were going to summit later that night. We had dinner at 5 pm, and then went to “bed”, as we had to wake up again at 11 pm to prepare to leave for the final push at midnight. We didn’t actually sleep at all, as even with our sleeping bags zipped together and wearing a ton of clothing, it was just too cold.




At 11:30, we had some porridge, chai, and cookies, and headed off, bundled to a degree that seems absurd for being three degrees south of the equator. I wore a under armour shirt, two long underwear shirts, a fleece, my waterproof shell, a warm hat, and gloves on top, and fleece pants, shorts, waterproof pants, two pairs of socks, gaitors, and boots on the bottom. The night was perfectly clear, as the storm had thankfully passed. We began the climb at what seemed to be a very slow pace with Ben leading us, and David, an assistant guide, following behind. We started at roughly the same time as a large group (about 15 people), and it soon became clear that our pace was not so slow, as they were barely within sight about 30 minutes in. The trail at this point is primarily switchbacks on steep scree (loose rocks and sand), so we had to zig and zag our way up the mountain. We passed an older German couple that left before us, and at this point, we didn’t see anyone else in front of us (not that we were competing or anything).

Because we were climbing with headlamps and could only see a few feet in front, the scenery at this point wasn’t great, but it did allow zoning out to the rhythmic “swish-swish” of rubbing ski pants. We took very short breaks every 45 or so minutes to eat a cookie or drink some water, but otherwise we were just slow and steady. After about three hours, we came to an area where the scree changed to boulders, which proved more difficult, especially for E, as height is a big advantage when trying to step up onto large rocks. However, we made it through the boulders finally to Gilman’s Point, which is on the crater rim. Almost there! The estimated time for the trip from Kibo to Gilman’s Point is 5-6 hours, but we got there in 3:45. We were pretty excited about reaching that point so quickly, but then realized that if we summit too early and don’t feel well at the top, we might have to actually leave before sunrise, which would have been a bummer. Alright, slower the rest of the way.

The rest of the climb wasn’t too difficult. Essentially, it was just a hike around the crater rim to the highest point on the volcano, which normally takes about 1.5 hours. We wanted to stretch it out a little, so we took extra breaks. At this point, we were pleased that we hadn’t experienced any significant altitude sickness symptoms, only mild headaches, and E didn’t have much of an appetite. Probably our most prominent symptom of the altitude was lack of coordination. We noticed it occasionally during the main climb, but it was especially notable on the rim. E was generally hiking in front of me, and out of nowhere, her legs would cross and she would stagger like a drunk a few steps to the right or left before catching her balance. I did this as well, and we saw our guide Ben a few times, so apparently it was normal. We were fortunate that we recognized our new deficits and walked as far away from cliffs as possible, as disinhibition is also common with altitude, and people has been known to just stop caring and not be careful.

We were about 45 minutes from the summit according to Ben, and we could see that we had company. Some of the other routes climb up in different places, so we could see their little headlamps zig-zagging up towards us. We hadn’t set out hoping to be the first to summit, but at this point, why not? Ben kept assuring us that the closest people wouldn’t pass us, but their headlamps were getting closer by the minute. We refused a final break, and when we were within about 100 yards from the sign, basically started running to stay ahead, as the two people trailing us were less than a minute behind. Finally, when we were only a few yards away, Ben turned back, flashed his headlamp to signal that we had made it, and we all let out a loud yell. Hugs all around, and then E and I posed for a few pics with the summit marker before the rest of the climbers joined. We made it to the summit by 5:20, and the sky was beginning to lighten, but sunrise wasn’t until 6:00, so we waited around for a while, talking to others as they came up, and trying to stay warm. We were ready for high winds and very frigid temps, but the wind was practically non-existent, though it was cold, probably around 10 degrees.



Elevation: 19,341
Hike Time: 5:20

Once the sun finally came up, we got a few more pictures, enjoyed the amazing views, and began our descent, as our guides were visibly shaking and ready to go. There was a glacier nearby, to which I obviously had to run down to lick. I felt mild remorse after this, as I was contributing to the melting of the snows of Kilimanjaro, but it was just a quick lick. We passed many groups ascending, including one woman whose face was as white as a sheet, and was literally being pushed up the mountain by her guide. I’m not completely sure what I’d do in her situation, but I can’t imagine that she’s going to have real fond memories of her climb.




The descent. Very steep!

We made it down in about 2 hours 45 minutes to the Kibo huts, where we rested for a few hours, had some lunch, and then laced our shoes back on to head down to lower altitudes. After another 7 miles, we were back at 12,500 feet at Horombo huts, but on the other side of the mountain, where we stayed for the night.

Total Elevation: 15,500 to 19,341 to 12,500
Total Hike Time: 5:30 (up); 2:45 (down to Kibo), 3:00 (down to Horombo huts)

Day 7: Long hike. 12 miles, descending from 12,500 feet to 6,050 at Marangu Gate, where we picked up our summit certificates (lest future employers want proof of the summit), and were taken to our hotel in Moshi.

Day 8: Long bus ride back to Mombasa, and then various forms of public transit (tuk-tuk, ferry, matatu, tuk-tuk) back to the apartment.

Overall, very, very cool experience that we would definitely recommend. Going into it, we had half expected it to be very difficult, but we both agreed that it wasn’t nearly as painful as a marathon. This is partially due to the fact that we didn’t get any real altitude sickness, which I imagine can sap one’s energy very quickly, but also probably because we’re young and in pretty good shape.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Kilimanjaro: The Plan


View Mt Kilimanjaro in a larger map

As E mentioned a few posts ago, on Thursday we’re heading to Tanzania to climb Kilmanjaro. Most people have heard of the mountain, but if you were like us, you don’t know much beyond it being in Africa.

Mt. Kilimanjaro is a dormant volcano rising out of the plans of northeastern Tanzania. It reaches 19,340 feet (5,895 m), making it the tallest mountain in Africa, and owing to it being so close to the equator, it is the second closest point on earth to the sun, after Chimborazo in the Andes (think about it…). It is also the tallest “free-standing” mountain in the world, as it’s not part of a range. In Colorado, for instance, there are fifty-some 14,000+ foot peaks, but because they’re part of a range, the base of the mountain is often eight or nine thousand feet, making the vertical change five or six thousand feet. However, the land surrounding Kilimanjaro is only one or two thousand feet above sea level, making the vertical 18,000ish feet.

We leave from Mombasa at about 7 am on Thursday morning (in reality, we’ll probably leave closer to nine owing to pole pole Kenyan time), and then travel southwest though some of the dry grasslands, including Tsavo East and West National Parks. They are by far the largest parks in Kenya, and their claim to fame is the “Man-eaters of Tsavo”, a pride of loins who developed a taste for Indian railroad laborers as the colonists were building the railroad from Mombasa to Nairobi in the late 1800s. They’re purported to have killed over 130 people. The Ghost and the Darkness with Val Kilmer is based on said man-eaters. Hopefully we’ll pass through the parks with minimal man-eating, and see a few elephants along the bumpy and dusty way. We’ll cross into Tanzania via a town called Taveta, where we’ll be extorted for a visa. Citizens of every country in the world can enter Tanzania for $50 USD or less, but for Americans, it’s $100. Sweet. From there, we’ll drive a few more hours to Moshi, where we’ll grab a few last minute supplies, meet our guide, and rest up at a hotel in town for the night. The bus ride should take somewhere between six and eleven hours, depending on who you ask. On Friday morning, the climb begins!

We’re climbing from the north side of the mountain, near the Kenyan border, via a route called Rongai. Since we’re going during the “short rainy” season, we choose this route, as the north side (leeward, look at me using sailing terms) of the mountain gets less rain. It’s also the least traveled route, so we’ll be alone for more of the climb. Lastly, it’s the only route where you don’t backtrack on your climb and the only route where you camp in tents the entire time (vs. huts on the other routes). Afterwards, we’ll descend down the south side of the mountain (on the Machame route), stay a night in Arusha (the second-largest city in Tanzania), and then take the bus ride back arriving in Mombasa on Friday, November 12th. Check out the google map. See below for a map of the route, as well as the altitudes at various campsites.





While you can summit Kilimanjaro in as few as 4 or 5 days, your chance of summiting increases for each extra day you spend on the mountain. Additional days lessen the shock of the altitude so we’ve opted to take an extra day and make our trip 7 days (our route always takes at least 6). This means, barring setbacks, that we’ll begin the summit hike at midnight on Tuesday for a dawn summit on Wednesday morning.

E and I have really been looking forward to this trip. People have been asking us all week if we’ve been training, and we kind of have by running, swimming, etc, but really nothing climbing-specific. We were talking last night and we remarked how neither of us was very nervous, and we wonder if we should be a little bit. I have a feeling that it’s either going to be totally fine and the whole thing about the difficulty is overblown, or it’s going to be incredibly painful. Obviously hoping for the former, but we’ll try to push through the latter. Unless one is woefully out of shape, the actual hiking shouldn’t be a problem, but it is impossible to know how the body is going to respond to the altitude. We’ve slept at 10,000 feet and skied at 13,000 feet (Breckenridge), but 19,000 feet is a lot higher. Since we’re at sea level right now and won’t have a ton of time to acclimatize, there’s a chance that the altitude could be a problem, but we’re just going to take it pole pole and, as coach Turner used to say, “drink the shit out of water”.

Please keep us in your prayers and look forward to lots of pictures and stories when we return.

Tutaonana baadaye, (See you later!)

M

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Graduation Prep: Siasa za Pesa?

Since the school year runs from January to November, we are gearing up for graduation. Although only the KG2 (the oldest kindergarten class) and the Grade 8s are actually “graduating”, the whole school participates in a graduation ceremony held on a Saturday in November. In our case, graduation will be November 12th and I’ll be sure to update you on how it goes.

The subject of this blog, however, is the prep leading up to graduation. Each class prepares some songs or poems to present to the audience of parents who will attend graduation. Our class is singing three songs: one that I taught them (more on that in a later post), one Swahili song, and one German song. We have two German girls volunteering at the kindergarten a few days per week so that’s the reason for the German song.

We began teaching them the words to these songs about 8 weeks ago. Since they cannot read, teaching them the songs takes a while. Add in non-native or second languages and it takes a while (some combination of English, Swahili, and German are all second and third languages for most kids; sometimes all 3 if the parents speak a tribal language at home).

A few weeks ago, the Baby Class (that’s what they call the youngest kindergarten class) teacher introduced the Swahili song. It’s fairly simple so I recognized a bunch of the words. The verses are about different jobs people can have and encourages them to do them well. For example, these are some verses:

Kama wewe ni mwalimu, fundisha watoto wakenya vizuri
(If you’re a teacher, teacher the children of Kenya well)

Kama wewe ni daktari, tibu wanaichi wakenya vizuri
(If you’re a doctor, treat the people of Kenya well)

Kama wewe ni askari, linda wanaichi wakenya vizuri
(If you’re a policeman, guard the people of Kenya well)

Kama wewe ni mgenzi, jenga schuleza watoto vizuri
(If you’re a builder, build the children’s schools well)

I was fairly excited that I was understanding a lot of the song but the chorus had me stumped:

Wanaichi wote nchini Kenya, siasa za pesa sisi hatutaki

The accompanying motions included the shaking of hands and heads in the universal symbol of “I don’t like that”. Based on my vocabulary at the time, I understood the chorus to mean: “People of Kenya, [something] of money, we don’t want it.” I asked Mary what “siasa” was since that was the word that was tripping me up.

She smiled and said, “siasa is politics so ‘siasa za pesa’ means ‘money politics’”. Really? So the actual translation of that line is “People of Kenya, we don’t want money politics”. So, this is a graduation song for 3 and 4 year olds. Interesting. I asked her if the kids knew what money politics was and she shrugged and said “No”.

Mary and I spend a lot of time together so I knew I could ask her honestly later if this was a ‘normal’ topic for kids to sing about during graduation. She said it wasn’t but that it wasn’t really her choice. She didn’t know why the Baby Class teacher had selected it but that the part about all the different jobs was cute so they were going to go with it.

Below is a video of one of our practice sessions. They’re still learning it so it’s why they’re so distracted but you get the point.



Not that all politics are honest in the US, far from it, but I think it’s pretty telling that we’re singing about money politics and corruption which are huge problems in Kenya. A recent newspaper article divulged that members of Parliament make 33 million Kenyan shillings per year [that’s $412,000 USD]; these salaries in total are more than the entire national health budget. The average Kenyan seems to hate this but they’re also not very hopeful that anyone else would do a better job (any of this sounding familiar on election day in the US...). It’s all part of living in a country that values taking care of family and tribe over country. No one likes it but it is reality. So the kids will voice what the grown-ups are thinking…from the mouths of babes, I guess!

Monday, November 1, 2010

Visitors and Diani Stay-cation 2k10!

This weekend M and I were joined in Diani by two friends from college, Clementine and Oppy. I’ve heard of Dartmouth reunions in random places but this is definitely the most random one I’ve attended.

Oppy’s working in Nairobi for the year and Clem was visiting her brother in Tanzania so Diani was selected as the meeting place. Oppy’s company has a house in Diani so we were treated to a private beachfront home for a long weekend.

Long walks on the beach, Tuskers, and a few sunburns later, I’d say it was a successful visit. It was really great to exchange notes with Oppy about working in Kenya. He’s dealing with the corporate banking world and deals with many of the same challenges we do, magnified by about 20 times. Clementine was able to relate her brother’s experience living in Tanzania for the last 9 years and the experiences of having traveled widely within Africa (and throughout the world).

It was just very nice to be able to relax with people who have the same cultural perspectives as Americans. We didn’t actually realize how much we missed that until we saw them. We’ve really enjoyed meeting and getting to know Kenyans but it’s also nice to slip back into a place where you relate so easily to people without having to explain anything.

This was the perfect respite for us because we are leaving Thursday morning very early to travel to Kilimanjaro. We’re going by bus to Moshi, Tanzania and then from there will begin 7 days of climbing and hiking. The bus is more economical plus it allows us to see more of the intervening country as we drive inland from the coast. We’re really looking forward to it!

One sad note is that I managed to delete all my pictures from the weekend when I tried to upload them. Yes, I’m a genius. Definitely thankful though that I only deleted photos from a single weekend and not from several months though; trying to look on the bright side!