Alex Ogacho

My experiences as a physics exchange student in Berlin 

December 2004

As I had already stated in my first impression report, we got a warm reception in Berlin, thanks to Mr. Ferdinand Streicher (2000/2001 participant), who patiently waited for our delayed arrival. We missed our Amsterdam-Berlin connection due to late arrival of the Nairobi – Amsterdam flight. The FU Berlin Physics Department was very helpful, special thanks to Prof. Dr. Bodo Hamprecht and his secretary Frau Malwitz.
Berlin is the political capital of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is a lively, expansive city with several beautiful places to relax if one could afford it. The transport system is well developed and general security is good; one can go anywhere at any time of the day. Cost aside, the stay in Berlin was very enjoyable. Though I did not have a chance to visit other German cities, the few Germans and foreigners I met who had traveled to the other cities in the region said Berlin is the cheapest in Germany.

It was my first experience with winter conditions. At first I thought I would not survive the subzero temperatures, but at the same time I longed for the snows to start falling. When the snow finally started falling, it was a nice experience indeed! It was so cold that people only venture outdoors if necessary. During this time there are few people outside, and they are all in a hurry to avoid freezing. People only meet in clubs or at parties. Berlin youths like carousing, perhaps because parties help them to survive the freezing winters.
Soon I got anxious that summer had not arrived; I wanted it to be warm once again and I looked forward to seeing people out in the streets.  Suddenly things started changing very fast. Plants were sprouting leaves and we were told that was the harbinger of summer. Birds started to come out of hiding (they started migrating northwards as it became warmer there). Soon the human species also followed suit.  People came out in the streets and by mid June the city restaurants and clubs were jam-packed. Clubs were full, with most people preferring to sit outside basking in the sun while enjoying their beers. I too liked it. Things went back to normal and we could go out to the parks until midnight. The sun sets very late but on the other hand it rises too early the next day (at four in the morning!). People from the tropics where the day and night are balanced have to adjust accordingly.

In general the people are quite reserved. Some live very lonely lives, especially the elderly.  Many people only talk to those they are familiar with.  A case in point is the lonely traveler who would pretend to be reading in a train but would not turn a new page through 30 minutes journey. The other thing I noticed is their abhorrence of foreign languages. Even the well-educated people who know other languages like English shy away from speaking them. Perhaps this means they take pride in being German.

Realizing that we had short time in Berlin, and that we were not in a winter holiday we took our research studies seriously. In the end we managed to give a good academic representation of the Kenyan people. Many people did not take us seriously initially. It is very interesting to list the kind of questions we had to put up with. The queries ranged from what type of food we eat (some people asked whether we actually eat at all!) to the type of clothes we wear, to Kenyan wildlife. Some of the questions were a bit irritating though. For instance, a supposedly well-informed academic asked whether I bought the clothes I was wearing especially for my trip to Europe.
On the other hand I was quite impressed by how well our athletes have advertised Kenya abroad.  If I had applied to coach people who were preparing for the Berlin marathon I would definitely have landed a plum coaching job. Everybody I met thought that all Kenyans are superb athletes. Bravo to our Kenya marathoners, they made me very proud when one of them finally won the 2004 Berlin marathon.
The other thing that most people know about Kenya is her safaris. Many have heard of the lions and elephants.  Some people even think that we ride elephants like Indians. Some even still think Africans live in the forest and that we do not have any form of housing.  An interesting case is one boy from Poland whom really wanted to visit Kenya, but his grandmother would not hear of it because she thinks he will loose his legs to the roaming hungry African lions.

Unfortunately Germans think that Africans do very little, if any, physics. Of course no-one said it openly but it is easy to infer people’s opinions from their surprised faces after I said that I was a physics PhD student. This school of thought is however expected since Kenya does not produce much scientific publication. Often the developed world only hears about civil conflicts in Africa. However I still believe that established media houses like CNN; BBC; DW etc can do a lot to educate people about the positive aspects of Africa as well.
Though I had planned to visit other German universities in Berlin, time and funds did not allow it. Apart from FU Berlin, which I visited mainly administratively, I did not get an opportunity to visit other Berlin/German institution of learning. However, the few times I was in FU, I could see that warm relations exist between students and their lecturers.


Robinson Musembi (right), Dr. Jurgen Theiss (middle), and me on a freezing winter evening outside HMI, when Dr. Theiss came to visit us.

The FU Berlin looked very humble, an ideal atmosphere for academic excellence. There was very little, if any, pressure on students to finish their courses within the specified period. This lack of pressure can be a disadvantage because many students soon find that they are too old to be supported by the state. Some older students have to defer their studies to work and others have to desert their courses halfway.

For us, achieving results was of the utmost importance.  Fortunately we joined the HMI community, where people were working very hard and also were willing to help. Language was no longer a barrier due to the international nature of HMI. The majority of people working in HMI speak English.

 
Dr. Thomas Dittrich (left in left picture), our supervisor in his office and Prof. Dr. Martha Lux-Steiner (left in right picture), the head of the SE2 Division in her office, both with Dr. Jurgen Theiss, who visited us.

HMI has some of the best facilities; we knew we couldn’t easily come across such facilities once we returned Kenya.  This acted as additional impetus to work faster since we had limited time.  The work in HMI was demanding. We worked until six in the evening during almost all weekdays apart from monthly free Fridays (freier Freitag) when the HMI community was officially off work.  The HMI community was very supportive. 

Within a short time we learnt to use advanced equipment which we had not previously used. Special thanks to our academic advisor Dr. Thomas Dittrich (group leader within Division SE2), and the entire solar energy group members:

SE2 group meeting; Musembi (Kenya), Tatsiana (Belarus), Prof. Gabrielo (Russia), Ogacho(Kenya), Ludimilla (Usbekistan), Dr Abdelhak (Algeria), Sven (Germany), Natalia (Russia), Dittrich (Germany) and Muffler (Germany). We were meeting every Monday to to review weekly progress and to plan for the week

I regret that we cannot repeat this experience or continue doing similar research and I would not hesitate to say that we had a good time in Berlin. In general I would say that the visit was a success. Within the short time we were in HMI we got results worth publishing. In fact one paper is due to be published reporting the work we did at HMI (Th. Dittrich et al, (2004), Passivation of TiO2 surfaces with Al-Oxide – published in the Journal of Applied Surface Science).  We also gave successful talks at the HMI Doktor Seminar (seminar for PhD students). These Doktor Seminars are published in the HMI web page, accessible only by permission of HMI.  The success of theses seminars made Dr. Thomas Dittrich very happy and he gave us one of the best lunches I ever had in Berlin.

Berlin remains my first choice to visit if I could afford a holiday in Germany.
Alex Ogacho, December 2004
Home >> Participants >> Alex Ogacho