I arrived here in Nairobi in the early morning of Monday, the 8th of October, one week ahead of the official beginning of the university lectures, I thougt. I was so lucky that Joseph Nyagah, a Kenyan friend, picked me up at the airport. I was very happy about that! It was also good because of my 35kg of luggage.
I had met Joseph two weeks before in Berlin for the first time. Joseph had found out about the exchange programme when coming across this website and thus he had got to know me. He offered me to stay at his place until I got my room in one of the university student halls. This is where 99% of all university students live. Very few live in other places or with their parents, because most students are not from Nairobi.
It is so good to know someone, who has already been to university here or even one who is still in university, because he can give you so many little hints and much advice.
The next day after my arrival I went to the University of Nairobi, to get to know the Chiromo-Campus. That is mainly the campus for science, but also the medical students have their lectures there. The first office to visit was that of the Dean of the Faculty of Science. In this position he is the Dean of a number of sciences such as Biology, Chemistry, Computer-Sciences, Mathematics, Geophysics and of course Physics. I could not find the Dean at that time because he was in a conference, like almost all of the times when I was trying to meet him. So I became good friends with his secretaries, who always had to dissapoint me. Then on Friday I managed to meet Professor Mibey, the Dean, on 7:30 in the morning, which is not so early when you consider that most people get up at 6 with sunrise. You get used to it very quickly I can tell from my own experience.
I told Professor Mibey that I was one of the new exchange students and that Philip, the other exchange student who would arrive on Sunday and I urgently needed our own rooms. Six hours later the unbelievable came true. After a few hours waiting in several offices, I was holding the key for a room in my hands. However, for the first two days I would have to share it with a student from Botswana, that was no problem, because I stayed with Joseph until Philip arrived.
For meals I go to one of the several messes, which offer breakfast, lunch and dinner. The food was a real new experience for me. But even vegetarians can survive, although I have to eat in town sometimes for a change.
In November we have the short rainseason in Kenya. So when it rains you should really be prepared that there will normally be much more than just a shower. Power failures are very common because of the strong rains, also water will sometimes be turned off without any obvious reason; this can occur throughout the year. The long rainseason is from March to June.
For the ones who easily get homesick, which is quite common, I think there is the Goethe-Institute where you can read German newspapers to get an idea on how cold the winter in Germany is this year. Then, when walking back to the lectures under the hot sun you feel better.
The lectures for year four started to get serious two weeks after the official start of the academic year.
Philip and I have chosen the following courses for the first half of the year:
-Atomic Physics
-Quantum Mechanics II
-Applied Electronics and Microprocessors
-Statistical Physics
-Mathematical Physics III
You normally choose 5 to 6 courses per semester at the beginning of the year.
My personal favourite lecture is the one about microprocessors, because we have no comparable lecture at the Physics Department at the Freie Universität Berlin and it's all new for me.
In our year there are 19 male and one female students and they are all very nice! Most of them would like to study abroad, but their major problem seems to be finding a sponsor. We try to help them with information and planning as much as we can. But the DAAD for example only would give masters-scholarships to those who have two years of work experience. For your physical education there are a lot of possibilities like soccer, basketball, volleyball, karate and the university also has a swimming pool. Nearly all student halls are equipped with a pool table. The science-library really has a lot of physics books. But it is not a mistake to bring a few of your own books which you are familiar working with.
One thing which really stands for Kenya is Ugali. Like Currywurst in Germany everybody loves it here and it is eaten with almost every dish. It is cornflour cooked and set hard. Then you get a piece like a brick (often as hard as one) on your plate. On its own it really has no taste at all, and you should eat it with something else otherwise it will lie like a stone in your stomach.
The other amazing thing about Kenya is the matatu. This is the backbone of the public transport in the major cities. It is a minibus mostly of japanese origin. It is designed to carry 12 people, but the average passenger number here is about 22. And there is one law that there is always room for at least one more hanging out of the door. You can be sure the driver has had not slept for three days, and don't forget to thank God, when you reach your destination safely. The speed of the matatu is only limited by power of the engine but not by other traffic. The standard equipment is at least a 200 Watt sound system. It is a real experience which you should not miss.
This is it for my first two months in Nairobi, Kenya. I hope you can get an impression of how it is here but you better experience it yourself, because words alone can't tell!
Any questions can be placed directly to: claude_c@web.de