My first impressions as a physics exchange
student in Nairobi
December 2005
I had no specific expectations
about how it would be or what would await me before I went to Kenya but
from my experiences during my two-year stay in Mexico about ten years
ago and some shorter stays in other non-industrial countries, I had
some rough idea what it could be like.
My first impressions, collected during the first few days, suggested
that the differences between my life in Kenya and in Germany would be
significant but in many aspects not as profound as I (vaguely)
imagined: A vast majority of the people is dressed like in Western
cities. In Nairobi itself there is not much to see of traditional
dresses or other obvious signs that this is a multicultural country
compounded of many different tribes even speaking different languages.
(These aspects become more obvious when travelling in the country by
getting out of Nairobi or when speaking to Kenyans for whom these
aspects of their identity plays an important role.) The busses are not
in such a bad state as I had expected and I can't feel the special
atmosphere some people speak of. (They claim that Nairobi is a slow and
easy-going (gemütliche) city, compared to big cities in industrial
countries.) The latter might only be the case, because I -- as a mzungu
(white) -- attract attention of all the safari and souvenir sellers and
taxi drivers who never become tired of trying to sell things that I
neither want nor need.
There are not so many differences in my everyday life as it is possible
to buy many things in Nairobi that would be hard or even impossible to
get in most cities in Kenya. This is mainly due to the fact that there
is a relatively rich social class. (Among them are a few thousand
employees of the UN and other NGOs.) This produces a high demand for
many goods (that would be regarded as luxury articles to average
Kenyans) but that are common in Germany. This includes good bread (not
to be confused with what is selled as "bread" here, which is used only
as bread for toasting in Germany), sweets, alcoholic beverages, books,
electronics and much more.
After having written so much about the not-so-big differences, it
should be said that there actually are a lot of differences. Many of them
I can not name any more as I became used to them so quickly during the
first few days in Kenya. I don't even notice them any more. But others,
I still notice
every day, as they are annoying. To name a few, there are hardly any
traffic lights that would allow pedestrians to cross the congested
streets which makes crossing streets sometimes a difficult and
dangerous test of one's patience as the drivers here don't obey the
rules. In addition, Nairobi is somehow a dirty city: If you breathe in,
you can feel the dust in your lungs; the trucks and buses produce so
much smoke that you could almost use it to hide the vehicles in their
own exhaust fumes. The streets are bad and the sidewalks (if any) are
full of holes leading to the sewer system.
Traveling in Kenya is relatively easy and cheap, especially because the
entry fee to national parks and reserves drop dramatically once we
became recognized as "residents" of Kenya. (We only need to show our
student IDs.) Busses, hotels, and eating in restaurants is not very
expensive either. Unfortunately, we have only the weekends (if at all),
but fortunately, we have many of them.
A few days after our arrival, we met the chairman of the Department of
Physics who gave us a warm welcome but mentioned some problems with
past exchange students who in his view didn't show enough respect.
The lectures are very different in their quality. Some are well
structured and somehow selfcontained, with a lecturer who is always on
time and reliable. Others are like reading a school book of physics in
arbitrary order and many mistakes on the whiteboard, with a lecturer
who only shows up to half of the lectures.
That's why Malte (another exchange student of this year) asked the
chairman whether we were allowed to attend master couses (i.e. fifth
and sixth year courses). He agreed, but pointed out that it is not
possible to do that as a normal course (i.e. we can't take any exams)
and provided that we do not disturb the way the courses normally
develop.
With this information and the experiences made in the fourth year
courses, I decided in December to take only two courses of the fourth
year and attend three master courses.
Most people you meet and speak with on the street are very nice and
helpful, but there seems to be a common prejudice that white people are
very rich (which is -- considering the usual level of income -- not
that wrong after all). This leads sometimes (fortunately not very
often) to undesirable situations. (For example, when asking a simple
question, money for the answer is demanded or people who seem very nice
and helpful at the beginning only want some money at the end.)
The students in the students' hostel are very nice and gave us a warm
welcome and we already did many things together. But the group with
which we do most trips and many other things is a more international
one. I could as well say it is a "German" group, which includes, among
others, several Germans doing an internship in Nairobi and employees of
the UN. Through these connections, I already learned a lot of
interesting things about the work of the NGO's in Nairobi.
Until now, I really enjoyed my stay in Kenya. I already travelled to
many places but also learned many things about the life in Kenya. As I
now attend the master courses and the data for my fourth year project
has just arrived, I will have to focus more on university and my
fourth-year project on DOAS next year, but I am confident that it will
still be a great time of making new experiences.
Jochen Ott,
December 2005