Matthias Mengel

First impressions of studying physics in Kenya

December 2006

Fabian Wissbrock and I arrived in Nairobi at the end of October, just one week after I passed my last Vordiplomsprüfung. Jonathan, Berlin-Nairobi Exchange student at JKUAT, waited for us at the airport. We were really happy to find a nice place to sleep at a little JKUAT students' house for the first days.

Our starting situation was a bit tricky because there was no official exchange contract accepted by the University of Nairobi. Getting the room was the smallest trouble we had to face concerning university bureaucracy. The hall officer is a very friendly man and he gave us the keys even before Fabian was officially admitted. My admission letter was just signed at the day I arrived. By then, we got a pleasant place to rest and relax. Much equipment left by former Berlin-Nairobi Exchange students allowed an easy beginning.

For the first weeks of our stay we were busy with finding some nice friends and fighting for Fabians admission and my registration. Possibly it is quite normal that you first have to learn who can be your right friend. That was sometimes difficult. Right now we have a nice group of people we can trust and feel fine with. Although the International Office at the University of Nairobi had assured the organisers at the Berlin-Nairobi Exchange and the DAAD Office in Nairobi that we will be admitted as students and exempt from tuition fees although the exchange contract expired, it now, however, refused to accept our status as exchange students because, as they said, the exchange contract expired. So we were admitted as occasional students and told to pay tuition fees of about 1500 Dollars. It was a hard time running from one office to another, which is what followed. We got our ID cards at the beginning of December and now can also participate in fourth year exams, finally without paying fees. But still we do not have official status. We hope that to forget about the fees is the way people help us now. Looking back, we were surely often naive and still had to learn the way people here treat things. It was a good practice from my present point of view, but in between I got almost crazy sometimes. I must clearly say, if I could choose one more time, I just would have participated again if my admission as exchange student had been accepted before I had booked my flight. I want to thank the DAAD Nairobi Office and the Berlin-Nairobi Exchange for working hard to help us resolve this unexpected crisis.

The quality of lectures differs widely. We are attending three fourth year courses. One of them I would describe as worth attending. We are free to listen to masters courses but are not allowed to take exams. We lost motivation to fight for postgraduate admission, especially because the level does not seem to be really postgraduate as we noticed when we listened to the courses. If someone decides to participate in this exchange and wants to get on with studies he should be sure that he is able also to learn from books. That is the way Fabian and I do it now. The library is quite nice and we used the possibility to copy complete books for a few Euros several times. One should mention that there are no tutorials and just a few assignments given. So time is enough to spend on books. In the field of physics currently the fourth year project is most exciting to me. Dr. Thomas Dittrich, a scientist from Hahn-Meitner Institute in Berlin visited the university at the end of November and brought equipment for student research. We built up a nice lab where basic properties concerning photovoltaics can be investigated. I will start to work on my project in January.

Still, one should not forget that there is much more to discover than properties of matter. I found a nice place for practicing acrobatics and breakdance. People are quite crazy here. As I saw them for the first time I could not believe them doing salti barefoot on concrete. They start their practice on the dump of a sugar factory in the slums. It is nice to have some people who can show me the world of non-academics. Yesterday, I was passing many very poor regions of the city what I could not have done without company. It was really exciting. Naturally, I was invited for a meal and had to stay for dinner at the slum. The rate of thugs and down at the heals persons is surely higher at these places but one of the most astonishing things to me, as I see them for the first time, is how well-organized structures there are. It's just that you cannot see them when you do not know them.

There are still so many things to discover and I am excited about the next months. I was several times uncertain if it was the right decision to spend an academic year in Kenya and surely from an academic point of view I should still wonder sometimes "Why Kenya?" Besides these problems, I have to admit that I am having a good time here, make a lot of exciting experiences I could never made in Europe and up to now consider it as the right choice participating in this exchange.