Kenyan Kayla here. Reporting in after my first 6 days in Africa.
More adventures to report on. After our 4th trip into Thika to sort out our Internet, we’ve finally conquered the task. However, I’m afraid for my mom to see the pictures of how we got to Thika. We took yet another crazy mode of Kenyan transportation, helmet-less dirt bikes on the highway. We jumped on the back of the “piki-piki” and held on tight. Even more crazy was seeing a mother taking her swaddled baby on the back of the piki-piki on the highway. It may not be the safest, but it was a literal breath of fresh air from the matatu’s.
Students who took the Ivey course at JKUAT last year have been dropping by our house to introduce themselves. We’ve started becoming very close with a boy named Kevine who took the course last year, and we all went over to his place the other night for dinner. We had our first traditional home-cooked Kenyan meal, consisting of ugali, boiled kale and carrots, and some type of egg masala dish. It’s typical to eat only with your hands, so we embraced the experience completely. Imagine eating eggs with the consistency of cous-cous with only your hands…
Today we held our orientation class for the students. If today was a representation for what the next 3 weeks of teaching will be like, our Ivey professor Nicole Haggerty was exactly correct in her warnings to us. No power? No problem. Projector’s not working? No problem. Only 50/150 students showed up for orientation? No problem. Less than 10 students were actually on time? No problem. The students were shy to speak up in class? Definitely not a problem. We are so excited to be starting teaching cases tomorrow, and are looking forward to getting to know the students.
Well, that’s all for now.
Kwaheri (Bye),
Kenyan Kayla