Student Reflection
"Having been back in the USA for close to a month now, I'm finding more and
more that my semester abroad in Kenya was a truly changing and enriching
experience. The way that I think about 'academic' topics like politics
and economics and culture have been changed just as much as the way I view
my own personal goals and relationships. My time in Nairobi and other
locations throughout Kenya and Tanzania really have done more to influence
my life than anything else to date.
"When I ask people what they think about when I say 'Kenya' or 'Africa',
they usually respond with words like 'poverty', 'violence', 'tribalistic',
'HIV/AIDS', 'dire', and other dark and dreary ideas. When I hear words
like this, I get that thing in my head when you know something isn?t
exactly right. Yes, Kenya is a poor place by world standards. It ranked
154 out of 177 countries in the 2003 UN Human Development Report.
Nairobi's population has at least doubled in the past five years as more
and more people move from rural areas into urban 'informal settlements' or
slums like Kibera, the largest in Africa. There are huge amounts of
political division. And as I write this, Kenya and other East African
countries are experiencing a drought, which is already leading to crowded
hospitals and dying animals and children.
"These are all issues that certainly must be addressed in order for Kenya's
people to have their basic needs met. But the Western media and
population-at-large fixating on these subjects alone does more damage and
works to perpetuate this trying existence. If you asked me what I first
think about when you say 'Kenya', I would say that it's a country full of
loving, generous, and soulful people who care very much about their
families and communities, as well as complete strangers. It's a country of
incomparable natural beauty and unmatched wildlife. It's a country where
civil society is growing and even flourishing. It's one of increasing
democracy and political freedom. It's a country of opportunity and one of
people who struggle against a distorted history of the slave trade, a
heinous and inhuman colonization by the British, and a disadvantaged
position in the global economy in an effort to reclaim their own identity
and culture. It's a country where goats share the streets with business
people wearing tailored suits walking in the shadow of giant skyscrapers.
It's a place where westernization, modernization, and globalization- Coke,
mobile phones, and foreign direct investment- are awkwardly becoming an
integrated part of traditional society and culture. And it's a place that
I fell in love with so hard that I cried when my plane lifted off the
ground from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
"I know that I will go back to Kenya, but I also know that no matter what,
I won't ever be able to re-create the experience of living, studying,
working, loving, feeling, and laughing in Nairobi with seventeen other AU
students. As much as Kenya and its land and people affected me, my peers
and our profesa, Kelly Jo Bahry, completed the experience in a way that I
don't believe many other abroad programs offer. Whether we liked it or
not, we were forced to depend on one another and live as a family, however
dysfunctional it seemed. For this and so many other things, I am grateful
to AU and to Kenya. I hope someday you too will visit or live there, but
in the meantime, strive to question conventional wisdom, especially when
it comes to Kenya and the other 50+ African countries."
--Dave Schneider, Nairobi Enclave Fall 2005
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