Nairobi

When I was visiting Kenyatta University I was around thirty kilometers outside of Nairobi. It was a little annoying (although I suspect also endearing) that the folks at Kenyatta did not want me to leave the campus for fear that I would get into trouble. However, because they were running a new fibre topic line the internet was completely messed up and I needed to get online so it didn't take long for me to ignore the warning and take off in search for an internet cafe. Later on Saturday, the day I arrived, I went walking down Thika Road back towards Nairobi because I heard there was an internet cafe down this dirt road. Suddenly the woman who ran the conference centre drove up with her daughter and scolded me (gently) for leaving. She had me get in her car and drove me to the internet cafe, which was actually located down a dirt road past a series of ramshackle tin roof shack stores. She volunteered to wait outside until I was finished. I told her that I was a big man and was OK. She smiled and replied, "Yes, but there is always someone bigger." I suspect their biggest concern was with pickpockets, which, to be fair, we have plenty of in the U.S. Anyway, she drove off and I then found out that the internet cafe had no connection so I had to walk back to campus with my tail between my legs.

However, I was not deterred. The next day Mungai, the head of the ICT department at the university (and a great guy) volunteered to drop me off in downtown Nairobi because he was passing through. He also gave me strict instructions on where I could walk - "Do not go beyond Moi Avenue on that side and do not go beyond Uhuru Highway on that side, and stay out of Uhuru Park." We then got into a big discussion about what taxis I could take back and if it would be advisable for me to take a matatu (the private vans that people use for getting around - they just wait until they fill up and then they take off like a bat out of hell - crazy, but cheap - a taxi from Nairobi out to Kenyatta would have been 1200 shillings while a matatu would have been 50 shillings). Finally, he just decided to pick me up on the way back through town, over my objections - and we agreed to meet in front of the Intercontinental Hotel in two and a half hours (although he said that was "Africa time" so it could be later, and after saying that he showed up right to the second). So, I actually had some time to walk around downtown by myself. Nairobi is a city of five million people, although it doesn't feel that big (at least on a Sunday - Nairobi traffic is insane and if you're caught in a Nairobi traffic jam it seems like the city has ten million). It ended up being a lovely walk although I was hit up on by half the grifters in Nairobi. My favorite was a guy by the name of John who tried to justify that he was not a grifter by carrying around a loaf of bread, as if he had just been shopping and ran into you. He worked me for an hour as we walked through downtown, just as an interested party, until he hit me up for a request for 3000 shillings to help bribe his son's tutor - he got 100 out of me because it had been an interesting conversation. When I shooed another one away later I was acused of being prejudiced. I ended up in Uhuru Park despite the warning and it was actually very lovely with a gazebo and lakes and food and it was packed. Eventually I moved to the back of the park and got in the middle of a religious revival meeting - it was all is Kiswahili, with the occasional "praise Jesus" thrown in for effect. Mungai showed up right on time and we went in search of a good cup of coffee and ended up at this insanely nice mall (complete with a water slide) next to the U.S. Embassy where we both had cafe mochas. An odd ending to a wonderfully odd day.

Reflections on Things at Hand: Women in Jordan

OK, just a couple quick anecdotes from my last day in Jordan (which seems like around three weeks ago). We've talked before about the unique position of women in Jordan, a mixture of western and traditional. These two things happened to me on my last day there before boarding a plane for Dubai - neither profound, but nevertheless somewhat enlightening.

First off, I had a meeting scheduled with a woman professor from the University of Jordan. We were to be joined by another female professor and then drive for a meet and greet at a nearby private university. The other professor had to drop out at the last minute, leaving the two of us to drive over together. The professor in question is this brilliant scholar with two Ph.D.s. She is in her 50's and dresses in traditional Jordanian attire. As she was firing up the car she was clearly nervous, and I asked her if everything was OK. She asked me what I knew about Jordanian society, to which I replied that some folks might not approve of the two of us being in the car alone together, especially with her driving, and I volunteered to call off the trip. Instead, she simply said, "No, it's a silly rule and silly rules only have power if you let them have power," and she took off. We ended up having a great trip but the whole time I wondered if that was the first time she had ever driven another man alone in a car.

Secondly, I was walking from one meeting to another at the UJ campus on my last day when I walked by a group of four young women in traditional Jordanian wear. One of them was staring at me (think of an Arabic Ricki Lake pre-procedure). As I passed she smiled and said, "very very beautiful." I put my hand to my chest and said shukran (thank you). She immediately blushed beet red and her friends started cackling. Society in Jordan is so much more comlicated than it seems on the surface, especially to a western viewer.

Africa

I've since left Jordan, blown through the United Arab Emirates, and am now at my second stop in Kenya. Sorry I've been so quiet - it's a combination of being really busy and also struggling with amazingly bad internet connectivity in Kenya. Guess I'll have to get caught up in bits and pieces. Right now I'm in Eldoret, Kenya, home of Moi University. I'm staying in the Eldoret equivalent of a luxury hotel ($40 a night, and for that I still get lousy internet connection, but it's the only hotel in town with even this - two computers in the lobby, one of which is continually in the hands of two Korean girls playing video games). My Kenyan contact was horrified that I was planning on spending this much a night - he had me reserved in a local place, pefectly clean and centrally located, although in a seedy part of town, for $10 a night. Before this I spent four days visiting Kenyatta University, which is right outside of Nairobi. I was one of two people staying at their brand new conference centre. The other was an Englishman named Peter who is a vegan, and the staff just didn't know what to make of him. On my last night there a couple professors took me to the Safari Park Club to eat and see the floor show. The floor show consisted of a bunch of dancers in "native" outfits doing dances to show tunes, not exactly what I was looking for. You sat at big tables and the waiters came around with massive slabs of beef on swords and they would cut pieces off right on to our plate. I had chicken, beef, pork, lamb - along with goat, camel, ostrich and crocodile. I ate until I hurt - now that the Kenyans understood.