Kenya Diary - Part Five

Photo: The Nairobi Skyline from across Uhuru Park, Sunday, June 18, 2006.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

After forcing myself to finish the draft of the paper, I went to bed last night at about 12:45 a.m. I was taking a bit of a gamble that my recovery from food poisoning would continue quickly even if I were to get less than optimal sleep. The gamble appears to have paid off, because I was able to turn in the draft today, and my digestive system is getting back to normal. I’ve been tired today, but on less than six hours’ sleep, I can’t be terribly surprised about that.

After classes today (and lunch), a Kenyan MP (member of parliament) came to Tangaza College to address the students in the program. Unfortunately, I did not write down his name, but he represents Kisumu Rurual district, which is apparently west of the city of Kisumu in Nyanza. He made a brief presentation, which basically boiled down to the point that the past authoritarian presidential governments (up to 2002) were bad, and that they stifled the economy by bottling up entrepreneurship. This was attended by much “power of the free market” talk, and also an insistence that large public works and infrastructure needed to be built to give unemployed people jobs and open new areas for economic development. It sounded very nice, but when he was finished, I could not decided if he was for unbridled capitalism or not, for small government (deregulation and minimal licensing and taxation) or big government (large public construction projects creating jobs). He emphasized that Kenya is in transition from authoritarian to democratic rule. “Transition” seems to be a convenient excuse for lack of visible achievement.

Following his remarks, the floor was opened for questions from the students. Those of us who are foreigners deferred to the Kenyans, who asked some fairly pointed questions (though always prefaced with some words of thanks and/or praise). His ability to evade questions was truly impressive, including giving detailed answers to about 10% of a question, or bogging down a question in fixating on the definition of a word (in this case, “ideology.” It was a fascinating exchange.

Today, Charles and I booked a 3-night safari to the Masai Mara Game Preserve on the Tanzanian border from Fri. June 23rd to Monday June 26th. We’ll go overland by private minivan (about 5 hours – nothing compared to the travel we’ve both seen) and then stay in a tent camp, which sounds rustic, but these are built to western standards with actual beds, western-style toilets, and communal showers. Food and park admission fees are included and the entire package will be about $400 per person. I’ve been planning to spend about this much, so it has worked out well.

The day before this trip, though, about 8 or 9 of us from the program will go on a one-day trip to the Aberdares National Park, north of Nairobi. This will present some tropical forest and significant elevations, habitat for different fauna, including elephants. We should see a very good contrast between this and Masai Mara.

Tomorrow is the last full day of classes at Tangaza, which is hard to believe! Fr. Kirwen has invited Charles and me, and I believe another MIAS staff member, out for a restaurant meal at a churrascaria – similar to the famous Carnivore restaurant here, but not quite the tourist trap. I am grateful that my stomach should be in good working order by then.

(11:00 p.m.)


Saturday, June 17, 2006

After Friday’s classes (the last full day of classes in the program) at Tangaza, Charles and I walked down the South Langata Road to what appeared to be a humble souvenir stand at the corner of Langata Road and South Langata Road. However, when we got inside, we discovered that it was much larger than anticipated, with carvings in stone and wood, shields, textile prints, clothing, and even some musical instruments. I was delighted to find an Orutu (two of them, actually, of differing construction). I may have to return and buy it, but at KSh 4,000 it is a bit expensive. However, this place takes credit cards (!) and even does shipping, so I am tempted to return on Wednesday. I did purchase a set of small (about 6” x 6”) textile prints of animals and a Maasai family. I bought seven (6 of animals and one of the family), for which I will get a custom mat and frame done when I return. They were a reasonable KSh 400 each. I also bought a lion and lioness (for my nephew and niece, respectively) carved from olive wood.

After an e-mail check back at Tangaza, I photographed some of the textile print artwork that is hanging in the various hallways in Imani House (the specific building of Tangaza where MIAS resides). These are vibrant in their colors and depict various scenes of African life and cultural themes. There were some as large as these at the souvenir shop I visited earlier, and I might invest in a larger one.

At 4:00 p.m., Fr. Kirwen, Charles and I left Tangaza and drove the 10 miles or so to the Ngong Hills (via Rongai and Kiserian), stopping at a little country club (so it was labeled) at Olepolos. From here there is a marvelous view of the Great Rift Valley, and I took some photographs. Kirwen said that the famous paleontologist and anthropologist, Louis Leakey, lives down in the valley not very far from this point, and had been, in fact, a Member of Parliament for the area, which includes the location of Tangaza College.

We came back to the vicinity of Tangaza through the town of Ngong and visited Fr. Kirwen’s home. It is a converted stable, which makes is sound terribly rustic. It is anything but that! The rather extensive apartment has a lovely sitting room, ample kitchen, full bath (with the first tub I’ve seen in Kenya thus far), a small washing machine (also a first on this trip), and a beautiful patio and series of narrow gardens of native plants winding back away from the patio. As other tenants left in adjacent apartments, Kirwen gradually took over a rather extensive adjoining space, making several more bedrooms and office space. Before the building of the present home of MIAS, much of the program was run out of this space, including a library of 6,000 books! He even has a small Yamaha spinet piano, which he plays quite well.

A man working for Fr. Kirwen, introduced to us as Michael, had prepared some very tasty snacks, and we sat on the patio eating these and enjoying drinks for a while. We moved inside when the mosquitoes became too annoying, and Kirwen called the restaurant we were to visit. Soon thereafter, we were off in his little 80s vintage Peugeot.

The restaurant was a Brazilian-style Churrascaria in a very fine hotel on the way out to Kenyatta Airport. Walking into the extensive commercial building was a very odd experience, almost like entering a deserted mall in the United States. On the first floor (what we Americans would call the second floor), we exited the elevator and walked by an appliance store, and a shop with lingerie in the windows (both closed, but surprises nonetheless), arriving at Pampa Churrascaria.

As we entered, I noted that it seemed a bit odd for Kenyans to be dressed as Gauchos (complete with the pants). World Cup soccer was, of course, playing on a very large projection television at one end of the dining hall. There was an extensive salad bar with soups. The basic idea of a churrascaria is that you hit the salad bar, and then after that you have a little card (green on one side, orange on the other) that you use to indicate whether or not you would like meat. Servers continually circulate with various cuts of meat on skewers. If one has something you’d like, you indicate “yes” and it is sliced at your table – you pick up the slices with a pair of tongs provided at your place setting.

This is an excellent way of sampling many different cuts of meat. In spite of my recent gastric disturbances, I managed to eat a pretty large meal, and tried a variety of meats. Most of the cuts were of beef, but even some of these were exotic (beef “hump,” for example, is that fatty thing above the shoulder on the back of some breeds of cow). I had several cuts of beef (including the hump, which I would not recommend all that highly), lamb leg, goat, ostrich, pork loin, and camel. I thought all were good, except for beef hump, as already mentioned, and camel (which was, to be honest, pretty nasty).

When you are through eating meat (Kirwen ate both me and Charles under the table), you are served roasted pineapple dusted with cinnamon – served the same way as the meat, carved off in slices from a skewer at your table. Accompanying the meal was draft Tusker beer, which is even better than the bottled variety. This was, by far, the biggest meal I had eaten in well over a month, and it came on the heels of eating relatively little for some days, so I was a bit concerned about how my system would react, but as of late Saturday morning, all seems to be well.

Kirwen drove Charles back to the ACK Guesthouse and me back to Flora, where I got in the gate at about 10:20 p.m., extremely tired, but having enjoyed the evening immensely. It seemed to me that it was the most fun Fr. Kirwen had had in some time as well. He is delightful company, and can spin so many stories from his 44 years of experience in Africa that you are held spellbound. It is also wonderful to watch him interact with Kenyans, particularly those who are of the Luo community. Having spent 25 years in Luo land as a missionary, he is fluent in the tongue, and this inevitably surprises those with whom he speaks.

Today, after sleeping late, I am diving into revisions on my paper. These are not extensive, but it must also be said that there are a few more interviews that will have to be added to the research summary in the coming days, and these may require some additional small changes. The research summary itself has to be typed up, but I now have exemplars of other MIAS papers to consult, and this should not be a difficult or terribly time-consuming task. Generally, Dr. Waruta seemed very pleased with the paper, stating that it held “excellent insights.” His only wish was that it made somewhat bolder recommendations for the future. These will be easy enough to include, and were withheld on the basis of academic restraint. It would seem that Waruta considers academic restraint a bit overrated.

(11:48 a.m.)


Monday, June 19, 2006

After doing some revisions on the paper and updating the field research summary on Saturday, I did not accomplish very much else, except managing to get on the Internet for a while at the Nairobi Youth Hostel. This actually took two trips, as on the first visit I discovered that they were experiencing the same power outage that affected Flora, which lasted about an hour in all. When the lights came back on at Flora, I went back and was the first to arrive there. The connection was actually reasonably good, and I was able to send another picture home.

On Sunday morning, I decided to attend the 11:00 a.m. Mass in English at Flora, in the little chapel they have in the compound. I was expecting a somewhat more subdued, European approach to the Mass, but what I observed was, in fact, that all of the music was sung in Kiswahili, with an approach similar to that observed at Holy Family Basilica and the Cathedral in Homa Bay. The readings, announcements, and homily were in English, but not one musical selection. Drums and shakers accompanied the choir, and there was hand clapping with much of the music.

It was difficult to tell if there was an actual ‘choir,’ as there is no place for one to sit apart from the congregation, but in the first few pews on one side sat the song leaders, the choirmaster/cantor and those playing percussion. There was four-part harmony in the room, but it was not clear if this was due to the presence of an ‘official’ four-part choir, or whether sufficient members of the congregation knew parts to the various songs to produce the effect. Whatever the case, it was very effective.

I attempted to sing along as much as possible. There were hymn books with only the words printed, so after a repeat or two of a refrain I was usually able to join. The lack of notated music was a frustration to my trained, western musician’s perspective, but the cost of reproducing the notation in a context where almost nobody in the congregation could read it makes little sense.

The congregation was virtually all African – I saw perhaps three Europeans, including one of the Consolata Sisters who did the Old Testament reading. The surprisingly young priest presented a very interesting sermon for the feast of Corpus Christi today, connecting the Eucharist, the Passover meal, and the place of eating and its implication of community in African culture. He also focused on the question, “Do we live to eat, or eat to live?”

Looking in a place where I would expect to find stronger European elements in Catholic worship, I have still found that there is a clear sense of African ‘ownership’ of the liturgical music.

In the afternoon, I attended a concert of the Nairobi Music Society (Ken Wakia, director) and Nairobi Orchestra. The program began with the Vivialdi Concerto for Two Violins in A Minor (Op. 3, No. 8), featuring two violinists that had been imported with assistance from the Austrian Embassy. The soloists were quite remarkable, although the orchestra itself had a few intonation problems (notably the double bass). This was followed by two short choral pieces accompanied by piano and French horn, and then the violinists returned for a selection from Charles de Beriot’s Duo Concertante (Op. 57, No. 3), which was also played brilliantly.

After a short intermission, the combined orchestra and choir presented two complete Chandos Anthems of Handel (Nos. 7 and 11). The Chandos Anthems are odd little cantata-like works, very Italianate in their conception, and among the earliest extended works of Handel setting the English language (written for the Duke of Chandos, for whom they were named, in 1717-18). After nearly 300 years, this was their premiere in Nairobi.

Handel’s inexperience with English is apparent in some of the odd syllabifications and text underlay, but there are certainly some good moments. The anthems were clearly a challenge for the choir, but overall it was a credible performance, and was clearly appreciated by the audience. Of particular merit were the tenor and alto soloists.

The audience was at least half white (it was one of those events that, as a white person in Nairobi, I found myself asking, “where have they all been hiding?”), and there were also some Indians and Asians, with Africans probably accounting for 30% in all. Part of the issue, to be sure, was the ticket price of KSh 400 (about $5), which is rather expensive for the average Kenyan. This, for example, would be approximately the cost of a long-range bus ticket to a place like Kisumu or Mombassa.

After the performance, I bought dinner for Ken and Maurice, who also attended, and we had a very interesting discussion about the emergence of a Kenyan ‘art music,’ and whether or not such a thing would be relevant for liturgical music in the Catholic Church here (the opinion was that it would not be relevant). Ken also approached me about the possibility of returning to Nairobi to guest conduct the Music Society in a future concert, and I told him that I’d be delighted if the details could be arranged. Funding, of course, is always an issue in such matters, as organizations such as NMS definitely do not have deep pockets.

Today (Monday), I headed into town on foot at about 8:20 a.m. (my first solo venture into central Nairobi on a weekday), and spent about an hour trying to find the office of Safari Seekers to place a deposit on the safari Charles and I will be taking beginning on Friday this week. Fr. Kirwen had given me directions to one part of the city, and there was nothing resembling it there. I asked at a shop for a current telephone directory, and found a listing on Kaunda Street, not very far from the Catholic Bookshop next to the Basilica (my eventual destination), so I then headed that way and scoured the street until I found the correct building.

On the 5th floor (not easy to reach, since the entry door that includes access to the stairs isn’t marked in any way), I searched in vain for the correct office. I then simply entered a travel office, and they said that Safari Seekers had moved. My confidence was not exactly building by this point.

Fortunately, I had a mobile number (none of the land lines from the directory were being answered), and the proprietor’s wife answered and told me that he would call back. She hung up before I could give her my number, but fortunately, the number seemed to have been captured, because Zul, the proprietor, returned the call a moment later. He apologized for the confusion, and said that it would be fine to pay the morning of our departure, but that half would need to be in cash to take care of park fees and other out-of-pocket expenses along the way. I said no problem and added an ATM stop to my errands for later in the day.

Browsing at the Catholic Bookshop, I found a number of interesting things, including one of the music editions of hymns in Kiswahili commonly used here. This will be a helpful resource. I also picked up two books that will be of value in my paper, and one entitled The Risk of Education by Luigi Giussani (translated only recently from the Italian) that appeared interesting, and which may prove relevant for my Oxford presentation. The greatest treasure from the bookshop, however, was a sturdy cardboard box! I asked if they might have some empty in the back (learning that one needs to use the word “carton,” not “box”), and they gave me one used for shipping bibles. It is perhaps 9” x 8” x 14” and accommodates the collection of books I have amassed here, including the new purchases. I believe that it will be best to simply check it as another piece of baggage rather than pay the hefty shipping charge to air mail it back to the U.S.

After stopping at the ACK for an e-mail check, I went to the NSSF building to hit the ATM, and the guard, predictably, wanted to see what was in my box. Since she had a rather tough-looking uniform and a metal-detecting wand (and since she outweighed me easily by some 50 lbs.), I was happy to let her inspect the books in it. And, as you would probably expect, when I passed by the soldiers in front of the Israeli Embassy, they wanted a look in the box as well. THEY had AK-47s, so there wasn’t much question about letting them check the contents of the box. I expected this, of course, so I wasn’t terribly troubled by it.

In the afternoon, Brother Geru Andu, a student De La Salle brother studying at Tangaza, came to Flora and took me to a place not far away, in the Hurlingham area of Nairobi, where he treated me to some authentic Eritrean food (which overlaps Ethiopian cuisine considerably). It was very tasty, and for the first time since I’ve been in Africa, I was able to eat a really spicy dish (a roasted, diced lamb dish made with a hot red curry). This was served on ingera, a very light type of spongy rice bread that is made with yeast and which is soft and easy to tear off. The method of eating is that you tear small pieces of this and use them to pick up the bits of meat, all people eating from the same central plate. We also had a second dish, which was a bit like fajitas, except that the pottery serving dish has a small compartment at the bottom for hot coals to continually heat the food on top. This was also served with ingera, and to drink we had a thick concoction of mango, papaya and avocado juices.

The most interesting part, however, was the coffee service at the end of the meal. Traditional Ethiopian/Eritrean coffee is very thick – boiled for a long time in a pot with the grounds. The entire pot is served with cups, a bowl of sugar, and (this was a surprise), a small dish of hot coals, upon which the server places some bits of incense, taken from a small basket that comes on the tray (apparently, one can put on more incense if this isn’t sufficient – it was). The feel was vaguely Arabic in some ways, or so I imagine.

The restaurant is divided into very private little rooms (wicker and fabric dividers), in which are small tables and usually four chairs. I found the atmosphere really very intimate and extremely refined and civilized. The only shortcoming was the background music from the radio, which was tuned to a station that seemed intent on playing American music from the 1970s. It is a bit of a challenge to stay in an authentic Eritrean mood while hearing Marvin Gay sing “Sexual Healing.”

Even with the Motown distraction, it was a truly wonderful experience. Afterward, we exited the restaurant and went to a nearby shop, where I was able to buy some authentic scarves and where Geru also purchased for me as souvenirs a very nice little basket (“for sweets in your office” he said), and an interesting metal cross mounted on a patch of velvet.

We had a very good conversation that covered a wide range of topics, and I learned much about his background in music, and how his work as a lyricist particularly is something very precious to him. It is, in every way, a personal expression of his faith, and it was moving to learn of the struggles he has had to come to Kenya to study, to become a De La Salle brother, and to be away from his family for the past six years. In fact, he cannot go home to visit, because there is presently a presidential order that will not allow anybody under the age of 40 to leave the country! So, if he goes back, he will stay there permanently. He faces the difficult decision in May 2007, when he completes the Bachelor’s degree, whether or not to return to Eritrea permanently. It is something that he prays about each day.

I returned to Flora at about 5:00 p.m., and left again almost immediately to meet Charles for “tea” at the Fairview Hotel. “Tea” has become our euphemism for any drinks, and these involve alcohol more often than not lately. My “tea” today was a double Absolut vodka and tonic, for example. The main reason for the brief meeting, however, was so that I could get the iBook computer back from him, which I’d let him borrow since yesterday afternoon. It seems to have been very valuable for his writing of the research paper, which we are both planning to finish tomorrow (he’ll be back in the ACK Cybercafe more or less all day).

Tomorrow I have an interview with Dr. Arthur Kemoli of Nairobi University at 3:00 p.m. – my last official research meeting. Maurice will meet me here at Flora at 2:00 p.m. and we’ll take a taxi, as I’m not sure of bus routing. It isn’t terribly far from here. Tomorrow night, I’ll finish my research report, and get any other things ready to turn in on Wednesday – the final day of the program. It is difficult to believe!

(8:54 p.m.)