I'm making this up as I go along....

Never having been a blogger, I will do my best to keep up with this so everyone interested knows of my hopefully numerous adventures over the course of the next several months.

I leave for Nairobi, Kenya on March 17th, 2008 for an AIESEC traineeship. I will be working with the ASK program over there as well as with a group called KENWA, which is a network for Kenyan Women with AIDS. I will be working in more impoverished areas of Nairobi, KENWA is located in the slums, which makes me slightly nervous but of course increases the traineeships appeal.

I always knew I wanted to go to an African country, and while getting my degree in anthropology I most heavily studied the countries of Eastern Africa. This will not be my first venture abroad; I have backpacked through Western Europe on two separate occasions (each for 5 weeks) and while there is nothing more exciting than putting all of your belongings in a 50-lb backpack and heading out without any real concrete plan, I think I always wanted to go somewhere less conventional. While I have been convinced that going to Africa would be the ideal situation, my parents, friends, most of my family members and strangers that I meet on the street keep trying to talk me out of it and warn me of the impending danger and (most likely) doom. Especially when I focused getting my traineeship in one of two countries - Uganda or Kenya.

While I was looking at traineeships with AIESEC my efforts were focused mainly on Uganda. To Westerners who get most information from the news, Uganda brings up images of Idi Amin, the Lords Resistance Army, and the statistic that has come up in more than one study that there are 2+ machine weapons for each person in Uganda (most of these came from the arsenals being raided after the fall of Idi Amin). Not exactly going to a resort area. During my search, I also was intrigued by several DT's (developmental traineeships for the non-@ers) in Kenya. Making money never interested me that much or I wouldn't have picked anthropology as a major. Working with non-profits was my focus, and if I did not go on a traineeship I was going to apply for the peace corp. It just so happened that KENWA and the ASK program fit the bill perfectly.

I can't begin to describe the differing emotions that I have going to Nairobi in 3 weeks. I'm sure everyone can imagine that they are all kind of jumbly and not really making any sense. My parents have resigned themselves to the fact that I already have gotten the majority of my shots (I still have 2 left in the rabies series) and bought my plane ticket, so I'm honestly going. They keep offering tidbits of advice but I think it's finally sunk in that their eldest is off into the world. I hope they realize what a good job they did raising me and that they couldn't have done anything else to prepare me for this. I also hope that they realize that they could not have stopped me, and in the unlikely event that anything happens (Shanky, I'll address YOU in a moment) that it is in no way their fault.

The possibility of something happening was not my primary concern since I sent in my acceptance note a couple weeks ago - it was actually the plane ride over. A giant hunk of metal soaring through the air like a bird? Not my idea of a good time. But the recent incident that Shanky experienced made me consciously realize that I am going into a potentially dangerous situation. I can't begin to understand what he experienced or will experience in the future in relation to the mugging, but I hope that I can take it and learn from it what I can. And I think that everyone connected to him in any way has learned something, whether it be to heed warnings that you get (especially from those native to an area...they know best) or that this type of violence is exactly the reason that I feel the need to go over there and try to make a difference for the better. Violence that is endemic in a culture is something that does not have to be accepted as fact, but can be changed. Never by one person of course, but by several that are willing to try. I'm not sure what you learned from it, but I hope something.

Overall, I am excited to start my journey and kwaheri ya kuonana! (goodbye until we meet again)