When I got Nairobi, I honestly felt a little bit overwhelmed. I’ve done a bit of traveling in my life – to South America, Europe – but I’ve never been to a place that’s had such a different culture and feeling around it. Coming out of the airport at night, after a long flight, my immediate thoughts were that I was going to be kidnapped and never make it to the hotel. But then I took a taxi from a nice older man who taught me some Swahili, and realized I couldn’t have been more wrong. Nairobi might seem a bit intimidating at first, but it’s a very warm, friendly place where I’ve meet some of the most incredible people in just a short couple weeks.
There’s only four of us from Rice in Nairobi for iSeed, but we’ve been lucky enough to be matched up with two other Kenyan students from Kenyatta University, who we’ve become really close with. We’ve shared stress, laughter, and more memories than I could name. I’m hoping that one (or both) of them get the chance to visit Rice in the coming years. Below are some songs from a playlist that I cultivated with their help. If you’re going to Kenya, these are must listen to songs ahead of time:
- Nairobi – Marioo, Bien
- Extra Pressure – Bensoul, Bien
- How Are You (My Friend) – Don Jazzy, Johnny Drille
- Melanin – Saunti Sol
- INAKUBALIKA – Matata
- Nairobi – Bensoul, Saunti Sol
- Ma Cherie – Bien
- Sex & Marijuana – Bien
We began our city adventures with grocery shopping (quickmart is the move), the Nairobi museum (10/10 would recommend, even if a monkey tried to steal Sam’s food), and dinner with the whole squad. I’d recommend being friendly and introducing yourself to most people you meet – you’ll be getting a lot of stares, but these generally come from a place of curiosity. If you smile and say hello, to break the awkwardness, 9/10 times you’ll get a smile, handshake, and a “jambo (welcome) to Nairobi” back. Same for uber rides, I like to ask how their day is going to start a conversation. I’ve found that even though we’re from very different worlds, we usually have more in common and more to talk about than I think. It can be a bit odd at first, but I think it’s important to make the most of the experience and get to know as many different people as possible.
Below: Snakes at Nairobi museum (so cool!) and monkey trying to get to Sam’s food (don’t mess with the monkeys, they can be ruthless)
EDES 350 (needs-finding) was one of the most eye-opening classes I’ve taken, and it will definitely change how I approach biomedical engineering in the future. There’s a major difference between talking about the lack of resources in low-middle income countries (LMIC) and actually seeing it for yourself. My first take-away from this experience is the reality check that even though there are problems with the healthcare system in the US, problems that I’ve experienced first hand, it’s nothing compared to what others across the world face.
We had four hospital and three industry visits during the class. In Kenya, hospitals are categorized by their level, with level 1 being the smallest, local hospital and level 5 being the highest hospital at a district level (level 6 are hospitals run by the national government). There’s an incredible amount of class disparity and corruption in the government, which is especially noticeable in the disparity in the healthcare system. We visited Kiandutu (level 3), Thika (level 5), Kiambu (level 5), and KUTTRH (level 6). Many doctors were on strike during our visits because of inconsistent pay checks, which provided an interesting view into the healthcare system. It was my first time observing a hospital, and I was stationed with emergency, minor surgery, mammogram, new born, and material care units. There’s flexibility in what units you want to go to – some of the other students went to see surgery, for example. It was a surreal experience, especially at first, because of the drastic difference from what I’m used to. There were hundreds waiting to see the nurses, blood on the floors, and they were lacking the most basic resources: (no bedsheets, one (very old) monitor shared between the entire hospital, no vaccines, etc). And this was at the highest level public hospitals available in the district. Another observation from these visits was that even if nurses or doctors don’t follow proper protocol, something that was very surprising and jarring for me, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re not providing the best care they can. They’re in very difficult circumstances, often with low pay, and they may still be providing their best quality of care even if they’re not doing everything ‘by the book.’ It was helpful to approach the clinical visits without judgement, and to ask questions with an empathetic, open mind.
Below: Talking to a community health promoter (CHP) at Kiandutu. CHP’s are the generally the first line of contact between those living in poverty and the slums, and the medical system. These are volunteer positions, and they generally have very little resources to work with.
Also in the class we got the chance to visit three different companies: gearbox (PCB manufacturers), MSF (doctors without borders), and vaccibox (medical device company). All of these visits broadened my understanding of engineering as a field not just rooted in technical skills and innovation, but also in human-centered problem solving that works in a low-resource setting. Everyone was so friendly and kind, and answered all of our (many) questions.
Below: Visit to Gearbox 🙂
We’ve also had the opportunity to visit different places in the city. We went to masai mara (safari!), nairobi national park (another safari!), and diani beach – which I’ll put in a different post. In the city, we went to hikuri coffee, westgate mall (to watch the movie 28 years later – would not recommend it was so gross), and to a couple different food places (I now love Ethiopian food). We also went out at the Alchemist, which was a ton of fun (10/10 would recommend). There were a good mix of locals and foreigners, and we meet people from Nairobi, Germany, the US (American University), and Australia. They played a great mix of US and Kenyan music (again, listen to the songs above)
This has overall been an amazing trip so far, and I’d love to come back in the future. I was originally supposed to go to Paris/Amsterdam, but I’m so glad I switched locations. Experiencing a totally different culture, in a really cool city, is something that I’m going to remember for the rest of my life. It’s changed my perspective in wonderful ways, and is already becoming a second home.