Just a quick note...

So in the past week since the alleged attack from the last post, parts of the girl's story have been called into question. She is returning home now, but some people believe that she may have fabricated the incident. If the story isn't true then I'm sorry for alarming anyone, but irregardless we all spent a large part of last week in a panic.

School Timeline

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about classes so here’s a timeline:

• July-August: I studied Kiswahili for 7 weeks at the university
• Early September: Classes were supposed to start. They were postponed.
• September 29: Classes officially started, except that no professors or students came to classes. Most students hadn’t actually moved in because they knew that classes never start on time. We tried for a few days to attend classes based on the confusing timetable posted online. Please note that there are no course descriptions anywhere. Only names, times, and locations. I give up and go Nairobi.
  
• October 6-10: Some professors and students came to classes. More and more came by the end of the week. We ran around collecting syllabuses trying to piece together a schedule of classes where the professors speak decent English. Some people walked into classes taught completely in Swahili because the professors wanted the students to understand the lesson.
• October 10: Official end of class registration. Deadline was postponed because most of us couldn’t log into the system. I still can’t. My registration number was switched with another American.
• October 13-17: Pretty much all professors are showing up to classes. I’ve decided not to take an extra academic class because I’m probably not going to learn much anyways. I’ve been to 3^rd year history classes where they spend 2 classes defining history. Students don’t how to speak in class and have no access to reading materials. I keep searching the library to no avail. I just want to be a good student and do my homework, but can't.
  
• October 27: Date of national student strike. It will probably last a few days to a week. I might travel again.
  
• October 31: New registration deadline.
• Mid-December: Foreign students take finals early to go home.

It will be the shortest semester ever. The real lesson I’m learning here is how poor the education system is here. Primary school is taught in Swahili, but the secondary school and university are taught in English. People don’t learn English well and there are no national resources going into education. This is the best university in country and its taught at high school level in America.

And for some sobering news:

Almost every week something happens to remind us that we aren’t completely safe here. A wallet gets grabbed on a Dhala Dhala, a laptop is stolen from a room. On Sunday afternoon, a strange Tanzanian man came by a girl’s room saying he was looking for a room for a friend. He asked her if she had a roommate. She told him she didn’t and he left. Later she went to the shower and he came back, grabbed her, and forced himself into her room. She fought back and he didn’t take anything, but he had a razor and cut her lightly on the face and shoulder. What scares me is that her laptop was next to her. If he wanted to steal something he could have. They think he was trying to rape her. We have guards outside the building, but they didn’t see him come in or leave. I’ve come back late and night seen the guards missing or sleeping. Our most common guard is a kind old grandmother, who couldn’t hurt a fly. Even the Tanzanian students are scared. It's an all girls' dorm. We're all always targets--apparently even in our rooms in broad daylight.

First Week of Classes

My first 5 weeks of Göttingen have gone by in a blur. During the first three weeks, I took an intense language course with other European exchange students who are also going to be in Göttingen for the semester and/or year. The true value of the course was not really learning more German (academically, I got very little out of the course), but rather getting an orientation to the university and meeting other people. The language course felt a bit like freshman orientation all over again.

After the course ended, Jackie, some friends from the language course, and I went to Munich and Oktoberfest, and then Jackie and I went on to Vienna. Probably either Jackie or I will later blog about Munich and/or Vienna, so I won't dwell on that much now. But I will say that it was a wonderful trip.

Now, though, vacation/orientation time is over and the school year has begun. The process of registering for classes has been, quite frankly,  a headache. The Göttingen website isconfusing and the process of finding and registering for classes very complicated. All the German students I have met have been incredibly helpful in attempting to explain the process, but often even they do not completely understand it. To explain: every department organizes their course selection process differently and have different registration deadlines. For instance, I can search for German Department courses in the central course catalog, but I cannot find the descriptions of the courses there. To find the course descriptions, I must go to the German Department website. The History Department includes course descriptions in the course catalog for most but not all courses (there are some courses that seem interesting based on their title, but I cannot find the description or reading list anywhere). Some departments (ex. Spanish) do not include descriptions on their websites or in the course catalog, but rather on the website through which we register for classes. 

After going though the trouble of actually finding classes, the registration website is easy to navigate and I do not have to get the signature of an advisor. However, much to my surprise, the German Department required students to register for classes a month ago. Now that the deadline has passed, I have to send an email to the professor of the German lit class I want to take asking for permission. I wrote him a week ago and am still waiting a reply. Whether or not I get an email, I am still going to the class tomorrow and hopefully I will not be thrown out.

I now know more or less which courses I am taking, but am using this week to shop around a bit. My Spanish class yesterday was very well taught, and I have heard great things about the professor of the history class I am taking at 6 pm today (evening classes seem common). I am excited that the official school year has finally begun and I will let you know how things progress from here. 

Nairobi

Classes were supposed to start last week, but none started, so I took off for Nairobi, Kenya with some Americans from another program. Other Americans warned us against robbery, pickpockets, scam artists, and beggars, but we went anyways.

We left at 6 AM, thinking the bus should arrive by 7 PM. Instead our bus broke down in Moshi. We spent an hour playing cards on the side of the road and waiting. The ride was uneventful from Moshi until the Kenyan border, where we checked out of Tanzania and paid our Kenyan visa fees. Because buying our visas took longer, the bus almost left us alone in the dark. Luckily, we ran and caught up just in time. As we crossed the Kenyan border, the roads surprisingly got worse (they’re pretty awful in Tanzania) and we were soon stopped by police checking that passengers were wearing seatbelts. Spending the last three months in Tanzania, I almost forgot about seatbelts .

We got increasingly nervous driving through the dark, so when we arrived at 9:45, we stepped into a taxi and asked for Backpacker’s Hostel. We decided the hostel chain might be a little more expensive than other guesthouses, but we could stay one night and then move somewhere cheaper. However after one night at the Backpackers, we couldn’t imagine moving. A wonderful Kenyan woman, Patricia, owned the hotel and took great care of us. She cooked for us and gave us directions. We decided we could afford to pay a little extra for a tv, a fireplace in the outdoor dining room, a puppy named Scooby Doo, and warm showers.

We spent the first day wandering around the city, marveling at how urban it felt. We noted immediately that there was no trash on the ground or burning like in Dar-es-Salaam, no squat toilets, and that buildings were taller and better maintained. Although, I didn’t see many Mzungu, Kenyans didn’t stare at us the way Tanzanians do. Nairobi was so well-developed; I could forget I was in Africa. Everyone spoke English clearly and wealthier Kenyans even spoke English to each other. I went to the National Museum and was amazed at how much more organized it was than most Tanzanian museums. Although people pointed out parts of the city that had been disturbed by violence last year, there is currently no visible evidence of last year's upheaval.

The next day, we toured Kibera, the second-largest slum in the world. We slid through rain and across mud paths down into the valley of mud homes and tin roofs, passing signs for small NGOs and private schools. Because the Kenyan government doesn’t officially recognize Kibera’s existence there are no public schools in the area. But we never felt unsafe or even very sad. The people were friendly and they seemed happy despite their poverty. The conditions were cramped and unsanitary—mud dripped through irrigation pipes and there was no room between homes. We visited a shop were men make jewelry from cow bones and a youth center where the kids made beaded jewelry. I couldn't resist buying a few necklaces to support the workers and remember my visit.

I’m not sure why people warned so strongly against Nairobi. It was worth seeing at least once and I’d love to go again someday. The nightlife was more fun than in Dar; Kenyans are better dancers than most Tanzanians and it was exciting to see a city recover (at least on the surface) so quickly from such great turmoil as last year’s election violence.

Since I’ve returned, classes are starting slowly but surely. Not all professors are coming to class, but each day more professors and students show up. I’m supposed to register by Friday, but still go to classes without professors and am not sure what I want to take. We’re all running around trying to find good classes that are actually happening. But on the bright side, I’ve met my roommate, Nehema. She is a very sweet sociology major and we have class together. She has a tv and is currently unpacking a suitcase full of clothes, wondering why she brought so much. I think we could get along well. At least I hope so.