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.