University of Eastern Africa, Baraton

Hello, everyone.

The University of Eastern Africa at Baraton is a Seventh-Day Adventist college with some 1,500 students from all over Africa. I have already met many people from Kenya and Tanzania, as well as Malawi, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, and South Africa. Many of them are Seventh-Day Adventist, but for a college of that denomination, I was surprised at how many are not. For example, my three closest friends thus far are all Muslim. However, all students are expected to attend church every night for 45 minutes, regardless of their own faith. In keeping with the strict interpretation of the scripture that the Adventists adhere to, the campus also refrains from serving Alcohol, Coffee, Tea, Soda, or Meat. Tobacco use is prohibited, no jewellery is permitted, and there is an 11:45 curfew.

Despite all of these things which might in other contexts have detracted from my experience (NO COFFEE?), I’m actually finding Baraton is actually a very nice place. The campus is clean, safe, and friendly despite being located in the middle of a very poor and dry area of the country. The students and faculty that I have met have all been tremendously welcoming, and even the all-veg food is pretty good. I have a room to myself in the “Old Men’s Dorm” (so named due to its having predated the other men’s dorm, not due to the age of its occupants), and the shared bathroom is considerably cleaner than several others that I have encountered in East Africa.

As I said above, the three guys who I first met up with and have since befriended are all Muslim and all hail from the costal city of Mombasa. They are called Abdallah, Salim, and Juzer, and all three of them are of “Swahili” stock.

[ Quick history lesson: Traders were travelling back and forth across the Indian Ocean from East Africa to the Middle East, India and possibly even China as far back as the 7th or 8th century, and maybe even much farther. This interconnectivity brought increased wealth to the costal communities of Kenya and Tanzania, as well as a tremendous Islamic and Arabic influence (To alleviate any potential confusion: “Arab” is an ethnicity, “Islam” is a religion, “Muslims” are people who practice Islam, of whom many are Arab. There are also a great many African Muslims, Indonesian Muslims, and Persian Muslims to name just a few. There are also many Christian Arabs, and the like. Anyway…) The East African coastal peoples gradually assimilated these cultural and religious influences and formed a new society, calling themselves the Swahili people. The coastal peoples intermarried with Arab traders from the north and formed a fairly powerful trade network of their own, peaking between the 8th and 13th centuries. This is why the coast is predominantly Muslim, even though most of the rest of the country is Christian. As they grew in power and wealth, their language began spread inland. With the advent of colonialism the different colonial powers (Portugal, The Omani Empire, Germany, and England) utilized the language to different extents, and before long it was a major language of government. It was gradually supplanted in Kenya by English in the last several decades before Independence, but it is still one of two national languages (along with English, which is less widely known, especially outside of the cities) and is spoken by almost everyone. In Tanzania it is the only national language, and very few people speak English. Despite this national appropriation of the language, the coast is still considered to be the home of Swahili, and most folks there would call themselves the Swahili people. Many of them, including my friends here, are of mixed or even predominantly Arab descent. ]

Anyway, my three friends here are all seniors, and are all preparing to graduate in March. They have been tremendously welcoming and friendly, and have made me feel very much at home. They are all from relatively wealthy families (Baraton is a private university and there are very few scholarships available, so many people are), and I get the impression that Salim and Abdallah come from families that are very well connected in the Kenyan political and Economic elite.

Other than spending time with those guys, I am finding Baraton to be a little on the slow side. Exams start at the end of the week so many people are spending a lot of their time studying. There also isn’t really a significant town around, and the few restaurants across outside the gate are sufficient for sneaking out at meal time to get meat or soda, but not much else. Although the campus is certainly pleasant and would be a nice place to attend school, I nevertheless find myself with lots and lots of free time. On the plus side, this is helping me catch up on all sorts of reading. I’m also making some headway on the planning of the 24 hour play festival coming up on January 12th (tickets are just $5- reserve yours today!) and on my email correspondence, but this isn’t really what I came to Kenya to do. I have met briefly with a few professors, including one interesting meeting with a professor of Geography and Development Studies, but even that didn’t seem to lead anywhere, as he had to cut it short with other work to do. I doubt he’ll have time to schedule a second interview.

All in all, it seems like a very pleasant place that I happened to arrive at in the wrong context and/or at the wrong time. And I can’t even upload any more photos or anything to the web because the connection is a little too slow. If you find that my blog posts trail off for the next week, it will probably because there isn’t that much to report. On the other hand, if you find that I’m writing a whole lot more than usual, it’s probably out of a lack of other things to keep me busy. Now would be a good time for that casual email you’ve been meaning to send, if you catch my drift.

The current plan is to return to Nakuru on the 12th, but if the boredom keeps up I might move that to the 11th or even the 10th. And after that, I’m back to Nairobi on the 15th or 16th, and off for climbing in France with Nick O’Brien on the 21st. In these last visits to Nakuru and Nairobi I’m also going to be going around purchasing wearable art for sale back at Taylor’s Landing Country Store, so if you have any sorts of goodies that you’d like to be able to buy at very reasonable prices to support Kenyan artisans, please let me know ASAP and I’ll see what I can do. I’m already planning on bringing Earrings, Necklaces, Bracelets, Handbags, and Sandals, but if you’re interested in clothing or other things, that’s great too. I’ve also heard that the Red Ribbon Pins made by the HIV+ Single Parents support group are now on sale at Taylor’s, so if you are interested in those, they’re officially now available.

Thats everything (and then some),

Chris