Prison

Day eight of captivity.  Day eight of classes, assignments, and losing my sanity.  Day eight.  Tomorrow will be day nine, and then on day ten we drive for eight hours to get to get to our expedition location, Lake Nakuru.  It’ll be awesome and I’m looking forward to it so much but it seems like a dying flame in a black rain that will extinguish before I can reach it.  Back to day eight. 

We are supposed to have one day off for every six days of classes.  Being here has made me realize that it’s more like 9 days of classes for every day off.  And more importantly, our next day off is being consumed by our travel time to Lake Nakuru. Going for so long without the opportunity to relax is exhausting, frustrating, and makes for a pretty hostile learning environment when every single person is so drained.  In addition we have large projects and papers due daily worth anywhere from 10-20% of our final grades in four different classes.  And the assignments just keep coming.  We went from having one assignment due a day which meant staying up late the night before its due, working on it in between and after four to six hours of class during the day and then handing it in by five just to start the project due the next day after dinner, to now having two projects/papers due every day.  I’m struggling.

In addition, apart from not being able to produce quality work after doing this for so long on such little sleep and computer-shot eyeballs, we are always second-guessing these assignments.  Many of the professors are uncommunicative of their expectations, lose much of what you write and say in translation, grade down because of their own confusion and inability to translate our English, and are unapproachable in regards to talking about final grades. 

This experience is dramatically different than any other study abroad program offered by DU.  I consider myself lucky because I was prepared for this.  I had spoken with students who had been in this program before and my study abroad advisor never lied to me about what she knew of it.  I am lucky because I was able to prepare mentally for this, while many of my friends here had no idea and are struggling worse than I am. 

Despite my preparations, however, I find myself constantly frustrated with the administration.  There is no reason to deceive students about their schedule and days off.  There is no reason to lock us up in this camp when we are adults, the community is overly friendly and welcoming, and the wildlife is the only real threat.  If I’m going to get mauled by a buffalo it’s going to happen whether I’m with a 23 year old American intern or not.  There is no reason to have papers graded by unqualified men, namely those who, due to their cultural taboos and preconceptions are uneducated on women’s issues in their own communities.  I know I am ranting, but let me tell you this, my professor, who has his PhD in Ecology, is a brilliant man when it comes to sciences.  He’s taught me so much about the Amboseli ecosystem and its conservation. However, he should have no role in grading papers in the social sciences, especially when he makes a remark on a paper about Maasai women in which he questions the validity of how female genital mutilation can be fatal.  I highly recommend that SFS and BU consider requiring students in the field to email all papers to headquarters for grading to ensure fairness and more positive attitudes among alumni towards their professors. 

I also recommend any student considering SFS Kenya to question their ability to handle high stress working environments, little freedom, and uncaring professors.  After Lake Nakuru I will write more about reasons why this program is amazing, and much of it is and makes it so worthwhile, but I can definitely see how this program is not for everybody.  Make sure it is the right one for you. 

P.S.  There are a few amazing professors too that are more than perfect.  The Student Manager and interns are also so friendly, welcoming, helpful, and guiding.  They really work very hard to do all they can for us and I hope they know how much I appreciate them.  This is Shem Mwasi.  He is one of my favorite professors here at SFS and in this image he is giving us a traveling lecture (note Kili in the background).  He is hysterical in that he does everything slowly, speaking, walking, working, and is always rubbing one of his arms or his belly.  Don't ask me why but it's very laugh provoking.