Life Roundup

My days have been mostly filled with diss writing, reading, and research, but I have other things on the brain too.

- We’re heading to Addis and I need to get USD to enter (how annoying) and updated passport photos.

- Millennium Investments and Santa Claus are headed our way in just a few days – WOOHOO! (not their real names, duh).

- I need to pick up another mosquito net for MI’s bed.

- We’re thinking of putting J in preschool when he turns 2 (with the caveat that if he gets sick like he did in daycare, we’ll pull him out.)  I’m conflicted because I think about how he’ll likely go to school so much of his life, that maybe we should prolong the freedom of staying at home since we can afford home helpers here.  But I also know how enriching, fun, social, and exhausting it will be for him.  Advice on this one would be greatly appreciated.

- I’m getting increasingly worried about our personal safety as the trial of Kenya’s President, Uhuru Kenyatta, gets underway in the ICC in November.  I have been polling cab drivers and any other Kenyan I meet – most believe that he should stand trial.  Some say that it’s because he’s innocent and he should clear his name.  Others think the rule of law must be upheld.  While I totally agree with those sentiments in principle, I am genuinely afraid for what will happen here if he is convicted of crimes against humanity.  First, will he be deposed?  Who will be president in his stead, especially if his deputy, Ruto, is also convicted?  Then, how will the public react?  Will we have 2007-level of violence here?  I hope we see the writing on the wall before any kind of rioting or other mayhem occurs and we get out.  This isn’t my battle to fight and I only wish the best for the Kenyan people.

- The weather is starting to heat up and the short-rains that were supposed to start in October, have yet to fall.  I can’t decide if I should be grateful for the rain-reprieve or nervous for the coming drought if this continues. 

(There are lots of other things to tell you all about: our trip to Amboseli and all the ELEPHANTS that we saw, my new volunteer project with NHC, the things I’m planning to do in the U.S….. and more.)

You Just Never Know…

The Daily Nation is now reporting that Samantha Lewthwaite aka “The Black Widow” was living in Lavington in the Oakpark Apartments just before the Westgate attack…. Although it has not been confirmed that she was part of the attack, she does seem to have a very long history of affiliation with dangerous men.  That, in and of itself, does not condemn her, but man … it’s not someone I really want to hang out with at the grocery store.

Hmmmm…. when I read that, I kept thinking… man, the Oakpark Apartments.  Sounds so familiar.  Lavington is our neighborhood.  And then I walked out of my compound today to run a few errands and BLAMO! there it is.  The Oakpark apartments are basically across the street from our house.  100 feet away maybe.  She could’ve been buying milk for her kids behind me in line at Nakumatt. 

More Westgate Victims – The Journalists

If ….
….you happen to be a city’s police commissioner….
…..and your city’s highest profile mall is attacked by armed gunmen….
….and it is later discovered that your police officers are caught on closed circuit video clearly stealing jewelry, money, and even booze from said mall…
….then, you might consider that an apology, an investigation and prosecution of said police thieves, and a commitment to “do better" in the future *might* be in order.

But that’s not what is going on here in Nairobi. 

Instead, David Kimaiyo, General of Police is attacking the main journalists who have exposed the police bad behavior as “incitement” and “propaganda”.  He first claimed that these police officers were bringing water out of the mall (huh?) and then switched tactics to target the “offending” journalists.  But it seems as though the Kenyan people know better.  News is consumed voraciously by radio and printed paper here in Nairobi.  Kenyans value their relatively open (and somewhat trashy) media coverage.  I doubt the Kenyan people will be agreeing with Mr. Kimaiyo anytime soon.  They can see right through his attempts to divert blame from himself.  Let’s hope I’m right on this one.

Water Issues in the Developed World

…. and just in case you thought that water issues were the domain of the developing world…. think again.

New York City has just completed a huge new tunnel to provide water to the city.  The project began 40 years ago and is just now operational.  See the map below.

And London plans to make a similar investment in a water tunnel to divert their waste from the mainstem of the Thames River.  However, in the London example, we have some pushback from the public because the project is going to be owned by a private water utility, even though ratepayers are baring much of the cost.  We’ll see how that one shakes out.

Water Conundrums

As I mentioned in the last post, I was at a water conference all last week and that’s why I didn’t have time to post.  But I wasn’t without post-worthy thoughts.  Actually I have been stewing quite a bit on some of the contradictions of water highlighted by the conference and the technical visits that I attended on Monday and Friday.

Here’s one to chew on:  Floods and heavy rains make lots of water available.  Hurray!  Places with limited water availability can rejoice that more water has fallen from the sky.  Not-so-fast…. In Nairobi’s water system, surface water (including rainwater) is impounded behind Thika Dam (not actually located in the town of Thika, but rather damming the Thika River).  During the rainy season, the dam fills up.  Cool beans. Sediment in water sitting behind a dam generally has the opportunity to settle out, making the water very clear.  However, water must then be conveyed to the water treatment plant to make it potable.  Between Thika Dam and Ngethu Treatment Plant are first a series of pipes, but then dam water is dumped in to a river that is used as the final conduit to the treatment plant.  Because of this river-stretch, when there are heavy rains, this clear settled water becomes super turbid, meaning when the water reaches the plant in the rainy season, it needs double the treatment to reduce turbidity and render it drinkable.  This all means that water is actually more easily treated and therefore more easily available during the dry season than the rainy season.  How about that?

Here’s another one:  Water leaving the Ngethu Treatment Plant and making its way via a closed pipe to the city of Nairobi is totally clean, potable, and drinkable.  If this is the water that arrives at my tap, why am I still not able to safely drink my tap water?  Two reasons:  1. Despite the ample rainfall in this part of the world, Nairobi Water is still not able to satisfy water demand.  I heard numbers of around 60% of demand is satisfied.  This means that the utility must shut off pipes to various parts of the city on a rotating basis in order to “equitably” share the resource that exists (I did get into it with some folks about what “equitably” means, but that’s another story.)  Because the pipes are not full of water 24/7, air gets in and so does rainwater and any sewage or urban runoff around, thereby polluting this potable resource.  Also 2.  We do not have significant storage tanks at our apartment, but we manage to always have water flowing out of out tap.  How?  Because our apartment complex (and everyone else of our socio-economic class and higher) has access to a borehole or well on our property.  To supplement our water supply, we pump water directly out of the ground.  This well is on our property.  This groundwater is not treated to the same standards of the piped water from the treatment plant, meaning that we basically supplement our water with a sub-standard quality in order to assure adequate quantity.  How about that?

Water sure is a tricky one.

Still Here, Just Busy

Hi folks… just wanted to let you know that we’re still here… We’re fine.  We’re busy as all get out, and that’s my excuse for not writing in a while.  I promise I will get back to you because I have so much to share:

- About my week-long IWA conference that was interesting, housed in a conference center that doubles as a government building and is truly a horrendous piece of architecture. 

- J is 21 months old – holy cow! 

- Prepping for visitors and our own trip back to the U.S. for Thanksgiving

- My own water-related epiphanies which happened on my two days of field trips from the aforementioned conference.  Dams are cool.  I’m a sucker for waterworks.

- Reflections on the Kenyan holiday celebrated today (Monday).

I hope to get back writing on the blog soon.  Take care, ya’ll.

M

Solitude and the Academic

Before I began my grad school adventure, I met with a friend who is a professor of history in a very prestigious university.  When I asked him what he liked about academia, he answered, “The Solitude.”

Yesterday I chatted with a friend, another grad student spending her year abroad to conduct dissertation research.  After all the howareyous, we both admitted to being a little lonely.  Luckily, I have the benefit of being surrounded by my family and living in a big and rowdy city, but there is something about the camaraderie of students in a graduate school setting that sparks the mind and lights a fire under your butt.  Part of it is that I am a classic extrovert: someone who gains energy by experiencing the energy of other people.  But it is more than that.  When you shoot the breeze in an academic setting, you can’t help but connect ideas (and listen to others connecting them) in new and novel ways.  You happen upon a lecture that makes you go hmmmm…. You dish about the politics of the department that helps prepare you for your (hopefully) future life as a faculty member. And there is the inevitable competition that can productively push you to work just a bit harder. 

Even though I left my academic city 7 months ago, I haven’t had much of that camaraderie since I went on maternity leave in late 2011.  You’d think I would be thriving in the solitary work environment because I’ve had so much time to get used to it.  But solitude is still a really hard place for me to work.  I do not agree with my historian friend quoted above.  I do not look forward to the solitude that is necessary to push out papers, the currency of academia.  Rather I love the dissent of the classroom, the outcomes that happen when minds come together to solve problems, and the knowing rolled-eye look that comes from a colleague who “gets it”.  Every job has aspects that you may not prefer.  I hope that I can make the best of the necessary solitude in order to maximize the social parts of this career choice.  Otherwise….. I’ll be in trouble.