Experience: Michiel Westerveld, Cairo, Egypt

Internship

My internship was a 6 weeks project in Cairo, Egypt. I participated in the ‘Draw a Smile project’ and worked in an organization which supported children of whom their fathers have died. The support was mostly financially, but offering this summer course was one of the other forms of help. Together with 2 other students (from Croatia and Kazakhstan) we had to teach 5 students a day soft skills and computer skills. The topics we chose for soft skills were e.g. CV writing, presentation skills and non-verbal communication. The second part of our lesson was teaching them how to use Google, Word and Excel. Here in the Netherlands every student knows how to use the internet/Microsoft Office, but in lower educated families in Egypt they don’t know it and sometimes they don’t even have a computer at home. Although we were expected to work 40 hours a week, we worked 20 hours a week, but this was long enough. Most of our students didn’t speak any English, and every day we had an Egyptian translator which helped us. The translators did a good job, but still this way interaction with students is more difficult and some information gets lost. But in general, I have the feeling we could really teach them something!

AIESEC

For me, I only had good experiences with AIESEC in Egypt. Our project was well organized, I was picked up from the airport and brought back to the airport 7 weeks later. Furthermore AIESEC organized a trip to Rash Shitan (on the Red Sea, beautiful location), so my experience with AIESEC in Egypt was good. In total our LC (GUC, German University of Cairo) had around 30 interns this summer. We all lived on different places but gathered almost every night, and this interns and some people from AIESEC were the people we hung around with.

Egypt

My reason to choose Egypt for my internship was the reason I had never been in a Muslim country before and I thought it would be great to really experience this country (by living here 7 weeks) instead of just visiting it as a tourist. And it turned out to be a good choice, however you have to get used to Egypt. After one week I realized: ‘Nothing is ‘normal’ here, everything is different than in The Netherlands’. The traffic, the people, the language, the religion etc. etc. In general, people in Egypt are extremely nice and willing to help you. However, tourism is the main source of income of Egypt, and since tourism has decreased after the revolution people who need to make money out of tourists are desperate and doing everything to make some money. This is one the things I didn’t like about Egypt. Besides that, Egypt is beautiful and has so many things to offer! Of course the last ancient world wonder the ‘Giza Pyramids’, the Sfinx, Egyptian museum (with mummies and the famous mask of Tutankhamun) and especially in the south of Egypt (Luxor and Aswan) are many temples and tombs. Egypt has so many things to offer, even after 7 weeks I have only seen the most interesting sights.

One thing I wanted to see was how it is to live in a Muslim country. Religion is really important in Egypt (90% is Muslim) and mosques are everywhere. Most women wear a headscarf or even a niqab (only the eyes uncovered) and you hear the call for prayer the whole day, but this didn’t bother me at all. The only thing that bothered me was the fact it was Ramadan in August (the last 4 weeks of my stay). Shops and touristic attractions close earlier, shops don’t sell beer in Ramadan (even when it is not Ramadan beer is very rare and not sold in most supermarkets) and people are short-tempered because they are hungry and thirsty. So living in a Muslim religion country in general is fine, but in Ramadan it is not that good for a tourist.

Personal experience

My internship gave me insight in a different culture and gave me the experience of teaching students. I really enjoyed teaching our students something but one of the tings in learned is that I am not patience enough to be a professional teacher. However, in 6 weeks of teaching you learn some skills which are useful in the future like keeping attention and explaining things of which you think they are obvious for everybody. Living in a country for 7 weeks gives you an unique opportunity to really get to know the people and the culture. I have been invited for dinner several times and got to know the local people from the orphanage really well. Together with the great culture Egypt has to offer to internship has been a great experience! However, when choosing Egypt, bear in mind Egypt is different than The Netherlands. People are ALWAYS late, people try to get money from you all the time (and try to cheat on you, it is common for taxi drivers to drive you all around Cairo instead of going directly to your destination), finding beer is quite hard (if you can’t live without beer: do not go to Cairo) and Cairo is a dirty city with trash everywhere. However, if you want to experience a different culture, a city that lives 24/7 and meet many interns and nice local people, go to Egypt!

Experience: Niels Wiskerke, Mityana, Uganda

From October 11th until November 26th 2010 I was an intern with Childine Uganda.Childine Uganda is located in Mityana, West of Kampala, the capital of Uganda. It isabout 70 kilometres from Kampala city center. A two hours drive by minibus, becauseof the very bad roads.Childline Uganda is a very small, local organization. There are about fivepeople ‘fulltime’ working for the organization. They cooperate with other organizationsin Mityana. The most import goal of Childline is: “Helping people lead better lives.”The main activities of Childine Uganda are education about hygiene and sanitationand education about HIV/AIDS. For me, it was a bit unclear how they get theirfunding, however I did understand that they didn’t receive any regular funding.

I was the first non-African intern working for Childline. For the people in Mityanait was very special to see a mzungu (white man) in town. So when I went on thestreets there were a lot of children yelling and waving to me. When I started with theinternship, there were about eight other interns from Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda.The other interns lived in two very simple rooms, of course without toilet, showerand gas for cooking. My room was situated near a complex where other Childlinemembers live. Together with the others interns we prepared diner (local style).

At the morning we started with a breakfast (two parts of cassava and tea) at theChildline office in Mityana. Office is a nice word for a small, dark room with a veryold computer. Often it was unclear what we would do during the day, however ata certain moment during the morning this would be explained. Often we went to apart of Mityana for education about hygiene and sanitation. We just visited randomhouses to speak to the people who were at home. We checked the situation, forexample if the latrine and the ‘shower’ were clean and if they had drying racks andmalaria nets for their children. A couple of times we went to schools in the Mityanaarea for education about body change and HIV/AIDS.Most of the time, we went back to the office at the end in the morning. So we workedonly 2 or 3 hours per day. After ‘working’ we went to the local rolex shop for lunch. Arolex is chapatti with two eggs rolled into it. The rest of the day there was not muchto do in Mityana except relaxing with the other interns and buying and preparing foodfor diner.

As you can read, working for Childline was a bit disappointing because there wasnot much to do. After a week, I didn’t think I would be very happy to stay there sevenweeks, so I spoke to the Childine director and we agreed that I would also staysome weeks in Kampala. In Kampala I could try to find some recourses for fundingfor Childline. I found some potential funds for Childline, one of them was the DutchEmbassy in Kampala. However, I doubt that Childline can get the appropriate fundsin the future.Maybe the last week of my internship was the most fun, because we did more work(cleaning of the local hospital, counseling of HIV/AIDS patients) and there were twonew interns from Denmark. However, also these two Danish girls and a Dutch girlwho was arriving a short time after then, didn’t stay at Childline Uganda. There was
simply not enough work to do and the communication between Childline staff and theinterns was pretty bad. Often we did a lot of waiting and when you did criticize theway things went, they didn’t really listen or respond.

Living in Mityana however was a unique experience. It was a rural area with a lot ofpoverty and very friendly people. Being together with the other interns was awesome.Especially because I learned a lot about life in East-Africa and the differences amongthe East-African countries.
They weeks and weekends I didn’t work in Mityana, I stayed at the Aiesec MC Housein Kampala. The MC House was a nice big house, surrounded by a large wall. Apartfrom the interns, the people of the Uganda MC also lived in the house. From theoutside the house was very nice, however all the money went to the rent of the houseand it seemed that there was no money left for furniture. It was nice to stay there withother (mostly female) interns from all over the world. The people from Aiesec Ugandawere also friendly and hospitable. An exception was the very, very bitchy Germanfemale president of Aiesec Uganda (none of the interns liked her).Almost all of the weekends I went with other interns to beautiful places in Uganda. SoI managed to see al lot of amazing places in this really beautiful country. Togetherwith other interns I also went to the Aiesec conference in Kigali, Rwanda. It wasawesome to visit this very special country. I experienced that Aiesec in East-Africais really different from Aiesec in The Netherlands. They have a lot of special habits,like dancing together and using Aiesec language. So, after two days conference,I wanted to do something else, and together with some other European guys wevisited very impressive genocide memorials in Rwanda.

After seven weeks, I went to Kenya for traveling. I’ve been in Nairobi, Mombasa,Lamu and the Maasai Mara. It was really nice to see and experience anotherbeautiful country and to meet a lot of fellow travelers.

I can write a lot more about my 10 weeks staying in East-Africa. About the veryfriendly people in Uganda, the beautiful environment, all the special animals I’veseen, the way of living in Africa, the horrible traffic, etc. Being in Uganda, Rwandaand Kenya was a fantastic experience I’ll never forget.

Experience: Diede Sterenborg, Alexandria, Egypt

This is the story of my experience from my two months in Alexandria, Egypt. With the selection
for the Nour Project and sessions about the Middle East before the internship, it made the whole
experience bigger. My choice to go on a AIESEC internship to the Middle East was made rather impulsively; I just decided I wanted to go. Maybe the fact that I already studied in the United States for a semester made it somewhat easier. However, this would of course be a totally different experience; whereas studying in the United States is often not considered a very big challenge as it is a Western culture, this internship would take place in a completely different culture. Although the decision to go on an internship with the Nour Project was a bit impulsive, the Middle East has always drawn me; its religion and its people always fascinated me. As I only heard negative stories about the Islam and about the Middle East I wanted to see it for myself so I could judge for myself, instead of letting the media sculpt an image of the region for me.
When I found the internship at Rotaract in the AIESEC Database, I noticed that the
description was something different from other internships, although the job description was a bitvague. I spoke to an intern who had been there last year and he told me that he had a lot of freetime so it would come up to me to make it an experience worth it. Rotaract is an NGO for people
between the age of 18 and 30. When I learned that it was a youth department of a Rotary club I
was at first a little disappointed; I was worried I would only meet the upper class layer of Egypt.
However, because I would meet people my age through this internship and I considered that they could take me anywhere and show me Egypt, I made the decision to go for this internship.
I had no idea what to expect when I left for Egypt; what would the people be like? Would
they be very strict? I expected them to be very conservative and strict Muslims so I brought my
lightest-longest clothes with me. I arrived at 4 o’clock in the morning in Cairo.

Amr Koheil, the contact person from Rotaract, told me they would pick up me as a service from
them. Amr and another boy from Rotaract were indeed waiting on the airport. I remember very
well that I was very enthusiastic and they were not so much. We walked to the car, they lit their
cigarettes, the music was put on at maximum volume and we drove off to Alexandria (very fast). I
guessed they were tired from driving and waiting and their distant attitude was probably something Egyptian, I figured. Still, it was a remarkable welcome. I still had no idea where I was going to sleep but when we arrived in Alexandria it turned out I would be sleeping at Amr’s girlfriend and her family for a while. She was born in the Netherlands and lived there for 12 years. A very modern looking girl with Adidas clothes on welcomed me (in Dutch) and took me to her bedroom. The next day we went to a private beach where I met quite some people from Rotaract. It turned out that the first two days of my experience in Egypt were not so conservative as I thought they would be.

After a week, the other three interns also arrived in Alexandria. One from Belgium,
one from Romania, and one from the Netherlands (she was half Dutch, half Colombian but
she was supposed to represent Colombia; her birth country). We hang out a lot with the people
from Rotaract. The average age was 20 and we spent most of the time with the boys from the
organisation, who took us everywhere. After a week they found us a very nice and clean apartment,
where we would live with the four of us, one girl from Turkey would arrive two weeks later.
Rotaract was a very nice group of people who guided us and took us wherever we wanted to
go and through this way I and the other interns made quite some friends with them. Every night we
went to eat somewhere and to a café to just sit and talk. They also arranged several outings for us.
We went to a farm from one of the guys, a very nice region on the country where his family grew
orange apples and dates beside the Nile. We went to Sharm-El-Sheigh for a weekend by bus where
we snorkelled, rode on a buggy in the desert followed by dinner in the desert, went to the beach
as it was awfully hot and even went to a club one night where there were no Egyptians accept the
Rotaract’ers; everyone was from either Russia or the UK, a reversed culture shock right there in
Egypt. Another trip was to Siwa, an oasis in the Libyan desert very close to the Libyan border. It
was a very conservative village which was only put out of its isolation in the 1980s when a highway
was built. We also went to Cairo with a big group of people from Rotaract where they had arranged
a bus that took us everywhere during the whole day.

As I said in the beginning, I was scared I would only meet the upper-layer of Egypt. At the
beginning of my internship I was told that AIESEC was more the group of the
richer western-orientated people and Rotaract was more conservative (and not so
rich as AIESECers I got the impression). This was a relief as I wanted to see Egypt and not the
western side of Egypt. Of course, Egyptian students have to be a little richer than the average
Egyptian as they have to be able to afford university. So Rotaract’ers were richer than the average
population and, in consequence, also more western than the average population. They were all
Muslim but not very strict in practicing it. Also, around forty percent of the Egyptian population
is extremely poor to nearly poor but I hardly experienced this. Still, I was so happy I got the
opportunity to experience Egypt and the Muslim society. Hearing the prayer calls five times a
day, seeing the traditional background of the veiled women, experience the division between men
and women, the donkeys on the road, the chaos in traffic, feel the social control and see a very
unorganized country (in comparison with the Netherlands) made the experience worth it. Also the people I met, both the interns and the people from Rotaract who tried their best to help us and guide us made it a very good experience.

Experience: Catherine Endtz, Egypt, Cairo

Same Same but Different

Cairo Airport, June 2010, around nine pm. With the usual sense of traveller’s

excitement I walk into the airports’ arrivals hall. A brown-haired, blue-eyed girl

speeds up to me, a smiling face I recognize from a Facebook picture. No time for

extensive welcomes and chit-chats. My plane was an hour late and we have to rush

to Khan el Khalili, the large and very touristic souk that hosts some very nice shisha

(water pipe) places. Let’s go, yalla yalla! In the car my new AIESEC friends try a nice

joke on me involving one AIESEC’er pretending to be mute, and the other pretending

to be an Indian cab driver. The first intercultural exchanges of laughs. Twenty minutes

later I am walking through little back-alleys in the old Islamic centre of Cairo,

absorbing all the new sights, smells and sounds.

I was in Cairo for my internship with AIESEC. For two months I would take

on the position of fundraiser for the small NGO El Nafeza. My main reason for being

in Egypt, however, was to have the “AIESEC-experience”, to meet people from all

over the world, to get emerged in a culture that was not mine and to get challenged

in my ideas about normality. Additionally, I had been given the unspoken task to

discover that Muslims aren’t that different from us, that more than anything we are all

humans and that we should all be friends.

Quite an obvious message I thought. As anthropologist-in-the-making,

having spent about a third of my post high school life travelling through third world

countries, I was a model cultural relativist. Polygamy or female circumcision, nothing

could get me shocked anymore. Who are we to judge their cultural practices? We

have our things, they have theirs.

My AIESEC experience, however, was very different from all my other travel

experiences. The friends I made in Cairo didn’t wear red and blue checked cloths;

they didn’t have holes in their ears the size of oranges, or live in cow-dung huts. They

were just like me: they went to college, wore the same kind of clothes and listened

to the same kind of music. Because the friendships were based on a strong feeling of

sameness, my ‘us versus them’ cultural relativism didn’t work anymore. They had

become part of the ‘us’. So, when, under an initial layer of sameness, I did discover

quite some cultural differences in the end, for the first time in my life they bothered

me.

One of the most obvious differences was the gender issue. The many

differently shaded hijabs on the streets I could culturally put in perspective, and

the male stares and occasional ‘I love you’s started to grow on me. I did feel weird

however, when, just before we left the house to hand out Ramadan meals to the poor,

my male friend ordered my to put my cardigan on; when during a weekend at the

beach I was subtly pulled out of sight when the neighbours knocked on the apartment

door; or when at a Tiesto concert two other friends acted as my personal bodyguards

with every step I took, afraid that something would happen to me.

All of this was clarified during the last week of my stay by yet another friend

during our weekly shisha. He shared with me the well known facts that “Men are

worth twice as much as women” and “Men are just better in everything than women,

that’s why they always have to take care of them and protect them.” Adrenaline going

from my head to the tip of my toes: how could a friend of mine say something like

this!

The interesting thing here was not to which extent this guy’s opinion reflected

popular opinion in Egypt or for that matter the whole Islamic world. What is

interesting is the situation itself, and how to handle it. What is the limit to cultural

relativism? How much difference of ideas can you handle, and can you accept? Do we

have to get rid of foreign ideas to be able to live in harmony with their owners? I there

really such a thing as respecting without accepting: the well known Dutch ‘tolerance’.

And how do we deal with our own convictions in the face of difference?

Exactly this is, in retrospect, the main lesson that I brought home from Egypt. I’ve

learned that, faced with a difference of conviction, it is no crime to embrace your own

point of view. We should however, when doing this, accept the tension this leads to,

and instead of denying it or running away for it, embrace it, learn to live with it, and

maybe even enjoy the constant debate, change, and reflection this tension leads to.

Because in the end, we’re all human and we should all be friends.

Experience: Adam Verhaar, Alexandria, Egypt

Ever heard of Egyptian planning and timing? Well, there is something that they call Egyptian
planning and timing, but in no way you can compare that to the standards of our modern
western society. Egyptians do make plans and schedules, but one thing you can be sure about;
that it will never go the way they planned it. Egypt and the Egyptians surprise you every day
in every way! This made my experience in Egypt one of the best ever!

Egypt is a very interesting country, an exploding population of over 85 million people on
a habitable surface the same size as the Netherlands (you can only live on the banks of the
Nile or in the delta, not in the desert!). The first thing I noticed was the gap between the rich
and the poor, the gap is huge. There is virtually no middle class in Egypt. And if you live in
Egypt and are able to spend your time and money on AIESEC you must be rich and from the
upper class. I met many AIESEC’ers and they really became my friends during my stay in
Alexandria. They helped me out with finding an apartment, introduced me at my internship
and took me around town to see sights, theatre shows and other cultural activities. We still
keep in touch through Facebook of course!
The internship I did was at the Egyptian American Center in Alexandria: A private
language institute, where I taught English to both youth and adults. Teaching English was a
informative experience. Not only did I improve my own English grammar and vocabulary, I
also learned a lot of teaching methods and skills. But the best part of teaching is of course the
interaction with the students. In my classes I always ended with a group discussion that could
be about any subject, but we often ended talking about the differences between my culture
and their culture. They gave me wonderful insights in their lives, how they deal with their
daily lives, how they feel about politics and about their attitudes towards family, marriage and
the relation between men and women in Egyptian society. But we also talked about shopping,
sports and movies and other things people normally do in their lives. They’ve showed me
that they do not differ from us as human beings. They want to live a happy life in which they
want to give the best to the people they love, and living in a chaotic country as Egypt that
can mean a life full of hardship, where you have to bribe someone every day to get what you
need. Nevertheless, wherever you go, the hospitableness and openness of the Egyptians is
heartwarming.
During my internship I had enough time to travel around the country. The history and
diversity of this country is amazing, and I am not only talking about the pyramids! In the
south you can meet a black Nubian at the Abu Simbel temple complex, in Siwa oasis you see
very conservative Muslims that descend from Berber Moroccans that take you for a desert
safari in a jeep, while Cairo is populated by 18 million ‘real’ Arabs who smoke shisha (water
pipe) in a bar every night!
Living in an Arab/Muslim country for some time is something I would recommend
to anybody! The NOUR project gives you an excellent preparation where you’ll learn about
Islam, Arabic language and the practicalities of living abroad. Make sure you have a well
arranged internship, combine it with some travelling and an open spirit, and you will have an
unforgettable experience!

Experience: Damiaan van Ballegooijen, Kampala, Uganda

I went to Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, for 8 weeks. During this period I did an internship at the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) in the first part of the day and a Microfinance and Entrepreneurship (MFE) project in the afternoon. I wanted to gain another international experience and do something totally different, therefore I was especially eager to go to Africa. AIESEC was able to give me this opportunity and guided me through the search process. I applied to different Traineeships, this process took a lot of time and was frustrating in the sense that some TN managers took a long time to respond. But when I came across the TN in Uganda and got a positive reply quickly I was very enthusiastic, and was able to “make a match”.

A couple weeks later I was on my way to Uganda, I flew via Dubai and I stayed there for 10 days, so that was a good start to my journey. I arrived in Kampala a couple weeks before my internship started and I had already booked a safari for the first week. I chose to go earlier because I wanted to travel around in the country as well and I expected that I would not have the opportunity to do that during the internship.

After I travelled around I still had one week left before the project started and I met with the LC for the first time to set expectations and go through all the things I needed to know. Unfortunately, they were not very clear about the EP’s role in the MFE project and they still had some difficulties with the internship but I was assured everything would be fine. Which in the end it was. The housing was not yet arranged so I stayed in a small hotel in the centre of Kampala, where I stayed the rest of my stay because I was able to make a nice deal with the owner, and because it was very close to work.

The other interns from the MFE project started to arrive as well and my internship at the CMA started with only one week delay. I was a research intern and assisted in data entry and other daily tasks of the senior research officer, I also had to write a report on the Influence of the African Monetary Union on the Integration of the Capital Markets in East Africa. It is a very interesting time in East Africa, as they are in the process of becoming an integrated trade block.

When all the other EPs had arrived the MFE project also started, there were around 20 local students attending and 8 international EPs. During 6 weeks, the students were given lectures from professionals from the field of Entrepreneurship and Microfinance. Although the role of the EPs were unclear in the beginning, we had to give presentations when there was no technical facilitator. We also acted as facilitators in discussion and role plays. At the end of the project all the participants had to write a business plan and incorporate the things they had learned during the project.

During the course of the exchange there were some situations where the cultural differences became apparent. For instance, before the project started, I was supposed to meet a couple of LC members to recruit students for the MFE project on campus at 2 pm. I was at the university right on time and started to call some members to tell them where I was and confirm our meeting, they said that one of the members would be there very soon and that they did not know where the others were. Time went on and reached 3pm, still nobody, I started calling again, but nobody picked up their phone, and I decided to wait for another 20 min or so… After 15 minutes one of the members called and they told me that nobody could make it… and that we will start recruiting tomorrow! Normally “African Time” meant a little later but not that they did not show at all!

The local AIESEC community was very active and organized all kind of activities. There were a couple of universities where AIESEC operated and they all had EPs over for the summer. So we were with a big group of interns. Next to the weakly drinks at the local bar Mateo’s, they also organized a conference in Entebbe, one hour away from Kampala, where we stayed for a whole weekend and all kind of activities were organized. The interns also organized their own activities, we went rafting in the Nile in Jinja with a big group for instance. And a lot of people travelled to Kenya and Tanzania. I went to South Africa with two other interns during the World Cup 2010 where we visited the games USA-Ghana and Netherlands-Slovakia.

What did I Learn?

First of all, this experience gave me the opportunity to meet a lot of new people, not only from Uganda but from all over the world. You hear a lot of different life stories and learn about many different countries. But of course I learned most about the Ugandan culture, not only about their timing, but also about their view of the world and for instance the importance of their religion. During my internship at a formal government organization I learned about the Ugandan business culture, which I experienced as formal in official business and with superiors, but at the same time very relaxed and fun between colleagues. 

Next to that I experienced first hand the difficulties that people from my age experience when they grow up in a country where the possibilities are less than what we are used to. This changed my view of the world that we live in.

The advantage of doing an exchange with AIESEC is that you are not on your own. During the summer there were approximately 40 international interns in Uganda. I have made a lot of new contacts and already met with a few of them a couple of weeks ago. AIESEC also facilitates a lot of projects like the MFE project where you can put your knowledge you gained in practice. I gave a lot of presentations and taught others what I have learned during my studies which was a very satisfying. Another good thing about an AIESEC project is that you can have influence in the way it is organized because it is all done by students. Therefore I have learned how to organize a project and especially have learned from the things that went wrong. I can only say that it was an amazing experience, and that I would recommend it to everybody!

Experience story: Roel Kramer, Nairobi, Kenya

Kenya, Nairobi, AIESEC Strathmore & UON

June the 5th, finally made up where to go because of too much interesting internship opportunities in different countries. Well, 2 weeks later I arrived in Nairobi, Kenya and the adventure could start!


I was going to work for Kuruka Maisha, an art school for street kids. I would help in daily operations, do some counselling and focus on marketing of the performances. And I would stay without any costs at the director of the organisation during the time of my internship. However, the day I arrived in the morning I was told he wasn't able to host me, so I was moving to another host “family” (one guy actually). It was a nice place, good location etc. But after a week he started asking for rent; €300 (which is enough money to rent your own house in Kenya). So again plans changed; I moved to the LC-house, living with 9 other international trainees. In the beginning we had some problems with running water; so sometimes showering meant throwing buckets of (cold) water over your head. Though everything got fixed after a while and it was really great living together with all those different nationalities, going on trips together, going for dinners, drinks, cinema, parties etc etc.


Then concerning my internship, there was a small problem. At the moment of my arrival the
organizational activity was around the level of zero. This was, as my director communicated, due to the fact that no money was transferred from the Belgian funder this month. But, it would arrive
anytime soon. So I started to think about all sorts of different projects I could start with. However, as time proceeded, my director kept telling me he expected to start lessons and projects again the next week. After three weeks I lost my patience, and went to search for other opportunities. Via some roommates and AIESEC UON I came into contact with the AHCP, which is an organization based in Kibera (the biggest slum). They had an entrepreneurship project, teaching young people about how to set up their own businesses. I really loved this project. 3 times I was teaching (sometimes together with other trainees, but most of the time alone) on marketing, finance, accounting, management etc. This was a wonderful experience, standing in front of a class of 13 students around my age and older. I really had the idea I could contribute a lot, since all the students seemed to learn a lot. There was a lot of interesting interaction with the students; they took me to their houses in the slum, invited me for a hike, showed me their current running business etc.

Then a bit about the social life in Kenya. Arriving at six in the morning in Kenya, the whole first day the people of AIESEC Strathmore showed me around in town. It was exhausting but very nice they took a whole day to show me around. The next day I would be taken to the project, but nobody came. I tried to call and text, but nobody showed up. Neither the next day. It was after 2 days that I took a matatu (bus) myself and met with somebody in town who could take me to my project. I can say that the AIESEC 'ers from Strathmore were not really very active and very much involved with the trainees (with a few exceptions there). 

Every Tuesday there were AIESEC drinks in a bar in town, including all LC's (there are 5 in Nairobi). Here I met a lot of AIESEC'ers from UON, also the LC where I ended up doing the project on entrepreneurship. These people were way more socially active and involved with the trainees. Actually from Strathmore they didn't even take care of me when I was telling about the lack of work at Kuruka Maisha, I had to take care of myself. Though I think that in Nairobi, no matter what LC you are, you can have a great time. If you are willing to take some effort to meet new people, it will be a lot of fun. Since there are a lot of trainees (in the summer there were over 30 I think) and also a lot of AIESEC'ers you can hang out with. 

So, if you would be thinking about going to Strathmore anyway, just do it if you think you're project is really cool.

Nairobi is quite developed, well the town is. You can find fast food chains (not McDonalds but some South-Africain chains!), you can go clubbing, go to cinemas, luxurious shopping malls etc. But also a lot of parts are not developed, like Kibera which is a slum with 1,4 million people. Here there is no (good) sanitation, no running water, a lot of HIV/ AIDS, sometimes no electricity, houses made of mud and wood, no garbage system. Although there is a lot of poverty, the people are so friendly and warm-hearted. Actually I really liked it working there and interacting with the people living there.

Nairobi is known to be really dangerous and unsafe. You should really take of yourself in town, that's true. Don't trust random people in the streets talking to you and trying to get something from you (if you want to ask for a street or something; approach someone yourself, don't let yourself be approached). Especially during the night you shouldn't walk alone, unless you're with locals. I expected to be robbed at least once, but it didn't happen!


There are quite a number of tourists in Kenya; a lot organized tours go on safaris and to the coast. It makes sense, since it's a really beautiful country with a lot of wild life, and at the coast beautiful beaches combined with an interesting (Arab) culture.

I learned a lot, especially adapting to the standards in the different country. I was meeting with a
person in town to go for drinks, she showed up an hour to late. Every Kenyan has a strong sense of religion from which the majority is Christian (you see texts like: God is able, Jesus is our bread even on buses). The traditional food is hard to get used to, unless you love beans, rice and ugali (a sticky starch sort of porridge). But you can also have really good food (and fruits!). Public transport is different; no time tables, no well maintained buses with fixed seats; but small vans with loud hiphop music ignoring any rule on the road.

I really loved my stay in Kenya. Though things didn't work out as I expected, I had a really great time.I met so many nice people, Kenyans as well as international trainees, had the idea I really contributed with my work, and also saw a lot of the country. To my opinion, most important of all is that you're not focusing too much on your expectations but that you're open to changes and are willing to make the experience the best yourself by taking initiatives.


Roel Kramer (Tilburg)




http://roelkramer.blogspot.com