Journeying Across the Cradle of Civilization

So, I have already failed a little… slacked yesterday on getting a post up, but, as we said in Africa whenever something didn’t obey Western temporal standards: “This is Africa”. Meaning, basically the same thing as “Hakuna Matata,” “No worries, we’ve got no time, we’ve got all the time in the world, this is Africa”.

I’ll go back to day one to go forward to day three. Luckily, not all that much happens on the second straight day of travel, but I’ll share a few pictures and insights. 

This is the Paris Airport, and while it was technically on the first day of the trip, the architecture is just too incredible to pass up. Here, Paris has taken the brutalism that it is and has been known for and transformed it into a contemporary masterpiece! 

I feel like I looked awfully touristy in the Paris Airport... I hadn't yet found a concealed or comfortable way to wear my, to make it sound cooler, money belt, and I was feeling pretty frompy in my glasses, gym shoes and waffle T. All of a sudden I had an epiphany... what if American tourists embraced the look of an American tourist and they were really cool and sensitive to cultural cues and polite and exhibit all sorts of positive international behavior. Perhaps the world's perception of Americans would improve. My message out to everyone, be true to yourself, wear your fanny pack, let the world know who you are.

Thinking about it... fanny packs are pretty awful. Scratch that last epiphany.

I began my journal the first night in Nairobi, June 9th, under less than ideal terms. We had just left the airport and were only missing one bag. I guess a bag normally goes missing from trip to trip, so no big deal. Would it be my luck or not for it to be my bag? Of course. But, if anyone knows me well enough, I was mostly unphased by this, worse things happen to better people, I always say.. We went to talk to baggage claim and they informed me that my bag took a little bit of a grand tour and visited Amsterdam after Paris, and that I should have it in the morning, and if not, they would send it to the Tanzania-Kenyan border. Fortunately, we were staying in Nairobi for the night to increase my chances of getting it as soon as it made it to Africa. 

"Here I lay in a bed at the Methodist Guest House in Nairobi, Kenya, with some of the most campassionate people I [am beginning to] know [very well] and the last thing that is worrying me is my rerouted luggage. The only reason I mentioned it was because I keep getting asked about how I am doing from others. 

-luggage convo boring-

So how was my day? 

Cincinnati-NYC-Paris-Nairobi

Someone looks like they have been in an airplane for a while! [THIS GUY]

I am still waiting for this overwhelming reaction: "HOLY COW! I'M IN AFRICA" But to tell the truth, I just have not been nervous or anxious this entire trip. I suspect that seeing the Roche Health Center will do it if nothing else does before we get to Shirati. What happens if I don't get the feeling? Am I unphased by anything? Those questions and more will likely be answered in the next 13 days... I am going to sleep... to the sound of a ticking clock, barking dogs, and the whispering bustle of Nairobi, Kenya"

I credit my lack of "holy cow, I'm in Africa-ness" to the 10 weeks I spent with my class, preparing for this trip. I noticed on the ride through Kenya the next day, when I was in a van without anyone from the class, that the vocabulary that the other students used compared to the way I had been "trained" to describe, observe, and understand Africa was totally different. Not to say that my thoughts were not completely unadulterated by the West's perception of Africa, but the thoughts going through my head while dismissive comments about people walking barefoot or the crumbling houses leaned in the direction of sensitive and unknowing. Am I making any sense? I'm trying to say that I had been taught to react naturally, without precedent, versus comparing Africa to things I had seen and experienced before... like America. I mean, check out the BEAUTY of this market we passed! Africa has community!

On the way through Kenya to Tanzania, I made a few quick jots. The notes are short, reflective, some have a little humor, but mostly just jots. Take them for what they are worth.

"African ARchitecture -> People live outside for the most part. Buildings are for storage and sleeping. I suppose the climate allows for this. Wouldn't it be nice to live outside all the time? What if it rais really hard, then what? What opportunities does the climate provide in America? The Midwest?"

"I asked Fat Joe [our driver] if there were any mythologies associated with the Great Rift Valley... ... ... Mine."

"Hey Matt [Rasch... my roommate who asked me to slap a zebra for him]... I just saw a dead zebra on the side of the road... I don't think I'm going to touch it. 

"Just saw a live one... we are traveling at 100kph... I won't be touching that one either"

"On the road, just say a "World Cup 2010 Show House"... set up like a business, painted on the storefront. I wondering if the entire village gathered there to watch the World Cup? Community... they've got it!"

"I spoke with Regina about the "Wow" moment and she agreed that she hadn't felt it either. Perhaps we have matured beyond our giddiness. Maybe we are waiting to get to Roche, to meet the people we have been refering to all quarter. I guess I'll find out tomorrow. "

"Our two day voyage to reach Tanzania is over! I'm sitting in my bed at Motel 2000, walking distance away from the SHED compound. Everything I've been studying on maps and from the pictures is becoming very real very fast. I can't wait to see the place in the daylight."

Much like I was feeling at the end of the day of travel, I think it's time to head to bed. I sort of miss those mosquito nets... 

yeah, not really... that's one thing I wasn't sold on, haha.

Humanitarian Design, What is it?

Refer to title. That question, the one of Humanitarian Design and its nature, is a tough question. And I am sorry to say that it does not have a concise answer. If I have learned anything in the past couple years it is that black and white bleed and cut and dry answers are difficult, if not impossible, to come by. This spring, I took a class appropriately titled "Humanitarian Design" to dissect the possibilities of this question. I think by the end of the next 13 blog posts, some type of answer will be defined. Most likely and indirect answer, one that will need searching for in the loose grammar and babble. For the sake of making the definition seem more nebulous, I am going to highlight glimpses of Humanitarian Design in my writing so that you might form your own definition, based off my reflections. I think nebulous is a great way to describe Humanitarian Design, its definition is constantly adjusting to parameters and sites and situations and histories. We can all learn something from the flexibility of its definition.

For ten weeks of my 2nd year at UC I studied this subject with Professor Michael Zaretsky. When I reflect on my application for this class, I marvel at its simplicity.

"This study abroad program interests me for two primary reasons. The first is the subject of the course, studying humanitarian design. For Christmas, my sister gifted me Design Like You Give A Damn, a book featuring humanitarian design projects globally, and charged me to do exactly that, design like I give a damn about the sustainability of our planet, the environment, and its people. The possibilities of my future are limitless, but my focus is very strong on using my talents and interests to help others and improve quality of life for all. I have a particular interest in the rural landscape of America, a place abundant in simple resources, but exploited in innumerable ways. I see this opportunity as a chance to make connections between the emerging ‘humanitarian design’ and a field I feel has yet to become fad enough to be heavily investigated, ‘rural design’.
The second primary reason I am interested in this study abroad program is because of my lack of travel outside the United States. I have never been particularly intrigued with exploring Western Europe as a rite of passage into young adulthood like many of my peers. Rather, I pour over the development of favelas in Rio de Janiero or the gentrification of slums in India and China to build sleek modern constructions. The dynamics of these developments provide me meditative exploration that make prospects of Paris or Barcelona or Prague pale in comparison. I have developed an itch for adventure, an itch to learn, and an itch to explore and this opportunity fits my interests perfectly."

It is understandable... we never can really register or remember what we didn't know after we learn something (check it... it makes sense).

Over the course of the class, I not only gained a sensitivity to the culture I would encounter in Tanzania and Kenya, but rather I learned a method by which I could treat all people with sensitivity, whether here in Cincinnati, back at home in St. Martin, Fayetteville, or Wilmington, or on the other side of the world in Tanzania. Every person has a unique history that requires your interaction with them to be deliberate and individual.

So, why was I going to Tanzania? Broadly, to witness sensitive humanitarian design work after having studied it for 10 weeks. Specifically? I was tasked with continuing research on way-finding signage for the Roche Health Center and the Shirati Hospital, as well as catalog as many construction materials and methods as I saw to create an arsenal for future studios.

Day one of the trip was travel heavy. Leaving Cincinnati at 11AM, the next day and a half would be a swirl of time zone changes and layovers.
Cinci - NYC - Paris - Nairobi

During the day and a half of being in the air, I had a lot of time to think about my role in this humanitarian design project. The roots of my definition of Humanitarian Design really took root during those rides and it helped to inform my actions following landing in Nairobi.

TIA - This is Africa: The Preface

Oh my blog, you have gotten awfully cobwebby in my absence! Yes, I am a bit ashamed for neglecting my blog for so long. It was always on the back of my mind... too bad what was on the front of my mind was studio projects and campus organization logistics out the wazoo. I never made it around to talking about all of the reflections I had made.
Apologies aside, I'm about ready to launch into a BIG endeavor... write a blog everyday for the next 14 days. These 14 entries will summarize my thoughts while I was in Tanzania from June 7 to June 21 (fourteen days). I don't want to spoil too much of these blog entries by even giving a synopsis, just let it be known that this will happen, and the diction will be witty and the thoughts will be thunk and the conclusions will most likely be poorly written because that is part of blogs that I haven't mastered yet... wrapping it up.







What if I stopped right there? I would reinforce my lack of closure in blog posts. Why not? See you tomorrow. :)