The weekend

     This Saturday I went in to Nairobi to explore a bit with Patrick and his wife Grace (they set up the internship for me through their small company called Gracepatt Ecotours).  They are both so sweet and just incredibly welcoming (great representatives of Kenyan people overall!)  Here is a picture of me with Patrick.

     First we went to a museum about the building of the Kenya-Uganda railway (created by the British when Kenya was under British rule), known as the most treacherous railroad project undertaken in Africa.  The working conditions were horrible and many workers died along the way, several from animal attacks (once the railway was up and running one first class passenger was actually killed when a lion jumped into his compartment as the train had come to a stop!). Unfortunately many lives were lost, but the railroad is still the primary railroad used in Eastern Africa.  Queen Elizabeth also rode along this railway many years ago and had a very fancy, first class compartment complete with a tea room!  Here is a picture of me sitting in Queen Elizabeth’s chairs that were in her tea room on the train haha

     We also walked around the government district where the Prime Minister’s office is as well as a court house, city hall, the primary bank of Kenya, the ministry of education, and several more prominent buildings.  Here is a picture of me in front of a government building (I believe that is the international trade building, but I can’t quite remember! Oops!) and then just a shot of a street in the city.

      

     Right now there is a lot of tension over the ministry of education in Kenya because the minister has been accused of embezzling 4.2 billion Kenyan shillings (about 46 million US dollars I believe) that were supposed to go towards education reform.  He is denying all accusations although everyone is certain he's guilty since he’s been involved in several other shady deals in the past.  Since the Kenyan government was only established in 1963 (once they were free from British rule) there is still a lot of corruption and misappropriation of power as they are still working out the kinks of forming a stable government (their next elections will be held in August 2012 which everyone here is extremely anxious about!). It’s been very interesting to watch the news though and see how their politics are playing out.