Bob Odhiambo, our host from VIST, arranged for
an apartment for Bryan and me to stay during our time in Kisumu. It is located on the top floor of an imitation Arabian style, three story building called Swan Centre. “Everybody, every tuk tuk driver, in Kisumu knows where Swan Centre is” Bob says with a glee of accomplishment. It is also the location of KCA University and the soon to be completed Victoria Institute of Science and Technology as well as a host of shops and offices. The outer ring of the 
building is apartments filled with upper class Indians and Arabs. Our three bedroom apartment is very large by Kenyan standards. Bob has done the best he could to furnish it but could only afford a round kitchen table with 3 chairs, 2 beds with mosquito nets, two fans and an LG TV that gets only two stations and one is only broadcasting in Swahili. However, electronics and appliances here are very expensive and we appreciated the effort. We’re working on getting a shower curtain and drapes this week.
Swan Centre is very safe for our gear. We have to
go through three iron security gates just to get to the apartment door and there are 24/7 security guards patrolling the halls. As with most places in the tropics, the flooring is marble tiling. That makes it mildew proof and easy to clean but it also has the capacity, without any furnishings to suck up the sound, to make the rooms into large echo chambers. Bryan and I had to resort to laying out our blankets on the floor of the living room to soak up some of the “boom” from the walls. We were not using them any way. But even with them, we have to speak softly to understand each other. We hear the call to prayer from the local mosque on a daily basis. Regretfully, it’s not the romantic chant in the distance but rather a blaring, more scream like, hollering punctuated by microphone clicks from a tinny loud speaker. The first call to prayer is at 5am.
However, the view from the balcony is one of the
best in Kisumu. From there we can see all the way out Winam Gulf and have an excellent view of the sunset as it spreads over Africa. As we look out over the lake from our third story vantage point to the horizon of the water line, we are still only seeing the Kenyan Lake Victoria and Kenya only owns 6% of the lake front!
As the computers didn’t arrive by Saturday and 
the University was going to be mostly closed on Sunday, we decided to take in some of the local sites for a day. But first we queried some of the younger university professors about the appropriate tuk tuk pricing. We discovered we were paying double the Muzungu (white guy) rate to get around. Our friend, Chrispin, the head of department of Academics, gave us a basic layout of correct pricing to getting a round. “It is 100 shillings ($1.25) to get to Hippo Point, do not pay more”. When we got into the tuk tuk on Sunday morning we stated with an air of authority “Hippo Point, 100 bob!” To our great surprise he readily agreed and we were off.
Hippo Point doesn’t have a lot of hippos hanging 
around during the day. The tourist trade had pestered them into seeking more private venues. But they had motorized long boats there to take tourists on a tour of the shoreline. We settled on a boat tour operator by the name of Titus. His English was unusually understandable for a Kenyan. We negotiated the price down to 3,000ksh (Kenyan Shillings) from his original 10,000ksh as we were the only business there that morning. Titus was university educated in biology and geography and was quite impressive at naming all the bird species as well as mimicking their songs. He could even mimic the mating call of the male Hippo or so he said that’s what it was! He filled the four hour journey with great tales of life on the lake interspersed with sightings of birds, villages and a couple of hippo groups. They kept well submerged for the most part but were easy to spot. I got some good video but we were fairly far from them. We kept our distance as they are Africa’s number 2 killer, the 1st is the mosquito. Although I’ve seen Hippos closer in the zoo, it’s still an amazing site to see them in the wild.
By Monday there was still no word on the
shipment of computers. In consultation with the staff and administration, we agreed to set up five of their computers as multimedia machines –using whatever parts we could adapt to the “Dell” machines and load them with the open source software that we were going to teach. Bob-O, as we now call him, also queried if we could do a short, general, overall presentation on multimedia on Tuesday. Our minds reeled with the immensity of such a presentation. We had nothing prepared; we had not expected to make such presentations –even if we felt qualified to do so! After a few moments of panic, I hastily put together a rough outline in my mind of an overall history, definitions as they’ve changed and summation of the equipment and software that is currently being used. Bryan agreed to work on the machines and I agreed to create a 20 -30 minute presentation to faculty on Wednesday. After hectically searching the very slow internet for images to illustrate the PowerPoint presentation and hastily doing some research, I had a presentation on Wednesday morning that was a fair job if I don’t say so myself. The presentation was scheduled for 10am. 10am came and left and I was told at noon that it would be 2pm. 2pm came and went and at 3pm I was told it would be 4pm for sure. At 4pm I was finally lead upstairs to one of the large lecture halls of the university.
Rather than the expected faculty of a dozen or so, the room was packed with what looked like the entire student body. A bead of sweat ran down my cheek, all the air left the room and time slowed to a near crawl. Naturally, each piece of equipment wasn’t working like it should have and required fiddling with for what seemed to be an eternity. Finally, they graciously decided to cooperate, started working and I was off with a big “Jambo” to the room. A luke warm response circulated through the room. But undeterred I launched into the history of multimedia starting with the American painters; Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, etc. and by the time I was up to the massive slide projector shows of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s I turned to see the hopelessly glazed over eyes of everyone in the room. I timidly sputtered if there were any questions? An oppressive silence fell over the room. Still, I had no choice but to continue, so I pressed on with out pausing to ask the question of which I already knew the answer. Finally, two gallons of sweat later, it was over.
The good news was that I ended my presentation with my favorite computer saying “Please remember that you are smarter than the machine” which had an animated gif of a stick figure man bashing his head against a computer. It elicited a few random laughs but overall I was looked at as if I had said something with the content level of “Jambo, blah blah blah blah blah…” for the past 20 minutes. Then in a gesture of mercy, the faculty finally rose in applause and the student body followed as trained. There were only a few questions about when the computers would arrive and when they could get hands on training. Then I took the longest shower of my life. I was later told by the faculty that subdued student reaction was standard and a couple of students and faculty said they were amazed and enthralled by my presentation. I was two pounds lighter that day.
Despite a worm virus problem that racked all
our computers (including this one) Bryan was able to get the 5 machines ready for multimedia training. We moved them into the VIST location, hooked them up, loaded software on them and I began instruction in digital video on Thursday. We’re using my Canon HV20 and editing in MovieMaker2. It is attended by two VIST trainees and some of the faculty when they can afford the time. Bryan finally put together his outline for digital audio and as of this week we are teaching 2 hour sessions each on these subjects daily until we depart. However, there is so much to cover that they will probably still be lost upon our departure. The administration is aware of this fact and are probing us about staying longer or coming back for a longer period. Bryan and I are sympathetic to the cause but we have commitments in the US and unless they are willing to foot more of the cost, a three month commitment is a hard, if not impossible, sell. We have made some agreements to help with info and some questions when we return to the US but can’t make any promises beyond that.
Its day 16 and the shipment of computers hasn’t arrived yet. They are now six months out of port from Boston and four months at the Mombasa port or some where in transit.
At the end of a long day of teaching, Bryan and I 
are headed up to an expat place called Mon Ami for a couple of Tuskers. It’s located at the other end of town in a surprisingly well appointed complex called Mega Plaza. Kisumu has a few of these nice shopping centers and one has the largest store I’ve ever seen. Tusky’s carries everything from pharmaceuticals to food to clothing to motorcycles in what must be a 40,000 square foot facility. The Africans are in to one stop shopping. We flag down a tuk tuk and say we’re going to Mega Plaza. He says “100 shillings, yes?” We get in and firmly but nicely state that “it is 50 shillings to Mega Plaza” –no more double Muzungu price for us.
