Sixth Month Trip to Nairobi-Slums, Science Experiments, Girls who Box and a Riot that almost was

Wow hard to believe it was time for my second trip to Nairobi-For those who have not been following long-my visa in Tanzania requires I leave the country every 90 days (most countries have something like this) and so I take a bus to Nairobi, Kenya for a couple of days of good food and to hang out with one or more missionary friends there.  This trip proved to be just as exciting though less from the standpoint of what all went wrong to just exciting this time.  It will be a long blog so I am going to break it up into major groupings as follows:

1. Visiting a Secondary (High) School in the slums of Nairobi and doing science and engineering talk/experiments.
2. Meeting some of the young ladies who are part of BoxGirls in Nairobi, Kenya and learning some of their story including a professional featherweight and one who will be representing Kenya at he Commonwealth Games.
3. The Riot that almost was
4. Misc travel/shopping stories

Visiting a Secondary (High) School in the slums of Nairobi and doing science and engineering talk/experiments.  So Julienne, my missionary friend from the United Methodist IVM program in Nairobi asked if would like to visit a Secondary school and do some type of hands on engineering program.  After a couple quick questions I realized I should go simple because I was not sure about the resources.  So after getting on site I realized I made the right choice.  The school is situated deep into the slum areas and while it is bad, the buildings are still made of actually building materials so not quite as bad as Belen in Peru.  

The school we are visiting is called Glorious Friends Academy and after a short discussion with the Principal I learned that the only textbooks they had were for the teachers to use.  Like most schools in East Africa there are uniforms and most instruction is done through blackboard instruction.  The thing that strikes me most about this school is not the pungent odor coming from the centrally located latrines but the paintings on the exterior walls.  Biology, Geography, Physics and  Chemistry were all painted on the walls and in great detail with a lot of love by someone.  Unfortunately over time some have become damaged or worn but they still stand out as a usable resource for teaching.

Periodic Table

Expected Reactions

Parts of a Flower Biology

 So we start with the tour of the school buildings with the majority being in a dense cluster but some of the classrooms are across the street and that is where my first talk will be.  
So a little about the actual experiments I decided to do.  I focused on some things I could get my hands on fairly quickly or would not take up much room in my backpack for the journey from Singida to Arusha to Nairobi.  

With that in mind I decided on doing some Air pressure experiments and discussing how the simple projects I was going to show them could be used in creating water well pumps and how motorcycle engines drew the fuel/air mixture into the engine.

So those of you following at home with small (or not so small) kids want to follow along and try these out?  Excellent!  

First experiment part one:  Take an empty 500 ml or 16 oz plastic water/soda bottle and a standard balloon.  Place the body of the balloon in the bottle but take the part you blow into and roll it over the mouth of the bottle so no air from the bottle can escape.  Now try to blow the balloon up.  What you can't seem to blow the balloon up-come on try harder, put some effort into it.

Still no luck huh?  Well that is because the air in the bottle has no where to go.  As you try to fill the balloon up the air in the bottle compresses some but then will press back against the balloon with enough force to keep you from being able to blow the balloon up.

Various items including Sine and Longitudinal Waves

Flemings Left hand rule

Ok First experiment-second part:  have an adult puncture the side of the bottle with a sewing needle or small blade but mark the area so you can find it later and make sure you do it on a raised area.  Now blow up the balloon.  No problem right.  Ok for some of us it is still a problem.  But now the air in the bottle can escape while you are blowing up the balloon and since it is not being compressed it does not exert force to prevent you from blowing up the balloon.

Now the third part.  Place some tape near the hole with the ability to cover the hole with the tape but not yet.  Electric tape works great for this-cut a two inch strip and attach about an inch of it on one side of the hole.  Now blow up the balloon, but while you have it inflated inside the bottle, cover the hole with the rest of the tape.

The balloon should stay at its inflated size, though depending on the strength of the bottle it may go down some as the bottle collapses some (the sides will most like cave in).  This is a vacuum created by forcing air out the hole when you blow up the balloon, but then closing the hole off and releasing the air in the balloon the air cannot get back into the bottle to fill it back up.  

Ohm's Law

Creating vacuums are the basic principal for well water pumps and how motorcycle gasoline engines draw fuel/air mixture into the cylinder.  

Parts of a Light Bulb (Incandescent) 

Now to the second experiment:  This works best for those of you with refrigerators or access to ice.  But I can still pull it off with just the cooler temperatures atmospherically in Nairobi.  Take a larger plastic bottle (though it will work with a small one).  Safety note-I suggest adults do this next part.  Take a small amount of hot water-the hotter the better and put it inside the bottle. Swish (yes that is the scientifically correct term) around in the bottle and let it heat the air up before you pour it out.  Put the cap on as quickly as possible after you pour it out.  Get cap on tight.

Place the bottle in your refrigerator, freezer or on top of some ice (you don't need to pack it).  If like me you don't have that place it in a spot it can cool as quickly as possible or wave in the air.

Magnetic field due to a coil of wire

The quicker it can cool and the more temperature differential you can create-the more effect it will have but basically the bottle will crush itself.

This is again caused by creating a vacuum inside the bottle.  This time we did it using temperature though.  When we added heat the air molecules became excited and were moving around a lot and needed more space.  Think of it like small children getting a bunch of sugar.  

Then when we cooled the system down especially if we did that quickly after sealing the hot air in.  Those molecules quit moving around and instead they wanted to sit on the sofa and play video games or talk to their friends.  They quit using the space they were using before.  Like needing a field to play in as opposed to the sofa.  The space between them became a change in volume which created our vacuum.

Now we have gotten to some of the photos showing the kids.  Sorry it is disorganized but the blog system I use does not do a good job of displaying a large number of photos.

Most of you who know me, know I was having a blast doing these type of things with the students.  I especially love when they asked questions and tried to figure out what would happen if we used a container that did not have weak walls like a plastic bottle or if it was a different material in the bottle like a liquid

The video above is from my friend who shot it while I was teaching.

Meeting some of the young ladies who are part of BoxGirls in Nairobi, Kenya and learning some of their story including a professional featherweight and one who will be representing Kenya at he Commonwealth Games.  One of the programs my friend Julienne is involved in is called BoxGirls (http://www.boxgirls.org/kenya/).  This program helps teach young girls self esteem and confidence through the fundamentals of boxing but also offers mentors and opportunities to build a better life.  This is especially important in the slums of Nairobi because crime and especially the crime of rape is so high.  "at one clinic in Mathare, a Nairobi slum, in one month more rape cases presented than the average rapes in Mogadishu, where rape is being used as a tool of war."-Julienne Landsdown

I got to eat at a local establishment with "Priest" and some of the ladies called Othaya Shade Butcher run by grill master Steven. After lunch I got to go by their office where I met Sarah Achieng who is a professional boxer who came out of BoxGirls and Sonko Msoto who will be representing Kenya at the Commonwealth Games. PBS has a good story on the program you can find here: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/nairobi-slums-girl-boxers-learn-fight/

Me ( I should be easy to spot), Charline behind me, Damas in front of me, then Karen with Tamira in her lap (Charline's daughter), then Phoenica and Priest 

Steven and Steve-one a grill master the other a master of eating things grilled

The Riot that Almost Was

Many of you have already caught wind that I was downtown when there was almost a riot (depending on how you define what a Riot is Mr. Clinton).  Tensions area  little high in Nairobi, really Kenya overall, because of elections where one side has claimed the other side cheated.  This is further complicated by the two political parties represented are along Tribal lines.

So Julienne and I are walking around downtown doing a little shopping and just sightseeing.  We had just come out of a Scripture Union of Kenya bookstore (I wanted to go in because of my long time association with Scripture Union of Peru).  While there Julienne found two interesting books:  How to Beat your Kids and How to Beat your Wife.  So not quite the same as the Scripture Union groups I had dealt with in the past.  After we left we got to the end of  the street we were on called Tom Mboya Street.  As we were deciding what to do next, well have you ever seen one of those National Geographic videos of the gazelles or wilderbeasts taking off in a herd like stampede.  That was what it was like as shop keepers started slamming down their security gates and people just started running away from the next street over (Moi).  After a couple of seconds things calm down shops start to open again.  There was no sound like gunfire or explosions so I was curious what had happened and Julienne wanted to see what it was as well.  

Here is a point where our stories may differ a bit.  While curious I was ready to take her back to the hotel.  She however wanted to go over and see what was happening.  Knowing that eventually she would be in a situation like this without me and would go over and see what was happening I thought maybe I could offer some advice along the way to help keep her safe in the future when she goes looking and I know she will.  (For the record she did not have to twist my arm-I feel very confident going into these situations so had no problem going)  Also for the record the first rule of what to do in this situation is to leave and go somewhere safe like a Hotel that caters to Westerners with security.

So over we go one block to the Moi roundabout (traffic circle of death for my United States friends) near August 7th Memorial Park (yes the one of the 1998 bombing).  People are still very skiddish at this point but starting to look around.  First thing I notice-Buses parked essentially to cut off vehicular access or exit to the roundabout.  All of the buses empty.  All the vehicles anywhere nearby empty.  About 65 or so people standing on the grassy area of the roundabout.  I see two police officers both standing around watching.  Neither are armed except with night sticks.  The buses range from actually town buses to privately owned buses.  It does not take long to recognize the instigator (there is always going to be at least one).  He was wearing a button down shirt and business slacks-typical for the occupation of instigator which will be clear in a moment.  He was moving around getting groups fired up to join the folks on the grass.  Then he physically took the keys away from a truck driver so he could drive his truck into a blocking motion.  

During the commotion he would often stop to take  pictures or possibly video.  My guess is that like most events like this the truth of what really happened will never be known.  Guys like the instigator make sure of that, he was hard at work crafting a story.  He was most likely a reporter of some sort looking to make this story bigger.  He obviously did not want to interact with the other reporters who showed up as they would be cutting into his coverage.  This is not uncommon in hotspots around the world.  Reporters are often as much a cause of problems as actual rioters.

Eventually a second herd like action happened when about 4 military men showed up with weapons and walked around the roundabout.  Vehicles cleared out a little after that but the instigator went back to work causing more blockage.  Interestingly the crowd on the roundabout seemed uninterested in the police or the military persons present. 

The first version we got of what happened was that the police tried to arrest a van driver and he resisted arrest and died-unclear what caused it.  The problem I had with that story is I could see the driver still in the van-yes not moving but he had not been taken out of the van as if he was being arrested.  My initial guess-he had a heart attack while driving and caused a wreck.  No way to know and no story will ever have the full truth behind it now.

Then the ambulance showed up to remove the body and this was the first act of aggression shown by the crowd on the roundabout which was now up to about 120 people.  They were throwing rocks they pulled loose from the roundabout at the ambulance.  These were larger than fist sized rocks so they made some noise when they hit the ambulance.  However they did not chase the ambulance when it left.

Additional military personnel showed up with weapons and this time helmets on.  We are now up to about 10 and police personnel and 8 of them armed with assault rifles.  In my humble opinion they deserve a lot of credit for not causing this to escalate.  They kept their weapons pointed down at all times and never carried them in a ready position.  Basically they were non-threatening.  They did not push, shove or physically handle anybody I could see.  The commander of the group stood with about 20 people around him all pushing and shoving each other but he made no aggressive moves.  This is a tough spot for a team leader or commander.  He has to protect civilian lives as well as the lives of his men.  There is no way to get an accurate account of how it started or what they want in these situations-they typically don't know as it is mob mentality.  I also noticed the instigator got nowhere near this crowd but just took pictures of the armed soldiers.  

At this point at time I have been checking the building lines for placement of snipers or observers and see no evidence of either so it is clear the military is not going to escalate their response under the current conditions.  Sometimes my old life really is a blessing.  After about an hour and a half the crowd has started to become more people going about their day.  There is some motorcycle traffic going through the circle and cars are capable of turning around though no one is going into the circle.  There is still a large crowd gathered on the other side but it appears they are listening to someone and there is no chanting or shouts coming out them at this point.  

Considering our dinner reservations and the lack of action I suggested we start to head back.  I hope I was able to impart some knowledge like knowing where the nearest safe hotel or business (one with high security that will allow westerners in quickly if something happened), checking for obstacles and potential traps and knowing your way out quickly.  In addition with any crowd event, the pickpockets had shown up so you have to be more careful with your items in the crowd.  In addition I was able to help a young lady with child get her bags of food up on a couple of gentlemen she hired to help her get them home since her bus had been used to block off traffic.

Misc Travel/Shopping Stories

My guess is you are pretty tired of reading now so I am going to make this quick.  Had a different hotel-highly recommend the Kahama in the downtown area (off Globe Cinema Roundabout)  The price was good and once you got over how bad it looked on the outside the inside was very nice.  It also had a 40 gallon sized water heater always on.  Though it was covered in something you rarely see in the states anymore but never on a water heater-horse hair cement plaster.  I got to eat well again.  This time a Brazillian version of Carnivores which was about half the price and very good.  Called Fogo Gaucho (www.fogogauchonbicom)  I did not take the computer so no horror stories of trying to get it repaired.  I did find some sugar free rasberry jam and Skippy peanut butter which is very nice.