Africa Nazarene University

We have been getting a lot of questions about life on campus, so though we would dedicate this post to describe life at Africa Nazarene University (ANU) and how it differs from other universities that we have been part of in the past.

ANU has a beauty that is distinct from any campus in America. Since Kenya has a tropical climate, they can get anything to grow on the campus year round. This means they have everything from cactuses to roses to birds of paradise all growing next to each other. Not that we know what most of the plants are (outside of the roses) since we can’t grow most of them in Kansas City, but we have enjoyed their beauty and fragrance since we got here. It has not rained since we have been here, and the Kenyans say that it will not until late February or early March. That is when the rainy season begins, and we are told that it will rain briefly every day. So, to keep the plants alive during the dry seasons and looking nice, they have a crew of gardeners that are constantly watering, grooming, planting, etc.

There are three main buildings on campus, and many smaller buildings (see the aerial view I posted prior). In one of the buildings (Harmons), is most of the administration, a few classrooms (where Sandy teaches), and the dining halls. They have one dining hall for boarding students and another for day scholars and faculty (Caribou Café) where you pay as you go. Since we can eat for free in the boarding students’ side, we generally eat there. However, based on how long the line is and what they are serving, we will sometimes opt for the Caribou Café for lunch, the only time they are open. They generally have a broader selection and it seems to be a little better too, but perhaps that is just because we are paying for it!

The faculty complains about the cost of the café, but by American standards, it is very cheap since all three of us can eat a nice meal (with drinks) for around $5. So, what do you eat in Kenya? In American schools, there is a lot of ethnic food diversity (e.g. Chinese, Mexican, Italian…) for students to pick from. Well, not so here, and I have to admit that the food on the student side does get very repetitive. The basis of every meal is either rice or ugali (a firm cornmeal mush that is shaped with the fingers into a flat round disc and used to pick up other food to eat) – you get to choose. After that is the meat. So far, all that we have seen is beef or goat (only one served each day). Either way it is stewed with a little spice.

If you are on a restricted diet, they also cook chicken in the same manner, but you have to get a note from the nurse saying you can’t eat the beef since chicken is quite expensive compared to beef. However, they always let us have the chicken if we ask for it. Finally, the vegetable is either kale greens with spinach or green beans with carrots. Since the majority of the food is a little bland, we are thankful that there is salt and red chili sauce on the table to spice it up a bit! While Sandy and I have become a little bored with the food, Maddy loves it. She especially likes it with the hot sauce!

One of the other main buildings is the Helstrom building where chapel is held on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the gym at 10’ish. I say 10’ish since that is the publicized time that chapel starts, but like many other things here, the time is just approximate. In fact, we showed up at 10 the first week and found out that was just the time they started to set up! So, on a good day, chapel really starts around 10:20. There are also a number of classrooms in this building, one of which is where I teach my calculus class.

The third main building on campus houses the library, IT, and the Computer Science department (the department we are in). Our office is located in this building overlooking the green. We share it with Mr. Kahenya (I have no idea what his first name is since everyone here is referred to as Mr./Mrs./Dr. such-and-such). He is the only lecturer in mathematics in the whole university! Consequently, they use a lot of people like us and adjunct faculty. They are planning on starting a mathematics department of its own, but it is still a ways off. Hopefully, it will create better standardization and coordination of curriculum in the department.

When we were assigned our courses to teach (the Friday before we were to start teaching on Monday), we were very surprised that we had the liberty to select our own textbooks, teach the topics we thought appropriate, and even change the time our course was offered if we didn’t like it. Coming from a large state university, we were definitely not used to any of this! At FSU, we were told what to teach, how to teach, and when to teach months in advance of the semester. However, the system hear seems to work well for them. We just had to go with the flow.

The majority of the other buildings on campus are either housing or service departments. We have already told you about our apartment (“flat”), but thought we would post a picture of the outside as well so you can see what it looks like. It is primarily used for Work & Witness teams when they come to do projects at the university, but they thought it would be a good place for us since we brought Madelyn along with us. I’m sure those living in the other staff quarters are thankful too since Maddy and I can get pretty rowdy when we are playing! Since we have been here, there has just been one group that lived in the building with us, and only for 3-4 days. It was a group from Ethiopia that came here for a conference. Only a couple of them spoke English, and they were very friendly.

One thing that we were a bit surprised about was the few number of Nazarenes that attend the university. In America, private church affiliated universities are generally attended by those in the denomination. However, at ANU, I am told that <10% of the students are Nazarene. While there is the occasional Muslim student, I guess the majority are of other Christian denominations or nothing at all. Many just attend ANU since it provides a well-known solid education at a reasonable price.

In our next post, we’ll describe our day spent in downtown Nairobi at the Massai Market. What an experience!