Angela Okune

During an interview this past week, the interviewee mentioned that she has read this blog in its entirety. I apologized for not updating it recently. I had thought (and mentioned) that I would be sharing more regular updates from “the field”. I know some student start blogs to “report back” (to their family and friends?) from the “field”. I speculate that their desire is to share what they are learning and what they are up to from their fieldwork sites.

But strangely, since returning to Nairobi in January, I have felt less of a desire to post on this blog. Why? Well, first and foremost, I am busy!! 😉 But also, I think it is because I am interacting with the people that in my mind were my audience for this blog – my Kenyan interlocutors. Third, I don’t feel like my findings are articulate yet in a form that would be meaningful to share. I’m still incubating on them… Given that many interlocutors are reading this, perhaps I feel particularly self-conscious about posting any intermediary findings before they have really been fully worked out.

I started this blog out of a desire to open up a channel of communication between Nairobi interlocutors while I was not in Nairobi. I had a feeling that I needed to “report back” from the university so that it didn’t feel like I had just left Kenya and “gone back.” I don’t know how many Kenyan interlocutors actually read my blog (although I have observed that many of my new interlocutors whom I’ve met this year have begun to read this blog!). Somehow it eased my mind to have a way of sharing what I was working on with former colleagues, friends, community advisors, and allied strangers. Now that I am back, talking to them in person is much more rewarding!

But I am still around and will do my best to post periodically so don’t give up on me yet! 🙂