Elaine Dang/Courtesy

Elaine Dang thought she was going to die.

Caught in the middle of a siege that would later become Kenya’s deadliest terrorist attack since 1998, the UC Berkeley alumna found herself huddling under a counter, trying to make herself invisible to the gunmen attacking Nairobi’s upscale Westgate Mall.

“It was this weird kind of competition in my mind where half of my mind was preparing for death and the other half was still yearning to survive,” Dang said in an interview with The Daily Californian earlier this week.

Dang, who graduated from UC Berkeley in 2009, had come to Nairobi a little more than a year before the attack to work at Bridge International Academies, a for-profit company that builds primary schools in Kenya. Since April 2013, she had been transitioning into a role as general manager for Eat Out Kenya, a Yelp-like startup.

That day — Saturday, Sept. 21 — she was simply trying to judge a children’s cooking competition.

Everything changed with an explosion. About 12:40 p.m., terrorists from the Somali militant group al-Shabab stormed the mall, throwing grenades and shooting indiscriminately. The mall, popular with families and expats, quickly became a war zone.

Dang sensed a large crowd would be an easy target and made the split-second decision to hide under a nearby kitchen counter. She collapsed on top of a woman already hiding and crouched in fear as more people dived on top of her, looking for similar shelter.

As gunshots fired from all directions, the woman beneath her wailed, blood streaming from a fresh wound. The woman was one of more than 170 people injured that day. That total included Dang, who was hit by shrapnel just moments later while sprinting to a different counter.

Bleeding and running on adrenaline, Dang found herself next to a man and his wife, both of whom had been hit.

“Are we going to die?” the wife asked her hysterically.

“I told her, ‘yes,’ ” Dang said. “ ‘I think we are going to die.’ ”

Dang, whose friends describe her as deeply rational, strategized quickly and feigned death. She lay down facing the militants, knowing that if she were shot in the back, it would mean paralysis.

Surrounded by limp bodies, Dang lay there helplessly.

As the gunshots subsided an hour after the attack began, several men charged in to usher the victims to safety.

“I was actually so thrilled that I started crying,” Dang said, recalling her emotions upon making it outside.

Finally safe, Dang was rushed to a hospital and treated for two shrapnel wounds in her leg and arm. Christopher Suen, who knows Dang from her time at Bridge International, met her at the hospital.

“She was physically screwed up, covered in her own blood, but she understood people around her were much more injured,” Suen said. “She was taking it so rationally.”

Halfway around the world, Mary Dang was buying coffee on a routine Saturday morning when she received a terrified phone call from her sister.

Dang was hysterical.

“She was screaming and crying; we were both very emotional,” Mary Dang said. “It was kind of a blur.”

Elaine Dang visits a Bridge International Academies school in Kenya.

Although nearly three weeks have passed since the attack, Dang is still grappling with her experience mentally and emotionally. She has returned to her home in California and is recovering with her family.

“During the day, I’m composed, but I have crying episodes and very emotional times,” Dang said. Nonetheless, she says, she is on a “positive road to recovery.”

Dang says she wants to return to Kenya, a country she considers her second home, to visit close friends who still live there. Seeing how the country has come together in the wake of the disaster despite its ethnic differences has been heartening, she said.

“It was a beautiful thing to see,” Dang said.

Dang is uninsured in the United States and is unable to afford her medical expenses. The Dang family has set up a fundraising website to collect donations to pay for continuing care. Extra funds will be donated to the Kenyan Red Cross.

“Elaine is the kind of gal that when she walks into a room, everyone hears her voice,” Suen said. “She’s a phenomenal person, a great example of the kinds of alums you get out of Berkeley.”

Contact Giacomo Toginini at gtognini@dailycal.org.

The post UC Berkeley alumna recalls her surreal escape from death appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Jenny Sholar/Staff

In 2013, more than 1,000 UC Berkeley students went abroad to 37 countries all over the world as a part of the UC Education Abroad Program. Using data provided by the UCEAP office, The Daily Californian created a map detailing where students have been this year, color-coded in various shades to represent the density of students abroad. Unsurprisingly, European countries are some of the most popular destinations, but students have also selected countries as far as Botswana and Taiwan. While these countries across the sea are a long distance from Berkeley, we have tried to bring the experience closer to home by asking Daily Cal employees what they miss most about their study-abroad experiences. Read their answers below.

Siena, Italy

I wish that after class I could eat hazelnut gelato and walk on the old fortified city wall as I did in Tuscany. Go for the architecture, sunny afternoons and bike rides in the countryside. Plus, there are two historic horse races every summer that are free and open to the public. Siena is unreal!

—Josh Escobar

Josh Escobar/Staff

Lund, Sweden

After summer classes, everyone rides the bus to Dolby to swim in the lake. On weekends, there are music festivals and soccer games a train ride away in Malmo. Be sure to catch the train back at midnight — unless you want to party with Swedes in bars until 5 a.m.

—Josh Escobar

Netherlands

I have been back from the Netherlands for less than a month, and a huge piece of my heart remains across the ocean. I miss almost everything about that incredible country, but one thing I miss the most is the feel of the crisp air on my face as I swiftly darted through traffic or leisurely rolled alongside peaceful canals on my trusty, rusty old Dutch bicycle.

My bike was my constant companion, and it showed me some of the most memorable and meaningful experiences of my life as it carried me through narrow cobbled streets, across the low green countryside and beside the striking canals in the land that I will always consider a home.

—Taylor Brink

Bangkok

—Sarah Burke

Paris, France

Strangely, one of the things I miss the most about Paris is introspective time alone. In a city full of cramped studio apartments, I learned to appreciate the mental space granted to me by my few square meters of floor just as much as I came to disdain its impracticalities when hosting even the smallest of social gatherings. Not that I isolated myself completely while abroad — some of the best friends I’ve ever made were those I regularly sat with on the windowsills of buildings once inhabited by great writers, watching the sun set over the Seine as the city’s clouded skyline morphed from a bleak veil to a patchwork of dazzling, distorting hues.

—Damian Ortellado

Santiago, Chile

The quaint Chilean seaport village called Valparaiso, an hour away from the hectic capital of Santiago, brought forth into the country an amazing creation called the chorrillana — a giant plate of french fries layered with meat, onions and fried eggs. Meant for sharing alongside beer, the meal was the centerpiece of many dinners as my friends and I butchered the Spanish language with our new Chilean friends.

—Weiru Fang

Weiru Fang/Staff

Ireland

For the Irish, Sunday as the day of rest is no laughing matter, but it’s full of laughs. Adopted by an Irish friend for this weekly gathering, I experienced what a day of rest encompasses. Feasts of black sausage and baked beans, never without an Irish coffee — or three. In a culture with the uncanny ability to nourish the small joys in life, Sundays become a sanctuary for just that.

—Peggy Beim

Peggy Beim/Staff

Nairobi, Kenya

I remember this one night when I met a group of Kenyatta University students. We were at this bar called “Makuti,” and they were passing around a cigarette. I said, “Y’all are a chill group,” and Kevin said, “Yes, Audrey is chill.” I asked why. He said it was because she smoked, and not a lot of girls smoked. “Yes, Audrey is dope,” I agreed. “What about MJ?” The other guy turned and asked, “Oh, Michael Jackson? We love Michael Jackson out here!” Simple nights like these are what I miss about Kenya — reminders that a continent’s worth of distance and culture does not separate the universality of music, pop culture and straight chillin’.

—Lynn Yu

Lynn Yu/Staff

The post Map: Where do UC Berkeley students study abroad? appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Creative Commons/Anne Knight/Courtesy

In an attack that gripped nations worldwide, terrorists took over an upscale shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, causing a deadly standoff that continued through Tuesday morning. At least 60 people have died, and more than 175 people have been injured, including UC Berkeley alumna Elaine Dang.

The images of the violence halfway around the world have shocked many, but they hit closer to home for some UC Berkeley students who hail from Nairobi.

As a child, UC Berkeley freshman Winnie Itago would go to Westgate Mall after church with her cousin to get frozen yogurt — always the strawberry and mango flavors — and eat it on the rooftop. When graduate student Narissa Allibhai returned home for the summer, she and her sister would go to the mall on Saturday afternoons for lunch. UC Berkeley freshman Samuel Karani compared it to a Target but said it is smaller.

The students describe Westgate Mall as a popular hotspot for local residents, foreigners and teens. News of the shooting and shock at the violence reverberated among them, and while none of their immediate family members were injured, the attack’s emotional impact runs deep.

Almost everyone in the area knows someone connected to the attack, Allibhai said.

“You would never expect this to happen — Westgate of all places, nobody would expect it,” she said. “I didn’t process it when I first heard the news.”

Yet UC Berkeley experts familiar with the conflict between Kenya and al-Shabab, the terrorist organization that led the attack, say the threat of violence has been looming for some time. What is unprecedented is the size of the attack. The group, which has links to al-Qaida, has perpetrated minor attacks in the nation since Kenya’s military incursion into Somalia two years ago, said Julie Shackford-Bradley, a lecturer in peace and conflict studies. The 2011 invasion targeted al-Shabab strongholds near the Kenyan border, drawing retaliation from the organization in Nairobi and other Kenyan cities.

“The threat was clearly going to grow when Kenyan forces chose to intervene in Somalia,” Shackford-Bradley said. “Those are the decisions that you make when you take a military action into a neighboring country.”

African American studies professor Sam Mchombo said addressing the al-Shabab threat within the nation’s borders is difficult because large Somali refugee communities in Kenya could easily conceal terrorists from authorities.

Despite their awareness of this history, UC Berkeley students from Nairobi said they did not live in fear of terrorist attacks while residing in the city.

The Kenyan students say they have faith the area will rebound from the attack — many Nairobi residents have already donated blood and money for the victims’ recovery. Back in Berkeley, the students have been supporting each other in their own way, confirming that others’ relatives are still safe and keeping updated on the situation.

“Kenya has strong people, and Kenyans are strong people,” Itago said. “We can get through this, and we are going to get through this.”

But uncertainty remains regarding the state of the attack — as of press time, while the Kenyan police tweeted that they had control over the situation, other sources report there are still militants in the mall. For UC Berkeley graduate student Kagure Wamunyu, support from her friends has helped, but she remains worried.

“It’s harder when you’re far from home, because you can only rely on the media,” Wamunyu said. “It makes it more scary, and just talking about it is a little frustrating. You can’t help but follow every news article.”

Contact the reporters at newsdesk@dailycal.org.

The post Nairobi terrorist attack shakes campus’s Kenyan students appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Graham Haught/Staff

Why is it that we don’t seem to talk about what happens in Kenya? Or Syria or Nigeria for that matter? Between Kenya’s ethically questionable election results, Syria’s never-ending civil war and an extreme Islamist group in Nigeria killing foreign hostages, so much is unfolding across the world that could have devastating effects on countless lives. So why aren’t we hearing about this? Why aren’t we talking about this? In an age of unprecedented interconnectedness, what excuse do we have for ignorance?

This is not intended to be a rant against Berkeley students, our generation or Americans in general. In fact, it is natural to prioritize issues that affect us most directly and therefore dedicate the majority of our time to self-serving tasks. But most of us spend at least some portion of our day seeking out or receiving information about the world, whether it is listening to a lecture in class, watching TV or scrolling through headlines on the Internet. And when we look at the parts of our lives that we spend absorbing information and learning, we can do more to look beyond what affects us most directly and gain a more global perspective.

The process of “domesticating” our interests seems to start early in our formal education. Since we were children we have learned that America is the greatest country in the world. This is not unusual, and certainly children around the world grow up learning the same thing about their respective countries. Patriotism is wonderful, and we should praise the values that our nation was founded upon, but certainly there are other nations and other cultures that have made significant contributions and innovations that are worth learning about and praising, as well.

The news media reinforces this emphasis on domestic issues by mainly covering current events in the United States and underreporting events in other countries. Why is this a problem? We unwittingly have a relationship with people around the world in which the actions we take can affect how they live and vice versa. I believe that the news media has a responsibility to accurately depict the world because for many it is the main source of political information on which they will then base their political decisions. In a democracy, these decisions determine how our country will be governed, including our foreign policy.

The United States does not function as an isolated actor in the international scene and therefore voters, who affect foreign policy by electing leaders, should be welliinformed on the pertinent issues facing people on the other side of the world.

However, the United States is certainly not the only country whose population affects those of other nations. Perhaps in the past, people could get away with thinking that the Greek economy or the grievances of a small group of angry, potentially militant, individuals in another country would not affect Americans in any significant way. With growing integration into the international economy and increased access to technology and information sharing, this is obviously no longer the case. I am not suggesting that the key to solving the European debt crisis or to fighting terrorism is a more informed American population, but more than ever it is important to be informed of these increasingly relevant issues.

My point is simple: We need to change the way we think. We don’t even need to transform dramatically, simply in a way that makes room for a global perspective. We should think of ourselves as citizens of the world and think of the problems facing us as members of the human race. Let’s talk about Greece; let’s ask about Syria. Let’s learn about the struggle and the successes of people we didn’t know had anything in common with us. Let’s get informed. Because being equipped with facts, stories and perspectives is the first step toward making meaningful change.

Alix Martichoux is a junior at UC Berkeley.

Contact the opinion desk at opinion@dailycal.org.

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