Hennings, 22, decided to go to Africa alone for the first time over the summer. He didn’t have any definite plans or expectations when he got on the plane in August.

Hennings went to Africa to earn credit for his urban planning degree at Huxley College of the Environment. The urban planning program teaches students how to make changes in communities to promote environmental and social sustainability.

Hennings said his experience in Kenya confirmed what he’s learned in his classes at Huxley.

“I had to pick and choose what I was going to do [in Africa],” he said. “I was forced to turn down some urban planning opportunities because I didn’t have time.”

Visiting another country is the best way to earn credit for school, Hennings said. College students should study abroad at least once because it encourages cultural appreciation, he said.

“It didn’t even feel like I was in school,” he said. “I think [independent travel] makes you a well-rounded person. Every student should try it.”

The five-week trip cost Hennings just $600 besides airfare. To stick to his low budget, he never stayed in a hotel or hostel during his trip, choosing instead to couch-surf.

Couch surfing is a practice where people allow travelers to stay in their homes for free. Hosts may request that guests compensate them for food or other living costs during their stay, but guests never exchange money for rooms.

Hennings spent his first week and a half in Kenya working on a farm in exchange for free room and board. He worked with World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, an organization that allows volunteers to learn how to plant crops and create sustainable planting systems around the world.

“On the farm, I helped construct a fish dam,” Hennings said. “I learned everything about how to build a healthy community around sustainable farms.”

One of the difficult parts of the trip was learning how to live without a constant supply of clean water, Hennings said.

“This stuff is hard to come by in some parts of Africa,” he said, raising his water bottle and taking a swig. “People learn to live without it. Meanwhile, I’m in agony wondering when I’m going to get my next drink of water.”

Refusing to plan his trip made the experience more rewarding, Hennings said.

His parents introduced Hennings and his brother, Chris, to world travel. As a family, they visited areas of Central America, Morocco and Nepal when Hennings was a child.

But Hennings said he wanted to take his travels further. He went to Central America on his first trip without his parents after his sophomore year of college.

“I knew after that trip that I wanted to travel completely on my own,” Hennings said. “I wanted to put myself in a situation where I was uncomfortable.”

Preparing a funeral

Oil lanterns cut through the night, casting a dim light on a group of men holding shovels. Hennings slices through the soil with the shovel’s edge and scoops clumps of dirt from a pit in the ground. He works until the first beam of sunlight touches the horizon.

The grave he is digging belongs to his friend’s brother-in-law, Kennedy. Kennedy died after contracting tuberculosis, a curable disease.

Tuberculosis is a bacterial disease affecting the lungs. Some of those infected experience chest pains, a chronic cough lasting more than three weeks, causing patients to cough up blood, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some people with low incomes in Africa cannot afford antibiotics to stop the infection and spread of tuberculosis, Hennings said.

“They’re forced to hope that [the infection] goes away on its own because they can’t afford to buy medicine,” he said. “It’s a completely curable disease, but only if you can afford the cure.”

Tuberculosis cases are considered a state of emergency in Africa by the World Health Organization. In 2009, 1.7 million people died from the infection. More of these deaths were in Africa than any other continent, according to the organization.

An estimated 430,000 people died of tuberculosis in Africa in 2009. Africa has the second-highest number of tuberculosis incidents of any continent, with 30 percent of the worldwide incidence rate originating in African countries, according to the World Health Organization.

Hennings said African culture views death differently than the United States does. After Kennedy died, his friends and family celebrated his life before they mourned his death, he said.

“Africans begin with celebration and later mourn the passing of their loved ones,” he said. “Here [in the U.S.], we mourn first and might celebrate life after the funeral is over.”

Friends and family traditionally dig a grave the night before the funeral, Hennings said.

Funerals are an important part of remembering a loved one and are taken seriously in Africa, Hennings said. He said he spent all night digging the grave, drinking and talking about memories of Kennedy with his friends and family.

“We had to dig the grave before the night was over,” Hennings said. “But we didn’t end up finishing that night, so we had to work into the next morning. It was exhausting, but it was a cathartic, healing experience for everyone involved.”

The deceased’s family butchered an entire cow for the funeral, he said. The atmosphere was chaotic and spirited, Hennings said.

“Everyone was so welcoming and caring,” he said. “It was surreal ending up at a funeral on an urban planning trip, but it was worthwhile.”

Communicating without words

A bus pulls into a station in Nairobi, Kenya, at 10:30 p.m. Hennings wishes the bus would have stopped in the city earlier as he gazes out the window at the dark streets.

He gets off the bus, taking quick strides through the streets of downtown Nairobi with a stern, determined expression on his face. He is nervous, but he doesn’t want figures passing by on the sidewalk to know.

To his relief, Hennings arrived at his host home in Nairobi without incident. He said this was a common occurrence for him during his trip.

“I always heard nightmare stories about how dangerous downtown Nairobi is,” Hennings said. “I thought for sure I was going to be robbed or get hurt, especially at night.”

He said he didn’t want to be viewed as an easy target if he encountered thieves. He dressed in clothes common for the area where he was staying and tried to blend in as much as possible with residents, he said.

Everyone he encountered on his trip was friendly, but he felt all eyes were on him, he said.

“I think I stuck out like a sore thumb,” Hennings said. “In my first three weeks visiting, I saw about 15 white people. I only met a few people who spoke English.”

Hennings said he spent his trip mainly communicating through body language and music. He does not speak Swahili, the primary language in Kenya, which made it nearly impossible to communicate, he said.

Using notecards with Swahili phrases scribbled on the front, Hennings tried to learn the language while traveling in Kenya, not realizing many areas of the country do not speak Swahili, he said.

“Here I am, learning Swahili, thinking I’m going to get right off the bus and talk to a local,” Hennings said. “But as I’m talking to this guy, my friend points out that no one in the village speaks Swahili. They speak a tribal language. The guy I was talking to had no idea what I was saying.”

Culture shock

After five weeks on his own in Kenya, Hennings met his parents and brother for a safari in Tanzania. He said he experienced an intense culture shock seeing his family after spending weeks apart.

“It was a different world,” Hennings said. “I saw the effects of tourism on that region when I met my parents for the safari.”

Hennings said kitchens and restrooms were more sanitized in the areas where his family was staying. People working in the tourism industry catered to the needs of travelers, he said.

“Everything was so clean,” he said. “You could find pure drinking water. There was tons of food everywhere you looked. That was never my experience when I was backpacking through Kenya for the first few weeks.”

Although Hennings stayed in some rural areas during the first five weeks of his trip, he said he didn’t see a wild animal until he met his family in Tanzania.

“It was weird,” Hennings said. “I didn’t see one animal until I went on this safari with my family. It makes me wonder what sort of experience people are getting when they’re not backpacking on their own.”

Hennings said many people in the United States place importance on being on time for everything. He said he feels more at home in Africa because he is usually late for meetings and events.

“Everything in the United States is intensely controlled by the power of the clock,” Hennings said. “But this is a narrow way of looking at things. In Africa, time is not so strict.”

The lessons Hennings learned in Africa will remain with him forever, he said. After learning how valuable it is to slow down and talk to people from different cultures, he said he appreciates the importance of time.

“There’s an old saying in Kenya,” Hennings said. “The U.K. has all the watches, but Kenya has the time.”