Mambo Nairobi...

I’ve been in Kenya for about a week and a half now. I’ve been putting off this first blog entry because, frankly, I don’t really know what to say. I’ve seen and done so much that I feel like I’ve been here for a month already. But, for everyone’s sake including my own, I need to document this experience. So here it goes!

Nairobi as a city is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It is loud, dusty, and packed with both cars and people zooming by at an alarming speed. The city centre is considered to be very “developed” by most third world standards, with skyscrapers, fast food chains, and businessmen on cell phones. The surrounding areas are absolutely covered in informal settlements (slums), markets, ritzy neighborhoods, and everything in between. Nairobi is one of the fastest growing cities in the world, so it’s in a constant state of frenzy, with an overwhelmed infrastructure. Despite the fact that is by far the dirtiest place I’ve ever spent time in, it is also gorgeous. The city is covered in parks and trees, making for a very sharp contrast between brown and green. This city is so disorganized and crazy, but it’s also why I love it. Everything is haphazard but it all works somehow. It’s endlessly entertaining.

The area that I’m staying in, called the Westlands, in very nice. The way the class division works in Kenya is that the rich are wealthy enough to afford guards, gates, and electric fences to keep out the desperate and therefore dangerous poor. It’s very sad, but true. The apartment that I am living in is by far the nicest and biggest apartment I have ever come across; at a rent of about 1,200 dollars a month, we have a three bedroom, two bathroom apartment with wood floors, a patio, a fully furnished living room/dining room, a full kitchen, and a laundry room. Included in the rent is 24 hour guards at the gate, gym access, and a housekeeper that does our dishes and cleans the apartment everyday. We also have someone who does our laundry everyday. This is typical of the uppercrust of Kenyan society, and I must say I’m enjoying it quite a bit! It does create a fairly shaking contrast when I leave my gated community to go into the city and view the poorest of the poor firsthand. In fact, right outside my apartment window, outside of the gate, there are two men living against a wall. I watch them sit there, day after day, and it’s a true experience of culture shock.

This experience has been absolutely amazing so far though. It’s impossible to go through the “honeymoon” stage in Nairobi; I can’t put it on a pedestal when I see directly huge disparities that exists. But I really feel like I’m part of a city that is going somewhere, part of a city full of residents who are determined to empower their own population, part of a city full of unique ideas. When people find out I just arrived in Kenya, the most common response is a broad smile and “you’ll love it here. Kenyans are a good people, and Kenya is a good place”. And I tend to agree.

I started my classes at USIU on Tuesday. It takes about two hours to get to school and at least two hours to get back, so taking two classes turns out to be quite an endeavor. The classes don’t seem to be on the same standard as what I’m used to at AU; however, just being in a classroom with all African classmates and an African professor will teach me quite a bit. I was in my Politics of Africa course, and the professor asked the class to call out what they thought of when they thought of Africa. Students immediately began to offer up their opinions, and I was treated, for the first time, to a first hand account of what Africans thought of Africa. That alone is an experience I can take back to my life back home.

I’ve been spending most of the last week getting settled into the apartment, getting food, and getting to know my fellow program mates (all girls). Even getting food at the market can be a several hour trek. My program director advised us that we should schedule one thing for the morning, and one thing for the afternoon, and if we did more we’d just be stressed. I think she’s right. Still, I’ve managed to find everything I need, including a towel, hangers, and a delicious looking pineapple.

Well, there it is, my first attempt at defining my Kenyan experience. I will try to start updating more often so that I can cover more adventures!