Getting around Nairobi

First of all, drivers here are crazy. They create lanes out of a mere inches of pavement or gravel, they enjoy scaring pedestrians by brushing them with their side mirrors as they zoom by, oh, and they drive on the wrong side of the road. Nairobi is split up into estates, or neighborhoods, all surrounding the City Center (downtown). The City Center is pretty big and I can almost guarantee I will never know my way around it. I live in Jamhuri, which I think is West of the City Center. Our school is in another estate, Kilimani I believe, so we don’t go downtown unless we have to. To get to downtown we can either take a matatau or a bus. A matatu is essentially a van filled with seats. They generally have very loud music playing and I guess they are cheaper than the buses. They are also a little more risky, as pick pocketers have stealing down to a science in those crowded vans. The one we took with our guide on our way downtown for a tour seemed fine, a little overwhelming to say the least, but we managed. The matatu ride was 20 shillings, or approx. a quarter. Matatus have a conductor who rides with door swung open hanging out of it with a sign indicating the bus route and screaming at all passing pedestrians to get in. walking down just about any road, you never know when a matatu will come out of nowhere and the conductor will be in your face, rattling off in Swahili.

The buses are said to be (and seem to be) safer. There’s no such thing as a bus schedule as anything reliant on time in Kenya in unheard of and would be disregarded anyway. Except for tea. Kenyans can be hours late for meetings, classes, you name it, but when it’s tea time, they are right on schedule. There’s a saying here that “every time is tea time”. Our fist bus ride was done without the help of a native, just 6 muzungus, one of whom luckily can communicate in swahili. We have to take either the 4 or 111 to get back to Jamhuri. The buses are fine, except when it comes to figuring out how to alight. First, let me stop to say that I personally had never heard the word alight before. It is very British and everytime someone had said it or I read it on a sign I wondered what it meant. Apparently it means to get off, or to depart from (so we want to alight at the China Centre to get to school). However, you cannot alight someone (don’t ask how we alight the driver that we want to get off, doesn’t translate and you look like an idiot). That was me. There are these red buttons on the roof of the bus that I guess you push when you want to alight however, there are only about two rows of seats where you can actually reach them so if you’re not in those seats, you’re SOL. Luckily for us, there were other people that wanted to get off on our stop, so we followed their lead.

The final mode of transportation, and the one that we will use most often is walking. We use Gnong Road the most, it is where our school is, the supermarkets, and several other cafes, etc. It is very busy and once again, let me reiterate that crossing it is quite the challenge, drivers have zero regard for the fact that there are people in the middle of the road, it is their right of way and if you don’t move, they would very well leave you for dead without a second thought. And this is not an exaggeration. Our walk from school to home is about 30-40 minutes. We figured it’s close to 2.5 if not 3 miles one way. Which we are pumped for, because we are all in desperate need of exercise to counteract all the starch in our new diet. The walk in the morning isn’t bad, but in the afternoon it’s hot and sunny, and I get home dripping sweat. The first day I took a shower immediately, but we’re in a drought and all of Kenya is on a water rationing program, so I will have to think of something else. To make matters worse, the roads we walk on to get to school are rough, not paved, and cause your feet to get stained with red dirt. I could wear sneakers, but then those would get filthy and they’re still fairly white, so I sport the

Flip flops.

Getting around is fairly easy, there are always a number of walkers as it is free, but public transportation is fine too, up until dark, which, let me remind you is 6:30pm. After that, we are only allowed to take certain taxis, as there is a problem with dangerous people posing as taxi companies. I have yet to take a taxi here, but they are crazy expensive, so hopefully I won’t have to that often. This weekend will probably be the first, as we are excited to go out to the clubs our mums keep telling us about.