Life in Nairobi

Life in Nairobi

I have realized that in the midst of trying to articulate specific experiences I’ve had here, I have neglected to write about the everyday life here. That was partly due to the limited time I’ve had here and the feeling that I hadn’t really experienced life in Nairobi, but after a week at my new home, I feel confident I have enough under my belt to share a little snapshot of my life in Nairobi.

Jamhuri

Nairobi is similar to many big cities in that it is separated into estates (neighborhoods), with the City Center (downtown) as the reference point. The city center is at first daunting, our first experience there involved spending three hours at the immigration office and a trip to a subpar restaurant and an internet café that experienced a blackout while we were there. This was also our first day in Nairobi and we are still shaky on being in an African city that we had even heard the locals refer to as “nai-ROB-ori”. I am glad to report that it is not as dangerous as it had first been made out to be. There are skyscrapers, lots of independent shops, hotels, etc. there are a number of bus terminals and matatu stops, and the traffic is constantly at a standstill. That is, until you attempt to cross the street, at which point, it seems as though the road has opened up giving cars a clear shot, judging by the way cars charge at you at full speed (reference previous email about transportation). We don’t have any need to go downtown unless we want to explore, go to the post office, or for any other number of reasons. We went to the maasai market on Saturday downtown, more on that later, that deserves an entirely separate email to do it justice.

I live in Jamhuri, down Gnong Road, west of the City Center. There are two “phases” of Jamhuri, Jamhuri 1 and Jamhuri Two. There are about 7 other people that live in jamhuri, although they all live in Phase Two. I walk down about 5 minutes to meet up with any one of them in Phase Two. It is a red dirt road, with rocks and dips and bumps everywhere, you would be sure any person trying to walk down it was intoxicated, fumbling around for a steady foothold. Every cluster of houses has a security gate, which is staffed twenty four hours a day. In addition to these entrance gates, every house, including mine, has a metal gate, made up of two solid pieces of metal and a tiny hole to stick your hand through and unlock one of the many padlocks to then enter a courtyard before unlocking your front door. Obviously, security is a big problem here. In the week we’ve been here, there were two car-jackings at a MSID student’s house, in Jamhuri. During the day, it feels very safe. I walk alone to meet up with the rest of the Jamhuri crew to walk to school and back and have never had an issue. There are quite a few muzungus that live in our estate, so I don’t think we throw the locals off too much. And if we do, we simply say “habari” (How are you?), and I think they take amusement at us attempting to blend in.

It is about a 40 minute walk to class, we all meet at the Coke kiosk (more on the phenomenon that is Coke in another email) around 7:45 and start our trek. The girls and one boy I live near are amazing and we have a blast walking home and finding things to do between 3:00 when we get out of class and 6:58 when it’s officially to dark to be walking outside. Speaking of extracurricular activities, we find it a little difficult to do a lot after school, as we are on a race against time once we are dismissed. Mostly we’ll go to internet cafes, the supermarket, or to the pitch to play soccer( I obviously assume my role as the spectator). We can find just about everything in Jamhuri, and since such a large group of us live there, we often are never too far from home. Once I get home, I have evening tea, play with Abby (or more accurately, I sit on the couch while she climbs all over me, going through my bag and asking me for chewing gum). I normally eat dinner with Abby, as I never know when my mum will get home and my brother eats with her (some families don’t eat until 8:30 or 9 at night). We don’t have a kitchen table, so we eat on the couches in front of the tv. Note: In Kenya, the TV is always on in the home. Honestly, from sun up until sundown. It is the strangest cultural norm. With the water and electricity rationing, homes will be without power from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm, and I really wonder how families are handling the absent of their tvs during those hours.

Back to talking about the food here, every meal consists of a starch paired with a stew. Beef stew, minced meat stew, mutton stew, sausage stew, vegetable stew, lentil stew, stew stew stew. Which is fine with me, and everyone else I’ve talked to, because it is delicious!! The starches range from noodles, rice, ugali, chapate or often times many of the above. It is very common to be served ugali, noodles, and rice at one meal. I can’t quite get used to having noodles and rice in the same meal, let alone, with the same stew, but I’m adjusting. Ugali is the most traditional food here, which is basically corn starch and water mixed together to make a block of white… stuff. It looks like hard mashed potatoes. It is completely tasteless. I repeat, zero taste. They use it as a spoon, taking a chunk of it, rolling it in a ball and pushing their thumbs in it to make a reservoir for the stew. It takes awhile to get used to, but it’s pretty fun to eat, and I’m sure, very entertaining to the locals to watch us try and eat with it. Kenyans eat mostly with their hands, even the stew, rice, everything. EXCEPT FRIES! They will literally eat their entire meal with their hands, then when a plate of fries comes, they will each take a fork and eat them that way. The best way to describe chapate is like a tortilla, but a thousand times better. It is delicious by itself or dipped in stew, or rolled with vegetables. I am learning how to make it next weekend and will be begging to make it for people when I get back to the states.

Hopefully this has given you a little taste of what life is like here. I’m looking forward to taking pictures of things and posting them to give you a visual of things I’ve referenced. I will try to do that this week. I’ve adjusted here really well, my host mum has even commented to me and others how quickly I’ve become comfortable here and how quickly I am picking up where we live in relation to other places. It’ just really comfortable here, which feels good to say after feeling like a complete outsider last week. While I do understand that I will always be given a second or third look wherever I go and I am acutely aware that I am a Caucasian American, I think we have all come to accept this and take it in stride. It is weird to constantly here “Muzungu!!” when we walk down the street (because they are literally yelling white person white person, which if you think about it, is absurd to be running down the street yelling).that's all for now. This mzungu must get home.