I have been in Nairobi for a few weeks now and it is really starting to sink in that I am living here permanently. I have started to establish my daily routines, some of which are similar to what I was used to back in the US and others that are quite different. This entry is focused on what my day to day life is, answers to most of the common questions I get, and some of my unique observations....creating my new normal.
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| Nairobi National Museum - Snake Park pathway |
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| View from my apartment balcony |
The biggest change for me is the amount of security. There is literally security everywhere, whether you are entering a restaurant or shop, the office, or my apartment complex. The typical check would be as follows, you arrive at a closed gate, which has some sort of security wire and there is an electrified portion on top that. The guard lets you into the first gate and performs a visual inspection, checking in the trunk (wait for a future amusing post on this, appropriately named bootgate), and sometimes doing the mirror on a stick check under the car looking for any suspicious objects. Once this has been performed, they open up another gate and let you into the parking lot. To enter the building you usually have to go through a security detector and your bags have to be checked....and this is the basic check! It seems a bit much, but you really get used to it after a while. On the security front, there is also an insane amount of roadblocks, especially once you get out of the city center. Evidently they are supposedly to ensure that your vehicle has all of the proper permits and what not, but if that was the case, the way they are armed and the fact that there are spike strips on the ground seem to me that perhaps it is a little more than that. Even in Zanzibar, which is a tropical island (think Kauai or Costa Rica), it has them all over, once again becoming quite normal as part of your everyday life. I don't provide this detail to scare anyone, if anything I feel quite safe and have never had an issue where I was concerned for my safety (see potential future post: oops, I was wrong).
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| Street view of my apartment complex |
One of the other major things that we have to deal with in our everyday life is the amount of traffic. I've lived and worked in some busy traffic cities, like Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City, to name a few. Needless to say, the traffic is way worse here than what I have been accustomed to. The infrastructure could definitely use some improvements, but there are more roads and the quality of roads are better than I expected. There doesn't seem to be very many lights and road signs, but it seems that people just don't follow any sort of rules. It's pretty much mayhem, people create as many lanes a possible, cut people off, and only stop when the traffic is stopped. Pedestrians cross the road everywhere, even on major roads, playing frogger through traffic. My commute from where I live to work is about 5 miles and usually takes around an hour. Some days it is a bit better and other days it is much worse. In talking with some others, it is actually much better here than places like Lagos, where they play the game of might is right. The good news is that we have a driver, so we don't have to worry about going through these stresses ourselves.
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| Pool and complex view from my balcony |
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| Resident turtle - to be named |
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| My living room |
My apartment is quite modern and the complex itself is very nice. We have a pool on premise, along with a very impressive apartment gym (now the easy part, I just have to use it). The are a couple of things that are different, one of which is the drinking water. You can't drink directly from the tap, so you have to either sanitize the water yourself or purchase filtered water. I have a clothes washer in my flat, but no one really has dryers, so I am getting used to drying my clothes once again on the line. You definitely have to pre-plan a bit, since it usually takes a day or so for your clothes to dry completely outside. I have a tv with basic cable, which gets me some sort of comedy English movies, a few football stations (the real football, the one with your feet), and a few news stations (CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera). A cleaning service is also included with rent, which basically cleans the entire apartment, including the dishes, 6 days a week - I could definitely get used to this!
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| My bathroom |
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| My kitchen |
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| My bedroom |
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| Miniature carts used instead of hand baskets |
Nairobi is a city of about 3.3 M people, so it is definitely a good sized city (think somewhere in between Chicago and LA). The currency of Kenya is the Kenyan Shilling (KES). The current exchange rate is right around 90 KES per $1 USD. Things are by no means inexpensive here, but they aren't insanely priced either. I would basically put things on par with Chicago pricing. You can easily go to the less expensive local options, but most things that I go to are targeted to the expat community, so they are a bit higher priced. There are also many higher end places, but so far we have steered clear of them. The temperature here is amazing, consistently between 60 and 80 degrees, with low humidity. In fact, places typically don't have AC or heaters. There is no real easy means of public transport. There are private vans/buses, called matatus, which we have been steered away from using. Although very colorful and often with some sort of inspirational message, they are not very reliable or safe, often only used by locals. Most people either drive themselves or have drivers. English is widely spoken, especially in business. For now I can learn my Swahili slowly, having only learned basic greetings thus far (jambo - hello, karibu - you're welcome, asante - thank you, sawasawa - ok). Evidently I only remember a few words from my time in Tanzania back in 2008.
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| Masai walking cattle along the road on commute home |
Grocery stores and malls are pretty much what we would be used to in the US. I can pretty much get whatever I want, paying a bit more for recognizable brands. Fruit and vegetables are plentiful and quite delicious (most are grown in country and I was pleasantly surprised by how much farmland and gardens there are). There is quite a variety of restaurants from seafood to Indian, sushi, and many others. We can also order delivery for things like pizza, which actually isn't bad - especially compared to what Brazil, Argentina, and Chile considers pizza. Other random observations, it is perfectly normal for local tribes people (Masai) to be walking their herds of cattle and goats along the city streets.
Kenya really likes using of the suggestion boxes here, pretty much having them everywhere, including at government facilities. I'm not sure if anyone is actually using them, I mean who really has the time to be writing and reading all of the suggestions anyway? The picture below is definitely the most amusing suggestion box that we have seen yet. It also should be noted that this one is in front of Kenya's department defense and is highly armed. I almost want to put something in there, just to see what happens...perhaps I will wait until I am another month in.
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| Report corruption suggestion box |
