After months of planning, no less than five goodbye parties, and three weeks training in Toronto, I have finally arrived in Nairobi. To be honest, it was a near thing in the end. Mel, a fellow EWB Long Term Fellow, and I were travelling together and we arrived at the airport in Toronto with over two hours to spare, only to be told that we weren’t allowed on our flight. You see, you can only apply for a work visa once you are already in Kenya, so to get into the country we needed to apply for a single-entry tourist visa and lie extensively at the border. The problem was, our return flights were booked for many months past the validity of our Visa. When we pointed that out to EWB, we were told that it had never been a problem before. Unfortunately for us, the airlines had recently changed their policy and we were told at check-in that under no circumstances could we get on the plane with a return ticket past our visa expiry. We tried to tell them we were travelling by land to other East African countries and we’d apply for another visa to get back into Kenya next year, but they weren’t having it. So, we called EWB and told them they had 28 minutes to rebook our flights, or we wouldn’t be allowed on the plane. In yet another fun twist, EWB had booked our flights in different ways, and couldn’t change them simultaneously. With 13 minutes to spare, Mel’s flight return flight got rebooked. Since they didn’t know if they could get mine done in time, she waved a sad goodbye and went through security, not knowing if we would be reunited in ten minutes or two days.
Mel sadly waves goodbye with her shiny boarding pass, unaware of when we would meet again
The minutes ticked by as I anxiously looked at my phone every 10-15 seconds. Finally, with approximately 1 minute to spare, EWB called and said my flight was rebooked. I rushed to the desk, convinced them to refresh their systems repeatedly until my new booking appeared, then bolted for security and a happy reunion with Mel! Of course, the flight ended up being delayed, so the mad rush was slightly anti-climactic.
Two flights, one layover and twenty-one hours later, we had arrived. Karibu Kenya!
Karibu means “welcome” and is used both for an actual welcoming (ie: when you arrive at someone’s house) or on its own as a response to someone saying “thank you”. It also quickly became our response when things went a little screwy or when things happened that locals took in stride that confused us.
Much of that confusion often involves transportation in Nairobi, which is as crazy and ridiculous as any driving I’ve seen in the world. This city abounds in busy four-way intersections without a stop sign, traffic circle, or traffic light in sight. Decisions regarding who goes first at these intersections involves complicated instantaneous calculations involving speed, mass, and relative cost of the vehicles involved, weighted by the courage or stupidity of the drivers in question. The fun of Nairobian driving doesn’t stop there. Many Nairobian roads have “speed cameras” on a large pole across the road, but they only work with visible light. The apparent solution is to affix very bright strobe lights next to those cameras that repeatedly flash in the eyes of oncoming drivers. You would think that Nairobi drivers are dangerous enough without trying to repeatedly blind them, but Karibu Kenya. I am also genuinely confused why anyone would try and enforce traffic laws in this city, since most of the time they so obviously don’t matter. As our exasperated Uber driver said this past weekend when a bus slammed on the breaks at a red light, “Who follows traffic lights on a SUNDAY????” Karibu Kenya.
I have been doing my best to learn some Swahili, beyond simply saying “welcome”. Turns out Disney helped me out with the Lion King. Appropriately enough, “Simba” is the Swahili word for lion, and “Rafiki” means friend. Of course “Hakuna Matata” does actually mean “No Worries”, but apparently no one in Kenya uses that anymore because it’s become too cliché. Thanks Disney. So if you want to try and blend in (or at least go from Tourist Muzungu to Expat Muzungu) then you say Hakuna Shida, which means “No Problem” instead.
Language aside, my first week in Nairobi has been a whirlwind of good and bad hostels, crazy traffic, lots of learning, and delicious but sometimes weird local food. On the hostel front, we were originally staying at a beauuutiful hostel a little bit out of town, with our own bathroom and balcony. It was lovely, but when we wanted to take a matatu into town, it took almost 2 hours! (Matatu’s are the local public transportation, minivans or minibuses that drive along specific routes, but only leave when there are enough people for it to go. Lots of fun, but also bad for arriving at places on time, and full of lovely pickpockets.) Due mostly to the fact that the trip into town would take either a large amount of money or time, we moved to a hostel between where myself and the other EWB Fellows would be working. Unfortunately, that place wasn’t so lovely. Now I’ve stayed in some sketchy places before, so the tiny two beds in a room barely big enough to fit them didn’t bother me that much, despite the fact that I was sharing it with Cedric and both of our luggage for a year. No, my issue was the shower. You see the hostel was laid out in a long hallway, with the rooms on either side. At the end of the hallway on the right was an open area which was the common, mixed-gender bathroom. Sinks along one wall, toilets along the other, showers along the third. Now the showers had to be running for five minutes to get warm enough for you to get in them. The problem is that the shower doors open INWARDS, and the stalls are… quite small. That means there is absolutely no way to get in the shower without getting either your towel or your clothes completely soaking wet. Unfortunately, the space right outside the shower is completely visible to ANYONE who is a) going to the bathroom or using the sinks, b) walking down the hall, c) going in or out of the three rooms with direct line-of-sight to said showers. So how do you get in the showers without giving any of those people a show? My conclusion was that either you need an “Entry” and “Exit” towel, or you just say screw it and get naked in front of everyone. I will leave to your imagination which technique I employed.
Despite the intensive In-Country Training that EWB put together for us, we have found some time to do at least one half-day of pure touristy things, visiting the Giraffe Sanctuary and the Baby Elephant Sanctuary. See below for pictures of me and Daisy the Giraffe, as well as other photos from the first few weeks here in Nairobi. Stay tuned for my next update that will involve epic road trips, a car accident, an attempted extortion, and zebras. Until then, stay safe and so will I.
