I arrived in Nairobi about a week ago and I am slowly settling in. I already moved once (from one house to an apartment that's closer to the office) and have already had dinner with a fellow Fletcherite in East Africa.
I'm interning with an American NGO called PACT, which mainly does capacity-building of civil society organizations, facilitating funding and coordination between them. I work on PACT's peacebuilding project PEACE II, which works together with a regional intergovernmental conflict early warning and response mechanism to prevent and mitigate disputes and violence across borders in East and the Horn of Africa. We are currently organizing a consultation meeting in the northeastern corner of Kenya, right on the border with Ethiopia and Somalia, with a bunch of government, civil society and business leaders from all three parties (Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia). I'll get to travel up there for a week at the end of the month and I'm really excited.
My colleagues, mostly Kenyans, are all very friendly and helpful. I've already had extensive conversations about Kenyan opinion on the US elections and about the "disturbances" (i.e. riots) in Kenya of early this year.
Nairobi has the characteristics of many other big African cities: it's dusty and noisy. Nairobi is huge but relatively modern. I'm on the outskirts of town and haven't seen much of the city center yet. Because of the high crime rate, I am somewhat confined in my mobility, which is pretty frustrating. I basically depend on taxis (which are expensive), and starting at dusk I shouldn't really be walking on the streets by myself. But there are supermarkets, internet and regular cafes and movie theaters all over the place. And there are paved roads! (Huge improvement from Kampala last summer.)
Other impressions: Neighborhood dogs decide to bark in concert every few hours in the middle of the night. The houses are gated and have security guards. And the mzungus (white people) basically live in their own little world behind their gates, the shopping malls and in their SUVs. TV features random (and old) American shows (and American Idol) as well as the expected Nigerian movies and gospel channels. People are very religious (mostly Christian and Muslim). And dress at work is very proper. Though I was assured that there are not many mosquitoes in the city, one lone mosquito found my bedroom and ate me alive two nights ago. I am now suffering the consequences. The fruit is fresh; and cell phone SIM cards are cheap (75 cents). Nairobi is expensive though. I pay basically the same amount for food that I would have in Boston.
I'm practicing the bits and pieces of Swahili I have learned so far, and my colleagues' faces light up when I manage to burst out an "Asante sana" (Thank you) or "Habari?" (How are you?).
Hopefully I'll soon have more exciting tales to tell, but for now I thought I'd share the beginnings... I hope everyone is well and that you're settling in for the summer.
