My big
brother Matt lives and works in Dubai, so we’re much closer to him now we’ve
moved to Kenya. During the recent
national holidays in the UAE celebrating the muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, he
visited us for a 6-day holiday. As our
first visitor, we’ve given him the honour of his own blog post.
Disclaimer:
the same courtesy may be extended to other visitors but cannot be guaranteed...
We thought
it might be interesting for people back home to hear his thoughts on Kenya and on
our lives here in Nairobi. How was his trip? What has surprised him? Does he think we’ve
changed? Read on to find out...
So, Matt, how has your trip been?
Fantastic,
thank you!
You’d actually been to Nairobi once
before, yes?
Yes but only
briefly. On the way back from Tanzania,
we were supposed to change planes but Kenya Airways was on strike so we stayed
overnight. I only really saw the inside
of the airport – and my hotel room.
So how does Kenya compare to other
African countries you’ve visited?
In terms of
development, I’d say it’s about halfway on the index. Egypt and South Africa are much more
developed but Kenya seems more developed than Zambia. Certainly Nairobi has more infrastructure
than Lusaka (Zambia’s capital).
How did you find Nairobi this time
around?
I like it
much more than my first one-night visit!
My impressions are of a diverse city – in culture and economics; I saw a
man pulling a cart down the road laden with old tires, using his own strength,
and behind him, a guy driving a shiny BMW.
It’s clear that different areas of city are inhabited by different types
of people; places for ex-pats, places for wealthy Kenyans, and slums for those
who have much less. My impression was
that the city seems quite safe, and that crime is there not because of hate but
because many residents simply need the money.
I think you need to be streetwise here, but I found no problems.
We went to Embakasi, where you work at the KUB, and saw your building and had lunch in the tin shack opposite. We went to Bus Station several times! Erm... Gracehouse Hotel where you were involved in training new volunteers and I came along. Then on our trip - Lake Naivasha, Hell’s Gate National Park and we climbed a mountain. Mlangu? No, Mount Longanot.
Many
people! All your colleagues including
your office-mate Irene and your boss, Jackson. Plus Johnson who tapped me for
Dubai-related business ideas. Your
askaris (security guards) at your building, your VSO neighbours Allys and Eddie
when we had beers in South B dinner at yours.
Erm... your friends Marc and
Veronica, and Amol who came with us to Carnivore restaurant, and I saw my
Kenyan friends from Dubai who were also home for Eid! I met VSO staff at the training whose names I
can’t remember, also the new volunteers including a nice British guy called
Simon. Joel, your taxi driver. Oh, and John the boat captain who took us out
on the lake.
What are the biggest differences you
see between Kenya and the UK?
The reaction
to foreigners is different – they shout: Mzungu! at white people which feels
strange. But like the UK, they are very
welcoming to foreigners, I also felt very welcome. The traffic is much more
crazy, there is a feeling of everything being much less organised, a feeling of
chaos.
I think in
the UK people can isolate their families and are very private, whereas here
children are raised by the whole community and people are much more in each
other’s space.
Describe Kenya in 3 words.
Describe Kenya in 3 words.
Green. Wild.
Can I have more than 3 words?
Energetic yet relaxed.
Cycling
through Hell’s Gate National Park, and getting really close to the zebras!
Is there anything you didn’t like so
much?
Hmm,
probably being holed up in the matatu on the way home from Naivasha. I was stuck in a seat with no leg room. And – I didn’t like that there wasn’t enough
time with you guys, I only had 5 full days!
You stayed with us in South B, what
do you think of our neighbourhood?
Vibrant! For a residential area, it’s surprisingly
commercial, there are businesses just everywhere
– fruit sellers on the side of the road, a garage that becomes a bar at
night... It’s a place where folks are just getting on with their lives.
Has anything here surprised you?
I would
imagine that less shocks me these days, because I’ve travelled and live abroad,
but the gross inequality here still hits me.
What else? It’s more physical here, Kenyan don’t seem to need as much
personal space as we do! It’s surprised
me how Kenyans just get on with things without complaint: if the matatu is
full, the lady just squeezes in backwards and perches between the seats. And if the tout can’t reach to get money from
all passengers, people just pass the coins forwards, and the change backwards. In the UK, people would be outraged, but here
they think, ‘This is how it is, I’m going with it.’
Also there
were many more links to Arabic culture than I realised. Living in the Middle East, I could guess correctly
around language and customs, despite knowing nothing about Kenya before I came (the
Swahili language and culture, was massively influenced by the Arab traders who
first arrived on the Kenyan coast in the 7th century, particularly
from Oman).
How do you think this experience is
changing us?
Well, for
the better! I’m her brother so I can say
this: I can imagine Helen in the past complaining a lot more, squashed into a
matatu or being made to wait around. She
handles those things with much better humour now. Once you’ve done this year, you guys can go
anywhere and do anything; something frustrating happens but you’ll no longer
find it stressful , and you stop thinking ‘I can’t do this!’ It’s those qualities that VSO selected you on
- flexibility, patience – but magnified: you are more accepting, more chilled;
you can choose how to react. I think it
will help back in the UK too, you’ll be more effective because you’re more in
control. So really it’s less about Helen
and Dan changing the world, and more about the world changing you.
You read this blog before you
arrived. How do you think the blog
reflects the reality of life here?
Pretty
accurate, I reckon the blog rings true.
I think at the start you may have overemphasised certain aspects because
you were writing from emotional reactions – the colours you painted were so
much brighter when it was all new. And
yes, some of what you write sounds naive to me, but the honesty makes it a
really successful blog.
What aspect of life here should we
blog about next? What’s missing?
Maybe
something to do with the war propaganda in the newspapers you were both talking
about (how Kenya’s ‘war on terror’ in Somalia is reported here). Or, more about the trips you take? What about the struggle I’ve seen you both having
this week with your work; the frustrations you feel when forced to work in a
Kenyan way, which is very different to what you’re used to? I know you’d have to change names to protect
the real people involved!
Finally, what are your top tips for our
other friends and family who are coming to see us?Be flexible. Drop your expectations of western-world things like organisation, cleanliness and punctuality. But, raise your expectations of what you’ll experience, because you’ll have a great time. Don’t come with a list of ‘musts’ and stress about it. Things are unpredictable here but you won’t have failed because even a few cool things here will make for an awesome trip.
........
I can’t
really describe the joy of having a visit from a familiar face after the past
few months, but safe to say it was just.... awesome. Big thanks to Matt for being our first
visitor, and fitting so well into a week in our lives; it sounds like he had a
lot of fun too.
It was great
to see you bro – hoping to see you in 2012, somewhere in the world....
And thanks for the whiskey too!!!
ReplyDeleteShall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate...
If Matt comes to stay again I'm seriously doing some swotting beforehand! Nice time