take two - nairobi

This post is inspired by this month’s Indieweb Carnival hosted by Nick Simson. The theme is “Take Two” and my particular interpretation comes from visiting a city I used to live in after a number of years away.

I had a business trip a couple of weeks ago. It came up rather quickly in May and had me scrambling to book tickets and get a visa for a country and city I once lived in: Nairobi Kenya.

My family and I lived their from the start of 2014 through the end of 2018, about 5 years all told. My daughter left her toddling years there. My son was born there. Both my wife and I had emergency surgies (for very different reasons) while living there as well. There was so much we loved - the people, the culture, the wildlife, the work (on my side) - and a lot we struggled with like the traffic and lots of food poisoning.

I arrived on a Monday evening and was immediately immersed in some of the struggle. Navigating the airport was a pain - it took 90+ minutes to get through immigration and get my luggage. I then had to chase down my ride scheduled to take me to the conference I was attending.

The next day I had an uniquely Kenyan experience trying to get a SIM card. Our hosts at the conference directed me to a spot about a half mile’s walk from the conference center and had me take one of their staff to help navigate the language (which was a good thing - I used to be conversational in kiswahili but it was slow to come back). We walked and talked and a lot felt like home. We made it to the roadside duka and the shopkeeper took my passport and had us sit. We waited about 20 minutes only to be told I’d need to go to a main branch (I think because I’d had a SIM card previously). My new friend offered his ID for a SIM card so we waited another 20 minutes only to be told “the network is down.” We walked to another shop, and did the whole thing all over only to learn that the network wasn’t down but that my friend’s family had used his ID to register too many SIM cards (I’m not sure what that number is though). A new plan was hatched (by him, not me) and we headed back. Upon arriving, we were greeted by my friends son and I learned I’d be using his SIM card for the next week and that he’d be using one of his alts. I got instructions to hang up on any one calling and to just use the data (which I did). Uniquely Kenyan experience. It reminded me so much of our time spent in East Africa.

Some things never change, like the dust. If you are roadside or near the city, it’s impossible to avoid the dust. As an asthmatic, it’s one of my least favorite parts of Nairobi (but it didn’t stop me from getting out to explore). I also don’t really miss uneven steps and stairways (where some steps are markedly different heights than others). Some things do change, like the traffic. New expressways meant a lot less waiting in gridlocked traffic. That was nice. The neighbor hood market across the street from where we lived was also radically different. The restaurant I spent many mornings working and studying in was no more. The pharmacy run by the older Indian couple (she managed the medicine and he hooked everyone up with bootlegged DVDs) was no more too. In their places were new shops and newer buildings.

As weird as it was tracing steps were I once lived, it was good to see familiar sites and faces. It was good to see their evolution. With a hint of sadness it was good to realize how amazing our time spent there was but that it was equally good that we are on to new things now.

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