Nearly 19 years in East Africa and counting...

Monday, November 28, 2016

Settling In



As we adapt to our new world, it’s worthwhile to take a look at where we are. Though my professional focus is on Somalia, we do happen to live in Kenya. And I can say without hesitation that there are far worse places to live.
Nairobi is a fairly young city by many standards. It didn’t get its start until about 1900, established as a stopover on the British East African railroad between Mombasa (on the coast) and Kampala, Uganda. By comparison, Chicago had a population of about 1.7 million by that time. Today, Nairobi has long since surpassed Chicago in total population (3.5 million to 2.7 million) and continues to grow.
Other than as a railway stopover, the city grew in importance to the colonial powers as a big game hunting destination. It also served as a center for exportation (exploitation) of the country’s tea, coffee and sisal. Kenya gained its independence in 1963 and, except for a few hiccups along the way, over time the city has grown to become an African economic powerhouse and the game hunters have morphed into safari tourists and aid workers.
It’s easy to see what the attraction was for the Brits. In addition to the big game, access to the amazing Indian Ocean coast, the rich natural resources, etc., the city lies at an altitude that produces the cooler air that the English would have appreciated. At 1,795 meters (5,889 ft.), Nairobi is much higher than you would think. In fact, it is around the same altitude as the base of a ski area in my home state, Brundage Mountain (5,840 ft.). However due to being a little over 100 kilometers (about 65 miles) from the equator, you won’t ever see any snow. In fact the vegetation is quite tropical-ish (“subtropical highlands” to be precise) with lots of palm trees and flowering vegetation year round.
What the colonial masters didn’t have to deal with was traffic. Nairobi was not designed; it just happened. There seem to be some weak attempts to fix the transportation problem but it’s generally a complete mess. Like many African cities, the prosperity means that more of the population can afford cars. That’s good news and bad news. We’ve opted for an apartment that allows us to walk to work/school and provides us some shelter from the ubiquitous traffic jams. But it doesn’t protect me when I need to venture out to the billions of meetings I need to attend at the UN, at hotels, in international organization and government offices etc. Thank goodness for a smart phone and a driver that provide me the ability to use that time in transit effectively.
What’s great is that Nairobi has a middle class. Wealth is sinking deeper into the population. There is still tremendous disparity and the wealth tends to be concentrated in and around Nairobi but it’s good to see that it’s not foreigners that are driving the economy.
Last weekend we ventured out to see the Giraffe Centre. Founded in 1979 as a core breeding centre of the endangered Rothschild’s giraffe, it later expanded its conservation efforts and opened an environmental education centre for the Kenyan youth (and tourists). We had been there before when Kiran was about two but she had no recollection of it. This time we took both girls and their nanny, Emilienne. For Emi, it was quite the experience. Until she met us she had never traveled more than an hour from her native Bujumbura, Burundi, and never outsider her country. We took her on an airplane for the first time last year (to Kigali) and then to Nairobi this year to help us out for a couple months as we are transitioning to Kenya. Her perception of the world has changed considerably and I’m glad we’ve been able to expose her to new things – things she likely would have never seen otherwise. It’s probably odd for Westerners to think that a woman from the African continent has never seen a giraffe before but unfortunately it’s quite common. Most sub-Saharan Africans do not have the means to visit national parks and thus they are reserved for the rich and/or the foreigner. In any case, it was fantastic watching her feed the giraffes.
So overall we like the place. It’s not all roses but we shan’t complain. Our transition will be complete once the truck arrives with our belongings from Burundi – something that for some reason still may be weeks away.

Friday, November 11, 2016

A Brave New World



Tis the busy time of year. I know that could be said of most of the year but Oct-Dec is generally pretty crazy in this line of work, independent of what country I’m working in. It’s just the nature of the beast. 

Since the last blog post I moved into our new apartment. A day later, my family arrived from Burundi and we were on the way to setting up our new home. Finally. We’re still not there yet since it will apparently be some time before we get our stuff from Burundi by truck but we are much closer. It's a big contrast to the country we left behind - a brave new world. 

our new apartment building
The girls have begun school (French school) and so far that’s working out nicely. I think the teachers were a bit suspicious of the girls’ level of French given that neither of their parents are native French speakers. But their fears were allayed as they both hit the ground running. The Belgian school in Bujumbura has apparently prepared them sufficiently for fitting in to their new school mid-term. Their gregarious nature has made it even easier. 

picking up the girls from their first day
Soon after arriving was Halloween. It’s obviously not a big deal here and, to be honest, neither of the girls knew what Halloween was. There was a chance that we’d not do anything this year either until one of the families in our building decided to initiate a small party and trick-or-treating to the apartments. Nairobi is not the kind of place you want to go roaming about at night, knocking on peoples’ gates. It’s the bad kinda spooky all year round.

Then there were the US elections this past week. Obviously there was a lot of international interest. There always is but this year, partially due to the polarized fever in the US, it was more significant than normal. In my long life as an expatriate, I have experienced six elections. In fact, I was living in Switzerland when Reagan was still president. I remember listening to the inauguration of George W. Bush on the radio in 1989. I’m not going to drone on and on about the elections of this year. I don’t have much to say that would add to what has already been said. I will only say that it will be important for Trump, early in his administration, to demonstrate to Americans that he does not have (or that he will suppress) the racist, misogynistic values that were revealed during the campaign – comments that make me shudder. Many of his supporters are hoping for the same. In fact most Americans are not huge believers in him. They were either voting for or against Hillary, or against any Democrat. It’s up to him to prove to the non-believers that he’s up to the task. I doubt Americans will have a lot of patience.

"No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed, and love of power." -P.J. O'Rourke, writer

Friday, October 21, 2016

A Little Accident



I’ve been in Nairobi a bit over a month now. It’s been a packed four weeks of orientations, training, courtesy visits, etc. I haven’t actually been able to spend too much time in my office. But it’s been good to learn the new context and meet a lot of the key people involved.
My family is still in Burundi. I’ve been here without them, relying on skype calls to stay in touch. It’s not fun but it was a decision we made that makes sense given the situation. The girls will be able to stay in school and transfer during a break. I can focus on the complex new job. The apartment that we found will not be ready for another week and delaying the family’s arrival will mean that they can move directly into our new home without needing to move from temporary accommodations and then to the new place. So yes, it makes sense but it’s been less than fun to be without my girls. And my poor wife has been shouldering the parenting and the final move preparations for the most part by herself.
In any case, the full transition to Nairobi will come soon enough. I take things as they come.
On Wednesday evening I had a bit of a scare. It’s a long story but shortly before going to bed I accidentally broke a window and cut my wrist pretty badly. Blood was flowing out of the wound and it looked like something you’d see in a horror film. I held my hand high in the air in an effort to get the bleeding to stop, or at least slow down. I tried creating a tourniquet out of a small towel but it didn’t work well. In the meantime I was getting blood all over the sink, the walls, the floor and myself. It actually looked pretty horrifying and I started to get nervous that I might be in serious trouble. I had no first aid kit and no bandages or disinfectant in the house. I decided to use a hair band with some tissues to keep a large flap of skin in place and eventually was able to get the bleeding to stop. At that point I sat in bed to rest a minute, looking around at the bloody mess I’d created.

Exhausted from a busy day, a workout and then this incident, I propped up my arm so that it remained elevated and sat down on the bed. Around that time Priya called and I recounted my little mishap. She reminded me that there was a 24-hr. pharmacy not far away and I could walk over and get some proper bandages and so forth. I had heard two gun shots not far away a few minutes before and decided that, given the bleeding had subsided, I would wait and go in the morning. As I was falling asleep, I hoped that I wouldn’t wake to bloody sheets.
oopsie
Fortunately my ghetto wrap worked and the next morning I was off to get proper care for my wound. It was a Kenyan holiday so I was fortunate that I didn’t need to go to into the office. I still intended on working but given that the wound was on my left wrist, I was unable to write or type. In the end it didn’t matter because, on top of the injury, I began to feel sick. For the rest of the day (yesterday) I was spending my time in bed with the chills and making periodic trips to the loo. Throbbing pain in my wrist. At one point in the afternoon I found another shard of glass in my hand. Basically nothing was good about the day.
an ad as I opened a magazine last night
This morning I redressed my wound. It’s still quite gross to look at (I took a photo soon after the incident but have decided that it’s a bit too disgusting to post) but the pain was less and my hand was working normally with no swelling or discoloration. My stomach flu, or whatever it was, had subsided as well so I was starting to feel functional again. I knew the cleaning lady was coming so I wanted to make sure there wasn’t any broken glass around that she might accidentally step on. As I looked at the hole that I’d made in the window I noticed that some of my arm hair was wedged into the remaining cracks in the glass. Kinda gross. But I realize that I am very fortunate. It could have been much, much worse.
I’m in the office now. I can type and sign my name (important in my job). I was able to watch part of Boise State beating BYU (barely). Things are looking up.