Life in Nairobi

(October-November)

With Somalia on the verge of famine, my job has never been busier and more complex. It’s placing huge demands on my time, not only traveling to, and around, the country, but I’m pulled into loads of coordination meetings, media interviews, reviewing press releases, co-drafting articles, etc. I’m helping to navigate obstacles to procurement and shipment of medical, nutrition, water and sanitation supplies. Meeting with government officials and donors. Raising funds. And so on. Thus, I feel like my every minute is measured.

a little bit of Somalia from our window in Nairobi

Time with family is nonetheless essential. Being an intentional husband and/or dad through all the years of doing this job, admittedly is tough. I don’t always get it right, obviously, but I suppose I can take comfort in the fact that no one does. You can never allocate sufficient time for everything. One thing I won’t do, when this is all said and done, is wish I’d spent more time working.

What does time with family look like these days? Well, there’s been basketball. My girls have developed a taste for the main sport of my youth. I did not push it on them. It’s sort of happened on its own.

There’s also been swimming. The pool at our building was out of commission for a while, possibly due in part to the drought, but we’ve had access to other pools, including at the coast. We’re entering the heart of summer so I suspect that when we get back from the holidays, we’ll be swimming even more.

Oreo spiders

We did sort of did the Halloween thing but less than in previous years. They also may be something that tapers a bit as the girls are getting older.

There are still the endless birthday parties. It’s not like days of old when it involved clowns and bouncy castles. But it still involves a lot of noise, pizza and running children.

There is some cycling in the nearby forest, but it’s inconsistent. The challenge is keeping up with their rapid growth. Bikes aren’t cheap (though Kiran’s old bike, purchased for $8 at Goodwill in the US several years ago, taken apart, put in a duffel and brought to Kenya, is still serving Kinaya well).

 

Brackenhurst

I’ve mentioned Brackenhurst in the past in this blog. It’s about 45 minutes outside of Nairobi. It’s different enough from where we live such that we’ve used it as a weekend getaway. With the way my work has been lately, it was just what I needed. Doesn’t require loads of travel time and preparation. Just a peaceful(ish) weekend.

We’ve been to Brackenhurst a few times. The first thing that jumps out at me is how quiet it is and cooler than Nairobi. Some people cycle there from the city, have a drink or a meal and then cycle back. I would be a bit skittish of riding on some of the roads (already having broken my arm doing such a thing). But it’s beautiful, hilly country once you get out near the tea plantations. 

 

 

 

 

 

Question marks on a meat truck? It might be meat but we're not sure?
 

Baidoa

 (Still catching up. Going back to the third week of September.)

Not long after my previous trip to Somalia, and loads of meetings in Nairobi, it was time to return again. This time I would be going to Baidoa, a place I’d never been given we just opened an office there just prior to me going on vacation in July.

Baidoa is not an easy place to work. The city is completely surrounded by non-government held territory, though the city itself is reasonably safe. But if you venture out 10-15 km. in any direction, the security situation significantly deteriorates.

the modest international airport

rare view for a foreigner - from a tower looking out over non-govt.-held territory

Unfortunately, it’s the epicenter of the drought in Somalia. It’s an historically underserved population due in large part to its inaccessibility. Though people can get in and out by road by paying tolls to militants, for the most part everything we do needs to be airlifted in as if it were an island. From a supply chain standpoint, it’s sort of a nightmare given that shipments by air (for medical supplies and nutritional feeding supplements for example) are very expensive. 

 * * *

The city has an interesting history. A colleague I was traveling with said that her parents used to go there for long weekends prior to the civil war. It is generally cooler than the coast and was very prosperous. Back then it had the largest camel population in Somalia (over 1.3 million – more camels than people). Nowadays things are obviously different. On this trip, I didn’t even see one – the first of my travels to Somalia without seeing a camel (though I did consume some).

In the early stages of the civil war (early 1990s), Baidoa was ravaged by repeated attacks and changed hands several times. Meanwhile, the situation in Mogadishu was even worse. The government temporarily established itself Baidoa which, by this time, had become more stable. By 2007, with Islamists pushed out, the capital shifted back to Mogadishu. Though Baidoa was retaken by Islamists the following year, it was eventually liberated in 2012 and has remained in government hands since. Though the three main arteries leading into the city are not controlled by the government, the city itself is.

* * *

For the work I do, Baidoa has been important. The region has notoriously been the hardest hit by the repeated droughts, including the famine in 2011 and the near-famine conditions we battled in 2017 soon after I joined the country program. I/we realized that we needed a base there and we would need to figure out a way to start up operations there (find resources). In the end, we did and we proceeded to scale up quickly. In a few busy months we had a new office, staff, partner organizations and several million dollars in funding to respond to the drought. 

 * * *

My trip involved a combination of meetings with local government officials as well as several visits to the seemingly endless encampments of those who have been displaced by drought and/or conflict. Hundreds of thousands of people are packed into a few square kilometers, most of whom are in desperate need of support.

I must say, it’s hard to fathom the magnitude of the crisis. In addition to those impacted by drought, a surprising number of those in makeshift housing are conflict displaced. Sometimes it’s a combination of drought and conflict forcing people from their homes. Most had come from long distances. Some on foot. Some on donkey carts. They congregate in places like Baidoa because they know that aid is being provided. Most are in contact with others from their communities before they come and then seek out them out when they arrive. It’s much easier to have clan/family ties in order to be received without issues and get some immediate help.

thankfully, this nutrition screening facility has been replaced by the structure below

 * * *

After a couple of days, it was time to return to Mogadishu. We drove from the office to the airport. There are multiple perimeters of security as you approach and you need to navigate each one separately. There’s always some shouting, hand gestures, etc. as each side demonstrates their authority – us making the case why we need to get through and the other side making the case why we’re not allowed. It’s the same thing at almost every checkpoint in the country. Nine times out of ten, we eventually get through successfully. One would think that with a flight booking, there ought to be a way to do this more easily. But the tug-of-war does serve a purpose. Over the course of the shouting/gesturing, it buys time for the security forces to observe us and assess the probability of risk. And with high frequency of attacks, the security forces do need to take their jobs seriously.

The first perimeter security/boom gate is the local police, followed by the national army. The inner checkpoint is the Africa Union, the international forces that are in Somalia to assist the government with security and assist in building their capacity. The team assigned to Baidoa is Ethiopian. I’ve heard stories that they can be particularly challenging but on this occasion, we didn’t have any issues.

sunset view from my room in Baidoa

After all this, there’s yet another security check as you approach the airport itself. On this occasion, the conveyor belt/x-ray thing was not operational (it was the same the next time I traveled there so it could be that it never works) so it served as a table for security to basically dump the bags’ contents and rifle though peoples’ underwear and cosmetics. Always interesting to have your stuff exposed to other travelers. Mine wasn’t nearly as interesting as some of the things I saw coming out of other people’s bags.

We walked across the dirt open space between security and the “terminal” which was basically the size of a three-bedroom house. Once inside, I was escorted to the VIP room. I’m not really a VIP (usually reserved for government officials) but I guess because I was a foreigner, I was allowed in. To be honest, the chairs were comfortable and there’s the “separation from the masses” that some enjoy, but it wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be. There’s no food, no internet and the loo wasn’t even operational – possibly my primary motivation for being in the lounge given the rather warlike conditions of the men’s room in the main area.

After a considerable wait, we were off to Mogadishu. The flight is less than an hour, mostly over non-government held territory. Our armored vehicle was waiting for us and the transition to the office was rather smooth. I would return to Nairobi the following day. A lot of travel these days. Not likely to slow down between now and the holidays. 

Mogadishu

It's time to begin catching up after many weeks of not writing. Time to write is a luxury.

* * *

(Sept. 19) I’m in Baidoa, in southwest Somalia as I write this. For security reasons, I am not allowed to post things in Somalia while I am currently in that specific location. So, this won’t be posted until I’m somewhere else. But before I discuss my current visit, I need to go back to my previous trip to Somalia – the one that I took at the end of August/early September.

* * *

After returning from the US, I was anxious to get back to work. Not only get back to work but get back to Somalia. That may sound odd to some but I do like what I do and I do like my team. Moreover, we are in the midst of a terrible drought that seems to be headed in the direction of a full-on famine. It’s a very serious situation and something that was in the back of my mind throughout the time that I was in the US. My team did a fantastic job while I was away but I wanted to get back to supporting them.

Within a little over a week of being back, I boarded a plane for Mogadishu (Aug. 28). One advantage of being back in Somalia, being away from family, was that I could really focus. Hanging out with family is one of the best things in life. But as the humanitarian situation continued to deteriorate, I desperately needed this time to dedicate to getting caught up and making sure our drought response was quickly scaling up.

I normally travel early Sunday. The 4am wake-up and 6:30 flight get me to the office at the beginning of the workday and workweek. It cuts my weekend in half but it’s an efficient use of my time. From the time I hit the ground, it was meeting after meeting as everyone was catching me up on what had happened while I was away, and to at least give me their take on what had transpired.

By day three, I was ready to escape the confines of the office. Not being able to duck out for a run or a cup of coffee, or do anything that involves me leaving the building without security detail can drive someone a bit crazy after a while.

My escape was to head to the “green zone” and participate in a panel discussion on reaching marginalized communities hosted by the UN. It took place in one of the container facilities (hotels) within the airport compound. As I’ve mentioned before, the airport area is more like a large military base and the airport takes up only about a third of the fortified complex. The rest is made up of armed compounds within the armed compound for private companies, UN, embassies, etc. It’s a dusty, sandy web of roads linking these compounds (most of which are collections of container buildings) and teaming with SUVs and armored personnel carriers (APCs). It’s a completely different world from what I experience on the outside. Though there are plenty of SUVs and APCs, we have noisy children playing in the dirt streets, bleating goats and an occasional meandering camel. Overall, life is better on the outside.

Mogadishu scene - camels wandering the street, kids resting from playing football, a sliver of ocean view

After the meeting, it was back to the office for a combination of face-to-face and virtual meetings. One twist this time was that one of my staff asked me if I wanted to go out to dinner with a couple of colleagues. It was a bold request given that I had actually never really been out to dinner in Mogadishu. I’ve been out to dinner in Garowe (Puntland) a couple of times where it’s considerably safer, but never in the capital.

She arranged for an armored pick-up which came to pick us up around 7pm. We headed out in the darkness of the Mogadishu evening. There’s only been one other time that I was in a vehicle after dark on the streets of the city and that was after a function at the British embassy in the green zone. The event went a bit late and the VIP gate that I normally use was closed. As such, we had to make our way to another gate that was on the opposite side of the base. Somalia, being farther north than Nairobi, gets dark a half hour to forty-five minutes earlier.

from my window - camel with the owner's phone number

Fortunately, our destination was only a couple of kilometers away. We pulled up in front of the unmarked perimeter wall of the restaurant compound. This is where things are usually the sketchiest. I was told to disembark from the side nearest the wall where I would slip quickly through the metal door, past a metal detector and two armed guards and into the compound. Once inside things were calm and peaceful. No foreigners, obviously, but people sitting around having tea in the dimly lit courtyard. I was escorted to a far table in near complete darkness with only a small light barely revealing the faces of my colleagues.

I felt like a kid skipping school. Though he wasn’t with me, my head of security did indeed agree to this. That was another thing that was weird for me. He normally shadows me when I’m in country. I suppose it made me feel even more reckless. Nonetheless, it was a stunningly beautiful evening. I could see a crescent moon between the palm fronds waving in the warm evening breeze.

At one point the manager appeared through the darkness. He’s a skinny, smiley Ugandan guy that I’ve known for a few years (I’ve been to this place during the day several times) and he seemed surprised to see me. I told him I was surprised to be there myself.

We ordered (fish curry for me) and the proceeded to sip on our juices as we waited for dinner (alcohol’s illegal though it would have been a nice evening for a glass of wine). Given that there had been a hotel attack a few days prior that involved some of our staff (thankfully no one was injured or killed), much of the conversation revolved around that and other attacks that they had encountered over the years of living and working in Somalia. Sobering conversation but it wasn’t without a few laughs here and there.

After dinner we made our way back to the exit, getting a couple of double takes along the way. We entered our compound and I was relieved that we’d pulled it off without a hitch. I’m not saying I’m empowered to keep pushing that envelope because I’m not. I’m just happy for the nice experience.

* * *

The next morning, I was plowing through emails when the head of our Mogadishu office came to the guesthouse where I was working and asked if I was okay with have a meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister. I said yes, of course, though it does involve a bit of risk heading to the seat of power for the Somalia Federal Government. But you can’t pass up an opportunity such as this. We need close ties with this new government and at this point I know very few of them.

With short notice, we made our way to Villa Somalia, the former home of the Italian colonial government decades ago. I’ve been before but it’s always quite the adventure getting through the innumerable layers of security, boom gates, etc. Once inside, we had the customary wait in the spacious waiting lounge. Once inside, the meeting went fairly well. I suspected that I was rather bad at these things given that perpetual look of boredom I often get when meeting with high-level officials. But a Somali guy I know who runs another international organization told me he gets the same looks. According to him, that’s what a lot of Somali people in power do. Maybe. Or we’re both boring.

* * *

Over the past several months, I’ve been quite heavily engaged in speaking to media about the drought. We have communications people that set these things up, sometimes with an idea of what they want to discuss specifically, sometimes not. It’s mostly been media outlets in the US and Europe.

me with the princess

As mentioned in a recent post, I missed out on a chance to meet the former Prince of Wales. However, I did in fact get to meet royalty. The day after the meeting with the Deputy PM, I had been asked to participate in a discussion with Princess Sarah Zeid of Jordan. She is a goodwill ambassador for WFP and in her role was visiting the country. Not very often I get to meet a real princess and that afternoon I headed back into the fortified “green zone” (which, by the way, has absolutely green whatsoever) for the meeting.

Mogadishu sunset

The princess had just returned from a trip to Galkacyo (central Somalia) and I was impressed that she was authorized to do such a thing, and that she was willing to do so. After the roundtable discussion, I spoke to her separately for a few minutes and it was clearer to me why she was willing to leave the confines of the UN compound, when so many from the UN don’t (or supposedly can’t). It seems that she really has her heart in this goodwill ambassador role. I almost felt like she knew more about some of these issues than some who do this for a living. Refreshing, I must say.