Yours, Mine, Ours and Then Some: Nairobi

Monday, August 4, 2014

Nairobi

When we got off the plane in Nairobi we went down the plane steps on to the tarmac. For some reason I prefer that over the tunnel thing that hooks up to the plane. Maybe it reminds me of the 80's I'm not sure. It just feels more like an arrival! The lady from the travel agency was standing right at the bottom of the steps with a sign. The travel agency was with us every step of the way. I felt like we were always taken care of.

We met up with the other people in our group. There was a total of 11 of us. A single woman, Roshon from L.A. (I made her for a nurse right off. A nurse can spot another nurse.) She didn't have any kids and was planning on traveling with a friend who bailed at the last minute. She was a good sport and a great co-traveler. There was Marianna and her 8 year old son, Daniel also from LA. and a family from Minnesota with their two children an 8 year old and a 5 year old. and their grandmother.

I wish I'd taken more pictures of Nairobi. It was not what I expected though I'm not sure what I expected. It was just a big modern city much like any other city. The only real exception was the plethora of machine guns. I've never seen so many machine guns in my life. When we pulled into the hotel security looked under our car, in our car, on top of our car. There was security with guns at every store, hotel, street corner. I felt very safe. I also felt very white! I haven't felt that white since growing up in the south. The people were exceptionally friendly. Even the people carrying machine guns. Everyone we spoke with was delightful. We spent a long time talking to a security guard at the tomb of Nairobi's first president. I don't think I've ever been to such a friendly city.
We were told by the travel agency that we were not allowed to take pictures of police or security. Hence, no pictures of men with guns.

These huge marabou are everywhere. (I hope that's what they are called). One of them pooped on our windshield, that's a lot of poop. Glad I wasn't walking under it.

The city is quieter than many cities. Not as much beeping as one would expect. They drive on the wrong side of the road or as they would say the right side of the road. Traffic is somewhere between awful and terrible. They are crazy drivers. They don't use stop lights. There are some traffic directors. There are lots of round abouts and no stop signs. You take your life into your own hands when you cross the street. I was hanging on to Sean every second. People drive on the sidewalk so we kept him as far from the street as possible. Our driver/tour guide Rafael was a crazy driver but I always felt safe. His ability to ride another cars tail and not rear end them was amazing. Also his ability to change lanes when there was no room to change lanes. I would not want to drive in that city. I wouldn't make it five minutes without crashing.

We went to a local grocery store/clothing store/hardware store. Kind of Nairobi's version of Target. We got searched, passed through the armed guards and Sean found some cute little bananas that he had to have. I bought a couple of dresses for the equivalent of $12. I didn't find anywhere in Nairobi that took American Express and none of the local restaurants took Visa. We had to get shillings for local spending.