IMAGE: A personal facade that one presents to the world

My personal image has always been important to me, because I've viewed it as a reflection on my mother's parenting skills.  I was never one for being flashy, trashy or trendy and I was far too poor to keep up with the Jones.  As I’ve grown older, simple elegance has been the image I’ve tried to display to the world because it’s the image that’s most comfortable to me.  Simple elegance was what I had in mind when it was time for me to purchase the second car I had ever owned in my life. 

Up until that point, I had only driven a green Volkswagen Jetta.  Not much thought about my image went into purchasing the Jetta.  In 1995 I needed a car that I could afford and that was available to drive back to Pittsburgh for work and school that weekend.  The green Jetta was in my price range and available to drive off the lot that day.  Although it didn’t do much for my image, I loved that Jetta.  It got me from point A to B for 11 years!  And, she is still getting around thanks to my little cousin Kiara.

Then there was Inga…a Volvo XC90.  I remember the first time I saw her in a commercial in 2003.  I fell in love immediately.  She was perfect for the image I wanted to portray to the world as a professional women climbing the corporate latter.  She was, simply elegant.  In 2006 I was ready.  I had saved enough and made enough to afford Inga.  Initially I wanted a white car with a cream interior.  My mother quickly reminded me that I would never be able to keep that car clean, so I settled on an Ice White car with a charcoal grey interior.  It was love at first sight.  Inga was the first Swedish name that felt right to me and of course I had to give the car a proper name.  The XC90 is such a refined car with such attitude that Inga seemed to be the perfect name.  It was the perfect second car for me.

So, why is this important at this point in time?  (Breathe!!)  Because of my commitment to my international assignment in Nairobi, I felt it was necessary to sell my Inga. L Yes people, this week while I was home, one of the loose ends I had to tie up was selling my beloved Inga.  This was a very surreal experience for me.  Although this was the most logical thing for me to do, it was very difficult.  The only saving grace was that she was going to be sold to a dear friend. 

My friend Rebecca and her husband Jimmy purchased Inga and gave her a proper home.  You see, Inga is not an outdoors car.  It was important for the person purchasing her to have a garage in which Inga would live and a Volvo dealer who would service her.  I’m not sure how she would respond if she was left outside during a snow storm or if a non-Volvo dealer touched her insides. LOL.  Many of you may think that is crazy, but Rebecca understood.  When she got Inga home to New York, she promptly sent me a picture of Inga in her new room.  It put my mind at ease.

I didn’t realize how much Inga had become a part of my image until I sat in the Toyota Rav 4 I rented until my return to Nairobi.  Oh people, it wasn’t the same.  SMH. There was an air you had about yourself when you sat in Inga.  Even if I jumped in her looking like a bum to run to the store, people nodded their approval when I pulled up.  In a Rav 4 people change lanes to get away from you…like I did when Inga encountered an inferior car. LOL.  I’m just kidding…a little bit.  I am genuinely sad about letting go of my Inga, but I’m comforted by the fact that she has a good home with Becca. J  I’m back in Nairobi next week so the saga will continue.  Don't forget to sign on as a follower.

Della Rochelle

Copyright © 2011 by Della R. Williams

Making My Adjustment

Habari,

My first week in Nairobi is now in the history books.  I have a good time and I'm thrilled by the possibility of this opportunity.  I'm now settled back in the comfort of my home in Deptford, NJ.  I don't know who's bright idea (Master Pu) it was for me to travel to Nairobi and back in one week.  My body thinks I have lost my damn mind.

First of all, I have never been able to sleep comfortably on a plane, so the flights are much more stressful than they need to be.  Second, Nairobi is seven hours ahead of the east coast and my body have barely adjusted to the Nairobi time zone and here I am back home.  Lastly, I had a hell of a time trying to adjust to the food last week so my body is exhausted.

Initially, no matter what I tried, there wasn't any food that I liked.  Even a tried and true favorite like pizza didn't taste right to me.  I couldn't eat it.  I struggled with the textures and seasonings of the food.  By Wednesday evening, I was at my wits end, because I hadn't had a full meal since I arrived in Nairobi.  Never in my life had I been afraid to eat, but I guess there is a first time for everything.  The consultation from Dr. Jim was ringing in my ears, "don't eat any salads; if the cooked vegetables aren't smoking hot, don't eat them, etc..." Fear took over.

Finally, during a farewell dinner for someone leaving the account, I found a dish that I liked.  WhooHoo!! It was a simple ravioli dish at an Italian restaurant.  The conclusion I came to was that I would need to dust off my cooking skills, because I will be doing a lot of it during my stay in Nairobi.  A funny thing that happened at that same dinner was Master Pu convincing me that I was overreacting to the food situation.  He confidently ordered stuffed calamari and quickly got food poisoning. LOL.  Its nothing to be concerned about though, its not the first time its happened to him and I considering the fact that he act a Greek salad two days later lets me know that it won't be the last time.

Nairobi is a crowded city and the driving is CRAZY!  I could never drive here.  I can now understand why the company is willing to provide us with a car and driver.  On Thursday I saw a car drive up on the sidewalk just to get ahead in traffic.  LOL. Do you know how many times I have wanted to do that when I was behind the wheel?  I almost applauded him.  SMH.  The exhaust coming from the cars is pretty bad though.  While driving behind a bus this week, I felt like the pollution was sticking to my lungs.  Ugh.  There are clearly no emissions test conducted in Nairobi.

Meeting the IBM account team and the client was an interesting experience as well.  This is by far the most diverse team I've ever been a part of at IBM or any other company where I've worked.  Several members of the team are from Kenya and Nigeria, but other countries like, France, Ireland, England, Germany, India, Vietnam, Australia and South Africa to name a few are represented. I will be spending quite a bit of time in Nigeria during this assignment.  I will have to put on my hood rat cap when I go to Nigeria, because their game is legendary. LOL.

Well, I'm back in the States to wrap things up before I return to Nairobi for a longer stay.  Join me here next week when I talk about the tough choices I have to make like selling Inga. OMG!  For those of you who don't know Inga, tune in next week. :-)  Don't forget to sign on as a follower.

Della Rochelle
Copyright (c) 2011 by Della R. Williams

The Journey Begins Part 3: The First 24

Habari,

When I first thought about taking the assignment in Nairobi, I didn't really know what to expect.  I knew I wanted to go on safari there and hike Kilimanjaro, but those of you who know me know that I am NOT interested in living in the jungle.  Besides, there's no air conditioning there. LOL.  But, the more I learned about Nairobi, the more interested I became.  I found that its one of the most prominent cities in Africa both politically and financially.

Nairobi  is the capital of Kenya and the largest city in the country with a population of over 3 million people.  The name 'Nairobi' comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi which translates to "the place of cool waters." It was founded in 1899 as a rail depot on the railway linking Mombasa and Uganda.  Many of you may remember a great book and movie named, 'Out of Africa,' written by Karen Blixen.  She lived near Nairobi and now has a neighborhood named after her as well as a museum.  I can see the 'Della Rochelle Museum" clearly y'all. ;-)

To say I was a little leery about the living conditions in Nairobi would be a tremendous understatement.  I had heard so much about how bad the water was and that you shouldn't go out at night in the downtown area, for fear of being mugged or worse.  I had worked myself up to a nervous wreck and then I remembered that I grew up in North Philly and spent lots of time in the deep south.  There are certainly parts of North Philly where if you are caught on the street late at night and you aren't from the area, you are almost guaranteed some unwelcome excitement.  My father lived near 22nd and Diamond for over 30 years....nuff said? And, for those of you who spent any amount of time in the deep south as children, you are familiar with the smell of well water.  That's kind of what the water in Nairobi reminds me of.  I didn't want to drink that water either. SMH.

When I first arrived at the InterContinental hotel, I was amazed by the level of security.  There was a guard station and a gate where they checked cars for bombs one by one.  Then we had to walk through a metal detector to get in the hotel, but I did notice when the alarm went off as I walked through, I wasn't patted down or check for weapons.  I asked the woman if she wanted me to take off my belt and she looked at me and said, "no need.". I guess I didn't look like a threat in my Talbots jacket and capris. LOL.

The hotel lobby was beautiful.  Marble floors, business center, nice bar and restaurants.  It's was everything I would expect in an American hotel.  After Master Pu left me in the lobby with instruction to go get so sleep, I changed the $100 I had into approximately 8,500 shilling.  The stack of money was huge, because the woman gave it to me in 200 increments.  With Nairobi's charming nickname of Nai-robbery, I was feeling a little self conscious about having so much money on me, even though I wouldn't die if I lost 100 bucks.  

I headed up to my room trying to prepare myself for what I would have endure for the next four nights.  When I opened the door I thought, " oh okay, not bad." You can see from the picture that it was pretty typical. It wasn't a four star room and I had certainly been in better, but I could make it home for the week.  There was the familiar smell of well water coming from the bathroom, but I saw it as a reminder that I was not to allow the water to enter my digestive track under any circumstances.  

The window was open and there was a row of beautiful trees lining the street below.  As I got closer to the window, I saw a pack of the ugliest birds I've ever seen up close.  Marabou Storks!  They hangout in the tree outside of my window.  You can seen from the picture above, they are a little homely looking.  They look and sound prehistoric to me. The Marabou is Nairobi's pigeons.  Ugh.  I quickly pulled the curtains closed in order to block out the light and their noises.  After taking a nice HOT shower (I could have 3rd degree burns LOL), I went to sleep for what I intended to be two hours, but turned into 7.
It was one of those dead to the world sleeps.  Seriously.

Once I got up, I realized it was almost time to have my meeting with Master Pu.  We ended up almost shutting down the bar, but I met members of the account team that night and they looked like they were quite comfortable in a bar setting. LOL.  The first sip of wine let me know I was going to adjust to Nairobi just fine.  Two days later and I've already attended my first going away dinner.  LOL.  

Thanks for joining me this week.  I will see you back here next Monday, which will be the regularly scheduled post for On Assignment In Nairobi. Don't forget to sign up as a follower.

Della Rochelle
Copyright (c) 2011 by Della R. Williams

The Journey Begins Part Two: The Trip

Habari,

I was scheduled to depart from the Philadelphia International Airport at 6:10pm on USAirways, heading for Nairobi.  I cruised through check-in and security with ease and was sitting at the gate a full 2 hours before the flight!  This was unheard of for me.  I usually have just enough time to pull out my ticket and give it to the gate crew as I fly down the ramp.  I was really excited.  The first sign of trouble came when they changed the gate 30 minutes before we were scheduled to board.

Next, the departure time changed from 6:10pm to 6:40pm.  Then the gate agent's voice came over the intercom to inform us that the plane was now scheduled to ARRIVE in Philly at 7:30pm.  Ugh!  As I tried to maintain my composure, the gate area started to fill with children.  Now you all know i love children (wink, wink), but i just don't feel they should be allowed to infiltrate certain parts of society until they've reached a certain age. LOL. Just kidding. First there was the little girl chatting very loudly with her grandmother on a cell phone, which amused her mother. Yes, my eyes were rolling people.  

Second, there was a lively group of tween girls who loved to sing like Britney Spears and made a sport of singing several verses of the song until their adoring mothers could guess the title.  Really? Then it happened.  A cranky infant showed up with his two young exhausted parents, who hand no clue of how to pacify the child to keep him quiet. Could these crazy people really be thinking of taking a cranky baby on a transatlantic flight to Brussels? As panic rose in my throat, I wondered if the parents understood what torture that would be for the child and the trapped passengers...well, mainly me but that beside the point.

As I was about to flee the gate area, the plane showed up...early!  Well, 25 minutes before it's anticipated delayed arrival.  I was thrilled to get this show on the road and I had a connecting flight in Brussels, Belgium that I didn't want to miss.  Boarding the flight was long, but I actually got a preferred seat (7A), because I like to sit close to the door and I must have a window seat.  Yes, I need to be at a vantage point where I can see the earth hurling towards me if the plane falls out of the sky. LOL.  And if by chance we land softly in the ocean, I want to be one of the first passengers out of the door.  Hey, it could happen!  Captain Scully landed his plane in the Hudson.

Any who, when I reached my seat, it was one of those window seats WITHOUT A WINDOW!!  I'm not kidding. SMH.  The guy next to me could see my disbelief and could only smile.  Thank God the plane wasn't full so once the boarding completed, I was able to move to 5A, which had a window and an empty seat next to it.  I was thrilled! Then I looked across the aisle and there was the cranky baby and his exhausted parents. OMG!

Believe it or not, that isn't the most worrisome thing that happened at that moment.  It was now after 8pm and we were all wondering why the plane hadn't closed the door.  The pilot came over the loud speaker to inform us that a couple decided not to go to Brussels. WTF!  Now I just want to fight because I couldn't even get off the plane to explore other options.  Since their bags were loaded on the plane, the bag handlers had to locate the bags and pull them off the flight.  REALLY?  

Now anybody who has flown into or out of Philly and particularly with USAirways, knows that the baggage crew was going to LOVE doing this.  While the rest of our bags were carelessly thrown around in a union-anger induced flurry, time just kept ticking away.  Needless to say, we were not airborne until 9:30pm. SMH.

So you know what happened, right?  When I arrived in Brussels some 7 hours later, I was met by the gate agent with a ticket rerouting me to London, some 5 hours later with a connecting flight to Nairobi, 5 hours after that!  I wanted to scream, but I was too tired. :-(. I don't know if I was just being a good travel citizen or if I was in a coma, but the rest of my trip was a blur.  I remember hanging out in Starbucks in Brussels with my feet up reading a book. I also remember yelling at a woman in London Heathrow for boldly trying to steal my seat.  

And lastly, I remember sitting at an oyster bar sipping champagne while staring at the Gucci store, which had a BEAUTIFUL bag I had never seen.  Now, I thought this part may have been a dream, but when I found the card of the Gucci store manager in my pocket when I got on the plane, I realized I had avoided a nightmare of a different kind.  That bag was fabulous!

I arrived in Nairobi the next morning at 8am severely sleep deprived and delirious.  I was met at the airport by Master Pu and his driver.  They took me to my hotel and I was instructed to go get some sleep... so we could have a dinner meeting. WTH!  So it begins.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the final installment of this week's, On Assignment In Nairobi where I will talk about my first full day in Nairobi.

Della Rochelle
Copyright (c) 2011 by Della R. Williams

The Journey Begins

Habari! 

If you were wondering, habari is something like 'what's up' in Swahili.  Welcome to the inaugural post of the On Assignment in Nairobi blog!  The purpose of this blog is to chronicle my adventures in Nairobi, Kenya, where I will be spending the next two years. You see, I've been given this amazing opportunity with IBM where I've agreed to take on a management position for a large client in Africa.  For those of you who are familiar with my previous tenure at IBM, my new boss, is my favorite old boss from my time at IBM.  I will call him Master Pu (inside joke) because I've been threatened about using his name on the blog, but most of you know who I'm talking about.  Knowing that he will be my boss, you all know I will work like a slave, but have a blast while doing it.  

Ever since I made the decision to take this adventure, everyone has been displaying genuine happiness for me while quietly wondering if I've lost my mind.  :-) Some of you weren't quiet about it at all.  I have to say that my old high school friend Diana (Dee) gets a lot of credit for me taking on this challenge.  You see, she just happened to call me (one of her meaningful drive-by checkins that have kept us close over the years) after Master Pu approached me about the opportunity in Africa the very first time.  I had already laughed hysterically thinking it was a joke and having no intention of entertaining it any further.  

Dee's reaction made me do a complete 180.  She was so amazed by the opportunity and immediately started checking Kenya out on the Net.  It made me remember that Kenya was on my 'bucket list' of places to visit one day (safaris, hiking Mt. Kilamingaro, etc...).  Her enthusiasm awakened the adventurous side of me again and I quickly sent Master Pu a text to tell him to keep me on the list of interested candidates.  With a couple of false starts, this was how it all got started. Thanks Dee for helping me remember the ambitious and adventurous professional I used to be before I got lulled to sleep.

Once the opportunity became real, I started to think about what I needed to do in order to prepare to live and work in Nairobi,Kenya  for two years.  There was a tug of war between my adventurous professional self, who could see the amazing career implications of such an assignment, and then there was the sista gurl from North Philly in me, who could only think of the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi in 1998 and who felt this wasn't a good time to travel outside of the U.S, let alone live outside of it.  I'm glad the more leveled head prevailed.

Since IBM was going to be taking care of all of the major concerns in Nairobi like my apartment and providing a car and driver, all I had to worry about was preparing myself to enter the country and deciding what to take with me.  The immunizations were my biggest concern.  I knew I would need a lot of them, because I would be traveling to other countries in Africa during my tenure.  I really didn't have a clue about how many shots I would need, but then I went to the CDC travel website. I've never been a person who was afraid of needles (I donate blood regularly), but even I was concerned about the number of shots and the possible side effects.  

Hepatitis A (2 shots 6 months apart)
Hepatitis B (3 shots a week or two apart)
Meningitis (1 shot)
Polio (1 shot)
Rabies (3 shots a week or two apart)
Diphtheria (1 of 3 shot combo)
Tetanus (2 of 3 shot combo)
Pertussis (Whooping Cough) (3 of 3 shot combo)
Typhoid (1 shot)
Yellow Fever (1shot)

A lot of these shots are given to school and college age children so the physical and financial pain wouldn't be as bad if they were traveling to these parts of the world.  The other interesting piece of news concerning this, is the fact that most insurance companies will not cover these shots.  I guess they figure, they didn't tell you to travel to exotic parts of the world where old diseases still exist.  The best part of the whole vaccination ordeal was meeting Dr. Jim from Penn Medicine.  I won't use his full name because I haven't asked him if he would  mind.  The consultation he gave me was so informative, down to earth and just plain common sense filled that afterwards I really felt prepared to go, although still nervous.  Nervous is good because it will keep me alert.  

He let me know that he had to tell me about the worse case scenarios (catching Dengue Fever for the second time) and things that are an absolute necessity (if you mistakingly use Kenyan tap water on your toothbrush, throw the whole thing out).  He was also a master at administering the shots.  I'm telling you  I didn't feel the shots, with the exception of Yellow Fever, because of his technique.  The reason Yellow Fever hurts is because it has to go between the muscle and the skin.   The good thing about all of this is that once I take my Hepatitis A shot in December, I will be able to go just about anywhere without worrying for a long time.

My first trip to Nairobi will be the week of 6/13/11. I'm scheduled to leave at 6pm Saturday, June 11th arriving in  Nairobi at 10:30pm Sunday, June 12th.  At least that was what was suppose to happen.  In part two of 'The Journey Begins.' I will bring you up to date on how my trip turned out.  Stay tuned tomorrow!

Della Rochelle

Coming Soon!!

Habari,

Welcome to ‘On Assignment in Nairobi!’  The purpose of this blog is to chronicle my adventures in Nairobi, Kenya where I’ll be spending the next two years.  Please join me on June 13, 2011 to witness what promises to be an entertaining, informative, yet hilarious account of my stay in Nairobi.  I’m thrilled about my new opportunity and I can’t wait to get started.  I will see you back here next week.

Della