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
No comments:
Post a Comment