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