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
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