Kenya: Week 1 Wrap

Well, 5/23 days of working on the farm are done. I get weekends off and decided to spend my first weekend in Nairobi, hoping I might make friends to do things with for the next few weekends. [When I started writing this, it was 9:20 pm Friday. I finished writing this 1pm Saturday] I’m sitting in a really trendy, vibey restaurant right next to my hostel. The last couple of hostel experiences I had were really disappointing and less social than what I’m used to, but the place I’m staying here doesn’t disappoint. There’s something about having random conversations with strangers from around the world who also love traveling that just hits my soul and brain differently. But let’s rewind to this morning. I woke up in my hut, went to use the bathroom and wash my face, ate porridge and the bread that a woman and I baked the night before, played with the kiddies, went to the farm to do a couple hours of work then did some computer work before eating lunch. Today was mazingira day, Kenya’s version of Earth Day. Everyone is encouraged to plant a tree or do something good for the Earth, so of course being a permaculture farm, we used the resources at hand to nourish the fruit trees and soil.

Btw if you aren’t familiar, permaculture is a set of agricultural practices that help the land to sustain itself and produce food abundantly. There are a lot of relationships in nature that don’t require nearly as much intervention as modern agricultural practices would have us believe.

So today we dug trenches around the banana trees, made a slurry of manure and water then poured it into the trenches. We were then meant to cover the soaked soil with dried brown matter (dead leaves) from the banana trees, but we couldn’t find a machete to use and I ended up heading back to the workshop to get some things done on the computer. After lunch, I had the motorbike called and went into Naivasha town. The volunteer coordinator hooked me up with details on where exactly to go and it was easy to get a shuttle CHEAP, only 350 Kenyan shillings,  $2.72 to take me straight to Nairobi with about 10 other passengers. There was no AC in the shuttle but thankfully I was sitting right by the window and got a nice breeze. I know these are my people though because the lady sitting next to me was cold and asked me to close the window once the temperature dropped below about 75F in the van LOL. The weather is colder east of Nairobi, it’s been about 70 degrees where it feels hot in the sun, but cold when there’s cloud cover (in my opinion, which I know differs from most other people). Even still, I saw so many people wearing coats and winter hats and in my mind I’m just thinking, “MY PEOPPPLEEE”. So that was cool lol. The ride was very calm, quiet, and I fell asleep. 

When I woke up, we were entering the chaos of Nairobi’s Central Business District where the shuttle dropped off passengers. Being dropped there is like being dropped in Times Square in NYC. It’s loud, chaotic with matatus (local buses decorated with graffiti), motorbikes, and people everywhere. I attempted to call an Uber and Uber boda (motorbike) but every time a driver was assigned to me, they asked me to cancel the ride bc that area is so bad LOL.

I walked around a little, but didn’t want to go far since I had my heavy bag. I was going to try to catch a bus, but I saw some taxis and was like whatever I’ll just pay the premium. The taxi (a 30 min drive) cost 1500 shillings ($11.65), which I know was overpriced, but if you know me, you know my bladder was talking to me by then so I just wanted to get to the hostel. I did a bad job of negotiating and I ended up paying his original price in the end anyway because I know that money can make a big difference to him, where to me,  2 or 3 dollars isn’t a big deal. In the future though, I will use a method one of my Nigerian hostel-mates taught me just to see how well I can haggle.

Thankfully, leaving the CBD meant the road got a little calmer, but not by much lol. It seems that everywhere you go in Nairobi, you’re going to see a lot of people. The ride was calm and when the driver asked where I was from, I told him Nigeria just to see what would happen and somehow he believed me despite my very American accent. When he started asking questions about Nigeria I changed the subject 😂

Arriving to the hostel and walking through the gate was like entering an oasis. It was quiet with a lovely lawn with a volleyball net and some guys were playing ping pong. I got checked in, put my stuff down, relieved myself (plumbing is such a blessing!) and went to socialize. People who stay in hostels are, in my opinion, usually the coolest, easiest-to-talk-to people in the world. Just instant connection. I sat and talked with a man from Nigeria for a while. I asked him about where to get bottled water and he walked with me over to a market close by. When we got back to the hostel, others started coming in and joined us on the patio to hang out. It was all dudes, the one woman I saw in the hostel was inside relaxing on her own. We sat and talked for over an hour. I was able to guess the nationalities of the Yemeni and Sudanese men pretty quickly and everyone was impressed and I felt like a woman of the world 😂

I was getting hungry, so I headed next door to a bougie looking restaurant where I was so excited to eat meat and spices. All week, the only meat I’ve had is omena, a small fish. The vibes in the restaurant were so nice and it was a very international crowd and I must say the people in this city are very attractive, like 👍🏾. I had a cocktail that was a spin on a French 75 (it was ok), a chicken skewer plate, and of course chocolate cake with pistachio filling. That cake was SO GOOD. The meal cost $23 which I know is expensive by Kenyan standards, but a meal like that in Seattle would cost $70 minimum, so I was happy to pay it. As I was drinking my cocktail, I was like oh snap this is hitting me quick. I looked up the elevation, bc I knew Nairobi was a high elevation city but I learned then that this city is over a mile above sea level. Lower oxygen and air pressure makes alcohol hit you harder.

When I finished dinner, I went back to the hostel and the group on the patio was still there so I rejoined them. We sat up, talked, played games, and shared stories for hours. This one guy told an insane story that sounded like an absolute myth, but it seems to be true because the hostel owner was involved in the rescue of this French guy that got stranded in a wilderness park (yes, with lions, elephants, hyenas, etc) and had to walk 11 hours to find a lodge and take 3 choppers to go find the rental car he drove into a stream 😂. Honestly, I wasn’t fully convinced the story was true until he showed us a picture of the guy and that dude looked wild, so I was like yeah ok that really did happen.

It was a really fun night and I had a great time laughing and talking with everyone. Today, I walked to Lavington Mall, a nice walk from the hostel, and just had a delicious omelette breakfast. Now it’s time for me to find an atm so I can top up my mpesa, a digital payment system that’s used in Kenya. Then, I’ll go to the National Museum of Kenya to be a tourist.

As one of the women on the farm likes to say, “I’ll see you when you see me!”