Nairobi

My time in Nairobi was actually fairly brief. I spent the first day sleeping off my 14 hour bus ride and watching BBC and ESPN on my host's television. I was staying with the friend of a friend who didn’t know me in the least and offered to let me stay with them on a day’s notice when I was never able to get in contact with my intended host. Of course, they were never home (this seems to be par for the course for the wealthy here – always at work) so I had a lot of alone time and a lot of good food from the maid who was a sweetheart. And they had a toaster. It’s amazing what gets you going after six weeks of Africanization, but I was happy as a lark for those days just to have toasted bread and literally considered staying another day just because of it. You’d have to leave all comfort food behind and live off of rice and potatoes for a good while to understand the concept of changing travel plans over a toaster, but I almost did it.

On the second day, a friend of the family came and took me out to buy my bus ticket to Maseno. For this we had to go into the heart of the city. I was a little thrown off when this lady walked past all of the parked cars and kept going down the street and I realized we’d be taking the bus.

I use the term bus very loosely. In Tanzania they are called dala dalas. They are mini vans on crack, which are used as their bus system. Somehow, about 16 actual seats are fitted into these extended cab mini vans. In Tanzania where the police do not enforce the capacity rules, there are usually over 20 people in these mini vans. When you see them going down the road, every sort of limb and big ladies’ behinds are sticking out the windows. You have to get on and off while they are still moving because they aren’t going to waste the time to come to a full stop, and there is a money taker who physically shoves people in on top of everyone else so he can get the sliding door at least mostly closed before they reach top speed. I never went anywhere near one in Tanzania.

Fortunately in Kenya they only allow as many people as they have seats for, so they are a bit safer. The lady who was taking me around was just wonderful. She would shove me in front of her whenever we were getting on one to make sure that I actually got on and didn’t get left in the dust. When we crossed the street SHE HELD MY HAND like I was five years old as we dodged lanes of traffic, alternately sprinting and stopping as need be. I have never been so grateful for such handholding, literally or figuratively, because without her I would have been lost.

Nairobi is a huge modern city with a big down town that is about as much use to tourists as Minneapolis. Everyone is wearing suits and nice shoes and in hurry to get to the office. We didn’t linger long because there wasn’t much of anything to do other than what we came for, and quickly turned around and caught our series of mini vans back to where I was staying. After seeing Nairobi, I’ve begun to realize how small and underdeveloped Dar is. Just as far as size and modern appeal, Dar is to Nairobi as Boise is to Chicago. I’m really glad I didn’t know I was in Boise for that week I was there because it would have made my waiting that much more frustrating.