Kickin' it up in Kenya: Posting 3: Adjusting to a new way of life

12/16/14

We now have a daily routine. Walking to and from the office each day, sharing an office (literally) and exploring Nairobi on the weekends.

We've learned that Nairobi is a city of great contrasts. We found the central business district somewhat seedy, as is common in a developing country. Cell phone stores are ubiquitous. Just three miles out of town is the beginning of a national reserve, where lions, zebras, etc. roam free. As we drove near the reserve, several baboons crossed the road in front of our car. We visited the Elephant Orphanage, home to baby elephants less than three years old who were rescued because they were injured or their mothers had died due to poaching or natural causes. And, yes, you can adopt a baby elephant—you just can’t and wouldn’t want to take it home. When these baby elephants become three years old, they are taken out to one of the national park reserves, so that they can be integrated with and adopted by elephant families. The process takes another 5-7 years for elephant families to accept the orphans. We visited the nearby Giraffe Park, where these huge, incredible and beautiful animals ate out of our hands. We lunched in Karen, a suburban part of Nairobi. The homes were gorgeous—we could have been in Great Falls or Potomac—except each home was surrounded by high walls and overseen by 24 hour security guards. Adjacent to a nice neighborhood, closer to town, is the worst slum area in Nairobi. The disparity in wealth is great.

Last week, Don drove about 2.5 hours out of Nairobi to the central part of Kenya to observe a development project. The countryside is beautiful, with abundant rice fields, banana trees, corn fields and so forth. The resources in Kenya are amazing. But the workforce in the rice fields earned about $2-3/day. In the small towns that he passed, there were numerous kiosks selling a variety of different items. If each kiosk owner makes $2-3/day, they are doing well. In Nairobi, a woman doing housekeeping earns about $6/day. While there is a growing middle class in Kenya, the majority make due at a subsistence level.

I spent my week traveling through Uganda. I have never seen such poverty. Things we take for granted—running water, bathrooms, refrigeration, kitchen facilities, paved roads (or cars)--don’t exist for many of those people. Their clothing ranged from none, for the very small children, to blankets draped around farmers or herders, to clothes that could have been donated by you or me. Regardless, each greeted us with a handshake and a smile; except for the small children, who sometimes cried because they had never before seen a white person. The capital, Kampala, was the opposite; it was dominated by severely heavy traffic, thick morning smog and row-after-row of shanty-businesses. An interesting experience, but I was happy to return to Kenya.

The Kenyan newspapers have robust political discussions. The current debate involves the security laws being considered by Parliament with would give the President expanded powers to deal with the terrorist threats. The new proposals would permit wire-tapping of telephones and would prohibit journalists from printing information that would undermine national security. The issues being debated, such as limitations to privacy and freedom of the press, to address security risks are not that much different than some of the debates going on in the U.S. Every day the newspapers carry articles about corruption. It is clearly endemic to the society; but little is done to change the situation. Yesterday the newspapers carried an article about girls who were circumcised. It is outlawed in Kenya, but continues in many areas. The parents were quoted as saying that the government should not interfere.