Karen Blixen Museum and House for Lunch and Advanced transport in Nairobi
Culinary Explorations – if you look at what I've eaten it's hard to tell I'm in Nairobi!
I've eaten a lot of types of food in the last couple of weeks. We tried the restaurant at the Karen Blixen House where I had some fish that tasted really fishy that I didn't like. I tried to overpower it with balsamic vinegar to hide the taste but I was unsuccessful, the rains were extreme that day and I was worried we were in for it from that point onwards. I had my first official Nyama Choma (basically, Kenyan BBQ) at Citrus Inn. It's another one of these places where the butchers are at the front and there's a common kitchen that cooks the meat you buy. It wasn't one of our typical nice style restaurants so being there was a bit of a shock – flies biting at your feet, cats roaming around, people selling you stuff, meat took forever. The best part of the night is when I ordered a cider and got High-C with bubbles and 8% alcohol – it was the grossest thing I've had – I abandoned it and got a beer instead. It was that bad. The next night we had Ethiopian at a place in Westlands and the food was outstanding! Was so nice to have injera again – I miss that stuff. Thursday night was Japanese – we waited what felt like a decade to get our raw fish. Really enjoyed being reunited with sushi. Yum. On the 31st of March we went to Le Rustique which is only open for dinner on Wednesday nights. It felt so good to be back in a proper restaurant. Don't get me wrong it's not Michelin starred but there are paintings on the walls, proper courses and fantastic dessert not to mention French wines – bliss! April 1st was Indian at Open House – the owner always orders for me to make sure my dish is dairy free and gets me some roti. It's so good there I love it.
Steve's Visit
Last weekend Steve visited from London. They days running up to his arrival felt looooooong and I couldn't wait until he was here! We stayed at the Palacina on Friday thanks to Lauren's recommendation. The hotel was great, staff was really friendly and they had excellent food (we had mixed Nyama Choma – delicious! A jazz band played whilst we ate which was nice entertainment. On Saturday we set off for Lake Bogoria to see Flamingos! We saw loads of The Greater and The Lesser Flamingos. Steve was taking lots of pictures and at one point, when I'd had enough of taking pictures, I decided to run along the edge of the lake to chase the Flamingos so we could see them in flight. The sight was spectacular – flamingos were everywhere. They're quite shy, I was surprised, and they don't let you get close to them at all. They fly off at first sight of you, this made the photography tricky but Steve's 400mm lens captured lots of good snaps. Lake Bogoria also has hot springs, when I say hot I don't mean bring your bathingsuit and jump in, the water was actually boiling hot! I put a few fingers in to test it and ouch!! no kidding. It's hot!!
Sunday we visitied Nairobi, my offices, a Masai Market, a walk around town followed by a tour of the hotels – buffet brunch and a Margarita at the Intercontinental. We continued the hotel theme in preparation for my parent's visit – we checked out the Serena and the Norfolk. We also walked through Uhuru park – the only park I've ever been to with barbed wire along the sides of the pavement. Despite the barbed wire people were still climbing under it to get onto the grass. Hilarious. On Monday it was time for Steve to leave and off to the airport he went! What a great 3 days though, we packed so much in!!
ding ding - we crossed the border!
our transport mobile - the latest model mercedes benz - no expense spared!
The reality of living in Nairobbery sets in
We had a few incidents all in the same week which has caused a lot of worry which lingers to date. One of the ADP guys got robbed in his apartment (not where I'm staying) by 4 guys with machetes. He was in the flat at the time, they demanded all his money and threatened to kill him. Thankfully he gave them everything he had (they even took clothing) but they didn't hurt him. He left on Sunday and will not be returning. His manager was left to deal with it all on her own and now that he's gone she is super freaked.
There's been protests going on in our area (which is like the Kensington of Nairobi but looks more like Aldgate East) over some Kenyan students who disappeared. Apparently this happens frequently when students don't agree or are vocal about sensitive subjects such as politics. The protesters burned a couple cars and it took over 1 hour to get home. The British and American foreign offices warn significantly against protests in Kenya as they always get violent. We have proof in our own neighbourhood!
We've all been pretty frustrated by the general lack of response from the ADP team in regards to incidents – something finally came out this week but I can't believe how long it took. A part of Accenture that is responsible for security of assets (yes I'm an asset!) is going to come to Nairobi to inspect the safety of our accommodation – this is good. Thank gosh for our SM Emma – she's been so helpful in making sure everyone feels safe and trying to do anything she can to improve how we feel about being here.
Working in Kenya
Posters up all over the city talking about what we're here to do
Last week we went on a really good training course in a nice hotel in Nairobi that taught us about the timeline of development – we placed world events on a timeline and overlaid development organisations on top (e.g. World War II ended in 1945 and at the Breton Woods Conference the World Bank and the IMF were created). It was great to show it all in one place and talk about it as it happened instead of fragmented pieces of history like we learned in school a long time ago. We also played a game which demonstrated the power plays of international trade. It was great for my team as we were the developed nation with access to capital, lots of tools to convert raw materials into finished goods and good relationships with the banks. It was the life. My favourite part was when I asked the banker (Andrew, our trainer for the 2 day course) if I could get interest on the money I was depositing in his bank. I cracked up when I found out that no one had ever negotiated an interest rate for their deposits before. We had a celebrity sighting - Clare Short, UK Foreign Secretary during Blair's 2nd administration was at a conference at our hotel – it was cool to see her entourage.
In week 4 I finally had a meeting with my client for the 1st time on Thursday. It's definitely all about patience. The meeting was originally planned to take place last week, which was delayed to Monday, then to Wednesday, then to Thursday –not to mention the change from 10 am to then 11 am and now to 12. Anyway not to worry, here it's all about being flexible. I've learned a lot! The client loves to multi task and I had to hold off on talking when she was busy doing something else so I had her attention. I believe the meeting went well as we agreed on the approach – yay! Now it's time to start delivering! Funny though, I'm not sure our client knows the sacrifice we've made to be here as she isn't particularly nice to us.
Friday amply made up for any hardship – Liz and I spent the day at Sankara's rooftop pool catching up on work reading. Lunchbreak was my favourite – turkey club on sweet potato bread with a massive frozen margarita. I got such a good tan that day. Bliss.
Nairobi Nightlife
Friday night was epic – we started at Cactus partaking in a local pastime of chewing a type of cactus including the tops and the outside red bark.. it was interesting. At 1:30am we set off for Click – a night club which some of the guys know well and go to. It was awesome, we were the only Muzungos there. 1 night of dancing made up for 5 years of living in London without Hip Hop. There was a good mix of Kenyan music and international hip-hop and other tunes that we recognized. Really really good - we left at 5am. I woke up with a headache from hell and have spent the entire day in bed. Bliss.
TIA – This is Africa and how it is for me
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