Nairobi!

I thought I write a bit about my impressions of Nairobi...

Nairobi is the capital of Kenya, housing roughly 3 million of the country's 38 million people. It is the vibrant epicenter of East Africa trade, business and travel. You can find pretty much every amenity as in every large American city - but it has a drastically different soul.

The traffic and way people drive is the most shocking thing about the city's infrastructure to me so far - traffic accidents are the third leading cause of death in Nairobi, behind HIV/AIDS and TB, and violence. There are few rules on the road, if any at all. I have driven in Boston and I have driven in Chicago - but I would not have the courage or skill to dive in NAirobi. The roads are dominated by the 'matatus' - which are vans and buses that serve as the only other public mode of transportation other than taxis. They are privately run, and compete loudly and aggressively for business... maybe that's why they drive like they only have today to live.

Here, there are many people 'hustling' and 'hawking', particularly in the markets and the city. In an environment with 70% unemployment for people under 30 (including university graduates), people 'hustle', which means they work odd jobs and do anything they can to to do anything they can to make a living. 'Hawking' is a technically a form of hustling, and refers to the sales method employed by the street vendors - the only other thing I have seen that comes close is a crack head in Chicago hounding you for money... they will follow you, confront you and are more persistent than sea gulls fighting for food - especially with the 'Mzungu's' (the local term for a white person - believe me if you are white and you come here, you will be very familiar with this term). So, I would say the 'buzz' of the city is created by the masses fighting through traffic, hustling and hawking.

To the south of the city is a national park that is good for safaring - so the city is really only confined on one side. The other thing limiting growth is infrastructure - the population is growing much faster than the streets, sewars, electric lines, trash dumps etc. can accomodate. On Sundays, many of the police are on leave so people are almost allowed to break rules they cannot during the week without a fine - like burning trash and tires. Even though you can feel it in your lungs as you drive around, I think it's almost better because there doesn't seem to be anyother solutions for the waste produced in the city. a quote from a book I am reading at the moment, "It's Our Turn To Eat" (if you want to understand current politics in Kenya, this book is amazing, recommended to me by my Executive Director and worth the read!)-

"The shocking rot of Nairobi's main market was exposed yesterday when it was revealed that 6,000 rats were killed in last week's cleanup exercise - and an equal number made good their escape. Wakiluma Market, through which a majority of Nairobi's 3 million residents get their food, had not been cleaned for 30 years. So filthy was it that traders who have been at the market daily for decades were shocked to see that below the muck they were wading through there was tarmac. More than 750 tonnes of garbage was removed and more than 70 tonnes of fecal waste sucked out of the horror toilets."

The Central Business District is bordered by incredibly ritzy suburbs and shockingly large and poor slums (see Kibera, the second largest urban slum in Africa) in between the national park and the central business district) - the diversity and disparity is larger than I've seen... Hopefully I will see a little more outside of Nairobi as I am going on Safari on Sat! I'll have another post sometime after that, hopefully with pictures...