I am well aware that the Nairobi I have
experienced so far is a far cry from the Nairobi experienced by all its
residents. To the south, for example,
lies Kibera – one of the world’s biggest slums, made famous by the movie The
Constant Gardener. And security is
definitely an issue – I was frisked and had my bag searched at the entrance to the
Yaya Shopping Centre this morning. But
there’s no question that the streets here are friendlier and more relaxed than
those of Jo’burg. For a start, they are
full of people. Unlike the fortresses of
Jo’burg’s northern suburbs, where the view consists of high walls and cars and
pedestrians are rare, here life is happening on the streets – people walking to
work, chatting to neighbours, selling fruit and plants and barbequed corn (and
greeting the mzungu!). And while the
high electric fences still exist, at least in my neck of the woods, they seem
somehow more of a relic than the embodiment of entrenched divides and paranoia.
My lodgings are in the Guesthouse of the
British Institute of East Africa (BIEA).
The Institute started in 1960, with a focus on Archaeology and History,
but now supports research in the broader humanities, including Law. It runs its own projects, as well as providing
a base for visiting researchers conducting research not only in Kenya but in
other East African countries as well.
Perhaps most fortuitously, the big old house within the BIEA compound is
run as a Guesthouse, providing cheap accommodation and fantastic wifi to people
like me!
The Guesthouse is really like a very large
sharehouse – from the shared living and kitchen areas, to the name tags on milk
cartons, to the big sign above the sink exhorting people to clean up after
themselves. My housemates are one
Kenyan, two Americans, a Canadian and a Brit.
Most of them are quite a bit younger than me, a not so subtle reminder
that is now some years since the height of my sharehousing days… But they are all lovely and welcoming, and a wonderful
source of information on how to navigate Nairobi.
As far as work goes, I have hit the ground
running in Nairobi. Day 1 – guest
lecture at the university. Day 2 – first
interview. The lecture went well, and
the students – all of them working full time in legal practice while they
undertake their Master – were a dynamic, engaged and inquiring group, just what
every teacher wants. In fact, I think
that listening to their questions and discussion was probably more useful to me
than my presentation on Research Methods was to them! For my research, I have already lined up
another five interviews – with UNHCR and a number of NGO representatives – for
the coming week. After these I will
decide whether to stay in Nairobi, try to visit one of the refugee camps, or
make a quick side trip to Tanzania or Uganda.
But for the rest of this week I plan to check out the CBD, visit the
Museum and hopefully pay a visit to one of the excellent conservation projects
on Nairobi’s outskirts. I just need to
decide whether it will be the Giraffe Centre, which was established by the
grandson of a Scottish earl in 1979 and has singlehandedly saved the Rothschild
giraffe from extinction, or the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, where David and
Daphne Sheldrick pioneered techniques for raising orphaned elephants and rhinos
and reintroducing them to the wild.
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| A room with a view. The monkeys think so too - this morning I woke to one peering at me from the rooftop. |
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| Walking to the local shops in Kileleshwa, 3 km from the CBD. It's like walking in the countryside! Except for where there are roadworks - then it's like walking in a dust storm. |
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| Roadside trading. Almost one in three roadside stalls in Nairobi seems to be selling plants, which would explain the beautiful greenery everywhere. |
Gosh you have an exciting interesting life Tamara! Keep the posts coming :)
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