What I know now about Kenya

Here are some things that I didn’t know about Kenya before we left.  Now I know that:

• There is hardly any city planning: When you get on a new highway (which are rare here), you find that there is little to no median.  This means that if they ever wanted to expand the road at all, they would have to knock down the buildings on the side.  Also, there is no shoulder to pull off into if there was a problem.

• Paving stones are cheaper than cement here: When a new apartment building pops up, they usually have a paving stone driveway.  Why?  Even though Kenya exports cement, it is easier and cheaper to simply lay down paving stone, and then if you need to make repairs, you just move the blocks out of the way and put them down again when you're done.

• Anybody can be an entrepreneur: You will find that if someone doesn't have an official job, but they’re still healthy, they will sell things (usually food) on the street. Common items include little packages of nuts, soft drinks, and fresh produce.

Here is one of many streetside stands.

• People are very friendly: People in Kenya smile easily, and they are naturally hospitable. For example, we went to a children’s home a couple of hours away, and the founder/mom to the kids invited us to stay at her house, even though we were pretty much complete strangers.

Here we are with the 'mom' in the children's home - you can
see that the children gave us necklaces and bracelets that they
 made themselves.

• English isn’t really the national language: I thought that English was what everybody spoke, but that is not true.  If a Kenyan walked up to somebody in the market and asked to buy something, they would speak in Swahili, and the person in the market would respond in Swahili as well.  They generally only speak English among Americans and Europeans, or in schools.

• It is colder here than I thought: I expected Kenya to be pretty warm.  After all, some of it is desert and it’s right on the equator.  However, since Nairobi is in the highlands, it is cooler, especially at night, when it is actually nice to have on a sweater outside.

• Motorcycles are everywhere: The road traffic is probably at least 10% motorcycles, and they are aggressive.  For example, in Nairobi they will drive into the opposing traffic, then duck back into their lane at the last moment.  Some cars will also pass recklessly.

This is the size of Kenya compared to eastern
United States - you can see why it's nice to
fly when you need to go far.

• Kenya is big: I thought Kenya was a smallish African country, but it would take a couple days to drive across it.  Not only is it big in area, but since the roads are in poor condition outside of the city, it takes longer to get anywhere.  You have to fly to get most anywhere fast.
  
  

• Most of public transportation is very informal: Matatues, or small buses, take the brunt of all public transportation in Kenya.  There are hundreds of matatu companies that will take you all over the country in these rickety vehicles.

• The Chinese are building here: I had heard that the Chinese were investing in African building projects, but I didn’t know they were doing it on such a massive scale.  They have helped fund the construction of a bullet train between Nairobi and Mombasa (a coastal city) and are thinking of continuing it to Uganda, with Chinese workers and money.  This may seem good, but guess who owns the track now?  You guessed it, the Chinese now have the liberty to do what they want to with it, at least for the present.

This monkey was right on our street -
that is a straw wrapper you see him chewing.

• Monkeys are everywhere: Even in the city, you will find monkeys.  It's kind of like seeing a squirrel or a rabbit in the United States.  The locals are used to them, and I'm sure they thought it was funny that we took so many pictures of something they see regularly.

~Kyle