I departed San Francisco at 8:30AM on August 11, 2010 for a 9.5 week assignment at the CDC Nairobi office. I had a really long day ahead of me. I had 2 hour layovers in both Portland and Amsterdam. I'm glad they were only 2 hour layovers because my trip could have been a whole lot longer. My "plan" to help me adjust to the 10 hour time difference between California and Kenya was to: 1) stay awake from San Francisco to Portland; 2) sleep from Portland to Amsterdam; and 3) stay awake from Amsterdam to Nairobi. I succeeded at step 1. I was only able to doze for a couple of hours on the 10 hour flight from Portland to Amsterdam. My body didn't care that we were scheduled to arrive in Amsterdam at 8:30AM. As far as it was concerned, it was the afternoon. The flight was nice though. My previous experience on an international Delta flight had not been so great, but this one was much improved. It was actually the nicer of the two international legs (the second one was operated by KLM). I'm saying this even though I didn't have a seat on the plane until just before boarding and ended up in a middle seat. My neighbors were really nice. On one side, there was a Columbian man (who now lives in Portland) on his way to visit his brother in Madrid. On my other side was an older Danish couple on their way home.
We arrived in Amsterdam on time and I made the trek to the next terminal over for my Nairobi flight. The Amsterdam airport is massive, so while it was only one terminal over, it took quite a long time. I was glad for the walk though. After 10 hours on the plane, I needed to stretch my legs. It was good that my layover in Amsterdam was two hours because it took me that whole time to get where I needed to be. Not just because of the walk from terminal to terminal, but also because there was additional security to get on the Nairobi flight and the line was looong. I brushed my teeth and refilled my water bottles before getting in it and the wait began. All in all, it didn't take nearly as long to get through the line as I thought it would, but I realized once I got to the front of it that the liquid rules from the States were present here too. I really had thought it was just a US thing. I don't remember it being an issue on my flight from Delhi to Kathmandu, but it was what it was so I removed myself from the line and returned to the bathroom to empty them in the sink. I rejoined the line and made it through the security check point without incident. The only other funny thing that happened was that I didn't have a boarding pass for the flight yet and had been told that I could get it after I got through security, but the last step after security was to get your boarding pass scanned. Luckily, they let me through to the desk as long I promised to come back once I did have a boarding pass. By the time I was all situated, they were boarding the flight. The plane was a 747 - my first. They are really quite massive. There were even two separate gangways depending on weather you were sitting in the front or the back of the plane. I would really like to see what the upstairs looks like, but I'm going to have to wait until I am not traveling on a government issued ticket for that one. I was lucky enough to get an aisle seat on this flight. Although according to my "Preparing for Work Overseas" training course, aisle seats are considered taboo since people on the aisles are the first to get nabbed by terrorists. Fortunately, my flight was terrorist free. I proceeded to sleep most of the flight. I tried my best to stay awake, including two attempts at watching Ironman 2, but I failed miserably. We landed in Nairobi at 7:30PM after my in flight slumber.
Immigration in Nairobi only has 8 lines, 2 for airline workers (seems slightly excessive), 1 for Kenyans, 1 for other East African countries, 1 for COMESA countries (Countries of Middle, East, and South Africa maybe?), one for people from other countries who already have Kenyan visas, and 2 for people who need visas. The vast majority of the people on my flight fell into the last three lines. I already had a visa and was excited about the prospect of getting through immigration a bit faster. The lines for the visa lines were really long. Unfortunately, while I felt that the lines were fairly clearly marked, this was apparently not the case for everyone. A large group of Americans (a missionary group I think since they were talking about singing hymns with the hope of calming down all of the other people in my line they managed to eventually irritate) had situated themselves in my line even though they didn't have visas. They lived up to every stereotype that people have of Americans. They reached the front of the line without visas and without having even filled out the paperwork to obtain a visa. For me, at this point, I would have removed myself from the line, it was the incorrect one after all, gone back to the table with the visas forms, grabbed one, and gotten in the correct line. Alas, this is not what happened. The group sent a representative to obtain forms for everyone, proceeded to hold up the entire line while they filled them out, and then had the line conform to their visa needs. I felt was embarrassed to be holding a US passport amidst all of the grumbling of the Europeans and Australians around me, so I kept it hidden. It took an hour to get through immigration and the visa lines were nearly empty by the time I got through. It really is no wonder Americans have such a bad reputation overseas. It really doesn't take that much time and effort to be considerate of others, but enough ranting on this subject...
Once I got to baggage claim, I grabbed a trolley and was pleased to see that both of my bags had made the appropriate transfers and were in Kenya with me. I walked through customs and quickly located my driver. I finally arrived at my apartment around 9:30PM. I was pleasantly surprised to find a few groceries already stocked in the apartment - milk, bread, cereal, tea, and instant coffee. I brought some Clif bars and Lara bars with me, but it was still really nice to know that breakfast the next morning was taken care of. I was also surprised to find that I had a two bedroom apartment, so I guess I have room for guests should anyone want to visit me. I set to unpacking and got quite a bit done. Around 11 I decided I should go to bed (with a bit of assistance from a sleeping pill given my failed plane sleeping plans).
My apartment at YaYa Towers
The living room
The kitchen and dining area
My bedroom
Guest bedroom
The swimming pool - it is a bit chilly, but not cold. I'm still working up my courage to brave the chill and get in it for a few laps.
I awoke before my alarm (7AM) but not too much and got ready for my first day at work here in Kenya. The car was scheduled to pick me up at 8AM. Things were pretty low key at work. I think I got more reading for projects I am working on in California than anything else. I did get assigned a cell phone and began the process of gaining access to the network. This required taking the CDC IT security training. I'd like to say it is different than the training that I just took in the States about a month ago, but it's not. I'm not quite sure why I had to take it again, but whatever, it gave me something to do. I ended up leaving around 1PM since there wasn't much more for me to do. This was great because I still had some unpacking to do and I needed to go to the grocery store and go to the bank (I guess go to the bank and then get some groceries would be the more accurate order).
I am fortunate because my apartment is right next door to a large shopping center. Pretty much everything I could need is within walking distance, which will save me a ton of money on cab fare. I wandered around checking the place out before getting down to business. Really, I was looking for the Standard Charter ATM. The directory said it was on the third floor and the stairs are set up so that you have to walk by all of the shops to get to the next set of steps. I did not find the Standard Charter on the third floor (hadn't seen it on the first or second floors either) and decided to give the fourth floor a go. It wasn't there either, so I headed back to the ground floor to check the directory again. I ran right into it when I got back to the ground floor. At least I had gotten the lay of the land. With cash in hand, I started checking out the grocery options. There is a produce market, a butcher, and more traditional grocery store that has pretty much everything except produce and meat. It's got a smattering of those items, but they don't look so great compared to what you can get at the other places. There is also an organic market on the first floor, but it's a bit odd. It does have some bulk food items like rice, oats, and granola that I might check out in the future, but it sells more candles, lotions, and vitamins than actual food. I decided to start at the main grocery store to get the basics and start thinking about what I wanted to cook my first weekend. The grocery store is clearly targeting ex-pats as it had a large selection of American and British products, as well as an Indian section and an Asian section. I mainly got staples like salt, pepper, olive oil, water, rice, PB&J, butter, cheese, and eggs, but the Thai sauces caught my eye. I grabbed a Thai basil, garlic, chili sauce as the jumping off point for my weekend meal. I also bought Kenyan coffee, and because my apartment sadly did not come with a coffee pot, a stove top percolator. At this point, I had about all that I was going to be able to carry back with me, so I headed home. I figured I could come back on Saturday to gather the rest of the ingredients for my Thai dinner. For Friday night, I had grilled cheese, but not until after I succumbed to a nap. After dinner, I was able to finish packing. I took another sleeping pill to make sure I slept through the night and fell asleep.
I awoke before 7 Saturday morning and decided that was a good opportunity to check out the gym. I got in a good workout and headed back upstairs for a shower and breakfast. Sadly, before I could make breakfast, I needed to run back to the store to get sugar since I had forgotten to buy that on Friday. I opted for brown sugar since it will work in oatmeal too. I also did my other shopping for dinner that night. I got fruit and veggies from the produce market and chicken from the butcher. I bought a black and a yellow passion fruit to try. I also stopped at the bakery for a treat for dessert.
After returning home, I made eggs, toast, and coffee. The eggs were amazing! They definitely came from happy chickens. The coffee was really good too. The brown sugar I got turned out to be really dark brown sugar. I could really taste the molasses in it. If I run out while I am here, I will probably get a lighter option the next time, but this will do for now. I spent the rest of the afternoon reading by the pool before heading in to cook dinner.
The finished product and my first real dinner since I arrived.
Dessert
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