I came to a sudden and slightly embarrassing realization yesterday. This is the longest time I have ever been away from home and I have only been here barely two weeks out of a six month trip. I was sitting in my neighbors backyard after meeting in the in-laws and listening to him describe the honeymoon period many of the expats he places experience when they first come to Kenya when it hit me. So far everything has been going well. I have been taking everything in and enjoying all the differences from home. Like the traffic, walking around everywhere, the sun (which seems brighter here even though it is hot). While at the same time putting all the things I have been struggling with in perspective, like starting to fall asleep as I write this, people staring, the bugs and the food. But seriously I feel like everyone is staring at me all the time. I have never felt so self conscious and I am always self conscious. I do think that to a certain extent I have been exaggerating how much I am enjoying my stay even to myself. I guess you just have to fake it till you make it or maybe I am just really tired and spouting out nonsense.
This past weekend I was able to finally go into town (central Nairobi). One of my co-workers took me on a matatu ( I keep on wanting to call them a Mugatu like in Zoolander) which is basically a bus. They have kinda a bad reputation because they drive so crazy. So now I am going to be able to go into to town all by myself which is exciting. I barely know how to get around Hayward and I have lived there for a year but I am determined to learn my way around Nairobi. So once in town we walked around the University of Nairobi campus, very huge especially compared to Chabot. We went to an outdoor market where they were selling all kinds of exotic fruit. When we were there I was almost ran over by a car. There was a huge SUV that went down the little road the market was on and the tires were literally two inches from my feet the side mirror almost hit me I had to lean extra far back to avoid it! We also got ice cream, walked in Uhuru park, walked past Parliament and all these other sites downtown that shall remain nameless because I cant remember what they were called. All in all it was pretty fun now I just have to actually do it by myself. I hope I don't get lost. It wont be the getting there that is hard, it will be the getting back that is difficult. You know getting off the bus at the right stop.
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Hi Shannon! Finally figured out how to post a comment!
ReplyDeleteIt's like we were talking about before you left -- travel sometimes feels more like work than like pleasure. You'll probably have just as many downs as you will have ups. I think that's, in part, what you can work through in your blog, just letting yourself process what you're feeling about what you're experiencing (the good and the bad and the contradictory).