Emily's Worldview

I have been in Kenya for 3 1/2 days now, and an hour ago was the first time I walked somewhere, anywhere, of my own power. I'm in Nairobi, a city with veins of wealth amid an ore of poverty, and it is along those veins that I have been traveling since I arrived. So it was a taxi from the airport to work at the head office, a ride home every day, and a ride to work in the morning. I had arranged to stay with the family of a Kenyan fellow-student and they were lovely and I enjoyed staying with them. But it was clear that worrying about getting me to and from work was very stressful for them, so I moved into an American fellow-student's nice apartment yesterday (being paid for by her summer position). Of course it's more comfortable, and the official white landrover rolls up in the morning to ferry us to work. The office is mostly Kenyan, but mostly headed by Americans, and all my work has been on the computer and on paper. The only thing that has been foreign to me so far is actually the experience of being in a formal office environment, something I had mostly managed to avoid till now.

I feel disoriented and nowhere in particular, like I never left the airport and am still in transit. Which I am, really. In a day or two, I will head to the smaller town in the West and there crime is not such an issue and I will be working independently on my own project, which looks to be very cool. I think after 8 weeks in small town Africa, I will be glad to come back to Nairobi. Right now, I can't wait to leave.