My flight touched down at the convenient hour of 6:30 a.m., and given that it was also a Saturday, I did not have high hopes that anyone would meet me at the airport. After 45 minutes of visa and baggage, I walked out of the concourse with trepidation, to be greeted by a crowd of drivers waving signs. What a relief that my name was front and center! I never actually found a street address for KEFRI, only a P.O. Box number, so I was going to be in big trouble if I was forced to find my own way by cab. The driver’s name was Elijah, and he was very difficult to understand. As the car pulled onto the road, I noticed that two fences topped with razor wire flanked the west side of the highway, beyond which was flat savannah and acacia. The airport abuts Nairobi National Park and the fence is there to keep the animals from eating everyone. Though the park is literally 10 minutes from downtown, it is as a very successful rhino sanctuary.
In most of the developing countries I have been to, the first difference I always notice is that everyone is walking. Kenya is no exception. People walk right alongside the highway, in the medians, on the shoulders, and are sprinting across in between breaks in the traffic. Dirt trails crisscross every grassy space and closer to the city the byway is packed with homemade stalls, each with its own hand-painted sign. If the sign is written in English, then there is a good chance that it is misspelled.
You only thought we had problems with automobile emissions in the US! Nairobi is exceptionally hazy from all of the smog - I noticed it hovering over the city from the plane. Watching cars drive down the road is kind of like watching the movie Tron. People are constantly cutting each other off, and every vehicle trails a black streak instead of a blue one. I kept waiting for someone to hit a streak and explode, but they just got carbon monoxide poisoning instead. FLYNN!!
I would guess that I saw ten cars built post-1995, and the best vehicles of all were a sort of massive flat-bed/dump-truck. They barrel down the road spewing clouds of exhaust and force other drivers out of the way, all the while the bed is filled with 30 or 40 people standing up waving and smiling to all the people walking on the roadside!
We finally emerged onto the north side of the city, and started climbing into the hill country. Nairobi is located in a region cleverly named the “White Highlands” because of the number of British colonizers who lived in the area. The landscape is reminiscent of England; everything is cool and green, and very fresh after Smokestack-Nairobi. The vegetation is varying and there are flowers everywhere. Lantana is growing in thickets on the roadside. Pine, fir, and cedar are abundant on the hillsides, as well as white-trunked eucalyptus. Many of the slopes have been cleared for agriculture and are dotted with brightly painted homes surrounded by neat rows of maize, interspersed with tea trees.
I arrived at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) at 8:30 a.m., groggy, unshowered and 3 sleeping pills deep. The facility consists of six tile-roofed cottages, each with its own bathroom and mosquito net equipped bed. KARI is located around a mile and a half away from the nearest town of Muguga. After waking up the other student who had already arrived, we got some breakfast, and started making plans to get to town for supplies for the rest of the weekend. Water quality is questionable in Kenya, so the main item on the list was bottled water.
We felt like a hike was in order – she had not been to town yet and I had been sitting in planes for two days, so the idea made sense. Oh, the best laid plans! What should have been an hour-long walk took four! We immediately made the wrong turn out of the gate and walked about a mile in the wrong direction. After many, many pictures, we realized our mistake and headed back. Reaching KARI again, we finally started recognizing some landmarks and got on the right track. It’s very strange to walk around out here since we are the only white people for miles. Most of the small children have never even seen a white person, so as you walk, you hear all the little kids yelling, ‘Wazungu! Wazungu!,’ which means ‘white person’. Even adults stare, though everyone smiles if you speak. Suffice to say, I’m feeling a little out of place. After sweating up and down a series of hills, we finally made it to town, which meant more staring and waving. We bought water, fruit, peanut butter and jelly for about 7 dollars, stuffed it in my pack, and started walking back. All along the way motorcycles carrying passengers were passing us, and honking enthusiastically. Come to find out, these are the local taxis, and it costs about 35 cents to hitch a ride to town. Live and learn.
I got back to the room and fell face-first into bed, where I was rudely awoken by a monster skink rummaging around under my pack. After shaking him out of the blinds, I finally cornered him in the shower and caught him under a shirt. I had no sooner thrown it into the yard and gotten back into bed than I heard a scrabbling sound at the door, and another one was slipping under the frame! I threw my sleeping bag at it to change its mind and stuffed a towel under the door. My room now appears to be ‘lizard-proof’ but I would hate to speak too soon.
The best part so far is that there are HUNDREDS of bird species here in Kenya, four hundred alone here around Nairobi! I’ve already seen numerous hawks, two types of ibis, shrikes, wagtails, weaverbirds, bee-eaters, some old world finches and warblers, and tons of others that I can’t identify. I can’t describe waking up this morning as anything other than a cacophony of bird songs. I am really regretting studying for exams instead of buying a bird-book, so I am hopeful that I will be able to pick one up in Nairobi soon.
Off to bed to get rid of this jetlag. Best!
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