mid-week update

it's thursday, which is certainly the new friday. work is going a-okay, just one week and a bit left, so i am hurrying to finish the projects i should have been diligently working on for the last 3 months. lots of refugee movement data. for example! in FY 2009 Congress proposed admitting 12,000 refugees, but only 9,670 actually got admitted. that trend is consistent across the ages. we still don't have water in our kitchen, which has become a pitiful excuse to eat out. this week, so far i have had pizza, ethiopian, raviolli and tonight we will dig up indian food and dance (and dance) 'cause it's steph's last day, which is sad.

all else is well, life here is wrapping up swimmingly. i have become increasingly aware that the (ex-pat) people i genuinely enjoy here are simply those that do not believe they are rescuing the human condition by living in kenya. that's the one soap-box-worthy idea i can't stop trying to put words to. it's just a place to live. another city with some struggles and beauty all thrown together. and not even in an attempt to sound humble--it requires no actual sacrifice to live in nairobi, not in the luxurious bubble i have had the priviledge of floating in for the last 3 months, anyway. i just miss my bicycle. and all of you. and maybe the sunday morning farmer's market (which is odd, 'cause this whole city is a farmer's market, just no crab cakes).

one look at you and heaven's on fire.

otherwise i have been reading some good things:
1. mother jones on tumblr
2. bbc's adam curtis on humanitarian intervention (watch the videos)
3. long new yorker article on a political crime in guatemala
4. a photo essay of those refugees affected by Arab spring
5. and a university of nairobi student just dissapeared this past week, so other students rioted (and ultimately caused a lot of traffic in nairobi)
6. this nytimes (!) article about the energy of ubranization: "....and what you find is that we have created a lifestyle where we need more watts than a blue whale..."
7. on april fool's day, i was told the lead kenyan newspaper publishes fake headlines. good one. this is one of them, about kenya's new nuclear power project.

love this song

this weekend jonathan and i are attempting the overnight train down to the kenyan coast, armed with only a lonely planet and a sense of adventure. sun! and fun!

i think i'm a little bit in love with you

....but only if you're a little bit, little bit, little bit in lalalala love with me [ll]

As is always the way, right as you're about to leave a place you find a new, deep affection for it. i have come to adore nairobi. i like meeting strangers and sharing a drink or a mildly ridiculous experience and not knowing any baggage or their personal history. i make my own judgment of character and the brief relationship only continues if it's fun. it's all supposed to be fun. and bars don't close. ever. you can come and drink rum and red bull while dancing till 6am. everyone is transient. in some way, even Kenyans in Nairobi (the ones i would meet in swanky-ish ex-pat bars, anyway) are coming or going from University or their home land. It's all brief, but intimate. New (seemingly close) friendships are formed quickly, and I enjoy meeting a new person all the time.

regina, leon and kimani at her (new!) soda stand in eldoret (left over from before the camera battery died)

We threw a party on Friday night. Part birthday party for Ann, part going-away party, part random excuse for a party. It was an overall great time. Our apartment was packed with dancing, drinking, international, transient people. We had (err, attempted) jell-o shots, we had a noise complaint from a rather uptight neighbor, a glass broke, and then we all migrated to the local club and danced till it closed down. All in all it was a successful night.

roy was multi-tasking: blowing up balloons and preparing the DJ set for the party

Federico and I in the kitchen

Matt and Phil passionately discussing something on the balcony

the CDC "canteen crew"

The night before we went out, mostly out of habit. ("Thursday is the new Friday") It was a fun night, again, more dancing and social, diverse people. The night ended with me hopping on my friend's motorbike and riding outside of town to watch the sunrise. When I got home, my face was quite dirty (due to the dust that got by the helmet i was wearing) and i was exhausted, but it was a fun way to end a night/begin a morning. And the foggy view within the ngong hills was pretty spectacular, only made better by the children walking by in their school uniforms.

Saturday, Federico and I woke up and decided to ignore the mess in the kitchen. Our kitchen's water supply is connected to town pipes that just aren't working, so we have had no water for 2 days (Opps?) We went to a nice brunch and I found a delirious Matt and we wandered around a market in Kibera. I bought some awesome 2nd hand blouses and Matt and I bought vests and wandered back to his house, proud and sophisticated in our new clothes.

Sunday I woke up, feeling refreshed and rested and Federico, Ian, Steph and I piled into "Twiga" (Federico's mid-90's Rav-4) and went to Nairobi National Park for a self-imposed safari. It was beautiful and so nice to get out of the city center for a bit. We saw animals, had some laughs, fought some baboons for a picnic table, and toyed (for hours) with a cheap, Chinese-made Ipod/radio hook-up that just didn't want to work. Then we passed by Carnivore to meet the other GWU girls for a beer and came home and passed 4 hours talking on the balcony and watching a hilarious video of a dowry ceremony that Federico had the privilege of attending awhile back.

steph and i at a lookout in the park

twiga! (lots of giraffes in NNP)

we wanted that picnic table, so steph showed the baboon who was boss.

#selftimer success

our brief guide with a baboon skull

Us with the other "Twiga" and the obvious Deep Heat tire cover

there is a lion there! (middle, right part of the shot)

a view from within the park

I wandered out with Steph to find a taxi and met my favorite askari, Collins, who was washing cars in the apartment complex parking lot while listening to loud, Luo music from the guard shack. He is my favorite security guard: young and friendly and always asking if i'm having a good day. I once gave him a beer when I came home from watching a football match, so I think that immediately gains you friends. He bought me a Valentine's flower a while back, but because I wasn't around to claim it, "it withered here" {points to guard shack}.

{Sigh} Anyway, I am getting sad to leave, it was a near-perfect weekend.

3 weeks to go.

It's been over a week since I wrote something. humf. all is well in Nairobi. We have made a habit of going out on Thursday nights, which typically makes for a difficult Friday morning at work, but we're all just working for the weekend anyway. There is a fun, ex-pat packed, bar here with an adorable DJ that plays the xx {swoon}, so we typically find ourselves there. Last Monday we went to see Burlesque for 'mzuri monday movie madness,' which means for a mere 600 KSh you get a movie ticket, hot dog, popcorn and soda. The movie was shamefully entertaining. It's been raining here, which ultimately just means traffic is unbearable and all semblance of a social life stops. Friday night we went to see a flamenco dance show organized by Federico and spend 1/4 of night in traffic.

flamenco show

I've been researching refugee movement from E. Africa for a presentation I'll give before I leave the CDC (in a mere 3 weeks). The numbers for this year are not looking good: there is a ceiling of 15,500 refugees from SS Africa, but as of now, less than 5,000 have been resettled. This is due to increased security measures and strict interview protocols (that continued 'War on Terror' is felt by hundreds of thousands of innocent Somali refugees). Also, of 1,000 refugees only 4 get resettled. So, next time you see a refugee family attempting to navigate the bus, remember that there are 996 more biding time on a camp in the desert somewhere. It's daunting. I also watched the documentary "The Letter" about Lewiston, Maine and what happened when a number of Somali refugees moved there and ignorance fueled a pretty large crisis following 9/11/01.

This past weekend Matt, Roy and I went back to Eldoret for a GWU MPH Fellow reunion. And it was awesome. Delicious Indian food. Late night dancing at Spree. Enough drama to keep it interesting. Reunion with Andrew and Jani and a trip to the farm for sundowners which ended in goofy games, trips down memory lane and missing the bus out of Eldoret on Sunday night. I also got to see Purity and Leon and he is getting so big! and was wearing mock Converse high tops, of course.

I've started watching 'the wire', I made a green curry, I run on the treadmill, I buy things at the grocery store, I'm nearly done with reading Cutting for Stone (i think it means i'm not reading enough, when i'm excited enough to announce the fact i've finished a book), there is karaoke tonight, party at our apartment on Friday, my camera charger came (so let the rebirth of the photos begin!), and this song is sexy, and I watched Rives tell a story:

i have a 9-5, in Kenya.

So, i should start this post with the acknowledgment that my friend, Grunder, should get the music credit for directing me to the band, Snowden, which I linked to in the last post. (He realllly wanted to make sure you knew that. {winky face!})

In Kenya recently, Luis Moreno-Ocampo (the chief prosecutor at the ICC) indicted six men for participating in facilitation of the post-election violence in 2008. There has been some hoopla 'cause the Kenyan government (and a significant amount of people) believe and want the "Ocampo 6" to be tried in Kenya, as a testament to their success as a state. It seems clear that this is just a dodgy way to let the cronies get away with their (potential) war crimes. And two of them are potential presidential candidates in 2012. {I smell a conflict of judicial interest} But it's really divided people a bit. One man (after a few beers) jumped down my throat when I said I was from the States. Blabbering something about how we called upon his political leaders to be tried for crimes they didn't do, etc etc. Unbeknown to this drunk countryman, the U.S. isn't a signatory member of the ICC, so he was getting upset for nothing. (However, Obama recently did say he supports the Ocampo 6 being tried outside of Kenya). Now the government of Kenya have called on two British lawyers who have defended Charles Taylor and Slobodan Milosovic (I'm not sure how they sleep at night) to try to defend these men for the international community. But, I think the ICC will stand and if trial is going on in 2012 (which is likely) then the future of Kenya's political climate could change.

Well, now you're all caught up on Kenya's politics. That's what I read all about while sitting in a bar on Sunday and eating roasted goat meat and drinking warm Tusker. People share newspapers. One person buys it and he is the true owner, but it gets passed about a bus, bar, street corner, etc. It's a reasonable, cost-effective way to know what's going on. This weekend was....fun. We did a lot of dancing and drinking. I spent my days laying on my couch and by the pool, watching mad men (which i finished. it is a great show.) and reading. Met some new faces, spent some quality time with my roommate and on Saturday night, I got my wallet stolen. They got $40 and my sense of pride.

damn nairobbery.

On Sunday, I went with Roy, Matt and Steph to a soccer match in Eastlands (old, seemingly athletic kenyan men drink beer and play soccer). It was a nice way to spend a Sunday. We had goat meat and sat around with about 60 jovial Kenyan men (who were not in church...?)

masaai men graze their cattle anywhere

taking down the net after the football match

stephanie and i sitting in the shade

matt and roy, ordering food? tell jokes? not sure which.

this morning i read that this guy saw a depressing, truthful version of Dubai. and my heart goes out to Japan. these photos are serious. and this article ("he slept with the house help and now i want out") was a "Most Viewed" on the local newspaper. Uh Oh.

oh no, ya'll

my life in nairobi has become pretty boring. not boring to me, per se, but the reason why i don't keep a blog when i'm living my life in d.c. is 'cause i don't think i'm totally interesting. it's only what i do when i'm living in a foreign place that may be interesting and worth reading about. but, nope! nothing interesting to report.

be happy for me. i like comfort and a few good friends to pass the time with. barcelona beat arsenal on tuesday night, that was a big deal and I participated in the festivities. I'll go out tonight to meet up with the visiting americans. this weekend I will sit by the pool some more, wander into some markets, watch some more football, drink a few cold tuskers. the usual (<-- can i say that now?!)

i've been listening to these guys a lot. and reading this post about how evangelicals aren't really down with jesus. you will be the first to know when something wonderful happens. as for my health and safety: no news is good news.

weekendi

I know I am a few years behind, but mad men is a really good show. I have spent all morning reading Slate's TV Club about the 5 (yes, that totals 5 hours) episodes I watched yesterday while recovering from Saturday night. SO MUCH IS GOING ON. wow.

This weekend was easy. I had homemade Mexican food (= delicious) with friends from work on Friday night. Saturday I woke up slowly and my buddy Matt (one of my favorite people in Nairobi is inevitably a dude from D.C., go figure) came over armed with half a dozen eggs and chapati and he, Federico and I made a killer breakfast burrito. We sat around then wandered out to the pool around 3pm, where we sat and read for a few more hours. The whole day just happened organically and it was appreciated.

Saturday night I met up with 3 people visiting from Organizing for America on a consulting gig with USAID (also a D.C. connection, thanks Shira!) and went to an epic concert. It was outdoors and we were in the VIP section. It was pretty impressive. Christopher Martin was there (not of Coldplay, would have been a tough audience, although he may have written his own wikipedia page) and some other reggae/pop acts from Jamaica that kept singing to the "beautiful Kenya ladies," all of them suggested during their performances their wife was in Kenya, which made everyone swoon. Following the concert, I hopped in the most hilarious taxi. The driver was easily 80 years old, wearing an over sized suit coat and a trucker hat, the back door kind of swung open every time he took a turn too sharply (I sat in the middle) and he called me Madame. I arrived at a party to meet Federico and his friends in a big garden on the outskirts of town. It was beautiful. Picture this: big garden that just spilled into hills from the back porch, house beats from two dedicated DJs (they played for about 6 of us until 5am), big movie screen with black and white 1920's films projected on it, endless cocktails and a group of people to talk to from Kenya, Spain, Italy, Chicago, Denmark and Britain. You can't ignore the romance of it all here, as an ex-pat in tends to engulf you at times.

Sunday I recovered from that evening. All day. Watching Mad Men. Federico and I migrated from the sofa to the grocery store by 7pm and the USAID-Youth crew came over for pasta.

I watched this, which is good (thanks, Kate):


i was due to go to Dadaab next week for work, but due to al-Shabaabs' country-wide threats, the bosses are anticipating an RSO travel ban and all non-essential (read: interns) staff are not permitted to go. I'm pretty upset, it would have been wonderful to go back to the field. Also i have been listening to Sven Kacirek's Kenya Sessions, a creative blend of tribal music and European beats that my roommate left on the coffee table.

And I've been reading. Will you live to be 125 years old? Would you want to?

still no pictures

...sadly. pictures are worth 1000 words, but this is my best attempt:

Elle-Diz (aka Laura Hartstone) came to Nairobi for the last two days. Man, oh man! was it great to see her. We ate sushi by candlelight (unintentionally, the restaurant lost power..) the first night, then got to have a big ole slumber party last night. It was so good to just sit and talk over njera and beer for hours and laugh about stupid stuff we did/saw/heard about while in Seattle. Feels like a long time ago now, but that was a good year...

I have an American passport. I assume you know this by now. Most of the time I recognize how lucky that is. Just by some higher power circumstance, my soul was birthed on U.S. soil. For better or worse, the world really is our oyster. Yesterday I went to the U.S. Embassy to meet with a consular officer there, 'cause we are beginning to implement a satisfaction survey among immigrant applicants regarding their health screening with a panel physician and we needed to check out the space and see how feasible it is to ask immigrants to self-administer a survey, etc. I learned some things: there are immigrant visas, which are about 4,000+ a year from Kenya which are applicants that have a family member in the States and there are the Diversity visas, which is a lottery and you apply and pay 800-and-some-odd-dollars (a person) for an interview, but there’s no guarantee. The Diversity visa gig was started to however many years ago to fill in the gaps of the labor workforce, but now due to the influx of Mexican immigrants, there isn’t really that gap anymore and it’s assumed the Diversity visa program will fade out soon(ish). Also, people pay other people to help them “get the interviews,” and there are cases of individuals who have paid up to $25,000, to people posing as US Consulates (I recognize it’s no sadder than hopeful Mexican immigrants that pay their life savings to border runners that lose it all when they’re discovered in the trunk of the car.)

The American Dream carries a lot of weight.

(the post needed some color)

The Embassy smells like America (maybe they ship in the air). The whole building looks as though you have walked into an American building, down to the light switches. The Marines don’t smile as they guard the doors. There is a store where you can buy Fruit Loops and Velveeta. It has central AC. And once a year they have an emergency drill. A loud sound goes off and you’re instructed to get under your desk and move away from the windows. We were fortunate enough to be there for the hypothetical attack, so half of our meeting took place under a desk and in the stairwell on our way up to the roof. I actually enjoyed it. It was like being in an alternate universe that felt like home, while simultaneously realizing how ridiculous home is.

download this song. and this one. and this profile of lori berenson was good. and this man, scares me. tgif.