Changes in Nairobi

Good evening from Nairobi. Today’s comments will be much shorter as I’m a little tired tonight. The way mattresses are made here must be a bit different. I lay down on the bed last night, and thought I had missed and hit the concrete floor. I didn’t know they could make mattresses out of boards! I’ve slept more comfortably without a bed before!

Anyway, we went to our meetings this morning, and were notified that we would need to go back to the hotel and check out. The hotel is in an area of town that is hard to get out of in a hurry if we needed to. There have been some additional political issues here in the last few days. For those of you watching the news Kofi Anan has been in town negotiating with the two parties claiming victory in the last election. Apparently, he called them off late yesterday. In addition to that, today is election day in Nairobi for the position of Mayor. My understanding is this is also a bit of a hot race. And finally, the opposition party from the elections in December called for peaceful demonstrations here tomorrow (Thursday).

Bottom line is the hotel was located in a wedge of what appeared to be one-way streets across from three banks and a mall. If people chose to congregate in the mall or in front of the banks and cause problems tomorrow, we would not be able to leave the hotel until everything ended. So, back to the hotel for us, a quick collection of our things, check out, and back to our meetings. Other hotel arrangements were made at a hotel closer to the airport along the main highway. Part of that strategy is we could make a quick dash to the airport if we were told to depart the country.

So now that I’ve got everyone all excited, let me share that the elections today seemed to go OK (at least haven’t heard anything yet), and the opposition leader cancelled the demonstrations for tomorrow. It appears we are back to business as usual in the morning. And the good news is I now have a bed that is at least as soft as lying on a mat and sleeping bag on the grass (HUGE improvement over last night), and an air-conditioned room. Amazing how a little “peaceful demonstration” threat can turn out to be a huge blessing! Don’t worry. We will still be very watchful tomorrow. No large crowds, and we are not going anywhere near the main part of town. Just to the office and back to the hotel. If the security group feels there is any risk to us, or the employees here, we will be told to stay home, and we will simply work from the hotel all day tomorrow.

Now for a little about Nairobi… It’s an interesting mix of old and new. There are many modern buildings, but also some very run down areas. From my hotel room, I can see downtown Nairobi. It looks fairly large with many multi-story buildings (guessing 20 or less floors). From one side of the hotel, you can look out across a very flat, brown landscape (picture west Texas). From the other side, you see into town, and the view very green, with lots of flowering plants. The people here are friendly, so it’s hard to fathom how they can be fighting with each other so much due to the elections. We’re told that most of the fighting has been in the western part of the country, but that there is also danger in the city, although the danger is to those of certain ethnic groups in the country, not other foreigners.

As you drive around, you do see people from all over. There are restaurants and other businesses representing Asia, Europe, and other areas of Africa. For lunch, we ate at an Ethiopian restaurant for example. That is interesting food. We were served on a single large plate covered with a type of pancake made from rice, covered in various sauces and meats. You pull off pieces of the “pancake” and then pick up the sauce and meats / vegetables with the pancake. No silverware is provided or needed. Not often you eat a meal with your coworkers from a single plate, all with your fingers. It was good food – you all will have to try it.

That’s it for today. One more day in Nairobi, and then it’s off to Lusaka, Zambia!