Before arriving to Kenya I have been rushing to get all the 'necessary' things that I thought would help me there, but nothing has proved to be as 'essential' as the already made pasta sauces that I brought!! It is of course not a survival kit, but it does make the mundane Kenyan diet a bit more bearable. Also before my departure I have had various vaccinations(rabies,cholera,tetanus etc.) and started taking malaria pills. Malaria pills can be taken either on a daily dose(Malarone) or on a weekly dose(Lariam).After having digged in to various info online and offline,have come to the conclusion that the Malarone(45Euros) was too expensive and so started taking the Lariam(4euros) even if known to have stronger side effects such as vivid dreams leading to bad sleep and random increases in the heart beat throughout the day.I will have to take them the whole time of my stay in Kenya plus a further month once back. The plane ride Rome-Nairobi went pretty smooth,checked in 2 bags packed to the weight limit and hoped that none of the stuff inside break during the trip. In the plane I sat next to an Italian lady, on her 60's that was traveling alone. I started chatting with her asking if it was her first time and she replied that she has been going to Kenya for the past 11 years! Great, got a lot of information on the Kenyan coast and a bit of what to expect from the local culture. We definitely reinforced my idea about the local food when she was told me she was bringing strawberry plants in her bag! I definitely miss those right now,as in Italy is strawberry season. During the plane ride I had the window shutter down as the sun was making the seat very hot(I had a window seat) but every once in a while I would open it to see the view. I was stunned when I once opened the shutter to find sand everywhere, kilometers of sand everywhere! The Sahara desert! It was an amazing view which i tried to capture from my camera, but quite unsuccessful. My plane would land in Nairobi at 1910 and Paula's plane from Kisumu would arrive at 1950, but because I had to get the visa at the airport and wait for the luggage I ended up coming out and Paula already being there waiting! ;)
The plan was to stay in Nairobi for 3 days and then go to Busia Town, which is on the border with Uganda, where Paula works. The first night in Nairobi was all right, arrived late to our hotel, where out room was a bit tent, tried to get pizza delivered and got pretty stressed as even for such a small thing one has to negotiate. Since Paula has already gotten the hang of it, she explained me more or less how it works. Basically they will always try to rip you off. It feels as if they are doing you a favor in selling you something and built in me an overall distrust in the vendors. Especially in Nairobi where there are plenty of tourists that will just pay the price that they have been told, without knowing. I find this taking advantage of the goodwill of people a bit shady. Anyhow, after a couple of times negotiating you get the hang of it but I can see how it can become a bother doing it all the times!!
Nairobi is a big city, with much stuff happening around, lots of cars (left hand side), international restaurants and shopping malls. While walking in the center, around the ministries and government areas, I started to realize that there are many Chinese interests in Kenya, from import-export of electronics,plastics to investments in water infrastructures and even commercial planes.
Nairobi did not attract me at all, its just like any other big city. I did find the city center rather clean for a capital and signs everywhere mentioning the respect for nature and recycling.
On the third day I was very happy to escape the city views and visit the Elephant orphanage and the Giraffe centre. We went around with a person doing taxi service for IPA,Paula's organization and the driver was very friendly even if sometimes I had trouble understanding because of the strong African accent.
The Giraffe Centre http://www.giraffecenter.org/
