Going native? (2)

Yesterday I was wondering whether going native is at all possible. If it is, I am not there yet. One reason is my newness here, lack of experience, and information from other sources about Nairobi and Kenya without own experience. The other is the way others are treating me.

To start with the latter: the colour of my skin seems to make it (more) difficult to ‘go native’, although of course there are also ‘white Africans’. Walking on the street today (Saturday 26 September) to and from the office as well as to downtown Nairobi, we were asked a few times whether we (‘brother and sister’) could spare some money because the people asking us said they were hungry. They did not ask other Kenyans walking past. Downtown, we were asked continuously whether we needed a taxi; apparently ‘white people’ usually don’t walk. In the park, two children –one boy with large cool sunglasses, probably the only other person apart from me with sunglasses in the park; maybe not very ‘adjusted’, ‘integrated’, or ‘native’ from my side, but the sun was really hurting my eyes- were looking at us and the mother telling them to ask us how we were; we and not the many others in the park.

But then, and more importantly, there is of course also my lack of experience, scary information, and caution. Before I came to Nairobi I checked the Internet for information on safety about walking in Nairobi and doing daily things. Many others had asked the same question, but there was not so much information, apart from things like ‘don’t walk at night, don’t walk through isolated streets’. One person asked whether it was safe to walk through the city during the day or take the children to the park (the park of which the Lonely Planet says you should definitely avoid and the one I actually walked through today and was full of families and children). One person answered: what an incredible stupid question, do you think people living in Nairobi never leave their houses? The forum continued to discuss whether that was an appropriate reaction. I think it is probably the typical difference between someone who just read many of the stories of people getting mocked and worse and problems of Nairobi without an idea of what it is like, never having been in Nairobi, and someone who has own experiences and knows what and when to do and not to do.

I do not emerge myself in this new place at once; I first want to check whether the information I read beforehand is correct, but meanwhile remaining on the safe side. It is a step by step process and not an immediate one: finding some routine, normality, familiarity and thus safety and take it from there. I read somewhere that that is a normal human reaction: it might be too frightening (or hilarious) to let go of all that is familiar to us. However, it may well be that differences are overestimated in travel guides and other sources of information which gives us the perception that all is or might be unfamiliar, whereas, when we stay longer, we find out that that is not the case. By realizing that, I may much quicker find normal what ‘they’ find normal and stop thinking in terms of them and me. So, step by step, I want to ‘safely’ explore the new and different, to learn the do’s and don’ts so I can integrate and internalise them rather than have them as a foreign set of rules, and of course at least as much the similarities and the realisation that life and the people in Nairobi are not so different from life and people anywhere else. Through that, I hope to develop routines and become part of daily life in Nairobi.

I was very cautious walking to the office the first time. Now, after having done it for a week (during the day, I should add) and nothing happened, it already becomes more normal – and normal can be very nice. My first bus trip here felt like an adventure, whereas it is routine for thousands of people in Nairobi. Maybe the biggest part of the adventure was ‘doing as the Kenyans do’ and seeing whether that would work out well; seeing whether I could fit into the everyday ‘normality’ and ‘reality’ of many people. Although today was only my second bus ride, I already new what it would be like, how it works, so it felt/was already much less adventurous than the first time. Having said that, it was quite a challenge to get off the bus again and at the right time, so there is still much to learn. In three weeks time it will however be normal for me as well and it is unlikely that write about the same things in this blog, simply because I may not observe them anymore or think they are interesting. Also difficulties in getting off the bus may turn out to be ‘normal’ and not something I should still learn.

But native? No, I am not there yet. After having lunch twice in this tent where they serve nice (and only!) vegetarian food for Kenyan prices – well, prices for ‘ordinary working Kenyans’ as I explained before- I found out that it actually belongs to a church; I had no idea. Tomorrow (Sunday) my colleague and I want to make a trip outside Nairobi, an hour by car. Asking the price we asked to pay 10.000 KEH. If you don’t know you should bargain, you are in trouble. We’ll probably end up going for 4500 KEH… Going for a drink, we were checked by a metal detector: I went off, having my USB stick and credit card with me under my clothes: what do you do? Luckily the guy let us in without making me undress. And today, boiling hot and therefore exhausted after two hours walking around the city and no energy left for visiting a museum, one of our colleagues told us she had planned to go swimming, but it was too cold. At least, I can say that I am very happy with the local vegetarian food: chapatti, rice, or ugali; beans, lentils, other vegetables. I can certainly live on that.