A Tale of Two Cities

Well, school is over, and it ended pretty suddenly. I finished my exams on Friday, said goodbye to most of my friends, and hopped a bus for Kenya early Saturday morning. It was a 15 hour ride, though luckily I now know which bus companies have waterproof transport, so the ride was fairly comfortable. I got to see a lot of countryside that I haven't seen before. Past Arusha (near Mt. Kilimanjaro), the landscape changes from lush and green to dry open savanna, which is something I have not yet seen in Tanzania. It's Maasai land up there, and we saw a lot of pastoralists with their cattle herds.

Crossing the border to Kenya was much less eventful than crossing the border to Malawi. We took one bus the whole way and managed not to get ripped off. At one point along the ride I woke up and thought maybe I'd teleported to Europe. Suddenly we were in a city that is much more western and much more developed than Dar es Salaam. There are trash cans everywhere, so the city center is very clean. Women don't wear traditional dresses like they do in Dar, and the tall buildings are like those in a city at home. I haven't seen many foreigners, yet people still don't stop and stare at us because we are white. There are no street vendors like in Dar, and the daladalas (or matatus as they are called here) are totally pimped out with neon lights and everything. The best part is, it's actually chilly here! Overall the city is not nearly as scary or intimidating as I had expected (and for anyone concerned, there are no riots or instability of any kind going on anymore).

Kenyatta Conference Center

Yesterday Katie was feeling pretty sick, so we went to a clinic. Once again you could really see the difference in development; you'd have to go to an expensive private clinic to get something like this in Dar, and there were even female doctors. I've been having some weird stomach thing off and on for a few weeks, so I decided to see the doctor as well. I'm glad I did because it turns out I've had some sort of persistent food poisoning for weeks. They also gave me treatment for a few other waterborne parasites just in case. Katie's results were 'inconclusive,' which is a bit ironic since she is the one who has been feeling sick. They gave her medicine for a few different things though, and she seems to be feeling a lot better.

View of Nairobi from the top of the conference center

We visited the National Archives which has a great collection of art from all over Africa. Today we went to the top of the Kenyatta Conference Center where we could see all of Nairobi. It is pretty clear that a lot more planning went into this city than into Dar; it even has it's own central park, which is our next stop for the day. Tonight we catch an overnight bus to Kampala, Uganda for another adventure.

Sweet giraffe panels from the National Archives

I was a little hesitant about coming to Nairobi, but I'm glad I did. It's been really interesting to see how different it is from Dar es Salaam, and it's been refreshing to be in a western city again. Granted we really only saw a small part of the city, but it was definitely the nice part. I've met some really friendly people, had a decent cup of coffee, and seen another side of Africa. Plus now my body will be free of any and all malicious bacteria!