Nairobi

Yesterday we got a tour of Nairobi. I do not know what the population, and I believe that it not possible to get an accurate population of the city, but I have heard unofficially anywhere from 3-4 million people live in Kenya's capital and my home city for the next three months. The city is very large, but the downtown and the people, community, and networking in this city seem very small.

On this tour we walked around and past the government buildings that is mostly what downtown consists of (very similar to Washington DC), we went to the top of Kenyatta International Conference center and saw amazing views of the city (pictures coming when I have Internet in my apartment), saw the memorial park that was where the US Embassy was bombed in 1998, and went and had an exercise in bargaining at the weekly Masai Market.

The city feels very small, as we were walking around our cultural guide Kevin just happened to run into and introduce my small group to his aunt, and at a separate point one of his old college friends. As we were eating lunch, he pointed out one of his old teachers who was walking down the street. While Nairobi is a sprawling large world capital city, the downtown area did not feel very big at all. This really surprised me that just walking down the street someone who has lived here for a few years could run into several people that he knew.

The Masai Market was an experience in itself as well. We had a bargaining tutorial game to play, as our Abroad Director gave each one of us 100 Kenyan Shillings (about one dollar 20 cents in US currency) and we had a contest to see who could get the best buy for that small amount. While I have been to markets in various parts of the world that involve little stations and bargaining (in Mexico, Thailand, Dominican Republic), I have never experienced something quite like a Kenyan Market. The different merchants would follow you down a substantial length away attempting to get you to look at their stuff, even after you say no to them, as well as some people would attempt to escort me to their little area. This is not uncommon to me to see, however what was is that some were attempting to use my watch or backpack or whatever as bargaining material... this is different to me and I think it reflects the openness and forwardness of the Kenyan merchants. i ended up getting an artwork piece done on banana skin of the Lake Victoria region (where Obama is from)... Speaking of which, saying you are from Illinois has proved to be a great bargaining chip because people here love Obama and Obama things are found absolutely everywhere. I think that as an American i could not have picked a more perfect time to be in Kenya, and I will use my Senator and now President to my full advantage when bargaining or conversing with Kenyans in general.