No more Kenyan hassles

I was so tired on the way from the bank to the apartment that I actually could not take in the view of our new home town, I fell asleep. The apartment lies in a nice area and is like most apartments around here, a gated block. This means that there is a large gate with armed guards, high walls that are wired with an electric fence and 24 -hour security, many may think this would make you feel like a prisoner, but actually for some reason is doesn't. I guess it is because this part of town is safe to walk around in "outside the fence", oh how terrible did that not sound?

Of course there are areas in Nairobi where one should not walk around alone and definitely not after dark but there are also places in London, New York, Sydney or Stockholm where I would not go either. One has to remember that this is Africa and that crime is fueled by poverty, I mean what would you not do in order to feed your starving family? If a muzungu (white man in Swahili) passes by flashing his Rolex, I guess he is more than likely to loose it to someone who is in better need of it.

Thankfully, Kenya is better off than most nations in Africa. It may be an exaggeration to say that the future looks bright, let's say that the future looks more positive than ever before but it will take time for change to take place and before its benefits reaches the whole population. Having that said, I almost feel embarrassed by telling you how we live. However, I have decided not to but rather let it remind me of being grateful and try and find a way to give something back to Kenya and it's people.

Within the fortification;) you find 3 blocks of apartments surrounded by a beautifully catered garden and pool. I am still amazed at how green and lush it is here, flowers of all kinds and colors. Could green possibly be greener in Kenya than back home?

The apartment itself is large, completely new and has an outdoor area where Noah loves hanging out, saying hello to anyone happening to pass by. This is the place we will live until we receive our residency, god knows how long that will take.

First day on Kenyan soil

After months of talking it feels quite surreal to finally be here. The driver, "our" driver was waiting for us at the airport, thank god what a luxury. Mind you, having a driver is actually a safety precaution from the company, one is not prohibited to drive but it is not recommended. Those who thought crime would be the major concern here in Nairobi are wrong, it is traffic that one should really worry about. Accidents are 25% more common than in Sweden and it can be quite tricky to find your way around unless you are a local. The good thing about having a driver besides the comfort, is that we are creating work opportunities.

After packing all stuff into the car we slowly moved away from the airport, traffic is really bad here especially at this time of the day. I saw some giraffes grazing in the distance and screamed out loud in excitement, the driver gave me an odd look. Well, it is not everyday you see a giraffe.









After about half an hour the driver asked Mats if he had any cash on him..as we just flew in from Sweden we did not have any Kenyan shilling (but we will next time). Apparently we were almost out of petrol, the car came with a driver but with no petrol, how peculiar. Lesson number one, do not take things for granted here.

We managed to get to a petrol station with an ATM but Mats' Kenyan card did not work, lesson number two do not take things for granted here. In the zombie state we were in solutions did not come to us easily, we continued the slow journey towards the city and found a bank. Something that would take 5-10 minutes to solve in Sweden took over an hour here. You see, the bankcard was not activated and this could not be done before 1 pm, it was 11 am right now. The white man in the zombie state managed to get the bank to write him a cheque, well done!

Would we make it to the apartment with no other hassles?

Trip to Africa

Finally the day had come for us to leave Stockholm. We were supposed to leave on Thursday and drive down to see our family down south and then fly out from Copenhagen, however on Friday night we still had heaps to pack and organize. Waking up on Saturday I looked out the window only to see a layer of snow on the balcony, great, really great. We had a 6 hour drive down south and without winter tires it would not be a very pleasant journey. On top of that we had to be out of our apartment by 8 o´clock since our new tenant would arrive. Somehow we managed to pack everything, well not really everything, we had to run to the attic twice to leave stuff behind and drive off before 8, oh and yeah, we also had time to argue about how little time we had.

We spent a few days saying farewell, Noah made sure to leave something from him behind, he contaminated the whole family with his nasty cold, thank you and good bye! The train to Copenhagen is NEVER delayed I was told, right..we apparently managed to catch the only, delayed train in history. We got to the airport 1.5 late but we still had time to run to our flight (and argue) on empty stomachs, they forgot to attach a restaurant to the train...

Anyway, got on the flight and Noah fell a sleep like a baby only to wake up 2 hours later, some time around midnight or just before the end of the movie. He then refused to sleep for the rest of the night but decided to turn in just before landing but by then his parents were already like zombies....

Flying into Nairobi is really amazing, especially if you fly in early in the morning. The sun rises over Africa like nowhere else, being right on top of the equator. You spot the vast savanna down there in between the high mountains and you can almost hear the lion's roar stirring up the hoards of the wilder beasts. Habari Africa!