One of my buddies works in a photo studio in Tala’s market. I hang out there after work sometimes and all sorts of people come by for various reasons, mostly to get pictures taken. Crazy people, drunk people, desperate people, etc. A few weeks ago someone asked if they could take a picture with me. It’s not the first time someone’s asked me, so I said yes.
Being white in Nairobi is mostly harmless and can be pretty funny, but being white in Tala is annoying. There are a few things that really annoy me about being non-black in Tala. It’s not that Tala is particularly a bad place; I assume you’d have the same experience if you traveled to a rural area in any country. If you stand out like a sore thumb you’re bound to attract attention (good and bad).
First, people feel so sweet when they’re with their buddies (see: Herd Behavior). They’ll say things when they’re in a group that they’d never say if they were alone. I’m used to that by now, so my heart always starts racing when I see a group of teenagers approaching. It seems like they always have to say as they pass, and it’s usually something provocative (otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this). Go live somewhere where you are different and see how it feels to walk the streets day in and day out by yourself.
Second, some people just never get used to me. For example: the girls at Tala Girls high school. The college’s compound is fenced, and I usually enter through a gate near the high school’s perimeter. The girls usually see me leaving my house through that gate and I’m used to the silly things they say (you know high school girls). I am surprised every once in a while, like last weekend some girls shouted, “Mzungu! Mzungu!” Uhh… these girls are in high school. Have they never seen a white person before? I’m not even sure that’s an excuse, because I’ve lived here for close to TWO YEARS.
Depending on my mood, these range from really pissing me off to being just slightly annoying.
I posted a few days ago about my life in Tala. The main purpose of that was to get some pictures of my surroundings up online, but I ended up writing a lot about life in Tala. I’ve posted at least one “a day in the life” entries in the past, but this is a bit different. I realize most people who read my blog regularly have, by now, formulated their own pictures of what goes on in Kenya. I wanted to continue the trend of showing photos, and I happened to be running errands in Nairobi today, so I snapped some photos around town (embarrassing at first, but I decided I didn’t care after a bit). Hopefully these pictures add some color and correctness to the ones you already had in your head. Enjoy.
I like Nairobi, there are a lot of young people and the town has lots of energy. I’ve been to large cities in the countries neighboring Kenya but I’ve never come across a place which felt as fast and forward-moving as Nairobi; just ask any high school or university student in Kenya, new slang is being manufactured every day in tao (“town”… Nairobi). Maybe it’s because I live here, but I really think Nairobi stands out from other capital cities in the region. It’s a great city (don’t mind the “Nairobbery” nickname).