Kenya

Kenya, Pictures

Depending on how you count, either today or yesterday marks four years since I’ve been in Kenya; I left the United States on October 25th, 2007, and arrived on the 26th. In those four years I’ve taught computer science classes, learned Swahili, traveled Eastern Africa, fainted and whacked my head on the floor, became a small-scale farmer, and bought a flat screen TV—what an adventure.

Here are some photo highlights (in no particular order):

Looking back at it all makes me want to do it all over again…

Food, Kenya

For all the niceties we have in Kenya (especially in Nairobi), we lack the presence of large Western chain stores and restaurant franchises. Honestly I couldn’t care less, but I remember it being a surprise when I first came to Kenya in 2007. In the United States at least, we’re used to being constantly bombarded with McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Walmart, etc, that I was so sure at least some of those familiar things would be here in Kenya.

As this USA Today article states, that has changed:

You can’t buy a Big Mac in Kenya. There are no Burger Kings. But there’s good news for chicken lovers…

KFC at the Junction mall in Nairobi, Kenya
KFC at the Junction mall in Nairobi, Kenya

To my knowledge, this is the first Western chain which has come to Kenya. The doors opened in August, 2011, and everyone’s been talking about it. I happened to be at the Junction mall the other day so I snapped a picture of the (in)famous Colonel Sanders logo.

I haven’t eaten there yet, and I probably never will (I hear it’s really expensive); I just think it’s funny to see that logo in Nairobi after all these years of seeing nothing but local brands…

Kenya

Cassandra, Bill, and I went ice skating this past weekend at the Panari Sky Centre‘s “Solar Ice Rink” (whatever that means). Bill’s visiting ILRI from the UK to help with some embryo transfer stuff, and I figured it’d be fun for him to see something outside of the institute over the weekend.

I had my fancy shmancy phone with me so I just had to see how well I could skate backwards and take pictures…

… and video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PiJxaWa2gc

They only let you skate for one hour (after which they have to refreeze the ice… or something), but we must have gone around 400 times in that hour—a good workout, and very enjoyable!