Shifting Perspectives: Arrival in Equatorial Africa, September 16-18

The vastness of the Sahara stretching out below me - hillocks and stretches of caramel coloured sand – was my biggest kick on the flight to Nairobi.  Then as the plane neared the equator, day and night met in a turquoise horizon line that simply vanished just after 6 pm.  Magical.

 

It was quite cool and overcast most of my two days in Nairobi.   I was informed that this year the rainy season has lasted too many months.  There are two seasons here – the rainy season and the not-rainy-season.  I’m not used to thinking of  seasons this way, just as it is I’m unused to hearing birds chirping at daybreak and dusk, when the 12 hour day is followed by the 12 hour night.

Just as it takes adjusting to the climate, the altitude of 1680 m/5500 ft. above sea level,  and the hours of the day, I’m also adjusting to a slower pace of life.  Things take the time that they take.  My lost suitcase appeared 2 and a half hours later than I was told – and that’s just how it is.  

Trying hard to apply that lesson about slower pacing, I spent an amazing afternoon at the National Museum:  life size models of zebras, giraffes and elephants; display cases of tropical birds (storks and pelicans!); exhibits on mammals’ adaptive behaviour and the fossil discoveries of early man.   I found myself both  fascinated and incredibly pissed off as I watched a historical video on the Mau Mau and read about the British colonization of Kenya from basically 1895 to 1963. As well as establishing an economic monopoly over Kenya, the British practised “racial segregation,” “white man’s supremacy,” and “divide and rule.”  As I am learning, Kenya is still into recovery.

In between, I visited the three shops on the museum grounds to look at jewelry, masks and fabrics.  I was impressed by the striking designs and craftsmanship, and was warmly welcomed – see photo!

Notorious Nairobi?  Not my experience during my first stay.  It’s a young city experiencing growing pains as downtown buildings push up into the sky.  5 million people live in a place that was a swamp  until the 1890’s.  The Chinese have its potential figured out.  They are here and in Kenya building roads and a market.

 And I have a new friend to visit when I return to Nairobi – a teacher I met in the Museum while admiring Kioko Mwitiki’s “An African Woman.”