Adulating in Nairobi

If you read the last blog post than you know that I have moved into an apartment in the middle of Nairobi for the last 4 weeks of the program. During the last weeks in Kenya each of us gets to pick an organization that we would like to intern at. Since we can pick anywhere (that will take us of course) the 20 of us are now spread out across East Africa living the life of working adults. This is of course weird as for the last 4 months we have not been apart from each other for longer than a few hours. We make sure to check in on each other daily to know everyone is still alive and doing well.

I decided to stay in Nairobi and intern at the National Democratic Institute. I wanted to gain some "real" world experience, and that is exactly what I have gotten. Every morning I wake up at 7am get ready for work in my business attire (quit the switch from the t-shirts and shorts I have been living in for the last couple months), make breakfast and leave the apartment by 8am. I have an hour commute to work, not that its is far but traffic in Nairobi is actually the worst. I am in the office by 9am and then work until 5pm, helping my co workers on a variety of different projects. At 5pm I leave for my hour commute home. There have been a couple of drives home that I have gotten so frustrated with the traffic I have simply gotten out of the cab and walked the 2 miles home. The walks home are actually some of the best parts of the day, because A) I finally get to move after sitting at a desk all day, B) the weather is nice out and C) I get to experience how the majority of Kenyans get around as me and hundreds of my Kenyan friends all walk home after a long day of work. When I get home I go workout. I have had to get creative to workout, since you can not just run outside on the streets alone and there are not really gyms in Kenya. My creativity has included taking an Uber to an outdoor track with lights so I can run outside at night (perfectly safe), going to Africa Yoga Project, and my all time favorite running laps around the apartment complex. The guards truly think I am crazy, but I would like to point out I am not the only one who does this. Being on my own means I also have to cook for myself. I am happy to report that I have managed to feed myself 3 meals a day everyday so I guess I am doing just fine. No it hasn't been Ramen noodles, I have cooked real meals. The night usually ends with my roommate and me watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix, our goal is to finish the series. This is of course if the internet decides to work, which is always a gamble.

Over the weekend I went to the Africa Yoga Project community class on Saturday, which has now become my favorite Saturday activity and on Sunday I went to Karura National Forest to run 5 miles through the trails. We also went to a local market on Sunday and did some grocery shopping.

After surviving the last week alone in a country that isn't my own, I am now fully confident that I could move anywhere in the U.S. and be perfectly ok. I mean after all I figured out how to get Cold Stone delivered to my door in Kenya, so imagine what I could figure out living alone in the U.S.?