Nairobi Social Life

Since I've been staying with a good friend here in Nairobi, I've gotten the unique opportunity to experience social life here in Nairobi.  And not surprisingly, they do things pretty much the same here as we do in the States. 

I went to a birthday party last weekend, and we ate dinner (delicious homemade food, not ordered pizza!), had birthday cake, and sang Happy Birthday (same song).  Then people just sat around and chatted, played cards, and enjoyed the company of friends the same as we do.  I've been out a couple of times this week as well, and besides the fact that most of the bars are open air, which is wonderful for the beautiful weather we've been having, they are also pretty much the same.  We hit up a sports bar one night, listened to live jazz music another night, and sang karaoke.  At the karaoke place, there was a grill right in the middle of the bar, and the chef was grilling up whole chickens and sausage!  It was delicious!

The grill in the middle of the bar

New friends and delicious chicken!

I also went to a pool/water park this week which was a lot of fun.  There were quite a lot of kids there, of course, and I even caught a bit of a swimming lesson which was quite amusing!  The water slides were a blast, and I swam a few laps to continue my Kilimanjaro training (which has been slacking!!).

Pool and water park

The one major difference that I've noticed here in Africa, and the locals here will completely agree, is the concept of time and the lack of explicit planning.  People here really just go with the flow!!  This is something that I will definitely have to get used to because I am the first to admit that I am a little anal when it comes to planning, even for US standards!!  Here, if someone tells you that they are coming over at 3, you can expect them any time between 3 and 7.  If something should take 1 hour, you can expect it to take at least 3!  Our "camping trip" this weekend is an excellent example of what I am talking about.

Earlier this week, my friend mentioned the possibility of going camping at a lake called Naivasha, about 90 minutes from Nairobi.  I said it sounded like a lot of fun since I love camping, but he didn't mention anything more about it, so I figured it wasn't going to work out.  However, at about 3 o'clock on Saturday afternoon, my friend told me that he had gotten a bunch of people together, and that we were, indeed, going to go camping that night, leaving at 4 pm.  I thought it was a bit short notice for camping, but as I said earlier, I am trying to just "go with the flow."  So I quickly jumped in the shower, packed, and was downstairs ready to go by 4.  Two other friends met at the house, and we ended up leaving around 5.  However, after picking up 6 additional people around Nairobi, stopping at a grocery store for drinks, numerous atms for different peoples banks, filling up our 2 cars with gas, checking on my friends car in the shop, and who knows what else, the 10 of us FINALLY left the city at around 7:30!  However, one car (not mine) stopped again along the way to pick up some food, then my car stopped at one of the girls cousins house along the way to wait for the other car, then we had to stop in the town near the lake to pick up more food and drinks, check another atm, etc....it was after 11 pm when we finally reached the campsite!!!  However, the drive down was a blast, and I met some great new friends in our "awesome car" as we blasted the music and sang along.  So we finally arrived at the campsite, and some of the boys checked on tents (since we hadn't actually brought any!)  Well, the boys decided that since we hadn't made reservations for tents, that the campsite was going to overcharge us, so we should all just sleep in the car (after dancing most of the night away at a dance club at the campsite).  Keep in mind that there are 10 of us and 2 cars!!!  I went ahead and got myself a tent :)

Lake Naivasha

Girls in the "Awesome Car"