Day 2: Jambo, Nairobi!

After an 8-hour flight from Frankfurt, we arrived in Nairobi yesterday morning, at 6:30 am local time. After 1 ½ hours of standing in the visa line and going through customs, I unfortunately found out that neither of the 2 bags that I had checked in (one personal, one equipment) made it onto the Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt and would instead be arriving later that night. Change of plans: Instead of leaving directly for the Kisumu/Kolunje area with our driver Peter Mungai and a second driver that morning, we decided to spend the day and night in Nairobi, staying in a local hotel owned by some of Peter’s friends, and then leave for Kolunje first thing Sunday morning.

Underneath the beautifully clear and sunny skies, we spent the majority of the day doing some sightseeing and shopping for supplies in bustling downtown Nairobi. Peter took us to a large mall bordering the Westgate shopping plaza and we were able to walk around and buy useful items such as SIM cards, a wireless modem, car batteries to charge the geophysical equipment, and a 10 L tank of drinking water. One of the first things we immediately noticed was the presence of heavily-armed security personnel, body-checking people at every store entrance. It seems like Nairobi’s security has increased dramatically in light of the recent terrorist activity through the the past couple of years. We also were struck by how incredibly diverse the city was, with interspersed pockets of different religious and ethnic groups living as neighbors. I personally loved how Peter would exchange warm greetings and friendly banter in Swahili with traffic cops, security guards, mechanics, newspaper salesmen, and other total strangers.

2 days in this country and I already see how important the aspect of community is in Kenyan culture, and how it was definitely not lost in the commercial, metropolitan backdrop of Nairobi.

Peter’s resourcefulness was super helpful throughout the day. The man seriously has connections everywhere. When we needed to exchange currencies, he pulled the van up to the side of the road and called one of his friends. A few minutes later, a man shows up out of nowhere, jumps into the van, and pulls out a few stacks of 1000 KSH notes from his pocket to trade for our dollars.

We also visited his travel agency office and booked a 2-day safari at the Maasai Mara for the end of our trip! With a good day’s worth of shopping done, Peter drove us to the amazing Haandi’s for a well-deserved Indian lunch. We then proceeded to nap at the hotel for the rest of the afternoon in utter food coma.

By nighttime Tom, Peter, and I drove back to the airport to pick up the missing luggage. Unfortunately, the agent working at the kiosk Saturday morning had given me incorrect information and the 2 bags were actually going to be arriving Sunday night via Swiss Air.

(Sighs)

But hey as Peter reassured, "Hakuna matata!"

We again reevaluated our plans and decided that the best forward action would be for the rest of the team to continue and head to Kolunje first thing this morning with the second driver. Tom, Peter, and I stayed back in Nairobi for a second day to retrieve the luggage at night and then drive to the community tomorrow (Monday) morning. In our initial work schedule, Sriram and I outlined the first day in the community to primarily conduct our own site inspections of both the rainwater catchment systems as well as the 4 sites to do hydrogeology measurements and also meet with Peter Oduor to start discussing our plans, so hopefully we don't fall too far behind. We ended the day with a late dinner at an open-roof bar/restaurant next door to the guesthouse and then had some late-night reflections on life. Yay, pillow talk.

PS: Soo our Wi-Fi modem has been working very sporadically and we’re worried that we may not have reliable internet access in Kolunje. But we will do our best to resolve the issues, and keep the blog updated with news and photos as frequently as possible!