Arrival

Greetings to both of you who have read this blog! =)

Yes, this gregarious math teacher has arrived in Nairobi quite safely, happily, and without incident. As always, there are some unexpected events and circumstances, but overall moving in and meeting people has been pleasantly easy (guiltily easy?).

Compared to moving to Bangkok eight years ago, this move has been simple! All my bags arrived, there were no passport issues, my hosts found me and called me by name just outside customs, we loaded the school buses with luggage from the 24 new arrivals, drove across town, and were introduced to our new place. It was a cold night- everyone could see their breath as we stood outside trying to get the right trunks in the right places. I felt peaceful (detached?) as everything fell into place just like it has since I made the decision to come.

In my flat, my hosts Mel and Kerry let me in, handed me my keys, turned on my school-issued cell phone, put their numbers in, informed me they had put a little money on my phone card, showed me how to turn on outlets, invited me to lunch the next day, handed me an envelope with my first paycheck in it, encouraged me to come grocery shopping with them, demonstrated proper use of the water filtration system, and pointed out the cookies they made for me. I'm pretty sure I comprehended nothing but the cookies. Mm. I love ginger snaps.

The next few days were busy, looking back on it, but at the time everything just seemed too easy: coworkers spoke English (well, sort of- Arkansas accent), they were excited to meet me, the campus felt safe and easy to get around in, the grocery store had products I
recognized, I could ask questions in English of anyone and generally understand the answers I received, I was making friends with the other single girls who came in with me. I wanted to write a blog post but felt like I didn't have anything to say: people are nice? The place is pretty? I bought a toaster?

Now that my brain is defogging slightly, I'm able to recognize differences from my life in Los Alamos, but the sameness is certainly what struck me at first. I guess that shouldn't have surprised me as much as it did; this is an American school, it's a compound, people who would be willing to come here would probably be somewhat similar to me simply because we're all willing to come here. Because of my time in Thailand, I expected an overload of differences; the overload of comfort and convenience really threw me for a loop. I know there are changes worth noting, and I hope to keep my cultural radar on, but I worry that I'll blow past smaller yet important differences because I don't see the giant adjustments of language and lifestyle.

But for now I'm off to a cookout at the superintendent's house. Yay for burgers. =)