Spring Break

Always after a good blog post, I feel a little hesitant, knowing whatever comes next will be a disappointment. So I've delayed writing, and as for the content, well, I apologize in advance. It can't possibly be as exciting as the involuntary extreme-motorcross-in-a-station-wagon from the last post.

But I've had a marvelous Spring Break. It's Saturday now, almost over, and I didn't go anywhere, unlike friends who went to Mauritius or Egypt or Wyoming. But I am rested. I've slept, watched DVDs, read many books, and made biscuits. I finished some things I've needed to do for a while, like giving away old clothes and getting papers notarized in Purgatory (aka the Citizen Services Office of the American Embassy).

But mostly, I drove. My little Ladybug has lived in Nairobi for a quite a while, and she navigated the potholes, hills, speed bumps, and roundabouts pretty well. I put her through her paces; my primary goal for the week was to know I could get around Nairobi.

For those of you who haven't had the joy and thrill (well, mostly thrill) of driving in this part of the world, let me summarize a few of the reasons it's more exciting: 1) Right hand drive, left hand shift. 2) Lanes are a loose concept. 3) Roundabouts are big, multi-laned, and unavoidable. 4) Matatus (mini-buses) are constantly having to pull over, stop, get more passengers, and then frantically merge and accelerate to pass their competition. 5) Cops are mostly on foot, armed only with hats and flashlights, and they have big pockets for dealing with offenses they make up on the spot, like missing fire extinguishers or first aid kits. Avoiding eye contact is key.

But even in the face of all these obstacles, I knew it would be psychologically good for me if I could get around confidently. I also knew I was scared, and bringing someone else along for the ride would only make it worse- more than one person would be crying. And finally I knew I needed a plan that involved rewards, preferably food, in order to get myself to do this. So last Tuesday, I took a deep breath, my map, and my gift certificate for a phenomenal Italian restaurant, and set out. I was wildly successful, avoiding any collisions, navigating several roundabouts, and discovering quite by accident just how close together many of my favorite restaurants are. True, I discovered this by missing a few turns, but that's the glory of a roundabout: you just go around again!

One great thing about living here is that you realize that, at some point, all food was based on reality. No matter how packaged and processed and cream-of-something-or-another normal food is in the US, at one point deep in its history, you could actually create some version of it from things that came out of the ground. Amazing. There is nothing like a scarcity of convenience foods and a plethora of produce markets to convince a person of this fact. So my edible rewards for driving bravery were well-considered: there is great food to be had in Nairobi. On this particular day, I ate the great-granddaddy of the fried cheese stick- a 3 inch round morsel of mozzarella cheese, accentuated by eggplant, pesto, and roasted red pepper in the center. Yummy!

And so of course I was inspired to try new adventures and more good food the next few days. As I slowly extended the distance I felt comfortable traveling, I wondered at all my experiences that, put together, made driving here not that bad. I had learned to drive stick on hills as part of growing up in Los Alamos. I could already shift with my left hand, a rare skill developed in middle school when my mother had shoulder surgery. Nairobi traffic doesn't seem that bad compared to Bangkok, and some would argue that I am a naturally aggressive driver (One friend tells this pithy anecdote: "Well, we made it to Utah and back in record time. Only one vehicle passed Jessie. It was an ambulance." He exaggerates. I remember at least 2 passes: the ambulance and the car following it). Anyway, driving went well, and now that I've accomplished it, I feel quite comfortable getting to the various areas of town.

So when you come to visit, I can pick you up at the airport and take you to the best places to eat, all sans tears. What a worthwhile Spring Break!