Wednesday in Nairobi

Day two in the office and starting to get a better understanding of what exactly I’m supposed to be doing. After two years at this consulting thing, all projects look somewhat the same at their basic level – define the problem, figure out the workplan, bad answer early or back solve the solution. In this case, I’m figuring out major goals, timelines and project budgets – thank goodness for the PMO work I just finished.

It is emphatically not the Firm, however – slow pace, 5:30 PM departures, 1 ½ hour lunches. Today, a bunch of VolCons went to the WestGate Mall (as someone said, the closet thing to Long Island in Kenya) and had lunch on a terrace at the very euro Art Caffe. The Paninis there could have come straight from the Italian café in the basement of my last NYC client (well, almost). It was very much an expat hang out, and could have been anywhere. The after lunch trip to the travel agent to plan various trips felt much less western – although just like many of my favorite places in the US, only Visa was accepted, not American Express.

Tonight for dinner I met friends of a friend who were working for peace-keeping and aid focused NGOs. Over brightly colored cocktails and bar food in a strip mall, they filled me in on long-term life in Nairobi without the clearly defined time boundaries and structure of my role. It sounds a lot like life anywhere else – Friday afternoon Frisbee games, movie and board games nights, dance clubs – and its very comforting to know that there is a social life here outside of work and through the same channels one would use in any US city. It was only work the next day – and the thought of taking a taxi home past a certain hour – that kept me from hookah and games.