Don’t Drink the Water

After months of anticipation, we have finally arrived in Nairobi. We spent our first day looking at a number of apartments and settled on a small studio for at least our first month here. It’s in a quiet complex (see nice view on the left of a garden from our place) that includes walls, gates and guards (unfortunately de rigueur here), plus a small gym and pool. As an added benefit the complex also houses an internet cafe, Indian spice store, chemist (aka pharmacist), hair salon, and mysterious “doctor” (of what, we do not know) with no patients to be seen or heard of. To make our first day complete, we bought new mobile phone plans and some food staples, spices, and wine for our little kitchen. So tired after day one we crashed at 8pm, only to awake bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 2am. Nice.

The guide book says “Nairobi’s tap water is unfit to drink.” Needless to say, one inadvertently ingests the water when teeth-brushing or eating fruit or salad. Given that we are here for the long haul, we are preparing ourselves mentally for some GI consequences. Reminds me (Stephanie) of the good old days of Morocco, when we could drop 10 pounds over two days of illness. Hopefully our systems will adjust smoothly (after all, Dave can’t really afford to lose much weight).

Sights of note and/or humor: we have to go to the “mall” to do most of our errands (mobile phone plans, supermarket, electronic stores, etc.). To the right is a picture of a diving sculpture in a mall we were in today. The store proprietors are predominantly Indian. The number “69” is everywhere to be seen. We saw a sign advertising cocktails today at a restaurant that said “Comfortable Screw: vodka and orange juice.” Who wouldn’t want a Comfortable Screw?

Speaking of comfort, a neighboring apartment complex is called “Pearl Comforts.” Unfortunately, the spotlights and concertina wire atop the 10-foot high brick walls befit a prison better than a residence. Then again, what do we know. We’ve never spent time in prison.