Ex-pats and Locals

My experiences in Kampala and Nairobi could not be more different. In comparison to Nairobi, Kampala is small, quiet, relaxed. The Ugandans are also incredibly friendly and laid-back – making traveling there really quite fun. Kampala is also noticeably safer, freeing me up to move around and wander in the ways that I’m used to. In Nairobi, I’ve felt somewhat restricted, just based on all of the warnings I’ve received from local friends (it’s called Nairobery by many ex-pats for goodnessake!) Given this, I had the pleasure of exploring more, and that led to a more intimate connection with the city, not to mention finding more western foods and good restaurants to eat at.

However, more than any characteristics of the cities themselves, I think my experience in both has been different because of the people I’ve interacted with. In Kampala, we spent most of our time with ex-pats. We stayed with my friend Branimir, a classmate of mine from Hungary who is now doing environment-related work in Kampala with a large European agency. He in turn, lives in a house with 3 other ex-pats, an American, a Swede, and a Australian. Young also had ex-pat friends in Kampala, mostly from the States. Thus, most of our time was spent with ex-pats in the city, whether it was at restaurants, cafes, or bars, and the conversations we had reflected this. We talked about how hard life could be in Uganda, we heard local ex-pat gossip, we found out that being Asian was a security boon for us since everyone assumed we knew kung-fu, and we talked about how people got to Kampala in the first place.

Nairobi has been exactly the opposite, largely due to how many people we met through Neema and Leo. We’ve been lucky to get to crash with three of Leo’s good friends the entire time we’ve been here, and they’ve even been kind of enough to give up their beds for us. (In fact, they have insisted, despite protest put up by Young and myself that we would be perfectly fine on the couch.) The real benefit to staying with locals though is not free housing – it is the insight and cultural exchange that occurs in those lazy evening hours in front of the television. We were schooled on Kenyan politics, we got a chance to see local pop culture (Love ???? anyone?), and we had the pleasure of sharing dreams and aspirations.

What surprised me most was how open and willing everyone we met in Kenya was to going abroad. Some, like Leo’s brother, couldn’t wait to get to the US and spend some time there, despite the prospect of potentially having to leave his wife and kids in Nairobi. Others were excited to go abroad, to look for opportunities outside of the country, and to experience something different. Many of them would jump at the chance to go, despite having well-established lives in Kenya. While many will just chalk it up to the lure of the West, I think there’s something different at work here – namely the fact that nearly all Kenyans have relatives and friends who have settled abroad. For them, moving abroad is something that is incredibly normal, simply because it actually is very commonplace. They have, somehow, grown used to having great distances between brothers, sisters, parents, and friends - despite, as my talks with Leo and Neema have proved, the universal concern about being so far away from ones parents and family. At the end of the day, I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not.