Down ‘N Dirty

Nairobi-As a city-girl, I rarely came across the four basic elements: Earth, Wind, Fire and Water in my daily commute from the Upper West Side of Manhattan to Wall Street, so I assumed the same would be true in Nairobi. Yet, in a city of almost 3 million people, my life is governed by dirt, pollution, smoke, and of course, water.

In order to get to the bathroom where I work at IOM, I need to walk across a dirt path, that when it rains, turns to mud. Of course, this is nothing compared to the short walk I need to take to get to the main road to catch my matatu (where 2 days ago I got on board only to find my skirt the victim of a huge whole near my butt where I ripped it on a screw left uncovered by old upholstery.) I must navigate beside narrow roads with no sidewalks, trudging along the muddy, dusty, dirty, rocky shoulder. Sadly my cute red leather kitten heel shoes bought in the Stokey in London are ruined and will not make it back to NYC.

If you happen to walk barefoot in Kenya you could find yourself with some unwanted visitors under the skin of your feet. Affectionately known as “chiggers” these lovely guys are larvae which crawl into your feet by forming a hole in the skin and chewing up tiny parts of it, thus causing severe irritation and swelling. Once inside they inject digestive enzymes into you that break down skin cells, and then they suck up the digested tissue. Or this is at least what Wikipedia says.

Fortunately, I have yet to get a chigger, but I still itch all the time. Scott returned from his first trip to his field site with bites all over him. His sleeping bag was filled with fleas, which I have now also been attacked by. Then last night I woke up to buzzing in my ears and itching bites all over my wrists, neck and ankles. We turned on the light to find, and eventually kill, 8 mosquitoes, filled with our blood. Malaria is not so common in Nairobi, but I started taking Malarone today for my trip to the coast tomorrow. I cannot wait for beach and sun!

But back to the elements. I come home each day, filthy. I have zits and dirty hair, both of which I thought the end of puberty had curtailed. I try to wash my locks, but the water is so hard, I can’t get my Pantene to sud-up properly. It’s a combination of dust and air pollution which fills the sky from every car, truck and motorbike that zooms past me as I try to balance precariously on the edge of the traffic.

The air is not just filled with car fumes though. Over the radio waves, the morning DJ asks callers to debate such hot topics as: multiple sex partners in marriage and whether women like men circumcised or untouched. The wind also carries the smell of burning plastic at all hours of the day. As garbage piles up in roadside ditches, it is simply set on fire. From Tetra Paks to plastic Coke bottles, the whole lot burns, while the denizens of Nairobi choke.

I will say one good thing about Nairobi's environment; the water is drinkable. At our house we still do one quick boil of the tap water before drinking, but I use it to brush my teeth and wash my food with no problems. Out in the bush, that’s not the case. Being a polite guest who doesn’t refuse tea with conversation, over the past 4 years in Kenya, Scott has gotten giardiasis 4 times. Fully knowing that the water hasn’t been boiled for 10 minutes, or worse, that the tea cups were just washed in dirty water, he still takes the tea and then gets infected with parasites that colonize in his small intestine. You can imagine what happens next.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some glorious parts of Nairobi. There are huge trees with purple flowering limbs and ones with big orange blossoms. There aren’t that many stray dogs and you can buy beautiful fresh cut flowers on many street corners. Best of all the people are lovely. When Nairobians smile (which takes a little prompting) it lights up my day and I (almost) forget that my feet are smelly, my hair flat, my skin dull, and my clothes coated in dust.

Ps-In retribution for my negative post about the dirtier side of Nairobi, it poured rain right when I was about to leave work today. Rivers of mud flowed down the streets and I had to wade through pools of filthy water to get to my matatu stop. At one point there were 23 drenched people crammed into the 15 passenger van, including 4 schoolgirls whose polyester skirts and nylon sweaters were sopping wet. So much for building up good Karma.