30 Days

With only 30 days left in Kenya, I find myself reflecting on my time here. Was it worth it?

Pros

• Learning a lot about the East African markets and about the company I work for
• Having an excellent supervisor 
• Meeting absolutely wonderful friends, who often helped me forget my homesickness
• Having wonderful room-mates and cozy movie nights 
• Getting to travel to Zanzibar and Rwanda, and making two short weekend trips outside Nairobi
• Finally getting my projects at work up and running

Cons

• Missing home a lot (especially when loved ones have not been well)
• Sitting alone at the office a lot when my boss has been travelling
• The culture shock I experienced, even though I thought I wouldn't 
• Bad weather: the rains have been heavier than in years and we've been experiencing same temperatures as Helsinki
• Worrying about finances and not having a budget to do everything I would have wanted to do (weekend trips to the coast, the more expensive activities in Nairobi and a vacation in Uganda had to be crossed off from the list)
• Worrying about the future and if this internship will really open the doors I was hoping it would
• Getting my projects up and running too late, with no time left to see them through

Looking at this Pros/Cons-list one would be tempted to draw the conclusion that it's not been worth it. However...

Before coming here I had two goals for this internship: do a great job and get someone from the inside to recommend me for other similar jobs in the future. After 5 months of all those cons listed, I am relieved (and somewhat proud) that I can say that I've reached both goals. My supervisors have been very happy with my work and are going to be my references in the future. This makes it worth it all.

So what's next? In 30 days I will return home to my L and my family. I get to see my grandfather and all the five precious babies my friends have had during my time here. I can't wait.

It remains to be seen if this internship turns into concrete professional opportunities, but at the moment I'm inclined to feel optimistic. I have a couple of leads for jobs in Helsinki, but if none of them work out, I'll just focus on finishing my Master's degree.

That's not a bad plan either.

"It happens sometimes. Friends come in and out of our lives, like busboys in a restaurant."

When I moved to Nairobi, I was very nervous about what kind of room mates I was going to have. Having lived with one person for the past 5,5 years, it was weird to think that during my time in Kenya, I might share a house with several strangers, or at best, new friends.

Since I arrived on Jan 31st, every one of the people living here at the time have moved out. Except for me.

The Ugandan and I only stayed here together for my first month and a few weeks later the American moved in.
The Indian flew back home a couple of weeks ago and that's when the Swiss moved in.
The German moved out not long after that, which left room for another American to move in.

And there you have it. Suddenly I'm the one with seniority at the flat - in regards to time spent in Kenya, but also actual age. Now all of the tenants are interns (one for the Swiss Embassy, one for UN Women and one for WFP) and trying to make the most of Nairobi on a budget. They are ready to crack open a bottle of wine in case there's a blackout and they're always up for another episode of Top Chef.

No further changes in tenants are expected as I should be the next to leave.......... which will be in 54 days - as my newly installed countdown calendar on my web browser tells me.

Going the distance

You know that feature on Facebook that shows you the posts you've made on that exact day during the previous years? 

Here's my memories from this day:

It was my second day at my old-new job and there was going to be a party. Elina introduced me to someone: "Auri, this is Lauri - Lauri, this is Auri". Thank goodness she did!

A week later: "I'm ready to change my relationship status if you are". :)

I don't think I could have done it if it wasn't for L jumping first!

One of the most beautiful quotes I know.

I was so excited about dating a guitarist and kept bugging him to play me something. Being that his thing was mostly melodic death metal, he said he didn't know that many pop songs. Then he played this to me. It's been our song ever since.

Ha, I think this was when I had gotten in a fight with L, who didn't want to do anything special for our anniversary. Being upset, I arranged a really nice day for myself with Siri and Katarina! 

L told me afterwards that he almost didn't go to the party, because he was very tired. Fate?

The roses withered and the bonsai didn't survive the Finnish winter... But you can always buy more roses and another bonsai!

I had gotten a gift certificate from Babo, Marcus & Johan and we celebrated the anniversary by having Ethiopian for the first time.

This year, on our 7th anniversary, I am in Kenya preparing for a birthday party I'm organizing, and L is at work back home in Helsinki, and maybe going to see a movie later today.

Every day since I came here, I've missed him and almost weekly I have had the urge to go back home. However, this internship is an excellent opportunity for me and L has been nothing but supportive. I've met people here who've had to choose between a relationship and pursuing their dreams. I know also some people who would never dream of going, because the long-distance is too scary. Sure, I've been worried at times, but L has been like a rock. "You go, you do what you need to do for six months. Internet works, phones work, planes fly. And then you come back." His calmness makes this journey so much smoother. It is exactly like Sheryl Sandberg says: A successful woman needs someone like that beside her - someone who is an equal life partner and supports them in their careers. Thank you L for being that to me.

But... the distance can be difficult. Luckily I found an amazing idea on Pinterest. It was posted by a woman, who was going to go abroad for 6 months. She wrote letters for her boyfriend to open while she was away. I started preparing the letters for L in November and by the time I gave him the box of envelopes at the end of January, there were 24 of them! Making them was a lot of fun and I think it helped me process the thought of going far away.

You can come up with almost anything for these "Open when"/"Avaa kun"-letters. I made one for events like Valentine's day, his birthday, our anniversary but also public holidays like Labor day (which was filled with snacks I know he wants the "day after" :P)

For many of the letters the envelope only had a clue in it, to direct L to find something in our home. The Valentine's Day present was stashed in the footstool in our living room. When I've told about this idea to my friends, many have commented: "What if he searches the whole house after that to find all the things you hid there" Ah, but they don't know my L. His self-control is off the charts. He hasn't even opened half of the letters yet, and there's only 8 weeks left! 

All kinds of presents and gifts can be put in the envelopes, not only poems and love letters (which might not be in the receiver's cup of tea). I think it's important to try to think: What would your partner appreciate? as opposed to: What would I want?
 This was "Open when you don't know what to do in the weekend" and contained a couple of movie tickets.

This was so far the hardest clue. It was "Open when you can't think of anything proper to cook" and in the end he found the two cookbooks we have in our kitchen and bookshelf. I had chosen a few recipes and labeled them with post-its. This was induced by my worry of him only eating noodles and sandwiches while I'm away - a worry since then deemed unnecessary.

There are still plenty of fun envelopes to open and these are examples on what L has opened already. If you're reading this and you know some of the letters I've made, please, don't spoil! :)

I'll Skype with L after he gets off work and then he'll open the one labeled: Open when it's our anniversary. I stashed it in our house just in case he wasn't able to come to Kenya for this day. I'm happy I did. :) 

Hyvää vuosipäivää, L. Kohta mä tuun kotiin.

Party, party, party

My friend Katarina said that it seems that I'm always on the go, attending awesome parties and meeting cool people. In a place like Nairobi you will easily find fun stuff to do during the weekends, but the internship budget restricts those options somewhat... Some days are actually highly ordinary, but lately I've had quite a few fun days!

I turned 29 a week ago (and no, no age crisis here!). L was supposed to come visit me on my birthday and our 7th anniversary  (June 6th) but couldn't due to work schedules, and so I was struggling with birthday blues a bit.

A couple of weeks ago I got a lovely package from home. My clever pappa had walked into the HQ of our company in Helsinki and asked them to send over something in the internal mail. It was such a surprise! Kiitos pappa!

My homesickness hasn't unfortunately eased and initially I was so bummed out about not being able to spend my birthday with the one person I wanted to, that I didn't want to celebrate it at all. But a couple of days before I thought: should I cry myself to sleep or actually organize something fun? I opted for the latter and decided to make the most of it.

My birthday (May 29th) was on a long weekend due to the public holiday Madaraka Day (June 1st), and many were travelling then, so I decided to have a mellow hangout at home on Friday and a bigger birthday party next week.

On my birthday morning I Skyped with L and got to hear him sing 'Happy birthday' to me, like he has done every birthday morning for the past six years - how great is it to be able to keep a tradition like that going even if you're not in the same country? Kiitos L.

Thank you also to all for the congratulations from around the world!!

Later that day I came home from work and found out that the American had gotten some birthday decorations for me! I've never had a sign that says 'Happy birthday' before! Kiitos Sarah!

I had the pleasure of spending the evening with my roommates the American, the German and our newest addition Oona the Swiss, who's South-African darling was visiting, as well as two awesome ladies, Alma the Finn and Nancy the American. Kiitos!

We had some pizza's and wine, and played a movie trivia quiz on a web-based game called Kahoot - I've played it with my students but it worked fantastically with a group of adults, too! 

The next day I got the sweetest birthday gift - kiitos Nancy!

 In preparations for the bigger bash this Saturday, I baked some korvapuusti (cinnamon rolls) with the American and the Swiss on Wednesday evening. They turned out nice! 

Yesterday I got a sweet postcard from mamma, kiitos! 

After work I went to the official launch party for Uber taxi service. I had met the launcher for it at a Digital Fair that I attended a while back, and got the invite to this really cool event through him. I was stoked to go, but since I was flying solo, I wasn't sure how fun it was going to be. 

My worries were in vain, as usual, since right off the bat I met a very nice lady working for a food-delivery company. I had met her at the Digital Fair, too. She introduced me to a real estate agent/upcoming artist in Nairobi, who in turn introduced me to a publicist for a cool Kenyan DJ, who in turn introduced me to her boyfriend, who's the spokesperson for a music-sharing platform. Now, this guy knew a lot of people and introduced me to many; one of which was a guy working for largest teleoperator in Kenya - someone I wanted to ask a couple of work-related questions. The event was held at a trendy venue, suitable for this young, beautiful and fashionable crowd. I was so happy I got to go! 

Which brings us to today. Since my boss is travelling, I have the pleasure of attending the Constitution Day reception at the Embassy of Denmark on his behalf. I'm not quite sure what to expect, but presumably it's something calmer than last night. ;) 

After an early night today, I'll have the energy to party tomorrow at my birthday party, yey! I've invited pretty much every awesome person I've met in Nairobi so far (few from last night), and I was very pleased to note that I got to invite around 25 people, 18 of which have RSVP:d yes! With friends bringing friends, I have a feeling the party will be pretty great. 

So all in all, this has been a wonderful week thanks to many wonderful people in my life! :) 

Have a good weekend, everybody!

11 weeks

77 days left. 

The silver lining in homesickness is that you realize how many dear people you have in your life. 

The downside is you start to question if you're really built for this expat lifestyle...

Happy Mother's Day, mamma.

Two sides of the same coin

I got an interesting comment on my last blog post from a dear friend of mine. With her permission I share it to you now, so you can get the other side of the story...

"I lived there for almost 2 months. It's amazing what they, Rwandans, have done after the genocide. It's a shame that the hatred is deep down in their bones. 

My first days there were heavenly. As I started interacting with the locals, I realised they are very suspicious of anyone and that is because Kagame, the president, has thousands of spies and anyone that talks ill of him or the government, is arrested. Democracy there is dead. I don't know if you noticed but the people there are not very lively like here. There is an air of tension.

There is quite a lot I can tell you about my experience there. You got most of it right on your blog but some, no. The Tutsi and Hutus were not classified by the Belgians. The Rwandans had a caste system and they divided themselves as so. The Tutsi were cattle herders while the Hutus were farmers. Hutus could rise up to the status of being known as a Tutsi if they acquired a certain number of cows. When the Belgians arrived, they used this caste system to divide and rule them. They went to the Tutsi telling them they were alike in looks (light skinned, sharp noses) and gave them high positions of power. They then went to the Hutus and told them they were foolish to be "ruled" by a minority group (Hutus make up the majority of Rwandas population). This created tension and it led to the first (though minor) genocide in 1952 (or so). The second one was in the 70s and the 19994 was the culmination of it all.

It is a lovely country and the people need a strong though kind of dictator like Kagame as they are very hard headed and very vengeful. I hope they will be able to maintain peace once he leaves the office."

Land of a million smiles and a thousand hills

This post will include a description of my three days, three nights -trip to Rwanda, some practical tips and a bit of facts for the ones of you out there who were like "What? Where's Rwanda?"

There it is. :)

Couple of basic facts:

Capital: Kigali, with a population of ~1,2 million

Population: ~12 million

Area: ~7% of Finland's area

People living under the poverty limit: ~50 %

Currency: Rwandan franc (1 € = 772 RWF)

Visa: apply for advance on the Rwanda High Commission's website about a week before your trip and pay $30 at the airport. 

Official languages: Kinyarwanda, English, French (neither of the latter ones really in the countryside, though, so be ready for language barriers)

Notable things in history: Genocide against the Tutsi (1994)

Other interesting things about the country:

- littering is illegal and plastic bags are banned

- the country is safe, ever for wazungus (= white people) like me and you are actually able to walk the streets after dark 

- Rwanda has been accepting refugees from DR Congo, and are currently receiving 1,000 refugees a week from Burundi 

- the concept of umuganda is enforced by law, which means every last Saturday of the month everyone works to clean the city or work on the environment (we noticed people working to fill the potholes in the streets in front of their house, something I've never witnessed Kenyans do...)

- Rwanda has had a steady economic growth of an average 7,5 % ever since the civil war ended in 1995 and it's estimated to continue

- Rwanda is one of the few countries to have made huge progress in their efforts to reach their 2020 Millennium Development Goals, for example they have cut down child mortality rates, increased literacy

- Rwanda mainly exports coffee and tea to Finland and imports heavy machinery from Finland.

We arrived late on Labour Day eve to Kigali after a 2h 40 min flight from Nairobi (with a technical landing in Entebbe-Kampala, Uganda).
We stayed at the Discover Rwanda Youth Hostel in Kigali before and after our day trip to Gisenyi - they also have a hostel in Gisenyi, but it was overbooked. EXCELLENT staff, clean rooms and all the essentials you might need, for about 15-35 €/night. I recommend it warmly for all backpackers!

Early Labour Day morning we got on the bus to Gisenyi, which is a small town located on the shore of Lake Kivu and the board of DR Congo in West Rwanda. The bus trip on the quality roads (something you only see in Nairobi, if even there!) took 3,5 hours. We used Virunga Express, which I recommend for a nice travel experience (comfy seats!). Sit on the right side for the best scenery on the way there. :) The tickets were around 5-7 € one-way, if I remember correctly. The bus stops every hour along the way, so you can make a quick run to a toilet if you need to. 

The country side is absolutely beautiful! The photos I took didn't really show how lovely this country is. The small villages we passed showed a calm and modest way of life. We saw people working in the tea plantations and sugarcane fields, carrying vegetables on their heads, women dressed colorfully (not your urban style, that you see in Nairobi), kids smiling and waving... I just sat and listened to music while watching the scenery and I couldn't imagine that this is were the atrocities of the genocide actually took place, not so long ago...

The travel advisory warns travelers about going to Gisenyi, since the town is right on the border to DR Congo, and things there can escalate fast. Well, we had a very lovely and safe experience, so don't trust travel advisories blindly.

Gisenyi. Look! No trash in the streets!

We had a very chill day in Gisenyi. After arriving (on schedule, I might add), we managed to find a hostel with available rooms. The staff at the Shadow hostel weren't as professional as in Kigali, and they didn't really speak English or French. Luckily we happened to meet the manager who spoke French, so Oona, being Swiss and fluent in French, managed to get us everything we needed (read: working wifi). Afterwards we headed off to a restaurant recommended to us, the White Rock. Since Rwandan food is pretty similar to Kenyan (rice & beans), we went for an Italian lunch. 

Lake Kivu is a great source for methane gas in Rwanda.  

The Avenue of Cooperation, parallel to the beach.

I wish we had had the time and money to go over to the Congo-side. The visa is apparently $105 for Finns...
TIP: Hikers should go trekking on the Congo-trail (31 km) or hiking on the volcanoes! From what I understand, Gisenyi is not that far from Volcanoes National Park, which is popular for Gorilla trekking, which is supposed to be the animal experience of a lifetime. However, the gorilla pass is as much as $750 + the price for the safari including guide, trips etc. ($150-300). Way out of our budget but if it fits in yours, do NOT miss out on that!  

Sunset in Gisenyi.

Red sunset over Congo.

Early next morning it was time to hop on the Virunga Express again. This picture is taken from the bus on our way out from Gisenyi.

 I really enjoyed going to Gisenyi even if it doesn't sound like much (a day-trip with 7 hours on the bus, Italian food, seeing the border to DR Congo and walking on the beach). Since it was Labour Day, everything would have been closed in Kigali anyway, and after 3 months in Nairobi, it felt good to see some nature - even if it was from the bus.

 My aptitude for daydreaming was induced by the beautiful scenery on our way back to Kigali, made even dreamier with fog, soft rain and low-hanging clouds. It's rainy season in Rwanda, so it had rained heavily during the night and it rained a bit all morning. The clouds were hugging the hills we were driving around and over on winding streets. At some point a cover of the Lynyrd Skynyrd-song, Free bird, came on and I genuinely felt happy.

When we arrived back to Kigali around 11 am, we checked in at Discover Rwanda Youth Hostel and drove around the city with motobikes, the cheapest and fastest way to get around the city. We had a list of restaurants from a friend of mine, but it took some time finding them. Eventually the first place we found was the Papyrus, which we wanted to go to the least, as it was Italian again, but the food was good! 

TIP: Other restaurants to visit: Sole Luna, Serena Hotel, New Cactus, Khana Khazana (Indian), Republica, Heaven (I heard it's amazing, but expensive, ~100€/2 pers.), Bourbon Cafe (good coffee, check cakes for freshness), New Cactus. For more restaurants, check out EatOut.

A must-see site in Kigali is definitely the Main Memorial Genocide Museum. Brace yourself, though, since it is very touching. I didn't want to pay extra for photographing, so I don't have pictures to show. 

In case you're not quite sure on what happened in Rwanda, I'll explain it in a very simplified way: 

Belgians colonized Rwanda, declared some people as Tutsi and others Hutu (based on looks, facial features, how many cows they had, etc.) and favored the minority Tutsi. The people of Rwanda had been living in peace up until that point. Rwanda gained independence in 1962. Hutu's aggression towards Tutsi ultimately lead to a brutal genocide, where the goal was to eliminate Tutsis completely. When the international community heard of what was happening in 1994, the UN gave orders to stand back.

TIP: Movies you can watch about Rwanda: Hotel Rwanda, Sometimes in April and Shooting Dogs. 

At the museum they first had a section describing the events leading up to the genocide, with video interviews on the few survivors of it. It was heart-breaking to hear stories of people (some my age) losing every member of the family ("There were 60 of us, and now I'm the only one left"), seeing their loved ones killed right before them, being betrayed by a Hutu-neighbor... 

Then there was a video viewing room, where the same people told their warmest memories of the loved ones they lost. There was this guy, maybe a bit younger than I am, who recalled a memory of the last meal his mom made him, before she was killed. He was trying to hold back tears and said that passion fruits now have another meaning to him...

After that, when your emotions are already running high, you walk into a section with bones...

But the section that made me cry was the kids' room (If you have difficulties reading about brutalities towards children, just skip this paragraph). 

There were last pictures of children as young as 18 months, and a small plaque with facts about them: their name, age, favorite thing to do (play with sister), description of their character (smiley, playfull, daddy's girls), their last words ("Where can I run to, mom?").... and the way they were killed (smashed into a wall, slashed with a machete).... I've never cried at a museum before. Now I have.

What is incredible to me is that this is all something that happened a little over 20 years ago, and every family in Rwanda was touched by this in one way or the other. It absolutely amazes me that they have managed to find a way to live in peace and rebuild their country together. It truly shows the capability of the human mind to overcome difficulty. Incredible. 

We walked in silence through the memorial site outside of the museum, where 250,000 people are said to be buried. Rwanda has an official week of mourning April 7th, but as the atrocities went on for the whole month, people had brought flowers to the memorial site pretty recently, as some of them were still fresh. Many of them had a note saying: "Never again".

After the Museum we took a trip to the Milles Collines, the actual hotel where the events portrayed in the movie Hotel Rwanda took place, but to our disappointment there is nothing historical about it, as it's a luxury Kempinski hotel nowadays.

The rest of the evening was quite low-key - we had a bite to eat at a Mexican place and enjoyed a couple of local beers at the hostel. 

All in all, a very good but extremely emotional Saturday.

On Sunday we wanted to see a bit of art and we actually ended up seeing up to four different art galleries. They're not that big, so it takes about 10-30 min. to see everything. Local artists mix urban and Western styles with local ones, and it's an okay variety.

 If you're looking to buy something, it would be nice to do it at these places, since they support the local community in various ways.

The galleries we saw were Niyo Arts Gallery, Imeka Art Gallery, Ivuka Arts Studio and Jego Arts. 

We walked from studio to studio and got to see the real way people were living, behind the paved main streets. The rain had stopped before we arrived to Kigali, and it was 27 degrees and sunny.

I haven't been to many African countries but Rwanda definitely tops the list for me. I was wondering about the level of services (people get medically evacuated to Nairobi for the smallest things) and the nightlife (for which Kampala in Uganda and Nairobi in Kenya are famous) but we talked to this one expat-tattoo artist who vouched for them both. I could really see myself staying in Kigali some time in the future. Better get back home and study some French! :)

TIP: The way to the Kigali International Airport only takes 10-15 minutes from the hostel and as the airport is quite small, 1,5 hours gives you plenty of time for security checks etc. Compare that to Nairobi, where it takes 2,5 hours to get to the airport from Westlands, Nairobi due to heavy traffic, and 1 h for the security checks and so forth... 
Coming back to Nairobi it took an hour to get out the airport because of the health checks (in case you have Ebola...), passport/visa checks and getting the luggage. Phew.