Goodbye Kigali, hello Nairobi: Adapting to Swahili, matatus and ugali

Not so long ago, I got a job opportunity outside of Rwanda—Kenya to be specific. It was not an easy decision to make, considering that this would be the first time I was going to live in a foreign country, with no close friends or relatives. But as one Nolan Ryan put it, it is only by being open to change that one will have a true opportunity to get the most from their talent. I felt that the opportunity was a challenge worth taking, because I anticipated getting new experience and exposure, which, fortunately, turned out to be the case. Obviously, just like everyone else in my position, a lot goes on in your mind and you ask yourself a number of questions. Are the people nice and welcoming? Is the working environment conducive? Will I manage the living conditions? And on a lighter note, I wondered whether I will get used to ugali and sukuma wiki—two popular Kenyan dishes—that I now recommend you try in case you have not yet done so. On a Monday morning, as it is for everyone on their first day, I arrived at the office almost an hour early. No one else was around, so I had to sit at the reception waiting for someone to show me around, and where my workstation was. In the meantime, I recalled the heavy traffic jam, and the noisy and stubborn ‘matatu’ (public buses) on Nairobi’s beautiful roads. A few minutes later, a man walked in, greeted me and introduced himself in Kinyarwanda, and asked me if I was the new staff member. “Yego, ni njye,” I responded, meaning ‘yes, I am the one’. He warmly welcomed me, showed me around and took me upstairs to show me my new office. Later on, I had to meet my new colleagues, and we got to know each other briefly. Over lunch, three colleagues told me they wanted to give me a treat, and I said to myself, ‘who am I to go against God’s will?’ There could not have been a better introduction to Kenyan cuisine than dry fish, sukuma wiki, and ugali for lunch. Very delicious! This being my first time in Nairobi, I had no idea that to live in the city comfortably, you may have to opt for less costly means (and you will always find them), at least for a given period of time. I would book my ‘Bolt’ ride every day, little did I know that one Kenyan shilling is equivalent to 8.8 Rwandan francs. A colleague of mine noticed my greenness, and politely advised me to try matatus one day. Lucky enough, both of us use Thika Road when going home, so she volunteered to accompany me and show me where the bus stop is. She also told me the transport fare so that the ‘conveyer’ didn’t take advantage of my poor Swahili and charge me the ‘muzungu price’, as my former boss used to call it. I would say I am now used to matatus, and I go to a number of places easily because matatus are less expensive. Some people taught me a few but important common words in both Swahili and Sheng (a Swahili-English slang commonly used in Kenya), and some showed me around and took me to beautiful recreational facilities, and so on. My heart is grateful. I hear people argue about the ‘Golden Rule’ vs ‘Platinum Rule’. The difference is that the former states we should ‘do unto others as we would have them do unto us’, while the latter suggests that ‘we do unto others as they would want to be done unto them’. That debate will be for another day, but either way, one thing is for sure; love and kindness are one of mankind’s primary desires. What I have come to realise is that being kind is not hard, or costly. At the end of it all, it is the seemingly simple acts of kindness that matter.

News

Goodbye Kigali, hello Nairobi: Adapting to Swahili, matatus and ugali