So I’m pretty bad at talking to strangers. Like, really bad. So when I went to get a haircut yesterday, I was expecting to sit in silence as some stranger cut away at my hair, pay, say “thank you,” and walk out. But instead the woman who was cutting my hair and her daughter, who was sitting next to me, started talking to me. At first I was like “Ahhh, small talk! Abort! Abort! Abort!” But the conversation was actually super interesting and it ended up being the best haircut ever. I was telling them about how I was a student from the U.S., where I was studying in Nairobi and all that good stuff. Then they asked if I felt safe in Nairobi and I said, “Yeah. Our program is really looking out for us here. Plus a lot of the guidelines they give us are just common sense.” They were really happy to hear that. They talked about how the U.S. media tends to exaggerate everything and makes all of Africa seem like it’s hell on earth. And I absolutely agreed with them. After all, in my previous post about some of the reactions I got when I told people I was going to Kenya, most of them were ridiculous. I told them what people had told me and they seemed saddened. “This is my home. This is normal. Any major city is going to have crime, have dangers. Why does America make us seem like we all live in grass huts and are shooting each other to death?” Many areas of Africa are dangerous. Even some communities within Nairobi are more dangerous than others. But to generalize all of Africa as one big cesspool of humanity? Not okay. I knew this massive generalization that is so common in the U.S. was wrong before I came to Kenya, but it was different seeing it from a local’s perspective. I have a lot of hometown pride and pride for D.C. If someone was to tell me, “Oh my god, how could you live in D.C.? Aren’t you scared of a terrorist attack? What if you get shot?” or something along those lines, I would be pissed and saddened.
So, in summary, not only did I get a haircut, my hair washed AND dried (I wanted to keep on talking to them) for 1650 Kenyan shillings ($18.60 in U.S. dollars), but I had a very nice conversation for about 20 minutes. Everyone is a lot less wired in here in Nairobi compared to most places in the U.S. Hopefully by the end of this semester I’ll be even better at shutting off all electronics and enjoying the people who are around me.
The song of the day is the Flash Gordon theme song
A Giraffe Abroad: Stories of a Tall Skinny Man Abroad 