Jambo, Kenya!
We landed in Nairobi exhausted and excited, late at night, with no idea what to expect. Our AirBnB home is in Windsor Park, part of a resort by the same name, north of the city in an area close to the UN and the embassies. It feels very suburban. The neighborhood is beautifully landscaped and the homes are about 30 years old and British colonial in style.
There are multiple guard gates to go through to get into the home: a main entrance off the road, the neighborhood entrance, and separate gated entrance to the resort. Perhaps it’s necessary, but I’m not convinced. The house also has its own gate at the driveway (that never worked) as well as a gate at the top of the stairs inside that is apparently known as a ‘rape gate’, a holdover from decades ago where that might have been important, but it no longer actually locks nor is there any chance we would ever need it. I cannot stress enough how safe we always felt, and not just for the guards and gates and locks. For our entire stay, in a hundred uber rides, and at malls and in the city, we never once felt unsafe. I think the kids couldn’t even process why such protections were needed and felt more fear with them than they might have without.
Bright and early the first morning we met our housekeeper, Peter. A young man with a kind face, we would eventually wake to the sounds of his cleaning each day. He cleans the kitchen and outside terrace before we wake and then the rest of the house and the kitchen again before he left for the day. It was a luxury we never truly got used to.
Our landscaper, Christine, tends to all the beautiful, exotic species that live in our yard. The guards at the various gates are handsome, friendly and full of smiles as we enter and exit multiple times a day. “Jambo, Jambo!” they greet us in Swahili. The household staff and security are part of our the monthly rental fee through AirBnB. For longer term stays, our expat friends hire all their own staff (it is common to have full time nannies, housekeepers, drivers and 24 hour security guards at your house gate). These are often people who are with them for many years and these are coveted, well-compensated jobs in Nairobi. It is expected that if you can afford it, you should absolutely provide the jobs, while the ability to have this staff is one of the things that makes Kenya so enticing for expats.
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The golf course of Windsor Park has several walking trails - something we were excited for. As we weren’t planning to rent a car it was important we could get out of our house easily for exercise and play. We eagerly explored the 1920s built (?) resort and were elated to discover the golf course is home to Colobus monkeys! Cute ones with grey fur and sweet faces and lots of babies. They sat in groups on the greens, swung in the trees and watched us from the woods. We were truly in Africa! I knew then it was going to be an incredible three months.
While settling in was hard, and perhaps Rosie never really settled in to the house, our first impression of Kenyans stuck - they are friendly and kind and we were won over by almost every person we met. How can you not love a country where "Jambo!” means hello?
