Nairobi Book Fair

Last week I worked in at the Nairobi Book Fair, where HO had a booth.  The book fair was held at an expo center in the Sarit Center mall in Westlands.  At first I was excited to go to Nairobi every day, but I quickly learned what people mean when they say that Nairobi has awful traffic.  Every morning at 6, D and her husband picked me up and we drove through constant stop and go traffic about 14 km to the mall, which took about 2.5 hours.  I doubt we really went over 20 mph for most of the trip.  It was truly awful.

The book fair itself was really fun, however.  Most of the fair was populated by for-profit companies like Oxford and Cambridge, which had really elaborate setups, couches, and giveaways.  Our small booth was in a corner literally behind a large post, so we felt a little jilted from the get-go.  Lots of people stopped by, and while many were just perplexed at the concept of a non-profit (So… you give away stories… for free?), many were really excited by the concept and offered to stay in touch or offer us support.  I even made some personal contacts with people in Nairobi working in my field, so that was great. 

One of my personal favorite parts was my very first experience with per diems.  I lived it up, eating my favorite Chinese food for lunch every day and getting real coffee for breakfast.  On my breaks I wandered the large mall (everything was SO EXPENSIVE) opened new phone lines willy-nilly (costs about 2 dollars and phones usually hole 2-3 sim cards so you know you can be connected to some type of service at all times), and ran errands.  I love malls, so it was fun to be working in one.

At the end of each day I would get home around 7, eat dinner, and collapse into bed.  I have not known the meaning of tired like this in a long time.  It was rewarding, though.

On the last day, we did a presentation at a school in Westlands where I mostly served as Sherpa and photographer.  I hope the kids we showed the site to check it out and use it in their classroom.  At the end of the presentation the principal “challenged” us to donate computers to their students so they could use the site at home.  I get it, but I wish the principal of this upper-class private school could see the conditions we work in at our other sites!  Those kids barely have access to print books at all and can really use the help.  It would be great to open new pilot sites in Kenya, but we really need more computers and projectors to do that.  We only have about 6 computers right now, and some are in tough shape.  So if you are reading this and know a company about to upgrade their laptops, drop me a line! (yatesek@gmail.com)