Off to Kenya (Well, Already in Kenya)!

Welcome to my blog!  In typical Hilary fashion, I find myself "behind" schedule - I had every intent of getting this up and going before I left the States...not so much.  BUT, it's here now!  This first post is going to be a bit long, since I have a week to document.  I'll try to keep it shorter (or just more frequent) in the future...but who am I kidding...we all know I'm wordy, so try to bear with me...or just skim :)

I've been in Africa for a week now, and the time has flown by!  I landed around 11pm on Monday evening, and went straight to the apartment complex.  I'm sharing an apartment with one of my team members while I wait for another to open up for me (that will happen this Friday).  However, I certainly don't mind sharing, and I think having someone else around has helped me with the transition.  My team members names are Vicky (V) and Aliya - both are from the UK and both are super friendly and nice - I'm loving their accents and have already picked up a lot of fun new sayings.

Work this week was intense - we're in the 'current state assessment' portion of the project, and the deliverable was due this week.  For you non-Accenture-ites, this means a LOT of meetings with different stakeholders during the day and then evenings spent documenting all we've learned.  The nice thing is that we've been all over town to meet people, so I've seen a good part of the city.  The work is really interesting - everyone we've met has been so helpful and receptive, and I have a ton of new "dinner table facts" that I'm sure you'll all love to hear when I see you again.

We're working long hours, but there's been a lot of fun as well.  There is a community of about 15 or so Accenture folks here in Nairobi, and they have met a lot of other folks through local clubs, etc.  The end result is a community of about 25-30 people that all love to go out and have a good time.

On Thursday, V, Aliya and I met up with some of those folks at an Ethiopian restaurant.  It was a very nice place - but the power went out 3 times before we ordered!  That is pretty typical here, and no one is really fazed - you just sit in the pitch black for a moment before power is restored.  The food was amazing.  The courses themselves are served on a platter, community style.  You then pick up the food with bits of spongy bread.   The bread is in long pieces, and rolled...it basically looks like towels.  Sounds odd, but great!  We went out to the bars afterwards and had a nice time.  Friday was dinner at Fogo Gaucho - it's kind of like Texas de Brazil.  We hit the bars again after - there was a hilarious band that played what seemed like every soft rock hit from the 90s...but to a dance beat.  Think Richard Marx, disco club style.  Amazing.  Again, great food, great company.

Saturday we got up early early and went to Fourteen Falls in Thikatown.  Beautiful!  There were guys there who make their living doing boat rides near the falls...and jumping off of them.  We chose the latter...brave souls!  We had a spot of tea, enjoyed listening to the water, and then were off to our next location...Mt. Kenya!

Our next stop was the Mt Kenya Safari Club.  Aliya is engaged to be married to a guy here in Kenya - they met at university in London, but he was born and raised here (so her assignment to Nairobi is GREAT!).  They are looking at holding at least part of their wedding at the Safari Club, and wanted to tour the facilities - we used it as an excuse to eat a swank lunch and wander the grounds!  As you can see below, we had an interesting lunch guest - imagine my surprise when I realized it was real, not fake! Sadly, it was a bit cloudy, so the views weren't the best - but still better views than back home.

The president of Kenya is in the background of the picture above - keep reading for more details!

On our way into the club, we saw all kinds of men in suits standing around - come to find out, the President of Kenya had a meeting in the area, and was eating at the club for lunch!  He wasn't there yet, but our waiter let us know when he arrived, so like good tourists we rushed to the hallway - and found ourselves practically on top of the president, his wife and his ministers!  I'm sure we looked pretty foolish standing there - we thought he'd be far away (down the hall), but he was literally 3 meters in front of us! His security detail was huge...after leaving the club, we were still seeing his body guards after we had been driving for 15 minutes and more!  Very odd to see a suited, stern looking man standing in a field.  We joked that one of them could be left behind and no one would ever know.  After arriving back in Nairobi, we had dinner at an Indian restaurant - another great dining experience.

Today (Sunday) was a bit of a lazy day - did some food shopping, worked out, got this blog up and running....first real chance I've had to catch my breath.  Looking forward to another great week...