[Kenya] I Have Finally Made It To Africa

My first chapter in Nairobi, which lasts for nearly 2 months, has come to a close.

I have been pushing boundaries over the past decade. From the grade 10 kid who thought Hong Kong would be the end game, to the freshman who planned to stay in China for the rest of his life, to the sophomore who aimed at moving to Germany or US / Canada, to the fresh graduate who intended to settle in Southeast Asia, to the Gustav now who has already lived in Central Asia and South Asia, my life course transitioned from blindly following the mainstream to a process of constantly challenging and invalidating popular beliefs.

A few years back, I once told someone who was close to me at that time that I could see myself living in Africa one day for its economic prospects, and I was met with ridicule. She was part of the majority outside of the continent who held deeply misled perception of how life here looked like.

1 year ago, I started to see on Instagram how developed East African capitals nowadays were. It was like a calling from the universe; I acted upon it and bought a ticket from Nepal to Kenya.

I finally made it here.

These 2 months have undoubtedly been one of the most fantastic period of time in my life. Looking back at the complaints I shared with some of my acquaintances during my first 2 weeks here, it was unimaginable for me at that point that I would end up treasuring my life here so much, and I can even hardly believe that I used to have those grumbles.

I get a taste of digital nomad lifestyle, as I work from bed / sofa while coordinating with stakeholders in multiple geographies to drive website development projects forward. Although my limited budget only allows me to rent a servants’ quarter in a shared flat due to exorbitant housing cost (and overall cost of living), I have the living room to myself during daytime while my flatmates go to work.

Since I work according to Asian time zone in the morning and North American time zone at night, most afternoons are spent on randomly exploring the city on motorbikes. The city is HUGE. The area I stay in is sort of the geographical center of Nairobi, and it is roughly 20km to the southwestern border of Nairobi. The city is so spread-out and green that it does not seem like there are approximately 5.5 million residents here. Most people I’ve met from all walks of life speak excellent English, and almost all signboards and public information are in English. Nairobi boasts what a regional metropolis typically possesses — accessibility of material comfort, abundance of recreational options, well-educated and open-minded people.

In order not to come off as offensive, I will not be specific in my comparison between Nairobi and the metropolises I previously lived in / visited, so let me simply subtly state that Nairobi is one of the most (if not THE most) pleasant metropolises I have ever lived in / visited. I did encounter some indecent harassment and stumbled on various unscrupulous scumbags, but their level of villainy was relatively more tolerable than the villainy I experienced in other metropolises, or I was fortunate that the disturbance and damage they caused were rather manageable.

For the sake of clarification, the “Nairobi” I am referring to only entails particular areas of the city, which is reasonable given that I was also only enthusiastic about certain areas in Beijing, Phnom Penh, Tashkent, Kathmandu. “Apple-to-apple” is a golden principle for sensible benchmarking.

When I first arrived, one of my flatmates who spent some time in emerging LATAM mentioned to me about how she could identify similar elements in daily life in emerging LATAM and Kenya, and as someone who called emerging Asia home over past 10 years, I held the same sentiment.

And this goes beyond daily life. As I am able to draw similarities among innovation / digitalization patterns of Southeast Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, it leads me to assume that the skillsets and business acumen I acquired in growth investment, market research / commercial due diligence, product management in tech industry in those regions will also be relevant in East Africa.

I booked a flight to leave Nairobi during my first 2 weeks here, hence I will be outside of Nairobi for a while, but I am going to return since it is a round-trip ticket. And I can’t wait to return.

I am still striving to gain my footing in Nairobi, the stance of which as regional tech / innovation hub makes it an exceptional training ground and propeller for my career advancement in product management and tech investment; its outstanding comprehensive inhabitability also makes it a place where I can see myself staying over the next few years without getting bored.

Nairobi keeps reminding me of a particular Southeast Asian capital, one that I yearned to live in but sadly was only able to visit on trips.

I hope I would be blessed with spending my next few years here.