A little big town called Boulder Colorado
tris·kai·dek·a·pho·bi·a
ˌtriskīˌdekəˈfōbēə,ˌtriskə-/
noun
- extreme superstition regarding the number thirteen.
I did not even know there was a term for the fear of the number 13 until someone pointed out to me that buildings in New York, and most of America, do not have a 13th floor because it is considered unlucky! Most elevators will either go from 12 to 14 or have floor 13 as 12A.
There are a couple of theories on the number 13 from Judas being the 13th guy to sit in Jesus’ Last Supper table, a Babylonian Code of Hammurabi to the Vikings.
No one really knows the origin of skipping the 13th floors in elevators but I think some guy made an error or was overly obsessed with Freddy Krueger and he decided that we’d all have to go with 13 being an unlucky number.
Tragedies have been known to happen on the 13th dates but that’s just there is only a finite number of days that a tragedy is bound to happen. In all fairness, Apollo 13 did not make it to the moon but the three-man crew landed back safely.
As you were.
Being Kenyan
I did not know there was a distinct East African accent until a couple of people asked me if I am Kenyan. I mean I wouldn’t pick out a chap from Lesotho(Lesothian? Sotho?) by the way the said water. A lady at a H&M store asked me if I am Kenyan and we went on to have a hearty conversation for like 45 seconds in Swahili. She is Rwandese but moved to the UK at 10 and later to the US but her Swahili is impeccable, maybe even better than some Swahili I’ve heard in Nairobi.
When was the last time you heard a Nairobian say ‘Kiti changu’?
So I was at a store the other day and these Argentinian couple was buying some tee shirts and sneakers for their son, about my build apparently, back home. We had some friendly banter on how cold it’s been, apparently Argentina is as hot as Africa right now. He obviously knew a little about Kenya and running and our okay rugby team but he was interested in knowing whether I run too.
Now if you think I will go around lying that I run five or six times a day and I have won at least a medal in the 3,000 meters Steeplechase and completed like 34543 full marathons, then I am appalled. The sheer thought that I would dishonor the one true sport we are really good at, that and rugby. That I’d claim to do a 21k every other weekend is preposterous!
But I did. Let’s not dwell on this.
Cirque du Soleil on Broadway
I don’t know much about Broadway shows, I cannot pronounce Cirque du Soleil right. I have been told Cirque du Soleil is not a Broadway show at all. I don’t know what I don’t know.
But I know I like the Hamilton musical.
We got to go to one of the Cirque du Soleil shows with Kavya and some Andela developers from Nairobi and Lagos. Kavya loves food more than life itself. You need to get you someone that looks at you the same way she looks at food.
Paramour was the name of the performance and it was amazing! I could not use my phone during the show so you’ll just have to take my word for it.
Ain’t No Party like a First Access Party
I have been working remotely as a Software developer for First Access for a couple of months now. The team of developers from Nairobi and Lagos was in New York too for two weeks and we spent a lot of time at the office in the Financial district, lower tip of Manhattan close to the Statue of Liberty.
It was the first time the engineering team was in the same location so we made use of the visit to learn about each other’s bad jokes during happy hour and Chinese Dim Sum lunch at Golden Unicorn Restaurant (mind blowing!). It was really valuable meeting the rest of the First Access team in person and better understand the business model and problem we are solving from their perspective.
We may not have the most popular photo on twitter because we are not Ellen DeGeneres but our elevator selfies rock!
Humans of New York
The best thing about being a Kariuki is that it makes it so easy to start a conversation out here.
Hi I’m Kariuki. Nice to meet you.
Kariuki? Like Karaoke?
Yes. Same pronunciation but different spelling. I can’t sing.
Haha..
See! It’s much easier than trying to pronounce John like an American. I have never questioned all that I know about John as a name until I got here.
I end up talking to so many random people and there is always something to learn when we are not talking about the current president.
Maximo, Yellow Taxi Driver
Maximo moved to the United States from Dominican Republic in 1967 when he was about 10 years old. We all complained about the cold in Manhattan for half the trip to JFK seeing as Dominican Republic is just as hot as Nairobi, who knew.
He served in the army and loves his part time taxi job even though Uber has taken most of the business. He hates the cold and once he is retired, he’d love to spend winter season in the Dominican Republic. He does not drink as much as he used to because he is older now.
He knows his sports history. He describes Muhammad Ali’s as scintillating.
Kenya
Kenya was seated next to me on a flight to Denver, CO and we did not speak much until we landed. She almost leapt out of her seat when I mentioned I am from Kenya.
She is married to a Ghanian and works and lives in Memphis but travels a lot for business. She asked if I was from London, apparently, I have a delightful British accent. Haha.
Either she was being nice or I have picked the wrong accent here. I have a British/Kenyan friend and I sound nothing like her!
Larry and Eileen
Larry and Eileen are a delightful couple from San Francisco that are in Cherry Creek, Denver to spend time with an aunt, about 90 years old. Eileen asked why I’d have breakfast while working on my laptop and we talked for about an hour.
Larry is a programmer and very quiet. Eileen makes original design jewelry in her studio and she is funny! They met at a coffee shop and Larry made a joke about coffee being a drug(you had to be there, at the breakfast. Not the coffee shop) to get it.
She was once a victim of a drive-by shooting but she did not get a single wound because the bullet bounced off a belt buckle she had on. She did not report the incident because it was kinda funny to her.
Oh did I mention she asked if I was Ethiopian? No?
Eileen asked if I was Ethiopian. I am not sure what persona I portray here but i might as well be Scandinavian to whoever I meet next.
Out in Colorado
I have been in Denver, Colorado for a couple of days, meeting with potential Andela partners and it was awe inspiring. Colorado is known for the Rocky Mountains and you can see them from all the towns I got to visit.
Denver was great but I have spent some time in New York so I was not looking forward to seeing another concrete jungle. But I loved this town called Boulder.
It sits at the foot of the Rocky mountains and you can see the peaks quite clearly. It is as well laid out as New York is with a grid but it is not as fast paced. I actually thought it was a small neighborhood until I passed by a number of large offices for notable companies. SendGrid, Github and Oracle all have offices on the same street.
Nothing to see here in lost and found. Beat it.
