today was my first day on the job. i got skanked up in american business casual, hailed a matatu, and wandered up Gitanga Road with my roomate Brooke. however, we got quite lost and on our brief morning commute turned into 45 minutes of wandering.

Being it the city for two days now, it has become clear to me the ncessity of viewing Kenya with "new eyes." despite my best intentinos, i find myself comparing Nairobi to the world i konw back home, and of course there are differences. however, the western snobbert that such comparison generates is quite harmful. at times, when i am not being critical of my own thought processes, i find myself acting like i imagine a white european would: the people are novelities, the ways of ife are novelties. more that noce, the industrializatin and entrepreneurship ventures (candy carts, soda shops, roadside shoe repair) have struck me as 'cute'. fluent english speakers also surprise me in a way that i can only classify as western egoism. i hate how i have internalized so many american notions of living dispite my distate for the US. blah.

so, my mission for the next couple of days is to stop living inside my head here. to me, that means blending in comfortably enough to stop being a perpetual outsider. i also want to stop carrying valuables around, so i can relax a bit. finally, i want to reserve all judgement about kenyan ways of life and (addendum)make actual provisions for helping street children because mutal aid ROCKS.