Couch surfing in Nairobi (Kenya)

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On the day I left Moshi to head to Nairobi I was picked up at 6am and guess what? for the first time in my whole stay in Moshi I was able to see Mount Kilimanjaro!

The bus to Nairobi was somehow comfortable and the border crossing was super easy! No problem getting out of Tanzania and no problem getting into Kenya or getting my East Africa visa at the border for Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda! Yeay!

Once I got into Nairobi I had to get a sim card to communicate with my couch surfing host and to my surprise in Kenya they don’t sell you sim cards on the streets so I had to go to a safari com store to get one.

After some time in Kenya I learned that one can’t get a SIM card because it is the law to register every single sim card user because of two reasons: crime and M-pesa.

So, apparently people were committing crimes and tossing the sim card so they couldn’t been traced so now everybody has to register. The other reason is the amazing M-Pesa, or mobile money! In Kenya if you don’t have M-Pesa you are nobody! Literally you can pay anything with M-pesa, you can send money to friends, buy airtime, send friends airtime, borrow money, pay for groceries, deliveries, train tickets and what not. Once I even heard a friend on the phone say “please get me a ink cartridge from textbook center and call me when you are at the cashier so I can pay with M-pesa”… how cool is that?

Anyway, after going to safaricom, buying, and registering my sim card I stopped for some frozen yogurt since I had been craving ice cream for a very long time. I got my frozen yogurt and paid for it the amount of 3 meals in Tanzania for the tiniest ice cream and guess what? I have now become lactose intolerant! haha There is something in Kenyan dairy products that do not mix well with my system and it took me a couple of days to figure out what it was! :( So… No more ice cream for me!

From the ice cream I had to figure out how to move around in Nairobi. In all honesty I was a little scared of being robed in Nairobi but it turned out to be really really safe. Very quickly I learned my way around the city with the matatus (public busses.)
My first matatu ride was from CBD (Central Business District) to Ruaka, where I was couch surfing with a family. The host had told me to go to Latema street and get on matatu 11B so I went around from street to street to ask where the 11B matatu was and everybody was extremely helpful so I got there with no problem. On my way to Ruaka I sat next to a guy who described all the buildings and vegetation on the way, paid for my fare and even got off the matatu with me to make sure I made it alright to my host.

I spent three days with the hosts and it was an awesome introduction to Kenya. My stomach was feeling not good so I didn’t go out much and that allowed for me to spend time with the family. One day I went out with the father, David, and his daughter, Ayleen, to teach her how to ride her bike with no training wheels. The experience was a little crazy because she was riding the bike right next to the road and cars in Nairobi are crazy and my heart jumped every time she lost her balance and a car passed by. Luckily, we ended up in an open space free of cars so she could practice.

Going up to the main street

Oh good! No car can kill her now!

Free Wifi in the hair salon! Based on the look of the salon, I call it a lie!

I learned that the mother, Helena, was learning french so one of my favorite things about staying with them was practicing french with Helena. We took her notebook and exam and I helped her understand why she was making the mistakes and practiced a lot, by the end of our session she had understood the rules and was a pro at going from singular to plural and male/female forms!

While I was busy with Helena, David and Ayleen were busy in the kitchen! It turned out that they made dough for chapatis and before dinner they taught me how to make Kenyan chapatis… So delicious!!!

I ended up staying in Kenya for 25 days while I volunteered at a school but also had time to have some fun and explore around Nairobi.

Before I go ahead and talk about Nairobi I have to give a huge Shout out! to the kindest and most awesome hosts I had in Nairobi: Joan and Dos!

I met Joan through a Facebook group for ladies where I asked info about couch surfing in Nairobi and she actually invited me to stay with them and I ended up not only staying for the time requested, but extended my stay for almost 20 days.

Girls Love Travel Meetup in Nairobi!

Christina, Joan, and myself!

Joan and Dos are avid bikers and embarking in a 3 year adventure around the world next July on their motorcycles! How awesome is that? So we immediately connected with our love of traveling and getting to see the world with our own eyes!

My time with them was very nice, I got to meet some of their bikers friends, got to dance to African beats for Joan's birthday, and even saw how they bbq'ed a whole goat on a saturday afternoon!

Dos stuffing Joan with cake on her birthday!

I was also lucky enough to accompany Joan to visit her mom 2-3 hours away from Nairobi in Nyeri County.

The drive there was great with beautiful scenery and we even stopped to the side of the road to buy some fruit. When we arrived to her mom's house I was surprised to see all the animals that she had! In her backyard she had 3 cows, 6 goats, a million chickens, a cat, and a dog!!!

The mama cow!

Look at all these goats!!!

That night Joan and her mom cooked over coal and made a delicious dinner!

The following day I helped out with the making of lunch! I offered to peel the potatoes but Joan's mom didn't think a mzungu could peel potatoes with a knife so she was very reluctant of letting me help out. After many requests she finally stood up and let me do it. Every so often she would walk by and check on my progress, once she even said "Oh, you are fast, you are almost finished!"

The coolest thing about our lunch is that all the vegetables came from her garden!

After lunch the lady who helps Joan's mom gave me a little tour of the property and walked me through all the plantations! They grow bananas, coffee, kale, avocados, corn, potatoes, beans, sweet potatoes and god knows what else! I felt in vegan heaven!

When it was time to leave Joan's mom and her helper wanted to keep me! They said I should stay for a week since while I was there I helped with the dishes, in meal preparation, swept, separated the corn from the cob for the chickens, fed the goats and chickens, and tried to give Joan's mom as much rest as I could as long as I could replace her on whatever task she was doing.

Moments like these is what makes me enjoy the couch surfing network. By using that platform I get to really experience what the life of people in different countries is like instead of just being the tourist in town who doesn't get to experience more than the surface level of a place. Thanks to all my hosts I truly enjoyed my experience in Nairobi!

About Post Author

Andrea

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!