Map Kibera

Having arrived two full days late to Nairobi, we’ve now started to adjust to the new surroundings with the help of our kind host, Adriel, local partner Levis, and Phillip and Kipp from Sodnet, an NGO here in Nairobi that promises to be a great resource for Map Kibera. Thanks to these four, we’ve had quite a pleasant introduction to a city that is known abroad mostly for its crime, traffic, and as an unpleasant but necessary stopover on the way to your safari. So far, I’m more impressed with Nairobi’s greenery, wealth, and ultramodern conveniences than its after-dark dangers, and hopefully it will stay that way.

Just a couple of things that surprised me about Nairobi, as a first-time visitor. First off: mobile money. I might have known that mobile banking was well established in Kenya thanks to the Economist article a few weeks back, which I read carefully on the plane. I knew that in Kenya and several other African countries, money could be deposited into your cell phone account and sent via text message to a vendor or individual, who would then be able to access it and cash it out as they like. What I didn’t realize was quite how ubiquitous it would be. I learned that you could send money to almost anyone, including the cop pressing you for a bribe. We were even told muggers might demand your M-Pesa account before your wallet. But as soon as you transfer the money, a receipt with the name of the recipient appears on your phone, so wouldn’t that seem to be a hindrance? But convenient, in any case. You can even withdraw mobile money from ATMs. Is this the end of bank branches? The next frontier of finance? Seems like it to me. And my favorite part about it is that it developed naturally as people experimented with sending phone minutes back home via text in lieu of cash remittances. So far, I’m a big fan – and I wonder, why don’t we have this in the US? We’re so backwards with all our “cash” (OK, so I haven’t actually tried this mobile banking thing yet, so I might have to eat my words – we’ll see).

What else? The Nakumatt superstores. Now, as opposed to mobile banking, which really has the potential to benefit poorer customers (as a way to safely store and use money without a bank account, for starters), Nakumatt is a brand designed for the wealthier Kenyans. Like a jazzier, more appealing Walmart, Nakumatt stores are enormous and carry nearly everything under the sun. Only, the grocery store is front and center, and the variety and quality of food there is amazing. There are flashy TV screens near the register to “entertain” you in line, and – get this – the place is open 24 hours. Apparently Kenyans will sometimes shop very late at night in order to avoid the horrendous traffic in the city, we were told. I cannot think of a 24-hour everything store that is open all night in New York or anywhere else I’ve lived. Shopping there felt like stepping into the future.

Now, all this might belie the fact that we’re staying in a quite posh area known as Hurlingham. Filled with enormous glassy new construction apartment complexes with elaborate security systems and right next to State House Road, tree-lined boulevard of embassies and the abode of the president himself, the area is hardly home to the hoi-polloi. However, more than most “developing country” cities I’ve visited, this type of wealth seems spread around the city and suburbs rather than relegated to one gated enclave. In other words, middle and upper class Kenyans seem to dominate a fair amount of the city. All this provides a certain context, and contrast, to the Kibera slum that we will be working in quite soon. Just after shopping at Nakumatt, grocer to the stars, we drove along the edge of Kibera past tiny corrugated-iron shacks sufficing for storefronts. The same kinds of goods could be bought there that we found at the superstore – vegetables, electronics, housewares, cell phone cards – but the shopping experience could not be more different. I hope that this contrast in culture can be illustrated, hinted at, in our map. It will certainly be on display here on the blog.

Only two days late, not bad. Loss of power, rapid descent and no comment from the cockpit, it certainly didn’t feel like a normal manuever. Our flight from DC to Amsterdam lost one engine, turned around over Canada in a set of new-feeling one-engined manuevers, for a landing in Bangor, Maine. Bangor was ready with the unnecessary fire trucks, but not ready for much else. On the ground, sequestered in a wing of the tiny airport, the herd control techniques of the KLM flight crew soon went unscripted and chaotic, and they quickly went for their favorite flight placating technique — food! — we ate the breakfast we should had been eating flying over Ireland the next day.

What followed was a terribly interesting exercise in information mismanagement and sociology, somewhat resembling the tv show Lost. The leading mismanagement theory seems to be that the less uncertain information given to a crowd, the better .. I of course believe that open questions and potential answers should be open, and information can only help. Are they going to repair the engine here? Is a new jet being flown in? Where are we sleeping? Do you know what you’re doing? Unexpectedly, in the midst of trying to surmise all this, I made a contact with an education specialist from USAID, who lamented that a recent survey of Kenyan schools totally overlooked schools based within informal settlements .. we should be able to fix that.

The first bad sign of the plan was 250 folks descending an escalator to a tiny landing on the floor below, with much hollaring preventing impactful disaster. Herded onto buses, off into the Bangor night, we arrived at the Hollywood Casino Hotel, and to a single night attendant who saw no need to modify the normal checkin routine for 80 grumpy guests, a procedure which lasted til 2am. His instructions were to fill available rooms, maybe 53, until the hotel was full and then call the airline to pick up the remainder for transport to another hotel. An inhumane plan, so I decided to count, democratically filling the incompetency of a flight crew on the ground. So down the line, counting who was planning to share, or willing to share with a new friend “for the cause”. This quickly got personal “my wife and I will share one room, but need two queen beds” was the response of one Indian gentleman.

My ideals of openness are often tested. Some self-reliant folks at the back of the line had called the airport hotel, steps away from where we boarded the bus, and found they held 30 rooms for KLM and there was no line. We were uncertain about if we qualified for this, perhaps only first class and the crew, but decided to taxi and go for it. The test to myself .. how should this information be shared with the restless crowd of the Hollywood Casino Hotel? I decided a general announcement of rumored relief could cause a riot, so shared just to a couple individual points, and taxied off to what was an easy, free night at the Bangor Airport Sheraton. Had I become the authoritative judge of information sharing?

The next day, clans formed in the airport waiting areas (the restaurant featured an awesome lobster roll sandwich actually), and rumors swirled. A pretty reliable message of a late evening replacement plane arrival from a Sheraton co-conspirator, was quickly squashed as rumor by the lead flight attendant — “the captain has not yet decided with Amsterdam” — was eventually shown an attempt at authoritarian information control. That’s exactly what happened, and I would’ve known that a plane was due anyhow if I had checked Flight Aware for the newly created route of Amsterdam to Bangor (also soon found the record of our original flight, and the distress call). Twitter also played a roll in undermining official information flows, with my late night play by play, getting the attention of a local newscaster, who sent out a team to report, and broadcast. They tried to find me, but came apon another very competent eyewitness with a beard, Matthew Briggs.

We were off to explore Bangor, home of the largest runway in the US, former main refueling jump for trans-Atlantic flights, former home of the largest radar array in the world (to see those Russian nukes raining down), one of the most industrious lumber towns of the 19th century, AND home to Stephen King. I learned all this on the most lovingly crafter Wikipedia article on Bangor. The town was beautiful in a way too few small American towns have retained.

We also got to explore Amsterdam, in only a sleepless haze, after missing yet another connection and having to argue for a cheap hotel room courtesy KLM (Boo KLM!). We visited the sights .. the red light district, Residence le Coin hotel where the OSI scholarship crew stayed for State of the Map, and the Reijksmuseum. From there, it was pretty uneventful and normal to our landing in the perfect temperature evening of Nairobi.

Welcome to the blog for Map Kibera! Welcome Map Kibera Blog!

This is where we’ll be writing extensively about the experience of mapping Kibera, the important events, the incidentals, the Nairobi scene, the fun and excitement and the challenge. Everyone on the project is welcome to contribute here .. the participants from Kibera, the volunteers from greater Nairobi, our awesome partners, friends, and Mikel and Erica day to day.