LIVING THE DREAM

My first week is coming to a close and I am feeling a little lost.  Like a small child looking for my mum in the supermarket kind of lost.  You know she’s there somewhere but you just can’t see her.  I am feeling a little lost, as I am still comprehending that I am here, on my own-but feeling it is the right thing and I just need to hang in there.  I am one of these people that only see things as black or white (no grey) and it is now or never (no let’s just wait) I’m that kind of people.  So that is taking some getting used to-I need time to find a place (I want one now) a job (well not so desperate for that) and to meet people and have a good laugh and start making some new friends (I wanted that like yesterday).  But it all takes time and isn’t going to happen overnight. 

I am a big fan of inspirational quotes, if you’re my Facebook friend you would know, I post them all the time.  I try and post ones that haven’t been done to death and ones that mean something to me.  They work for me, they make me feel better and I found one the other day and I am now using it as my daily affirmation.  I have written it down on a sticky note and I have one beside my bed and I also have one now in my purse.  I practiced affirmations when I was in the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) for the metal preparation before big matches and also in training.  It has been a long time that I have even thought about affirmations but no better place than now, here, when I need to keep my own spirits high.  So the one that I have picked:

Stay POSITIVE

Stay FIGHTING

Stay BRAVE

Stay AMBITIOUS

Stay FOCUSED

Stay STRONG

………mentality is everything.   

I need to remember I am in Africa.

I am in Kenya and I am living a dream. 

My dream. 

It may take a while to get to where I want to be, but I am here and I am going to make it work.  This is my POSITIVE, BRAVE FOCUSED AND STRONG of my affirmation coming out right there.  I have actually been dealing with something else since I arrived into Nairobi, which I am not willing or ready to share on my blog, but to put it simply there were some plans that did not work out, that I had very high hopes on, but after a week, I have decided it was not meant to be.  I have learnt to be strong enough to let it go and be patient enough to wait for what I deserve.  I have also learnt that people are sent into our lives to teach us things that we need to learn about ourselves, the good and the bad.  Life moves on-it has been a tough week to get me to this point, believe me.  It was the last thing I needed with all my other adjustments I also had to deal with.  But I am on the other side-I feel liberated and I feel like I am back in control.  I can do this.  

I now have a local number.  It is the small steps that make you feel like you are getting somewhere.  You need identification here in Kenya to get a sim card.  It doesn’t take long and after paying a 1.17AUD for the card and whacking on 1000KSH (11AUD) credit I am now on local charges which is GREAT as my UK Orange has been costing me a fortune to send messages, killing it.  To send a local SMS if they aren’t on my network is 2c, yes 2 CENTS and if they are on my network it is free.  My message to Australia cost me 11c and it was a long one.  Facebook access is free, if you can get into the internet-it is slow as a snail on my phone anyway, but it is free if you can get on it and I can now start making local calls and get things rolling.  For those of you who would like to send a message my new number is +254 732 441 554.

I have had a lot of down time this week and it has given me the chance to do some reading and playing a billion games of solitaire.  I hate to admit I downloaded 50 Shades of Grey when I was back home in December and just hadn’t got around to reading it.  But I started the first book 2 days ago and ‘oh my’.  I had no idea on what to expect, but let’s just say I couldn’t put it down and I felt a little embarrassed reading it over my breakfast in case people were reading over my shoulder.  ‘Oh my’…..  So I finished the book in just over a day and then I have now down loaded book 2 and book 3.  I finished 50 Shades Darker this morning and I have now started on Fifty Shades of Freed.  They are romantic trashy novels with a twist and they helped me kill some time this week. 

The internet here at the hotel has been pretty good.  It has been down a few times but overall it has been working.  I used Friday to start to look up properties for my catch up with George tomorrow and then I started researching the ‘meet up’s’ that was discussed on the www.ExpatArrivals.com web site.  Meet Up’s are generally groups of people with the same interests, getting together with that interest in common.  The Expat groups are just that.  People that have left their own countries and would like to meet like-minded people, make new friends and share ‘western experience’ that you may be missing at home.  It is a great idea and one that has also perked me up, which is also what I needed for the end of a very long week.  As anyone knows once you start researching on the internet, it takes you in all directions and you find information that you initially weren’t looking for at the time, but would have eventually found it anyway.  It is a big monster that internet and I really don’t think there is anything that can’t be found on it.  I initially couldn’t find anything on ‘meet ups’ in Nairobi, but I found a Facebook group called NES (Nairobi Expat Social).  It was a closed group, so to join you had to be approved.  They have over 2580 members and I wanted to be part of that group.  I hope that they accept me.  Their main requirements were you had to be living in Nairobi, moving to and is a social interaction and discussions forum.  It is not to be used to conduct business.  The reason it is closed is they want to protect the vulnerabilities of all the expats in the group and try as much as possible to keep out undesirable elements.  I then stumbled on a web site called www.meetup.com which is the world largest network of local groups.  So when I picked my location for Nairobi 7 meet up groups came up.  So I have joined the I Am Happy Project-Nairobi and the Friends of Kenya groups, so when they have a meet up, you will be notified of the date/place and time and bam-you have a date with strangers and a step in the right direction of meeting people that are in a similar situation to you.  They want to meet people, make new friends in a social environment, have fun and talk of home etc……  I am actually chuffed that I have made the effort and there is a chance in the near future that I will get to meet some people.  A smile from ear to ear is a good reference.  I also found a web site called www.internations.org’ that is run here in Nairobi-but you also have to be approved for this group and I haven’t received an email back from them yet.  Proactive is the key-and it feels good I am getting myself out there.

Speaking of emails I have sent one to my contact I have in the UN, but in Italy.  I was on my Ethiopian tour with her and her husband in October 2011.  Josephine is in charge of recruitment, but at the UN in Italy and said she doesn’t have any sway here but she may be able to get me the name of the person in recruitment here.  I don’t expect her to get me a job, but if I can get a foot in the door, I would like to think that with my brilliant charm I could do the rest myself.  A long time has passed since our tour, but we have periodically kept in touch and asked if she could help, if not than I haven’t lost anything in asking.  It doesn’t hurt to ask right?  And we had discussed it back on tour-so it is totally not out of left field.  Let’s hope that something positive comes out of that.  I also received an email back from my Tanzania contact and after 4 years there, she is heading back to the UK.  Her suggestion is that once I am here I will slowly make contacts and will find work in one form or another.  The expat scene she said is very fluid and that I batter talking to the ‘oldies but goodies’ who have been here for a long time for advice.  It was that she replied back and her last piece of advice was and I quote “be careful about falling in love with a local Kenyan boy as it is usually disastrous in the end-get yourself settled and organised and be careful”.  Well it is great advice and I hate to say I have been there already with an Ethiopian equivalent and disastrous doesn’t even cover it-but it has passed and I am grateful for her words of advice and she said if I need to know specifics that I could get back in touch with her.              

Week 2 starts tomorrow and I have a few things now to look forward to, one of them my own place.  George and I reckon by the end of this week we should have a place all sorted for me.  This gives me some peace, some comfort and a little flutter-it is the first step to ‘living’ here and I am excited at the prospect.  Shelly has been quite concerned about me this week and her emails to me have been inspiring, making me laugh and also making me cry and that if I ever need too, I can jump on a plane anytime and come home.  She is worried and to be honest so was I at the start of the week.  But things take time, time is what I have, and I have always been lucky enough (touchwood) that things have always fallen into place.  Maybe not always to my liking, but I am a firm believer that everything DOES happen for a reason; you need listen, learn and then move on.   

I need to remember I am in Africa.

I am in Kenya and I am living a dream. 

My dream.