ultimatethor
Senior Member
Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
I once drove (okay, was driven) through the streets of Nairobi and got to see some of the things tourists are supposed to be steered away from. Going around a national capital and seeing burning piles of garbage and eight foot walls with impeded pieces of broken glass around churches and hotels is an unfortunate way to gain perspective.I spent a few days in a Massai village. It was an infinitely nicer place to stay.
Later on I visited a few of the tourist trap places. Frankly it's disturbing to sit in a restaurant surrounded by white people (they "forgot" to serve our guide, who was black and from Africa) and look at the city lights.
That's only my experience in Kenya, however, and I don't know how much of it applies to the rest of Africa.
Nairobi is a relatively good part of Africa. It does like all other African cities have its down sides but it is straight up paradise in comparison to some other places. If u really want to see the terrible side of Africa try visiting Nigeria, Sierra leon, Togo, Benin republic or frankly any other west African country asides ghana. If u visit Port harcourt in Nigeria( where im from sadly) you will most likely be kidnapped by militants.
At least in kenya you were able to look at the city lights, in Nigeria i can honestly say that there has bin virtually no light in the entire country for the past month. My family is a relatively privileged one( theres no way id be on the net now if we werent) and evn we dont have constant government supplied water so we rely on buying water from private water comapnies at insane prices. Those prices however pale in comparison to the amount spent on diesel to run the power generator.
The crime rate is super high and the police force is in shambles. It is only in this country where you are actually expected to give " egunje" or better known as bribes to evry passing police officer. If u dont u will likely be taken to the police station where u will be extorted of evn larger amounts.Structures such as the Fire service and ambulance are not evn in existence.
And id seriously advise against going to any sort of village in Nigeria.
Youd undoubtedly catch some of the worst diseases known to man before you leave.
In all though we are pretty lucky down here because benin republic and sierra leon make nigerias situation look like childsplay