People hold candles alongside wooden crosses at Freedom-Corner in Uhuru Park in Nairobi, Kenya, April 7, 2015, during a vigil for the victims of an attack claimed by Somalia’s al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab insurgents at Garissa University College, in wh… — People hold candles alongside wooden crosses at Freedom-Corner in Uhuru Park in Nairobi, Kenya, April 7, 2015, during a vigil for the victims of an attack claimed by Somalia’s al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab insurgents at Garissa University College, in which 148 people were killed.
**TONY KARUMBA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES**

Traveling in Kenya, Where Signs of Security Battle the Realities of Terrorism

demetria lucas April 8, 2015

I knew maybe three things about Kenya when my plane landed in Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in late February: The traffic was awful in Nairobi; it was a “party city,” with the good times rolling as late—or, er, as early—as 9 a.m.; and in 2013, the city’s most upscale mall, Westgate, suffered a four-day siege by the Somali Islamist terrorist group al-Shabab. It’s the same group that attacked Kenya’s Garissa University College on Good Friday, killing 148 people.

Of the few things I knew, I knew the most about the mall tragedy. One Saturday afternoon when I had somewhere to be, I sat glued to HBO watching Terror at the Mall, a documentary about the siege.

Nairobi Day 3: TALES FROM NAIROBI: “WHITE, LIKE YOU AND ME…”

demetria lucas February 26, 2015

Around 7, Cousin G and I headed out to the Westlands. Remember the girl from yesterday who my friends ran into at the airport? She said there was a string of clubs and it was worth checking out. So we did.

We decide on a restie called Havana, which I chose solely because of the name and the assumption that it had margaritas. (They did, but I actually went with Amarula since it’s hard to get in the States.)

10 RANDOM OBSERVATIONS I MADE IN NAIROBI (IN THE FIRST 24 HOURS)

demetria lucas February 25, 2015

I’ll tell my random how I got here (as in Nairobi) story another day. It involves a mother being unimpressed by flamingos and over-concerned (I think) about terrorism, me missing a connecting flight in London (thus delaying my arrival by 9 hours) and being temporarily separated from my travel buddies (while chill-laxing at the Hilton Nairobi, which was a great hotel…. 40 years ago). It’s a ‘lemons into lemonade’ tale, that CBW pointed out is comprised of first world problems in a third world country. I, however, think it's worth telling.