Nairobi Halloween

My expectations for the holiday were not high- considering I was on a continent that didn’t acknowledge the holiday, not to mention the American culture tied to it. That, of course, didn’t stop me from enjoying every minute of it.

A great benefit of working in Africa’s largest slum is having Africa’s largest second hand market at my fingertips. Never has costume shopping been so much fun.

I decided on Velma, the clever mystery solver of the Scooby-Doo gang, before diving between the stall aisles because the simplicity of her outfit combined with the global acknowledgement of the character. Within twenty minutes I had five different orange “full-necks” (turtle-neck) to choose from, and finally decided on the one I had been able to bargain down the most. I bought the second red skirt I found and a pair of red socks. With my lense-less GPB sunglasses and my hair “cropped” short, I was ready for the night.

We began at Josh’s house, where he and his roommates hosted a Halloween pre-game. Although a fun time, I was disappointed with the costume turnout: only about 20 of the 50 attendees dressed up, an unexpected minority. Most of the night was spent making small talk about life in Kenya with the collection of young expat professionals. Interesting, but a much exhausted topic.
As the party bus rolled up around 11:30 to take us out for the night, a few of us decided to stop by the Frisbee party first. I had received an email from the host two weeks prior, but waved it aside, knowing the crowd would be a bit older than I and obviously could not be as much fun as the younger group at Josh’s.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. We showed up to a drunken mess of a dance party rocking out to a playlist mixed with oldies and new Top 40s in the backyard. And in case awesome dance party didn’t automatically make it a great party, EVERYONE was in costume. Once again, the Ultimate community proved itself as one of the best to be a part of.
Hours of dancing and a few chicken fights later, we should have called it a night. Instead, we met up with friends at a club, managed to loose everyone I was put in charge of, and then called it a night.

Moral of the story: You can be 32 and AWESOME. Fun doesn’t have to end with graduation. And I love Halloween.


African Jack-o-Latern carving. Almost as great as the real deal