I was in Nairobi, Kenya for six days, from April 6th to 11st, 2010. Because I was mostly occupied with the work schedule, I did not have much time to explore the city. I was able, however, to catch some glimpses of the life in Nairobi through the car window when moving from one place to another. My interaction with the people in the city was also limited to short exchange of greetings with people working at the hotel.

Due to lack of time to immerse myself into the local life, it was very difficult to gain insights from what short observations I had about the city. It was as if I could see but I were not able to understand.

The photo above is of some work going on at the gate of Nairobi National Museum. The workers were tearing the gate apart. You need to know a bit more about the city to understand why they are demolishing the gate that looks perfectly ok. Pure observation by itself, especially if you just look at this scene alone, will not teach you the reason behind the work.

I learned that the city is expanding the road all over the area with the help from China. So, the road expansion is the reason for taking down the gate.

My next question is why it is China that is helping Kenya expand the roads. What do they get from it? And where are the Chinese workers?

If I stayed here for several more weeks, and if I had more conversations with the local people, then I would have had better understanding of the situations and the context, which would have led to more effective observation.

Thus, in order to gain insights from observation, you have to supplement it with some background research.