Top 5 Differences Between Kenya & Australia & How Thongs Can Be Misunderstood!

Comparison can be fun!

In previous posts on my blog, I wrote about our family relocating from Kenya to Australia because I wasn’t happy about certain aspects of living in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya.

Importantly, I’ll put this on the table and leave it here…..

Kenya is a beautiful, vibrant, wonderful, and amazing country with even more amazing friendly and welcoming people, diverse culture, and lots of goodness that I won’t list here to avoid sounding like Magical Kenya, Kenya’s tourism promotion agency!

Suffice to say it’s a beautiful country.

However, my dissatisfaction with living in Nairobi was a very personal position.

There were certain things I couldn’t tolerate in the long term – primarily crime, gridlock traffic and unabated corruption.  

For example, I hated, hated, hated driving in the Nairobi traffic! Ironically, Riyadh traffic is to be seen to be believed – a jaw-dropping experience, guaranteed!

In Nairobi, my family and I lived about 15 minutes maximum (no traffic) from where I worked (Riara Road to Upper Hill). On a good day, it would take me about 30-40 minutes to drive to work mostly using what Nairobi colloquialism call “panya routes”, to avoid traffic going into work.

‘Panya’ is Rat in Swahili…. in a nutshell, “panya routes” are short cuts – but no rodents or wildlife are involved in said routes!

But traffic isn’t unusual or unexpected about living in a bustling city like Nairobi. So, what gives?

I was particularly frustrated with the “matatus” – these are mini-buses that are used for public transport. They could be quite disruptive on the roads and would inevitably affect the flow of traffic. As did unruly drivers.

There was Traffic Police presence on the roads that occasionally helped to direct and ease the flow of traffic, but in some cases, it could be a lost cause.

The day the camel’s back was broken was when it took me 5 hours to drive home from work!

5 hours! In nose-to-tail traffic for a 30-minute commute! It literally took me the duration of a flight from Nairobi to Dubai to get home. I was done!

My reflection is historical, as reflections tend to be. This is by no means what Nairobi is like now, in 2022, because I have not been in Nairobi since 2017.

I am informed that so much has changed, of course, such as new roads and by-passes built to ease traffic flow. And it’s helped, which is great.

I look forward to being witness to these changes when we finally visit after almost 6 years since we left.

But because this post is an experiential comparison between Nairobi (Kenya) and Adelaide (Australia), here goes:

1.   DRIVING/TRAFFIC – DON’T HOOT, IT’S FINEABLE

Having already described in part my driving experience in Nairobi, suffice to say the driving and traffic (or lack thereof) in Australia was a pleasant experience.

We lived in Adelaide, which is a quieter State than the better-known Sydney and Melbourne, and it was just awesome.

There is an absolute obedience to traffic laws and therefore no room for unruly driving, in my consistent experience. One of the absolute best things about driving in Adelaide is the lack of hooting (or honking the horn).

Probably because you could be fined $123 for the offence of distracting other drivers – totally LOL!

I can probably count the number of times I heard someone hooting, especially at traffic lights. Alex and I would always laugh at the saint-like patience drivers in Adelaide have; it’s refreshing.

Even with a driver ‘asleep’ at the wheel, figuratively speaking, most drivers will give their horn a ‘gentle tap’, or not, as opposed to leaning on the horn like their lives depended on it.

Whereas in Nairobi when the traffic lights turned green, there would be a chorus of hooting in milli-seconds from impatient drivers. I wonder if a potential fine would be a deterrent? LOL!

2.   ‘FREE’ SCHOOLING – WHERE OVALS ARE SQUARE

Both Australia and Kenya offer public (free in Australia) and private (paid) schooling. A vast majority of schools have wide open spaces, otherwise known as playing fields – ovals.

Fun fact – the ovals are not oval. They are square…or rectangle!  

Either way, the quality of education, both public and private, is one of the top reasons we moved. However, the quality of education in Kenya for private schools is also of a high caliber.

We were fortunate to send our children to an excellent British curriculum, faith-based, private school in Nairobi (shout out to Rusinga School) before we left, and when they transitioned to an Australian private school, they did so seamlessly.

On the other hand, public universities in Kenya on quality of education are a different story, unfortunately. They have fallen into disrepute over the years due to corruption, rampant student riots and other factors that do not give us confidence to send our kids to these institutions of higher learning.     

Australian universities in comparison are of the highest reputation worldwide. There’s alternatives to university called TAFE ( Technical and Further Education), which is vocational education and training provided for kids who do not pursue university. Both student outcomes are excellent because of the quality.

The cherry on the cake is that most Aussie university degrees are paid for by both students and the Federal Government.

The Government subsidizes the full cost of the degree, and students pay the rest. Additionally, student loans are not as crippling as those in the United States, for example, where debts run into eye watering thousands that students struggle to pay back for years.

Kudos Australia!

3.   NO CRIME – YOU JUST FEEL SAFER…

The possibility of getting car-jacked at my gate or elsewhere as I drove home from work was a real possibility and a persistent fear I harbored.

Even something as simple as my husband going to pick take-out to bring home would worry me.

Granted, Nairobi is not the Wild Wild West where guns are going off left, right and center, but it’s enough that I know several people who have been bundled into the boot of their cars and endured traumatic experiences in the hands of criminals.

I needed my kids, our family, to be safe. I needed to feel safe!

I needed the assurance that once my kids were eventually able to drive, they too would be safe and not subjected to some senseless crime.

Upon our move to Australia, one of the biggest gains I made was peace of mind. Carjacking for example is non-existent in comparison to Nairobi. Our neighborhood was safe to walk in, day or night. The feeling of safety was almost tangible.

And no, Australia is not crime free, but never once did I worry about it. This, for me, is priceless.    

4.   HEALTH & SOCIAL SERVICES – THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIFE & DEATH?

Australia has a highly regarded universal health care, Medicare, that gives her citizens and permanent residents access to a wide range of health and hospital services at low or no cost.

When my daughter broke her arm and had to be hospitalized to undergo a minor surgical procedure with an overnight hospital stay, the experience was made a touch easier by not having to worry about covering unanticipated costs for her treatment.

The medical care was excellent, start to end.

Many a horror story have I read and heard about Kenyans being denied treatment, even in emergency situations, without an upfront cash deposit being made.

When it comes down to life-or-death situations, I would want to be in a Medicare available hospital, not otherwise.

5.   LIFESTYLE CHANGE – PARKS, BARBEQUES & THONGS

One of the most immediate tangible benefit to moving to Australia was the lifestyle change.

I found that a work-life balance was almost a guarantee in Australia than in Kenya. The lifestyle and environment we adapted to was pretty stress free. You can feel it in the air!

I particularly loved that there’re kids’ playgrounds and parks at virtually every corner and a great majority are fully equipped with well-maintained swings, slides, climbing frames, play courts and everything that kids need to have hours of fun in the sun.

In said playgrounds, barbeque facilities are provided and kept well, respected by the public and maintained by the council of the area.

Safe jogging trails, running tracks, cycling routes, picnic areas, outdoor shaded areas, toilet facilities… hey, some bathroom facilities even have soft music playing as you’re utilizing the facility – Beethoven in the Bathroom!  

And nothing says relaxed lifestyle more than thongs in Australia.

Thongs = flip-flops/sandals in Australia, worn pretty much everywhere. But thongs = skimpy underwear (or swimsuit) in Kenya and likely everywhere else in the world!

Makes for some pretty confusing conversations if one is referring to the other meaning, in matters of dress code.

CONCLUSION

Kenya and Australia may have more similarities than differences but it has been and is largely wonderful living in both countries.

It’s a privilege we do not discount that we are able to live in either country – we have the freedom of choice and more importantly, our kids do because they have their whole lives ahead of them.

Hakuna matata! No worries!