My undergraduate thesis was about East Africa — a deep dive into its land cover and layered histories. Somewhere between reading about savanna ecologies and tracing old trade routes, I made myself a promise: I have to live there, at least once.

So I came to Nairobi — the beating heart of East Africa. Dusty streets bustling with informal markets, slow traffic intertwined with vibrant life, and blurred boundaries between urban and wild. A city where morning jogs pass by grazing antelopes, where broken sidewalks lead to wild green spaces, and where the weather feels like spring all year round.

It’s chaotic and charming.

It’s full of dust, but never dull.

In Nairobi, nature is not something “outside” the city — it’s stitched right into the fabric.

Mountains line the edge. Forests nestle between neighborhoods. Here, weekends might involve horseback riding in Karen, mountain biking in Karura Forest, or hiking on the Ngong Hills.

Nairobi presents both the roughness and gentleness of the African land, and it makes you wonder:

What if a city never leaves its earth behind?