My conscious life has all been in Kenya, and it's my point of reference. But going back to Mexico was very formative.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I grew up in Sudan and Kenya, and lived in both the rural and urban centers of both countries throughout my life.
Kenya, being a third world country, from a young age your eyes are open to the real world. I'd like to think growing up there taught me to stand on my own two feet, make my own decisions about what I wanted to be.
Being from Africa is the best thing that could have ever, ever happened to me. I cannot see it any other way. All of my fundamental principles that were instilled in me in my home, from my childhood, are still with me.
I grew up in different parts of Africa. I grew up in Mozambique and places like that. I've been in South Africa many times.
When I am in Africa, I always have the feeling that it's where everything started. When I am in New York, I know it is where everything ended up.
I didn't grow up with my Kenyan family. I grew up in a small, conservative suburb of Chicago.
In college, my wife did a study abroad in Nairobi, and I did the exact same program in Cape Town. For me, the experience of being in that other culture really set up a longing. When I'm traveling, things seem really sharp. You learn things ten times faster.
Walking out into the bush still feels the same as when I first came to Kenya in 1989, on the day the Berlin Wall came down.
In Kenya you've got the great birds and monkeys leaping through the trees overhead. It's a chance to remember what the world is really like.
Living in South Africa and periodically coming back to Kenya, my relationship with officialdom in Kenya was just insane.