A Black American woman from Texas has opened up about what daily life in Nairobi truly looks like for a foreigner, filming her candid account from the rooftop observation deck of the Kenyatta International Convention Centre with the city skyline stretching out behind her.
Rachel Castile and her husband first touched down in Nairobi in September 2024 for what was meant to be an extended visit. Within weeks, the couple had decided to make Kenya home permanently, and by February 2025 they had relocated for good.
Settling Into Nairobi: Phones, Money and a Place to Stay
One of Rachel’s first stops after landing was a Safaricom outlet, where she picked up an e-SIM the same day. She quickly discovered that the mobile money platform M-Pesa was woven into almost every transaction in the city, from grocery runs to utility bills.
To move money from her American bank account into M-Pesa, she relies on a transfer service called Sendwave.
“It’s kind of like a PayPal sort of system, but it’s like really advanced,” she said. “Super smooth for paying all kinds of things.”
Electricity, she learnt, works on a prepaid token model. Residents purchase a 16-digit code through M-Pesa, punch it into a box at home and load however many kilowatts they need. Early on, the couple occasionally ran out of power mid-evening before they had figured out their average consumption, but Rachel described it as a minor learning curve rather than a frustration.
For housing, the couple spent their first two weeks back in Nairobi in a fully furnished Airbnb before a realtor showed them long-term furnished rentals. They signed a two-year lease, with a few months’ rent paid upfront instead of a credit check.
“It was super easy,” Rachel said.
Food, Transport and the Pace of Life
Uber operates reliably across the city, often arriving in under a minute, and Rachel said fares for short trips work out to roughly a couple of dollars.
The couple have not bought a car, partly because of the left-hand traffic, though Rachel admitted she has since grown accustomed to it.
She described Nairobi’s roads as more chaotic than what she was used to in Texas but said she now simply trusts the drivers and sleeps through journeys.
On food, Rachel has become a fan of ugali served with sukuma wiki and grilled meats, and she even changed her mind about goat, a protein she had not enjoyed back in America.
“A lot of their meats is just a lot more fresh,” she said, crediting local butchers over long supply chains.
Groceries from stores such as Naivas and Quickmart can be ordered via Uber Eats and delivered within 30 minutes, often for a delivery fee of between 50 and 100 Kenyan shillings.
Overall, Rachel says the pace feels gentler and the community more open than anything she experienced in Texas, and she plans to keep sharing her journey online.
