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Dealing with homesickness in Kenya

Last activity 31 October 2016 by jerydeave

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Priscilla

Hello everyone,

Being an expat in Kenya can turn out to be a wonderful human, social or professional adventure... with potential moments of nostalgia and homesickness along the way.

What are your personal tips to prevent homesickness?

How do you deal with such feelings?

Are there shops or stores offering products from your home country in Kenya? Or maybe venues with music and ambiance from your homeland?

Thanks for sharing your experience,

Priscilla

Hasshu

haha! seems like Kenya is so wonderful that no one is feeling home sickness there!

Niinoo

Lol yup
Actually I think the great thing about Kenya is the multi culturism and how small associations , communities group together and maintain their traditions or quirkiness particular to their home country.
It's just a matter of finding it

Maria Lyna

Homesickness... The good news is, if you are visiting Kenya for the 2-3 weeks, there is not enough time to feel blue - there is so much to see and so much to do!.. :) But if you are in Kenya for a longer time and cannot visit your home country that often, then homesickness IS THERE TO GET YOU!!!... Just kidding!

On a more serious note, it helps to be prepared! Here are my 5 go-to tips for homesickness cure:
1) Pack some enjoyable music from your home-country in order to listen to it occasionally.
2) If you have internet, call a friend at your home country and have a dose of some good gossip!.. :)
3) Take some pictures of your family with you so that you can to look at them when feeling blue.
4) Cook a meal for yourself from home-country while using some local ingredients - it should be fun!
5) Better yet - cook a home-country meal as advised in #4 and invite some newly made local friends to taste it. Make it into a party! :0 That should definitely help to get rid of the blues and have some extra fun! Enjoy! :)

joysue

I totally agree either Mariae Lyna.....to add 1 more tip, look for people from your country around.
Especially if you are living/staying in Nairobi, you will definitely find someone from your country. Areas like Karen, westlands, gigiri, muthaiga, parklands have people from almost all nationalities...it may be surprising but Kenya is very welcoming to foreigners who want to invest here or are employed like with UN...so if you ask around, maybe at your Embassy or High Commission you can discover a whole community of people from your native country....you will never feel homesick.
I remember the first time I saw a african (not even a kenyan) in Maldives!!! It was like I had seen my brother!! I almost kissed him lol

nyc2nairobi

I got a bad case of homesickness when I went back to visit home. It passed after a couple weeks. I don't have any special tips other than to let yourself feel what you need to feel and to also get back into your groove in Nairobi.

It passed naturally for me - although I did also really push myself back into my life here in Kenya. I think for me it was more a reminder of all the good things I have here.

Hanniky

Hi Priscilla,

I am dealing with homesickness buying some Jamón (I am from Spain) and doing skype with the family and friends. But the most useful thing is to meet with other Spanish guys and share stories and adventures from Kenya or home.

Another good thing to do is just take a car and go to any of the National Parks or Reserves in the country.

I hope it helps.

jerydeave

Dear Princila,
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