About Me
American. Humanitarian. Traveller. Safari and Wildlife Enthusiast and Blogger.
Hi, I’m the woman behind Mama Mgeni- and if you have just found this corner of the internet, welcome. Pull up a chair. There is a lot of story here, and most of it involves planes, dusty roads, a remarkable man named Jesse, and a country called Kenya that quietly became the home I never knew I was looking for.
“Mgeni” is a Kiswahili word meaning foreigner, guest, visitor, or stranger. I started this blog as a mgeni- an outsider trying to find her footing in a new city with a baby on her hip and a lot of questions. Years later, Kenya is very much my home. But I have kept the name. There is something worth holding onto in that outsider’s eye- the habit of arriving somewhere with curiosity intact, of never quite taking your surroundings for granted.
From the U.S. to Paris- and the Life That Followed
I was born and raised in the United States, but I was restless from an early age- the kind of kid who read too many National Geographic magazines and asked too many questions about maps. I was fascinated by travel and culture long before I had the means to pursue either.
In 2000, I made the move that changed everything: I packed up and moved to Paris, France. I landed at Charles de Gaulle with two suitcases and the kind of confidence that is really just well-disguised panic, thinking: this is it. This is the beginning. It was. After Paris, I never looked back.
I started my career in the private sector, working for a U.S. financial institution- a path that taught me discipline and structure but increasingly felt like someone else’s story. After five years, I went back to graduate school to study international relations, which at the time felt like a gamble and in retrospect was the clearest decision I ever made.
Médecins Sans Frontières, and the Man I Met in Uzbekistan
The real pivot came when I applied for a position with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Getting that first posting felt like a door opening onto a completely different kind of life- which is exactly what it was. I was stationed in Uzbekistan, and it was there, in circumstances I could not have invented, that I met Jesse.
Jesse became my partner in every sense of the word. Over the next five years, we worked together in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, and Haiti. Those postings were among the most challenging and formative experiences of my life. They gave me a deep respect for human resilience and a very particular kind of humility- the kind that stays with you.
Roots, Eventually: How Nairobi Became Home
In 2010, I got married and decided we were ready to lay down some roots. We did not immediately manage this- roots, it turned out, required more convincing than we had anticipated. But about a year and a half and one baby later, we finally did.
We landed in Nairobi, and Nairobi held us. I am now a full-time mom, happily raising two beautiful daughters in a city that rewards curiosity and forgives a great deal of confusion. I started blogging a couple of years after we moved, at the repeated insistence of a good friend who kept saying, “You should start a blog!” I finally listened. Mama Mgeni was born.
What You Will Find Here: Kenya Tours, Safaris & Travel
Mama Mgeni has always been about the experience of living in Kenya as an outsider-turned-insider. But as the blog has grown- and as my daughters have grown, and as I have had more time to explore this extraordinary country in greater depth- I have become increasingly drawn to Kenya’s safari and tourism world, which is, in my completely biased opinion, the finest in the world.
Going forward, this space will focus more heavily on Kenya travel- safaris, wildlife tours, destinations, practical planning advice, and the kind of honest, experience-based content I wish had existed when I was first navigating all of this. I have been to the Maasai Mara more times than I can count. I have watched a million flamingos turn Lake Nakuru pink. I have cycled through Hell’s Gate with buffalo thirty metres to my left and eaten grilled fish on the beach in Diani as the sun went down over the Indian Ocean.
I bring all of that- the traveller’s eye, the long-term resident’s knowledge, and the practical lens of a mother planning adventures with two kids in tow- to everything I write here.
Whether you are planning your first Kenya safari, looking for honest advice on parks and lodges, wondering how to travel East Africa with children, or just curious about what life in Nairobi is really like from the inside- you are in the right place. I am glad you are here.
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