The Field Notes

◆ The Complete Field Notes

The Archive

These notes were made between June 2011 and the present. Some were written immediately. Most were written later. All are true.

I arrived in America in June 2011. I started noticing immediately. I started writing it down in 2026. The gap is not an absence — it is the difference between experiencing something and understanding it well enough to put it on a page.

The posts below are organised by theme, not by date. Browse the clusters in order if you are new here. Or find your entry point and go where the observation takes you.

Start with The Empty Summer if you want to understand what this blog is. Start with I’m From Here if you want the sharpest observation. Start with The Country of Laws if you want to know whether I like America. The answer is more complicated than either yes or no.

Cluster 01 First 90 Days

• The Empty Summer Psyche
• The Greeter Socially
• BET as a Classroom Socially
• The Country of Laws Appreciations

Cluster 02 The Body

• The Cluster Geometry Socially
• Hurricane Aisle Hidden
• Fwo Psyche
• I’m From Here Hidden

Cluster 03 The Road + Relief

• Texas Is Just Virginia Transit
• Maine in January Appreciations
• The Mountain Doesn’t Ask Appreciations
• California’s Lie Socially

Cluster 04 The Structure

• 32 Hours Psyche
• The Articulation Surprise Psyche
• The Hierarchy Nobody Names Hidden
• The Cherokee Stop Hidden

Cluster 05 The Reckoning

• The Underhanded Country Hidden
• The Accent in the Room Psyche
• What America Does to Your Curiosity Psyche

---

Americans and Their Things  —  Field Notes Since June 2011
One object at a time  —  One observation at a time

About this blog   ·   contact@gabrielmahia.com

◆ YEAR IN KENYA SERIES

This essay is part of the Year in Kenya series — twelve months in Nairobi, April 2025 to April 2026.

The analytical home for the series is gabrielmahia.com, where Gabriel writes on power, institutions, and what holds under pressure. The full reading order — 34 essays across 5 properties — is at the Year in Kenya series page.

Read the Series →gabrielmahia.com

◆ Year in Kenya — Field Series 2025–2026

Twelve months in Nairobi waiting on a CR-1 visa, watching Kenya's Gen Z protests, Tanzania's stolen election, and an American political realignment simultaneously — from the position of someone inside neither country and reading both.

Full reading order → gabrielmahia.com · gabrielmahia.com