americansandtheirthings.com
Notes written across years inside a country that did not know it was being watched. This page groups the essays by theme rather than by publish date.
25 essays. Each appears once, under the question it most directly opens.
Objects and Abundance
Groceries, curio shops, garages and vehicles: things that carry more than their listed purpose.
The American Grocery Store After a Year of Nairobi Markets
The Extension Cords That Never Got Evaluated
Movement, Weather and Place
Roads, seasons and emergencies reveal how a country arranges movement, shelter and relief.
What Nairobi's Matatus Taught Me About American Cars
Leaves in April: What Seasonal Time Feels Like When You've Missed a Year
Speech, Belonging and Social Sorting
The accent enters the room first. The person follows and watches the room decide what it has heard.
Work, Prices and Institutional Leverage
The bill may appear as a schedule, a shelf tag, a monthly total or the morally persuasive word efficiency.
The $1,500 Tariff Bill That Americans Paid Without Marching
DOGE and the American Faith in Efficiency
What the American Grocery Store Tells You About Cost: Household Economics as Institutional Signal
Distance and the American Self-Story
Leaving made the familiar visible again: the courtesies, the information bubble and the gap between what a country says and what it does.
The Things I Missed While I Was Away
Haystack News, Nairobi, and the American Information Bubble at Distance
What America Does to Your Curiosity
Year in Kenya — Field Series, 2025–2026
This archive carries the observer notes from a completed field series drawn from twelve months in Nairobi, April 2025 to April 2026.
The analytical home and the curated reading order across all five properties are on the Year in Kenya series page at gabrielmahia.com.