One of the most memorable effects of the Covid-19 pandemic was the notion that work is something you do and not a place you go. Naomi Wanjiru and Jacqueline Njeri exemplify this new working modality.
Naomi spends 90 per cent of her time travelling, and most of that time, she is creating content for her blog, FemmeHub, where she posts five stories every week throughout the year.
She left formal employment nine years ago as she was keen to do something that gave her the freedom to work from anywhere doing something she is passionate about – writing.
“I’d sum up my experience in one word: adventurous. I never thought that my passion for writing would allow me to travel so much,” she said.
Unlike Naomi, Jacqueline Njeri, a Nairobi resident, became a digital nomad in 2018 when she got a job as a graphic design consultant for an Atlanta-based company in the United States.
The different time zones from her client meant that she had to change her daily routine; her work day began at 4 pm and ended at midnight, Kenyan time.
Naomi and Jacqueline are digital nomads, a phenomenon that became recognised in 2014 to 2015 when online communities emerged, and coworking spaces opened up. It is a way of working that thrived due to the ubiquity of the internet, which enables people to work remotely provided they achieved their work deliverables. The first digital nomads were software developers and freelance marketers.
On juggling work, while visiting her clients and touring foreign countries, Jacqueline said a well-organised schedule ensures she can work and meet all her deadlines during the day, and be a tourist on the weekends, evenings or evenings during her breaks.
“As glamorous as this lifestyle may seem, it requires a lot of discipline. You have to remember that the work always comes first, since it is what is giving you the freedom to travel,” she said.
Over time, a digital nomad develops favourite destinations. For Jacqueline, who has been to more than 10 countries to date, her top three destinations are Burkina Faso, Atlanta and Sri Lanka.
Burkina Faso’s rich culture taught her so much about the country that you’d ordinarily not read in books, Atlanta’s fast-paced city life made her feel like home, and her visit to Sri Lanka late last year was a wonderful experience to meet and interact with a team that she had been working with remotely for the past two years.
New cultures, new languages, new lessons
Digital nomads are also exposed to many different languages, cultures and new work environments and modalities.
While Naomi travels within Kenya and finds that most of the people can speak in Swahili, Jacqueline has to learn the basics of the dominant language of her non-English speaking destination such as greetings, placing an order at a restaurant and asking for directions.
“Where there is proper planning, the host acts as your translator and helps you navigate the country and the city,” Jacqueline said.
Part of such travel also involves researching currencies and exchange rates to avoid getting conned or bad rates.
Travel insurance, Jacqueline adds, is a must.
Additionally, Naomi and Jacqueline love that this lifestyle provides a much better income, enabling them to invest, save, and go for impromptu vacations.
The other exciting part of the digital nomad life is that they never have to spend a dime on travel expenses, food or accommodation; their clients cover all their work-related travels.
The other side
On the flipside though, loneliness creeps up on the digital nomads as it is not easy to make friends on the move. This can be very tough for extroverts and people who enjoy being in the company of others.
On top of that, while technology helps them to keep in touch with friends and family while on the move, it can be very difficult especially in different time zones.
It also means missing out on special occasions with the people you love, which Jacqueline adds can create emotional distance.
Other challenges the two have encountered are food poisoning while travelling or subtle racism.
“I think it’s just something that you learn to live with and not let it affect you or your experience of the place because racism is everywhere, even in Kenya, and it’s not unexpected. You just learn to keep calm and just go around it,” said Jacqueline.
Available resources
In the digital age, there is bubbling cache of online resources that a digital nomad can use to enable their lifestyle.
Technology is a constant companion. For Naomi, access to Ms Office for writing, Evernote for note taking and Todoist for managing her list of tasks are important.
Jacqueline depends on Google Meet or Zoom for meetings and Eventbrite for experiences and events in the city or country she is visiting.
Websites like Nomadlist is a global community of digital nomads where they share their experiences and rank countries and cities (Nairobi is ranked 51 with a score of 3.3 out of 5), where they share experiences, knowledge, advice and cherishable moments like Digital Nomad World and Expert Vagabond.
