It's the Brrr season!

Sitting in traffic jams sometimes has an unexpected benefit. I’ve wanted to take these photos so I could write this blog for a couple of months now, but haven’t been able to stop to do so. Sitting on Mombasa Road in a huge line of traffic yesterday afforded me the opportunity! These billboards have made me smile ever since they popped up around Nairobi in October! The weather here is far from being “Brrr” (the thermometer in my car was reading 32C when I got home from work this evening!), so it seems that the way to attain temperatures found in other parts of the world during the festive season is to drink ice cold Coke! I can’t say that Coca-cola is a drink I associate with Christmas at all! However, it seems that Santa’s connection with Coca-Cola goes back to the 1920s, and stayed strong for decades! At that time, a campaign was started to connect Coca-Cola and winter, using Santa Claus as an icon of winter, in order to persuade people that Coca-Cola isn’t just a warm-weather drink. It may be something that’s been revived all over the world, I don’t know, but the connection is certainly alive and well here! One of the billboards in Nairobi shows Santa on a motorbike. My parents were telling me that Santa turned up on a Harley Davidson at the switching-on of the Christmas lights in my home town. It’s obviously the ‘in’ mode of transport for him this year! http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/heritage/cokelore_santa.html

Never a dull moment!

Life is certainly full of surprises here. You never know quite what’s around the next corner. I left the office today, much as I do every other day. First encounter on the way home was a herd of cattle, wandering along the road. Not so unusual perhaps if I was somewhere rural, but our office is within 4 miles of the City centre (Capital City at that!). Round the next corner, I discovered that half the road had disappeared! Instead, there was a trench, at least 4 feet deep, and 10 feet across. Bizarrely, there was no sign of the earth / tarmac that had been removed! What was left was a narrow strip of pot-holed tarmac, just wide enough for 2 vehicles, though if one was a truck (as happened), it took a while to negotiate – with lots of onlookers giving ‘helpful’ advice! The purpose for the work is unclear. One friend suggested, tongue in cheek, that maybe, they’re building a flyover there or a super-highway. Who knows?!

Problems with Primates

Well, in my (nearly) 6 years in Kenya, I’ve had 2 monkeys in my car on 2 separate occasions, stealing sweets and crisps; I’ve had a picnic lunch swiped by 2 baboons; I’ve had to keep my windows closed over the hottest time of the year because of a Sykes monkey in the neighbourhood; and I’ve had a male baboon in my car (via the sunroof), and then take off with my cool bag. At one self-catering place on the coast, we were hounded by monkeys, one of which came in down the stairs, via the balcony, and was discovered on the dining table ready to tuck into my toast and marmite (of all the cheek!). This last weekend, however, was the first time that I’ve been robbed inside my dwelling place by a primate. I was enjoying a long relaxing weekend at the coast, following the completion of our accounting year end. Whilst in my hotel room checking out what was on TV, having just come back up from the pool / beach area, I heard a noise behind me and discovered a monkey there! What’s more, he’d already swiped a recently-opened packet of peanut brittle from the counter just beside me. On my shrieks of discovery, he ran out through the French windows, and then proceeded to tear into the packet before my very eyes. There was a ‘friend’ with him, perched on a nearby chair, but ‘friend’ was to get none of it. And all I could do was stand and watch (with the French windows now closed) while he made his way through this unexpected treat. We’re told not to feed the monkeys at such places, but 9 times out of 10, they seem to be well able to feed themselves!!!

Kenya's Hopes for the US Elections

“US Poll: Why the world backs Obama” was the headline in today’s Daily Nation, one of Kenya’s major newspapers. According to the report, Barack Obama is the world’s choice for the next President of the United States. That’s certainly been the feeling here in Kenya the entire election campaign, though very little has been mentioned about his policies, or where he stands on today’s current issues. He is Kenyan (or at least his father was), and therefore the country, it seems, is with him. A number of matatus have had his picture emblazoned across their rear window; I’ve overheard a father in a supermarket teaching his toddler to say, “Obama”; I’ve seen people wearing “Support Obama” T-shirts…. You’d think the election was here! Within African culture, people look after their own. It would appear that such expectations extend to those brought up in the US and Indonesia by an American mother and grandparents. There have been forecasts in the media over the last year of Kenya’s fortunes being on the rise should Obama be elected. In Sunday’s Nation, a number of people being interviewed anticipated tourism increasing due to people flocking to Kenya to trace Obama’s roots (not that he ever lived here!). His Kenyan branch of his family is clearly behind him: “Senator Barrack Obama’s relatives have congregated at Nyangoma Kogelo village and will remain together until after Tuesday’s US presidential elections. They have set aside a bull to slaughter in celebration should the Illinois senator, whose father was Kenyan, win.” Whichever way the election goes, I can’t help thinking that many Kenyans are going to be disappointed. I guess though that it’s taken the focus off last year’s controversial elections here for a while.

Oranges and Lemons

Oranges are orange, lemons are yellow, limes are green….. right? Well, they were all the timne that I was living in the UK. Here in Kenya however, things are a bit different. Oranges can be green as well as orange; lemons are more often green than yellow unless they’re imported; and limes can be both green and yellow! You’d think that after nearly 6 years living here I’d know the difference, but there are times that I still have to ask, or make mistakes as in the other week when I cut a small green fruit to extract lemon juice for a couscous salad, only to discover that it was orange on the inside – it was in fact a tangerine! (To illustrate this dilemma visually, the picture above is of (from left to right) an orange, a lime, a lemon, a lime.)

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow.....

Rather than a corner shop such as you’d find in towns in the UK, here there are dukas at the side of the road. These are generally fairly rustic-looking stalls selling a variety of relatively staple items from mobile phone scratchcards to fruit and vegetables, milk, meat, sodas (Fanta, Sprite, Coke, …) and bread. There’ve been a group of them about 100m along the road from my front gate. I can’t say that I was ever a regular shopper there, but occasionally I’d have the need to get some items, and various colleagues frequented them rather more often. It’s been a bit of a centre of life in the neighbourhood too, with people hanging around there for a good part of the day and evenings (as well as the dukas selling items, there was actually a pool table in one, a hair salon in another, and, I think, a tailor). So, I was rather surprised when I came back on Sunday from a weekend away to discover that they’d all gone! Apparently, people from the City Council and the police (some fairly inebriated) arrived at 2:30am Friday night in trucks, and proceeded to tear them down, taking some of the stock, burning things, and generally destroying whatever livelihoods the people working there had. I was told that it resembled a war zone on Saturday morning, with burning embers, electric wires hanging loose, and the owners salvaging whatever they could. Yes, they were probably there without permits, but they had been for at least 12 years, so surely that gave them some rights? It looks very empty down there now – and very dark at night, the electric bulbs which used to hang in each one, all gone. It makes you realise afresh how fragile life is here.

Impressions of Yaounde

I was in Yaounde, Cameroon for a week at the end of September for work meetings. Another opportunity to experience a new African country, and again, a Francophone one. Impressions gained from the trip were generally that life there is a whole lot more chaotic than here (I hadn’t thought that possible!). The plane there was the first introduction. I was travelling with our Francophone Regional Directors, who are well practised in dealing with these trans-Continental flights. First thing was to find out which side of the departure lounge we were going to exit by in order to board the plane. The reason? People seem to travel with an inordinate amount of hand luggage and these smaller planes don’t have quite as much space the overhead compartments as you get on the big jumbos. It was actually a bit like a glorified matatu or bus really. Once the doors were open, it was a scrum to get onto the plane (we were the first, having positioned ourselves by the door), and indeed, there wasn’t enough luggage space for all the paraphernalia that people had with them. I was warned too that our checked-in luggage might get bumped if there was too much (the plane went to Yaounde and then Douala, and sometimes, just luggage for one of these destinations gets through!). Thankfully, it all made it (I hadn’t thought to pack a spare set of clothes or toiletries in my hand luggage – I’ll know for next time!). Most of the time in Yaounde was spent at our organisation’s Centre there, so I didn’t experience much of local life. On the last day however, our meetings finished at lunchtime, and a Kenyan colleague and I were taken to a market in town by a lady who’s been working in Congo Brazaville for a number of years, and who’d spent some time previously in Cameroon, following an evacuation from Congo due to war. The taxi system is such that you just hail a cab at the side of the road, and see whether it’s going in the direction you want to go. Then you pile in, with whoever is there already. These are regular saloon cars, but it seems that 4 in the back, and 2 in the front passenger seat is the norm! The cars are all yellow, and just about all look pretty beaten up. I’d thought that driving in Nairobi was hazardous, but this seemed even more so. The market was a rabbit warren of a place. It was under cover, with narrow passageways between the stalls. The section we were in was mainly clothes and cloth. Bright African textiles – great against black skin, but not always so flattering to those of paler complexion! I was thankful in the market for my lack of French as it meant that I had no idea what people were saying (In Kenya, you’re constantly assailed by stallholders wanting you to look at their wares – “Looking is free”; “Promote me”; “I give you a good price”), though I was aware that my lack of response may have been taken as rudeness rather than cluelessness.
Leaving the country that night proved an ‘interesting’ experience. I flew back with Wairimu, who has even less French than me (whilst in Francophone Africa I’ve discovered that when I’ve been trying to dredge up my school French of 30 years ago, Swahili words have come to mind – encouraging for the Swahili, though not so great for communication purposes!). Our taxi driver had no English, but he was great chaperoning us through the various sections of Yaounde airport, pre check-in. Having stood in a queue for a short while, we were shepherded off to the back of the hall, where some guys were set up to wrap people’s cases. Ours were mostly wrapped, and then seemingly something wasn’t right, as they got unwrapped again, and our taxi driver took us off to another section where another group of people were wrapping cases in plastic. (On asking later, I was told that this was for the bags’ security – it would appear that theft there is common (actually, Wairimu had lost something from her locked case on the way).) We then went back to the queue, but were then told that we had to go elsewhere. A rather officious lady in uniform, then asked us about souvenirs. Despite the trip to the market, I had nothing, but she insisted on opening my case, which meant of course, that all the plastic had to come off, so she could rifle through my things. We finally made it through, got checked in, paid our departure tax (it can’t be that many countries these days where you pay to leave as well as to enter!), and got through Immigration, with ‘Sortie’ stamped in our passports. (On arriving back in Nairobi, I had to email through a scanned copy of the departure stamp as proof of actually having left – something to do with the application for the visa for entering still being in the pending pile….!)
I rounded off my time there by proving that I was a good student – guess who was first onto the plane?!

Entertaining Auditors!

I’ve had the "arduous" task this weekend of being tour guide to a group of auditors who’re over from the US and UK. (Actually, they’ve been very easy to have around, both in and out of work, and have indeed been quite entertaining at times!) There are plenty of places that we could have taken them, but we decided on a trip to Lake Naivasha. En route, we stopped at one of the viewpoints looking out over the Rift Valley. As usual when at such a viewpoint, we were strongly encouraged to look in the stalls of local crafts. I was sure I didn’t want to buy anything, but wound up coming away with a musical instrument which I’d not seen before. It seems to be a cross between a harp and a guitar. I’ll have to see if an ethnomusicologist friend knows what it is, and how it should be played! The sale technique was interesting. The guy was determined to enter into a bargaining situation, which I initially resisted. His willpower, however, was stronger than mine, and somehow I found myself going to get some money once he’d actually packaged it in a “free plastic bag”! We passed a couple of IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camp in the Rift Valley. A reminder that some people are still displaced, nearly 9 months on from the troubles. Once at the lake, we took a boat over to Crescent Island which took us very close to a couple of groups of hippo. On the ‘island’ itself (it’s actually a peninsular), we walked amongst wildebeest, gazelle, zebra and giraffe, whilst listening to the calls of Fish Eagles, soaring in the skies above us. What a wonderful day out! Back to work and the audit tomorrow!

Karibu (Welcome to) Nairobi!

In England, people talk about the weather – here in Nairobi, it’s the traffic! And with good reason too as sitting in traffic jams can take up an inordinate part of the day. I arrived back on Monday from a wonderful couple of weeks in the UK seeing family, and what was the first thing to greet me? A traffic jam! I’m writing this from the office now, rather wondering what I’m going to find on the way home. It’s only 6 km, but it’s a journey that has been known to take 1hr 40 mins. Whilst that was (hopefully) an extreme case, an hour’s journey is becoming increasingly common. Add to that a number of drivers who do whatever it takes to get in front (most of which you wouldn’t find in the Highway Code!), and you end up with something that can’t be avoided but which can be quite a stressful part of life.

Wash Day!

One of the impressions that I’ve brought away with me from my trip to Mali was that every day in Bamako seemed to be wash day. I’ve already mentioned the ladies walking back from the river with basins of laundry on their heads, and the photograph wasn’t of a goat eating bowls of food set out by the road for it, but rather helping itself to water from sufurias (big metal pans) and bowls used for washing (hopefully not to the clothes as well!)! No matter where I went, laundry was laid or hanging out to dry, whether hanging (conventionally perhaps?!) from lines across the street or inbetween trees, draped over rocks and bushes giving them a splash of colour, or even laid out on the concrete buttresses at either end of a major road bridge over the River Niger, heading towards downtown Bamako. Every potential drying opportunity was utilised to the full.

From the office window .................

Sitting at the desk that I’ve been allocated during my time in Bamako, Mali this week, I have a great view, looking down a mud road towards the Niger River. Whilst I am (of course!) hard at work, I can’t help but notice some of the everyday scenes that are taking place outside:
· A group of ladies walking down to the river, huge basins of laundry on their heads.
· People dressed in clothes made out of vibrantly coloured fabrics.
· Men dressed in flowing robes.
· A group of children playing with metal hoops.
· A donkey cart. (In Ouaga, I was particularly amused by the juxtaposition of the scene of a man txting on his mobile phone whilst riding in a cart pulled by a donkey!)
· Some boys during a torrential rainstorm, showering in water that was pouring off a roof.
· Goats wandering the streets.

Travels Westwards

I’m in West Africa for a couple of weeks, working with Finance colleagues in Burkina Faso and Mali prior to our taking on their accounts in our office in Nairobi. Other than a trip to Ghana in 2000, this is my first time in West Africa, and certainly the first time in Francophone West Africa. I’ve not been off the Centre much, so other than the obvious difference in language and climate: Nairobi was about 16C when I left, whilst in Ouagadougou (great name!) it’s a very humid 30C! One of the things that has struck me when I have ventured off the Centre is the number of bikes, both pedal and motor, and particularly the number of ladies riding them! Not something we see in East Africa. Where you do get bikes (more upcountry than in the city), it’s generally men riding them, with ladies possibly riding side-saddle behind them. Here, there are plenty of ladies riding along in their finery, sometimes with babies strapped to their back, and / or basins and bags balanced on their heads.
We went to a Craft ‘Market’ this morning, which is where I got to try out the djembe. Not sure that I’ll make it to the percussion section of the orchestra just yet!

Fuel Economy

There’s a weekly email called ‘Nairobi News’ that is sent to everyone in my organisation who’s based in Nairobi. The main content is normally of items for sale, either by missionaries leaving the field, or simply replacing things, or of general information. However, the distributor has recently starting including tips on vehicle useage, be that safety or, as in the case this week, fuel economy. Petrol has gone up 30% here over the last year (as it has in many parts of the world), a litre now selling at just over 100KES (about 80pence). For those in the UK, this will seem quite cheap, but considering that 50% of the population here has less than 50p a day to live on, that’s a lot of money. Anyway, the tip this week was that driving at 90km/h instead of 110km/h will save 25% of fuel. It did make me laugh! Whilst a good tip in and of itself, in this context, it’s completely useless! My usual average speed over a month, in and around Nairobi (and this includes trips out to Karen when I’m not (well, at least, not always) in nose to tail traffic) is 25 km/h!!! My new car has a screen which tells me so! Even more depressing was the trip I made to Kimilili when I thought that I’d get a better idea of things. The road was so bad in parts that I averaged a staggering 46 km/h!!! (Hence why I was driving for 10 hours.) My car cleverly tells me how many km I’m averaging per litre of fuel – that’s pretty depressing too!

If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise…….

One of the things I always love about visits back to the UK, is walks in the countryside. Living in a city where the crime rate is high, the options for that here in Nairobi are somewhat limited. Plus often when you do, say up the Ngong Hills, you’re recommended to take an armed guard with you in case of bandits! Last weekend, I went away with a couple of friends to a cottage near Lake Naivasha, and two of us seized the opportunity to go for a lovely walk on Saturday morning. Mind you, you never know what you might meet! In the course of the 3 hours that we were out, we passed through herds of plains animals (zebra, Thomson gazelle, hartebeest, warthog, impala..); stumbled (almost literally) on a python, which was at least 2m in length; came across (and released) 3 snares set by poachers; and passed by 7 buffalo. The latter caused most concern as buffalo are notoriously bad-tempered, and are to be kept at a distance. We also kept a healthy distance each time we wandered down to the lake, from the hippo wallowing in the water and mud there, and even more so when they were out of the water. It’s hard to imagine when you see how ponderous and large they appear most of the time, but they can apparently run at 18mph if threatened, and it’s said that they cause more human deaths than buffaloes, elephants or rhinos.

Living Dangerously!

In Nairobi, cattle are herded along the streets, generally by Masai, but in rural areas they (and goats and sheep) seem to roam fairly freely. I was just waiting for these cows to wander in front of this butchery on the main road running through Kimilili – they nonchalantly continued to graze oblivious to the fate that could await them if they hung around for too long! (The red and white hand cart is what’s used to transport meat around – non-refrigerated of course!)

Rutted Roads

You see some sights here as far as roads are concerned. One thing I’d never seen before coming to Kenya, other than on mud farm tracks, was ruts in the road. Here, it’s not in the mud (well, you do find that too!) but in the tarmac. Last week driving to Kimilili, there were several sections where the road was rutted – and this is one of the main highways between Nairobi and Kampala. One of my main requirements for a vehicle? Clearance!

Sobering Journey

I travelled up to Kimilili in western Kenya last Friday to spend the weekend with Pastor Kevin Wanjala and his family, and to preach at one of his churches on Sunday. Despite having visited Kimilili many times before, it was my first time driving in that direction since returning to Kenya at the end of January, and therefore the first time since the violence at the beginning of the year. To get to Kimilili, I pass through Nakuru and Eldoret, both names that appeared in the news all too often at that time. About half an hour from Nakuru, we began to pass destroyed buildings, generally missing at least the roof. In the case of mud houses, all that remained was the floor. What was particularly surreal was that it wasn’t every building. There were those that remained in tact – presumably belonging to Kalenjin, the destroyed ones having been occupied by Kikuyu. I wondered how many of the people who were around at the side of the road had themselves been involved in the violence, either as perpetrators or as victims. Every now again, we passed groups of white tents, some with Kenya Red Cross vehicles outside, others with UNHCR emblazoned in blue across them: IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps. To lose your home and possibly have witnessed friends and relatives being brutally killed must have been traumatic enough. To still be in these crude camps 6 months on ………..It’s hard to begin to imagine the sense of loss. So often, we hear in the news of violence, catastrophes and tragedies. Then the news moves on, whilst those affected continue to live with the aftermath of what has happened. At one point, we passed two army trucks. Sitting in the back of the first one were soldiers, brandishing their rifles (a sight not uncommon here, be that military, police or security guards). It was only on passing the truck at the front that I realised what the vehicles were about, as sitting in this one were civilians – IDPs, presumably either being relocated from one camp to another, or possibly being returned ‘home’, whatever state their home was now in. It wasn’t all gloom however. There were places where people had evidently returned and were trying to rebuild their lives – fresh piles of bricks as people worked on reconstructing their buildings and livelihoods.
I didn’t see any evident signs of destruction in Kimilili itself, but many of those in the church who fled the area at the beginning of the year have yet to return – if they ever will. Kevin and Lyn took in approximately 50 displaced families during the course of the troubles, erecting a big tent in the compound of their mud house, and stretching their resources to the limit. “It was terrible”, said Kevin, referring to the time that displaced people arrived in Kimilili from nearby Mount Elgon seeking refuge, threatening leaflets then being distributed by the Sabaot Land Defence Army throughout the town. It appears to be life as usual there now, the maize in the fields growing tall and starting to show signs of a good harvest to come, but there is a lot of hurt under the surface, and when it comes down to it, nothing has been resolved.

Different Worlds

Having bought a couple of items of new furniture at the beginning of May, I offered the pieces that these replaced to my househelp, Esther. It’s common practice in Kenya to employ staff, be that full-time, or, like me, part-time to work in the house. Unemployment is high here, and domestic work is a good form of employment, supporting not only the individuals involved, but where there are children, oftentimes helping out with their school fees. Esther just works 2 mornings for me, cleaning and doing laundry. She has a long commute to work as she lives the other side of Nairobi, and because of the traffic jams during rush hour is generally leaving her house by 5:30am.
On Sunday, she met me at my flat, we loaded the car, and then drove over to Kahawa, where she stays. The last section of Thika Road before we turned off was a throng of people, market stalls open, and a church crusade taking place on one roundabout. We then followed murram tracks off the main road to her house. The best way I can describe where she lives is as a square in a square. Her ‘house’ is actually 10x10 foot room in a series of over 23 such rooms, most of these forming the square on the outside, the remainder a block on the inside. Behind her metal front door, a net curtain allows light in whilst providing privacy. Her living area was divided by a curtain from the bedroom. Floor space was exceedingly limited, most of it being taken up by a settee and 2 armchairs, a side board, a couple of small side tables and a bed. I did rather wonder where she’d put the two items we’d brought with us. Surprisingly, on top of the sideboard were a television and DVD player. Apart from water stains on the ceiling from the last time it had rained, everywhere was spotless, and decorated such as she could, embroidered doilies covering the backs and arms of the 3-piece suite, and various posters on the walls. In one corner were bottles of water, the only source being a communal tap outside which doesn’t always have water in it, and a paraffin stove. On this, she boiled up water and milk for chai (tea), and then produced some bread for us to eat. The bathroom, both latrines and for washing, was communal, and the smell rather wafted over from there when you went anywhere near.
Esther’s world is so different to mine. I drive places in a vehicle, protected from pickpockets. My 2nd bedroom is larger than her entire house. I am not beaten, as she apparently is by one of her brothers, for being single. My holidays are often spent travelling, seeing different parts of the country, whilst hers are spent at home. Her life is about survival, whilst mine incorporates the concept of leisure. And yet we could spend a pleasant couple of hours together, very different people, employer and employee, but both as Christian believers. I often consider how fortunate I am to have been born where I was, into the family and at the point in history that I was.

Daily Commute

My office is only about 7km from home, but the drive can be quite interesting. Going to work, I use fairly main highways, but coming home, I drive through a largely Muslim residential area, dominated by a large mosque. It struck me on Friday that there were a number of things that I was passing that are a part of everyday life here, but that might be of interest to people living elsewhere. So, I figured I should make a mental note, and then write them up. So, here they are:-
1. A road surface that at one point is so full of potholes / craters, there’s barely a smooth stretch on it. Vehicles are now more likely to drive off road than to stay on it.
2. A group of 3 burkah-clad Muslim ladies chatting at the side of the road. All that was visible was their eyes.
3. Stalls of second-hand clothing, the clothes on hangers and waving in the breeze.
4. Turkeys wandering around, and getting whatever scraps they could.
5. A lady having her hair straightened at a salon (or ‘saloon’ as they’re often called). She was sitting on a wooden chair in full view of everyone in the street, the hairdresser using what seemed to be a cross between a hair dryer and a steamer.
6. A guy roasting maize on a jiko (charcoal stove), and fanning the charcoal to get it to burn better.
7. Cars driving down the wrong side of the road (or on the pavement) in a bid to jump the queue in the inevitable traffic jam.
8. Two foam mattresses under an overhang of a building. One had someone sleeping under a blanket; the other just had possessions left there, the occupant presumably having gone for a wander.
9. Stalls of fruit and vegetables, the produce neatly piled up.

Out and about in the Rift Valley

Monday was a holiday here - Madaraka Day. Having not been able to go away as planned to minister in Kimilili in western Kenya, due to a heavy cold, and feeling somewhat better by Monday, I really wanted to get out of the city at least for part of the day. In the end, a colleague and I went for a drive around the Ngong Hills, which are about 20 miles from Nairobi. I’d walked the length of them before, and had driven over them to go to Lake Magadi (a soda lake near the border with Tanzania), but had never done the circuit. It was great to escape the hustle and bustle of the city, and be out on the open road. Some of it was tarmac, but all of the road at the back of the hills (which is effectively in the Rift Valley) was murram. Quite a contrast going from one side to the other. On the Nairobi side, it’s all pretty green and cultivated. On the far side, it’s dry, the landscape dotted with flat-topped acacia trees, and with the occasional Masai manyatta (dwelling), with their thorn fences. The hills themselves are quite beautiful, with their folds, and undulating peaks. We had lunch under an acacia, with the backdrop of the Ngongs. No traffic noises, just the sounds of different birds, and of cowbells as cattle were being herded. Most of the traffic we met was on the way back, when we passed a large number of pickup trucks packed with Masai! They’d evidently been out for the day too! An extra detour took us on the tarmac road going down (literally!) on the way to Magadi. Amazing views, several potholes and some interesting encounters with cows in the road!

Birdlife

People who don't live in Kenya know about the animals living here, Big Cat Diary and the Elephant Orphanage featuring various such species. However, there's also a very diverse birdlife here with birds of all colours, shapes and sizes. A number of people living here, who perhaps would never have done so in their home countries, get interested in bird watching (and I include myself in that). And sometimes, you don't have to go very far at all! This Silvery-cheeked hornbill seems to turn up in my area of Nairobi around this time of year. Here, he's seen perching in the tree just outside my flat. I wouldn't want to mess with that head of his!

Entebbe Trip

I’m in Entebbe, Uganda at the end of a week’s stay here. I’m here principally to give 2 days of finance training to Project Leaders and Administrative staff. These took place on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was a new undertaking for me, so I was a little apprehensive as to how it would go. The 25 of us were rather crammed into the office’s living room (the office is a converted house), perhaps not the most conducive of learning environments. However, they were great participants and we had good times of discussion and interaction. The course seemed to be appreciated by all there, and I enjoyed my part in it too!
Being in Entebbe has also been a good opportunity for me to visit with some friends / colleagues here who will be leaving Uganda within the next couple of months. I fly back to Nairobi tomorrow. Hoping that it’ll be less stormy (and bumpy) over Lake Victoria than on the way over. However, the views of Mount Kenya, the Aberdares and the Great Rift Valley on the Kenya end of the journey were quite something.

Custom Made

I spent 5 hours driving around on Saturday, getting groceries but also ordering a frame to be custom made for a piece of Congolese cloth that I bought the previous weekend, and going furniture shopping. The framers was downtown, and I spent over an hour trying to get there (it’s only a few miles away), and then get parking. Interesting being downtown as I so rarely go there. Certainly a hive of activity. It always strikes me that it's very odd to be in a city, where you hardly ever go into the centre. And that of course is the part that has more history (or at least as much as a 100 year old city can have!), as it's where things started. Going by the number of people there that day, there must be quite a lot there! I keep meaning to go down on a Sunday afternoon when it's quieter and just have a wander around. Reasons for not going downtown are that I generally don’t need to, with various shopping malls in other parts of town, and it’s also fairly notorious for its security, or rather, lack thereof! As I walked along the broken up pavement amidst the mass of humanity, with vehicles passing by, I wondered how it would have been in the days of the early settlers when the city was just developing.
I then went up Ngong Road to look at some of the furniture being sold (and made) at the side of the road. I needed to replace some bedroom furniture due to some rearrangements in my 2nd bedroom after the arrival of a keyboard (on loan from some friends who’re away now for 18months). The furniture ‘showrooms’ aren’t exactly salubrious, being out in the open (they’re called ‘jua kali’, literally meaning ‘hot sun’ as that’s where they’re made). You rather wonder sometimes what state it’s all in having been exposed to the elements, plus the dust and pollution (it’s the 3-piece upholstered suites that would be decidedly the worse for wear, I’d think). Along that stretch of Ngong, there are umpteen places making and selling essentially the same thing. I wound up ordering a chest of drawers and a bedside table from one place, and will go back at the weekend to pick them up. So, something else custom made (albeit following a very common pattern)!

New Wheels!

I came back to Kenya with the intention of replacing my RAV4. Having served me well over the past 5 years over many miles of potholes, murram roads, mud tracks, and very occasionally, decent tarmac (!), it was time for a change. One of my requirements was a 5-door rather than a 3-door vehicle, this being more for the benefit of passengers than the driver! More space for luggage was also up there, allowing easier travel when visitors come over. Well, there aren’t car showrooms as such here, but there are a large number of car lots at the side of the road, generally selling recently imported second-hand vehicles from Japan. The number of ‘new’ cars on the roads of Nairobi each month is staggering. Seeing the way that the registration numbers have zipped through the KBA xxxA to KBA xxxZ sequence shows this. We’re already on KBBs which means that in the past few months, there are an additional 26,000 vehicles on the roads, and most of them in Nairobi. And the roads aren’t any wider, nor are new ones being built. Anyhow, I had my eye on a particular model – Pajero io. With no sales warranties available, prices fairly high, and most of the vehicles being sold at least 8 years old, it’s a bit daunting to start the process. Thankfully, I have an excellent mechanic, and he took it upon himself to help me in finding a vehicle that would serve me well. So, on Wednesday, having parted with both my RAV and a sum of money, I drove away with a white automatic Pajero io! Not a car I’d ever think of driving in the UK where fuel consumption is uppermost in consideration (mind you, it is here too given that the price of petrol has gone up nearly 30% in the last year). Here, clearance to deal with uneven surfaces, potholes etc; 4 wheel drive for off road situations; and being high enough off the road not to be dwarfed by matatus, are factors well worth considering! Now I just need to visitors to justify all the extra space!

Kenya’s Tourism

After the drive on Easter Sunday, I continued another 7.5 hours down Mombasa Road to the coast, and had 6 days of relaxing, reading, walking, kayaking, swimming, snorkelling, …… It was wonderful! It’s quite a bit warmer than Nairobi (which sits at a lofty 5,200ft elevation), and the perfect place for some R ‘n’ R. Whilst it was great for us that we had been able to book at fairly short notice, this was not good news for many of the locals. The lack of tourists was very noticeable at a time that should have been pretty busy with the Easter holidays. A number of hotels have had to close, and there’s a huge impact on all the small businesses, such as people selling kikoys on the beach, that rely on tourism. The effects of the violence at the beginning of the year are still very evident, though here it’s not in burnt-out buildings and cars as it is in western Kenya, but in the decimation of one of Kenya’s main industries. In both cases, those who suffer most are those completely uninvolved in the violence, and the issues that led to it.

For anyone thinking of a holiday in Kenya, it really is a beautiful country and well worth a visit!

Rally Drivers R Us!

You’d think I was a rally driver given the state of my vehicle on Easter Sunday. In actual fact, I’d just driven about an hour on one of the main roads from Nairobi to see friends. Mombasa Road is the road that links the capital (and indeed western Kenya and Uganda) with the sea port of Mombasa. Work is currently going on to repair what had become an incredibly broken up stretch of road. However, the diversions (or ‘deviations’ as they’re called here) are less than desirable. It’s either very dusty or very muddy depending on the weather, but always very, very bumpy. I was glad that my windows were shut the number of times that a passing lorry caused a tidal wave of mud to completely engulf my windscreen! The current conditions will hopefully be worth it once the new road is opened. It’s just a question of how long that’ll be – and how many shock absorbers are wrecked in the meantime!!!

On the way to the office ..............

On the way to the office this morning, I saw baboon, giraffe, buffalo, eland, hartebeest, Thomson gazelle, ostrich, zebra, and an eagle (possibly a Martial Eagle). Add to that the sun on the golden grass of the plains, and vast views down to Athi River - what a treat! Wednesday mornings see me commuting into town from Karen, having spent Tuesday nights with friends after home group. Today, I decided to go through the game park rather than sit in traffic on Langata Road with the rest of the commuters. Probably as long time-wise, if not longer, and somewhat bumpier, but certainly way less stressful, and a really wonderful way to start the day. It beats the commute I was doing up to London during furlough, that's for sure!

Blessings of living in Kenya!

With an annual pass to the National Parks in Kenya, I go into Nairobi National Park quite a bit, particularly at the weekend. The main entrance to the park is only about 10-15 minutes' drive from my flat, which is located fairly close to the city centre. Going there is a really wonderful way to escape the noise and pollution of the city, and be in an open space with a big sky for a few hours. And a great opportunity to see some of Kenya's incredible wildlife. On Saturday afternoon, I happened upon this lioness with her 2 cubs – and their dinner! How amazing (though perhaps not for the zebra)!

Communication challenges

How spoilt we can get when a service is provided and becomes a part of normal life. After 7 months in the UK with broadband internet access, the return to Nairobi has been something of a shock to the system. We have a new VSAT system in the office, which in theory should have made internet access easier and faster. However, ………. By Friday last week, I was fairly depleted of energy having spent days trying to authorise a couple of internet bank transfers. So much for easy banking! Yesterday, we had zero access and today, whilst better, it still took about 2 hours to send and download personal emails (and that was after having intervened and deleted one a friend (with broadband!) sent with a 4MB attachment). Add to this a home phone line that has been out of service for 3.5 weeks, and it’s not been a good time as far as communication is concerned (hence the infrequency of these posts). How exasperating to be so close to being able to communicate effectively, and yet so far.
And yet, I have skyped with family a couple of times when things were working well. And that was great. With a webcam, I could not only talk to them, but see them as well (albeit in a slightly fuzzier form than normal) – and they could see me. My 2-year old nephew, who exclaimed, “Claire in Africa” on seeing me on the computer screen, will no doubt grow up thinking that this is a normal way to have a phone conversation, whereas I used to just write of such things in junior school when thinking of what the future might be like!

Happy New Year!

I started today by going to be fingerprinted. Not because of any crime committed (!) but as part of the procedure of having my alien registration card renewed. This rather messy event (called an ‘alien trip’ by our Immigration officer!) takes place every 2 years, coinciding with the now very expensive process, of work permit renewal. Driving to downtown Nairobi in what should have been the rush hour, the absence of traffic was notable, and the people who were around were in very good spirits. It seemed more like a holiday than a regular work day. On a number of occasions today, I’ve been greeted with, “Happy New Year”. With the signing yesterday by President Mwai Kibaki and ODM leader Raila Odinga, of a power-sharing deal which it is hoped will end the 2 months of political crisis in Kenya sparked by the disputed general elections at the end of 2007, it did indeed feel very much like a new and the start (finally) of a new year. The general sense has been one of palpable relief, and of hope that we can finally move forward as a nation.
One of Kenya’s main newspapers, the Daily Nation, reported the signing as:


“A Peace Deal at Last”
Under the deal brokered by chief mediator Kofi Annan and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, the leaders agreed to form a coalition government which will radically alter the way Kenya will be governed.
Mr Odinga is almost certain to become independent Kenya’s second Prime Minster after Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, who held the post at Independence in 1963.
Thursday’s agreement, which came after two days of intense diplomatic activity states that the post of Prime Minister will be created to co-ordinate and supervise affairs of Government. The Premier will be leader of the largest party or coalition in Parliament.


With at least 1,000 people killed and an estimated 300,000 displaced as a result of the fighting, this is just the first step on what will be a long journey of healing, forgiveness, reconciliation and restoration for this rather battered nation. But it’s a step in the right direction, and one that looked almost out of reach even just 2 days ago.

Differences

Coming back to Kenya after 7 months in the UK, I’m hit afresh by some of the differences living here rather than there. Having said that, after 5 years of being here, so much seems ‘normal’ to me now that sometimes it’s difficult to pick out the differences. So, here goes as an assortment of observations and advisory comments, some of which may well be elaborated on in posts to come.
- It’s very difficult to put across to those who’ve not experienced it how different driving here is, but in a nutshell :
* There is a sense of organised chaos on the roads
* Aggressive driving is the way to go. No point waiting your turn – it’ll never come!
* A lot of vehicles will do whatever it takes to get ahead – drive on the wrong side of the road, the pavements, through petrol station forecourts, …..
* Do not allow too much of a gap between you and the vehicle in front – someone else will be sure to fill it!
* If all that isn’t enough, the roads are generally more pot hole than tarmac!
* Red traffic lights are seemingly only to be acknowledged at certain junctions / roundabouts (and never at night).
* Be prepared to be blinded at night by oncoming vehicles. Very few seem to have heard of anything akin to the ‘Don’t dazzle – Dip your headlights’ slogan that was drummed into me through public service advertising.
- Poverty is in your face, whether through the people begging at the windows of drivers stuck in traffic jams, or just the sea of rusty corrugated iron roofed shacks that make up the slums of the city.
- As well as the beggars, you will be besieged by people selling a whole variety of things whilst you’re stuck in a traffic jam, or trying to negotiate your way onto and around a roundabout – roses, puppies, rabbits, pens, car fresheners, footballs, TV aerials, jump leads, sunglasses, hats, groundnuts, bananas, tummy trimmers (!), ………….
- There are generally a lot of people around on the streets, some walking, some seemingly just loitering.
- Beware of being behind a lorry or bus going up a hill – its brakes might not work. Do not be surprised therefore if people jump out and go scrabbling around for rocks to put under the wheels to stop it rolling backwards!
- The current security situation aside, crime is a daily concern here. It’s advisable to drive with car doors locked, and in certain places windows should be up (thank goodness for air con at such times!).
- You need to be in the habit of letting people know where you’re going, and if you’re driving home at night, txt those you’ve left to let them know you’re home safe. Better still, stay over. (One of the things I enjoyed while in the UK was not having to be on alert so much of the time, and to be free to drive at night without even thinking about it.)
- You don’t see front doors of houses here. They’re either behind their own individual walls and gates, or in a shared gated compound. Pretty much all have security guards on duty.
- Rather than just rinsing fruit and vegetables in water, one of the recommended practices is to soak them in a dilute bleach solution for 20 minutes. (It kills the bugs – and if you’re not careful, leaves white spots on all your clothes!)
- One thing I’ve been particularly aware of this time - things and surfaces get dirty really quickly. Between the general dust and pollution, it only takes a day for items to be covered with a layer of grime.

One nation, One people. Choose peace.

One nation, One people. Choose peace.

So goes the message that you receive from the mobile network provider that I subscribe to in Kenya on topping up credit. The general sense that I’ve got since arriving back in Nairobi a week ago is that people want peace and a restoration of the Kenya that we used to know. The stories that you don’t hear about in the press are of Kenyans reaching out to, and helping each other. I’ve seen this billboard a couple of times now, appealing to Kenyans to donate food, water and clothing to help those who’ve been displaced as a result of the fighting. Churches are similarly collecting items for distribution, and challenging members with spare rooms to consider opening them to displaced peoples. I was talking to one Luo lady yesterday who, with her family, was chased from their home on threat of death by a group of Kikuyu youth. And the person who’s taken them, and 12 other people like them in? – A Kikuyu gentleman.
The first morning after I arrived, I was greeted by txts warning me not to go to various parts of Nairobi due to demonstrations there following the killing the previous evening of an opposition MP. Friends were collecting their children early from school, and there was a general sense of tension and unease. However, since then, as far as my usual routine goes, you wouldn’t really know that anything was going on in the country unless you read a newspaper, or watch or listen to the news. It has seemed so normal, which is bizarre given the circumstances. I had expected to see signs of destruction, especially given the pictures I’ve been seeing on the news, but as of yet, I haven’t seen anything. Of course, I haven’t actually been into the slums where the situation is different. And at the moment, we are advised not to travel out of Nairobi, where again, things are very different. My pastor friend in western Kenya, with whom I’ve spoken a number of times, is exhausted. It’s not safe for him to travel even as far as the other villages where he has churches, and his time is taken up looking after the 30 displaced families who have come to him seeking refuge. He was saying that nothing has prepared him for the pastoral work he’s faced with now.
With the troubles still going on in various parts of the country and city, it almost seems as though the election is forgotten, and that long suppressed issues over post-Independence land allocations are the overriding cause of the hatred amongst some Kenyans (certainly not all) that is leading to the inhumane killings and atrocities that we hear of. This hatred must be getting deeper the longer this goes on without resolution. However, mediation efforts led by Kofi Annan appear to have made a good start with both government and opposition leaders committing themselves to seeking resolution. We can but hope and pray.

Ready to go - but to what?

Well, after several sessions of packing, unpacking, repacking, sorting, storing and ditching, I'm pretty much ready to go. This time tomorrow, I'll be on board a plane on my way back to Kenya. With reports over the weekend of fighting in Nakuru, resulting in over 30 deaths, and then today of at least 10 deaths in Naivasha, I'm rather wondering what awaits me when I get back. Travel around that beautiful country will certainly be curtailed, and life in Nairobi will probably be rather different to what I knew before until things start to settle. And what will it take for them to settle? No change has thus far taken place politically, and whatever tribal rifts there were before must surely be deeper now with 300,000 displaced people and at least 750 dead. A criminal element has come to the fore on the back of the allegations of vote rigging, and is continuing to wreak havoc and destruction.

Please pray for the nation and people of Kenya.
"If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, and turn away from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven. I will forgive them and will HEAL THEIR LAND." ( 2 Chronicles 7:14 ).

Winter / Spring Madness!

It's January and there are daffodils out already!!! It doesn't seem quite right somehow. It's meant to be winter still, and daffodils herald Spring. What's more, I've only seen 1 snowdrop so far, and no crocuses. How come the daffoldils got ahead? What is going on?!!
Still, it is a blessing and a nice surprise as I haven't seen daffs since I was last in the UK during Spring in 2002.
(These were at the back of Sainsbury's in Horsham.)

Rounds of goodbyes

One of the hardest parts of missionary life is all the goodbyes. After 7 months in the UK, I'm a week away from returning to Nairobi, and very much in the thick of seeing people for the last time until I'm next back in about 15 months. It has been great to reconnect with family and existing friends, as well as form new friendships. Hard now to be saying goodbye. A consoling thought is that at the other end of the 8.5 hour flight, there will be quite a number of "Hellos" - or "Jambos"!