Things I’ll miss about Kenya…….and things I won’t!

In 12 days’ time, I fly to the UK where I’ll be based for the next 5 months, principally to put on my other hat of communications and marketing person, to reconnect with my supporters there, and hopefully build up some more financial support in order to come back to Nairobi in September. Having spent 8.5 of the last 9 years based in Kenya (I had a 7-month furlough in 2007), it’s a very strange thought to be upping sticks for that period of time (particularly as I’ll be continuing the work that I do here, just remotely). However, it will be good to see friends and family, and to see them hopefully more than just once during a trip home! I’ve been in the process this last week of packing up my flat, emptying out various cupboards and drawers, so that it’s available for others to sub-let while I’m gone. In all of this transition, I’ve been reflecting on what I will and won’t miss about life here, these next few months.

I will miss:
 The climate! In Nairobi, it’s always summer, be that a good English summer, or a bad English summer.
 People. Lots of wonderful people, some of whom, sadly, will have left for good by the time I come back.
 Nairobi Orchestra. 3 performances in the next couple of months!! My challenge is going to be keeping my practice up while I’m gone (and living a fairly nomadic lifestyle) so that I can have my regular place back when I return!
 The countryside. Stunning, and so varied.
 Bird and animal life. (Nothing quite like seeing giraffe at the side of the road, looking out at a Hartlaub turaco on a bird table when working at a friend’s house, or feeding the bushbabies that come to their garden every night!)
 Though inflation is high here (currently 16%), life is generally much more affordable than in the UK.
 Being able to eat outdoors all year round.

I won't miss:

* The dust and pollution.

* The traffic and others' driving. Gridlock rather too often, and people then thoughtlessly making it worse in their attempt to get ahead.

* Being stared at regularly.

* Security issues.

I know that I could come up with more, if I were to give it much thought. However, it is good to see that the first list is longer than the second, and that's probably a good place to stop!

 

The Park by the City

We’re coming to the end of a 2-week internal audit in our Finance department. It’s internal rather than external, which to me means that they’re here principally to help us, pointing out weaknesses in our internal controls etc. The Internal Audit system within SIL relies on volunteers, obviously with relevant skills and experience, giving of their time, and finances (they pay for their own flights) to come. I think they’re amazing! We have two people this time – Krista who works in the finance department with SIL in Papua New Guinea, and Bob who’s a CPA in Orlando, Florida.
However, this blog isn’t mean to be about the audit, though it was on account of the auditors that I made a long overdue trip into Nairobi National Park on Saturday (so that they’d see a bit more of Kenya than our office!). As I live on that side of Nairobi, it only took about 10 minutes or so to get there in the morning (it can be more like 45 minutes later on in the day!). As soon as you pass through the gates, you’re in a different world, away from the traffic and noise and pollution. Quite a tonic! It was exceedingly dry, the grass though reasonably high, a bleached brown colour. And we weren’t long before we saw our first animal – a giraffe eating acacia leaves, somehow managing to negotiate its tongue around the sharp, long thorns. And from thereon, we did so well with animal sightings. Masses of zebra, hartebeest and gazelles. Great herds of buffalo, their black shapes distinctive against the brown grass. And groups of giraffe, their necks at an acute angle to the ground. It seemed to be ostrich time, the males being particularly visible with their black and white feathers (the duller females blended into the landscape rather more!). The first treat was a group of 3 male lions lying 100m or so from the side of the road, barely visible were it not for the group of vehicles indicating that there was something there! Thankfully for us, they raised themselves up after a while, and whilst one evidently figured he’d had enough and sauntered off, the other two posed rather magnificently. Better still was coming across our own lion (plus at least one lioness, though she was somewhat obscured by vegetation) at the southernmost end of the park, with no other cars in sight. That’s always more gratifying! A rather grislier sight was a flock of particularly argumentative vultures tearing at, what appeared to be, a relatively fresh zebra carcass. The noise they made was quite something! It was obviously all a bit much for some, as they stood off at a distant, not joining in the fray, perhaps waiting to get their share when the noisy ones were done!

What a magnificent pose!

Our auditors enjoying a picnic lunch - rather close to where those lions had been earlier!!

The vultures' very noisy and argumentative lunch!

Wildebeest



Still some water at least in one of the rivers



The game of 'Who's going to get off the road first?'!

It had been quite a while since I’d last been in the park. In my first few years here, I went in regularly, making the most of what used to be an affordable annual pass. However, in just 6 years, that quadrupled in price, such that you need to go about 23 times to make it worthwhile (rather than just paying for each time separately). Partly because of that, I hardly go at all these days, which is a shame, as it really is very beautiful. I hope that the Kenya Wildlife Service and the government continue to ensure that these areas are protected from development, and that the corridors that the animals pass through are kept open (Nairobi is a migratory park). It is a huge asset to have on the city’s doorstep, and it was good to see a number of people making use of it on Saturday. Mind you, these days, some inhabitants of the park have moved, there having been many sightings of lions in a residential area nearby!!

Dust and Pollution

Other than a week at the end of February, there’s been no rain since Christmas. And Nairobi is hot! Not Ouagadougou, Juba, N’djamena ….. 40C, hot admittedly, but still consistently in the low 30s, with blazing sunshine. I love it! However, a downside of this relentless heat is the dust. Clouds of it puff up round my feet as I walk down the dirt road to work, and when cars pass by, it’s not just my legs that are coated in the red dust – I’m covered. A regular routine now is to head straight to the bathroom when I get home, sit on the counter, and give my feet and legs a good wash, before doing anything else in the flat. Clothes are being more regularly washed at the moment, trouser and skirt hems quickly taking on a reddish-brown hue. As I leave Kenya soon for 5 months in the UK, today was my last day for wearing one pair of formerly cream shoes for work - they are now being consigned to the bin!

The other factor that causes things to get dirty much faster here is the pollution. Unlike the UK, vehicle exhaust emissions don’t appear to be monitored. Chief culprits tend to be lorries, chuffing out great plumes of black smoke. Unfortunately, I don’t always have my camera to hand at such times (!), but did at least capture a couple of such polluters one day, ironically one of them a ‘clean water’ tanker!