Kenyan Chronicles

Online Check-In

2012-01-30T00:26:00.000+03:00

For several years now, I’ve checked in online prior to flights. This has several benefits:

• Being able to select my seat. I always opt for a window seat (generally a little bit more room for bags by my feet, as well as being able to lean against the side of the airplane, and the view of course on a daytime flight). I also generally go for one that at that point, hasn’t got anyone checked in the adjacent seat. A number of times this has still been the case on the flight itself, which means more room to spread out.
• Not needing to be at the airport quite so early before a flight. Nairobi airport (Jomo Kenyatta International) doesn’t have that much to do, so the shorter the time spent waiting there, the better.
• Usually (but not always) a much shorter queue at the bag-drop desk than the check-in desks.
However, a couple of weeks ago, this method completely backfired. I’d been in Yaounde, Cameroon for a week, working with the Finance staff there. My return flight was scheduled for 11:15pm on the Friday night. However, on the Thursday I received notice from our Nairobi office that the runway at JKIA (Jomo Kenyatta International Airport) was to undergo maintenance over a 24 hour period, leading to flight delays, so I contacted my travel agent to see how this would affect my flight. I hadn’t heard back from her before the time for online check-in, so did that, and printed off my boarding pass. On the Friday morning, I received an email from Carol telling me that the flight had been rescheduled to 3am on the Saturday morning, and sure enough, when I checked on Kenya Airway’s website, the 11:15pm flight was cancelled, and now showing was a 3am flight. So, again, I checked in online, and printed off the boarding pass.
The taxi showed up at 12:30am as arranged, and we had a traffic-free 25 minute drive to Nsimalen airport. (Part of the way we were following an open-sided truck full of plantain, evidently on its way to Equatorial Guinea, where, my taxi-driver told me, the price of plantain is three times that in Cameroon.) The Kenya Airways plane was already at the airport which was good, though it seemed a little strange that it was there already, given that the turnaround time is normally about an hour, and the time now was 1am, so 2 hours before the scheduled departure time. However, on entering the terminal building, I was told that that flight was in fact about to leave, and that I was too late! As a recap, it wasn’t meant (according to my travel agent, the website and my boarding pass) to leave until 3am, and this was 1am…..
Ironically, I’d been thankful that I’d heard of the change in departure time, thinking that I was saving myself a long wait at the airport in the middle of the night. Instead, had I been oblivious to the change, I’d actually have been better off! Clearly, Kenya Airways hadn’t anticipated that people would be using their online check-in system (there were in fact just 4 of us), and claimed that they hadn’t informed us, so were free to change it again. (Is their website not a means of communication?!)

From the inside of the Kenya Airways
office, in a deserted airport

Whilst they took no responsibility for their part in my missing the flight, they did at least book me onto the next flight – 36 hours later, on Sunday morning. What followed for me, was a 2+ hour wait in the Kenya Airways office, while the staff there finished work, so that I could get a ride back to the SIL centre with them, my taxi driver having left, claiming that this was KQ’s responsibility to sort out, which was fair enough. Thankfully, I’d got the location of the SIL centre from him before he left, as I'd had no clue otherwise how to find it! The dilemma that I then had was how to get back into my room, having dropped the key into the keybox, which requires a combination to open the padlock – a combination that I didn’t have…… The guard at the gate, thankfully had the phone number of the guesthouse manager, and let me use his phone (my Kenyan SIM just allowed incoming rather than outgoing calls and txts). So, by 4am I was back in my room, unpacking, remaking the bed, and sending txt messages via skype to our logistics person in Nairobi to tell her that the taxi wouldn’t be needed that morning after all.
So, will I checkin online next time (2 weeks from now)? Yes, though if there are any flight time changes, I may be a little bit more cautious!

Custom-Made

2012-01-03T21:26:00.000+03:00

There are aspects of life here that become normal, and yet would be difficult to replicate at home in the UK, unless of course you happened to be wealthy. Having someone clean my house and do the ironing isn’t something that would ever have occurred to me in Horsham. Yet, here I am in Nairobi, living on a rather reduced income, and Esther comes to clean and iron 2 mornings a week. Having a househelp isn’t so much a luxury (though it is very nice indeed to have all that side of things done!), as an expectation, providing employment and therefore an income to someone, and thereby, to their family as well. Another aspect is having furniture custom-made. Again, not something I’d ever have contemplated in the UK. However, here, there aren’t the Ikeas, Homebases, John Lewis etc etc. What you do have however are lots of ‘jua kali’ (literally, hot sun, as the furniture is generally made on the side of the road) small businesses, with people making a living using their carpentry and / or metalwork skills. There are of course a range of standards, and getting what you want isn’t always a given, though I’ve so far at least, been happy with the various bookshelves, armchairs, chests of drawers and bedside tables that I’ve had made.
I wound up a couple of weeks before Christmas in need of a new guest bed, having purchased a nice new sprung mattress to replace the thin foam one I’d had, only to discover that it was 3” longer than the bedframe, and that the bed couldn’t quite tolerate those extra few inches – all the joints came apart! With all the rain that we’ve had, I didn’t quite fancy trudging through the mud looking at the various bedframes on display on Ngong Road, nor did I reckon much to their likely state, having been completely open to the elements. Instead, I went to Don Bosco Boys’ Town in Karen, as recommended by friends who live out that way. This is a centre that was set up in 1985 by the Salesians of Don Bosco, to train young people from poor areas in technical skills. These include welding, secretarial, motor vehicle mechanics, electrical, masonry, plumbing, and tailoring, as well as carpentry. All that I provided was a quick sketch of the sort of design I was looking for, the dimensions of the mattress (pretty important that this one was the right size!), and a choice of wood (cypress or mahogany was the choice). Just over 2 weeks later, I drove out to pick the bedframe up (which thankfully could be disassembled so that it fit in my car!), and that night I was sleeping in my new, very comfortable, bed (my parents being in my bed!).

Christmas is Coming

2011-12-12T21:28:00.000+03:00

Having only been in the UK for the build-up to Christmas once in the last 9 years, it’s hard to imagine all the commercial hype that there is there surrounding Christmas. Whilst shopping centres have been decorated with trees, festooned with lights, and each has its own Santa’s grotto, there is no (or very little) Christmas merchandise as such in the shops. Christmas decorations are generally in the supermarket all year round, so that’s just as normal! (Last year, I remember that Christmas confectionery seemed to arrive in January! Probably what was left over from Europe!)
The traffic has been awful in the last few weeks. Now, I guess that that might be people Christmas shopping, though it’s been during the week as much as anything. More likely, it’s been due to the school and university graduations that were taking place.
The shopping centre that I go to has been full, though that seems to have been more with young Kenyans who see it as a place to hang out, rather than to shop.

Commercialism around Christmas has increased here though, even in the time that I’ve been in Kenya. Various adverts that you see in the paper or on billboards associate Christmas with shopping.

Part of Ngong Road Racecourse Craft Fair

My baobab tree

What we’ve had a lot of this year have been Christmas craft fairs. There seems to have been at least one each weekend for the last 4 weeks. ‘Christmas’ craft fair perhaps suggests that everything there is Christmassy, which is not the case, though you can purchase handmade Christmas cards, nativity scenes, tree ornaments, trees fashioned out of wire, baobab trees made out of banana leaves for hanging ornaments on (I treated myself to one of these this year). Most of the stalls are taken up with people whose wares are year-round – jewelry, glassware, hand-painted crockery, figures from wire, basketwork, cheese, chutneys,…….. I went to two of these this year. The first, Bizarre Bazaar, was the smaller of the two. Unfortunately, the heavens opened 10 minutes after I got there. The stalls themselves are tents, all lined up and the only way to get between them all is out in the open. I figured that I might as well continue going around. Despite my umbrella, I got pretty wet, and it was only later that I discovered that the back of my trousers were absolutely covered in mud. Hence, having not really done so well at that one, I went the following week with a friend to the Ngong Road Racecourse Craft Fair, which is far bigger. It was already very muddy in places, though strategically placed rocks and straw were helping some. I came away relatively unscathed, probably because it didn’t rain while I was there. That Craft Fair has apparently been going for 35 years, and is quite a meeting place for white Kenyans who live upcountry. All of these craft fairs remain somewhat the preserve of white Kenyans and ex-pats it seems, though with an increasing middle class, perhaps there’ll be more Kenyans there in years to come? Or is the whole idea something very Western perhaps?

Last weekend, was the Nairobi Music Society Christmas concerts, which I was playing in. On Thursday, our monthly prayer meeting at work featured a number of carols. Friday evening, I was at a friend’s house with a number of other musos and we had a carol sing there (as well as some delicious desserts). At church yesterday, we had a great nativity play with all the children involved as shepherds, angels, animals, stars, ….. plus of course the central characters (though I’m told that Baby Jesus was missing from the manger in the first service!). And this Wednesday, we’re having our annual carol sing at Karen Blixen Museum, where we gather for picnics under the stars, and as the sun goes down, light candles and sing carols, all against the backdrop of the Ngong Hills.

So, Christmas is definitely coming. As are my parents – just 24 hours from now! Here to experience a very different kind of Christmas – it’ll be warm for starters!

To anyone reading this – a very Happy Christmas!

Karen Vineyard Church Carols by Candlelight

Unexpected Creatures

2011-12-09T23:28:00.000+03:00

Even driving around Nairobi, seeing wildlife becomes relatively normal, though no less special. Rhino, buffalo, giraffe, warthog, baboon on the way out to Karen to go for church, flute lesson or home group; camels and cows in the neighbourhood where I live, and being herded along the side of the road; monkeys in the compound;.....
In the last few weeks, I seem to have come across some other kinds of creatures in unexpected places a number of times. Doing some ‘gardening’ on the balcony of my 2nd floor flat, I came across at least 20 small slugs covering a bag of compost and surreptitiously making their way towards my plants, with a bunch of white eggs which were clearly another 20 or so slugs waiting to hatch.
Coming back to the office from lunch break on Wednesday (having found a brilliant yellow and black bug of some sort on one of my plants), the askari (guard) was poking something with a stick in the drain. I expected it to be a snake or something of that nature, but found instead that it was a hedgehog (unsurprisingly all curled up in a ball)! The first time he or I had seen one here

And yesterday, in the office, there was a giant grasshopper flitting around, which sounded a bit like an electrical appliance sparking. It eventually landed on my backpack, and I was able to release him back to the outdoors.

From Dustbowl to Mudbath

2011-12-09T23:15:00.000+03:00

Kenya is certainly a place of contrasts. A few months ago, we were in drought and parts of the country, particularly in the north were really suffering. Now, it seems that for the last month or so, we’ve had nothing but rain. That can bring its own problems, though at least crops will be starting to grow, there’ll be grass for the cattle and sheep, and people can get water again. Here in Nairobi, the rain has meant traffic that has been even worse than normal. We’re not talking about light rain here, but torrential downpours, obliterating the driver’s view (I drove onto a central reservation one time, as I just couldn’t see where the road was going – it was very disorientating), creating lakes in roads, and generally bringing traffic to a point of gridlock. It also brings with it mud – lots and lots of mud. It amazes me that in a country where so many people walk, more isn’t done to provide the multitude of pedestrians with something solid to walk on. Instead, they’re having to make their way through a morass of mud, occasionally getting absolutely covered in muddy water by cars inadvertently creating something resembling a tidal wave as they go through one of the previously mentioned lakes. And of course, the rain erodes away at the ground and the tarmac, so that the edges of the road disappear, and smaller potholes become craters, which when filled with water are of an unknown depth! The ‘short’ rains this year have been rather long. To still be wearing a cardigan (sometimes in the daytime!), keeping my windows shut at night, and having an Autumn-weight duvet on the bed, isn’t what I’d expect at all at this time of year. However, it looks as though that is changing now. The grey (often black) skies have been replaced with brilliant blue ones these last few days. Maybe it’ll be a warm Christmas after all?!

Sheltering from the rain for 40 minutes one day on the walk down to the office

Next week I’ll be driving to Lake Baringo, about 4 hours north of Nairobi, with my parents. I’ve been advised to phone them a few days ahead of time to find out the state of the road. It’s apparently been underwater several times due to a seasonal river, and has been impassable. Even if the waters have receded, the state of the road that’s been left behind could be quite interesting!
Living here, I’m very aware that rain is a blessing, but you can have too much of a good thing……!

Where Am I?

2011-12-09T23:10:00.000+03:00

There are places in Kenya which could easily be mistaken for somewhere in the UK (and there are of course many that are so, so different!). A few weeks ago, I went up to Nyeri in the Central Highlands for the weekend, to stay with some orchestral friends there. The drive once away from the sprawl of Nairobi is beautiful, and it was during that time that I determined that my parents’ visit over Christmas should include a detour on our way back from Nakuru, to this beautifully green part of the country, inbetween the Aberdare Range and the slopes of Mount Kenya. The weekend itself was lovely, with music making on the Saturday with Pauline (viola), and Dzenisa (violin), and a tour of the area with Pauline and Peter. We wound up on the Sunday having lunch at the Aberdares Country Club. This is an old colonial house perched on the side of a hill, with views (I was told!) on a clear day to both sets of mountains. We sat out on the lawns just taking in the sweeping view, with splashes of colour from bourgainvillea and Cape Chestnut trees, and listening to the sounds of strutting peacocks, and other more melodious sounding birds. With the ‘old’ building perhaps and the colonial style, it was easy to mistake this for a house in Surrey or Sussex, the bourgainvillea being in place of rhododendrons or azalea. The giraffe wandering in the forest below us were however a bit of a giveaway regarding our true location! It really was very beautiful, and I'm looking forward to taking my parents there soon.

Menu Options

2011-10-05T21:09:00.001+03:00

I’m currently staying at the GILLBT guesthouse in Tamale, northern Ghana. My room is pleasant enough with an ensuite bathroom, a fridge, a TV (though to watch this, you’d have to unplug the fridge!), and most importantly, a ceiling fan (temperatures indoors are around the 28C mark this week)! As mentioned previously on my blog (29/6/11), meals are served in the area outside the bedrooms. Breakfast comprise of a flask of hot water left for beverages (I’ve learnt to travel with Kenyan coffee and a travel cafetiere that a friend gave me), and bread and an egg (hardboiled or fried). Generally during breakfast, the matron comes over to ask about lunch orders. There is apparently a menu, but I’ve yet to see any sign of it. The conversation goes something like this:
“What do you want for lunch?”
Having been informed by the director that salads are possible (I’d never have thought of asking for that otherwise in this climate), I’ve requested a salad several times, always to be met with the answer, after a moment’s pause,
“We don’t have salad. What do you want?”
Having already said what I’d actually rather like, it seemed better to change tack at this point.
“What do you have?”
“Rice or spaghetti.”
“Spaghetti please.”
“We don’t have spaghetti.”
“Oh, okay, I’ll go for rice then!”
Pretty much every day, it’s been rice, either plain or cooked in a palm oil and tomato-based sauce, with maybe a few sprinklings of chopped up carrots and cabbage, and a small piece of chicken or guineafowl, which has been fine (and quite tasty). It is interesting though that the need is there to ask what I’d like, when it seems pretty clear, that there really is only one thing on offer. Maybe it’s to demonstrate a desire to please; maybe it’s just to make conversation?! Either way, rather than getting frustrated, it makes me smile - and look forward to the salad that I will have when I get home next week!

Commuter Pain

2011-09-25T16:28:00.002+03:00

In a recent international traffic survey (Commuter Pain Index), Nairobi was listed as having the 4^thmost grueling commute amongst the 20 cities the report covered, coming in after Mexico City, Shenzen and Beijing. The average time for commuting to work is apparently 2.1 hours, 40% higher than the survey’s average! (I am very, very glad that my commute to work consists of a 5 minute or so walk!) These aren’t people travelling tens of miles to get to work, but rather just within the confines of the city. With an increasing Kenyan middle class, the number of those owning cars has increased substantially, even in the 8½ years that I’ve lived here. I see this amongst the Kenyan staff in SIL-Africa Area, most of them having bought vehicles in the last few years. So, many more vehicles on the road, but still no ring road around the city (all the containers bringing goods to Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, DRC, etc pass through Nairobi), and little in the way of road widening, or other developments to improve traffic flow. To go anywhere in the evenings, and even on Saturdays now, you have to allow at least an hour. If everyone were to wait patiently in the traffic, it perhaps wouldn’t be so bad. Yet, when it comes to being behind a wheel, the people-(rather than time-) orientedness of Kenyans seems to go out of the window, each person pushing to get ahead, driving off road, on the wrong side of the road, …… My reintroduction to Kenyan driving after a month away in the US and UK, where people generally follow the rules of the road, was fairly fraught. It’s a battle of who will give in first, as a vehicle comes round the wrong side, then attempts to push in. Or buses coming up the wrong side, coming within centimeters of the side of you. It can be a bit of a rugby scrum at times. You can come away feeling as you’ve been beaten up by all the bullies of the road. The sad thing is that, as a friend pointed out, it’s no longer just the matatu drivers who have this “get ahead, no matter what” driving style, but it’s now affecting the way people drive across the board. And it’s very rare that you see the police stopping anyone for driving behavior that wouldn’t be accepted elsewhere. What will it take I wonder to bring about order on Kenyan roads? Possibly reaching a complete gridlock first?

Airports, Planes & Hotels

2011-09-25T16:15:00.000+03:00

What do London, Addis Ababa, Birmingham, Dubai, Chicago and Atlanta have in common? Probably a number of things, though for me, what links them together is that in each, I’ve found myself on a bus, being shuttled from the airport to a hotel, having either missed a connection, or experienced a delayed / cancelled flight. Each experience has been with a different airline, and a range of impressions left by the varying levels of customer service. The number of incidents is perhaps a reflection of the amount of air travel I’m doing these days – 19 flights in the last 3 months alone!

In chronological order:-

1. London & Addis Ababa – July 2005. An Ethiopian Airline flight from London to Nairobi. The initial problem was the plane arriving at Heathrow late, resulting in our flight not being allowed to depart as it was beyond the curfew time. Except that we, the passengers, didn’t know that until we were served dinner on the plane at the gate! An hour or so later, buses took us to various hotels. The lasting impression of the following 40 or so hours was of a complete lack of communication and / or apology. I can’t quite remember how we knew when we were returning to Heathrow the next day, but I do remember it being very unclear when we got there when the flight would leave. It did though,….. eventually. However, all was not over. Fog in Addis meant that the plane was re-routed to Djibouti where we sat on the tarmac until the fog cleared, by which time I’d missed the morning flight to Nairobi! So, on to another hotel. And an opportunity to go to bed, though only for a couple of hours by the time all the paperwork at the hotel was done. (The fact that the bedding and towels hadn’t been changed since the previous occupant was not worth the time getting a room change!) It took me 48 hours to travel from Nottingham to Nairobi. I swore then never to travel Ethiopian again. However, given that Ethiopian and Kenya Airways are the two main airlines for travel across Africa, I haven’t been able to stick with that.

2. Birmingham and Dubai – January 2010. Emirates flight to Nairobi, cancelled out of Birmingham because of heavy snow. Seeing all other flights being cancelled, it was fairly inevitable that our turn would come. Emirates ground staff were excellent in handling this, though again, it was several hours to actually get to the hotel. The staff there were great too, laying on mounds of sandwiches and such like for all these extra people who’d pitched up around midnight. The next morning, Emirates personnel were available to answer questions and give information – such as they knew, the stopping of snowfall and resuming of flights not being possible to put an exact time on! We were told that for those with connections in Dubai, it’d be possible to get a hotel room there too. It wasn’t exactly obvious where to go when we got there, and it took some traipsing around the airport to find the appropriate desk. However, it was definitely worth it for the bed and shower. I’d evidently had some kind of marker put by my name, as I was one of the first to be served food on the flight to Nairobi the following morning.

3. Chicago – April 2010. The ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano was the reason this time. The flight was British Airways to London. One night in a hotel, but summoned back to O’Hare Airport the next day (no explanation given), and told we were on our own. Extraordinary circumstances for sure, but could they have been a bit more helpful? Thankfully for me, I had some place I could go thanks to some friends of SIL colleagues. My flight wound up being 12 days later than scheduled.

4. Atlanta – August 2011. Delta flight from Atlanta to London. A thunderstorm in Atlanta closed down the airport for a couple of hours, meaning that my flight from Orlando was 2 hours late taking off – which was the connection time that I had in Atlanta! I raced to the gate, but it had already closed and the plane had taxied off. (Ironic that that flight was bang on time when so many flights earlier in the afternoon had been significantly delayed!) Question – Knowing that there was someone so close to getting there, could they not have delayed the flight just a few minutes? As directed, I proceeded to the International Rebooking desk. And this is where Delta really fell down. The Delta staff on the desks there started leaving, it being the end of their working day! I’d been standing in line for about 20 minutes or so (as had about 6-8 others), and they just checked out! I and some other stranded passengers (a number of whom were not happy at all – the language was quite colourful!) then had to go to the other end of the airport, and stand in another line, waiting for an hour or more to be seen. Another hotel, though this time at a cost (albeit discounted). Service on the 6 Delta flights within the US that trip had been very good, so it was a shame that the experience at the airport on the last leg rather nullified all of that.

Add to this two other non-hotel experiences:-
• Antrak domestic flight from Tamale to Accra – July 2011. 8.5 hours late, some of which was due to a thunderstorm in the early hours of the morning. I’d arrived at 6am for a 7:45am flight. At 8am, we were all told to return at 11:30am. When I and others did, there were no staff in sight, no food or water offered, and no information given, even when the staff finally did pitch up. And never a word of apology.

• Kenya Airways domestic flight from Nairobi to Malindi – July 2011. Cancelled a month ahead of time, so they put me on an earlier flight to Mombasa (a flight time of my choice) instead, and transferred me by road to the hotel II was staying at at the coast, free of charge! What’s more, the flight to Mombasa was just 40 minutes late, and there must have been about 3 or 4 times that they apologized for that! (This stood out all the more, as it was just 2 days on from the experience with Antrak.)

So, going by my experiences alone, I’d apply the following ranking to these various airlines customer service when it comes to delayed, cancelled or missed flights:
1. Emirates – The clear winner
2. Kenya Airways
3. British Airways
4. Delta – Not at all impressed by the staff at that Rebooking desk!
5. Ethiopian
6. Antrak – Definitely way down at the bottom.
Of course, as I fly more, that's all subject to change!
I guess that a word of advice, as a colleague mentioned a few days ago, would be to never travel with me! (Or always have at least a spare change of underwear in your carry on if you do!)

Cross-Cultural Living

2011-06-29T23:15:00.000+03:00

Somehow today seems to have been full of cross-cultural incidents.
The day began at 3:15am in order to get to the airport and be checked in by 4:30am for the flight from Accra to Tamale. (It had never occurred to the Finance manager arranging the flight that not everyone is a morning person!) Thankfully for me, the time difference with Kenya was in my favour, and with this in mind, I’d purposefully kept to Kenyan time since my arrival 2 days ago. The taxi came to pick me up at 3:50am, and we were at the airport by 4! (Surprisingly not nearly so much traffic at that unearthly hour!!) There was one passenger in front of me, but other than a few members of airport staff sleeping on chairs, the domestic departures terminal was deserted! Passengers started to trickle in, as did the people at the check-in desks. However, far from having checked people in by 4:30am, it wasn’t until 4:40am that they opened for business! Hmm, I could have had another 40 minutes of sleep!
My ticket had been changed a number of times, and was still dated July 1st. There was much looking through notes and schedules until it was announced that I needed to speak to someone else. “You changed it to Friday”, she said. It had been changed due to sickness of the person I was meant to travel with, him delaying his flight for a couple of days, but I’d asked for it to be changed back as I wanted to get on with the work I’d come here to do. Evidently, that wasn’t reflected in their system. Thankfully, there were spare seats, and it was all sorted out. While I was back at the check-in desk, the one lady came over to speak to the other. Though they were speaking in the local language, I caught enough words in English to figure out that the ticket date had in fact been changed, but to the 29th July rather than 29th June! It struck me as odd that this was explained to the exclusion of the affected passenger! Possibly something to do with saving face....
I arrived in Tamale, and there was no one to pick me up! Well, that’s not the first time that that’s happened, but it is a little unnerving when you have no clue where you’re meant to be going. The driver did arrive in due course. Somehow he hadn’t believed it when he’d been told that the flight was going to be earlier than usual today.
Next cross cultural moment was in the office and asking where the toilets were located. “Do you want to pee or poop?” the young Ghanaian man I’m working with here asked, completely unabashed. It turns out that there are different toilets depending on the nature of the call. When he talked of urinals, I was rather expecting a cubicle with a hole in the wall in a corner as I’d experienced when travelling in Ghana previously, so was quite relieved to find regular toilets there.
Lunchtime : I’m staying at the guesthouse on the same compound as the offices. I was told that my lunch was ready, and on my way up to the guesthouse, was ushered into the dining room by someone at the door where a number of people were eating. It seemed quite natural that this was where I’d eat too. However, once at the counter, the lady serving looked very panicked and started saying something that I couldn’t understand. Others told me to sit down, so I did and started chatting with a few. There followed more discussion in the local language, evidently about me. A while later, I was pulled out of there and taken up to the guesthouse, where there was a plate of food set at a table, which I proceeded to eat in complete isolation!
The work day ended with my colleague packing my laptop away for me, and then looking somewhat put out when I turned down his offer of carrying it for me, having already got my backpack on my back. They never do that in Nairobi!!
So, that’s just day 1 in Tamale, Ghana!

Weekend Getaways

2011-06-28T09:03:00.000+03:00

Getting away from traffic is probably one of the big motivating factors for me in periodically getting out of Nairobi for a weekend. That, and the stunning and varied countryside that lies beyond the city borders. In the last few weeks, I had a couple of such weekend escapes.
The first of these was to a cottage that I’ve stayed at many times now (4 already this year!). I took Jim and Rebecca with me. They’re over from the US for a few months, helping us out in the Finance department while a couple of staff are away. After 2 months, it was high time that they got out of the city! Away from all the traffic noise, the sounds heard from Hadada are the various bird calls made by numerous different species in this birdwatchers’ paradise, the occasional crowing of a rooster, and the grunting of hippos in the nearby flamingo-fringed lake. Set against a spectacular backdrop of hills and volcano craters in this part of the Rift Valley, with zebra, giraffe, eland, gazelle, hartebeest and warthogs roaming around freely, it is a perfect place to relax, go for walks and generally enjoy God’s creation.

Jim & Rebecca enjoying the view at Crater Lake

[For those who know Hadada, the elderly couple whose guest cottage it is, have both died in the last year. Hadada still remains available, at least while it goes through probate. It will be a sad day when it’s no longer there.]

Oldien Bay

The second weekend getaway was a new find – a nicely furnished house, just the other side of the Ngong Hills, about an hour of traffic-free driving away (not that it was traffic free on Friday afternoon!). The Ngong Hills form a dividing line in the landscape between the green more arable land towards Nairobi, and the dry, scrub land dotted with Masai manyattas going down (literally – about 6,000 feet down from the top of the hills!) to Lake Magadi. Whilst already down a ways, the house was perched on the hillside with a stunning view. There was the very occasional sound of a vehicle coming up the road, but otherwise, the peace was just punctuated by birdsong, baboons barking, cow and goat bells as Masai herded their livestock down below us, and on Sunday, the sound of singing from an open air church service off in the distance. Another great place to chill out with friends, away from the hustle and bustle of city life.

Jill seeing what she can see

The view from the bathroom!

A Picture of Relaxation!

The Pluses and Minuses of Nairobi

2011-06-28T08:50:00.000+03:00

I’m often asked whether I like living in Nairobi. Like anywhere, it has its pluses and its minuses. As African cities go (and I’ve seen quite a number now), it is a good place to be. Ready availability of imported good as well as local produce, a plentiful choice of nice eating-out places, a very pleasant climate (varying between a good English summer and a bad English summer!), and various forms of entertainment, help to make life here not so very dissimilar to that experienced at home. (Someone said to me recently, “Nairobi is very close to Africa!”)
Two things however stand out as the not so pleasant features of life here:-
1. Security. Everyone in Nairobi it seems, knows someone who’s been carjacked, mugged, burgled, …. The crime rate is way higher than I’ve known elsewhere. Then again, the disparity of wealth is higher too. And whilst one doesn’t justify the other, it does perhaps explain it. Such concerns of security can be factors in stopping some from venturing out of their walled, razor-wired, guarded compounds, in the evenings.
2. Traffic. An increasing problem, and one that has caused me to cancel plans for an evening out with friends a few times now. As Nairobi’s middle class increases, so does the number of vehicles on the roads. The road infrastructure however doesn’t seem to develop at the same rate, the plans for a ringroad around the city seemingly remaining just that – plans. In order to go out pretty much anywhere, at least an hour has to be factored in. (A recent grocery shopping trip after work, which should have been a 5 minute drive, took over 1½ hours! The worst of it was that I couldn’t abandon the plan, turn around and go home, as impatient (a.k.a. selfish / thoughtless) drivers, trying to get ahead, had succeeded in completely blocking the road.)
My new strategy of beating the traffic on a weekday when I go out to Karen for flute lessons and home group, is to leave the office early, and continue working once I’m there. Except for a couple of occasions, I’ve saved myself about 45 minutes of sitting in traffic, by doing so. Such strategies may well become a regular part of life before too long.

Two lanes of traffic?!

The Relentless Loss of Friends

2011-06-27T00:12:00.000+03:00

This afternoon, I was at the farewell party of a couple of friends, Stew and Jo, who are amongst the dwindling number of SILers (and close friends) who were in Kenya when I first arrived 8+ years ago. Whilst Kenya doesn’t have much climatically-speaking by way of seasons (hot dry season, short rains, cold dry season and long rains), May and June are definitely the months of goodbyes. For some, the leaving is just for a year’s home assignment, so whilst missed for that time, at least they’ll be back. For others, like the Johnsons, it can be the end of their time (in their case, 17 years) in Kenya.
Working in an international organization with missionaries from the US, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Australia, ….., as well as the UK, the added challenge of such goodbyes is that there is no guarantee of meeting up with some of these people again, as there would be if someone left your town for another in the UK.
This was an aspect of expat / missionary life that I wasn’t really prepared for, having said all my goodbyes (or so I thought) when I left the UK. Earlier on this year, when life was feeling very transient, I wrote down the names of SIL expat colleagues who’d left Nairobi in the 8 years that I’d been here – I got to 90 in no time at all! Some of those I didn’t know that well, but even so, that’s a lot of goodbyes, especially when you add others who’ve left, who I’ve known through church and orchestra.
My recent trip to Tanzania brought this home to me afresh. I really enjoyed the social interaction (and the playing) with the other members of the quintet, and it struck me how ironic and sad it was that I got to know Daris and Tom within a couple of months of them leaving Arusha, just 160 miles away, to go back to Austin, 8,860 miles away!!
However, whilst at times unsettling, having your life touched by the lives of so many (and touching theirs too) adds to the overall tapestry, each relationship depositing something separate and unique. And there are lots of people and places around the world to visit!

Some of those who've left, or are about to
(Apologies for the watermark!)

Medium-Sized Fish in Small Bowl!

2011-06-03T00:21:00.000+03:00

There’s no doubt about it – Nairobi is a small bowl musically speaking. Opportunities come up here that never would for an amateur musician (a.k.a small / medium-sized fish!) like myself in the UK. Four years ago, I, and other members of Nairobi Orchestra, got to play with Cape Town Opera when they put on a condensed version of Porgy and Bess in Kenya. And that same year, I played a flute concerto – something I’d never dreamt of doing! In April, I was asked by a couple of professional musicians from Austin, Texas, who are working at Makumira University in Arusha, Tanzania for a year, to join them and 2 other professionals from the U.S. in some wind quintet concerts. Their usual flautist had been unable to join them – and there I was, just 6 hours up the road in Nairobi! A terrific opportunity, yet decidedly daunting at the same time! Even more so when I started to receive the music, which comprised predominantly of East African compositions containing a number of fairly complex rhythms taking me somewhat out of my comfort zone!

Mt Meru from the university campus

It was my first time in Tanzania. It was interesting to see the similarities and contrasts to Kenya. Or maybe I’m really just comparing it with Nairobi. On the Makumira University campus, it’s beautifully green, pollution-free, and away from the hustle and bustle of traffic and hordes of people that we know in Nairobi. Monkeys leap fearlessly from tree to tree, and casqued hornbills roost in the treetops. Dominating the background (when it’s clear) is Mt Meru – and from the 4th floor of the music building, you can see Mt Kilimanjaro. There’s not nearly so much available here as there is in Nairobi, and power cuts were certainly pretty frequent over the week. Tanzanians, at least those I met, are very friendly, and reminded me of Ugandans (or up-country Kenyans) in that respect. Very courteous, and speak ‘safi’ (literally clean) Swahili, rather than the ‘less correct’ Swahili spoken in Kenya. (They say that Swahili was born in Tanzania, got sick in Kenya, died in Uganda, and was buried in Congo!!) Around the campus are the sounds of music of various forms – both Western and African. The music programme there seems excellent, and the teaching staff very supportive of the students, having evidently invested significantly and personally into the programme and the students themselves.

Tree-lined path at Makumira University campus

The music that we were playing in the 2 main concerts was the culmination of a project that Daris has been doing over the last year, encouraging the writing of music in an East African style for Western instruments, so that they could be introduced in a Western context. Some of our pieces were written by students here, whilst others were from students from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. Interspersed were a couple of more traditional wind quintet pieces – partly reward to the listeners’ ears, and partly as a bit of respite for our brains!!

Wild Basin Winds and Friends

The Medium-Sized Fish!

Wild Basin Winds and Friends consisted of myself on flute, Liz on oboe, Gary on clarinet, Daris on bassoon, and Tom on French horn. For quite a number of pieces, we were joined by Randy on piano, plus various djembe players. We also had a small choir (and a cowbell!) on one particular piece telling of a man of respect coming to talk to a group of young people about life.

We had rehearsals together each evening, and it was fun! It was such a privilege to play with such talented musicians, and be a part of this beautiful sound that each instrument was contributing to. For the people of Arusha, it was a rare opportunity to go to a concert performed by professionals. And for this amateur, the whole experience was just a real treat.

Musicians and one of the composers, Kaghondi

As well as the main concerts, we presented a slightly different programme in 2 schools, including brief introductions to the various instruments. Both were received very well by the children, the first being the most notable in that the children there had probably never seen these instruments before.

With the singers and Dr. Tamusuza from Makerere University, Kampala

I’m not sure that I’ll ever get an opportunity to play with a group of this calibre again, but living in a small bowl like Nairobi, you just never know!

The Icing on the Cake - Mt Kilimanjaro as viewed from the shuttle bus on the journey home

Advert for Pentapure?

2011-05-13T22:59:00.000+03:00

Water is a topic of conversation in Nairobi. Most often, it’s how much rain there’s been, or hasn’t been; whether it’s in the taps or not…. I’m thankfully very rarely without water in my apartment, but I’m very aware that that’s not the case for many here. Some maybe don’t have water at all; some only periodically. I have one colleague who has to get up in the middle of the night to fill every container available, as that’s when the water is in the taps. Other friends have huge water storage tanks, and have systems rigged up to collect rain water. We’re all therefore very aware of the rains, and just how much there’s been. Whilst no one likes the mud nor the ensuing traffic chaos, we’re all thankful that the long rains seem to have finally come.

I was a little perturbed two evenings ago to see that whilst I had water, its colour was far from what it should be! Not really what you want to be washing your face in! Having had a situation not so many months ago when sewage was getting into the mains water, it does make you wonder about the quality. The usual exercise of soaking fruit and vegetables for 20 minutes in a bleach solution (to remove typhoid and other such nasties) may be an exercise in futility at the moment, and simply a way to increase the likelihood of contracting something unpleasant….

The picture of the two glasses of water shows the before and after going through my Pentapure water filter, a system that is meant to take out bugs and bacteria, as well as dirt. Let’s hope it really is as effective as they claim! This weekend I’ll be faced with the quandary of whether to do laundry, as it looks as though clothes will possibly come out dirtier than they went in!

Road Repairs?

2011-05-13T22:54:00.000+03:00

The road down to the office is worse than ever. There’s one section now with quite a crevasse that I avoid as my wheels just spin there - and I’m in a 4-wheel drive! It means having to go on a rather bumpier, rockier stretch, but at least I make it. However, today, someone had obviously thought that it was time to do some road repairs as there were heaps of rather roughly hewn rock haphazardly dumped into the gaping crevasses! Maybe it’ll be do the trick? Not sure I'd fancy driving over them just yet.

Tree-climbing, machete-toting, and outside my window!

2011-05-13T22:50:00.000+03:00

A few weeks ago, I was rather surprised to find several men perched in the trees just outside my 2^nd floor dining-room window! They had shinned up barefoot, sent down ropes for their machetes to be attached to and drawn up, and were hacking away at the branches. It was an exercise that went on for at least 2 or 3 days over Easter weekend. I was a little concerned that all the trees would be chopped down, having enjoyed all the birdlife there, plus the leafiness of the outlook. Thankfully, whilst quite a number of branches were lopped (which actually means that my dining room and kitchen are lighter than they used to be), there are plenty left, and the rather splendid African Paradise Flycatcher pair were in evidence again last week.

The Perfect Office?

2011-02-17T21:37:00.000+03:00

Most of my working life has entailed being in an office, and being bound to it because of the data that’s been held on the server, the accounting software, and simply because that’s where I needed to be to do the work I was employed to do. My current role however has elements to it that don’t restrict me geographically in this way. Technological advances have helped too:
• Having a laptop rather than a desktop;
• Being able to download everything I might need on the server onto a small postcard-size external hard drive;
• Being able to access the Dallas server remotely (can't do this with the Nairobi one yet unfortunately);
• Being able to access my emails wherever I am (not always a good thing!);
• Being able to skype chat with colleagues around the world.

Working on the front porch of Hadada Cottage

A week on Sunday, we have a week-long biennial Project Funding and Finance workshop starting, in a conference centre just outside Nairobi. Most of the SIL finance people across Africa will be coming for training, along with some of those from the African Wycliffe organizations. Unfortunately, 3 of the 5 people I’d had down to facilitate are unable to come, so rather more is falling to me than I’d reckoned on. And somehow, preparation for this in the office setting just doesn’t happen. I’m too accessible there, and am way too likely to get caught up with other work-related matters. Last week, I chose to work from home for a couple of days, and made good progress, and this week, I’ve come right away, to one of my favourite weekend haunts, a cottage on Oldien Bay near Lake Naivasha. I did wonder this morning if this was a good move, when I was 2 hours later than planned leaving Nairobi, and hence (with the 2.5 hour drive) lost a whole morning of working on the workshop prep. However, once here, all that dissolved. What a setting to work in! Being someone who did all her summer exam revision (from O levels through A levels, Chemistry degree and then accounting qualification) outdoors, I very quickly decided to sit at the table on the front porch with my laptop rather than stay inside. What a view – aloes, acacia trees, the flamingo-pink fringed lake, and hills beyond,- and all accompanied by the melodious sound of a multitude of assorted birds, and the occasional grunting of hippo! Definitely a very therapeutic environment to be working in. My only concern – that I will get too distracted by the beautiful surroundings and fail to get on with why I’m actually here!

All I want for Christmas is........

2011-02-14T23:50:00.000+03:00

Well, not my two front teeth, though that was the case many years ago when I was decidedly gappy for a year or so (partly thanks to my brother who had knocked one out with a rather accurately thrown lego brick!)! This year, my Christmas wishes were rather different. Wanting to do something completely different, I arranged for a group of us, none of whom have family in Kenya, to go away on safari. We had one night at Treetops in the Aberdares National Park, and then 3 nights at Shaba National Reserve, close to Samburu and Buffalo Springs. The contrast in scenery was quite dramatic, from the green, hilly, lush countryside around Nyeri, to the stark, desert, arid, mountainous landscape of Samburuland. So, my Christmas wishes:-

1. To see Mt Kenya clearly. I’d circumnavigated this 17,000 feet mountain a couple of times, and both times, it was completely obscured by cloud. Imagine my delight the first morning, when I opened the curtains at Treetops and was looking directly at this majestic mountain. We continued to have stunning views of it that morning as we drove past on our way to Shaba, seeing the glaciers very clearly. And even from Samburu itself, it was clearly visible. What a treat! It was rather nice too to feel that I was getting something of a white Christmas without any of the freezing temperatures! One of my friends was convinced that the fascination with the mountain was an indication that I should climb it (she’s been up 7 times), but hearing her stories of cold, wet and the effects of altitude sickness did nothing whatsoever to entice me. I’m much happier to appreciate the beauty and majesty of the peaks from afar!

Mount Kenya from near Nanyuki

2. To see a leopard, preferably on Christmas Day. Now, this one seemed a bit of a tall order. I’ve lived in Kenya for 8 years now, and have been on quite a number of game drives in that time. Leopard sightings can be counted on one hand, and really on just a couple of fingers! My best ever remains my very first safari in 1987 when I was over visiting two close university friends. We were in Samburu, and had a leopard walking right between us and a couple of other vehicles. Little did I realize at the time how special and amazing this was. I’ve seen trees that may or may not have had a leopard in them (on one occasion, the bit of tree that we thought was a leopard still appeared to be there the following morning, …..), and one time had an incredibly fleeting (not long enough to take a photo) of a leopard, whose markings were vibrant and striking, as he/she walked along a rock near us and then disappeared from view.

On Christmas Eve, we got to see elephant, lots of grazers, an abundance of birds, and just enjoyed the beauty of the place, choosing to just relax at the lodge in the afternoon. On Christmas Day, we were treated to lion and cheetah sightings in the morning, in addition to lots of ellies, greater kudu, reticulated giraffe, gravy zebra, oryx, …... But, still no leopard. We all agreed that it’d be good to do an additional afternoon game drive. And what do you know? We were rewarded with a beautiful sighting of a leopard sprawled on a branch of a tree, its four legs and tail hanging down.

A beautiful spotted big cat - as requested!

No Christmas wrapping or ribbon in sight, but what wonderful gifts these both were!

The Christmas Safari-ers: Julie, Rosie, Jill and Me

Mud and Misdemeanours

2011-02-14T22:51:00.000+03:00

It rained yesterday evening, and most of the night. Unseasonably so, as the rains aren’t due until the end of March. However, I’d heard over the weekend a report of one person saying that it always rains on 14th February, and true enough, it was still raining this morning. A good thing as we do need it. The downside though is the traffic that results (even worse than normal), and the dust that has been prevalent turns to mud. Consequently, the mud road down to the office was just that – thick with mud. Knowing how it would be and not fancying having shoes and feet caked in sticky red mud at the start of the day, I drove the 800m or so to work. Even in my 4-wheel drive, I skewed around a little bit, but my tyres managed to maintain a reasonable grip. Saloon cars perhaps wouldn’t have fared so well, and anyone going uphill would have had a harder job.

Precisely because of that, when I had to drive home later in the morning, I chose to go the rather longer, though tarmacked (albeit with potholes in abundance), route. This drive could only have been about 5 minutes in length but there seemed to be an abundance of driving misdemeanours in that time:
• Somewhat sporadic driving on the part of one driver, due to their talking on their mobile phone.
• The car in front of me indicating right at one T-junction, but then turning left. Amazing to have any indicators on at all, but not exactly helpful in this case! Perhaps he thought a T-junction is like a filter lane?
• The next T-junction is at the top of the hill. There’s a very clear road sign in the approach for those going uphill, that there’s no right turn allowed there. At least 3 of the cars in front of me turned right!!
• As I was coming to the left-hand turn into my road, a car coming out of it clearly wanted to go right, as he was completely over on the right-hand side of the road, very effectively blocking my way!

And that’s without venturing beyond the immediate neighbourhood onto any of the main roads! People do get fined for driving offences here (those who don’t then pay bribes that is), but every day, there are an abundance of others who between them, break most of the rules in the book. To be fair, today's tally did seem to be particularly concentrated.

Safe Driving

2011-01-04T22:40:00.000+03:00

A number of times whilst out driving in Nairobi on a Friday evening, I’ve been behind vehicles that have been swerving rather alarmingly on the road. Whilst this can be on account of potholes sometimes, I rather suspect that something else was behind these meandering manoeuvres. There was a time a few years ago when police were issued with breathalisers to be used on drivers suspected to be under the influence, but that only seemed to last for a month or so. This year, the ‘Don’t Drink and Drive’ took a rather unexpected turn with the promotion on billboards around the city of drinking yoghurt rather than any other kind of beverage. Not one I’d have thought of!

Kenyan Christmas

2010-12-21T17:40:00.000+03:00

My balcony door is wide open as it’s so hot, the sky is a brilliant blue, and we’re just 4 days from Christmas. Even after 8 years, this is not exactly the weather that I associate with this festive season. Much more the freezing snowy conditions being experienced in the UK – not that I’ve actually experienced that very much! We had our home group Christmas party just over a week ago, opting for brunch rather than dinner. The location was the pool area of the house of one of our families. It was beautiful. After a glass of Bucks Fizz, sausages, tomatoes, bacon and eggs (30 of them being fried together in a large paella pan!) were cooked outside over gas stoves or on a large barbecue. We rounded off with a gift exchange, gifts being randomly selected with options of stealing those already unwrapped. It was fun! Having had a number of gifts pass through my hands, and done my fair share of stealing (and being stolen from), I wound up with a piece of wood that opens out to reveal a nativity scene within.

There’s not the mad rush in the shops around Christmas time that you get in the UK. I remember standing in a queue to pay at a supermarket in Newark, Nottinghamshire last Christmas Eve with my parents for what must have been about 45 minutes. Today, I popped into the supermarket down the road and queued for all of, oh, 3 minutes!

However, Christmas is getting more commercialized with billboards advertising special Christmas deals. The singing Santas are present at the doors of the supermarkets again, though they’re new ones this year – Santa’s gone completely bald! Elsewhere, there are tall inflatable Santas outside, which vibrate, duck and dive rather alarmingly in the wind! There are nowhere near the number of Christmas lights that you get in the West, though shopping centres are strewn with white lights, and with an increasing number of shopping centres, that’s an increasing number of lights! One nearby has opted for something more Kenyan this year rather than the traditional fir trees, and has quite a number of tastefully decorated baobab trees made out of banana leaves – including some in the parking area.

My own apartment is decked out with quite a number of lights, candles, a tree, and a vase of red and gold baubles. It all looks very nice. I’m leaving that behind tomorrow as I’m off on safari for a few days, and will be in the bush on Christmas Day. I’m interested to find out what will be provided for us of a festive nature – taking some crackers, Christmas music and cookies just in case!

Monkey Capers

2010-12-08T22:50:00.000+03:00

Yesterday morning, I was sitting down to breakfast when I heard a commotion outside. On investigating, I was first just aware of a silhouetted largish figure sitting on the trellis at the side of my balcony. This turned out to be a vervet monkey demolishing a peanut bird feeder that I’d had hanging there for months, and helping itself to the goodies within. He was clearly unperturbed by my presence at the window (and occasional opening and closing of the balcony door to try to scare it off), as on finishing the peanuts (there weren’t that many left), it moved on to the dish of millet and sunflower seeds. All the while this was taking place, two pied crows were making quite a ruckus. They clearly weren’t at all impressed by this behavior (or perhaps just his presence), and made that even more clear by effectively dive-bombing the monkey. Between the flash on my camera and the crows, the monkey realized that this wasn't perhaps such a good place to be after all (or maybe he preferred a quieter breakfast environment?), and eventually leapt off the balcony into the tree. Not that the crows gave him any respite there. He eventually leapt on to the apartment roof. Needless to say, I’ve now removed all bird food from the balcony for the time being at least. There’s a big deal made in the UK (where I bought the peanut bird feeder) about bird feeders being squirrel-proof, but I've not seen one yet that makes any mention of monkeys!!!!

A Juxtaposition of Cultures

2010-12-01T21:27:00.001+03:00

The aim of the walk with the dung beetle episode was to get to the main lake from our separate small lake. We’d gone that way before, so knew the way, although in the interim various fences seemed to have been put up. Anyway, we made it and found a scene very different to the one 18 months ago. Then, the water was a long way from where we were. This time, we happened upon a water bird paradise, with a swampy section, papyrus, water hyacinth, and a host of birds (as well as some fishermen). After a while of taking in the scene, the peace was broken by the jangling of bells as a flock of about 200 goats came hurtling down to the water’s edge, some of them leaping into the water. They were evidently quite excited to be there. Behind them came a young boy, with a very long stick – the goatherd. He was very interested in my camera and binoculars. Evidently he’d come across such things before as he had an inkling of what they did, though using them proved rather tricky. It struck me as being a real juxtaposition: His usual life is probably a world away from the modern life that we know in Nairobi (and the West), and yet here he was with a decent digital camera in hand, trying to use technology. He reminded me a bit of my nephew when he was three, pressing every single button in sight! I have to confess that I was a little anxious that he’d inadvertently delete all the photos on my memory card! The fruit of his efforts weren’t that great – photos of grass when the subjects were a dog, a man on a motorbike and the lake!!! However, it’d give him a few stories to tell when he’d finished his work with the goats that day.

Along for the Ride

2010-12-01T21:24:00.000+03:00

A few weekends ago, I was near Lake Naivasha with some friends, staying in one of my favourite spots. Wildlife abounds there, and this time as well as the usual giraffe, zebra, gazelle and hippo, we saw buffalo and jackal down at the lake front. I wasn’t so keen on the buffalo sighting when on foot, though they were a fair way off at least. On a walk on the Sunday, Jill and I came across a round piece of dung being moved along the path by 2 quite large dung beetles. There was no other dung in sight, so goodness knows how far these rather determined beetles had come already. We weren’t sure if it was our presence that did it, but the beetles’ course changed on getting closer to us, and they veered off the path onto the grass. This must have been much harder for them, as they were now having to get the ball over stems of grass and hummocks. It was then we noticed that it was actually just one of them doing all the work, planting its back legs on the ball, and using its front legs to push it along, while all the time, its companion was sitting on top of the ball, and seemed to just be along for the ride! According to Wikipedia, this is normal: “The "rollers" roll and bury a dung ball either for food storage or for making a brooding ball. In the latter case, two beetles, one male and one female, will be seen around the dung ball during the rolling process. Usually it is the male that rolls the ball, with the female hitch-hiking or simply following behind. In some cases the male and the female roll together. When a spot with soft soil is found, they stop and bury the dung ball. They will then mate underground. After the mating, both or one of them will prepare the brooding ball. When the ball is finished, the female lays eggs inside it.” It seems that once the larvae hatch, they make use of this food source at hand, and feed on the dung, Very clever, and wonderful to have witnessed part of the journey – but I can't say that I’d fancy starting life that way!

"My" Space

2010-12-01T21:19:00.000+03:00

Personal space is something that varies very much from one country to another. This was perfectly illustrated to me last April when I was in the US. In a grocery store, with large aisles, I was accosted by a rather bolshie lady for blocking the aisle with my shopping cart. There was in fact plenty of room around it, but I wasn’t going to argue! Similarly, there were a couple of times when people would apologise profusely for being in the way, when I hadn’t noticed that they were, given the ample space around them, and the distance of several metres between me and them. Contrast that to my return to Kenya. Standing in line at the Customer Service desk in a supermarket here to return empty bottles, I was somewhat surprised when someone stood in the 6 inch gap that was between me and the desk!!!

On a public holiday in October, I joined some friends on a trip down to Magadi, which is a soda lake about 90 minutes to 2 hours from Nairobi. It’s a beautiful drive, with the ascent to the shoulder of the Ngong Hills, and then continuing downwards from then on into the Rift Valley. The landscape i

s pretty dramatic with hills and volcanic plugs, and very little in the way of noticeable buildings. Instead, Masai manyattas blend into the scrub land. Once at Magadi, we looked for somewhere with a little bit of shade to have our picnic (it being 37C there), and eventually found a large acacia. So, we set up our table and chairs. Not long after our arrival, a Masai young man pulled up on his bike, greeted us, and then remained, leaning against the tree trunk, watching this strange bunch of people produce sandwiches, sausages, fruit and drinks from the bags we'd brought with us. He was within feet of us, but that certainly didn’t seem to bother him, and we just found the whole thing rather amusing! After about half an hour, he received a phone call on his mobile that caused him to wander off to some bushes. Not sure if he was concerned that we might listen into his conversation in Masai (!), or whether he was taking the opportunity for a call of a different nature. Eventually, he continued on his way. Soon after, we were joined by 3 youngsters, who stood and observed for some time, while talking with each other. One refused a drink of water poured into a Tusker (beer) bottle, but another accepted - and was possibly disappointed to find that it was indeed water as we’d said.

So, space is relative. Maybe all of those people had decided ahead of time to stop at the tree, and our presence was in no way going to stop them. Or maybe, they just wanted to have a good look at our strange behavior. Certainly, there was no concern about impinging on someone else’s space and privacy!

Creative Plumbing

2010-10-28T22:15:00.000+03:00

I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen anything quite like this creation that has appeared on my bath taps before. It’s not perhaps the most beautiful of creations, and is perhaps more appropriate for behind the scenes rather than on display, but it is very practical, and will prove, I’m sure, to provide a great convenience, because of what it allows me to do.
I bought a washing machine this week after 7 years in my apartment without. So, why did it take so long? Well, principally because there is a communal washing machine in a small building on the ground floor. There used to be a tumble dryer there too. Actually, I think there still is - just that it ripped a few of my clothes and put dirty marks on other things, so I’ve stopped using it. That building is fed from the mains rather than from the water tanks, so often times, there’s no water and you have to fill the machine with buckets. In times of very sporadic water supply, I’ve thought before of getting my own washer, but could never quite figure out where it would go. However, on coming back in September, I found that the communal one wasn’t working at all, and 7 weeks later, still isn’t. After many trips to a friend’s house to use her washer (thank you Jill!!), I figured it really was time I got one, and whilst the space issue hasn’t changed any, it’s now installed in my bathroom. The next question was how to plumb it in. Not a question I’ve needed to face before as both of my houses in the UK have been modern, and came with all the pipes (and indeed allocated space in the kitchen) in situ for such a necessary household appliance. However, here that’s not quite how it is. In fact, on making my purchase, I was told at the shop that of course washing machines should be installed outdoors not inside. Well, that’s certainly not the case in colder climes where the water would freeze for part of the year! That must be a throwback to when all washing was done outside, and by hand (and still is in the majority of homes in the city), in the river or whatever source of water there is.
To install it in my kitchen would have meant needing to completely redesign it, plus the cupboard bases are concrete, and the cold water comes from the mains, so is generally just a trickle. Certainly not enough for a washer. Hence, it’s in the bathroom, taking up a good proportion of the floor space. The creation was put together with various bits of galvanized iron pipe from a plumbing supplier, …… and, it seems, liberal amounts of a pretty horrid-looking putty substance, to allow the attachment of the washer hose to the shower attachment (whilst still allowing me to have showers!). And it does in fact work as I’ve already tested it out. The only downside that I’ve discovered is that it has to be plugged in in another room, and the electric cable doesn’t fit underneath the door. So, when the washer’s on, the bathroom door can’t be closed. Not a problem when I’m on my own, but it could prove interesting when visitors are here!!

Orchids Galore!

2010-10-23T20:32:00.000+03:00

When people think about Kenya, they most likely think of the Big Five, safaris, Big Cat Diary, poverty, aid, …. Living here, I’ve come across all the above, but I also have opportunity to experience a different side. Nairobi is an exceedingly cosmopolitan city that is full of contrasts. Today, in this city in a Third world country, I went to an Orchid Show held by Kenya’s Orchid Society! According to an entry on the internet, “The Kenya Orchid Society was established in 1953 to create and increase interest in orchids and their cultivation throughout Kenya and other East African countries. Membership is open to any person already in possession of at least 15 orchid plants, who is proposed and seconded by members and approved by the committee.” Hmm, well that’s me disqualified from joining!
Anyway, the show was held at the Exhibition Centre at Sarit, one of the older shopping centres here. There were various displays putting across different messages about the environment (the theme was ‘Orchids for a Greener World’), but for me it was the orchids themselves that were the focus. I had no idea that there are so many different varieties, and of so many sizes, shapes and colours. Each one so intricately designed and beautiful. Sadly, I had somehow forgotten to take my phone with me (which is very, very unusual here), so couldn’t take any photographs. However, there was a stall selling orchids imported from Taiwan, so I bought one (rather more expensive than the ones in Sainsbury’s in the UK!!), and here it is. I’m just hoping that It survives and flourishes as well as the ones my parents have in their conservatory.

Messy Eaters!

2010-10-17T18:26:00.000+03:00

I’ve talked about the birds on my balcony a number of times, and I’m about to again! Since I took to feeding them on a regular basis, I’ve noticed that they have decidedly messy eating habits. In tucking into a plateful of leftover rice or millet side, they seemed to toss a good portion of it to the side. Not I think because it was substandard, but because that’s just the way they eat. Whist in the UK, I decided to purchase a seed feeder in the naïve assumption that this would save on this mess. However, whilst observing some birds with a friend from a bird hide in Warnham Nature Reserve, I realized the naivety of this assumption, as I saw seed dropping all over the place. And sure enough, that’s what’s been happening. It took a few weeks though before seeing the full effect as it took the birds themselves a while to figure out that this cylindrical object contained good things! Now, I have a balcony that has a fairly liberal sprinkling of seed on it, and plant pots that are bringing forth an abundance of millet and sunflower plants!!! What’s more, there are bird wars being waged over the 4 feeding holes in the container!

My Balcony Garden

2010-10-17T18:23:00.000+03:00

In recent phone conversations with my parents, I’ve been hearing about their endeavours to get their garden ready for the winter, and all the work that that entails in cutting things back. Also that temperatures are steadily dropping (this led to the demise of their busy lizzies!). By contrast here, things are heating up after the cool dry season such that I made the decision this morning, having woken up fairly dehydrated, that it was time to move from my Spring duvet to the lighter Summer one. I look forward therefore to an equally comfortable and cosy, though cooler, sleep tonight. Like my parents, I’ve been cutting back a number of the plants on my balcony, However, this is with the sure knowledge that they will continue growing over the next few months, and as the light has increased, probably will do so at a gallop. And this afternoon, I’ve sown some seeds – lettuce and basil – in the hope of a harvest in a few months’ time. Mind you, they’ll have a battle on as the soil I’ve sown them in is a million miles from the wonderful richness of the likes of John Innes or Homebase Multipurpose compost that I’d use in the UK. One pot appeared to have been a termite graveyard going by the number of wings in there, but maybe it’s actually where my househelp has been depositing the sweepings. If I get anything, it’ll be a testimony to the seeds’ endurance. I’ll wait and see. Whilst my ‘garden’ here is somewhat different to the one I had in the UK (a fraction of the size, and covered over), it is very therapeutic to have at least a little patch of green-ness to sit out in the few times that I’m home during daylight hours.

Dirt and Beauty

2010-10-17T18:13:00.000+03:00

One of the things that struck me when I got back to Nairobi a month ago from my 7 weeks away was that the sky was a strange brown colour. And going out of town a few weeks back, I was shocked at how brown the countryside had turned in the time I was gone. There too, the air was brown, a result of all the dust that is kicked up by both vehicles and wind. In town, I rather suspect that it’s a combination of dust and pollution. Upper Hill, where I live, is not the prettiest part of town, though decidedly smarter than a lot of places. With all the construction that has been taking place in the neighbourhood, it’s been noticeable that a lot of the roads are covered in dirt. Well, either dirt or rubble and rubbish! (No mechanized roadsweepers here!) Marks for aesthetics therefore would not be great! However, right now, it’s easy to forget this because of the glorious lilac-coloured jacaranda trees that are flowering profusely. Maybe it’s the contrast from the dirt that is making them stand out, or maybe I just marvel at them every year, but they really are very pretty (though some of my friends who are very strong on only having indigenous trees might disagree) and a wonderful distraction from the dirt.

Footpath, Road or General Dumping Ground?

2010-10-11T22:25:00.000+03:00

After 6 years of commuting to the office, we moved in April of last year to a location such that I can now walk to work from home. That was wonderful as the 6km commute had become a hour-long (plus) traffic nightmare. However, over the time since we moved, the walk has deteriorated somewhat. To get from my house to the office, I pass through the double compound next door (thankfully, the askari (guard) is very friendly, knows me, and always lets me through), onto the road that is parallel to mine. From there, you get a nice view of the Ngong Hills (as in ‘I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills’), though I’m sure that when I first came that wasn’t the case. An indication of the ‘development’ (aka construction) that has happened in the neighbourhood, resulting in the chopping down of quite a number of trees, thus revealing the aforeto-concealed view. And then comes, what used to be, a pleasant dirt road down a hill, with a footpath higher up on the bank. Over the last couple of years, this has become quite a thoroughfare for vehicles trying to dodge the traffic. In fact, the volume of vehicles coming down this dirt and rather rocky road, is an indication of the volume of traffic elsewhere, ie how bad the jams are. This got to the extent earlier this year that vehicles began using, what had up to then been, the footpath. That’s now quadrupled in width, and the vegetation inbetween the path and ‘road’ has quickly receded. Because of the vehicle traffic, it seems to be that the route to the office is either a mass of mud, or it’s inches thick in red dust. Either way, you arrive rather less clean than when you set out!

Yesterday at some point, someone started dumping building rubbish there (at least, that’s what it looks like).There were piles of it! Was this an attempt to stop cars going down the ‘footpath’; an effort to do something towards paving it; or was it in fact just a convenient place to dump stuff?! Given what was actually dumped, I’m leaning towards the latter: Sheets of glass aren’t generally the best thing for vehicles to be driving over!! On my way home for lunch today, a friend and I were witness to this dumping, as guys with a wheeled cart full of rubble, tiles, and a blue toilet cistern (!) dumped their load. Unfortunately the toilet was nowhere to be seen (buried?) later – it would have made a great picture! It made me ponder briefly whether men might start using that in preference to peeing at the side of the road into the bushes?!!!!

It seems such a tragedy. That road used to be quite pretty, resembling a rural country lane. Now it’s just a dumping ground, with some of the toxic trash being burnt, and is a ‘super-highway’ (well, okay, not exactly!). Still, as I choke on dust and fumes, and twist my ankle on the uneven ground (I’ve got through 3 pairs of shoes so far on that hill!), when I can lift my eyes up from the ground, the lilac-blossomed jacarandas (which are at their best at the moment) still make it look fairly pretty, and the colourful bee-eaters chattering away on the overhead wires make me smile!!

Unexpected Sign

2010-09-10T19:17:00.000+03:00

People collect all sorts of things – stamps, mugs, registration numbers,…… you name it. One of the things a number of people in Africa do is to collect pictures of slogans on the back of public transport vehicles, or (unintentionally) comically worded signs. One of my favourites is one I saw in Ghana, while travelling from Tamale to Accra in 2000. We’d stopped off for a natural break, and at the gents’ and ladies’ urinals (yes, the ladies had urinals too!), were greeted by a sign proclaiming that this was ‘A Special Place to Free Yourself’!!!

I don’t however generally expect to see such things in the UK. I don’t know why, it just doesn’t normally happen. So, imagine the amusement a couple of friends and I experienced a few weeks ago in one of the UK’s oldest universities, when we happened upon this sign on our way up the stone staircase to the dining hall. It was just at eye-height, and to these visitors at least, its apparent meaning was very clear. The only place downward of the downward pointing arrow, was clearly the base of the wall! However, maybe it was because we’d all been in other parts of the world where that might be the case. The guide to the college could not see our point at all, and was clearly baffled by our mirth.

Texas Living

2010-09-02T02:14:00.000+03:00

I’m currently in Dallas for 2 weeks of meetings at SIL International’s headquarters. As well as being able to meet with Finance colleagues here, and discuss some of the current issues that we’re dealing with in the accounts in Africa, it’s a wonderful opportunity to catch up with friends, most of whom are now working here, but have, at some point over the last 7+ years, been based in Nairobi.

Coming from Nairobi’s ‘winter’, followed by a few weeks in the UK (where temperatures were on average cooler than Nairobi’s!), it was something of a contrast to be greeted by a wall of heat at Dallas airport. Temperatures that day reached 42C (106F)! However, it has cooled down since, and we’re now enjoying relatively cooler days ‘just’ in the low 30Cs. Not that I really notice, as most of the time, I’m indoors in meetings, and generally reaching for my cardigan due to the air conditioning!

Over the weekend, I was given orientation to Texan living, though, bizarrely, this was done by a couple of New Yorkers who’ve spent the majority of their adult years in Africa! However, Rob is an anthropologist so that probably qualifies him! We visited a ranch belonging to friends of theirs on Saturday. ‘Ranch’ to me conjures up pictures of horses and cows. However, the only animals I saw there were a couple of domestic dogs and a baby squirrel that had been rescued! This was more of a weekend getaway house. It was big though (pretty much everything in Texas is), the land spanning over 220 acres. I got to see a fair bit of this on an ATV (all-terrain vehicle), ‘whizzing’ (I made it up to 25 mph!) up and down trails, through copses, across fields, and along a creek bed. It was fun. Steering round corners was a bit of an issue at times, but I only once nearly didn’t make it, and didn’t come off at all.

On Sunday, I went to a Texan barbeque with them. Barbecued meat here is smoked rather than cooked over charcoal as I know a barbecue to be. And, rather than being outdoors, which is how I think of barbecues, this was indoors. All very bizarre – but very tasty!

Toe Dipping Not Recommended Here!

2010-07-12T23:10:00.000+03:00

I just got back from a very relaxing 2½ days at the Kenyan coast. What a treat, and a very welcome break from the cool July temperatures of Nairobi! Colleagues working in Uganda and Tanzania hold their annual conference at an all-inclusive hotel in Watamu in July, and the rest of us are able to benefit from the discounted rates that they as a large group have negotiated. It’s a great place. The beach there is beautiful – mile up mile of white sands, lined with palm trees. Great for walking (at least when the tide’s out), though I generally wind up with blisters on my toes from the extreme exfoliation factor after hours of walking. It’s also very nice to go exploring the rock pools when the tide’s out, and have the benefit of observing from ‘dry’ land just what you’re swimming amongst there when the tide’s in! Crabs are all over the place, scuttling across the rocks. A first for me was seeing what I think must have been squid (though I think our guide said it was a sea slug). With a little bit of encouragement, he caused it to spew forth beetroot-coloured ink, which made swirly patterns in the water. Most of the fish in the pools are small and prettily coloured, but there are some rock pools you just don’t want to stick your toes into! There’s a colony of Moray eels that weave in and out of the pools, coming up when people are around in the hope, no doubt, that someone may have brought a tasty morsel from the hotel. King George has dined on sausage for many a year and has grown to a significant size as a result. At least I assume it’s been the same one since I was first there in 2004. It could be King George XII by now I guess! We didn’t see him this time, but we did meet Queen Mary and King Henry. We were also told that there was an Obama lurking around somewhere! You never know who you’re going to meet here!

Kenyan Political Happenings

2010-07-12T23:03:00.000+03:00

I was reading through a fellow blogger’s site last night, and came across an interesting article she’d written summarizing the current political scene in Kenya. I have taken some of what she said, and made a few changes, but the bulk of it is down to her (see http://www.africaexpatwivesclub.blogspot.com/).
1. A few weeks ago, Kenyan MPs quickly voted to vastly increase their monthly salaries to 1.2m Kenyan shillings including allowances (about £10,000). This would make them amongst the most well paid MPs in the world. And given the current number of MPs in the coalition government (222), this amounts to a vast sum of money for a third world country where the average annual income is about £490. Thankfully, the Finance minister, Uhuru Kenyatta, pointed out that there isn’t the money available to fund these increases. Someone had evidently been doing creative / pie-in-the-sky budgeting! In addition, there was an outcry against the increases by the Civil Society and the public, and an organised demonstration was held last Thursday. We were warned to stay clear of that area, though as far as I’m aware it passed peacefully.
2. Current talk is all about the upcoming referendum on August 4th regarding the proposed constitution. The choices are either ‘yes’ or ‘no’, i.e. you either accept all of it, or throw it all out on account of however many things you don’t agree with. In spite of initial hopes, the campaigns have got ugly and political with the 2012 election in sharp focus for many of the politicians. A month ago, the detonating of grenades in a large church prayer meeting in Uhuru Park caused some deaths and multiple casualties. (I’d actually driven by there just earlier than evening.) In addition, 2 MPs and a junior minister on the 'no' side were arrested and brought before the courts for peddling 'hate' speech, ie manipulating rural communities by using tribe in their arguments to persuade the public to vote no. That in itself is positive. A lot of hate speech was going on prior to the 2007 elections, and nothing was done about it then. Seemingly something has been learned from the post-election violence.
3. A development brought in a few weeks ago in an attempt to control crime and monitor hate speech/incitement etc, is that all pre-paid SIM cards in Kenya must be registered by 30th July (noticeably a date selected pre-referendum). The threat is that lines will be cut if registration hasn’t happened in time. This is something that I’ve heard of in other African countries as well. A recent serial killer case that had Kenyans gripped a few weeks ago illustrates the benefit of doing this. A young man in his thirties who had killed 17 people, and drunk their blood for good fortune, and was working towards a target of 100 victims, was finally tracked down and arrested thanks to a traceable mobile phone trail of SMS messages.

Rivers or Roads?

2010-06-17T23:52:00.000+03:00

This photograph was taken about 4 weeks ago now by a friend from church. Whilst I wasn’t the photographer, I remember the day and the scenes well as it took me 2 hours to get into the office from Karen (without traffic, that same journey is about 20 minutes)! Torrents of water were pouring down the sides of the roads, and in many places, covering the roads as well. Actually, within a day or two, there was pretty well no tarmac on this particular stretch of road (a sign of rain or poor quality tarmac?!) – which in itself led to huge traffic delays for weeks after. And for pedestrians, life was very difficult. Despite the huge number of pedestrians here, pavements (sidewalks) are rare, so during the rainy season, pedestrians are picking their way carefully through thick sticky mud, or trying to avoid being swept away (as shown here).
The roads have certainly suffered. Potholes abound around Nairobi, some of them taking more than half the width of the road, and deep enough to do damage if you drove into them without realising it.

We’d been in a season of drought for a long, long time, but since about November, there has been quite an incredible amount of rain. Everywhere has stayed amazingly green – this has certainly been the longest period of ‘green-ness’ that I’ve known in my 7 years here. Drought isn't fun, and the consequences can be very serious indeed. So, despite the mud and potholes, we are all very thankful for the rain.

Goodbyes

2010-06-07T23:39:00.000+03:00

The American schools have already been out for a week, which means that we’ve already had the main lot of goodbyes for the year. People seem to leave pretty much as soon as the school year finishes, partly because they need to get ‘home’, and get themselves and their children settled before schools and colleges start up again. So, we’ve had the round of household goods and furniture sales, and then a number of leaving parties. Two of the SIL families leaving Nairobi this year have been here a while, so their departures have been hard on many. Don and Jackie have been good friends of mine since my very 1st day here in February 2003. At that time, I came to take on Don’s role as Regional Accounting Services Manager, and actually moved into their apartment for the 14 months that they were gone on furlough, This time around, I’m stepping into Don’s shoes again as Africa Area Finance Coordinator, though I’m sticking with my own apartment. And next time, whenever that is, I’m not even going to step into his shoes – Calgary would be way too cold for me! As well as friends and colleagues, they’ve been my neighbours. Many a time have I popped round to borrow a can opener, just drop in, or ask a favour – and have reciprocated too. And Jackie has been my main research assistant in comparing the police stations of Nairobi (there hangs a tale or two!)! Life in Nairobi is very transient: Goodbyes are very much a part of life here, though they don’t seem to get any easier with time. I’ve asked a number of times, “How many hellos does it take to outweigh the goodbyes?” The ratio is surely at least 10:1. An amazing side of life here is the diversity, and the many nationalities that you rub shoulders with. The downside is that when people leave, it’s back to the four corners of the earth.

Due to the BA strike, their departure date was put back 24 hours. So, to celebrate ‘Buhlers’ Bonus Day’, and to help make their last day in Kenya after 15 years a memorable one, we got to spend it in Nairobi National Park. Despite narrowly avoiding having our lunch swiped by a troop of baboon (!), we enjoyed several hours in the Kenyan countryside (just outside the city), and the beauty of bird and animal wildlife. Next time, Calgary, or the UK, or …………..?

Memorials

2010-06-07T23:37:00.000+03:00

Last weekend, I was privileged to be asked to play at the memorial service of an 86-year old gentleman, Dr Geoffrey Irvine, whose guest cottage I, and many of my SIL colleagues, have enjoyed staying in over the years. Geoffrey passed away a few weeks ago, having been airlifted to Nairobi because of pneumonia. He grew up in the highlands of Kenya, his parents having been sent out as missionaries by the Church of Scotland nearly 100 years ago, and then served there with his wife, both of them as doctors. He was truly a gentle man who took a delight in life. I always remember talking with him one time. “I used to dream of a place to retire with a few trees and some water”, he said. “And look what God has given me!”, as he pointed to the view from his garden of acacia trees, and through them, glimpses of the blue of the lake with the pink fringe of flamingoes; the occasional giraffe, zebra, or gazelle passing by; mountains beyond; and the humph-humph-humph of wallowing hippo. It was against this backdrop that the memorial service was held, marquees having been erected on the lawn. I didn’t get to experience it myself, but I’m told that the sound of a Mozart duet emanating from my flute and Julie’s violin, with that view behind us was quite something.

This was the second outdoor memorial service I’d been to (and played at) in the last 3 months, the first being for my dear friend Jane, who passed away in February after a battle with cancer. Both occasions were marked with an abundance of beautiful flowers (a benefit of being in a country where flower farms are big business), and people testifying to the faith of these saints, and the impact their lives had had on many.

All in the pink!

2010-06-07T23:33:00.000+03:00

There are some sights here that might me smile every time I see them: some because they’re just plain funny, and others because they give me such pleasure. One of the latter is the view of Oldien Bay that you get as you drive onto private land (legitimately of course!) of the pink mass on the water that is made up of thousands upon thousands of flamingoes. Even more pleasure is derived when, sometimes for no apparent reason, one sets off the alarm, and they run on the water, then take to the air, the sound of their wings overtaking the chuntering sound that they make as they dabble in the shallow waters. As they circle around, necks straight ahead, legs straight behind, the air becomes speckled with their pink and white bodies, the flash of brilliant pink on their wings then becoming particularly visible. Whilst walking close to the lakeshore, there appears to be a ‘Red Sea’ type experience, the seemingly ever-present throng of pink parting just at the point of the walkers. Strange to think that the first time I visited Oldien Bay in 2004, there wasn’t a single flamingo there! Lower water levels, and therefore a more concentrated alkaline solution has perhaps attracted them. I’m not sure what the hippos make of these rather skittish and noisy neighbours though!

Not what you want in the pipes!

2010-05-17T17:28:00.001+03:00

A number of my colleagues and various of their family members have been going down with stomach upsets over the last few days. On Saturday evening, I noticed that the water coming out of my bath tap was decidedly brown, and I was thankful for my filter which takes out both dirt and bacteria to the micron level.
This morning, we discovered the explanation for all of this when the following article was published in one of the national newspapers here:

Fears of a disease outbreak are rising in a Nairobi estate after it emerged that raw sewage had leaked into the main water supply in the area. Residents of several estates in Upper Hill have reported diarrhoea and stomach pains after drinking the contaminated water. Last Friday, residents raised the alarm after they noticed their tap water reeked of sewage. They alerted one other not to use the water. "I drank water from the taps on Thursday night and by Friday morning I started suffering from severe stomach pains and diarrhoea. I must have drank the contaminated water," said Dennis Ndunda, a resident.

A burst sewer pipe the Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company workers repaired two weeks ago apparently leaked into the water supply system. The water and sewage pipes are only a few metres apart. Several caretakers of apartment buildings in the area confirmed many people have fallen sick and said they suspected it was due to the contaminated water. "Three people have told me they have fallen ill with diarrhoea and stomach pains. This is very serious," said Robinson Gathuku, a caretaker.
By Sunday, engineers from the water company were working to resolve the problem. "It will take a long time before I can go back to drinking tap water. I have lost faith in its safety and quality," said Joris Ngabire, a resident, whose housemate is admitted to hospital.
A huge river of sewage is still gushing through the estate, while the water supply has been cut to avoid further contamination. "Sewage was flowing all over our compound and for the past four days I couldn’t let my children go out to play to protect them from disease," complained Anne Njeri. The residents asked the company to speed up the repair work and restore clean water supply.

Needless to say, I'm even more thankful for my water filter now!!!!!

Culinary Exploration

2010-04-23T07:56:00.000+03:00

I mentioned in my last blog about the culinary delights that Joe and Amy introduced me to in our tour of Chicago. Thought I should probably say a little bit more about them.

The first was Garrett’s Chicago Mix popcorn, a mixture of CaramelCrisp and CheeseCorn. The first of these is, I guess, similar to Butterkist, basically popcorn in a sweet, caramelized coating. The second is hot air popped popcorn which has had melted sharp Cheddar stirred in, which was a whole new taste experience. Reminded me a little of Cheese puffs, and yet different. Combine these two together and you get, in my opinion, a slightly strange combination of flavours! Garretts, dating back to 1949, is obviously very popular. There was quite a queue, and we were just talking a popcorn store! Besides the two mentioned, there were several other flavours. The tin sizes were quite extraordinary, the largest size being 6.5 gallons. Even with the US gallon being smaller than the UK one, that’s a lot of popcorn!

The second place was Gino’s East pizza. Again, a queue, though we were there at about 4:30pm to avoid the lines later on. This was a newer establishment, started up in 1966 when two taxi drivers and a friend, frustrated with rush hour traffic, decided to open a pizzeria just off Michigan Ave. and Superior St. in Chicago. ‘Each deep-dish pizza is created with a secret, golden crust, fresh vine-ripened tomatoes, and loaded with your choice of fresh ingredients. Once baked to perfection these enormous pies are brought to your table in our well-seasoned pans.’ And they were good. Very different to any pizza I’d had before. Not sure if that was the crust or the filling – or both. The other different feature was the graffiti all over the walls, something which is actively encouraged (though the restrooms were designated as graffiti-free zones). Some people get quite creative in how to write over what's already there.

Clouds & Silver Linings

2010-04-23T07:24:00.000+03:00

I thought I was coming to the US for 2 weeks, comprising about 3 days of travel, 2 weeks of Finance Leaders’ meetings, and half a week of working with a colleague from Dallas on the SIL Accounting Manual. I was also to get 8 days in the UK on the way back to Kenya, my first break since Christmas, to be split between home church and friends, and family. Being the planner that I am (and knowing how much harder it is to get to see all the people you want to see if you don’t plan), I had managed to book time with close friends in Horsham, and was even going to be around for the 1st day of my home church’s women’s conference – something I was back for last year, and thoroughly enjoyed.

The first surprise of the trip was to find that temperatures in North Carolina were significantly warmer than I had gone prepared for. That first weekend, they were in the 80s (28-29C) and subsequently went up to 90C (about 32C). I’d gone expecting something in the 40-65F range! Consequently, I was out shopping for summer clothes that very first day – and was very glad of them.

The second surprise was finding that I was presenting a session on the new Accounting Manual!

And the third came at the end of my time in NC. Last Thursday, I had a shuttle arranged for 10:30am to take me to Charlotte Airport. Pretty much fully packed (and dressed for the cooler UK temperatures), all that remained was to get the last few bits in the case, and to clean up the apartment I’d been staying in, when I received a phone call from a friend, alerting me to a volcano that had blown in Iceland. Knowing this friend, I was mentally figuring out in my head whether you could have an April fool 2 weeks on! However, he wasn’t joking. My travel agent in Nairobi had also emailed to let me know that the Chicago to London flight was cancelled. Initial instructions were to remain at the JAARS Centre where I was staying, my flight having been rescheduled to Sunday. So, I cancelled the airport shuttle and contacted Housing department to see if I could stay on. In the meantime, I was Skyping with the world (or so it seemed), and emailing with the travel agent. This then led to advice, supposedly from BA, to continue to Chicago. That seemed a risky idea given that in Charlotte, I knew a bunch of people, and could well stay on in JAARS housing, whilst in Chicago, I wasn’t aware of knowing anyone. However, having reinstated the shuttle and cancelled the housing (!), I went, trusting that God would make the way (‘where there seems to be no way’). Several hours later, after much dilly-dallying around in Charlotte airport, and chaos re hotel shuttles, I was on a bus on the way to the Oakbrook Holiday Inn. Along with me were families on their way home after Easter holidays away, business people (one of whom was over on a 1-day business trip in the US), ……. That brought with it a sense of de javu having been similarly transported to a hotel in January near Birmingham Airport. That time, the reason was tangible – thick snow. This time, it was less so, at least where we were – ash from a volcano many miles away.

The following morning, we received a note requesting that we return to the airport. My initial thinking was that there really wasn’t any point. Having seen the news, there clearly weren’t going to be any flights that day. Hoping to not have to lug my luggage, I enquired at the front desk about leaving everything in my room. Thankfully, I thought to ask whether BA had made a booking. They hadn’t. So, off we were all went with all our stuff, only to be told at the airport that we were now on our own. What to do? Facebook came into its own as a source of communication. Through responding to my Status update, SIL colleagues put me in contact with close friends of theirs who I’d met 6 years earlier at our branch conference. I made a phone call explaining my plight, and Amy came to pick me up within 45 minutes. She and Joe proved to be amazingly gracious hosts, and great people to spend time with. God really did make the way. We had a fun time together, particularly on Saturday when we walked around Chicago, enjoying the Spring flowers and the views of all the skyscrapers. They also introduced me to Chicago-style pizza at Gino’s East and Garrett’s Chicago Mix popcorn (CaramelCrisp and CheeseCorn).

Currently, I’m in Dallas, having flown down yesterday. My flight to the UK has been rescheduled for Tuesday, just 12 days late! (Had I stayed in Chicago, the delay would have been 15 days!) I won’t have as long in the UK as planned, and probably won’t make it to Horsham, which I’d really been looking forward to. I’m also missing out on a week of handover in Nairobi relating to my new role as Africa Area Finance Coordinator. However, I will get to see family. Having promised my nephew that I’d do all I could to get there, I couldn’t break my word. And the time here is good, at least so far. Further progress on the Accounting Manual, and an opportunity to see friends here, plus the bluebonnets (a Spring time flower) which are out in abundance, and which I’d heard about, but not seen, previously. So, flexibility has been key, and this literal cloud has had several silver linings.

Trip to D.R. Congo

2010-04-13T06:20:00.001+03:00

On a recent trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo, it struck me again how life as a missionary in Kenya has meant my being able to do and experience some things that I would probably never have done otherwise. To get to the eastern side of DRC from Nairobi requires 2 flights. One, a regular flight between Nairobi and Entebbe, much like any other international flight that I take. And the 2nd a Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) flight to Bunia, DRC. This latter was a Cessna Caravan, seating up to 12 passengers. No dividing door between passengers and pilot here – I was right behind him! Another difference was that not only are your bags weighed, but the passengers have to be weighed as well! Bunia Airport was an interesting place. The U.N. has a large presence due to the insecurity there over the last 14 years. Their aircraft, base and tents dominate the airfield.

We were met and very ably shepherded through the various stages in the airport by a Congolese colleague, Bagamba. Another friend, Sarah, was there to see her mum off – and to meet us at the same time. Departing and incoming passengers were all together in one room, semi-subdivided by a row of wooden benches. At Immigration, despite the visa in my passport, an extra $20 was required given that I’d not been into the country on that passport before. (On the way out a week later, it seemed that I was paying hand over fist for different taxes – tourist, hygiene, departure, …..) No baggage carousel here – just point out your bag on the floor, and open it for inspection if required. On the way back through the airport, there was clearly something going on as a crowd was gathered outside, and there was a brass band which started playing at one point. It turned out that the governor was expected at some point that day. It wasn’t quite known when so the people could have been there the entire day. The police were out in force – all armed with AK47s of course.

We stayed at a Catholic Retreat Centre for our week of meetings, an hour’s very bumpy drive from Bunia along muddy roads. Thankfully, we didn’t get stuck! I didn’t quite figure out if it was the road that was exceedingly bumpy, or just a lack of suspension on the pickup truck we were crammed into (the result of much driving over bumpy roads!). Going into what seemed like thick bush, it was quite a surprise when we reached the Centre to discover an oasis of peace and tranquility, with a backdrop of green hills. It was beautiful there. Some evenings, between the close of the last meeting and dinner, those of us who wanted to made the most of the opportunity to stretch our legs and walk along the roads surrounding the Centre. We were met with smiles and greetings wherever we went. “Unashinda” (literally “Are you overcoming?”, but more “Are you passing the day?”). We were gawked at quite openly, but not in a menacing way. They were just genuinely pleased and surprised to see us. Indeed, one gentleman stopped in his tracks, and said, “Je suis surpris!” (“I am surprised!”). Around us were scenes of everyday life in an African rural setting – ladies carrying great piles of firewood on their heads; children carrying jerrycans of water; people chewing sugarcane; people gathered together… What was slightly unusual was the sight of 5 wazungu (white) ladies walking in the midst of it all!

Sightings

2010-04-07T05:06:00.000+03:00

Some things I’ve seen in Africa that I probably wouldn’t in the UK:-

- People carrying an assortment of things on their heads – jerrycans of water, bundles of firewood, stacks of clothes, a tray of bananas, piles of soap, bowls of laundry. Perhaps the strangest recently were a number of men in Yaounde, Cameroon, each carrying a single shoe on their heads!
- Vehicles reversing back round a roundabout to the turn they’d just missed!
- Vehicles driving along the pavement to get ahead of the traffic.

- Giraffe, warthogs and baboon at the side of the road, on my drive to church.

- A walking clothing store (this in DR Congo).

- A group of labourers sitting at the side of the road, making road chippings out of lumps of rock, using hammers and chisels.

- An entire household of furniture on the back of a pickup truck.

- A truckload of 20-30 people standing in the back – no seatbelts there!

- A herd of cows being driven across one of the main roads into the capital city.

- Workers on wooden scaffolding, or on top of billboards with no safety harnesses or hard hats in sight.

A Weekend with Hippos and Crocs

2010-01-18T22:49:00.000+03:00

Within 17 hours of getting home from the UK, I was off again – this time with friends from church to Lake Baringo, the most northerly of the Rift Valley lakes, about 290km north of Nairobi. What a contrast the Kenyan scenery was to the stark winter scenes I’d left behind in the UK! And the temperature was somewhat different too!

After a lunch of chicken and chips at Delamere’s near Naivasha, we drove straight to Baringo, only stopping for the mandatory photographs at the Equator. Our home for the weekend was Heron House, a cottage at Roberts Camp, looking out onto the lake. An exploratory walk down to the lakeshore revealed the presence of hippo and crocodiles – we were to see many over the course of the weekend. Strange to be walking along, be aware of something moving in the mud a few metres away, and then see a crocodile launch itself into the water. The owners of Roberts have been feeding the hippos during the drought, and presumably will continue to do so until the grass has grown back sufficiently to support these huge herbivores. We had a prime view from our cottage, seeing the 16 or so hippo come ambling out of the water as the sun started to sink in the sky. Motorboats on the lake startled them one evening, and they all went dashing back into the water – hippos really can run!

On the Saturday, when I finally woke up (lack of sleep from the 47 hours in transit, despite the 2 brief hotel stays, had caught up with me), we went out in a low-lying boat on the hippo and crocodile-infested lake, and spent the afternoon on the island of Ol Kokwa. We were able to use the swimming pool at the lodge there, which was wonderful. Views over the lake were quite amazing, and the variety of birds was wonderful. Jules and I went for a walk around the island and were soon greeted by a young man called Alex. I’m generally very wary of people approaching me as whether it’s ‘helping’ to load a car with your luggage, guarding it, assisting in changing a tyre, or acting as guide, there’s generally a request for money sooner or later – and we had none on us. However, he was not at all put off, explaining that it was important to him and the chief of the island, that visitors felt welcome, and that money wasn’t his motive at all. How refreshing! And he was a very informative guide. The Njemps people live on this barren island. Looking around, it was hard to imagine being able to live there, as it didn’t appear that anything edible would grow. On asking about the diet, we were told,… fish. And more fish! The population has nearly doubled in the last 10 years from 400 to 750 in the census taken just a few months ago.

The variety of birdlife around Baringo is well known – 470 species of bird have apparently been recorded there in total, with over 300 having been sighted in a single day! We didn’t see anywhere near that many, but enjoyed the ones we saw. 6-year old Benjie and 4-year old Zebedee, 2 budding ornithologists, assisted me in the early evenings in identifying the ones I’d taken photographs of in the day.
People generally retired to bed very early in the evenings, leaving me (with a body clock a bit screwed up still) on the verandah. Bugs were aplenty, and you’d occasionally hear the grunting of hippos nearby. We’d actually had to sign a waiver on arrival releasing Roberts Camp from any liability relating to injury by wild animals! And it was advised that if we wanted to go to the nearby lodge for dinner, rather than walk (as you did without thinking during the day), we should take the car. The first night, we had a campfire. It was great sitting out there under the star-studded sky, telling stories.

On our last morning, I’d been vying to stay on until lunchtime. However, the others wanted to get an early start, and it turned out to be just as well that we did.... About 30 minutes into the journey, the vehicle overheated! We then limped another 30km, going slowly, and periodically filling up the radiator with water (some of which we bought from boreholes in villages along the way). When we finally reached a petrol station, it transpired that the radiator had 3 holes in it! Thankfully, there was also a welder in the vicinity who could close up said holes, and we were able to continue on our way. The journey took us 8.5 hours in total. So, that was two journeys in the space of a week that had been twice as long as they should have been – but for very different reasons!

Snowbound

2010-01-18T21:25:00.001+03:00

“It’s a shame I won’t get to see the snow”, I said on seeing the weather forecast. I’d been home for just over 2 weeks for Christmas, and whilst we’d seen a smattering of snow (enough for snowball fights with my 4-year old nephew (and his parents) on the first and last days of my time home), it hadn’t been more than an inch at any one time. Lovely to see even so, but not quite the ‘Winter Wonderland’ scenes on Christmas cards – even those sold in Kenya! We wound up leaving very early for the airport, my dad anticipating getting stuck in snow drifts – or something like that anyway! Well, we saw some snow on the way from Nottingham to Birmingham Airport, but really only in the last few miles. Dad actually took a wrong turning at one point - I suspect that it was with the intent of showing us that there really was snow on the minor roads, thus justifying his earlier agitation! It meant arriving at the airport 4 hours before my flight departure time of 8:20pm (having checked in online, 60 minutes would have been sufficient!).

Mum and dad stayed for an hour at the airport oblivious to the weather outside. Apparently when they left, there was a further covering of snow, - and for anyone wondering, they did make it home okay (unlike the dad of someone I met later in the day). So, it was through passport control and security. I have to say that Birmingham Airport staff seemed much friendlier than other airports I’ve been through. Jokes about a group of people in front of me all wearing purple, and generally just chatty. As were passengers, even at this point. I wandered around the shops (more to kill time than to buy anything), bought my duty free and sat where I could see the Departures board. Announcements started to be made about European flights being cancelled. It seemed that the runway was closed – not very encouraging. As each one came up, they were told to resell their Duty Free and proceed to gate 58. For the Emirates EK038 flight to Dubai, there was no notice given. However when the ‘Gate to open in 5 minutes’ notice had been up for 1.5 hours, it started to seem a little dubious that we’d be leaving. And sure enough, around 10pm an announcement was made that all passengers destined for Dubai (we were the only ones left at that stage) should resell their Duty Free and proceed to the dreaded Gate 58. We went through to retrieve our baggage, and then after a while of standing around while Emirates staff sorted out what was happening, we went to the Arrivals hall. Unfortunately, people chose to stand right by the automatic doors, which of course were then open, allowing the freezing air and snow to blow in. I’d left my winter coat, scarf and gloves with my parents thinking I wouldn’t need them for another couple of years, so was absolutely freezing. Not quite as bad as a fellow passenger though who thinking that she was on holiday on her way to Australia, just had flipflops on her feet! I soon got to know Mandy and Anna (Anna was going home to New Zealand having surprised her mum in the UK for Christmas), and really that made a huge difference to the whole experience. It was one of those things that just happens. What’s the point of complaining and moaning (as some were doing)? We actually just had a good laugh (our taxi driver commented that we were the first happy passengers he’d transported that night!), and enjoyed what we could, Mandy and Anna taking the opportunity the following morning to make a snowman, and get photos of Tigger (the mascot from Mandy’s ward at the Derby Children’s Hospital) with it. Emirates staff were great, as were the Arden Hotel staff, where we were gradually taken. My only criticism would be that families with small children should really have been given priority, as some of those kids were really tired, though there was hardly any crying. Amazing really! It was around 11:15pm by the time that we got to the hotel. And a meal of soup, sandwiches and cheese straws was put on for us. What it must have been for them to suddenly have 300 extra people descending on them!

Noone knew quite what would happen the next day. An Emirates representative was available from 7am. After a good breakfast, we were bussed back to the hotel. Initially, it was though that we might be leaving at 2:30pm, but then it was pushed back to 4pm. Our plane hadn’t been able to land because of the snow at Birmingham, so had been diverted to Gatwick – and then got snowed in there! Looking at Sky News, it seemed that Gatwick stayed closed all that day. Yet somehow, our plane got through, and suddenly it was there, Duty Free was rebought, and we were on our way!

Flying with Emirates generally means that most passengers will be transitting to somewhere once they get to Dubai. Sorting out all the new connections must have been a logistical nightmare for someone. Again, hotel reservations had been made (our connecting flights had long since gone!). However, nothing was ever said officially to let us know that this was the case. We were operating on the basis of unofficial information, and I’m glad that we did. It took a while to find the right desk (Dubai is a huge airport), but eventually, we were on a bus on the way to the Capitol Hotel. Only there for about 4 hours but it was better than nothing – certainly better than spending that time in the airport! And that was the last I saw of Anna and Mandy. They left for the airport an hour before me – and of course, had a lot further still to travel. Strange how lives can come together at such a time, and then that’s it, I made it home 24 hours later than scheduled – and 47 hours after having left mum and dad’s! But I did get to see (and walk in) the snow after all!

Carols by Candlelight

2009-12-27T19:12:00.004+03:00

Carol services and concerts bring back memories for me of cold churches, and the need therefore of wearing thermal underwear underneath whatever the choir or orchestra dress was, and of consuming vast quantities of Fisherman’s Friends in order to quell the inevitable tickly cough (which always seemed to be at its worst in the quieter moments for some reason?!).
Whilst Fisherman’s Friends do still make an appearance in concerts these days, our Carol Service last week was far from cold. For the last two years, Karen Vineyard Church has held its Carols by Candlelight service in the grounds of the Karen Blixen Museum (as in ‘Out of Africa’). So, whilst Karen Blixen “had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills”, so we had a beautiful carol service there. I arrived early for sound checks, and a last (and only 2nd) practice with my accompanist, as I was playing 3 flute solos as well as being part of the band for the carols. The gazebo that we were playing under was already set up, as was the sound system. We had a little panic with lights, realizing that the two light bulbs suspended from the canvas weren’t going to be sufficient for the band plus singers once the African night descended. Elsewhere, people set to making mulled wine, decorating trees with lights, and getting the candles ready for everyone coming to hold.
Gradually, people began to arrive with their picnics, sitting on blankets or shukas on the ground or on chairs that they’d brought. The sun by now was setting behind the hills. And then, just as it was getting dark, we started. A mix of traditional Christmas carols, readings, two solos sung by Doreen Ziegler, my contribution of pieces by Rutter and Telemann, and a short Christmas message from our pastor, Doug Brown. From my vantage point, I was aware of hundreds of flickering candles in the African night air, and the lights on the tree by the ‘stage’. The calls of nightbirds and cicadas added to the atmosphere (the blood-curdling call of the tree hyraxes didn’t start until afterwards!). There was one particularly beautiful moment when Doreen was singing, ‘O Holy Night’, and a single bright star was shining in the sky. The evening was rounded off with the mulled wine (nothing like it for warming you up on a ‘cold’ winter’s eve!!!!) and mince pies. What a wonderful and beautiful start to the Christmas season!

A Precious Commodity

2009-11-30T22:54:00.002+03:00

A fairly common sight on Nairobi roads, competing with the cars, lorries and buses, are hand-pulled carts loaded with a variety of things – coconuts, vegetables,….. or yellow jerrycans for water. The latter are the only source of water for a good percentage of the population, where mains water is a luxury to dream of. Mind you, even when you’re on mains water, there’s no guarantee you’ll actually find anything coming out of the tap! Another common sight are water bowsers, lorries with a container of water on the back, for filling people’s water tanks (again, when there’s nothing coming through the mains). Nairobi has three dams, but the lack of rains over the last two years has meant that water levels have been exceedingly low, resulting in water rationing in large parts of the city. It is estimated that even with them full, they would supply just 81% of the city’s water demand (a supply of 525,000 cubic metres per day versus a demand of 650,000 cubic metres). Not a very good statistic, and with them far from full …….
We were promised El Nino rains, though what we’ve had so far, whilst heavy at times, has not been enough and couldn’t really be described as El Nino. However, one of the dams, Ndakaini, has seen an increase in its water level from 33% in October to 54% in November. There’s still quite a way to go to see it full, and we’re more than halfway through what would normally be the period of these short rains. So, whilst Manila, Ouagadougou and Cockermouth have experienced flooding in recent months, Nairobi seems, at this stage at least, to be set for more water rationing and a continuation of the drought in the months to come. Can’t we spread it out somehow?!

Vandals in the tree?

2009-10-27T10:55:00.002+03:00

The rains have sort of started, though it’s hardly the El Nino that they’ve been talking about. We are desperately in need of plenty to fill the dams that serve the 4 million people living in Nairobi. With what we’ve had, the dust has finally settled on the mud road that I walk along to get from home to the office, and the grass is just starting to turn green again. There are reports however of the toll of the drought around the country on wildlife and domestic animals, and of course on people where crops have failed, and water has been so scarce for so long. Some plants, like grass, are amazingly resilient, springing back to life. It seems that the tree outside my flat, which has looked rather bare for a while now, isn’t faring so well. One sign of this has been woodpeckers in it, pecking away at the dead wood, presumably to get to whatever insects are living inside. I’ve heard their rhythmic tapping at various times over the last month, but on Saturday I was rewarded with a good sighting of them. A friend asked me what kind they are. Hmm, - hard to tell. Most of the 13 kinds of woodpeckers in my 'Birds of Kenya' book look pretty similar to these – small, speckled and with a red cap.
Several branches broke off the tree and fell down yesterday into the parking area, narrowly missing my car. Not sure if that would have happened anyway or if those woodpeckers were to blame!

Airports

2009-10-27T10:49:00.003+03:00

“There’s a problem with your baggage. The police are holding it.” These were the words that greeted me as I attempted to board the plane at Ouagadougou airport to take me back to East Africa - or at least that was the translation I got from an Ethiopian Airlines steward a few minutes later! For a moment after being drawn aside at the bottom of the steps to the aircraft, I’d wondered whether they were going to upgrade me to Business Class – but no! It was a security issue. So, just 15 minutes before the plane was due to take off, I was whisked off back through security (where my handbag and laptop bag had been dutifully and rigorously manually searched a few minutes earlier), and back through Immigration. We were met by another steward who it seemed had gone the extra mile in putting my suitcase through the X-ray machine. Of course, there wasn’t anything in there (though my music stand sometimes gets people wondering, as does my flute in my hand luggage – not too many wandering minstrels passing through these African airports, it seems!). The main problem seemed to be that I’d locked it – but then, who wouldn’t?!
Airports vary immensely – and I’ve been through quite a few over the last few months. Jomo Kenyatta, Nairobi – London Heathrow – Dallas Fort Worth – John Wayne, Santa Ana – Harrisburg, Pennsylvania – Philadelphia – Charlotte, North Carolina - Bole, Addis Ababa – Bamako – Ouagadougou. Some have an array of shops, eating places, video screens, wi-fi and electrical sockets so you can recharge your laptop allowing you to continue working for the duration of the next flight! At others, you’re lucky to find a seat. Some have signs letting you know exactly what to do; at others, you’re pretty much left to figure it out for yourself (and it’s not necessarily intuitive). Public announcements about flights were pretty much non-existent in Bamako. There was certainly no departures board, and the occasional tanoy announcement was very difficult to decipher. Ouagadougou Airport seemed to be more of a construction site than anything (that’s where seats were a rare luxury).
However, security is vigilant the world over. X-ray machines in most; physical searches in others. I was none too pleased though when I had to drink all the water that I’d filled my bottle with on the BA flight itself from Nairobi to London, as soon as I touched terra firma at Heathrow. There was still another 6 hours until I’d be airborne again. And they took my contact lens solution – Boots’ sales must be boosted from all the transit passengers who’ve suffered in similar ways! In the States, I flew to California with just hand luggage, borrowing small bottles from a friend, which I filled with the liquids and creams necessary for 4 nights away, and then squeezed them into a quart-size Ziploc bag (stretching the plastic as I did!). And bought sunscreen there which I gave away 3 days later – well, that was cheaper than paying for my weekend bag to go in the hold! My other American trick was to fill up the water bottle at one of the drinking fountains. Why oh why don’t such things exist in UK airports?! I wouldn’t want water from any in African airports mind, though at least there you can keep your water with you until you go to the gate itself, which any discerning traveller knows, you don’t do until you have to (no loos there for one thing!)!
Travelling across Africa can be entertaining. Such a variety of people and outfits. Some experienced travellers; for others, flying is clearly something very new. With the liquid restrictions, the days are now gone of seeing bottles of cooking oil brought onto the plane (I saw one once that had a piece of paper stuffed into the top, the cap apparently having gone missing!). However, you do see a lot of hand luggage. There is generally a bit of a stampede to get onto the plane and seize the overhead locker space. And there is certainly much less observance of matching your boarding pass with the seat that you then occupy! I did quite well out of that one this last trip, For some reason, our travel agent had booked aisle seats for me, when I generally prefer window ones. However, because of people not being able to follow seating plans, I wound up with window seats for most of the 6 flights anyway!
Anyway, the baggage held by the police was released, thanks to the Ethiopian Airlines steward, and I did make the flight (the next one to Addis wasn’t for another 3 days), and was back home in Nairobi the following day.

Period of Absence

2009-10-11T20:15:00.006+03:00

For those who’re regular followers of my blog, it’s perhaps been noticeable that there has been a definite lack of postings over the last couple of months. An indication perhaps that I’ve been seemingly constantly on the move in that time - literally. Since my last post at the end of July, I’ve been on 10 planes, and have 2 more to go this week. Not a good carbon footprint, I’m afraid, though rather typical it seems of working in an international setting.
Some of the highlights of that time have been:
• Having the opportunity to work for a month in the International Finance department at SIL International headquarters in Dallas, Texas.
• The number of people I knew in Dallas, either because they’re normally, or have been, based in Nairobi, or through workshops in Nairobi, Togo or Cameroon. It made my time there seem like home from home.
• Experiencing a rodeo for the first time (I thought the guys riding the bucking broncos and bulls were completely mad!).
• A day visiting the sights of Fort Worth, Texas. Botanical gardens, the water gardens (when we finally found them), and the Stockyard area (definitely cowboy country!).
• Having the opportunity to meet with friends in California and Pennsylvania, given that I was in the neighbourhood (relatively speaking!).
• A bonus weekend with family in the UK, en route back to Nairobi from the US.
• A picnic lunch with my Nairobi church home group by the dam that provides the home of a couple in the group with water. Great people and an amazing setting.
• Meeting with people in Bamako, Mali and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. • An evening of traditional Burkinabe dancing and music at the French Cultural Centre in Ouagadougou. So energetic – and in this heat!!!

Nairobi in Bloom

2009-10-11T19:23:00.003+03:00

I always like this time of year in Nairobi as it’s when the jacaranda blooms. Whilst not indigenous, it is a very striking tree. Around the end of September / beginning of October, the city becomes dotted with splashes of the lilac flowers, and even the ground becomes more colourful as the flowers start to drop. Jacaranda seems to be one of the few flowering trees here where the flowers come before the leaves. And it’s meant to be a sign of rain. I’m not sure if that’s because the tree ‘knows’ that rain is coming, or just because their flowering time precedes that of the rains. The tree here is just along the road from where I live. The area under it used to be full of dukas (small stalls) selling a variety of goods. These were torn down last October by Nairobi City Council. Some enterprising duka owners however have continued to set up shop each day and continue their business, just laying the fruit and vegetables on the ground around the stools that they sit on. They seem to be there from first thing in the morning, drinking cups of chai (sweet milky tea), keeping their businesses open until into the evening.

Turtle Release

2009-07-30T13:04:00.002+03:00

We had our conference at Turtle Bay Beach Club in Watamu this year. A wonderful place! We had 6 days’ of meetings, but also had time to just enjoy the surroundings and the warmth after the cool of Nairobi. Whilst there, I was fortunate enough to witness the release of 2 lots of turtles back into the Indian Ocean. These had been caught in fishermen’s nets, then handed over to Watamu Turtle Watch (www.watamuturtles.com), who rehabilitated, checked and tagged them, and then released them back to the sea. Over the last 4 years they have apparently released over 3,000 turtles back to the wild. Without this scheme almost all of these turtles would have been killed. The remuneration to the fishermen is small in comparison to the (illegal) commercial worth of the turtle; so it is a sustainable programme and does not encourage abuse. What a treat to be there to witness 4 of these beautiful creatures being returned to their natural habitat!

Ethiopian Fare

2009-07-28T10:31:00.002+03:00

At the beginning of July, I was in Addis Ababa for 4 days of meetings. Whilst there, my Kenyan colleague John, and I, were taken out for a traditional Ethiopian meal by 3 of our Ethiopian colleagues. I’d had Ethiopian food in Nairobi but this seemed different somehow, maybe because of the setting, or the company, or because it really was the real thing.

The staple Ethiopian food is injera, a thin sour-tasting bread, upon which are served various meat and vegetable dishes (Wots, Tibs and Fitfit) with their distinctive spicy flavours. The Injera is also used to scoop up mouthfuls of the sauces and meat from the shared plate. The main ingredient of Injera is Teff. This is the tiniest cereal and used as a staple food only in Ethiopia, where it is believed to have originated between 4000 and 1000 BC. Injera preparation usually takes two to three days. The teff is ground, then mixed in water along with yeast, and then set aside at room temperature for 2 days so it ferments and rises. After the fermentation process is finished, the mix is cooked on a hot flat iron pan called 'Mitad'. A circular motion is used to achieve a thin consistency. On contact between the hot pan and the fermented teff mix/batter, thousands of tiny air bubbles escape, creating tiny craters/eyes on the side facing upwards, whilst the side touching the hot mitad pan is flat. It’s this porous structure which allows the injera to be a good bread for scooping up sauces. Restaurants will serve your dishes on injera and bring a side dish of rolled-up injera for scooping purposes.
Eating with Injera – Handling Instructions
1. Tear off a small piece (size of your palm)
2. The side with holes is the one that makes contact with the sauce / meat
3. Scoop or grab one or more lots of sauce / meat with the injera
4. Use your fingers (one hand only) to control so that pieces don’t fall out
5. When the excess injera has gone, you can eat the bottom / tablecloth injera. This will now be saturated with the juices and flavours of the sauces.

(Info taken from www.ethiopianrestaurant.com/injera)

Road Hazards

2009-07-27T21:13:00.002+03:00

There are many road hazards in Kenya, from potholes, ruts, police checkpoint spikes, vehicles in bad repair and without decent brakes, matatus, and bad driving,.......... to goats, cows, donkeys, camels (!) and generally ‘unaware-of-the-dangers-of-the-road’ pedestrians. Somewhere on the way out of Nairobi to see friends near Machakos on Saturday, I came across another hazard - nails. I discovered a 3 inch nail both going in, and out of my tyre, when I was opening my friends’ gate. Amazingly, even on removal, the tyre stayed inflated – I saved by the tread on my tyres being somewhat deeper than most vehicles around here!

Big ‘wasp’ to big hand!

2009-06-16T22:03:00.005+03:00

A lesson I inadvertently learnt at church last Sunday is that it’s best not to swat the ‘fly’ that you think is buzzing round your head until you’ve actually verified its identity. The ‘fly’ in this case turned out to be either a wasp or hornet - I never did see it. Kenyan wasps and hornets look pretty nasty – and I can certainly confirm that it feels pretty nasty to be on the receiving end of a sting! Whilst I didn’t see it, other senses sprang into action: I was immediately very aware of a sharp and painful sensation in the fourth finger of my right hand. Thankfully, I was able to remove my ring before the swelling began. Amazingly this had receded in time for the concert that I was playing in with Nairobi Orchestra that afternoon, but came back with a vengeance as the concert ended. By the next morning, my entire hand was red, swollen, itchy, blistered..... and painful. Doing anything with it, let alone play the flute part of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite as I had the previous afternoon, was out of the question. Cellulitis had somehow set in – I guess that beastly bug hadn’t cleaned its stinger recently!! It’s perhaps a bit grisly to have a photo of my poor hand here (with the left one to show the contrast) but I figure that I’ve previously featured a very dirty foot, so why not this?! I’m very thankful to report that with the help of prayer, a cocktail of antihistamine, antibiotics and hydrocortisone cream, plus resting it as much as possible, the swelling is gradually starting to go down – and I can actually type this without too much discomfort!

How did we get here?!

2009-06-08T21:41:00.007+03:00

Last Monday was Madaraka Day, a national holiday in Kenya to commemorate the attainment 46 years ago of internal self-rule. A friend, Annemieke, and I chose to get out of the city for the day. En route, I drove past Nyayo Stadium where various public ceremonies are held during the year,the celebration of Madaraka being one of them. I passed many buses parked alongside the road with various uniformed military and public service personnel going this way and that. I’m sure they were very orderly in the stadium, but outside was a different matter for some of them at least. A few looked decidedly dishevelled, jackets only partly done up; some were talking on mobile phones; guns were carried very casually. Not exactly a picture of military precision.

Anyway, back to the day out. We started out with the intention of driving from Ngong town to Suswa volcano. Almost as soon as we left Ngong, we hit dirt road and seemed to be in a different country altogether with a vast openness, and sweeping views across the Rift Valley. Looking back, the knuckle of Ngong Hills stood out very clearly. Our guidebook was written 18 years ago. It’s normally pretty accurate, but things do change – particularly the condition of dirt roads. Having navigated our way around some shallow gullies in the road, we came to one that was about 5 feet deep. Whilst we could possibly have got around it, it didn’t bode well for what lay ahead. So, instead we had lunch in the semishade of a whistling thorn tree, enjoying the absolute absence of any manmade sounds, and then turned back. By this time, the sky behind us was black with the threat of an oncoming storm. Having seen the gullies in the road, I didn’t fancy being caught out there in a downpour. We had a choice of 3 routes: Go back the way we’d come; Go another way that I’d done the previous year (and which I’d heard since was washed away in parts); or try something new which would bring us out on the Magadi Road. Being adventurous souls, we opted for the latter.

It was great, taking us a different way, and in parts along rocky roads down into the Valley. After driving for a while though, we realised that we’d completely missed wherever it was that we were meant to go, as we’d gone way further than the guidebook was indicating that we should have - and no tarmac road in sight! At one T-junction, children were clammering for biscuits (we had none) or a ride in the car (they evidently had never been taught not to accept a lift from strangers!). We asked for directions for the road to Magadi , and were pointed off leftwards. This road had some vicious bumps over drainage pipes (an indication of what the rains could do). The occasional habitation brought some comfort, whilst signs of electricity caused great excitement! At one point, we were trying to follow some electricity pylons, the logic being that they probably ran parallel to the road – if they did (other than the one we were on), we didn’t see it! We wound up eventually in something that resembled a mud river bed rather than a road, though were encouraged to see tyre tracks. When the river bed became scrub, the tracks ran out……. At this point, two Maasai very handily came on the scene. We asked for the road to Nairobi, figuring that as that was where we actually wanted to go, it would be more useful – after all, we didn’t want to wind up in Magadi as it’s about 100km from Nairobi! They indicated that they were going to Mai Mahiu so could direct us there. At this point, we were flummoxed. Mai Mahiu is a town in completely the opposition direction to the one we had thought that we were going in. How on earth had we wound up there? We had to laugh, especially as the mountain that we’d commented on as ‘looking like Mount Longonot’ was indeed that very volcano that stands out in the view of the Rift Valley from the escarpment on the Nairobi-Naivasha road. The Maasai guided us very adeptly along barely discernable tracks, knowing which would be the best for the vehicle. How we’d have got home without them , I don’t know. It was certainly quite a trip out. Not sure I could retrace our steps, but I do want to find out where on earth we went wrong!

Feeding Frenzy

2009-06-08T21:29:00.002+03:00

I seem to be mentioning birds quite a bit, especially since I started feeding them. They are quite fascinating though – even my househelp has started commenting on them. Great entertainment value with their antics, colours and song (they seem to enjoy my fluting too!). It has to be said though that they are very messy eaters. Millet, bread, rice, sugar water etc seems to get scattered everywhere in the midst of the feeding frenzy, giving my plants and balcony a speckled look. I think even downstairs gets a share!

An Unexpected Visitor

2009-05-11T21:44:00.002+03:00

A bird in a tree outside? No, this little fella (a female Red-billed firefinch, I think – the ornithologists out there can correct me on that) had somehow flown into my flat and was sitting in the ficus in my living room on Friday evening, seemingly feeling very comfortable there – not at all keen to fly outside into the dark night. After a bit of persuasion, and moving the pot so that the branch he was on was actually sticking out of the balcony door, he eventually left. Thankfully, not too many deposits were left behind!

Dust, dust and more dust!

2009-03-31T12:29:00.004+03:00

A friend, Jill, suggested I post this photograph of my foot on my blog. Not quite the sort of photograph I’d normally post of myself (or even have taken!). Despite being a very fine foot (not sure Teva would use it for advertising though!), it really is very, very dirty! It is an indication of just how dry and dusty it is here at the moment. Jill, another friend, MaryAnne, and I were away last weekend at a small lake next to Lake Naivasha. We had a great time relaxing and enjoying the plentiful wildlife that was right on our doorstep – hippo, gazelle, dikdik, impala, zebra, hartebeest, giraffe, bright pink flamingo, and many, many other species of birds. One of the striking things over the weekend was the number of dust devils that we saw, one of which was particularly dense and wide. I wouldn’t have liked to have been in its path. The other striking memory is of the amount of smoke, and sometimes flames, that we could see from bush fires. Everywhere is so, so dry. On our final morning we went in search of the main lake, and after walking for an hour or so along paths thick with dust (some of which was following in the wake of a herd of cattle being led to drink), eventually found it. Hence, the dirty foot (the other one was equally so!). Thankfully, the rains seem to have started now, though it’s going to take a lot of rain to provide all the water that’s desperately needed in this dry, dusty and parched land.

Bony Bovines

2009-03-19T00:53:00.003+03:00

Most of the year, but particularly during the hot dry season, it’s fairly normal in Nairobi to come across herds of cattle being led along or across the road by Masai herdsmen. We often have herds in the plot of land outside our office window, the jingling of cowbells indicating their arrival. The cattle are brought towards the city in search of pasture as the land becomes increasingly dry, and the grass brown (the rains are due the end of this month). This morning was no exception. I was driving to work from Karen, having overnighted with friends after home group, and took the ring road. (A word of explanation here – it will be the ring road one day. At the moment, it’s a very dusty (especially at this time of year), bumpy and narrow murram track, but it provides a good route for me to get to work, as it bypasses some of the worst traffic hold-ups. It can itself be a bottleneck however, particularly in the rains when it becomes a quagmire, or when something slightly too wide comes the other way! This time of year, clouds of dust (which can be seen from afar) signal the approach of another vehicle. A number of vehicles had their headlights on this morning in an attempt to be slightly more visible.) Immediately after turning onto the ring road, the route ahead of me was blocked by a mass of bony bovine backsides! However, it wasn’t long before the 2 Masai steered them off the road so that I could continue on my dusty way.

Sunbirds on the balcony

2009-03-15T20:34:00.001+03:00

A friend recently gave me a sunbird feeder. It’s a relatively simple design, with an upturned bottle in a metal wire ‘nest’, the open end of the bottle resting in a small pyrex dish. The physics of why all the water doesn’t run out is quite something. All to do with equal and opposite forces, or at least that’s what I’ve concluded in my attempts to dredge up my A-level physics! Initially I included some red food colouring in the sugar solution in order to attract the birds. It took them a week or so to figure out that this hanging object that had appeared on my balcony was something good. The downside was sticky patches over my balcony and plants, where the sweet syrup had either been splashed, or alternatively where a mob of sunbirds had upset the balance on the suspended bottle. (I initially thought I had an infestation of some sort, until I realised what it actually was!) By the time I came back from Togo, the bottle was empty. Since then, I’ve refilled a couple of times, though now I use a glucose solution which is clear. It is delightful to watch the birds, such as the variable sunbird in the photo, come and feed.

Other Images from Togo and Ghana

2009-03-03T18:36:00.009+03:00

I didn’t have too much opportunity to explore Kara, my days there being mostly taken up with workshop sessions, meeting with people outside of that such as for one-on-one training, and keeping up with office emails. We did however go on a trip one afternoon to a local women’s cooperative where they use the income they generate from quilting for literacy classes, and to the market. This was a hive of activity. Vegetables (including yams which resembled small muddy logs), meat, colourful fabrics, ……..

Our journey back from Kara to Accra was uneventful though long: 14 hours door to door. This was perhaps an hour longer than it might have been had it not been for our van driver. We’d negotiated with him at the Togo-Ghana border to take us to Accra. Once we reached the city, it became apparent that he didn’t really know the location of the GILLBT guesthouse where we were to spend the night, and wasn’t exactly open to the directions given by 2 of our number who’d been there 2 weeks earlier! Our border crossing was easier this time, and we discovered why the ground had been so sandy – we were practically on the beach! As well as the coffin showroom, we got to visit a craft centre and the beach the following day (though had to pay to go on it!), and had a wonderful paddle in the cooling waters of the Atlantic. It had been worth doing the drive in one day to have that last relaxing one in Accra, before boarding the plane that night for Nairobi.

Coffins with a difference!

2009-03-02T22:53:00.006+03:00

I’ve never considered a coffin showroom as being something that you’d find on the tourist trail, but we were advised to visit one whilst we were in Accra for a day on the way back to Nairobi from Togo. This particular one was a fairly crude showroom, with the finished products on the second floor of a rickety wooden structure overlooking the main road. Choices of coffins available were: a sports car, a Ghana Airline plane, a chicken, a cow, okra, a pineapple, a petrol tanker, …… All very bizarre! Equally bizarre was a funeral procession that we witnessed. A more conventional coffin this time, draped in a Ghana flag, and being borne aloft by a crowd of singing and dancing young people dressed in red (some, it seemed, fairly intoxicated) along the main road. It seemed more like a carnival than a funeral.

Travel through Togo

2009-02-14T00:33:00.007+03:00

The following morning, we had breakfast at 6am. We were meant to be on the road by 7am, but the minibus didn't arrive until nearer to 8! Our numbers had increased further to 14 as we were joined by people from Nigeria, Benin, Cameroon and Togo. The minibus wasn't exactly the most comfortable of vehicles, so the next 9 hours was a bit of an endurance in the heat. We stopped every 3 hours for a very welcome legstretch, and had a packed lunch in a nice spot under some trees. Most of the journey was fairly flat, passing by villages of thatched mud houses, teak forests, and cassava. The last leg brought us uphill quite a bit, along a windy road. We passed about 3 or 4 overturned lorries on a relatively short stretch of road, their goods covered by tarpaulin. One was a petrol tanker, which seemed to have been involved in an incident involving a number of vehicles, as we discovered when we were able to pass by and see the rest of the carnage. It was frightening to see a man collecting the spilt petrol that was running down the side of the road, so soon after the horrific event near Nakuru in Kenya, in which over 130 people were killed in a fire at a similar scene

Travel through Ghana

2009-02-14T00:21:00.004+03:00

I’m currently at a Finance and Project Funding workshop in Kara, Togo. Travel across Africa can be a challenge, in more ways than one. The best way to get here from Nairobi in the end was to fly, not directly into Lome (which would have required a 3-day longer trip, plus nights in Addis Ababa going to and fro), but into Accra, Ghana, and then by road from there!
The flight was easy - then the ‘fun’ started! We were picked up at the airport by a vehicle from a sister organization in Ghana, and met up with 2 people from the US who'd flown in the day before. After a stop for lunch (where ox tail, pigs’ feet and cow’s foot were all on offer!), we set off on the journey to Lome. We'd probably gone only about 20 minutes when we had to stop as the engine was overheating (the driver thought the head gasket was blown). What then followed was 2 hours at the side of the road, waiting for the driver to get back to town and come back with another vehicle. Unfortunately, where we’d broken down was not exactly the most scenic of locations. We seemed to be in a fairly industrial area, and the area just off the road was used as a toilet by a number of passers-by. I bear souvenirs of that time on my feet, as I got bitten by seemingly invisible, but vicious ants! Finally, the driver returned, we loaded the suitcases onto the roof, and squeezed ourselves into this smaller vehicle, but we were off again. The road most of the way was amazing - not a pothole in sight. The last stretch to the border was a different matter! It was only here, when clouds of red dust filled the air, that the driver switched on the air con! The border crossing itself was 'interesting'. The vehicle dropped us there, and we walked with our luggage from the Ghanaian side to the Togolese, passing through the 2 Immigration offices, and filling in a number of forms en route. Despite having wheels, pulling my case proved a challenge through the sand. The whole process took about 1hour 30minutes, and was a textbook case of dealing with African officialdom. One of the Kenyans in our group hadn't been given a stamp on entering Ghana at the airport. This proved to be a real problem, as the Ghanaians then didn't see that they could stamp him out if he'd never been stamped in, and then the Togolese immigration officials didn't want him crossing a border from a country he was never documented as having been in!!!! Somehow, it sorted itself out in the end, and we were through to Togo.

Big Fellow in Park

2009-02-01T19:45:00.004+03:00

Yesterday afternoon, I took the opportunity to go for a drive around Nairobi National Park. It was a while since I’d been in, and I was rewarded with seeing quite a number of plains game – zebra, hartebeest, wildebeest, eland, gazelles, as well as ostrich and giraffe. Also saw a Kori Bustard. I hadn’t seen a rhino in there for a couple of years, despite the park having a reasonable number of the endangerered Black Rhinos. Who would think that something so large could hide so effectively?! So, it was a real treat when in the last hour or so of my time there I came across this big fellow (or fellow-ess!). In the background, you can see the Nairobi city skyline (the towers over his / her head are within a mile of where I live!), which is what makes this park so special and amazing – African wildlife, in the wild, yet so close to this metropolis!

Obama Mania?

2009-02-01T19:34:00.003+03:00

I was at a new coffee house in Nairobi on Saturday morning for breakfast, celebrating the birthdays of 2 colleagues. Our attention was caught by the Specials menu on the table – ‘Obama Specials’! He pops up everywhere! Not exactly sure what ‘Credit Crunch’ would be?! A BLT minus the B & T perhaps?! The previous day, a road salesman had been trying to persuade me to buy a pendant featuring Obama to hang from my rear view mirror. There’s certainly a glut of Obama paraphernalia at the moment. American flags, which you can put side by side with your Kenyan one; Obama badges and car stickers; a musical; a new ‘President’ lager – in place of the former ‘Senator’ one!. Obama Kangas also seem to be very popular. I’d heard about these from a former colleague, who’d been sent one by friends here, and then got to see them for sale myself in stalls on Saturday afternoon. As Paul states in his blog http://mypartofcolorado.blogspot.com, "A kanga is a piece of cloth that is often worn as a wrap-skirt or a dress. Or used as a baby backpack. Translated, it reads: "Congratulations Barack Obama. Love and peace have been given to us by God." "

Chaos in Town

2009-01-28T22:51:00.004+03:00

Traffic in and around the city centre was in chaos this afternoon and evening, following a fire at a major supermarket downtown. We first got news of it just after it had happened at 3pm, as warnings came to avoid going into town. Looking out of the office window towards downtown Nairobi, the city skyline was enveloped in a thick dark cloud of smoke. As I drove home, I could hear sirens. A couple of small emergency vehicles passed by, driving off-road to get passed the line of traffic. A helicopter hovered overhead. Four hours later as I left orchestra rehearsal to return home, traffic jams still stretched for miles (thankfully for me, mostly in the opposite direction). The news gave reports of the supermarket having been completely gutted resulting in the loss of millions of shillings. Whilst there are reports of injured workers, it’s not yet known if there were any fatalities. What came across clearly was that whilst the fire fighters fought the fire valiantly, they were woefully unprepared and untrained, and chaos reigned. It apparently took half an hour to respond, despite the city council fire brigade being located just a street away from where the fire was! Only one fire hydrant produced any water, water hoses burst, and water simply ran out. Curious onlookers endangered themselves, gathering in large numbers dangerously close to the inferno. All in all, a reminder that whilst Nairobi may have some of the appearances of a modern city, many of its services fall way short of standards found elsewhere in the world.

Relaxing at the Beach

2009-01-06T20:22:00.005+03:00

After what was an exceedingly busy second half of 2008 at work, I was delighted to be invited to the Kenyan Coast by friends from church for New Year. The Coast is one of the places in Kenya that you can really, really relax. And that’s just what I did! Five days of really not doing very much at all – reading, swimming, snorkelling, eating, a few walks along the beach or out on the reef, enjoying my friends’ company, and sleeping. It was just perfect! What a blessing to have the Coast here as my local beach (okay, not that ‘local’ – we were a full day on the road getting there and back). It was never too hot, with a very pleasant breeze blowing off the Indian Ocean most of the time (also serving to keep mosquitoes away), but plenty warm enough to still be sitting outside at 11pm in shorts and a strappy top. The food was great (freshly caught lobster, crab, prawns and fish), the pool was inviting, the sea was warm (in some patches resembling a warm bath!), the fish were plentiful and so colourful, the company was great. It was a wonderful way to end 2008 and see 2009 in. For New Year itself, we were on the beach under a star-studded sky with glasses of sparkling wine, enjoying fireworks, though the best one was the shooting star that we saw. What a blessing!

Christmas in the Tropics!

2009-01-06T19:53:00.003+03:00

“It doesn’t seem like Christmas” was a refrain that one of my grandmas came out with every year, the upshot of which was that it did in fact seem just like Christmas to the rest of us! I have to say though that there are times here in Nairobi that I find myself echoing Grandma White’s sentiments. As we enter fully into the hot dry season, the clouds disappear leaving a strikingly blue sky, temperatures rise, windows are wide open, and it’s time to spend afternoons whenever possible at, by and in(!) swimming pools.

Christmas creeps up on me here every year, partly because my head is down in year-end accounts in the months approaching, but also because the mass commercialism that you get in the UK, doesn’t exist in the same way. There are signs of it creeping in though, with the Coca-Cola ads mentioned previously, purple-clad Santas in supermarkets promoting Cadbury’s chocolate, green-clad Santas on billboards advertising a bank, the logo for which is green,…. There’s nothing in the way of Christmas packs of toiletries, chocolates and novelty items such as you’d get an amazing array of in shops in the UK, though this year one of the supermarkets has started selling plastic baskets filled with staple groceries such as cooking fat, flour, sugar and tea, presumably designed as Christmas gifts. Shops stock tinsel and baubles all year round, although I did notice an influx of fresh stock about 2 weeks before Christmas. Shopping Centres are decorated, the lights generally going up very early to coincide with Divali. Some do have a Santa’s grotto, or at least a chair in the midst of Christmas trees (artificial of course), where children can sit on Santa’s lap and have their photos taken (and presumably tell him what they’d like for Christmas). You can buy small poinsettias, though I rather prefer the ones over 10 feet high in people’s gardens!

Our (Karen Vineyard Church’s) evening Carol Service was held in the gardens of the Karen Blixen Museum this year, rather than at Hillcrest School where we usually meet on Sundays. It was a beautiful setting. Everyone had candles, which were lit during ‘Silent Night’. From where I was standing on the ‘stage’, it looked amazing, as everywhere else was enveloped in the darkness of an African night. Afterwards, in very traditional British Christmas fashion, we had mince pies and mulled wine – not that the mulled wine was needed for warming purposes!

Christmas Morning, we had a small service in the garden of one of the leaders of the church. It was the nicest Christmas Day service I’ve ever been to. There were about 80 of us in warm dappled sunshine in a glade amongst eucalyptus trees and bamboo, and by a moat (yes, really!) with the occasional sounds of fish lazily plopping in the water. Carols were accompanied by flute and guitar; passages from the Gospel of Luke were read by various people in the congregation; we took communion together; and a short message was given. Very simple but very focussed on the One whose birth we were celebrating. Despite the very different setting, that really did seem like Christmas.The rest of the day followed suit with a lovely time spent with friends and colleagues, enjoying a roast turkey with the trimmings, a Christmas pud, and even a Dr Who Christmas Special (admittedly from 2 years ago!)! And to end a thoroughly enjoyable day, I got to spend some time seeing (and talking with) my family courtesy of the wonders of Skype!

It's the Brrr season!

2008-12-19T23:49:00.007+03:00

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!

2008-12-02T21:02:00.002+03:00

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

2008-11-24T22:27:00.002+03:00

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

2008-11-03T21:57:00.002+03:00

“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

2008-11-02T17:57:00.003+03:00

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.....

2008-10-17T22:09:00.003+03:00

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

2008-10-06T22:40:00.003+03:00

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!

2008-09-14T21:48:00.006+03:00

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!

2008-09-05T17:38:00.011+03:00

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!

2008-08-29T03:15:00.005+03:00

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 .................

2008-08-06T00:02:00.003+03:00

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

2008-07-31T19:14:00.004+03:00

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

2008-07-23T20:12:00.001+03:00

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…….

2008-07-17T21:08:00.004+03:00

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!

2008-07-07T20:55:00.002+03:00

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

2008-07-07T20:50:00.002+03:00

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

2008-07-02T20:18:00.004+03:00

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

2008-06-25T23:35:00.001+03:00

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

2008-06-08T19:21:00.000+03:00

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

2008-06-04T22:19:00.004+03:00

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

2008-05-30T13:46:00.005+03:00

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

2008-05-22T11:29:00.001+03:00

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

2008-05-06T15:55:00.002+03:00

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!

2008-04-21T09:34:00.001+03:00

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

2008-04-01T23:31:00.003+03:00

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!

2008-04-01T23:21:00.002+03:00

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 ..............

2008-03-12T09:28:00.002+03:00

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!

2008-03-11T16:25:00.006+03:00

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)!