Friday, 13 May 2011

Advert for Pentapure?

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?

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!

 A few weeks ago, I was rather surprised to find several men perched in the trees just outside my 2nd 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.