My Balcony Garden

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

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?

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

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

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!

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

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.