Entertaining Auditors!

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

Karibu (Welcome to) Nairobi!

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

Wash Day!

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

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

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

Travels Westwards

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

Fuel Economy

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

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

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