Kibera

"We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started... and know the place for the first time.” T.S. Eliot

Kibera is the largest slum in Africa and home to 1 million people. Lindsey, Ellen and I were welcomed to Kibera by Kevin on Saturday morning March 19th at about 11am. Lindsey met Kevin through her friend Leigh who attended a Ted conference sometime between 2006 and 2011. I haven't found the Ted conference that Kevin presented at because the internet it too slow here to search and go through videos. If you find it, can you post a link to it on this site?

Kibera - I can barely describe it. I'm going to have to show you most of this through pictures. I will remember snippets of the day - moments that will stay with me for a long time:

1st encounter:

the rain on my face, the mud in the streets, the absence of any bad smells, the excitement of jumping across bridges, water flowing everywhere - none of it drinkable, loos 1-7 left behind by the film The Constant Gardner, talking to Kevin about Missouri (state in USA) and Nsouri (good/nice) and how they sound exactly the same, the youth project where they turn bones into beads - like magic, Kevin pointing out the area and the street where Kenyans were killed in 2007, the Roman Empiresque Gym - boulder barbells and cement weights, how good the bread rolls and samosas looked, the amazing meal I had at Eddie's Pub - which started out at the butchers, picking our beef fillet, watching the butcher cut if off the carcas, coming back 45 minutes later to the same place to enjoy beef fillet cooked 'Technology' style (roasted then put in a plastic bag with tomato sauce, garlic & spices then steamed), Kevin, Dan and Alfred teaching us the ugali spoon and me teaching them the ugali Hamburger and how we fed 6 people until we were stuffed for less than £20

the people:

the smiles on people's faces, Obamamania – beer named after him, pictures and calendars, the number of references made to him, the sound of kids everywhere asking us, "how are you," and us replying "I am fine, how are you?" followed by them laughing at how successful their English was at engaging with us, kids in school uniforms, little hands reaching out for sweets we distributed, the smiles on adult's faces when we gave sweets to their kids and even bigger smiles when we shared some candy with them, teasing kids when they came back for more than one candy, some saying thank you - others being reminded about their manners by their moms, giving some costume jewellery I no longer wanted to some friends of Kevin's and the look of joy on their faces when I gave it to them, being invited into a few people's houses just because it would be an experience for them to have Muzungos in their houses, how spacious the houses compared to what i expected, sitting on their couches and counting to 10, taking pictures of people inside their houses, Rosemary’s son doing a dance for us whilst she sang – Rosemary’s sick daughter who seemed distant, how happy people seemed, despite all this and how friendly they were towards us, how little, how very little they have

the services:

Baby school and how it's for ages 3months – 6 years, women’s self help to empower women, free school to all children (up to university level), being impressed by the health clinic and the free services they provide and how John – the manager - was so happy to show us around just because we were Kevins friends and Muzungos (literally - white people, but it's used to describe foreigners), 700 HIV+ people they provide free ARVs to, the maternity clinic and the rust on the stirrups, how lucky they are to have these services….

I will be forever touched by the day I spend exploring Kibera.

Learn more about Kibera here: http://www.kibera.org.uk/Facts.html

Safari means adventure!

3 days in the Masai Mara and I'm hooked. The animals were incredible - we got so close to them I never imagined wild animals would tolerate close-range spectators. Our journey was certainly eventful and resulted in us being 3 hours late to the hotel where we were staying. Not to worry though as we didn't miss out on any animal sighting, aside from perhaps a Leopard. Those guys are hard to spot!

So what do I mean by eventful? Let me first define it, Eh-vent-FULL = of or relating to 3 flat tires, one over turned car and a Masai lady opening a bag of crisps with her machette.

Flat tire 1: Happened in the gas station just after we loaded the van. Still can't figure that one out. Apparently the valve popped, not sure what exactly that means.

Flat tire 2: We were made aware of our flat tire when an oncoming car pointed it out. Liz confirmed it and after an hour of so of riding on a low pressure wheel it gave up and we had to stop. This time we were in the middle of nowhere. After about 5 minutes 3 Masai turned up , started staring at us and talking to us. We found them hugely interesting - Mickey paid a guy with a motor cycle to take him for a drive - that cost him less than 50p. I found the Masai women so intriguing I caved on wanting to take a picture. We paid her 40 bob in total - less than 40p - for a few shots of her and her friends. Lots of kids came to join and the Masai lady used her machete to open a pack of crisps!

The girl pictured here, Margaret, her english was brilliant and she was so cute. At one point a car came zooming passed us and reversed to see if he could help. We said we were ok and sent him on his way.

Overturned car:
About 30 minutes later on our way to the Mara we saw the car that had slowed down and stopped to ask if we were ok was overturned by the side of the road. The driver had been driving too fast and lost control of the car. Thank god all 4 passengers, girls from Finland, and the driver were ok. We arrived no more than 5 minutes after the accident and I got to speaking with the girls and they explained how they asked the driver to slow down at least 5 times. Some of the guys in our van helped turn the car right side up - the windscreen was smashed to bits - another true reminder how lucky the girls were. Our driver made sure someone was coming to pick up the girls and would take them to be checked out. Once we had this reassurance we ploughed on.

Flat tire 3: After we help the girls, our driver announces no more disasters are possible. Sod's law dictated it... we got another flat tire. Crazy. Within 5 minutes again this deserted landscape was dotted with Masai. Masai Twitter Katya and Liz called it. Good call hunh?

The next day, as we prepared for our 1st morning game drive, our driver saw one of the tire's pressure was too low so he disappeared off into the horizon get it fixed. This took a while.... We started a walking Safari, but after 20 minutes this was aborted when a Kenyan told us it was dangerous. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Once the van was back up and running anytime we hear a loud noise coming from underneath the car we all stopped breathing. After our disaster day we made it without any other incidents - thank gosh!

Seeing wild animals 1st hand, the big ones like we see on National Geographic, was amazing. I didn't expect the experience to be quite so impressive, after all I'd been to the zoo. (For you animal lovers I know saying this is a sacrilege, however). We covered 4 of the 5 big five the only one we missed out on was the Leopard. As I mentioned these guys are hard to spot. Everyday we saw lots of animals and a new type of one each day which made the whole experience fun and entertaining. There were six of us on Safari so we had lots of photographers, videographers and binoculists (sic) on lookout. Each night we went back to Fig Tree Camp where we stayed in large tents - fully equipped with beds, mattresses, mosquito nets and a super large fixed bathroom. Basically, our tents had a bathroom 'extension.' All very nice. Thanks to a bit of advanced planning and the Liz and Katya bottle opening duet we had plenty of nice wine to enjoy each night and water to bring us back to life each morning. Our hotel included full board so we had lots of food options and didn't have to compete with Lions or Cheetahs for food - phew!

My favourite animals or memories of the safari you ask? Seeing a live buffalo - poor old guy he seemed to me - one day only to discover that the Lions had hunted him down during the night. The next morning we whitnessed Lions feasting... Circle of life we called it. A female cheetah and her cubs ravenously knawing at a gazelle killed early one afternoon. The shots of their blood-stained faces are priceless.

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More comically - gay giraffes is next on the list. According to our driver it was 3 male giraffes necking but one giraffe looked really excited by the whole thing. I have a lot of photos of this event.

Zebra crossing was also cool and fun to capture on camera.

Amazing sunsets and the constant sense of adventure really tops it -

Just change the law...

Was an option my project manager told the process team today... Amazing hunh?

On Feb 28th there was a press conference to announce the piece of work we are here to do, check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKnOeByKpsM&feature=related

To see the director of IFMIS's speech:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuQOwrC5KLw

This message will self distruct in 5 seconds....

Dr Strange Love

What a random Monday - someone took me to the phone flashing aka unlocking shack - cost me 200 bob (KSD) to get it unlocked. Bargain! Now I'm up and running with my Kenyan mobile. Good times. I really respect the guy who took me - we were talking about all kinds of things and he went, "In Africa the one thing that really counts is your studies - it's not like Europe where if you have some other talents like art or sports you can get ahead without ever reading a word - here unless you have your studies and your degree you're nowhere. It's the most important thing." I was so impressed by what he said, how candidly he said it!

Monday afternoon we set off for running club - known as 'Hash' for Has House Harriers at 4:30 to beat the traffic. Not sure if I've mentioned but traffic here comes to a complete stand-still. It makes the M5 look easy... So we arrived with plenty of time to change before our run. It's 400 bob for the run and food, excluding drinks. All sounded like a pleasant evening to meet new people and get some exercise. Should have been awesome. It's the host person's responsibility to mark out the run, but unfortunately by the time we went running at 6pm on Monday night there were almost no markers left. We went up one path and ended up running through a shanty town somewhere in Loresho and were followed by 15 running kids of all ages from 3 - 15 shouting (nicely), "How are you?" "How are you?" when we turned around and asked them how they were they replied, "We are fine!" It was very cute. I found it a bit voyeuristic to be running through this shanty town, along what was effectively the high street of their makeshift town, but until this point I hadn't seen real life in Kenya for many people so it was good exposure.

We continued to make our way - running in a green and leafy area of Nairobi we didn't know. At one point someone pointed out the short run and long run, but as everyone was going down the long run route I clearly couldn't take the short run. On, On indeed - as they say! We were still unsure of where we were going and at one point it was about 6:30pm and we hadn't seen any route markers for several kilometers. We were 6 all together and it's unadvised to be out later than 7pm here as there are no street lights, people drive quite dangerously and it's generally quite unsafe to be walking/running around after dark. One girl suggested we double back and find the the short route... 4 km more later we eventually found our way home, but not without a lot of stopping and starting, panics about it getting dark, and having to drop off 1 lady with a 13 year old dog who couldn't run anymore - poor thing! Anyway, we made it back to the house, but to complicate maters further, power was out on the whole street. What would we do about dinner??

Back at the house the group of approximately 35 runners gathered around in a circle and insisted the 'Virgins' or newbies come into the center of the circle for 'interrogation.' Each Virgin got a beer - after the round of questioning which included " what's your cup size " they were told they had to chug the beer in 10 seconds or less and if they failed they had to pour any remainder on 'natural hair.' Creepy to even make the distinction on natural hair... I hate to think what people got up to. Add this scene to the fact that everyone gets some weird name like 'bum fluff' or 'sex pistol' and that the guy taking cash when we arrived had plastic poo on his hat it was all too weird to handle.

If you're wondering, what did you do? I didn't join the circle and skipped out on the beer... I was releaved when the taxis arrived, even though it meant leaving without my 400 bob worth of food. No more running club for me, no way! It was all too weird. Shame as the exercise was good...


If you're curious about Hash, here's more:
Hash House Harriers
“Down Downs”At the end of the run, drinking, eating and an informal gathering usually takes place, overseen by the “mismanagement”. If there are any “Virgins” (people new to the HHH) they can expect to be put on show in front of the gathering and even have pints of beer poured over their head (all in good fun) Questions will be asked so the club members can get to know the Virgin a little better. Depending on who is mismanaging the crowd, most people get off pretty lightly, but be prepared in case you’re easily embarrassed!
Who goes to Hash House Harriers?I’ve heard that many HHH’s around the world are very child friendly and have lots of children attending. I would say, the Nairobi Hash’s are pretty adult orientated, although a fair number of young adolescents do go and I’m sure the group would be very friendly and welcoming to any younger members. Just be aware that there would be a high chance of them hearing rude jokes and smutty humour!

Hash House Harriers History
British colonial officials and expatriates who would meet on Mondays to follow a paper trail started the Hash originally in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1938. A “hare” was given a lead and had to run ahead dropping a paper trail, trying to create false trails to confuse the “harriers” who were chasing behind. Only the hare knew where he was going. Apart from the excitement of the chase, the runners were rewarded at the end of their run with a tub of iced beer.

During world war, the Hash died out, and then resumed again in KL soon after the war was over. It was not until 1962 that the Hash began to spread internationally, starting in Singapore then spreading through the Far East, Australia and New Zealand. Now, there are around 1700 Hash House Harrier groups all over the world; there are even two organized HHH groups in Antarctica! Hashing in Kenya began in 1978.

Elephants and Giraffes - 1st weekend in Nairobi

Do you know what elephants use as lotion?

Dirt!


On Saturday we set off for the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage and the Rothchild Giraffe treehouse. The sanctuary is only open from 11-12 on Saturday so it's worth the effort to get there on time! We arrived to find around 10 elephants under 2 years old on display - admittedly the setting was a bit weird. Although we were in the Nairobi National Park, we were in a corded-off area to watch the elephants roll around in dirt and play with a soccer ball in a makeshift lake. For our 500 bob we did get to take lots of photos, learn a bit about the orphanage and how they take care of the elephants (milk every 3 hours!). I think the orphanage is one of the only ones like it in the world.

As we strolled back to the car we saw two warthogs – the real Pumbaa!
Thanks to the amazing zoom lens on the camera Steve let me borrow, I managed to get a few shots of them before they ran off. If that wasn’t enough, as we drove out of the Orphanage we saw a wild baboon! This time I wasn’t quick enough to catch him, but I couldn’t believe that in the span of 10 minutes I’d seen elephants, warthogs and a baboon!

Next – Giraffes! There are several different types of Giraffes I learned and we saw a type called Rothchild Giraffes. We got to feed them which was a slimy and relatively unpleasant experience, but Giraffes can be really gentle which is amazing given how strong their tongues are! The texture of their tongues reminds me of the inside of an aloe plant after you cut open the center. Check out the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz970RvwpY4



Then we went to lunch at the Rusty Nail in Karen, a suburb of Nairobi named after Karen Blixen . The setting was a lovely garden with lots of birds and flowers as you can see I snapped a few.













The restaurant also sponsors an organic market on Saturdays. There was one stall selling Amaranth flour, which the packet said was good for the maintenance of HIV and expired in June 2010! Not my kind of Organic market!

After a quick team spag bol cooked up by Liz, we set off for Casablanca… the story goes on until 4am but I’ll leave out the details. Needless to say we had lots of fun!




Baadayye (Swahili for see you later!)

Day II

Work was interesting today - we thought scope was nailed down but i think things are still up for grabs. Will be a bit of a journey to see how the next few weeks go and what we end up agreeing and then delivering! We had several power cuts today and I'm getting to grips with the fact that this is a regular occurance. Luckily we have laptops - the clients however are not so lucky. I think a lot of people had to abandon work for most of the afternoon.

We went to lunch in a cool cafe called something like 'All About Tea' where my team had cups of tea that were 50% honey and looked really good. I will try one next time.
I had mexican fillet steak that was so cooked that i couldn't even cut it with my knife. The plain rice and vegetables with avocado I had were good though. Walking back to work in total sunshine was priceless.

This evening we visited Nakamat in the Westgate Mall. Nairobi is amazing, they have all the same products you'd get in the UK, the variety you get in the US with a Kenyan spin (fresh peas, fresh tofu, fruit in the fresh and fruti section, etc.) Excitingly I found a 'Dairy Alternatives' section which was great - check it out. Strangely, I can't find any nice bananas. They all seem to be bruised. Maybe all pretty bananas are exported? Sad, but true. Tonight's dinner you ask? I made a ham and tomato sandwich.

Compared to Morocco Nairobi feels so organised, developed and safe. Let's see how things go!