Kakamega Days

progress...

We moved into our house today - it is nice (though no hot water yet). We have a lock built in to our new fridge. Fridges are generally sold that way here - the assumption apparently is that if you can afford a nice fridge then you can afford domestic help who will (it is presumed) steal your food. Someone pointed out that tea chests were designed the same way in Victorian England with the same rationale - thinking about this gives me a headache.

posted by Adam @ 8:03 PM 0 comments  

Only Convicts and Schoolboys wear shorts in Kenya.

It doesn't matter how hot it is - wearing shorts here is not done. This goes double for musungo (white folk) - you get enough stares if you dress to fit in. Today we were on the golf course and ran into some convicts who were on work detail raking some recently cut grass (imagine golfing in a hay field after a cut and you will get an idea of what I am up against). The prisoners were dressed in stripes like you see in old movies but then, bizarrely, wearing shorts (also in stripes). I'm sure some fashion designer has already ripped this idea off….

You can see the point of shorts for prisoners - it is humiliating (I imagine) to have to dress like a schoolboy - a man wears trousers here. For the ladies, skirts (not short) and dresses are favoured. Women do wear jeans but this is casual wear - for the evenings or the weekend.

posted by Adam @ 7:32 PM 0 comments  

Boda Boda Economics.

Oh, I got ripped off today. I got a lift from a Boda-Boda down to the cyber-café and was charged 50 bob (Kenyan shillings - that’s about 70 cents). At the sports club I was informed the correct rate for a man to drag me around town on his bike was 10 bob (maybe 14 cents) – and I tipped another 10! There was great amusement at the club over this. My consolation is that African visiters to Kakamega are routinely scammed in this manner (though I doubt any Kenyan would be dumb enough to pay a full 60 bob). What I found interesting was that Professor Akello stated (with a little pride) that he regularly paid 20 – it seems that it is expected for people with elevated status (of any race) to pay more. 10 bob is the poor person rate. This is a contentious issue amongst the local Musungo (white folk). Some find it unacceptable to be charged a different rate than the poor (or by extension - anyone). I think it contradicts the western sense of fairness (my words…). This argument is easily demolished – we have discounts on all sorts of things for seniors and students that are based purely on the assumption that they have less money. A better argument (that no one has directly made to me) is that different rates for different people is the slippery slope that leads to corruption. In any case, I am not here to teach the locals anything beyond a few specialized technical and business skills. I have since been negotiating with the various boda boda drivers (who are genuinely poor…). Do I hear 25 bob?

posted by Adam @ 4:33 PM 0 comments  

Professor Akello & The Kakamaga Sports Club

Tonight professor Akello (one of our major sponsors at the university) – who incidentally is James’ dad - escorted us to the Kakemega Sports Club. After a couple of Tuskers (the excellant Kenyan brew - more on that later) I found myself a full member of the club. The introduction was elabourate…I met some members one-by-one and had them sign my application which was eventually accepted with some ceremony by the head honcho of the club. I have a date to go golfing at noon tomorrow- I idiotically decided to leave my clubs at home and now find myself having to borrow clubs (I actually searched Nairobi for left-handed clubs and could only find a kid’s set for an exorbitant price). A kind local doctor has agreed to lend me some clubs to play with. We were also introduced to a local MP and the Kenyan Minister of Education this evening. The sports club has an excellent vibe but I would have felt very uncool amongst the local mover/shakers taking pictures like a tourist.

posted by Adam @ 3:20 PM 1 comments  

Subsistence Farming is louder than you might remember:

We arrived in Kakamega last night under cover of darkness. Even at night it was clear we are now out in the sticks. A rooster(s) crowed most of the night…a variety of cricket like critters buzzed incessantly and for at least an hour it sounded like the house was surrounded by a pack of 100 wild dogs (I will need to investigate). This morning, the neighbour’s bull made an almighty bellow. I grew up on a farm (granted, a hobby farm) and I don’t remember all of this racket. We are staying at Professor Sagat’s house (she is away on business in China) for a couple of evenings while the finishing touches are put on our house.

posted by Adam @ 3:11 PM 0 comments  

Tourist Day.

Today, we did some standard tourist type things. I will refrain from punishing you with too much detail and just make an obvious point:

Baby elephants are cute.

It is frequently remarked how similar elephants are in behaviour to humans. Here we see the all too human impulse of a big kid trying to mack on to a smaller kid's snack:

At night we did a really touristy thing. The Carnivore is the most famous restaurant in Kenya by a wide margin. The premise here is like a Brazilian Steak house where the waiters hoist great slabs of meat to your table and hack off whatever you think you can handle. The twist is that here the meats on offer include exotic game type stuff. The classic tourist thing to do is to go on Safari for a week and marvel at all God's creatures then go to the Carnivore on your last night to chow down on the marvels you have witnessed.

I'm pleased to report that the government recently brought in a rule limiting which animals could be consumed (no zebra…but I did get to try camel - tasty, if a little tough) thus sparing me any severe ethical unpleasantness. I ate no animal cuter than an ostrich.

posted by Adam @ 7:42 PM 0 comments  

James.



James, a son of one the professors at the University where we will be working, kindly acts as a guide to show me around Nairobi.

James was a great conversationalist and a wit. I was informed that Asian/Kenyan mulattos are referred to as 'point fives' (as in .5 as in half of something, half of something else). He gave me a run-down on the linguistic variations within Kenya. English is predominant in the cities - though slang derivations of Kiswahili are near universal for casual conversations. Differently dialects of Kiswahili will be spoken in different regions but will also, of course, vary according to tribal affiliation. Very gently, James suggested I should work on my Kiswahili - I will.

James is very serious table tennis player and wants a chance to show his skills at the world level. He is trying to figure out how to get to the U.S. to play in a major tournament. His big goal is to receive sponsorship so that he can attend an American university. Can anyone hook him up?

The fun part of the day was taking my first ride in a Mutatu. These are vans used for public transportation. They are notorious for outrageous driving (cab drivers are scared of them) and some of them blast music at phenomenal volumes making sort of a disco on wheels. Muttattu are ubuiquitous - if you ask a Kenyan how far away he lives he might say 30 (not kms but rather that it costs 30 Kenyan shillings in a Muttattu to get from here to there)

Here I am enjoying the ride:

And here is the rest of the gang (I later discover this is a relatively uncrowded for a Mutatu):

posted by Adam @ 6:56 PM 0 comments  

Jambo Marifiki!

I know it's been a long time since I've rapped at ya but I've been real busy. I have arrived in Nairobi. My flights from New York through Dubai were flawless. I had an excellent cab driver Michael waiting for me at the airport with a little sign with my name on it. Michael gave me the recent political history of his country, spoke proudly of the recent accomplishments of the government to improve infrastructure in Nairobi and then started teaching me some basic Kaswahili. I was informed that whites were the favoured imperialists in these parts - the Asians pay badly it seems (near slave-labour was how Michael described it).

I arrived at the Nairobi Hilton to find they had no reservation for me and no idea who I was - and the hotel was full. At some point the floor manager got involved and became aware I was a Hilton Diamond member (thank you, Citigroup). He came over, shook my hand, and cut me a deal. The presidential suite was free (well, available) and he would let me have it for $269 USD (a substantial percentage of the average annual wage of a Kenyan). Worth every penny (full disclosure: my company is paying and the rate was negotiated down once it was clear the hotel had made an error - I got a nice letter of apology from the hotel manager). For three nights, at least, this is my front door:

Yes, those are spikes you see protruding (anticipating a coup, for the visiting president?).

The bedroom - Arabian style

One of my living rooms:

Entrance to the dining room:

The bar (also with spikes - and who hasn't had to defend a mini-bar at some point in their lives?)

I'm leaving out several rooms - trust me, it was presidential.

posted by Adam @ 8:06 PM 0 comments