Two signs from my area.
One is about creating a new road ; I was just amused by the otherwise perfectly reasonable description.
The other is a typical advertising sign for the election. The houses are average bungalows and the sign really is that big.
(Mwai Kibaki is the current president and PNU is his party group; tena means “again” and the bottom slogan means “let the work continue”.
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Some pre-historic looking specimens from a country garden. Sorry I can’t show you the tongue shooting out for what seemed like more than the body length but you can see the concentration in the gaze.
I don’t think my car windscreen is as clean as I’d like but this one is quite another story. Perhaps the chap hanging out of the driver’s window is a lookout?
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Tea needs rain to grow but rain is nicer to look at than to go out in. (And no, that’s not all drips off the gutter.)
The double-collared sunbird also enjoyed the after-rain sunshine.
“Could someone please spare patients at the Western Provincial Hospital the agony of having to watch coffins being made at the hospital entrance? This is quite depressing for patients, their relatives and well-wishers. These carpenters should be made to move as their continued presence at the hospital gates negates the will to live.”
Contributor to Daily Nation 22.11.07
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The Sheldrick Elephant Sanctuary has orphaned elephants from 9 weeks to 9 years in their care. The elephants, who have green-coated keepers with them all the time including when sleeping at night, came in two groups for their milk and for a play in the mud pools. The costs of seeing them have rocketed in the last month (it’s now only worthwhile if you are seeing the national park on the same day) and the visitors have dropped considerably so we were able to touch the elephants. Did you know that the under-surface of their ears is like polished leather? The animals can get sunburn (damaging their ears) and also get cold and suffer pneumonia. They are therefore wrapped in blankets and their keepers sometimes use umbrellas to protect them. They need milk (SMA Gold; cow’s milk doesn’t work) for 5 years and are then weaned off onto a maize porridge mix. They continue to need the family environment for another 4 years before they can be released to a Park in the East (Tsavo).
Here is a coated youngster, some others having a friendly rumble, and two intermediates racing from out of the bush to get their milk.
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A few pictures from Nairobi National Park. Despite being only 20 miles by 5 miles it has masses of wildlife and more bird species than the UK.
The giraffe welcomed us to the park proper while the ostrich looked embarrassed at being caught in flagrante (picture censored).
The tiny malachite kingfisher and red-cheeked cordon bleu are not great photos but show how colourful the real things are.
The eland is chewing a prickly pear while the zebra sticks to grass. The lioness sticks to zebra (more graphic pictures censored).
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Sometimes it seems easier to get things made here than to buy them ready-made.
Three examples illustrate this:
I wanted a white coat for work (unlike UK, one can’t be a professional without here) and the first one found for me advertised a chemical company! I didn’t use it, I borrowed a plain one for a while, but then to my surprise I was told a tailor would be coming at 10 o’clock to measure me for a new one. This being Nairobi, he didn’t come at 10 but he did arrive the next day. I await the product.
My office was a bit grubby when I arrived and I had no writing paper or other office goods. The window had some filthy and ripped net curtains. Within one day I had some very nicely made curtains in blue and gold, but I‘ve had to go and buy scissors, paper, stapler etc.
I have been looking for more comfortable chairs in my lounge. The shops and second-hand sales had big suites for lots of money but I didn’t need such a suite and I didn’t want to spend the money! I therefore headed for the Ngong Road where there is a kilometre of furniture stores; not stores where they sell furniture but shacks where they make it. There are welders and carpenters making anything you want in wood or metal. They do it on the rough ground between the shacks and the road. I sat on a number of chairs and eventually found a two-seater that was nearly right but not quite. With 2” off the seat, 3” on the back and a different material.... I paid a deposit on Tuesday night and on Saturday morning picked up the finished product, made to my size and ready to go for about £50.
The maker offered to show me a catalogue of other chairs. I expected a few sketches or photos but instead he produced an Argos catalogue (there is no Argos in Kenya) and offered to make anything in it. I might just take him up on the offer.
Please see pics of the coat, the shack and the settee.
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The Media here, TV, radio and papers, all use an interesting style of English, mostly a very proper form of English but, in the case of the audible forms, with unusual intonation and emphasis. The newspapers, however, are prone to odd headlines and stories. One recently printed a big section on the fact that it had sold out in some provincial town the day before.
Other headlines raise interesting ideas:
“Eldoret Airport finally lifts off ground as flights grow”
“Fiery Archbishop retires after four decade service” (that’s a long service, even for here.)
“Foreigners are sought for murder” reminds me of the three Irishmen looking for work in London...
There was an advert in which HRH Prince Ernst of Hanover announced that “he has appealed against a German court verdict and will seek to show that he only slapped the face of a German citizen without causing any injuries whatsoever and not as maintained by the citizen that such injuries required hospitalisation.” (I have no idea why this ad was placed.)
You’d find these in any country:
Teacher: Why are you late?
Pupil: There was a man who lost 1,000 shilling note at the bus stop.
Teacher: That’s nice, were you helping him look for it?
Pupil: No, I was standing on it and waiting for him to go.
On a crowded bus one man noticed another had his eyes shut. “What’s the matter, are you sick?”
“No, I’m OK, I just hate to see old ladies standing.”
This bakery does very nice scones but are better bakers than sign-writers.
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Here is my den, before I got curtains and a coat hook, and before I unpacked the box of books. It’s not posh, but it works.
It used to be a ward side-room when the building was part of the King George Hospital.
It’s a cool building, with high ceilings and solid concrete walls. Sound echoes massively and many rooms have iron bars/doors although that’s probably not necessary.
The classroom (same curtain material as my office) is also basic but works. The student group is my final year MPharm class.
The colleagues are Wambui (a young American-trained Kenyan who is due to join the staff soon) and Karimi who has been overworked running the course single-handed for some time.
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The Malvern Hills and Ngong Hills are about the same height and share similar views on both sides. Both are venues for Sunday outings.
One requires an armed guard (Isaiah the policeman in this case) and has wild buffalo; the other has dogs off the leash, cyclists and MH Conservators.
At least one of these pictures is of Malvern, but can you tell which? (Let me know!)
It is said that the Ngong hills are shaped like the knuckles of a clenched fist and were formed by a giant, wandering along with his head in the clouds, who tripped over Kilimanjaro and grabbed the soil in his fist when he fell...either that or they are the dirt from God’s finger nails when he made the world. <<...>> <<...>> <<...>> <<...>>
I.e., it is present at work...not it is doing work (isn’t English complicated?)
I do like the Jacaranda trees. Here is one in a courtyard at work; it may not be the best specimen around but it is amazing when surrounded by buildings. The trees flower towards the end of the dry season and then leaves follow. Many of them are planted in avenues and curve over the road very gracefully. As always click on the picture for a slightly larger version. <<...>>
One of my early entries shows the main block of the Kenyatta National Hospital (10 storeys) but these views are from the 7th floor.
I’m not sure what order they will appear, but one shows the hospital car park, bus terminus and a view towards the centre of Nairobi across a playing field belonging to the Nairobi Club.
The other shows the old King George hospital that is now used by the University, as well as a few hospital clinics. My office is in the penultimate 3-storey block, just past the water tank (to the right of the palms). In the background (right) is a suburb known as Lang’ata and Wilson airport is more central in the background (not really visible, just take my word for it). <<...>> <<...>>
My 4x4 Rav4 is 12 years old and has spent 7 of those in Kenya, so it’s doing well. I asked for a stick to be put on the front so I could tell where the front is in the bumper-to-bumper driving of rush-hour. What was produced was this multi-coloured light show!
When I went for petrol, the attendant admired the car while cleaning the windscreen and topping up the water (remember when that happened in Britain?) and assured me that if he had the car he would get 20 wives within a year; families would be so impressed they would sign up their daughters immediately! The morality of this, and the opinions of the women, were not discussed. <<...>> <<...>>
Porridge is a common dietary item here, especially for the Kikuyu tribe. Hospital patients have porridge, often drunk from a cup, each day as a separate meal. I am intending to try making some, and thought this one might be appropriate in view of my advanced years, which around here get commented upon and respected a bit more. On the plus side, locals tell me I don’t walk like someone of my age!! <<...>>
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On my route to work, one truck in trouble! The armed police let me take the picture and told me the driver had disappeared; probably a good job or he could be “behind bars”. This is a garbage truck but was fortunately empty at the time. Note the nice Jacaranda tree in flower behind the truck. <<...>>
Kenyan politics is often more about tribe and personality than about policy. Many politicians change party quite freely, or just start a new one.
Near my home is Orange House, HQ of the Orange Democratic Movement, the main opposition party headed by Raila Odinga. Don’t confuse it with ODM-Kenya, a break away party, or is it the ODM who broke away but kept the same name? Confused? So are the voters, the courts, and me. ODM-K wanted to claim the Orange symbol but the courts ruled they couldn’t have it, neither could they have an orange on the background of a map of Kenya. Instead they would have to use the symbol of a whole orange and a half orange to distinguish them from ODM who would continue to use the whole orange alone. Clear?
This system is meant to help illiterate voters recognise their chosen party on the ballot slip. Other symbols have included the banana (not being used this time), a cockerel (former President Moi) and a variety of other fruit and animals as well as abstract symbols.
Other parties include the Forum for Restoration of Democracy divided into FORD-People and FORD-Kenya. Guess the meaning of NARC, NARC-K and KANU, but remember that many of them are joined together in PNU, a new coalition designed to support the existing President Kibaki.
By the way, these oranges are “yellow oranges” to distinguish them from ordinary (green) oranges.
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The Verandah is a very nice garden cafe which does good food and has a well-planted garden for watching birds. I spent Moi Day (10th Oct) there in a very relaxed fashion. Some I can identify, the red-billed firefinches are fairly easy and the Bronze Mannikins are OK but others are harder. The black one with a few white/pink ruffled feathers may be an Indigo Bird, but which species? Having 3 books may be helpful but is apt to confuse! It doesn’t help that the names have changed over the years (did anyone tell the birds?). The Dark-capped Bulbul may also be known as the Black-eyed Bulbul but used to be known as the Yellow-vented Bulbul and had a different Latin name too. (Either way, you can tell which it is in the photos). The one that was surprised when it got out of the bath is the self same (choose a name) Bulbul. <<...>> <<...>> <<...>> <<...>> <<...>> <<...>>
A Hammerkop is nesting just outside my compound and was seen collecting materials from our grounds.
The pied wagtails look very similar to those in Europe!
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