Time Out

This year for our Virgo birthdays, we decided to go away for a weekend of rejuvenation.  Jonathan has been working so hard and he's also still trying to come to terms with his sister's death.  So with that, we decided to go to a place that had little to no distractions so that he could get a lot of rest.  My job was to find a place that we could enjoy solitude and be still for a moment.  I did my research and found the ultimate destination and knew that he would be really psyched at the choice of lodge/camp I picked.  I sent him off to make the payment the day prior to our departure and guess what?  The tour agent had mistakenly booked us in for the weekend after! I was livid and told Jonathan to do whatever he could to get us in there but unfortunately the camp was fully booked.  The tour agent told us about this other place and said that we would have just as much fun and seclusion there so we decided to go with her recommendation - Mbweha Camp.

Matatu Shenanigans

Image via Wikipedia

I live in Nairobi and work in Thika, which is 26 miles away (43km).  It doesn't seem like a long journey but this is Kenya and the infrastructure hasn't been developed until recently so that sends commute times through the roof!  However, the highway from Nairobi to Thika is currently under construction by the Chinese (thank you Jesus!) so the long and tedious commutes will be a thing of the past! Until then, I am one of the millions of Kenyans that take public transport every day and that usually means boarding a "matatu".  A matatu is a van that carries between 10-15 passengers and picks up and drops off passengers at bus stops that are simply known as "stage" or by a landmark feature in the area (i.e Shell gas station!) .  The origins of the word matatu are attributed to the Swahili word for three: "tatu" and also the 30 cents fare that was paid when matatus first appeared in the 60s.

Traffic Fines - Nairobi City Council

The other day I received an email detailing the new rules and fines from Nairobi City Council. I went to their website but could not locate an actual document detailing this but everyone seems to be aware of them so they must have been posted somewhere at some point.

• Pedestrians crossing the roads in Nairobi when traffic light is red – Fine Kshs. 10,000/=
• Motorist moving on when the traffic light is red – Fine Kshs 10,000/=
• Pedestrians crossing the road while talking on their mobile phones – Fine Kshs. 500/=
• Boarding/Alighting at non designated matatu stops -  Fine 10,000/=
• Unfastened seat belt  - Fine Kshs 500/=
• Worn out tyres (yes that's how tires is spelled over here) - Fine Kshs 10,000/=
• Double parking - Fine  Kshs 20,000/=

For anyone who has survived Nairobi roads, the introduction of fines seems sensible enough but lets be real...the cops might need to get a ticket themselves for not following the NCC rules!  No. 2 is a very good example - Jonathan and I try very hard to follow that rule but in Nairobi the cops never let motorists follow the lights (which work very well) and instead use hand signals to control traffic.    Which voids No.1 because pedestrians get confused as to when they should cross the road...sometimes the cops tell motorists to go on a red light and sometimes on a green light so what's a pedestrian to do?  Ok, anyone caught doing a No.3 needs to be doubly fined for stupidity because its nothing short of a death wish to cross Nairobi roads while talking on their celly!    

With regards to No. 5, I'm wondering who is going to get charged for "unfastened seat belt".  I ride a matatu everyday to work and trust me, on Thika Road you don't have to tell me to fasten my seat belt.  However, some of these matatus have actually severed the seat belts while others are so dirty that you risk catching a disease by touching them at all.  Others have a belt with a tongue but no buckle and worse some have a belt, tongue, buckle and no adjuster.  No adjuster means that even if you strap yourself, the belt will not hold if the matatu comes to a sudden stop...imagine yourself flying through the air!  So, in the case of the severed seat belts who will incur the fee during a traffic stop - is it the matatu owner, matatu driver/conductor or the innocent passenger?

Westgate Shopping Mall

NB: As I was going through my old posts, I found this one in my drafts, meaning I never published it. I'll just go ahead and post it as I wrote it back in Nov '08, shortly after I got back to Kenya.

Westgate Mall is a trendy new mall in the Westlands area of Nairobi. This mall is the first of its kind in terms of state-of-the art facilities and incorporating different types of retail outlets under the same roof.  The mall is home to a variety of clothing stores, eateries, kid's play area, food court, casino, a book/music store reminiscent of Barnes & Noble layout, movie theater, grill & sushi bar (Onami - love this place!!), coffee shops (Artcaffe & Dormans) and Nakumatt which is a "Wal-Mart-esq" type of store. The first time I visited Westgate, I was thoroughly impressed by interior of the mall and the lighting was excellent (Kenyans you know what I mean!).

Registering to VOTE!

A new voter registration exercise was kicked off on March 22 and will last 45 days.  All Kenyan citizens over the age of 18 are required to obtain a new voter card. As luck would have it there was a registration desk set up at Kilimani Primary School, on Arwings Kodhek Road, which is on our way home.

There was one person in line in front of us so the wait was like 3 minutes…gotta love that!  The registration process was easy because the Registration Officers complete the scantron forms for you and all you have to do is produce a valid National ID card or Passport.  The only information they asked from me was my postal address.  

My left thumb print was requested on the form and the front side of my voter (elector’s) card plus two signatures on the form. They had a rag and some methylated spirit to wipe the purple ink from your finger!

All that was left to do was laminate the card…that’s where it got funny.  I saw the laminating sleeves so I assumed that they would hand you the card and a sleeve and ask you laminate it yourself.  Well, they were like "no, we can't let you do that".  So I was like, where is the laminating machine? You guessed it - no laminating machines…This is Africa… so the lamination was done motherland style using a hot charcoal iron circa 1870.   It’s the little stuff like this that remind me that I am in Africa...home:-)  She had to put the card between sheets of newspaper and then iron on top.  She burned the one from the guy in front of me but mine was done perfectly!

So here I am, a bona fide card-carrying Kenyan voter!  Now all I have to do is figure out which one of these clowns in Parliament I should cast my vote for!

Sierra Lounge Bar & Brasserie

Yesterday we finally made it to Church for Easter Sunday Service at 8:30am! After Church we decided to go home and relax for an hour or so and then headed out for our Easter Lunch at Sierra Lounge, located on the third floor at Yaya Center.  Sierra Lounge at Yaya is the second installment from founder, Alan Murungi, who is the brains behind the Sierra Lounge Bar & brasserie on Mombasa Road by Panari Sky Center.  it's the first microbrewery in East & Central Africa and boasts beer production made from pure barley malt, with no additives or substitutes!  According to Sierra's website,their beer production also follows the German Purity Law. I'm not a fan of beer but I am a fan of purity and authenticity when it comes to food or drinks!