coming soon: Masai Mara stories and pictures...

I need to give myself some pressure so that I will eventually organise those 1111 pictures... literally, there were 1111 pics!

just outside of the estate where we stay, there are a line of tin-roofed small shops. Usually when I pass by them during the week, I merely notice what they sell as they are tightly closed, but during the weekend it is a complete bustling scene. There are the ordinary kiosks where you can get a good old glass bottle of cola and crest (local schwepps), along side the fruit/veggie stands. But there are also quite some others selling clothing, furniture, and "hotel" which basically means a place to eat. Today on my unimpressive matatu ride, attracted by the Simpson style mural, I encountered a shop named

TENDER OUCH SALON

oh mine, that's creativity and good humor. Not sure which part of service they are referring to, but doesn't it just catch your eyes and give you a big smile?

I need to take a picture of it sometime soon.

looking for the Sane man...

There used to be 2 mobile telecommunication providers in Kenya - Safaricom and Celtel.

the green color branded Safaricom is much more populous. Celtel was bought by the ambitious Middle-east and now African continent major player called Zain in 2005. From 1st August, Celtel is rebranded to Zain, the great launch included buying up all paints in color of magenta and hired thousands of people enthusiasticly changing all their service centres, shops and small kiosks into one big world of PINK. (from the pic is not very clear but German friends of mine, please imagine full house t-mobile color just brighter and deeper. YUP!)And this alone of course does not complete the grand marketing plan - so they have also initiated this program called "find the Zain man" through one of the most listened radio in the nation. The game is simple - they basically annouce via the radio station that during certain point of time (e.g. 7:30-8:30) a man carrying 100,000 ksh (1000 euro) will be at certain spot (e.g. today in front of my office) of town, all you need to do is to identify this man and ask him to prove it by showing the id of the radio host - then the 100,000 is yours! sounds really interesting. So today just right acrossed my office, mostly young people, were shouting at every man passed by, asking "are you the Zain man" , "I am looking for the Zain man" etc. Of course there is no description of this person and the only thing you know is that it is going to be a man not a lady... it was a lot of fun to watch : ) and today within the destinated time, no one actually found the Zain man and get that damn 100,000 ksh! what a pity!

oh, you might be curious which network that I am using....

of course, I am in Zain (sane)...

august

Till today I am here for a full month now. It has been eventful on both positive and negative sides and I am keen to use this update to reflect some key aspects of my time here.

Work started almost immediately after I arrived which was probably not the best option for timing since I had no holiday for a while before quitting my job in Bonn just right before boarding my plane down south. I am a VSO int’l volunteer in Kenya so it is kind of like that VSO is the SN manager in AIESEC terms and supposedly taking care of the logistics and the assignment arrangement with the organization where I actually work for, which is called Ufadhili Trust. Ufadhili aims at mobilizing local resources in eastern African country to help their own people stand on their own feet, or using their motto “east Africans take control of their own development”. I like it a lot, at least the vision in itself. I am not a hardcore agents of virtues skeptics like Paul Theroux (he wrote great traveling books that I enjoy reading a lot) but I do have my doubts of all these international aid schemes that have been active in the continent for so long and have achieved so little, that is why I am interested greatly in the alternative – that Africans can be self-help and self-dependence.

Out of Work can be probably more exciting except for the weekends. One frustration for both us is the fact that quite an amount of time needed to be spent on daily commute since our housing was not as strategic as one might wish. We are working on that now by looking at other lodging locations, which help to bring us some new friends here. Last Sat we were just sitting at a really chill bar and meeting up with Kenyan friends one after another who were really nice, fun, inspiring and helpful. I really hope that we can stay at a new place soon where we can spend less time on jammed matatu on the jammed road and more time on going to nice places meeting new/old friends in this beautiful country.

Weekend was the highlight so far for the past months. Since I came we’ve been visiting new places all the time during the past 4 weekends, well mostly concerning shopping and eating or general leisure theme. But also the excitement of getting to know new people, other volunteers, returned Kenyan and of course locals. Yesterday was the best! My ex-colleague from the yellow company has promised to give us a Narobi tour. I thought it would be something like Karen-Ngong kind of tour where tourist guides normally bring you and this will be just a friend’s version. But no way, it was a tour seeing really different parts of Narobi. We started from South B where we both live, continue to the industrial area where the major productions base and then to Buru Buru which used to be a huge neighborhood designed for Nairobi middle class by some high royalty in Britain (can’t google that out so need further confirmation) centuries ago. It has humanist design of curving roads and stone houses although one can not see very clearly the original structure after all these years’ reconstruction. And from there we drove through Eastleigh where the Somalis settle. There was all crowds, heat, uneven pave ways, and under the bright sun even more obviously dusty. My friend told us that everything trades here and if you are looking for anything they can get you ANYTHING you want as long as you can pay – gun, for example can be one of these goods. I was a bit shocked upon this piece of info and asked “so should I roll the window up a bit?” My friend nodded. Up north we went. All in a sudden, the dusty & dazzling streets have magically extended into waves of greenery and highway of top standard; houses disappear from sight. We came to the Winsor golf and country club – which is ANOTHER planet compared to Eastleigh. We stepped out of the car for the first time – with the excuse of breathing in some fresh air! In the far we can see white tents next to a lack amidst lovely forest. Another friend pointed at them and told me that those are for weddings. How lovely that it is almost dreamy. People say Kenya is a country of contrast, and Nairobi is definitely topping that saying.

Funny observation is what makes life here lovely. Hmm, let me share one to spice up a bit. More you need to come back to check my blog : ) Business idea nr. 1 – Chinese should come here to open salon besides all the construction projects. I’ve never seen a population that is so obsessed with their hair. Achim once said that he has problem distinguished all those Chinese faces during his time in Beijing, well I have a similar issue here but for different reason: some of my female colleagues change their hair look every there weeks or so! Yesterday in the team meeting I was staring at a colleague called Sofia with confusion, last week she was with this short dark black hair of lively curls but today she was with this all brushed up big tail at the back of her head. How can her hair grow so much over the weekend? Well, if you go into a local supermarket then you will get a hint – usually among all the grocery, you come to a section of all kinds of hair extension and wigs! Achim and I joked that we will stock our luggage with some of those for carnival back home! Go to any salons, especially those in the estates, it is always busy around the clock. Ladies spend hours to get their hair done since the African hairdos are anything but simple. When appreciating another colleague’s new combo hairdo of braid at top + straighten + color highlight, I casually asked how long did that take and the answer was shockingly 4 hours! Never been in a salon so long in my life! Actually I think that is the sum of my hours in the salon in Bonn during the last 12 months. They are creative and determined – all kinds of construction can be applied to their hair so that it will look exactly how they want. According to my experience, Chinese salons are among one of the most innovative (=“importing” latest tech from Japan & Korea), reasonably priced and relatively patient. 4 hours is still a gigantic number for Chinese salon but I am sure they can make it. It might probably add another taste to the image of Chinese people here as well, being too hard-working and equipped with Kongfu.

Wow, I would still like to comment on food but let’s pause here as I am tired of typing : ) write later!