books

finally I put down the "State of Africa", a giant 700 pages, consumed me in total 2 month and a few days to complete. It tells the history of Africa continent since independence, and it is not boring at all (some of us presumed books about history dull). It is almost my favorite type of read - fiction with a historical story at the background. Only that there is no fiction in it, all the horror and sorrow were just a while ago. Actually when I was reading the last few chapters of the book where it commented on 20 century, I can very well flipped open the newspaper of the present day and continue the story almost non disrupted - stories or rather news from Susan, from Somali, from Congo... It was the best read on history I every enjoyed! There were times that I had to put aside the book and stood up to breath and swallow cold water, just to remind myself that the history has passed; there were also times that i could not close the book despite late hours in the night for i was so fascinated of how little i knew, how fractional my information was from those so called news report on the TV. I'd like to read more on this topic and welcome recommendation.

i need some small delicacy between big meals for digestion sake, I guess. So I went to the book store called "bookstop" here in Nairobi although I still had a whole piles of big books that I intended to finish before going back to Europe (by now i am sure that i was too ambitious so Achim will actually need to include some of them in his large luggage allowance). The owner without doubt Asian descendant as a lot of business here are ran by them. He's kind and he has good eyes on the customers. Before I left the store, he showed me a corner where there are a whole shelf of African topic 2nd hand book. "I saw you standing in front of the African section (brand new) for long, thought you might be interested to these as well", he said. I thanked him for his kindness but explained to him though I am more than happy to read more but my journey home is in 2 months so I could not possibly buy more of those before finishing the ones i posted oversea from Germany (with expansive postage charge!). In the end i settled with buying the 2nd-hand "No. 1 Lady's Detective Agency" whose name I have seen so often in most of the African reading list. It staged in Botswana and the story is lovely. I am done reading in 3 days (I think if you sit still you can done reading in a few hours but that is not really me) and I want to read more from this writer. The story is still African, still has dark side of fate, but it is soothed perfectly with the author's descriptive but not over-done writing. It has a good ending and full of emotion for the country and the African land - it is just adorable. It is my lemon ice cream on a hard working day.

"Barack Obama" with a reggae tone

we heard this song on one of our daily matatu rides - couldn't really understand the lyrics but it kept on going with "Barack Obama" non-stop. Amid the whole craze of Obama, this song is sticking strong to my head at the moment.

people keep saying that Kenya is the best country to watch the big day outside of US - but let me rephrase this - Kenya IS the best country to watch the big day even counting US! Everything is about Obama here nowadays, sharing some statistics:

Kenyan who can imagine an Obama failure: 0

Kenyan who believes in actual benefits/changes to Kenya if Obama wins: more than 50% of the population I'd estimate - and for sure everyone from western Kenya where this golden boy's father came from

One of the many shocking comments - from a 25 year old student (since she's 25, I suppose she's a univ student):

"...it is definite that Obama will ship his family to the US. The visa restrictions will also be reduced. Also, I think he can influence more aid to come to Kenya. Kenyans will also have an upper hand to go to America compared to people from other nationalities..." (from Nation Daily today)

I believe this young girl has already packed her stuff and bought her one-way ticket to her American dream.

There are of course more sensible voices on this but they are drown without trace in the wave of madness of confidence. One of these sensible opinions was the title of the other major newspaper (the Standard) on the election - "America Decides", I'd rather put it as "Americans Decide", but either way it points out the obvious. It is the Americans who will give the mandate of who will be their next President, the reverse is also true: it is the Americans, whoever becomes the next President of USA needs to be accountable for primarily if not solely.

The winning of Obama, can only bring on one positive thing for sure - it is the belief that you can achieve something big despite your skin color, as long as you try hard enough. And this goes for all the Chinese, Indians, Latinos etc, not just the blacks.

-----------------------------oh but I do forgot-----------------------------

another positive thing is surely to come besides the cheerful mood - Kisumu airport is building a new terminal so that Air Force One can land there when Obama visits his grandma and his fellow relatives, and let me just say the whole Kenyan population since we are related to him in one way or another. A new terminal = new jobs = more money = bigger welfare. So I should really be lest sceptic on the whole thing!

besides building new terminal, people in Kisumu are also busy voting(!) - according to the Standard page 8 today, a mock voting exercise on the US election is organised today in Kisumu town, supports of Obama (= everyone) and supporters of McCain (= alien) can cast their votes, and obviously the election, contracted to the real one end of last year "will be free and fair and tallying, will be not conducted at KICC" as claimed by Mr. Lawrence Oyange, who is in charge of this "election".

Bring on more fun.