Trawling through the hundreds of photos that were taken with my cameras while I was in Kenya (not all taken by me), I came across this one of Ben, a five year old Nairobi boy. I have seen this sign many times, both in Kenya and the UK. I didn't take this photo, so couldn't ask him what the sign meant, if anything.
Ben bears a striking resemblence to Tyler James Williams, the boy who plays a young Chris Rock in Everybody Hates Chris ...
... don't you think? (Ben is the one with hair!)
Michael Grunwald, a correspondant for Time Magazine who has been commenting on Florida's attempt to restore the Everglades to their former glory commented, "There is an understanding that one day water will be as precious as oil."
I am sorry Mr Grunwald, but we can all live without oil, albeit with very different lifestyles, but try to live without water.
Water is the most precious commodity on this planet. We survived for thousands of years without oil, but we have always needed water.
Even in this modern age, there are still people who do not use oil or its products, but they need water every day. Needless to say, most of these people do not have enough water.
I am always looking for new ways to get to and from Kenya, preferably quick, easy, cheap and comfortable.
But this must take first prize ...
Does this Nairobi bus really ply between Heathrow and Nairobi? Or is there a Heathrow in the Nairobi area that I don't know about?
I was sitting in a traffic jam on the Thika Road when a man cycled past me. His bicycle was laden with what looked like the steel rods used for reinforcing concrete pillars.
He crossed the road to his "shop", untied his bars and set up his gas welding kit.
That evening, I was passing back along the same road when I saw this man at the side of the road, in his shop. In pride of place was a magnificent wrought iron coffee table. I just had to stop and look.
Yes, this was made from the iron rods I had seen him carrying that morning. Yes, it wasn't finished - he was waiting for his friend to supply a sheet of glass to go on the top. Yes, it needed painting. But, on close examination, the legs were perfect, the scroll work was symmetrical, and this man used only a welding torch, a charcoal brazier, a large hammer and a length of steel railway track as an anvil. No drawings, no rulers, just his eye - brilliant, absolutely brilliant.
-oOo-
We needed cubicles for our new Internet café. I would be hard-pressed to know where to start in the UK, and would probably end up with ordinary office tables, with partition screens mounted on top. Not in Kenya. You go to the local carpenter and explain roughly what you want. A couple of days later, you pick up the finished product, which is perfectly made and ready for painting.
-oOo-
Our car broke down last September. The front disk brakes seized up. Luckily, we were in Thika Road, where there is a plethora of mechanics. I pulled into a dirt yard which was formed by a semi-circle of sheds serving as a body shop, spray booth, a mechanic, a greengrocer and a bar.
The mechanic came over, carrying his toolbox, comprising a hammer, a half-set of open-ended spanners and a lump of wood. He had an apprentice with him. The kid looked about 10, his overalls swamped him.
I sidled over to the bar where I sat sipping soda and chatted to the clientele drinking their breakfast beers. These were an off-duty tour bus driver, an off-duty policeman, a municipal worker taking a break for refreshment, and a "property developer".
I was soon relieved of my cigarettes and one of the men sent a youngster off on his bicycle to get more. Obviously I had to tip the boy.
90 minutes later, the mechanic told me that the car was fixed. We both jumped in and took it for a spin, testing the brakes. They worked.
I asked how much and he thought for a while. "Even if you are mzungu, I will only charge you 1,350 bob," he said.
I gave him Ksh 1,500 and he made a show of looking for change in his many pockets. I told him to give it to the boy.
The following day, I drove from Nairobi to Nakuru, Kericho, Sotik and finally, Kisii, then back through Narok to Nairobi. I don't know how far it was, but it was a long journey going up and down the escarpments, and the brakes never let me down.
-oOo-
I am sure that this sort of service and inventiveness can be found all over Kenya. To me, a visitor, it is astonishing to see at first hand these artisans working with virtually nothing to produce works of art, perfect furniture, or sturdy car repairs.
Here - anywhere in the "developed world" - you can get the same finished products, the difference being that most would be produced by machines. The workers are merely machine minders. They could not produce the coffee table, the cubicles for the Internet café without detailed drawings and a host of power tools. They could not fix the car without a workshop full of tools and a manual.
We, in the developed world have lost that ability to make things, to bodge.
What a shame.
Silly me! There was I, expecting my new business to open today as I had been told. The lines should have been put in yesterday. But that is African time yesterday. Which apparently means today!
Still, the lines went in today, so we should be opening tomorrow. So, what's one day (or two) in the general scheme of things? This is Africa.
Unless, of course, African time is even more flexible than I remember.
Work was flagging in the UK, so during a visit to Kenya, I decided to sink my small fortune (I wish!!) in a business in Kenya, which would help support the orphanage as well as earning me a bit of money.
With my good friend, we found a business for sale, but as I explained in a previous post, that was not to be, and we set about starting from scratch.
As things were quiet here, I was hoping to spend a lot of time planning the opening of our new venture (next Tuesday, Internet connection willing), designing posters etc. to send over to Kenya as my friend is busy with settting up, cabling and all that sort of thing.
But, as Murphy's Law would have it, I have been rushed off my feet! work is coming in thick and fast. Having had a period of near famine (work-wise) I am now getting enquiries coming all together, just like London buses.
For a start, the charity, Rhino Ark (http://www.rhinoark.org/) has just held their annual mad-cap 4x4 endurance event somewhere in the Rift Valley and loads of photos were sent to me (I maintain their website) for uploading.
And it seems that every other client here has contracted a virus, mainly because they don't regularly run their virus scan software, or don't keep it up to date.
I have a pile of very slow computers sitting here, waiting to be cleaned off.
Oh well, it shouldn't take me long to get my air fare together to return to Kenya at this rate, although I heard this morning that airlines were putting up fares by a staggering 40% to cover increased fuel costs - Heaven help us!
After all the messing about, with both a business seller and the landlord of the premises raising their price when he found out that he was dealing with a mzungu, and sending money out to buy equipment, rent premises, etc., my man in Kisii tells me we are ready to go - apart from the Internet connection, which will be in place on Monday.
So, we should be trading on Tuesday!
All we need now is a few clients, or better still, lots of clients.
So, anyone in Kisii reading this, there will be a new cyber café in town next week!
The name? DABIVAM TECHNOLOGIES. (Don't ask, it's another story)
Well, this blog has been searched for racism and bigotry. The only instances found were in comments.
There were instances where small-minded people might be offended, but we consider that they do not represent the majority of the readshship.
This site is declared sanitised.
I will be pulling the blog and going through it to look for and correct any instances of bigotry, racism, or anything that might upset any small-minded people who insist on reading it, even if they are offended by it and post insulting language (but not fair criticism).
Once this blog has been sanitised, it will be reposted.
I was horrified to read that President Mugabe has promised that, regardless of the outcome of the run-off election, the MDP will never rule Zimbabwe.
It's nice to know that the old boy has such a good sense of democracy!
But then, Mugabe's wife was overheard to say to her hubby that that, no matter what, Tsvangirai will never step foot in the State House.
It makes the recent Kenyan presidential election look like a milk-run.
At least someone, in the shape of Botswana, has dared raise their head above the parapet and lodged a formal complaint against Mugabe. It's about time that South Africa followed their neighbour's lead. But then, shouldn't they have been leading?
I was going through the websites I maintain for various organisations, and found the page of a little girl, Evelyn, 3 years old.
Evelyn was found abandoned in town and after an unsuccessful attempt by the police to find out who she was and where she lived, she was deposited at the children's home.
During my stay in Kenya (March 2008), Evelyn died. She was HIV+.
It was with great sadness that I removed her page, with the picture of a pretty littie girl in a white dress, from the website.
I have been called a racist and a bigot. By a person or people who hide behind anonymity. So I call them cowards.
I may be racist, a reverse racist, inasmuch as I prefer the company of most Kenyans to the company of most Brits, despite being British myself.
As to being a bigot, a prejudiced person who is intolerant of any opinions differing from his own, I plead "Not Guilty".
I have my own opinions - I wouldn't write a blog if I didn't - but I respect the right of people to have differing opinions. I respect the right of other people to disagree with me, just as I may disagree with them.
When I am threatened with the blog equivalent of "We know where you live!", things are going too far.
For the love of all that is decent, this is a blog! My thoughts, my feelings, nothing subversive. I am not out to change the world with a blog.
Having said that, I am out to change the world for a few people, a mere drop in the ocean of humanity. But I work hard to improve the lives of a few people.
I don't do it for thanks or praise. I'm not that good. But I do not expect to be despised by those I cannot help because I am a mzungu.
Maybe others will see what my friends and I are doing and emulate us. We shall see when our projects are fully operational.
Maybe then, the anonymous people who insult me and my kind will see that we are not all bad, even if our ancestors may have been.
I hear and read that over here, in the UK, as in many parts of the "developed world", people are suffering due to the rise in the price of crude oil.
Suffering? Who are they kidding?
Do we really know what the word suffering means?
To my mind, suffering is having an acute pain, physical or mental, distress.
Finding that a litre of fuel has risen another penny is annoying, inconvenient.
Watching a loved one die of a disease or starvation, that is suffering.
A vast majority of the UK population has no idea what it is like to live in Africa, Asia or South America, and I count myself amongst them.
I have witnessed poverty in South Africa and more recently in Kenya. For most, it is a way of life, with no hope of escape.
Most people in the UK own or have the use of a car. Most people in the UK live in a weatherproof, warm house with electricity and clean hot and cold water on tap, literally.
Most Kenyans and South Africans I know don't have either electricity or water. They don't have cars. They are fit because they walk!
I have lived in these conditions in Kenya, and surprisingly, I think I adapted quite well. I enjoyed my stay, but then, I was with people I like, people I would be happy to have as family.
This got me thinking that in the materialist world I live in, we (or at least, I) have lost touch with what is important. Cars, fully equipped houses, tap water, electricity, these are not important.
People are important. The people we live with are important. The people who surround us are important.
This does not mean that I will give up my car, electricity and clean drinking water. Not in the UK, ayway. It does not mean that, in Kenya, I do not aspire to owning a car, or living in a house with all the conveniences I am used to. But I think I would rather live in Kenya without all the trappings than in the UK with them.
Well, I am now a year older. How daft is that? On Wednesday, I was 37 (-ish, as in I w-ish), and yesterday I was 38 (-ish).
I don't feel a year older. In fact, until I actually think about the number that represents the number of years I have been on Earth, I really don't feel much different from when I was 38. Why should we feel so different? It is only one day older when we think about it.
My only regret is that I have only recently started to travel. In the past, I have lived and worked in France and South Africa (when I really was 38!), but that was just work. Once back in the UK, I didn't look for a reason to leave again. I suppose having two kids in school curtailed my wanderlust.
But it was only a couple of years ago that I discovered Kenya, and even then, I didn't go, I just worked for a Kenyan charity.
But last September, I finally took the first step and immediately regretted the time I had wasted thinking about it but doing nothing.
Now I think only of my next trip to Kenya and the only constraint now is financial. Only! HA!
On my last trip, I spent some time in Kisii, Malindi and Nairobi. As our only car had been destroyed during the PEV, I used public transport, shuttle from Nairobi to Kisii and back, overnight coach from Nairobi to Malindi and back, then matatus, Citi Hoppas and anything else I could find a seat on that would get me into the city from the suburbs.
It was an experience, and I suppose, one I would not have wanted to miss. But do it again? I am not so sure.
The problem is, Going to Kisii, we obviously traversed the Rift Valley. If I had been in a car, I would have stopped to look at the scenery, animlals, etc. In a shuttle, it took all my energy and concentration to stay in my seat, and we only stopped once, in Narok.
The coach to Malindi is an overnighter, so although it traverses Tsavo, we see nothing!
So, not only do I need to get my air fare together, I also need to go with enough money to buy a car. Hmm ...
BTW, my real age is 58 - just!
Today, I took a friend to the local main hospital. She had broken her foot a couple of weeks ago and today was decision time, whether to operate of leave well alone.
Sitting around, my mind drifted back to last March when I took one of our little boys (a black little boy) to the hospital in Kisii, a) to treat him for an intestinal parasite and b) to check his HIV status.
People have said that I cannot compare my treatment in Kisii with my treatment here. In Kisii, I am an oddity, a mzungu in an area where there are few wazungu.
OK, maybe the staff helped me to jump the queue, but that is not the issue. I was impressed with the care and concern shown to an under-nourished, small, skinny orphan kid (in fact, he is, as far as we know, not an orphan, but was abandoned at birth).
The over-worked (and probably underpaid) staff were extraordinarily caring for this little mite. And he was one of scores of kids in the hospital that day. Do they treat all the kids like this? There is no reason to believe that they don't. I cannot believe that my little boy got preferential treatment because he was with a mzungu - or did he?
Either way, I think the staff at Kisii hospital are brilliant!
I have finally managed to contact my man in Kisii. He contacted me through Skype, as usual, from the usual cyber café, which should be, by now, mine!
But it wasn't. At the last minute, the seller doubled the price of the business, and the landlord increased the monthly rent by 2,000/- a month.
My man in Kisii refused to pay the extras after having had an agreement from the seller's agent for the original prices.
He went on the offensive and found new premises with an asking rent actually less than the original price. He bought six PCs with a higher specification, and is in the process of acquiring the necessary furniture.
All we need now to open a fully functioning cyber café is:
and once open, to be able to offer the full range of services:
Unfortunately, we have run out of money!
So, from last week's fully functioning ready-to-run business, I now have an almost ready, non-functional business, and, until/unless my sales on eBay come to fruition, no way of opening!
As I once saw on another blog, "Shut Happens"
I had a [well-earned?] day off yesterday and took my grandson and his friend swimming. My grandson, (nearly 12 years) has recently started to swim well and as such, is not too much of a worry for me.
His friend (9 years), on the other hand can just about keep his head above water and needs constant supervision.
Until I had the bright idea to see if he could swim on his back. After a little coaxing, he tried it, and promptly swam four lengths of the pool. Of course, I had to swim next to him just in case he got into difficulties, but he surprised both of us and didn't.
This pass-time took my mind off the business in Kisii. I haven't had any contact with my man in Kisii for a few days. That is not to say that he hasn't tried to contact me (we converse through Skype), but I have been out a lot this week and we kept missing each other.
But today, without theh distraction of a couple of kids, I need to know what is happening.
Now, my man in Kisii always contacts me on Sundays - until today. But then, today is the first day that the business is officially mine. It is, of course, open 7 days a week, so is he doing his cyber café manager bit, and therefore not having the time to contact me?
Has the power failed in Kisii - not uncommon? Or the Internet connection - also not uncommon? Has there been a last-minute hitch? I need to know!
I have just entered my blog onto the Kenyan Blog ring, and as I have little to do for a while (a rare moment), I decided to look at what others are writing.
Immersed in the thoughts of other bloggers, the dog dragged me back to reality with incessant barking.
Now, the dog is Mum's pet, companion and confidant. It is a rather overfed Norfolk Terrier, short, ginger, hairy, noisy.
I found him standing at the back door, looking through the glass at something and growling. So I let him out, whereupon he raced up the patio to a leaf, barked at it, sniffed it, and strutted back to the door, tail in air, looking very pleased with himself.
I wonder what he would do if there were a real intruder in the garden?
I have made the offer on the cyber café business, which has been accepted. I have sent the money to my man in Kisii. I have sent him an email with lots of instructions. What else can I do?
Now, I just have to sit here and wait for the news that all my instructions have been followed, the money has been paid to the seller of the business, the rent and Internet connection charges have been paid and that everything is on course.
This is not easy, running a Kenyan business from the UK, especially when communications are sporadic. The electricity supply is not very reliable in Kisii. Nor is the Internet connection. The only sure way to communicate is by SMS. UK to Kenya is quite cheap, but the Kenya to UK is not, especially when the sender is earning only a couple of dollars a day.
But I must not let this little venture take over my life. I have other things to do, like planning my "show shamba", that will promote the use of easy-to-use, alternative energy, easy-to-build water purification, etc. While I am at it, I want to try growing some different vegetables on the plot, some to feed the kids, others to see if we can make a bit of money.
Why do I sometimes feel that I am taking on too much? Oh yes, because I am here, not there.
