Category: EAKenya

Stomach Clinic Restaurant

…so you’re walking through Uhuru Park, with the sunshine in the background, your favourite music on the headphones and start to appreciate nature….

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…as it always finds ways to turn even the ugliest building in Nairobi into a beautiful sight. Btw, is there any relationship between Uhuru’s Brookside milk signboard and Uhuru Park? How ironic.

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Talking about ironic things: Has anyone been to “Stomach Clinic Restaurant”?

Nairobi, I love you, regardless.

p.s.: hey, Madame “friend-of-Ciru-and-Kui-ati-we’ve-met-the-other-day” – there I went, thinking no one would spot me in the crowds of Kenyatta Ave. and then you find yourself being identified by a lovely young lady. Nice! Thx! I was so surprised & confused that I forgot to ask your name… :)

AOB: @ Mental & KBW-Admin Team: these days, whenever I take a picture and ask for permissions first, I tell them (the folks on the pictures) to check out kenyaunlimited.com. Now that’s a perfect way to promote the Kenyan blogosphere, ama?

jewels of the day

1. US-$ 320 million. Now THAT’S a lot of money.

2. I really miss my guitar(s) as mentioned earlier. Something that will sweeten up lonely evenings in Embu and/or make me play along to the One Man Guitar show next door which happens to entertain me every single evening. Btw, what do you call these big (kikuyu) country hats anyways?

On my way to work, I stopped by Nairobi’s oldest music shop Assanands on Moi Avenue and asked for cheap guitars. There are these pictured below which sell for about Ksh. 4.550 /= and are actually made somewhere in Western Kenya. The finish isn’t that nice, but they work and, again, they are MADE IN KENYA. Holadiho!

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…and then of course there are some Made in China which sell for slightly more, around Ksh. 5.000/= and have a much better finish:

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Now let me think about this investment.

3. Next door to Asanands is the “Bookpoint” – a very nice book shop for those books you won’t find in other places of the country. I came here to look for another copy of these Kikuyu-language books I bought earlier this year. They didn’t have them. But what they have is this:

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An “English-Kikuyu , Kikuyu-English” dictionary for a horrendous price (Ksh. 500/=) – but since I’d been looking for something like this for a long long time, I invested my last money (hey, I am only left with the Matatu fare back home!) to get a copy. Now this is something I shall copy for Kui! :-)

Says the author, Gerald J. Wanjohi: “(…)..Here in Kenya we know that rural children quite often outdo their urban counterparts at the national exams. The latter have very little knowledge, if any, of indigenous African languages…..(…)….The aim of this small book is to help Gikuyu-speaking people love and learn their language along with their traditions.”

Mageria no mo mahota. (~ trying is succeeding)

yes, custoomaaaaa!

Anyone remembers this mid-1990s commercial for UNGA where a women enters a shop and asks for flour?
The sales guy comes up with a bunch of flowers and a spoon because “next time, just ask for UNGA”.

I SOOO wish I knew the brand name for something we technicoool piipool call a BATTERY HOLDER. Or as we pronounce it in Central Kenya: Battely Holdaa.

Something like this, actually:

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A small plastic box where you put batteries and then attach it to e.g. a radio or anything like that. Something very simple, something you can get in any place in Nairobi for something around Ksh 35/=.

But not so in Embu! To make matters worse, I also added the words “for batteries SIZE D”. Size D = those ones you put in a torch. The big, fat Eveready batteries that any duka sells.

So the shop dude & his dudette comes up with a battery clip. Another one comes with a bulb holder. HELLO? DID I SAY CLIP? DID I SAY ANYTHING ABOUT A BULB???

WTF?!?! Is it me? Is it my healthy mixture of gamaan-kikuyu-kenyan inglish that doesn’t get the message across?

So I checked about 12 electlicool shops in Embu and only ONE shop was actually operated by a real technician. A jamaa who really understood what I was talking about. Unfortunately, he didn’t have it. And of course, we make these things out of a piece of paper and some rubber band. There’s no need for a battery holder in your radio if there’s a jua kali solution available. Yani, I need this holder for the refurbishment of a scientific machine, so a jua kali solution won’t be allowed.

Which gets us to the core problem: most shopmen are just too dumb. These guys are actually selling SOLAR PANELS and MOBILE PHONES (which are quite complicated to some extend), but don’t have the slightest clue of what they are actually selling. Dito my mobile phone holder story earlier this year, which left me building my own because these girls @ Moi Avenue selling mobile phones only know Nokia, Samsung, Motorola phones and batteries, car chargers and other “fast selling” items.

You know, I am a bit mean from time to time. Earlier last week, I asked my dear Embu folks for a COAXIAL CABLE with 50 Ohms impedance instead of the usual 75 Ohm cable which is used for TV antennas. The one with 50 Ohms is used for radio communication equipment. Go figure what kind of hassle that was…

The reason for blogging this is that it clearly shows the difference between rural areas and urban areas. Same applies for the food available in hotels/restaurants countrywide. Only the usual stable food like Githerii, Mathaahaaaaaaaa, Ugali and maybe some greens (vegetabools) as well as snacks such as samosas or mandazi are available.
I actually prefer the rural, natural life to the hectic world in Nairobi, lakini – I grew up in big cities, and there are these small things I would like to be adopted by rural shop owners. How about a nice steak restaurant in Embu? How about a Java House in Nyeri, Embu, Meru, Nakuru to name a few? Is the idea so far fetched? There’s a market for that, ppl DO have the money. Just a nice place that offers more comfort than the usual Nyama Choma Tusker joints with the ordinary food anyone cooks at home anyways. Or am I just spoiled by city life? Sijui…

Garissa Floods (2)

You may have seen it on the news – Tana River at Garissa has bursts its banks and left 2500 people homeless. The meter reading on 4G01 Tana Garissa (national) station reads a level of 5.65m at the moment. When we arrived on Thursday the reading was 3.90m.

To give you an impression what such floods also do, check this:

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The slaughterhouse on the way to Garissa on Friday.

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The same slaughterhouse on Sunday evening.

Now, this is not the first time Tana River has flooded the area. Heavy rainfall as well as the opening of the dam added to this situation. People had been warned on Thursday by the local authorities and the Red Cross – but it’s always the same: people just wait until the situation has become worse. Is that really needed?

Also, Garissa is a heavily over-funded, way-too-fast growing City where plots (100×100) cost around Ksh 1 Mill.. As I mentioned earlier, there has been so much financial aid in this area, and yet people are blaming the government for failing to protect them. I think it’s about time for them to take care of themselves instead of always blaming others for their failures.

A very badily hit village was Bakuyu on the shores of Tana River. A police helicopter arrived and picked up the children one by one. When we arrived, 25 out of 85 were already rescued. I was told there are five helicopters available in Garissa by different organizations.

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When you meet a little 6 year old girl whose parents have just drowned you start wondering why the surrounding folks need so much time to eventually assist that girl by giving her water, for instance. We gave her water to drink – she had stayed without food for the last three days. Some women took care of her and took her in their custody.

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The helicopter dropped them at a Muslim Childrens Home and nearby school compound.

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F.T.C. – Farmers Training College in Garissa – flooded.

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These people have been displaced by the floods – but will return asap.

All these things are happening while far away in Nairobi politicians are busy with pre-election campaigns and other money-wasting activities…

no noise making (in Garissa)

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NO NOISE MAKING

@ “Government Guesthouses” (where the generator that provides electricity had been drowned in the recent floods from Tana River…). Self-contained rooms: Ksh. 500/=, 700/= and 1.000 /=.

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NOTICE: NO MIRAA CHEWING AND SPITTING ON THE WALLS
PLEASE ASK FOR ASSISTANCE ON MIRAA CHEWING ZONE

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@ “New Zaire Inn”. Nowadays also known as D.R.C.!
Self contained rooms @ Ksh. 400/= and 600/=.

please note: “satelite tv” = 24h of soccer.

Garissa Floods

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on the outskirts of Garissa

 

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flooded Garissa downtown

AOB: Garissa Water Supply (following pictures)

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intake on Friday morning

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intake on Saturday – pls note the increase in water levels by about 1m.

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Garissa Water Supply – water supply treatment plant

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Just to give you a small idea what this is all about: stand on the bridge to Garissa (where we did the river gaugings), look down at the water, wait there for ~30 seconds and you’ll have an idea of the amount of water which is consumed by the ++66.000 people in Garissa city area (= 30 seconds of discharge on Tana River are a lot during high floods).

Garissa!

Has anyone ever blogged from Garissa? Yes? No?
Could be, actually, as I’ve seen a very nice office here in Garissa where the dudes had a well working DSL connection. And I’ve never seen a place SO full of 4WD cars with short wave antennas – most of them of course donated by foreign governments and / or churches. This place sure is interesting – it’s my first day here until the end of this week, and I somehow like it.

Now for those who don’t know what & where Garissa is: it’s a town city in North Eastern Province in Kenya with a population of about 66.000, located on Tana River. Which is why we‘ve come here…

On the way to Garissa, we’ve passed this blocked flood bridge, where the floods actually looked for another way OVER the street….

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..and had their share of the tarmac.

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Upon arrival in Garissa, we went to the local office and found this automatic rain gauging station that had been installed by the Japanese (JICA) in 1989 – and never been serviced since then. Now that’s what I call wrong development aid. We removed it, took it with us for repairs and gave our Garissa jamaa a manual, very jua kali-made rain gauge instead. Which works and doesn’t require much service.

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We’re here in Garissa to asses the renovation costs of our local branch, and do some river gaugings on Tana river.

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Now that’s nothing else but taking a propeller-styled device, lowering it into the river from a bridge and measuring its revolutions within a certain amount of time which then translates into the discharge of the river at this specific point.

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And although there’s nothing much you can actually see, such experiments of course attract lots of people who all look down from the bridge, trying to see what these people are doing.

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In the end of the day we continued working until the rains really intensified and I ended up being completely soaked to the bones!

Doing such work also gives you the chance to see such wonderful colours:

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That thing down right is the water intake for Garissa’s water supply!