Year: 2006

Elungat’s paintings

Commuting between Embu and Nairobi during these hectic weeks at the end of the year 2006 almost made me forget about blogging one fine and important event I came across in Nairobi last weekend.

Kenyan painter Peter Elungat and designer Jutta Guglielmi rented the Exhibition Hall at Village Market – East Africa’s biggest shopping mall – for something like Kshs. 60.000 /= and exhibited their paintings and furnitures there.

I normally don’t like these exhibitions at the Village Market, as most artists these days – to me – just try to copy other artists and styles. Just earlier in december, I saw some fine paintings there that resembled those of Abushariaa Ahmed.
But then, I think art has to be taken where the customers are – and those at the Village Market seem to have enough money in the pocket.

Good art, though, is hard to find. And Peter Elungat’s painting were a refreshing alternative.

Sorry for the poor picture quality – I just had my mobile phone’s cam with me that day. However, I thought about sharing this with you. Also, I just took pictures of the paintings I really liked.

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@ 110.000 /= (sold!)

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@ 250.000 /= ….yes, Peter, that’s a LOT of money. Still :-)

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pls also note the furnitures & lamps by Jutta Guglielmi

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The artist himself!

I really really like these paintings and think Peter is one fine artists out there who has reason enough to sell his work at a decent level and to customers who know (feel!) the difference between good and bad paintings.

Also, I am still fighting with the idea of runing a website dedicated to fine arts in East Africa. I’ve mentioned this earlier a few times, and such a project requires some funding / adsense income, but right now I just lack enough time to pursue such activities. Now, how about an open blog where everyone can contribute? Let’s keep this in mind for 2007… (my webserver package only offers two MySQL data bases and I’ve already used the other one for this fine website :-)

The “Transformation of Thoughts into Form” exhibition is open to everyone @ Village Market, Exhibition Hall, 15th – 21st December, 9.30am – 6 pm.
(pieces purchased during the Exhibition will have a 10% discount)

Embuesque

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Sukuma + some meat: 30 /=
plain Chapati: 10 /=
Soda dogo : 20 /=

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A beautiful view on *kitsch* signboards with strange messages: priceless :-)

—-

Remember this post on the matope infested road to our office?

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Well, sijui if its for the judge who lives there, but the city town council of Embu today decided to *eventually* do something about it. Atereere…

Es gibt Reis, baby!

So you’re passing through Mwea and see a woman selling rice. And look, there’s another one selling rice. And another one. And another one. And another one. And another one. And another one. And another one. And another one. And….

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“Waititu”, I asked my colleague the other day, “why are aaaaaalllllll these people selling rice? I mean, isn’t this confusing for customers? Now where do I buy my rice? Which is the best place?”

“Oh, customers just buy their rice at one shop and then, if they like it, they just return to the same shop next time they’re in need of rice. This is the way we do it in Kenya.”

Aha.

And then you’re proceeding towards Embu, where your next small step is to get at least one of those computers at the office online. The typical landline modem dial-in connection is just too slow, and you’ve thought about connecting one of the mobile phones of your colleagues to a computer via a data caboooool and going online using the GPRS (packet data) method. These guys need to be connected and are supposed to check their emails at least once a day.

You’re taking a matatu to Nairobi and buy one of those data cables. The cable works…..sometimes…..sometimes it doesn’t, and you just wish someone at the HQ who procured all these fancy computers could be around for some serious talks:
Of course none of those ******** TOSHIBA notebooks (hi M :-) comes with an InfraRed port. Please, the person in charge of procurement at the HQ should be sacked for blatant stupidity.

Now since the cable isn’t that reliabooool, and since it somehow “walked away” (= someone took it), you think of the next best solution of connecting a mobile phone to a computer: InfraRed. Or as we pronounce it here in this area: InflaLed.

You’re taking another matatu to Nairobi and strike a deal by just spending Ksh. 1.000/= on an imported InfraRed / USB to serial adapter. A small device that provides an InfraRed port on your computer via the USB port.
You’re back at the office, connect it to a computer, and realize it doesn’t work.

“Hmmm”, you’re thinking to yourself, “now that’s Murphy’s Law. Will I be able to find an InfraRed port here in Embu that JUST works?”.

Good question, eh?

There are about 5 good shops selling a variety of interesting mobile phones – and about 20 smaller shops selling just the usual, fast-selling & low-budget mobile phones.
There are about 20 electricoooool shops selling tv sets, tv sets, tv sets, tv sets, radios, cassette players, cd stereo systems, tv antennas, solar panels and car batteries.

Is there ANY shop in Embu that sells computer spare parts? Something like hard disks, mainboards, computer cases, RAM, CPUs, optical drives, USB stuff, etc.?

No! Nothing.

And I ask you: why not? How come that computer parts are even cheaper in Nairobi than in e.g. Berlin, yaani here in this town upcountry – where people are also using computers, just as the two leading supermarkets in town are also using computerized barcode scanning cashier systems – there’s not a single shop where you can buy such parts.

There’s a market, there are customers, and there’s is money. Alafu…..?

struggling (with a mental chaos)

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There are these days when you are busy doing many small things here and there, and end up having this emptiness in your brain in the evening. Today is one of those days. It sucks. It just sucks.

It’s strange, coz the day started with lots of communication as early as 4 a.m., brought lots of interesting impressions, a missed movie downtown (sorry, Barbara, but thx for the invitation + pls feel free to ask me on that WordPress.com thing) and a failed repair of an old notebook (Kilonzo, we shall find a cure for that heat sink problem soon).

And then there’s christmas. I found a Kshs. 1.000 note in my pocket, went to that Catholic (!) bookshop and bought the “Agikuyu – their customs, traditions & folklore” book for me. I needed to. THERE’S NO ESCAPE FROM THIS ONE, dear KUI, you hear me? Let’s go through this one together, or I’ll spam your blog with smilies.

I also saw the “Walking in Kenyatta Struggles” memoires by Duncan Ndegwa for sale at Prestige bookshop. Kshs. 2.500 /= for old stories on Mr A-G-pinstripe? Now that’s a lot of mbeca.

The best part, though: while waiting for my friends in front of that bookshop, I talked to a newspaper vendor and asked him about the Kenya Times office. After all, these cowards still owe me a Tusker.
The man told me he sells a maximum of 2 copies of Kenya Times each day. 2 COPIES! OH PLEASE!!!!

‘Nways, it’s just damn good to spend some interesting days in my beloved Nairobi. Back to shaggz life soon.

Man en piny maber miwuoro :-)

100 years….

Upon arrival in Nairobi this morning, I took some time off to enjoy the hectic chaos downtown and just walk around without any proper destination.
Just these precious moments when you don’t have to work and actually have the time to open your eyes and see a bit of this Nairobi world which constantly hides between modern buildings and still shows the very beginnings of this not-so-old City in the Sun.

What I especially like are these old builindgs – some of them dating back to 1920 – that still exist within the old parts of this city and give it the extra charm.

Nairobi, I think, wouldn’t be what it is if it wasn’t for these old structures that really “add value” – not only from a touristic perspective.

So I came across Jeevanjee Gardens…

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The last time I’ve been to Jeevanjee Gardens in downtown Nairobi was……1996?

I remembered this place being a dusty, dirty and very dry hide-out for glue-sniffing street children. A forgotten place which had been ignored by most Nairobians just like many other city parks.

And today?

Green grass after the rains, beautiful trees, a cleanded up and apparently maintained environment and – best of all – lots of Nairobians relaxing on the grass.

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….”donated in 1906 to the Residents of Nairobi”.

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And upon seeing this statue in honour of Queen Victoria, I suddenly realized that this place has been a public park since 100 years now. 100 YEARS!

Thank you, Bwana Alibhai Mulla Jeevanjee!

—

AOB:

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Ok, this is for Acolyte and my jamaas from home – “Topaz” (behind the park). We used to get our oily chips from here when all other shops were already closed and something like “Steers” & Co. didn’t exist.

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Na Steve…I needed to pop in(to) pop-in on Moi Avenue again and enjoy this vintage arrangement of old computer games. You know how many collectors there would be on Ebay who’d bid for any of these old video game machines?
Pop-In always is a journey back into childhood.

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Look! Another “iMatatu“, but this time a SONY MP4 player. Rocks just as well.

The Matatu driver smiled all over his face and praised the little player for its size and convenience. Is this the future of mobile entertainment in Kenya?
(the switch mutes the output signal of the player)

being blessed

visitorslog

…and here I am in my room in downtown Embu, thinking I am far away from the rest of the world out there. Lakini:

  • there’s electricity (ok, most of the time)
  • there’s internet via notebook & gprs
  • there’s water (cold showers, yeah!)
  • there’s a comfy bed all for myself (most ppl in Kenya don’t have)
  • there are fresh fruits & vegetaboools available at the duka downstairs
  • there’s free music via the nightclub next door
  • there’s interesting work to do
  • …and there are visitors from all over the world on my blog who pop in daily to have a short glimpse into my world and the things I would like to share with you, my visitors. Thx!

@Steve: yes, I will try to blog more on/from Embu in the coming weeks. Will be in Nbo over the weekend though & try to obtain some informations on “jua kali-DIY-projects” which are still brewing somewhere deep down in my head…