There are these things in life you just can’t catch with a camera…
Category: EAKenya
extra hard
new category: Uchumi // things you’ll only find in Nairobi…
(Uchumi, Monrovia Street, Nairobi – well, yeah, obviously before they closed)
old and new
old, new and very new…
….and my favourite:
The shadow to the right is nothing else but…
wapi? (continued)
Dear Kenya Airways…
BEAUtification & Co.
On personal request, please allow me to post the following snapshots from Nairobi. Now, that’s for you, Irene & Steve. Enjoy! :-)
There is also this sign that reads “for the Betterment of…”
Let’s have chicken today!
Anyone for a crispy chicken?
Hundreds of computers in town, printing services availaboooool right next door on Moi Avenue…and these guys just can’t get their signboards written on a normal piece of paper in clear letters. But then – this also works….
WIMPY!!!
WIMPY!!
Buy Safaricom Credit @Wimpy!
…since you were asking for it, hehe :-)
There was this guy on Moi Avenue who tried to address some political issues and the reason I took the pic is because there were NO women around, ONLY men.
Go figure…
The driving school story:
What a name for a driving school, ama? ROFL…
BUDGET driving school
GLORY on Moi Avenue…
What’s the rule of the road?
…ahh…well…yeah…maybe…
Didn’t they have their office located somewhere else? Well, they shifted their business “round the corner” and I think this way it’s more convenient and more attractive.
A dusty KenCell (CELTEL!) phone on Tom Mboya Street…
good & bad (advertisment) are always close…
…a staircase somewhere on Biashara Street….
==> I know it takes ages for some readers in Nairobi to load these images, but please, dear Kenyan bloggers in Nairobi – could you please take more pictures and post them on your blogs? Thank you!
What I love about places like Nairobi is that you don’t have to be a good photographer but instead just need to have your camera ready as there are a lot of interesting sights & sounds to be captured in such a vivid city like Nairobi – especially River Road & Co where the action is…
another view…
Part 2 of Saturday saw us doing it the Nairobi way by switching from the dirt of Waruku to the beautiful view(s) behind Karen – in particular the area next to that KBC transmitter station somewhere on the way to Ngong.
That’s for you, dear Oscar & Zora! :-)
It was already late in the afternoon and we were hungry so our stomaches forced us to cancel any further Kitengela-related plans but instead proposed an improvised and spontaneous picnic at the road-side.
Ok, this is Kenya, there’s no picnic possiboooool as most plots belong to someone, so we ended up driving up to Ngong where we received the message by telephone that some strange Telekom Kenya guys had come to our place in Kigwaru during the day (which is in the north-west of Nairobi) to erect a telephone post (good) and in the process of that hacked the 2 month old water pipe into pieces (bad). Instead of returning home, though, we continued our crazy idea of enjoying our food somewhere in nature and consequently had us driving up Ngong Hills as late as 5.45 pm to reach the gates on top already closed (we met the rangers half way through and continued anyways).
The picnic included some roasted maize from the the road side as well as the unevitaboooool Lucozade Boost which btw still tastes the same as it did “back in those days”.
I tend to think that being able to do such excursions (time, money, transport, etc.) is pure luxury that needs to be enjoyed whenever possible.
I could just sit there all day long and enjoy the beauty of the view…..
Githingithia
Plans for saturday* actually included a visit @ Nani in Kitengela and taking a refreshing bath @ Maasai Lodge, but things turned out completly different. And better.
Waruku (~ New Muthangari), Nairobi, Kenya
I’m leaving on Wednesday and I still wanted to meet my old friend Stephen Kamau wa Gitau who has spent the last 30 years living in Waruku – that area between Kangemi and Muthangari (police station) in Nairobi.
Welcome to Waruku, home of Nairobi River! Imagine I used to catch crabs here while growing up in this neighbourhood…aterere…
As a matter of fact, i recently blogged about him as I was googling for “Waruku” and came across a story in the DN about his son who’d been taken away (and shot?) by the police for no specific reason. The story also featured a pic of him – so I knew they were talking of him. Meeting him on my 3 weeks stay in Kenya immediately became a mandatory task.
The idea was to track him down in Waruku by asking people from places he’d most likely visit: the local bar/pub. Which I did.
I described him to one of the barkeepers (“old man, big belly, funny – Kirima-1970s-hairstyle”, full name) and soon got the desired answer that Kamau actually lives near by.
We hadn’t seen each other for ten yeas and I often wondered what he’d be up to these days.
Someone from the bar showed us the way and when I saw him standing there in the crowd that curiously followed the work of ONE man in a Caterpillar (digging up the road), I just couldn’t believe that he actually lives at the very same spot I assumed him to be during all those years.
Kamau, who’s nicknamed Githingithia (earthquake) due to that Githingithia song he often played, now owns a small duka in the middle of Waruku – some 30m away from Nairobi River. Business isn’t that good, but he somehow managed to survive and considering that he never learned how to read or write, he’s still doing fine with his ~66 years and has remained the same person during all these years: a strong, independent survivor who knows how to feed 15 children and to remain very popular among his neighbours.
Stephen Kamau “Githingithia” wa Gitau in front of his duka
Meeting Kamau “Githingithia” after all these years really made me very happy and I promised to arrange some sort of Harambee for him among those ppl he’s been working for before.
And the best thing: I have the contact details of his most favourite joint – so whenever I feel like getting in contact with him, I can just send a short message or even “assist” him in one way or another as I consider him part of my extended family…
NB: Mama Daktarimbili, the Lady who runs that Medical Office in Waruku next to the bar and who openly fights with those drunkards whose wifes are her beaten-up customers, put this sign on the bench for her customers. She told me that the Somali refugees, who seek assistance at this Somali branch in Waruku every day, normally occupy and vandalise it, so she was forced to teach them a lesson in her own style….
With women like her (yes, that’s her arm :-), I know what Madaraka really means and what kind of daily struggles Kenyans take upon them since Independence…
(*= I wrote this on Sunday, 28th May while staying in NBO…)