Category: whatever

nur so

Die Verwandlung

There has to be some kind of special relationship between me and insects* I still have to understand.

Still haunted by ever returning images of roaches that keep on bugging me in my dreams in a very Kafkaesque way, I only yesterday encountered another one of those strange phenomenons.

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I call it the attack of the Arachnids. Or whatever kind of spidery critters it was this time. This kind that makes you feel “eeeewwwwhhhh!!!” in the first moment.

What you see in the first picture is my washbag, and I’ve put it in that place just a few days ago. Yesterday evening I needed something out of it and discovered these little cocoons at the side of the top cover.
Upon turning the cover, one of the five cocoons fell off and broke to little pieces of dried soil on the floor, releasing about 10 to 15 little baby spiders.

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The second picture shows a close-up of the cocoon. I still have them in the bathroom and will keep them until I’ve figured out the exact biological name for these spiders. Any idea?

Talking about insects, I had to kill a tenacious wasp today who apparently thought about building her house BEHIND the books in the shelve over the bed. I wish there was a better way of convincing insects not to interfere with me.

(* insects, as in everything that moves and doesn’t have a brain to understand the simple words: “pay rent or move out”.)

things I didn’t buy…(part 2)

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The ultimate USB flashstick for my soccer-mad freaks (Daudi? :-)

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Daaamn, I was soooo close to buying one of these “men’s accessories” a.k.a. fake magnetic earrings. Hahahaaha….oh well….

(to be continued…)

AOB:

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Ok, now, serirously: what they lack here in Germany is DECENT MUSIC on the radio. You hear me? DECENT! Which means anything but Eros Rammazotti or German Pop or all this other crap as played on the radio. I just can’t stand it.

So the other day, they were playing Johnny Cash on the radio. Listening to Johnny Cash is like eating those Cheese Burgers at Java House. You just wish it never stops..

Tell u what: here in Norddeutschland, the ONLY station you can tune into is the one of the British Forces (British Forced Broadcasting Service, BFBS).

John Peel, pls come back & bless us with “something I haven’t heard before”.
Thx.

Embu nightlife

Last night my Safaricom air time finished and I still needed to do some things online. So I went over to the bar / night club next door here at Mugo Shopping Complex and….had the laugh of my life:

Grown up men, all drunken beyond this particular state when you would want them to meet their wife’s rolling pin (think of WM’s Thatcher character & u get the picture) were dancing to obscene Mughithi songs and the whole scenery looked so funny. Just like we know these dudes with their big Dorry Parrtonn hats and the pick-up parked outside.
Upon seeing me, one of the men pulled out his mobile phone and begged for a beer. “Look my mfriend”, he said while smelling like he had taken a longer bath in Changaa, “I mhave mtwo mshistassh in USA and Gaamany”. “Oh?”, I replied, “…alafu?”. He then showed me their telephone numbers and tried to impress me with that. “Yes my ffrrrriend, schoo juu mmbuyy mrree a mbiiiaaar?”.

Kirimu gitindagia andu njira – the fool makes other people stop on the road.

After telling him this (my favourite :-) proverb, he quickly disappeared.

And then I spotted this jamaa from Ujerumani sitting in front of his Tusker and grinning like Jack Nicholson in “the shining”. Now that’s another extreme: he arrived in Nairobi three weeks ago, took a Matatu upcountry and ended up in Embu. His plans actually included going to Mombasa, but then….he just stayed here. He told me about his job in Germany – a lorry driver who once studied political sciences but then skipped that university life for the real world out there. He isn’t rich and saved his last mbeca just to enjoy a few weeks of Tusker, Nyama Choma and hanging in boring places. Alone. Just one of those easy-going guys you can unload at any bar in the world – all he needs are a few beers, a packet of Sportsman cigarettes and someone to talk to. Nice.

You are standing there, looking at all these strange characters and thinking to yourself: Kenya believe it? Just like in a movie…

I am going to miss this place. *sigh*

things I didn’t buy…

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1. A rather arrogant bumper sticker with a message for the uncreative masses.

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2. Came across this JoeDirt-styled shirt on a 2nd hand clothes market here in Embu. I didn’t buy it because it was a bit too short + unfortunately I have no muscles for showing off.
This shirt + a Kikoi + Bata sandoools, the keys to a worn out RangeRover and you’ll have the perfect KC look.

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3. Yeah, right!

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4. Now that’s for you, Twigamoja! :-)

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5. So I went to this one particular shop in Nairobi where they sold “Jesus souvenirs” as I call them. I liked the idea of having a nice calendar for kids which gives some meaningful (!) inspirations.
But then I saw this “Judgment Day will come – why not make Jesus your advocate?” message sold on a bumper sticker. WTF? Awesome messages like this one just scare me away as I don’t believe in any Armageddon-based religion. How can they actually try to convince people of Jesus’ message (Love) if they are scaring ppl at the same time with out-dated, medieval auguries?

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6. I didn’t have to buy this special fruit – I found it on my way to the office. I had never seen something like this before and was curious to see what it’s all about. This fruit goes by the name of Fenesi in Kiswahili, or Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) in English and is about the size of two footballs. I cut it apart to see what it looks like inside and this (unfortunately) unripe fruit looked very promising to me.

People often oil their hands with kerosene/parafin before preparing jackfruit, as the rest of the mass of the fruit is a loose white mass that bleeds a milky sticky sap, often used as glue. (source)

Glue? SuperGlue! Aaarrgghhhh…. ;-)

downtown

“So you are also going to Mombasa”, the three girls asked me, “which part – North Coast or South Coast?”.
The three girls are working in Ukunda (= Diani Beach, South Coast), and took the same bus at 10pm back from Shagz, equipped with a heavy bag full of potatoes from Mama. Vegetabools are kinda expensive in Ukunda.

“I am going to Mombasa. Downtown”, I replied.

“They call this place a city”, the 18yrs old young Kenyan from Garissa seated next to me in the bus told me this morning? when we eventually arrived downtown. Sorry, downcity?
He also told me about that police stop at the entrance to Garissa town where I’d been to in November, and how they use the polio vaccination signs to spot the difference between Kenyans and Somalis. “My brother is from Somalia”, he told me, “and just the other day I saved his life by showing my arm (to the police) first”. His polio vacc sign is on his lower arm – his brother’s on the upper arm. “Refugees” are assumed to have enough money as many deal in US-dollars. Which is why they are often targeted by the police.

It worked. Bloging via OperaMini actually works. Wow. Ok ok, just 400 characters, but still. Nice!

“The Shining Hotel”? – lemme me pls call it this way – actually has a photo on the internet. The place is quite impressive – the rooms not so. But it works, I waited 3hrs for? an empty room? and: it is downtown. Just 5 minutes away from Fort Jesus and the sea. The SEA!

I stood there, earlier this evening, enjoying the view on the ocean and just breathing fresh air. Beatitude.

Dear upcountry hoteli owners: IF you don’t know how to make proper chips/french fries – and I know you can’t – pls leave it to the experts. Or come to Mombasa and learn how Mr JKE likes his chips to be: deep fried. Until they are crisp. Yeah!
Eating in Mombasa is a dream-come-true. YES, I had my first steak (a real steak!) here and for the same price I get a daaabool cappuccino in Nairobi.

Makes me think I should travel more often. And start blogging with a satisfied stomach. Actually, yeah, I saw a few (many, actually) men at my age (~30) who were rather fat. It must be the food here.

One last rant for the evening: surfing at internet cafes sucks.
First, some idiot allocates you one of those f***** up PCs with a lousy screen at the size of about the palm of my hand + a worn out mouse & keyboard, then the connection is damn slow (GPRS is faster!) and the worst: MS Internet Explorer.
Ppl like it though – everyone here is busy (video) chatting with their loved ones via MSN/Yahoo IMs and you start thinking to yourself: how many bloggers are there on KBW from Mombasa?

6am Mombasa

So this is my first bloging attempt using OperaMini on my Nokia6230i (yesss, Daudi:-) while sitting in the lobby of a 1930s Hotel in downtown Mombasa which somehow reminds me of Jack Nicholson’s “the Shining”. Interesting place indeed.

Upon arrival at 6am I just had to ignore all “yes, taxi, my friend?” calls and go for the mandatory mandazi na chai first. Mbo ndazi are just the best! :-)