Dear Java House…

There is this jamaa @ university who – whenever he arrives at a new place – opens a bottle of the local beer and takes some time to chill. He told me it’s this ritual he’s been maintaining since he started studying brewery science (that actually is a subject you can study in good old Germany!).

06-11h003
(health experts might forgive me for the selection of chips today. i opted for salad yesterday – which left my unknown neighbour on the table with lots of question marks…”you’ll be hungry tonight..???”….”yeah, but it’s healthier than chips”.)

Coming to one of the Java House branches in Nairobi after some weeks in rural areas always is a refreshing change from a world full of lousy Nescafé “coffee”, way too sweet chai and rough stable food such as Githeri, Mathahaaaaaa and Ugali, not to forget the oily chips or “sicklisch” samosas as my colleague Zakayo calls them. And there IS a huge difference between these tiny samosas @ Mugo Shopping Complex in Embu and the ones which are served in e.g. Java House. In fact, I can’t even smell these greenish goat innards over here my other colleague loves so much. Fortunately. This other colleague from the slopes of Mt.Kenya tells me that “no mbuzi choma is complete without the innards served….in fact, me I can’t even say I had mbuzi when the innards are missing”. My colleague is around 56 years old and…heck, if he had a chance, he would certainly dress like one of those pick-up dudes who party with this earcancer-producing one man guitar show.

But I digress.

A singooool cheese baaggaaa costs around Ksh. 360/= and tastes just like it should taste everywhere in the world where they serve good food. And then of course there’s the coffee….oh my….I never knew I’d freak out for a simpoool coffee. The single cappuccino (sp?) goes for around Ksh. 100 /= – and should be part of every meal. In fact, people come here for the coffee alone.

06-11h004

Now for those who’ve been to Nairobi or who are staying here, the Java House is a well known location where you get decent food & drinks for a decent price at a constant quality (now that IS quality – same quality all the time), served in an appealing environment. And you get to sit next to some interesting piiipolll.

Whereas the Java House Gigiri often only offers an amusing view on UN staff and other aliens, the one downtown gives you a chance of sitting next to a couple that seems to have been trained by Iman & Peter Beard and look as stylish as possible. It makes me think of the glamorous 1970s Blaxpoitation Africa – and I like it.

So, my dear Java House, it’s these impressions I get while munching that delicious cheeseee baagaaa and sipping on my cappu. A good impression that always makes me think of this nice place when I am back in Embu with my cooked carrots, potatoes, slim samosas, overcooked sukuma and gristly beef stew.

Excuse me, but…

…what’s the use of having an exhibition on waste management INSIDE the UN compound in Gigiri (Nairobi, Kenya)? Inside where you need to obtain a visitors pass first to eventually get some interesting informations? And btw, why should we inform the experts if instead the wananchi should be addressed?

Similar frustration comes when you’re thinking about all these organizations and institutions in Kenya that are not networked. Although it just takes a few phone calls and a round table to meet and discuss some things.
Think of water projects, think of shared GIS maps & other digital data, think of sharing contacts and other interesting informations you won’t find online. At least, aren’t all these projects aimed at improving the country? Yet, many only start from scratch and still waste a lot of time on getting organized & networked.

Tell you what: I tend to start believing in a structurized environment where change should actually be dictated by the government in terms of gazetted acts.

I was thinking about a battery project where we put a deposit of let’s say Ksh 1 or 2/= on every battery sold in Kenya and then return them to manufacturers for recycling / reuse. The good part: the mbeca-incentive. The bad part: battery recycling @ Eveready? Hmm…

==> There are a lot of interesting, really modern and high-tech things/technological projects going on in Kenya these days – but many of these fancy & expensive brochures that have been printed with the help of the UNDP or other donors have no real meaning to me as they WILL (!) only be used for lighting up the jiko in rural areas. And the brochures, as it seems, are the first output which is generated.

My advice to all over-funded organizations out there: GET A LIFE…and start producing some practical output that people really need.

data cabools, part 2

06-11g013

I wrote about data cables for mobile phones the other day – and came across this shop on Moi Avenue Tom Mboya Street, opposite the old fire brigade, where they sell a variety of cables for different phones and manufacturers. So in case you’ll still need a data cable to connect your (GPRS capable) phone to a computer: cables are available now! And I mention this because most mobile phone suppliers in Nairobi don’t have these cables (heck, they don’t even know what you’re talking about), so it’s nice to know they are actually for sale on Moi Avenue and even displayed in the windows. And yes, I asked for permission to take a picture…

Mobile Phones that are currently sold WITH a cable are (as far as I know) Motorola L6 & L7, Nokia 6280, Nokia 6233, SonyEricsson 8xx/9xx….but most phones still come without such a cable.

my beautiful morning…

06-11g010

“And, as you travel life’s highway, don’t forget to stop and eat the roses.”

…so I was walking on smooth Nairobian roads on Monday morning and found a Ksh. 5 /= coin right in front of NSSF building.
Which makes me realize that one of the other differences between rural folks like me and urban folks is that the rural ones keep their head down to have an eye on the hilly & matope infested roads. This is btw also one of the reasons why you’ll never find one of those huge billboards in places like Embu – ppl are just busy with watching their next step. Ama? :-)

visual roundup

A collection of scenes I’ve caught during the week. Because life is about seeing and sharing. Here you go:

06-11f000

Some dude presenting puppet theatre aka The Muppet Show on Mama Ngina Street in Embu earlier this week. The puppets looked really really strange. Nice!

06-11f001

Isn’t this beautiful? That’s my way to work every morning.

06-11f004

Back in Nbo for an extended weekend, and a quick visit to Nakumatt Village once again shows the huge difference between all these small worlds embedded in this country. There were some news on the Garissa floods again, and they actually showed the very same places I’d been to before one week ago. Strange. You’re standing there in this oversized supermarket and see these places that are in Kenya, but still seem to be worlds away. And there’s a lot one could argue about in terms of deforastation + too much agriculture on the river beds which leads to soil erosion etc etc but then….compare Garissa to Mwingi and you’ll start wondering why money hasn’t solved any problems in one of these two places in the past. And “disaster management” isn’t something one can buy for money only.

06-11f005

“Horny Goat Weed”. Well, DON’T, just don’t even think about asking me how I came across this peculiar trouvaille. The name is quite catchy though. Hehehe…

What’s it with Goats (wabuzi) in this country anyways?? Oh my…

06-11f007

Looks like POLO, by Ralph Lauren. Smells like POLO, by Ralph Lauren.

I had to buy this one, sorry. A price of Ksh 129 /= (compared to ~ Ksh 4.000 /= for the original) is something where my metrosexuality comes out…

le fabuleux destin….

Kikuyumoja’s Realm, my blog, has in the past greatly been influenced by this particular love of one fine woman out there: Mbuzimoja.
A great deal of this passion included the frequent and very intensive exchange of ideas, thoughts, feelings and findings. It were these things that made this relationship so very special and different from others.

listeningsmall

Mbuzimoja, that little goat from the slopes of Kikwaru, is with another herdsman now, who btw also blogs. And although I don’t know much about him, I tend to respect and trust him, and I think she’s in good hands.

I haven’t been blogging anything lately – but not because there wasn’t anything to write about. Instead, it’s this joy of sharing my worlds with others that has somehow vanished. A joy that had been nutured by intellectual, creative and interesting input from those that inspired me the most.

Love sure is the driving force behind many actions in my life. The difficulty is to keep on doing things once these driving forces have changed their directions.