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:

6XAA-Holder

 

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…

wendete wa?

“Die beste Bildung findet ein gescheiter Mensch auf Reisen” (J.W.v.Goethe)

06-11d018

I was standing on the bridge to Garissa downtown when I received a very disturbing message that really pissed me off.
It was just like in a movie – standing on that bridge that connects the green countryside south of Tana River with the semi-arid north-eastern part of the country – the bridge that connects these two worlds, Coast and North Eastern Province – and the content of the message meant to be a final cut in some very personal things that had kept me busy for the last two years. Something where I instantly realized the ironic relationship between the message and this transition between both worlds. You cross the bridge and you’re in another world.
The beautiful part of it, though: the bridge opens to both worlds. And it’s up to you which way you go.

“Mapenzi ni kikohozi, hayawezi kufichika.”

—

Two days later I find myself on a funeral in the middle of nowhere. Nowhere being somewhere in Mwingi District – the sister-in-law of a colleague had died the other day after a long illness and we stopped by on our way back from Garissa.
Despite of the 3h sermon in Kikamba, of which I didn’t understand a single word (except for the greetings of course), this was a very touching experience.
Don’t ask me why, but funerals in Kenya aren’t as sad as they are in Germany. The circumstances that led to the death may often be irritating, but the whole procedure has a warmth one can only understand by witnessing it live.
Listen to the choir singing beautiful songs with warm voices, hear the village elders speak up and show their respect for the individual, catch the atmosphere and feel the community spirit. This is not a time to say good bye, but a reunifaction process that helps to give the body back to where it came from. A beautiful closing for the circle of life.

06-11e016

While standing at the grave and strewing soil on the coffin, I managed to burry some of my aggregated hatred. The message that had pissed me off earlier is partly buried somewhere out there in Mwingi district, six feet under.

—

Travelling in Kenya also includes that you’ll be given a cackling hen from another colleague, who wants to share his wealth with you. So you eventually arrive back in Embu with that hen in the luggage (someone else took it) and think: travelling indeed broadens the mind.

p.s.: another irony – these rural places lack any electricity or tapped water, but I was aboool to check my emails via GPRS.

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:

slaughterhouse1

The slaughterhouse on the way to Garissa on Friday.

Slaughterhouse3

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.

SANY9488

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.

SANY9471

SANY9489

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

SANY9495

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

SANY9385

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)

06-11d010

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 /=.

06-11d016

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

06-11d017

@ “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

SANY9390

SANY9402

SANY9396

SANY9408

on the outskirts of Garissa

 

SANY9417

flooded Garissa downtown

AOB: Garissa Water Supply (following pictures)

SANY9286

intake on Friday morning

SANY9317

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

SANY9426

SANY9449

Garissa Water Supply – water supply treatment plant

SANY9435

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….

SANY9218

..and had their share of the tarmac.

SANY9225

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.

SANY9280

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

SANY9254

SANY9297

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.

SANY9288

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.

SANY9293

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:

SANY9315

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

one of those days…

…where I really miss my two darlings, singing along to Evan Dando, Maximillian Hecker, Dover, Dinosaur Jr., Mazzy Star, Nada Surf, Eskobar, Alice in Chains, Billy Talent, Brendan Benson, Death Cab for Cutie, Jack Johnson, My Vitriol, Ride, JAMC, Keane, Kings of Convenience, LOGH, Minor Majority, Placebo, JJ72, Starsailor, The Magic Numbers, The Shins, The Sundays, Thirteen Senses, Travis, Coldplay, Danko Jones….and…the Libertines.

…where I just feel like listening to Six Feet Under “Lycanthropy” instead.

…where I pack my stuff for just another journey.

…where I haven’t seen one of those gangsta roaches for days.

…where I think about mbuzimoja from the slopes of Kikwaru in Nbo, and how great it would be if she could just come along.
…where I fall asleep with the assuredness that “Life is a journey, not a guided tour”, as Ken says.

…where I hope to be finding the truth somewhere out there in the desert in the days to come.

Heri kufa macho kuliko kufa moyo. – It is better to lose your eyes than to lose your heart.

the voltage

…so I was chilling in my humble room and wondered why the lights are so dark. I rubbed my eyes and decided to pull out the digital multimeter:

SANY9216

Know what? Others don’t have any electricity at all! So this is just ok.

Somehow.

(it “is supposed to” show a voltage of about ~ 226V…)