Illicit brews & government crooks

Ok, so no doubt you’ve read about the recent wave of alcohol related deaths in Kenya lately. Briefly: 45 people have died so far because of an illicit brew that was distributed in various drinking holes in the town of Machakos. The drink, quite common in dodgy places and slums has completely affected surrounding villages as well. "Many of them bought their way the grave with as little as 20 shillings (.25¢) I know and the stories just keep getting worse. Basically most of the partakers fell ill shortly afterward or much later and the true scope of the destruction wasn’t discovered until people started trickling into the nearby hospitals and early the next morning when bodies were discovered in their shacks. The news crews were out en masse and captured some still in the grip of intoxication. This one guy was so wasted he was eating weeds off the side of the road. Hours later the camera crew found him writhing in pain while, complaining of unspeakable stomach cramps and later on, he died.

The drink in question is unfortunately fairly common and because of it’s price, very affordable by the many who can’t afford to buy a pint or two from a reputable place. It is called many names, "Kumi kumi" (meaning ten, ten – 20 shillings) is what this brand is and has many fans because it gets you drunk very fast for a small amount of money. It is sold in clear plastic bags and is quite flammable. What is this drink you ask? Basically, anti-freeze. The chemical make-up is methanol, easily obtained from industries that see little or no regulation or security features and also sold by employees who will make a quick buck. "It’s an industrial solvent for inks, resins, adhesive and dyes. It is used as an anti-freeze, is an ingredient for gasoline and fuel for picnic stoves. Short-term exposure by inhalation or ingestion may result in blurred or dimness of vision leading to blindness." (The Standard www.eastandard.net) Actually, a lot of the victims – about 150 have experienced some form of blindness if not gone completely blind. The victims livers and in some cases their stomachs are destroyed, practically shredded which is why they die in agony.

Sad but so true, a man who’d taken the drinks had told his wife he was feeling awful and that’s when the story came out he knew he had to go to the hospital. He however kept insisting that his wife bring along their one-year old son. She was puzzled but when they got there he confessed to her as well as the doctors that he had in fact given his son a few sips to shush him up as the child had been crying and begging for a taste. Shock and horror, he wasn’t the only dad to have given a child a sip of the beverage. One man also brought in his child as well to be treated.

They were treated with ethanol, which would counter the effects of the methanol. But get this: the hospitals were running out of it so they went out to various wines and spirits stores and bought vodka because "…it was the only antidote for the high level of methanol in the brew that the patients drank." So sad but incredibly true.

The government had a budget briefing a few weeks ago and as a result of some of the new laws and restrictions, alcohol prices could be set by the establishments that sold them as well as other products. So obviously beer prices went up etc. Now, most of these folks couldn’t afford to buy a beer or two to begin with which is why illicit brews reign supreme and no doubt will gain popularity even more because regulated products are less affordable. Of course various government heads are blaming everyone but themselves. The drunks are blaming the government because the economy sucks so they had to resort to taking the brew, their families are blaming the police and area heads because they were aware of the brew being made and did nothing to stop it, the Health minister (a lady I’m beginning to like even less - refer to Kenyatta Hospital incident) says that "these deaths could have been easily avoided" but doesn’t say how…it’s a finger-pointing circus.

Speaking of which, Kenyan MPs are scum. There’s one I know very well and I just found out that an overseas trip, which was paid for by Kenyans, a supposed agricultural forum was in fact a shopping trip for tiles for his new mansion. SICK. And they carry guns as well while preaching about the illegal use of handgus. One MP Gor Sunguh (a deplorable figure) may be charged by the police because he left his handgun in a toilet at a four-star beach resort. Oh yeah, they go on "working" holiday vacations to discuss bills that are pending on the floor! Half of this country can’t afford a decent meal, education, shelter – the basic necessities of life yet this fuckers (sorry ma) continually bitch about not being paid enough (500,000 tax free shillings monthly / about $6,600) Urghh!

Okay. Enough ranting but this is the state of the government today.

So like I said, if you're visiting Kenya and you want to sample authentic Kenyan dishes or culture, avoid anything in a plastic bag for a quarter only.

Boys or men, pizza etc.

Had pizza for lunch today...I miss Papa John's. It was good but the cheese was lacking. I've been extremely broke this week and super lazy about packing lunches for work so my malnourished wallet forced me to seek out alternative lunch venues. I've grown tired of fries and my face alerted me to that fact by producing a zit with Vesuvian potential. I actually found really nice restaurants with incredibly affordable fare. There's a restaurant called Antonio's near the 680 Hotel, that carries all manner of Mexican themes but don't be surprised by the huge Friends poster in the dining hall. The food is really good and surprisingly cheap. One funny aspect, fajitas, burritos and tacos come in a chapati and not on a tortilla as you'd expect and that's as Mexican as it gets. You can get fish and chips as well, spicy Indian dishes and even some local fare.

But I digress

Ah yes, the topic; a friend who shall rename nameless for a while...Jackie, thinks I'm anti-man. She claims that my entries are a little harsh toward that weaker sex so I feel it necessary to justify myself.

I absolutely adore men, some more than others but I they are the most wonderful, delicious creatures and I would like to take one home one day and cuddle it. Seriously, I love boys/men but I've refused to date while I'm here. Why? Because most (ok, all) the guys I've met (not applying this to every single man in Kenya) are dogs. End of story. I know there are some good ones out there but what's the point of weeding out the bad apples to get to the one good one so I'm just not going to date. Instead, I've become an observer of bad yet quite common, and in some cases acceptable behavior of infidelity among others. I went to a sporting event not too long ago and I kid you not, most of the men I knew there had come with girlfriends and left the wives at home.

You have to remember that most tribes in Kenya have a polygamous (sp?) history so it is quite common to meet first and second wives all over the place. What is unusual for me is my generation engaging in this more and more openly for that matter. What's even worse is that some of the wives are aware of the "sidekick" but they have the house, the ring and whatever else so they are content to let these little indiscretions carry on. And I don't doubt for a minute that she probably has a little action on the side so it's just a vicious infinity link of infidelity with consequences attached.

So you see Jackie, I don't dislike men, the women too are to blame, but I don't have to date them. I mean, this is the era of AIDS etc and piece of rubber is only so effective.

Ok, I'm being preachy, enough. Going out tonight with that a couple of that wonderful species called men. They are absolutely perfect when they are your friends. I'm going to a 6AM party....hmmm. Well, I'll just dance the night away and before I know it, morning will have broken.

Did I mention I miss pizza?

Are they like us?

Urghh! Neglected this poor journal for so long. Busy, is an understatement as to my life right now. Funnily enough I’ve been keeping busy to stop from feeling lonely. I just realized that you can be surrounded by so many people yet feel so alone at times so I’ve let my work consume me but it has been enjoyable and rewarding at the same time.

Anyway, as a result I’ve been able to interact more with the office messenger whose queries about life in the US, liven up my day considerably. It’s actually quite a change from the questions I was asked about life in America. She is so refreshingly naïve, innocent and beguiled with the illusion of a perfect existence outside of her own fairly dreary reality. Well, dreary from my point of view but it’s all she’s known thus she dreams extensively about what it must be like outside of Kenya.

Here are some of the questions she asks and my responses:

OM: Do people in the US buy mitumba? (second-hand clothing – popular, large markets, refer to other blogs)
Me: Depends. It’s not a large scale there as it is here but there are stores like the Salvation Army where you can buy clothes second hand. I do as well but I prefer to call it vintage. (don’t ask me how I managed to translate vintage into Swahili as most of her queries were posed in the language.)

OM: Are things very expensive there? Like your diet sodas, which you love so much.
Me: Well a can of soda costs about 50¢, which is about 38 shillings. (She winces because a packet of milk or loaf of bread costs about the same so I’m essentially wasting that money every day in her eyes.)

OM: Is food expensive there?
Me: Yes, it can be. Depends on what you buy just like anywhere in the world. I mean caviar is caviar.

OM: What’s kaveeya?
Me: Umm, never mind.

OM: Are there poor people in America?
Me: Heavens yes!

OM: Are they poor like we are?
Me: (Heavy heart) Well, if you have to put poverty on a scale then I’ll say no because over there, the government has many resources to try and help people out. While over here the government is in a mess already and it’s hard enough trying to get the basic essentials to those that need it.

OM: No (she insists), so they are not really poor like some are here.
Me: There are very many poor people in the US and they have the same problems poor people have everywhere. Where is my next meal coming from, I can’t afford books for my kids, I can’t afford to take the bus…poor is poor, it doesn’t matter which country. All I’m saying is that you can actively see the government trying to help people out.

OM: Do they have the street kids that go around sniffing glue harassing people?
Me: Well, in small town America where I was, no. But big cities have, umm…people like that, not really street kids and believe me glue is not the drug of choice.

OM: Oh, drugs like miraa (mild hallucinogenic you chew, legal and common), and bhang (weed).
Me: Haven’t seen any miraa there but yes there is bhang but that’s not the drug that you see as causing problems. There are problem drugs like cocaine, crack, meth and other things.

OM: (blank stare)
Me: Umm, well, if you’ve never heard of them then that’s good.
(The day crack hits Nairobi - if it hasn’t already, I think that will be the epidemic that supercedes all.)

OM: Did you have wazungu (white) friends in the US?
Me: And black as well, yes I had friends, they aren’t black or white.

OM: Did you hang out with your wazungu friends?
Me: All the time, also with my black friends.

OM: But I hear that Kenyans have a hard time making friends with wazungus.
Me: Well, I imagine that it’s the same everywhere and doesn’t matter whether you’re white or black and if it does it’s wrong, it should be about who you are. (I knew I was coming off as a public ed-service but I really wanted her not to thing along those lines.)

OM: Did you have a boyfriend?
Me: Yes I dated.

OM: Did you ever date a white man?
Me: Yes

OM: Wow, you’re lucky.
Me: Why would you say that?

OM: The way I see it, if a white man is interested in you then that’s good because you can marry him and leave here. You have to be very beautiful to date a white man. You’re lucky.
Me:

OM: You don’t see the girls around here, the ones I know. When they meet a white man, they get married and leave and their life is better. The men here are stupid. They cheat, are unfaithful and they leave you if you get pregnant.
Me:

Me: Do me a favor and stop thinking like that. Marrying a white man does not solve your problems. And by the way, I know plenty of white men who cheat, are unfaithful and will leave you the minute you say "baby".

OM: Still, you’re lucky.
Me: (sigh) I have to work.

The thing that catches me about all this is that she’s not the only one that thinks like this. I haven’t even gone to my rural area where my true home is where (hate this word) ignorance is even larger. Most of the gathered knowledge about life in "Amrika" is from media. And it bites that some of the shows running on a regular basis are Divorce Court, The Bachelor (gag), Oprah (at least the newer ones) and if you wanted to know where all the UPN pilot season shows ended up…. There’s also a huge pirate DVD industry. I can already watch Mr. & Mrs. Smith in the comfort of my home if I wanted to. And it will probably be lumped into one disc with four other movies.

I got out of Nairobi last weekend and went to a friend’s farm and I can’t tell you how refreshing that was to get out of the city. I’m planning on going to Lamu or Diani, haven’t decided yet for the 4th weekend. Yeah, yeah, I’m in Kenya now but there’s something that just dictates enjoy the 4th. Is that incredibly unpatriotic of me to continue to celebrate and relish the freedom of an adopted country whilst in my native one? Hmm…

Fair and Lovely

Ok, having no satellite telly on weekends bites. You're stuck watching the enormous amounts of crap they put on Sunday mornings. There's quite a lot of religious programming on the networks and since I'm such a rotten church goer, it's zzzz the morning away or make an incredibly large unhealthy breakfast. I was watching cartoons and at some point saw the most ignorant, stupid and obnoxious commercial ever. It starts out with a pretty black girl getting ready for an interview. You can tell it's with an airline as there are the obligatory posters featuring various Euro land marks, shots of planes and pilots walking by casually in full uniform. The girl goes infront of a panel of interviewers and looks uncomfortable while they carefully study her face. They then barely glance at her resume all the while shaking their heads in disapproval. She then leaves the room and is standing outside when she reaches into her pocket and pulls out a 10 shilling coin. She holds it in her hand and the narrator asks, "What can you get for 10 shillings?" The coin then turns into a pink packet of the product called Fair and Lovely, a skin lightening cream they claim removes splotches and dark marks on the face. They show her face getting lighter in a matter of weeks and then she's off to interview again and the panel is all smiles and yay and next thing you know, she's a flight attendant with a bright smile.

I'd understand the commercial if they had a model who had obvious blemishes and the cream supposedly corrects uneven tones. But when you put a gorgeous girl who looks perfect as she is and only flaw is having dark skin....what kind of message are you sending out. Also, to have such an ad run early mornings....during cartoons, when young impressionable girls will get the message that having dark skin is bad. Maybe I'm reading into it too much but the ad just looked stupid and it pissed me off. Also growing up, I remember awful stories of women who'd wash their faces with bleach in the hopes of looking lighter. WTF yes I know but sad, sad, sad.

But then again you'd ask what's a grown ass woman doing watching cartoons on Sunday morning instead of being productive like setting foot in a church to pray for having a sinfully wicked weekend....I was eating that deliciously greasy breakfast.

Laters

Silly Girl

Life is settling down slowly if not unevenly. Everyone keeps asking me how I’m doing, how things are and while I’m confident in my reply, I’m hesitant in admitting that it’s still a challenge. In many ways I led an extremely comfortable and easy life before coming back here and that totally ruined me. The loss of DSL, privacy, safety, independence, being able to go anywhere at any time...the list is endless but those are the adjustments that I make on a daily basis. I did something very foolish the other night. I went to meet someone and instead of having him pick me up, I told him I’d meet him at the restaurant we were to dine at. I took a matatu as I couldn’t find a cab near my apartment right away and I was already late and figured I'd save some bucks. Now the route this matatu takes goes very near the place I wanted to go but it doesn’t go all the way and instead turns around and goes to town. I normally pick up another matatu heading the other way and they frequently ply the route so I don’t wait that long.

Not quite the same story at night. I asked the driver to drop me off at that intersection but he said quietly realizing that I was a foreigner to the parts that it would not be safe. So he took me further along but not all the way because he had passengers and dropped me off in the middle of the highway. He said that I needed to be extremely careful because there were many thugs and street boys who slept in the ditches that lined the highway and the long barrier that separated the six lanes of traffic. He told me to walk right down the middle and walk fast. So I set off, heart hammering in my mouth, running in boots. I musta looked ridiculous but I didn’t bother asking anyone if my makeup was ok. I flew down that highway and almost sobbed with relief when I saw a tall school kid walking slowly ahead on the other side. I crossed the highway (very bad idea when there’s no speed limit, no street-lights and only the headlights of oncoming vehicles to guide you) and got safely to curb. I slowed down and walked behind him, feeling even safer when I saw an old woman carrying some bags walk behind me. As I neared the restaurant I slapped my hand and called myself stupid because I was. As much as I’d like everything in my life to stay constant, my actions will determine that state of matter. What I did was stupid, stupid, stupid and I’m ashamed I let my guard down and risked my safety just so I could save a few shillings. Idiot child. Next time I'm cabbing like crazy.