Friday, February 10, 2006

Danish Cartoons in Kenya

I have yet to see these cartoons but an Arab friend of mine has promised she will stone me if I look at them.

Wow, this whole thing is amazing. There is a planned protest march from the Danish Embassy to the city centre after prayers this afternoon. I bet nobody ever imagined the impact of a couple of sketches of free speech would have on the world. Oh wait, the march is on. It's very peaceful right now, wait until that sun gets to them then whew. It really is quite hot right now but I'm not complaining.

Very busy at work, but planning on an Easter holiday to Malindi, yay! Found an incredible package deal that covers accomodation and transport for 4 day for less than $100 for the whole trip! No lying! Talk to me nice and I'll tell you where.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

This country is nuts

There's a lady in my office who gets hired to attend funerals and go wail with the loudest of them. She told me that it is mostly to build up the emotion surrounding the burial of someone and the louder the cries, the more important the person must have been. Yeppers, she gets paid to do that.

Also, quite interestingly is the story of the American woman who's being accused of molesting five boys at a children's home.

Also, the Finance Minister resigned because he's being investigated for corruption. 'nuff said. I've been bitching since day one about how corrupt this country is and how the cabbages in office have been ripping people off like it's going out of style. A story in one of the papers this week reported that World Bank withheld a huge chunk of change at the urging of of former Brit High Commissioner Edward Clay and on the same page, sandwiched in between all the idiots in crying shame, was an article about how these same assholes had spent over $10 million government money on luxury vehicles.

I'm livid about this because, the country has been struck by a tragic drought that has virtually paralyzed the entire Northern part of the country. So sad to watch the news every night and you see pastoralists taking their livestock to empty water troughs and cows practically licking at dry taps in hopes of getting a single drop. This, interlaced with pictures of skinny kids, with bloated bellies, animal carcasses littering the desert, and greedy shop keepers selling food that is clearly labled, "NOT FOR SALE", it's sad. And you know things are bad when you see Masai grazing their cows on the city outskirts because the fields have dried up where they normally feed. I kid you not, last week I was on a bus and actually apartment hunting on the way to a movie and my bus jerked to an abrupt stop in a middle class neighborhood so that the Masai Moran could herd his 50 or so cattle across the busy main Ngong Road.

A crazy if not goodhearted Kiwi woman has offered her part in helping fight the drought by sending Fido's food over to help feed the starving Kenyan kids. Ok, I've tasted dog food before, and cat food as well and as a serious pet lover, I have no problems nibbling on Chloe's biscuits. But to want to send dog food to Africa to help fight the hunger and food shortages is a bit much. But who knows? People are so hungry they'll eat anything right now and Kibbles and Bits probably has more nutrients than plain maize flour.

New Year, didn't make resolutions but I had a great time ringing it in. Was up until 8 in the morning at Lake Naivasha. I saw the most amazing thing. At about a quarter to six, I was still up with about forty other people dancing to Mugithi (Kikuyu dance music) but I wanted to down to the Lake to see whether the Hippos would still be out of the water or getting ready to go in. I had on my mp3, was listening to Dario G's, "Sunchimes" and I walked down toward the Lake. Foolish I know especially because I didn't tell anyone I was going there and I had on ear buds. But the hippos were already in, you could see the square wet heads slapping loudly and vigorously in the water as they enjoyed that inital dip. The sky was amazing - that blue between night and day, the few clouds that were up looked like they were literally on fire. With the sun coming up, they were a violent crimson with pink slashes. I walked all the way to the edge of the pier, closer to the hippos but safe enough to know that there was a nearby shack I could run to....forget that it was on stilts and looked super fragile. I breathed in that cool sharp air and was loving life so much and just then, a huge flock of egrets came out of the sky from nowhere to my left and they swooped down right infront of me, in perfect formation and barely skimmed the surface and then rose right up in the air and took a wide arc back around. It was breathtakingly beautiful in how simple and natural and wonderful things can be and it honestly felt like I was in a movie. My (insert giggle) boy says a camera was probably rolling. Oh, he's still away, I'm still not dating but then again, there's nobody worth seeing.

Nairobi still sucks, it's dusty, it's crowded and I'm looking for an apartment. I've actually found one but it won't be ready until March but I have to move out of where I'm staying right now or I'll shoot myself. So still hunting, going looking around again this weekend, hopefully I'll have something by Sunday. And then! I can actually invite people to come visit. Yes my dear Corinne, I've been a very bad friend.

Ok, back to work - my job is so/so right now. Looking forward to grad school. Laters!