A Mzungu who loves Kenya
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Today IS the Day - probably
Posted: June 30, 2008, 12:54 pm by Dad Mzungu
I received a phone call at 8.30am this morning from Kisii. It was my friend, Vincent. I haven't heard from him for a few days as he has been busy getting the Internet café ready and trying to get electricity, phone lines, Intnernet connections ... er ... connected.
He phoned just to say that in principle, all is now ready and he is hoping to open the doors today.
Here's hoping! -
Winter has arrived in Nairobi
Posted: June 29, 2008, 11:27 pm by Dad Mzungu
A friend and colleague who lives and works in Nairobi emailed me to say that he was in his office and feeling the cold, as winter had arrived.
On questioning him, he told me that the outside temperature had crept up to 19°C at 10.30am. That's 8.30 here and our outside temperature, was at 6°C, but forecast to rise to a glorious 16°C in the afternoon.
He concluded that he preferred winter in Nairobi to Summer in GB! So do I. -
Time for a change and mental ramblings
Posted: June 29, 2008, 1:20 pm by Dad Mzungu
It is summer (in the Northern hemisphere at least) and I felt it was time for a change. Nothing devastating, just a minor change to format and colour. The previous template was dark and serious. I don't feel dark and serious at the moment, just a bit frivolous.
-oOo-
In the UK, I drive a multi-purpose vehicle with 7 passenger seats. I have this urge to paint a broken yellow stripe around its waist and MATATU across the front - perhaps route 19C (my route from office to home when I am in Nairobi).
[Yes, I know this is a Nairobi~Kisii shuttle, not a matatu - but it has the yellow stripe!]
Can't do that. I want to sell my ol' bus, and turning it into a matatu would not be conducive, unless a local Kenyan wanted to buy it. It is too old to take to Kenya, although it would be put to good use at the ophanage.
-oOo-
There was a South African choir in our town yesterday. They sounded very similar to the Ladysmith Black Mambazo Choir and were very entertaining.
But the most entertaining for me was a little girl, braided and beaded, wearing what looked like a kanga, moving to the music. I had forgotten just how easily black kids pick up rhythm.
-oOo-
That little girl reminded me of a winter a few years ago. I was in town when it started to snow. A few feet in front of me, there were two little black girls with thick quilted jackets and wooly bonnets. As the snow fell, they both stopped and looked up. Their wide-eyed amazement was fascinating. As the snowflakes settled on their upturned faces, they looked shocked, then they both burst into giggles - as only little girls can.
I just had to speak to their mother. These girls had just arrived from Uganda for the Christmas holiday, staying with friends in the area. And, naturally, they had never seen snow before. I wish I had had my camera with me.
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Getting used to Kenyanese
Posted: June 28, 2008, 10:07 pm by Dad Mzungu
"Sorry!" When in Kenya, I hear this all the time, even when the speaker had done nothing to be sorry for.
I have to say that I am clumsy. I can trip over my own feet while standing still, or even sitting down - no kidding. And it is not the alcohol - honest - OK, not all the time.
So, I will be walking down the road and trip on a matchstick or whatever. "Sorry," my companion would say. It took me a long time to understand this. There is no real equivalent in English English ... er that is English as spoken in Great Britain.
Another one is "Yes" when we would say "No". Because the speaker is saying "Yes, I agree with what you are saying," as opposed to "No, I don't think so either."
Confusing.
But once I came to terms with these little nuances, I soon found that most Kenyans, even those upcountry, speak excellent English. And the kids in Nairobi speak better English than many kids here. They speak grammatically correct English - innit - and don't interject any "Y' know", "er", "like", and certainly don't swear - well, not in my company and not in English, anyway.
I sometimes wonder how a well-spoken Kenyan could possibly survive over here, where we beat up our own language until it is an unrecognisable pulp!
Ask a Kenyan kid "How was school today?" and the reply will be. "It was good (or bad). We did math, english and geography."
Here, the answer would be something like, "Er, well, y'know, it was, like, yeah, good. Innit."
And to think that I was considering bringing my girlfriend and her children over here! No way. I don't want to ruin their education - and their good grasp of the English language.
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What does this mean?
Posted: June 27, 2008, 6:42 pm by Dad Mzungu
Trawling through the hundreds of photos that were taken with my cameras while I was in Kenya (not all taken by me), I came across this one of Ben, a five year old Nairobi boy. I have seen this sign many times, both in Kenya and the UK. I didn't take this photo, so couldn't ask him what the sign meant, if anything.
Ben bears a striking resemblence to Tyler James Williams, the boy who plays a young Chris Rock in Everybody Hates Chris ...... don't you think? (Ben is the one with hair!)
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Water -v- Oil
Posted: June 27, 2008, 12:03 pm by Dad Mzungu
Michael Grunwald, a correspondant for Time Magazine who has been commenting on Florida's attempt to restore the Everglades to their former glory commented, "There is an understanding that one day water will be as precious as oil."
I am sorry Mr Grunwald, but we can all live without oil, albeit with very different lifestyles, but try to live without water.
Water is the most precious commodity on this planet. We survived for thousands of years without oil, but we have always needed water.
Even in this modern age, there are still people who do not use oil or its products, but they need water every day. Needless to say, most of these people do not have enough water.
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The situation in Zim
Posted: June 26, 2008, 9:24 pm by Dad Mzungu
This was received from an acquaintance in Zim. I have blanked the names to protect them. I hope it still makes sense. This email is posted on other blogs as well as this one.
I cannot guarantee its authenticity.
Dear all, It has been quite a weekend.
We were made very aware of impending problems on our farm before it even started. Various letters came in as well as verbal warnings from concerned people all over the district. People were told that our cattle and potatoes would be dished out to them. The election campaign is being fought on "one hundred percent empowerment" ie. taking everything that belongs to people who are not black and giving it to Party faithfulls. The Party has got nothing else to offer the people...
People were told if they did not come they would be beaten.
President Mugabe arrived in our little town that afternoon and people were only informed that morning. Everyone had to suddenly go to his rally whether they wanted to or not. He apparently told the people that if the opposition got in it would be war. The unexpected Presidential rally must have thrown the organisation for the "programme" [as it was referred to in a letter from one of the organisors].
That evening we only ended up with about 500 of the expected 1500 people that were to come. They were bussed in from all over on tractor trailors, lorries, car and busses. We even had one bus from Shamva hundreds of kms away.
The drums and chanting started soon after dark. Nearly fifty fires were lit all around. The leaders were waving guns around and had everyone doing their bidding. The chanting and sloganeering was military style - all in unison for hour after hour after hour all the way through the night. We could not sleep.
When dawn broke and the birds started to call the chanting broke into a noise that sounded like a terrible swarm of bees on the rampage. We knew that the beating had then started and we prayed. It turned out that anyone who they believed had been polling agents at polling stations was covered in cold water. We had frost that morning and it was cold.
They were then told to beat each other with sticks while the crowd egged them on. The noise went on for a few hours. Some of them had already run away. Those people will not vote; still less be polling agents in the next election because you have to vote in your own ward I understand and they are designating which polling station too so that they can check who you voted for.
They had been searched for any cell phones so that they not relay any atrocities on to anyone. They were told that they would be killed if information leaked out. Everyone is tight lipped about what went on. Today they go through the day mechanically with terror written all over them.
A neighbor, M***E, drove past on the main road and was stopped at a road block that they had set up on our road. He managed to get through that but at the next one they put burning logs on his bonnet and tried to get into the car. A couple of hundred people came out from the packshed where the indoctrination was taking place. He managed to reverse and turn around and get through the other road block taking some rocks on his windscreen and other places on the car.
Meantime B*** had been at the police station trying to get police out. We had been there on five occasions the previous week trying to tell Chief Inspector and Inspector and Assistant Inspector of what was to take place. We had given two letters for the attention of the officer in charge, Chief Inspector .
B*** waited for six hours at the police station but could not get a reaction to stop the beating and dismantle the road blocks. He saw Chief Inspector , Inspector and Assistant Inspector amongst others. It is clear that they are under orders not to react.
Our electricity went down and both cell phone networks also ceased to operate. We were left with no communications and our way out onto the main road was sealed off by a road block. We prayed and read psalm 118.
B*** eventually decided to come out himself. Miraculously, just before he arrived, the road blocks were dismantled and everyone disappeared. Shortly after the guards came to tell us of thieves in the maize - about 30 people were just helping themselves. We caught some of them and chased them off and recovered their booty.
That evening we got a call from N* R* who was very badly beaten up with her husband six weeks ago by Gilbert Moyo and his gang. They had also had everything from their house and workshops stolen in that raid including even their clothes. Gilbert Moyo was taken into custody by police but was then let out again as a hit man. He "hit" XYZ and NN in the area a few nights ago and they had half an hour to get out of their home and off their farm or end up the same way as Bruce and Nettie had. We do not know what has been looted there yet.
B*** and N* were staying in a cottage on another farm when Gilbert Moyo arrived with thirty people and said he was taking the farm for Senator Madzongwe. They managed to get to the main homestead with the E*** brothers while I went to police with ABC.
We spent an hour at the police station but they refused to react as it was an "issue of land." I told them that disposession of ones home and assault of ones workers were matters that were important for them to deal with; but after B***'s six hours fruitless wait for a reaction that morning I knew we were wasting our time; and so we eventually proceeded to Stockdale to give whatever support we could.
As it happened an army Major by the name of Indora spoke to Gilbert Moyo and the E***s and B*** eventually ended up transporting Moyo and his gang back to their base 20 km away in the early hours of the morning as the "hit" had not got official sanction. They got to a road block of 50 ZANU people on the main road but they were allowed through and back without incident.
Such road blocks are now common at night to stop observors and anyone from "outside" getting to any pungwes and seeing the atrocities that are taking place. A friend's worker went to their rural area near to the Nyamapanda border post to see his elderly mother last month. In these areas any movement needs official sanction from the Party and written ZANU permits are even required to visit the next ward in many places. I have seen such permits.
The friend's worker was stopped at a road block and had to wait 2 days to get someone to vouch for him. During that time 4 people who had not got anyone to vouch for them were asked if they wore long sleeves or short sleeves. The first replied "short sleeves". They cut his right arm off at the top with an axe. The other three replied "long sleeves". They cut each of their right hands off.
He said that he saw the hands wriggling on the ground detatched from their owners. Those hands can not vote any more. I have heard of many other hands like that.
It seemed macabre that B*** who was so badly assaulted by Moyo 6 weeks ago was taking him back to "his" home scott free. Presumably all B***'s worldly possessions are now in that place that they took him to. N* asked B*** to look out for their dog which also disappeared on the 6 May; but they most probably killed it. B*** saw no evidence of it.
There appears to be no sign of any SADC observors out here. A friend said he had seen some sipping drinks and reading the newspapers in the Meikles hotel in Harare over the weekend. Voter registration goes on even now. The old people at Greenways Old Peoples home say they are now off the voters role but the ones that are dead are still on...
Meanwhile the atrocities go on at the all night pungwes and the people tremble with fear. I read that the observors are officially not allowed out after dark because their safety can not be guaranteed. They need to defy that and get out and see with their own eyes these things if they care at all.
We ask you to pray and send brave people and peace keepers to stop the atrocities before they get even worse. Maybe I write this in vain; but I write this crying.
With love in Christ who is our Saviour whatever happens,
B
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Getting about
Posted: June 26, 2008, 2:50 pm by Dad Mzungu
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Developed -v- Developing
Posted: June 25, 2008, 12:43 pm by Dad Mzungu
I was sitting in a traffic jam on the Thika Road when a man cycled past me. His bicycle was laden with what looked like the steel rods used for reinforcing concrete pillars.
He crossed the road to his "shop", untied his bars and set up his gas welding kit.
That evening, I was passing back along the same road when I saw this man at the side of the road, in his shop. In pride of place was a magnificent wrought iron coffee table. I just had to stop and look.
Yes, this was made from the iron rods I had seen him carrying that morning. Yes, it wasn't finished - he was waiting for his friend to supply a sheet of glass to go on the top. Yes, it needed painting. But, on close examination, the legs were perfect, the scroll work was symmetrical, and this man used only a welding torch, a charcoal brazier, a large hammer and a length of steel railway track as an anvil. No drawings, no rulers, just his eye - brilliant, absolutely brilliant.
-oOo-
We needed cubicles for our new Internet café. I would be hard-pressed to know where to start in the UK, and would probably end up with ordinary office tables, with partition screens mounted on top. Not in Kenya. You go to the local carpenter and explain roughly what you want. A couple of days later, you pick up the finished product, which is perfectly made and ready for painting.
-oOo-
Our car broke down last September. The front disk brakes seized up. Luckily, we were in Thika Road, where there is a plethora of mechanics. I pulled into a dirt yard which was formed by a semi-circle of sheds serving as a body shop, spray booth, a mechanic, a greengrocer and a bar.
The mechanic came over, carrying his toolbox, comprising a hammer, a half-set of open-ended spanners and a lump of wood. He had an apprentice with him. The kid looked about 10, his overalls swamped him.
I sidled over to the bar where I sat sipping soda and chatted to the clientele drinking their breakfast beers. These were an off-duty tour bus driver, an off-duty policeman, a municipal worker taking a break for refreshment, and a "property developer".
I was soon relieved of my cigarettes and one of the men sent a youngster off on his bicycle to get more. Obviously I had to tip the boy.
90 minutes later, the mechanic told me that the car was fixed. We both jumped in and took it for a spin, testing the brakes. They worked.
I asked how much and he thought for a while. "Even if you are mzungu, I will only charge you 1,350 bob," he said.
I gave him Ksh 1,500 and he made a show of looking for change in his many pockets. I told him to give it to the boy.
The following day, I drove from Nairobi to Nakuru, Kericho, Sotik and finally, Kisii, then back through Narok to Nairobi. I don't know how far it was, but it was a long journey going up and down the escarpments, and the brakes never let me down.
-oOo-
I am sure that this sort of service and inventiveness can be found all over Kenya. To me, a visitor, it is astonishing to see at first hand these artisans working with virtually nothing to produce works of art, perfect furniture, or sturdy car repairs.
Here - anywhere in the "developed world" - you can get the same finished products, the difference being that most would be produced by machines. The workers are merely machine minders. They could not produce the coffee table, the cubicles for the Internet café without detailed drawings and a host of power tools. They could not fix the car without a workshop full of tools and a manual.
We, in the developed world have lost that ability to make things, to bodge.
What a shame.
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African Time ...
Posted: June 24, 2008, 1:40 am by Dad Mzungu
Silly me! There was I, expecting my new business to open today as I had been told. The lines should have been put in yesterday. But that is African time yesterday. Which apparently means today!
Still, the lines went in today, so we should be opening tomorrow. So, what's one day (or two) in the general scheme of things? This is Africa.
Unless, of course, African time is even more flexible than I remember.
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Sitting on the fence?
Posted: June 24, 2008, 5:36 pm by Dad Mzungu
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Just like London Buses
Posted: June 21, 2008, 2:32 pm by Dad Mzungu
Work was flagging in the UK, so during a visit to Kenya, I decided to sink my small fortune (I wish!!) in a business in Kenya, which would help support the orphanage as well as earning me a bit of money.
With my good friend, we found a business for sale, but as I explained in a previous post, that was not to be, and we set about starting from scratch.
As things were quiet here, I was hoping to spend a lot of time planning the opening of our new venture (next Tuesday, Internet connection willing), designing posters etc. to send over to Kenya as my friend is busy with settting up, cabling and all that sort of thing.
But, as Murphy's Law would have it, I have been rushed off my feet! work is coming in thick and fast. Having had a period of near famine (work-wise) I am now getting enquiries coming all together, just like London buses.
For a start, the charity, Rhino Ark ([www.rhinoark.org]) has just held their annual mad-cap 4x4 endurance event somewhere in the Rift Valley and loads of photos were sent to me (I maintain their website) for uploading.
And it seems that every other client here has contracted a virus, mainly because they don't regularly run their virus scan software, or don't keep it up to date.
I have a pile of very slow computers sitting here, waiting to be cleaned off.
Oh well, it shouldn't take me long to get my air fare together to return to Kenya at this rate, although I heard this morning that airlines were putting up fares by a staggering 40% to cover increased fuel costs - Heaven help us!
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So far, so good ...
Posted: June 20, 2008, 7:44 pm by Dad Mzungu
After all the messing about, with both a business seller and the landlord of the premises raising their price when he found out that he was dealing with a mzungu, and sending money out to buy equipment, rent premises, etc., my man in Kisii tells me we are ready to go - apart from the Internet connection, which will be in place on Monday.
So, we should be trading on Tuesday!
All we need now is a few clients, or better still, lots of clients.
So, anyone in Kisii reading this, there will be a new cyber café in town next week!
The name? DABIVAM TECHNOLOGIES. (Don't ask, it's another story)
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Back Up
Posted: June 17, 2008, 1:00 pm by Dad Mzungu
Well, this blog has been searched for racism and bigotry. The only instances found were in comments.
There were instances where small-minded people might be offended, but we consider that they do not represent the majority of the readshship.
This site is declared sanitised.
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Closing for Maintenance
Posted: June 15, 2008, 12:19 am by Dad Mzungu
I will be pulling the blog and going through it to look for and correct any instances of bigotry, racism, or anything that might upset any small-minded people who insist on reading it, even if they are offended by it and post insulting language (but not fair criticism).
Once this blog has been sanitised, it will be reposted.
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Kimya said ...
Posted: June 15, 2008, 10:37 pm by Dad Mzungu
Kimya said:
I cannot believe the arrogant racist prick you are, from "your black little boy" who you refer to as your "little mite", your ignorant thoughts make it seem as though Kenya is one big basket case of Hiv and death- that only you can save, which is of course, completely false, as there are many who are living well and there is a widening and existing middle class(i.e why we didn't go the Rwanda way.). You are feeling useless, and Africa is the only place you feel wanted, or like a king. And adding that "you do not expect to be despised by those you cannot help" is an arrogant and intentionally racist statement that you seem to imply that any African that speaks against you is i. mad at you and ii. mad "because you can't help them". Four fingers are pointing back at you no wonder your blog is not popular, I can see why anyone who chooses to wipe it off the web, or sort you out in Kisii, would be inclined to. Typical racist and typical of men your age and heritage. No, I am not surprised.
My reply:
Thanks Kimya. You have really opened my eyes to what a racist idiot I have been.
I have been working my butt off to find ways of helping those who want to be helped - what a fool I have been. I have obviously been wasting my time.
So maybe I'll save my money and not bother to help to support the two orphanages and enjoy a holiday.
Oh, and if you want to make a donation to support these kids, let me know and I will tell you where to send it.
I add, if you don't like me or what I am trying to achieve, that's fine. I respect your right to disagree. But why be offensive and abusive?
Oh sod it. Why should I have to justify myself?
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Zim ... Uncle Bob's pledge
Posted: June 15, 2008, 10:02 pm by Dad Mzungu
I was horrified to read that President Mugabe has promised that, regardless of the outcome of the run-off election, the MDP will never rule Zimbabwe.
It's nice to know that the old boy has such a good sense of democracy!
But then, Mugabe's wife was overheard to say to her hubby that that, no matter what, Tsvangirai will never step foot in the State House.
It makes the recent Kenyan presidential election look like a milk-run.
At least someone, in the shape of Botswana, has dared raise their head above the parapet and lodged a formal complaint against Mugabe. It's about time that South Africa followed their neighbour's lead. But then, shouldn't they have been leading?
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Rest in Peace,
Posted: June 14, 2008, 3:03 am by Dad Mzungu
I was going through the websites I maintain for various organisations, and found the page of a little girl, Evelyn, 3 years old.
Evelyn was found abandoned in town and after an unsuccessful attempt by the police to find out who she was and where she lived, she was deposited at the children's home.
During my stay in Kenya (March 2008), Evelyn died. She was HIV+.
It was with great sadness that I removed her page, with the picture of a pretty littie girl in a white dress, from the website.
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Bigotry and Racism
Posted: June 12, 2008, 4:54 pm by Dad Mzungu
I have been called a racist and a bigot. By a person or people who hide behind anonymity. So I call them cowards.
I may be racist, a reverse racist, inasmuch as I prefer the company of most Kenyans to the company of most Brits, despite being British myself.
As to being a bigot, a prejudiced person who is intolerant of any opinions differing from his own, I plead "Not Guilty".
I have my own opinions - I wouldn't write a blog if I didn't - but I respect the right of people to have differing opinions. I respect the right of other people to disagree with me, just as I may disagree with them.When I am threatened with the blog equivalent of "We know where you live!", things are going too far.
For the love of all that is decent, this is a blog! My thoughts, my feelings, nothing subversive. I am not out to change the world with a blog.
Having said that, I am out to change the world for a few people, a mere drop in the ocean of humanity. But I work hard to improve the lives of a few people.
I don't do it for thanks or praise. I'm not that good. But I do not expect to be despised by those I cannot help because I am a mzungu.
Maybe others will see what my friends and I are doing and emulate us. We shall see when our projects are fully operational.
Maybe then, the anonymous people who insult me and my kind will see that we are not all bad, even if our ancestors may have been.
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Thoughts on suffering and other stuff.
Posted: June 12, 2008, 4:23 pm by Dad Mzungu
I hear and read that over here, in the UK, as in many parts of the "developed world", people are suffering due to the rise in the price of crude oil.
Suffering? Who are they kidding?
Do we really know what the word suffering means?
To my mind, suffering is having an acute pain, physical or mental, distress.
Finding that a litre of fuel has risen another penny is annoying, inconvenient.
Watching a loved one die of a disease or starvation, that is suffering.
A vast majority of the UK population has no idea what it is like to live in Africa, Asia or South America, and I count myself amongst them.
I have witnessed poverty in South Africa and more recently in Kenya. For most, it is a way of life, with no hope of escape.
Most people in the UK own or have the use of a car. Most people in the UK live in a weatherproof, warm house with electricity and clean hot and cold water on tap, literally.
Most Kenyans and South Africans I know don't have either electricity or water. They don't have cars. They are fit because they walk!
I have lived in these conditions in Kenya, and surprisingly, I think I adapted quite well. I enjoyed my stay, but then, I was with people I like, people I would be happy to have as family.
This got me thinking that in the materialist world I live in, we (or at least, I) have lost touch with what is important. Cars, fully equipped houses, tap water, electricity, these are not important.
People are important. The people we live with are important. The people who surround us are important.
This does not mean that I will give up my car, electricity and clean drinking water. Not in the UK, ayway. It does not mean that, in Kenya, I do not aspire to owning a car, or living in a house with all the conveniences I am used to. But I think I would rather live in Kenya without all the trappings than in the UK with them.
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Meandering Mind ...
Posted: June 6, 2008, 3:37 pm by Dad Mzungu
Well, I am now a year older. How daft is that? On Wednesday, I was 37 (-ish, as in I w-ish), and yesterday I was 38 (-ish).
I don't feel a year older. In fact, until I actually think about the number that represents the number of years I have been on Earth, I really don't feel much different from when I was 38. Why should we feel so different? It is only one day older when we think about it.
My only regret is that I have only recently started to travel. In the past, I have lived and worked in France and South Africa (when I really was 38!), but that was just work. Once back in the UK, I didn't look for a reason to leave again. I suppose having two kids in school curtailed my wanderlust.
But it was only a couple of years ago that I discovered Kenya, and even then, I didn't go, I just worked for a Kenyan charity.
But last September, I finally took the first step and immediately regretted the time I had wasted thinking about it but doing nothing.
Now I think only of my next trip to Kenya and the only constraint now is financial. Only! HA!
On my last trip, I spent some time in Kisii, Malindi and Nairobi. As our only car had been destroyed during the PEV, I used public transport, shuttle from Nairobi to Kisii and back, overnight coach from Nairobi to Malindi and back, then matatus, Citi Hoppas and anything else I could find a seat on that would get me into the city from the suburbs.
It was an experience, and I suppose, one I would not have wanted to miss. But do it again? I am not so sure.
The problem is, Going to Kisii, we obviously traversed the Rift Valley. If I had been in a car, I would have stopped to look at the scenery, animlals, etc. In a shuttle, it took all my energy and concentration to stay in my seat, and we only stopped once, in Narok.
The coach to Malindi is an overnighter, so although it traverses Tsavo, we see nothing!
So, not only do I need to get my air fare together, I also need to go with enough money to buy a car. Hmm ...
BTW, my real age is 58 - just!
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Hospitals
Posted: June 3, 2008, 8:49 pm by Dad Mzungu
Today, I took a friend to the local main hospital. She had broken her foot a couple of weeks ago and today was decision time, whether to operate of leave well alone.
Sitting around, my mind drifted back to last March when I took one of our little boys (a black little boy) to the hospital in Kisii, a) to treat him for an intestinal parasite and b) to check his HIV status.
People have said that I cannot compare my treatment in Kisii with my treatment here. In Kisii, I am an oddity, a mzungu in an area where there are few wazungu.
OK, maybe the staff helped me to jump the queue, but that is not the issue. I was impressed with the care and concern shown to an under-nourished, small, skinny orphan kid (in fact, he is, as far as we know, not an orphan, but was abandoned at birth).
The over-worked (and probably underpaid) staff were extraordinarily caring for this little mite. And he was one of scores of kids in the hospital that day. Do they treat all the kids like this? There is no reason to believe that they don't. I cannot believe that my little boy got preferential treatment because he was with a mzungu - or did he?
Either way, I think the staff at Kisii hospital are brilliant!
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Harmony in the Ranks
Posted: June 2, 2008, 7:08 pm by Dad Mzungu
Kenya has been relatively quiet for a few weeks, apart from the odd MP making statements that beg the listener to query his loyalties to the country, and his own sanity.
But today, I see that that Kenya was close to descending into total anarchy.
No, the Mungiki or the other crowd in Mount Eldon haven't gone on the rampage (as far as I know) - this unrest was far more ... weird!
Rival factions, masquerading as the bodyguards of the President and Prime Minister started to jostle each other on the VIP podium during the Independence celebrations.
What hope for Kenya if the two Tweedles can't even keep their security guards under control?
Come to that, why do they need so many security guards? Vanity?
Sorry, silly question.
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Spanner in the Works
Posted: June 1, 2008, 4:01 pm by Dad Mzungu
I have finally managed to contact my man in Kisii. He contacted me through Skype, as usual, from the usual cyber café, which should be, by now, mine!
But it wasn't. At the last minute, the seller doubled the price of the business, and the landlord increased the monthly rent by 2,000/- a month.
My man in Kisii refused to pay the extras after having had an agreement from the seller's agent for the original prices.
He went on the offensive and found new premises with an asking rent actually less than the original price. He bought six PCs with a higher specification, and is in the process of acquiring the necessary furniture.
All we need now to open a fully functioning cyber café is:
- a hub
- a modem
- CAT5 cabling
and once open, to be able to offer the full range of services:
- a scanner
- a printer
- a land line and fax machine
Unfortunately, we have run out of money!
So, from last week's fully functioning ready-to-run business, I now have an almost ready, non-functional business, and, until/unless my sales on eBay come to fruition, no way of opening!
As I once saw on another blog, "Shut Happens"
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No communication
Posted: June 1, 2008, 3:49 pm by Dad Mzungu
I had a [well-earned?] day off yesterday and took my grandson and his friend swimming. My grandson, (nearly 12 years) has recently started to swim well and as such, is not too much of a worry for me.
His friend (9 years), on the other hand can just about keep his head above water and needs constant supervision.
Until I had the bright idea to see if he could swim on his back. After a little coaxing, he tried it, and promptly swam four lengths of the pool. Of course, I had to swim next to him just in case he got into difficulties, but he surprised both of us and didn't.
This pass-time took my mind off the business in Kisii. I haven't had any contact with my man in Kisii for a few days. That is not to say that he hasn't tried to contact me (we converse through Skype), but I have been out a lot this week and we kept missing each other.
But today, without theh distraction of a couple of kids, I need to know what is happening.
Now, my man in Kisii always contacts me on Sundays - until today. But then, today is the first day that the business is officially mine. It is, of course, open 7 days a week, so is he doing his cyber café manager bit, and therefore not having the time to contact me?
Has the power failed in Kisii - not uncommon? Or the Internet connection - also not uncommon? Has there been a last-minute hitch? I need to know!
Blah blah blah
Fish cakes
Alas a fish cake.
Yet more fish cakes
Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.
The end of the fish cakes
