Mambo

Well folks iv just returned from Kenya and once again the country of my upbringing continues to enchant me every time I go there.
The main purpose of my two week journey to Kenya was to help with the 'down-sizing' of my parents charity in Lower Kabete, but I manage to fit in a few extra excursions along the way.

My first day in Kenya was a pleasant shock. I landed at Moi International Airport around 10:30 in the morning and was welcomed by a overwhelming wave of heat as I stepped off the plain, walking out from a cosy 18 degrees air-conditioned Boeing 747 into a sweltering 34 degrees arrivals lounge is Africa's way of saying Karibu. The expressions washed across most of two hundred and fifty, mostly british, passengers faces as they stumble out of the plane was... priceless.
After a short, but expected delay, at the Visa control point I was on my way out of the baggage reclaim halls and out into the main airport entrance where I was immediately set on by 10+ taxi men assuring me... "You need a Taxi Bwana". After politely informing them I would be getting a connecting flight up to Nairobi, they soon turned there attentions to the sweat covered mob that was staggering out of the arrivals door.
Once I had booked my flight, for a reasonable 6,400 Kshs, I met a man called Nelson Orobo. A tired looking KAA worker who had nothing else better to do than to keep me company for three hours whilst I waited to my flight. He was a pleasant guy who seemed to spend most of his day walking from kiosk-to-kiosk chatting up the women at the counters, but this aside I owe him a favour for keeping me entertained whilst I waited.

Once on board the Fly540 flight to Nairobi, my lack of sleep seemed to instantly wash over me and even before the engines had time to raw up before take off, I was fast asleep dreaming of a cup of tea and plate full of samosas. I was awoken an hour later when the small 20 seater plane comfortably landed at Jomo Kenyatta, finally home again! Stepping out of the plane with a sense of excitement in each stride I was welcomed by that unmistakable Nairobi smell of exhaust fumes mixed with the heavy humid air, the smell conjures up numerous happy moments spent here as a child.
Once I had managed to evade yet another mob of taxi men I went to meet Beatrice to collect the our car that she had been looking after for my parents. After exchanging pleasantries and getting a few business matters sorted I clambered into the white Daewoo, turned on the local radio station and off I went. Now you've got to understand what a beautiful moment this was for me, my first time driving in Kenya... Oh Yeah! For years I have been dreaming of getting behind the wheel of a car and driving around downtown Nairobi, evading matatus, animal, people and potholes. At 16:54 on Monday the 27th of December 2006 this dream was realized, and I was not disappointed! Once I had left the relative safety of the airport I made my way into town down Mombasa Road, but my initial joy was to be short lived once I caught a glimpse of the petrol gage. Slowing down to a sluggish 40 miles an hour to preserve petrol I managed to make it to the entrance of the gas station before the car gave up, but with the help of the pump attendants we managed to get the car within reach of pump and fill the tank. Off I set again, no fear this time, not a care in the world, speeding down the highway into Nairobi, windows open, smile beaming across my face, not even the crazy matatus, kamikaze highway sellers and crater 'esk potholes could ruin the two hours I spend winding my way up Mombasa Road, Uhuru Highway, Chiromo Road and finally Waiyaki Way to Loresho.

Once I pulled into the drive way of the cottage, William, looking young as every, came sprinting out of the kitchen to open to gate for me. As the car came to a holt I rested my weary head on the steering wheel, "are you alright tom?" William asked, "I am now William". Climbing out of the car I was immediately set upon by Collins and Stacy, two cute kids who's father David is a good friend, "Jambo Tom, Habari Yako?".
Once I was in the house I was given a welcoming hug from William (you wouldn't believe he's in his early 80 by the way he dances around the place, although he's adamant he's only 45) and a cup of Chai.

Once I'd had a shower and unpacked, my weary bones could take no more and I succumbed to the beds growing temptation. After Unraveling the mosquito net I climbed inside my little cocoon, I turned on the BBC World Service and relaxed. My first night was difficult though, my last two trips to Kenya had been with Kerri (my beautiful girlfriend) and in the silent Nairobi night I deeply missed her presence next to me. I missed the fun banter we'd have regarding the days events, the relaxed planning of the next days tasks, but most of all I just missed her being there. It took me a couple of hours until my mind was clear enough to fall asleep, and when I did I slept like a baby until the morning.

My first day was relatively successful, once I awoke from my comer like sleep I was immediately welcomed by William with a cup of Chai, nothing better than a cup of tea on a crisp Kenyan morning. It was relatively cloudy outside, although quite warm, it was the end of the long rains and the sun was just starting the burn the African soil once again. I completed a number of tasks set out by my dad on the first day: changed some money in town, got several quote for the car to be cleaned, food shopping in Uchumi and from the dukas up the road, arrange a meeting with Bernard Njorgi (which he was two hour late too and didn't bring the documents I wanted, although I expected as much) and most importantly I met my good friend JT.

Day Two was equally successful. I posted some adverts for house-hold furniture and the car in the Sarit, managed to get the car cleaned at Parkland (which took all of six hours to do, due to them having to remove some writing on the side of the car with vast quantities of petrol) and in the evening I met Sam Hinton.
Sam is an American guy I met jointly through Bigsoccer.com and through another good friend Cesar Benoit. I'd spoken to him via email prior to my arrival in Nairobi and I was very much looking forward to meeting him in person. I drove into town, still enjoying every second of driving in Nairobi, and picked him up from Parklands. From there I took him back to the cottage where William had prepared a fantastic dinner which was devoured within minutes! We then proceeded to chat about Kenya, life, Africa and football through out the evening. He's a quietly spoken guy, but very intelligent and it was great to speak to someone face-to-face who has almost exactly the same dreams and aspiration as me (to set up a Football Academy in Kenya). Once I start talking about the subject I could go on chatting for hours, I lie awake a night dreaming about running a renowned academy in the country that means so much to me.
I offered to give Sam a lift back to where he was staying, luckily David and Jacob offered to tag along to help us both find our way. We set off down Waiyaki Way and into town, but as we drove up university hill we were flagged down by the 'Police'. I use the word Police loosely, because when you live in the west the word Police conjures up images of law enforcing officers who are there to help ensure the inhabitancies of communities abide my the law. Not in Kenya, these 'Police' may occasionally do some good for the community but on the whole they are seen as a menace. A recent Daily Nation poll indicated that the Police Service were by far the most corrupt organization in Kenya, you don't have to travel far in Kenya to see this evidence first hand. So we were flagged down by a chubby, proud 'Police Officer' who greeted us all quite politely initially, then on his inspection of our seat-belts found that Jacob was not wearing the correct seat belt. Sat in the back with Sam, he was not using the side seat belt but instead using the central one due to having grave difficulty connecting the belt itself to the clip. Suddenly the 'Police officers' manner turned, his voice raised and scowl increased. After a couple of minutes of us trying to convince him that Jacob was wearing a seat belt, which he obviously was, he angrily let us on our way. That wasn't the only drama of the night as it then took us around an hour and a half to find the place where Sam was staying, but it was all a bit of a laugh. After dropping Sam off home safe and sound David, Jacob and I warily returned to the cottage avoiding numerous 'Police' check points and reckless matatu's on the way back.

The rest of the week was spend dealing with the ever increasing number of inquirers for furniture, meeting Lydia to go through the stock book, chasing Bernard and Beatrice up for the documents which continued to elude me, spend some time up at the dukas talking to 'mama', played football with Collins, Stacy, David and Googley, going to the Yaya and Sarit Centre and visiting some friends in the triangle market.

Monday 4th was a day of preparation for the arrival of my Mama. William was unusually hyperactive, cleaning every possible item of furniture in the house, whilst I continued to chase up the elusive Bernard Njorogi and Beatrice who were coming more and more of a menace by the day. Then at 10:32 the ringing of my phone signaled the arrival of my Mama on Kenyan soil. I promised to pick her up a Jomo at 14:00, then almost like magic as I hug up on my Mama, my phone rang again... the name Bernard Njorogi appeared on the screen... were my eyes playing tricks on me? I answered the phone, and sure enough, the deep proud voice of Bernard Njorogi greeted me, we then proceeded to arranged a meeting at 13:30 to discuss things and collect the documents.
I arrived at his office at 13:20 and there he was, sat behind a large desk covered with a mixture of paperwork, a laptop, an assortment of different colored pens and various mobile telephones. After initial small talk we got onto the 'nitty gritty'... the documents, and without even finishing the word docum...' he proudly produced the thick file of import documents from under one of many piles of paperwork. A wave of relief washed over me, finally after days of canceled meeting and broken promises I had the documents in my hands. But he was not done there, he proceeded to talk 'the old days' when he was a promising football player in Kenya, a Midfielder to be exact, and even accompanied the country at youth level on numerous international tours including trips to Hungary and Italy. He did not finish there, he then began to boast of his links with Nike and Safaricom (The biggest mobile phones provider in the country), assuring me that if he was ever to be included in the development of an East African Football Academy he would be able to call upon numerous high powered friends and demand appealing favors from them all. I indulged in his fairy tails for a while, but as my eyes wondered around his tidy office I caught a glimpse of the time... 14:10! Oh no... Mama!
Quickly making my excuses I ran out of his office and into the slowest elevator the world has ever seen, it took me all of 10 minutes to descend four floors and once I finally arrived on the ground floor my idle jog turned into a olympic style sprint to my car that was parked further down Moi Avenue.
Once on Uhuru Highway, nothing could stop me. Weaving in and out of potholes, pedestrians and 'policemen' I made it to Jomo in 20 minutes, and as pulled into the arrivals terminal there Mama was, looking surprisingly sharp and awake. Once I'd picked her up and bored her with my trials and tribulations of the previous week, we set off to the Sarit Center to have some tea. The rest of the day we spent wondering around Westlands seeing friends and buying fruit and samosas from roadside sellers, there is truly nothing like a warm samosa from Martins stall next to the triangle market of which I became a regular visitor the previous week and was not planning on changing that routine during my last week.

The rest of the week was spent meeting Lydia several times, selling copious amounts of furniture to rich Kikuyu and generally having a good time with Mama. It was such a relief to have someone there with me for the second week. Although William is always great company during the day, the prospect of sitting on the sofa by myself eating dinner every night did get rather depressing.

On Wednesday night though, things became a little more exciting. After I'd finished yet another fantastic dinner made by William, I was in desperate need for some water and fruit. So around 8:40 I took the short mile long journey up the road to the dukas, on the way all seemed fine, it was a typically warm Nairobi evening and people were sauntering back to Kabete after a long days work. Once I'd had my now regular daily chat with 'Mama' at the duka and purchased some bananas and water from her, I made my way back to the cottage. But something did not feel right with the car on my return journey, then all of a sudden the steering wheel violently pulled to the left hand side and I came to an abrupt halt by the side of the road. Rather shock by what had just happened I climbed out of the car only to find my front left hand tyre as flat as a pancake. Now at this point most people would swear there head off or break down, me I just laughed. It part and parcel of being in Kenya that at some point you will get your first burst tyre, and I was looking forward to the challenge of changing the tyre on a clear Kenyan night. But all of a sudden I heard someone shouting in the dark 'Tom... Tom is that you?', it was David and Jacob staggering down to the road after a few to many Tusker's after work. They enquired as to what was wrong with the car and I promptly showed to them the current state of my front tyre. "Ahhh" they proclaimed, after a slight pause to asses the tyres condition they took the wrench from my hands and removed the spare tyre from the back of the car. In the mean time I jacked the car up with great satisfaction, then all of a sudden Googley appeared out of the dark, "Hi Tom', let me help". So there I was, in the dark of an African evening with David, Jacob and Googley changing the tyre on my car, David had allocated himself chief tyre changer, with Googley his trusted assistant, Jacob had assigned himself the role of mobile phone holder (or light bearer) and I happily took the role of 'jack-man'. After 45 minutes of scrambling around in the dark, we had managed to successful change the tyre and we were all on our way back to the cottage. Once we pulled into the drive and came to a halt I could not thank the three of them enough for all of there help, and it was at this point I realized... they didn't even ask me if I wanted any help. They could see that I could do with some help and it seemed instinctive to go out of there way to help someone change there tyre, the though of not helping probably never crossed there minds

My final day was to be my most memorable. Me and Mama awoke from our stupor early as usual and proceeded to make ourselves tea and scrambled eggs. We planned an out of town excursion for my final day, be it only a 20 minute drive out of town, but the contrast in environment was huge. In Kenya you can get into your car around any normal built up, commercial district of Nairobi, make your way onto Waiyaki Way, drive 20 minutes North West out of town and you come to one of the most spectacular natural sights in the world... The Rift Valley. Stretching 5,000 km from the most northern point of Syria to central Mozambique, the Rift is one of the most magnificent natural sights you will ever see.

So we packed some fruit and tea into the car and made our way out of the city and into the country. Once we'd arrived at the Rift, the view was staggering! When you are sat on the edge of the valley staring over most of Kenya's northern territory, its like having front row tickets to one of the most beautiful view in Africa, and one things for sure, you'll never forget the time you spend there. For me it was extra special, no only was this going to be the last time in at least six months that I would be able to visit Kenya, but it was quite possibly one of the last time I would be experiencing these moment with my Mama for the forceable future. After an hour of taking in the spectacular view we made out way back down Waiyaki Way to Loresho, avoiding numerous head on collisions with the ever present (and ever crazy) matatus. For the rest of the day we spent going through paperwork and showing yet more rich Kikuyu around the cottage. By the evening we had exhausted ourselves with all the work and with the sky clearing and sun setting, we came up with a brilliant plan... lets go back out to the Rift! Impulse adventures like there always have an added excitement to them, and this one was no different, as we made our way out of Nairobi for the second time of the day. Kenya takes on a completely different feel in the evening, as the majority of the inhabitants wined down for the day, so it seems does the animal and countryside. With the sun setting in the west, it cast a sleepy golden vale across the country and the inhabitancy of the great land seem only to pleased to go along with the flow. We reached the rift valley just in time, the sun had put a whole new perspective on land and animal scattered across the rift. It... was... beautiful, and what made it even more special was my Mama was there to experience it with me.