Summer time, winter time, Swahili time

Dear readers,

Last week, the end of the month of October ushered in the end of day light savings time across the northern hemisphere. The change is symbolic: darkness replaces light and life is increasingly led indoors. It would be rather sadist of me to point out that over here near the equator, the sun is making its presence felt ever more strongly.

Equatorial days never grow longer or shorter as the year progresses. The sun always rises at six and starts to fade between six and seven o'clock in the evening. As a result, the Swahili concept of days and keeping time is quite different from our own. The day begins at sunset, as was the habbit in Biblical days (Jews eat their Shabbat meal on Friday rather than Saturday evening) and hours are counted from either the onset of darkness or light. So 7 o'clock am is the first hour of light and there for called saa moja (one o'clock).

This means my working day would be 0200-10.30 in swahili time, where it is 0800-1530 in our time. Needless to say this system brings about numerous isntances of utter confusement for the learner, who must always second guess which time measurement the opther speaker is using. So far, people have held up a strict segregation limiting the Swahili time system to be used only in conversation conducted in Swahili.

A handy trick in Muslim area's is using the different prayer times of islam to indicate time. One might use al-fajri, al-asiri etc to indicate what part of the day you want tot make an appointment.

While you all enjoy your extra hour of sleep, I bid you good bye, and, as usual,

Kwa heri!

D

Nairobi ... having a blast

Dear all,

Just before anybody might panic, I AM ALIVE. There have been two terrorist attacks in Nairobi by now, but it goes without saying I read about it in the papers. Unpleasant business, but no one got killed so far. Somali's make lousy terrorists apparently. Particularly unpleasant was the warning from Her Majesty's Embassy. Our boys in Nairobi told me I should avoid spots favoured by expats. Unfortunately, that covers more or less all my possible hang outs. Quite honestly, if I need to avoid malls and bars, what is a person to do o'er here?! besides, where would I do my shopping... surely not at the market? I would be way more likely to get pickpocketed there than anywhere. And I am a horrible haggler. Besides, are wazungu hangouts not usually way better secured than in the poorer sections of town? All in all it would mean I 'd be restricted to home and work.

On a more positive not, I spent my weekend in Nanyuki, where I spotted a leopard! people unfamiliar with game driving would not think too much of this, but it is in fact an extremely rare sight. I made some beautiful pictures that shall be published at first possibility.

The flight to Nanyuki was as spectacular as the Kenyan landscape. All in all, had a lovely weekend!

Kwa heri!

Out of Africa, Lake Baringo and the Internet

it is always nice, dear readers, to feel one is missed. I admit the feeling is a touch egocentric, but in all honesty it is better to missed than to be able to vanish from this pleasant abode we call earth without anybody actually caring. I have not been deported to mars in the last two weeks, of course, but I have been having serious trouble accessing the web and that might be taken for disappearing form the face of the earth in this age where the failing of the Blackberry system makes the headlines of CNN.

Just to make it absolutely clear: I have not been eaten by a hungry member of the Big Five, kidnapped by Somali pirates and neither have I been bitten by the Tse-tse fly (thank God I am not in Tanzania).

In the time my internet was down, I had a lovely time with my mother, especially when we went on a game drive in Nairobi National Park. We saw an amazing array of animals, amongst which was the King of Beasts, the lion. It turns out that my chauffeur Peter had loads of experience as a game-driver. he apparently drove four-wheel drives in the Mara and in Amboseli. It is completely to his credit that we must ascribe seeing a beautiful male lion and an eland buck in all its glory.

The weekend that followed was filled by a trip to Lake Baringo with the DAS (my dept within KPMG) staff. The drive to Baringo can only be described as spectacular. The highpoint was overlooking the Rift Valley at Limuru. The panorma is pectacular, as one is able to see all the way up to lake Naivasha and beyond. Unfortunately we drove at such a speed that the only pictures I took were of the mental category. We stayed at an island on lake Baringo in the aptly named island camp. We stayed in luxurious. tents that had no curtains. As a consequence, I woke up at six and was witness to the most stunning sunrise I ever saw from the confort of my bed. Activities varied during the weekend and I was given the task to be quizmaster of the Pool Quiz ( a pub quiz held a the poolside). Next time I will volunteer as lion tamer, since I believe that a more peceful job. KPMG people, as it turns out, are extremely competative even in relaxation. I had to hammer the bar repeatedly crying for order in much the sme way as the Lord Speaker of the House of Commons. The highpoint however, was the sundowner at a nearby island( called Gibraltar, much to the annoyance of my Spanish boss and to the general delight of my English and Anglophile colleagues who broke into 'Rule Britania' as soon as we made landfall) where we were treated to Pimm's while watching a spectacular sunset over the lake. The food that evening was nyama choma, the Kenyan version of a barbeque. I overindulged a bit ( no lunch or tea had been served) and my stomach did not take kindly on that. The rest of the night was spent at the washrooms ( Kenyan English for toilet). The drive back to Nairobi was hellish, mitigated only by the fact that one of my superiors was an inveterate outdoors man and carried with him a packet of immodium. Seldom have I greated the filthy air of nairobi with more enthusiasm. A bath and 14 hours of sleep restored me completely by the next morning, but I ahve written of nyama choma as suitable food for the remainder of my stay here.

The week that followed was not altogether exciting. By Wedenesday I had finished all my work and on Thursday the office was hit by an internet down time of no less than 3.5 hours. Irrtitated to no end I decided to log all company downtime form that date and present my findings at the next Mandazi Monday meeting next month. My intitative was greeted to general approval, both by my colleagues (even by a Scottish colleague not generally given to bouts of overt enthusiasm) and my superiors.

In the mean time I fought a valliant battle with my internet connection and it finally seams to be restored, although Sundays remain a trying day for the network of Zuku.

Now that you are fully up to date, I will retreat to have a bath and read another chapter of my book.

Cheers,

Daan

The Hague for Kenyans

Kenya, and Nairobi in particular, is no stranger to expats. Of course the most prominent among them are the Brits, but the Dutch are not much less prominent. Kenyans, however, are having a hard time telling them apart from the Germans, who are called Wadachi(from Deutsch obviously) in Kiswahili.

However prominent the loud blue-eyed wazungu might be, the average Kenyan does not know all that much about Holland. Yet, in the past month, the nation's attention is fixed upon our small realm at the bottom of the sea. The reason? Well er... a Spaniard called Ocampo.

This gentleman is in fact the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. 5 key Kenyan politicians and a radio host are currently engaged in two separate pre-trial hearings concerning their role in the post election violence (abbreviated as PEV in the local media) after the 2007 presidential elections. Needless to say it is hard for anybody here to get around the whole judicial circus that has been going on for the past month at The Hague. Poor quality live streamingimages are being broadcast almost every evening, with the slightly mischievous heading: images as received from the Hague. Not that I mistrust Kenyan media, but considering the lavish budgets the UN usually arranges for itself, I find it a bit hard to believe that the images in the courtroom produce streaming video that makes youtube clips seem professional.

Undaunted by all this rather boring (honestly, historic as these trials might be, they are not a thrill ride) TV, I make it my habit to consume the news on paper only. Every morning after Peter drops me off (since they removed the police from the round-abouts and left them to the miraculous appliances called traffic lights the journey is speeded up by 20-30 minutes every day) , I have my morning coffee at Kapital Coffee and read the Daily Nation.

The Daily Nation is actually a very interesting paper to read. I has editorials that would blow the NRC (Dutch quality newspaper reknowned for a certain arrogance) right out of the water. perhaps that is not so difficult, but still, it cheers up the morning. I actually had a laughing fit last Thursday, when I read the collumn of the reporter who follows the Hague trials. He wrote, and I quote: 'The Hague is the ideal city for the ICC. The city is rather dull, it's nightlife non-existant and it is therefore exactly the place where one should want legally complex trials such as these to be held. The legal experts can rattle their judicial sabres at hearts content, while the suspects linger in the city that has none of the joys of nearby Amsterdam'.

I firmly believe that Holland will have a great deal to patch up on if it ever wants to have Kenyan tourists.

Kwa heri,

D

Paying the rent in Kenya and apartment transfer

Dear readers,

After a long day of work (succesfully concluded I might add) nothing is nicer than writing you a funny little story from one of the funniest (and most fun) places in Africa, if not the world.

A theme common to all my foreign stays so far is the experience of having to pay rent. Given the fact that I usually do not have a bankaccount in other countries, it usually involves some weird way of handing over wads of cash to my landlord.

In Kenya, one can only take out KES 40.000 per day, the equivalent of 307.70 Euros. Considering that my rent is tantamount to KES 70.000, I took me 2 days to gather all the money. The heaps of banknotes were positively epic. When I went to the reception to pay my rent, the guy at the counter nearly fell of his chairs with amazement. I verified my rental rate and had him put in writing that this was the rent for up until 17 October. he duly agreed and added with a typical Kenyan smile: 'But bwana, you do know that we prefer banking?' I wholeheartedly agreed with him, but I had to admit my telebanking equipment of BOA has yet to be delivered.

On another note, I have decided to change rooms. The noise in my present apartment is just too much. I don't want to be a whiner, but since I am paying extra for this apartment, I would like it to be quieter to. As agreed, I will move to a different wing of the complex, further away from the road and one storey up. My guess is it will be more quiet. In stead of apartment A2, I guess it will be C4. Tomorrow I will move for the 5th and hopefully last time this month. Thankfully the appartments are totally similar, so I wont have to rethink the lay out of my apartment. I will just transfer everything at par.

I am glad that some people like my good old friend Valentin (din Bolentin) have left their a comment on my blog. I would urge every single one of you to leave a comment. It does make me feel good in the evening!

kwa heri,

D

PS: Valentine, scrisesi ca ai inceput un blog.. care-i adresa te rog?

Ninapenda kusema kiswahili!

Dear readers,

This evening I had my first lesson of Kiswahili. Via an expat network which I joined earlier, I was able to join up in a small group of beginners in Kiswahili. The course centre is quite close by and I must confess to rather liking the whole set up. Not only does one meet people, it also gives one the opportunity to learn a language that is in many respects the lingua franca here.

The language itself is actualy rather euphonic and the pronounciation is not that hard. The occasional tonguetwister like njema notwithstanding. it is actually amazing how quickly one picks up the language. Just this morning I understood that my driver was talking on the phone about work.

My teacher is called Mary and I cannot say anything else than that she is the ideal teacher. Patient and motivating, and yet with a good footing in grammar. It really does make one enthusiastic to learn the language.

this was all for the moment ( short, but still),

kwa herini,

D

Having dinner in 2004, or the lost art of eating with ones hands

Dear readers,

A famous British TV-series called 'Is There Live on Mars?' had plot-line wherein a police officer from the modern day suddenly woke up in 1970's Britain. Now imagine a KPMG-intern finding himself at a dinner table in Nairobi, and realising suddenly that it is 2004. Yes, my dear readers, that's exactly what happened to me.

I have always held that one of the great joys of travelling is the chance to try out other cuisines. Since Kenya is rather close to Ethiopia, I was more then happy to join my friend Jamal for an excursion to an Ethiopian restaurant.

Ethiopian food is based around a small sour tasting cousin of the pancake that is filled with all kinds of meat, vegetables and cheese. The cheese, however was completely tasteless and the sour pancakes were rather filling and a bit sour for my taste. The other fillings were quite tasty however, even though they had been stripped of most of their chillies at my request.

After I had decided I could have no more pancakes without risking a heart burn (I had 3 or 4), my friend Jamal suggested I should try to eat like the Ethiopians eat. With one's hands. Believe it or not, eating without cutlery is something that must be learned and it is not something which comes naturally. My initial attempts attracted the laughter and scorn of my table companion who commented jocularly that no man would ever marry his daughter to somebody that made such a mess of eating. Apparently, the trick is to hold the food with 5 fingers and then push it into the mouth with one's thumb. Eventually I got the hang of it, but in my mind I thanked Catharina de Medici who invented modern day cutlery. She might have been a murderous harpy, but she also did the world a lot of good.

When washing my hands(and my face), I saw a calendar. On 11 September, Ethiopia had offcially made it to 2004. I am now fully convinced there is no weirder culture on this continent than the Ethiopian and I am hoping to visit the country whiile I am in the neighbourhood.

kwa heri,

D

Kuuliza si ujinga

Dear readers,

This is my first posting with a title in Kiswahili. As a matter of fact, I have finally taken the time to make an arrangement to learn what is supposed to be the other national language of Kenya. In daily parlance at the office, some Kiswahili words are very much in vogue. Nobody would ever say Okay or alright, but instead everybody uses 'sawa, sawa'.

Kiswahili is a language that orginated on the coast of Kenya and Tanzania. It is bascially a Bantu language, enriched by loads of Arabic word and expressions, a smattering of Portuguese and Hindi, and of course some English. Kiswahili is supposed to be one of the most regular languages in the world and hence reasonably easy to learn (well... we'll find out).

Kiswahili has a veritable treasury of sayings. Allow me to share some of the sayings I have learned so far. The most important of these must surely be: Haraka, haraka, haina baraka, which means as much as: there's no blessing in hurrying up. If the time certain waiters take to give you uour change is anything to go by, this lesson is one that some kenyans have taken to heart. Drivers, however, are yet to take in this wisdom...

One that I personally like the most is: Kuuliza si ujinga. To ask is not stupidity. I think this is a very profound saying, the emaning of which can be subject to prolonged meditation indeed. Not only is it a very practical advise, but it also carries the more profound implication that pride should never blind you.

I will be starting my courses on Monday, so think of me while I stutter my first words in an non-Indo-European language.

Also, I will be moving. I will finally have my onw apartment by tomorrow evening! The place will have a swimming pool, so I can finally do something remotely remsembling physical activity. Another plan is to join a hiking club. According to a colleague it is a great way to see the country and meet new friends. And the tracks are supposed to be accessible to less sporty guys too... in theory that is.

I am starting to enjoy my work more and more. I begin to understand more and more how development aid works and contrary to my previous beliefs it proves to be an interesting subject that has actual internal debate going on.

All in all I can say that my transfer here from Europe is a succes.

Kwa herini (in blessing, a traditional Kiswahili good bye)

daan