A little bit about Nairobi:
Ok, before I jump to the trip to Homa bay, I’m gonna back up and give you a little windmill break to tell you about my experiences in Nairobi.
Well…..I didn’t actually see much of Nairobi, since 95% of my day was spent in the shop. However, I manage to meet a handful of the engineering students at the University, and they were all quite nice! Word must have spread quickly of the Americans as everyday it seemed there would be another visitor to the shop. On the last day, a handful of girls, I’d say about 13 yrs old, came by because they wanted to meet me. The concept of a woman engineer was so such a far-fetched concept. “How old are?” “23” “Ohh…so young…and you can do what these men can do?”
Not to brag, but the Kenyans thought I was cool. If they only knew…
As I might have mentioned already, maybe—we spent most of the day in the shop. And though the machines, were ancient – for a lack of a better term—they were still machines and we still had power. Therefore, though I never forgot we weren’t in America, I’d forget that I was in a developed country while in our little shop. Then I used the restroom.
Before I give you the details, remember that the toilets were locked at all times, and so you had to obtain a key to get in.
So I unlock the door and see four stalls in along my right side. First toilet had no door, no top on the back of the toilet, no handle to flush it and not even a place that toilet paper could have been had there been any. Hm, moving along. Well, stall number two had a door. This is looking up. It had a pool hand for flushing….and no toilet. Just a basin at ground level. Door number three and four were replicas of door number one.
I wasn’t quite ready for the hole in the ground yet, so I went for door number one, (er, lack of).
Good thing they keep that place under lock and key!!
Night out on the town:
One word for you -- CARNIVORE!!!!!!!!!!!!
One of the nights, Alex, Mark and I headed out to a little restaurant called Canivore!! (In case you didn’t figure that out from the tittle). Khanjan came along as well, which is ironic since he is a hardcore, save all animals, vegetarion. I’ll upload picture of the menu at this enchanting abode. The restaurant was about 30 minutes drive from the hotel and clearly not for the locals (the meal was 1500 shillings, which is about 20 bucks).
Let me paint you a picture of Carnivore. This a land of all meat. Even ostrich and Crocodile were on the menu!! All you can eat… Granted we had to wait over an hour for a seat, but well worth the wait (besides, it gave us a chance to spend some quality time with our new favorite beer…Tuskerrrrrr—THE beer of Kenya, and one that never let us down). A white flag stood in the center of our table. The meal began with the waiter placing a lazy susan filled with an assortment of sauces for the different meats at our table. Then, one by one came another waiter with an 18” rod bursting with a new and delicious meat: chicken, pork, turkey, ribs, sausage, (Tusker) ostrich meatballs, (Tusker) crocodile meat, juicy ostrich meat…etc. One by one, the waiters came; each with a new, thirst quenching slab to fill our bellies. They came and we ate, until we could eat no more. The white flag was dropped, as a sign of our surrender. A waiter returned with empty hands (it was a sad moment) and cleared our plates. Luckily, he wasn’t empty handed for long. He shortly returned to replace the voids on the table with mouth watering desserts to refresh ones pallet (not such a sad moment this time).
Carnivore, a beautiful place that will always hold a special place in my heart.
Other bits I will not forget about Nairobi:
1. Mango juice – juice from heaven
2. Breakfast everyday with the waitress that hated us
3. The taxi drivers (in their ancient cars)—who would stop to get gas on the way to the destination. Then, they wouldn’t just drop you off. You had the taxi for however long you need him. Before getting in, a price was negotiated. For example, our driver brought us to Carnivore for an agreed price, THEN, instead of leaving, he waited outside in his car until we finished our meals, and then drove us home.)
4. Terminal Hotel --nice people, decent room (as long as you ignore the occasional tiny cockroach found on wall or floor, and you don’t mind a mosquito net that had a hole or two in it.)
5. The bar—directly below our room that had Kareeoke on Thursday nights.
6. The Mosque across the street. For those of you who have never experienced being near a Mosque before, they all have loud speakers on the top. As you know, Muslims pray 5 times a day. Subsequently, the loud speakers emit a chant (I’m a little rusty on my Arabic(?), so I was having trouble making out the words…). However, after the first night (when it scared the crap out of me at 4 in the morning), I slept right through it, so no complaints. If anything the speakers were nice, kind of a check on the time.
Alright, that’s all I got on Nairobi. In case I forgot to mention, we spent most of our time in the shop…
Homabay, here we come!!!!!
Ok, before I jump to the trip to Homa bay, I’m gonna back up and give you a little windmill break to tell you about my experiences in Nairobi.
Well…..I didn’t actually see much of Nairobi, since 95% of my day was spent in the shop. However, I manage to meet a handful of the engineering students at the University, and they were all quite nice! Word must have spread quickly of the Americans as everyday it seemed there would be another visitor to the shop. On the last day, a handful of girls, I’d say about 13 yrs old, came by because they wanted to meet me. The concept of a woman engineer was so such a far-fetched concept. “How old are?” “23” “Ohh…so young…and you can do what these men can do?”
Not to brag, but the Kenyans thought I was cool. If they only knew…
As I might have mentioned already, maybe—we spent most of the day in the shop. And though the machines, were ancient – for a lack of a better term—they were still machines and we still had power. Therefore, though I never forgot we weren’t in America, I’d forget that I was in a developed country while in our little shop. Then I used the restroom.
Before I give you the details, remember that the toilets were locked at all times, and so you had to obtain a key to get in.
So I unlock the door and see four stalls in along my right side. First toilet had no door, no top on the back of the toilet, no handle to flush it and not even a place that toilet paper could have been had there been any. Hm, moving along. Well, stall number two had a door. This is looking up. It had a pool hand for flushing….and no toilet. Just a basin at ground level. Door number three and four were replicas of door number one.
I wasn’t quite ready for the hole in the ground yet, so I went for door number one, (er, lack of).
Good thing they keep that place under lock and key!!
Night out on the town:
One word for you -- CARNIVORE!!!!!!!!!!!!
One of the nights, Alex, Mark and I headed out to a little restaurant called Canivore!! (In case you didn’t figure that out from the tittle). Khanjan came along as well, which is ironic since he is a hardcore, save all animals, vegetarion. I’ll upload picture of the menu at this enchanting abode. The restaurant was about 30 minutes drive from the hotel and clearly not for the locals (the meal was 1500 shillings, which is about 20 bucks).
Let me paint you a picture of Carnivore. This a land of all meat. Even ostrich and Crocodile were on the menu!! All you can eat… Granted we had to wait over an hour for a seat, but well worth the wait (besides, it gave us a chance to spend some quality time with our new favorite beer…Tuskerrrrrr—THE beer of Kenya, and one that never let us down). A white flag stood in the center of our table. The meal began with the waiter placing a lazy susan filled with an assortment of sauces for the different meats at our table. Then, one by one came another waiter with an 18” rod bursting with a new and delicious meat: chicken, pork, turkey, ribs, sausage, (Tusker) ostrich meatballs, (Tusker) crocodile meat, juicy ostrich meat…etc. One by one, the waiters came; each with a new, thirst quenching slab to fill our bellies. They came and we ate, until we could eat no more. The white flag was dropped, as a sign of our surrender. A waiter returned with empty hands (it was a sad moment) and cleared our plates. Luckily, he wasn’t empty handed for long. He shortly returned to replace the voids on the table with mouth watering desserts to refresh ones pallet (not such a sad moment this time).
Carnivore, a beautiful place that will always hold a special place in my heart.
Other bits I will not forget about Nairobi:
1. Mango juice – juice from heaven
2. Breakfast everyday with the waitress that hated us
3. The taxi drivers (in their ancient cars)—who would stop to get gas on the way to the destination. Then, they wouldn’t just drop you off. You had the taxi for however long you need him. Before getting in, a price was negotiated. For example, our driver brought us to Carnivore for an agreed price, THEN, instead of leaving, he waited outside in his car until we finished our meals, and then drove us home.)
4. Terminal Hotel --nice people, decent room (as long as you ignore the occasional tiny cockroach found on wall or floor, and you don’t mind a mosquito net that had a hole or two in it.)
5. The bar—directly below our room that had Kareeoke on Thursday nights.
6. The Mosque across the street. For those of you who have never experienced being near a Mosque before, they all have loud speakers on the top. As you know, Muslims pray 5 times a day. Subsequently, the loud speakers emit a chant (I’m a little rusty on my Arabic(?), so I was having trouble making out the words…). However, after the first night (when it scared the crap out of me at 4 in the morning), I slept right through it, so no complaints. If anything the speakers were nice, kind of a check on the time.
Alright, that’s all I got on Nairobi. In case I forgot to mention, we spent most of our time in the shop…
Homabay, here we come!!!!!
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