But you want to hear me? Send me your fixed telephone number and then.. maybe I call you

PS: I’m comming back the 24th of May

Kwaheri!

I’m really sorry people!!!!!! I know you are all following me, updating a blog is not always so fun… :p

Owkey what happened in Week 8

From monday to friday just working in the office, like every day…. But the Saturday!!! I was invited for a traditional African wedding in Kilimambogo (?, I hope i written good :)) I really thanks Steven and Sarah for theire invitation, because it was a very nice experience to be there. The people who where singing when we arrived, the small walk down hill to the house of Sarah her mother and grand mother (110 year!!! and she still looked good and she still worked!) The big families of the both sides, i think we were almost with 200 or something. The nyama choma for lunch-dinner, wow the roadrunner was really nice….. The christmas tree decoration I received arround my neck, after they called me Sammy Muthungõ (Owkey it means “white man”) and everybody was watching me… I was the only Mzungu their, I think some of them never saw a white person

Steven, Sarah, Rebecca, Liz and Sarah…. Really thank you for the nice day!!!! ASANTE SANA!!!!

Week 9:

Monday I went to office finished a lot of things, because my holiday started tuesday :D. My parents arrived monday evening. Tuesday we drove a bit arround in Nairobi City, and in the evening we went to a restaurant. Wednesday morning we left very early to Lake Bogoria (yeah again…, but this time we didn’t crash ), together with Michael. If you want to read my experience about that you can always read my other post about lake bogoria. Thursday we didn’t do anything special, but in the evening we had “The Memorial”. Friday morning at 7AM our safari 4×4 was waiting for us to go to Masai Mara, one of the most famous wild park in the world. We stayed in a very luxurious tented camp… In our first game drive we saw already 3 of the 5 animals of the big five, we saw the lion, the buffalo and the elephant. But we saw a cheetah, they are really rare only 44 anymore in that park. The saturday and the sunday we did game drives in the morning and the afternoon, and saw a lot of animals, chasing each other, eating each other, .. and doing 18+ things. The sunday while we were doing our last game drive we saw in the last half an hour an rhino, also very rare to see, so at last we saw 4 on 5 of the big five. We never saw the Leopard:( . Monday after breakfast we left the park back to Nairobi (5 hours driving)

Week 10:

Tuesday we took a break and didn’t do a lot, but wednesday morning we left at 6 AM to the coast we arrived in Mombassa arround 1PM, we searched for a local restaurant to take lunch, and after that we drove to a nice beach house in Kilifi 1 hour driving from Mombassa. Were the cook and the house cleaner were waiting for us. Then I went together with the cook to the local market for buying some vegetables, …. And in the evening he cooked a nice meal for us like he did all the days we stayed there. The thursday we went to another nature park were we did a nice walk and there was a butterfly garden. The friday we went to Fort Jezus in Mombassa an old fort build by the portoguese people a very long time ago. Saturday we went to the ruines of Gedi near to Malindi. And at last the sunday we went to a nice restaurant to have a very nice meal. And monday afternoon we drove back to Nairobi, and I arrived dead! really driving at night in Kenya is killing me!

Again sorry for no post in the last 3 weeks but now you have a lot to read.

Ciao!!!

Gonna post the pictures this night!

Everybody says that I only live in the weekends, so now I’m going to tell something about the week at office.
The website is evolving good, the public website is almost ready. At the moment I’m busy with the administration side.
Thursday we had an electricity blackout, so we couldn’t do a lot. And friday morning( almost noon) was it the same story. Then I asked a half day off.
Owkey weekend.
I was a bit nervous saturday morning.. my first hair cut in Africa, they are not used to cut hair of european guys, but it was good enough. But it was a bit strange, in Belgium they wash your hair first and then they cut your hair. But here, they first cut your hair and wash you hair later.
In the afternoon, we went to Paradise Lost, what can you see there? A 2.5 milj year (???) old cave, we went into the cave and i was happy i had my digital camera with me, because the electricty was down, so there were nog lights in the cave. We also rented a little boat, to go on the lake. It was a nice afternoon toghether with Ken, Pita, Steven and I.
In the evening we were invited at Laura’s place to have dinner, were we had a very nice meal, and afterwards we played some games.

Sunday morning, i went out for preaching (on the street, not from hous e to house), it was really super. People are very friendly, and sometimes they just come to you to ask lecture, and they are nog happy with a tract, they want a book.

After that we went to the meeting, and in the afternoon i did a lot of laundry

Thats it for this week,
Next week asembly, so i’m not going to do anything special.

Greetings,
Sammy

Everything still fine here, i almost would say, Kenya is becomming my second home.

This weekend we went out for hiking. Together with James, Ken, Spencer and Steven we went to Mount Longonot. A little bit information: This vulcano that has erupted for the last time in 1860 is one hour driving from Nairobi and it is located southeast of Lake Naivasha in the Great Rift Valey. There is a huge crater in it and you can walk around it, and we did that offcourse. The start of the round was at a height of 2150m, we first had to climb up to this hight (1u walking/climbing) before we could start the round of the crater (5u hours hiking).

My opinion: Just wonderfull, the views of the Rift Valley are just …… Some moments it was really difficult to climb up, but it was owkey, not for everybody, but we are not going to talk about that, right Steven?! And i saw for the first time some wild animals, some Zebra’s and antilopes, but i was glad i saw them in the wild.

Befor i forget we left home at 6 AM, because in the afternoon it would be very hot to walk. And it was!! We have walked longer then we had thougth we would walk. But it was a nice experience. And now we are for sure that we want to climb up to Mount Kenya (5199m), but we are going to train first a bit:). That would be for the end of May.

The end of May? Yes, I’m going to stay a bit longer than planned in Kenya, instead of comming back the 5 of may i leave Nairobi the 23 may.

Then we left Longonot around 6PM, and we were back in Nairobi around 7PM. First we had to bring Spencer, James and Ken to there home, then i took fast a shower, because we were really dirty!!! And then we went to Jacky and Noni their home, to have a nice dinner. They had invited some youth for dinner and there after we played with the cards. And we had a very good Donkey (we call the loser of the game the Donkey) and also here we are not going to call names, right Laura :).
It was a very nice evening, but we were really tiered, like you will see on the pictures.

Sunday I tried to slept long, then I went to the meeting, in the afternoon i did together with another brother a study, and after that we went to Little India (Diamond Palace) its a shopping mall especially for people from India. We bought some food there and then we went to his place to ate the food.

In the evening i went toghether with Liz (Elisabeth) and Steven to the Cinema, we watched Pink Panther 2. If you liked the first one, you will like this one for sure!

So , like you can read, I had a really busy weekend. But I enjoyed it. Next week it will be a chill weekend!. Saturday evening we are invited at Laura her place, sunday morning preaching in the City Park. And thats it. The weekend after that we have our assembly. And the weekend their after we are going togheter with Liz and her Parent to her grandmother and great grand mother, they live near Machakos. And the weekend their after …… we didn’t planned anything yet!

I now that their are somemany people reading my blog, but it would be fun for me if you leave a omment. You guys can enjoy my stories, so just leave a little message, its always nice to hear something from you!

Asante Sana!!!

Kwaheri.

Mount Longonot:

Dinner @ Noni & Jacky

Maybe a little extension about friday, we were with 12 persons in my little appartment…. the neighbours didn’t complain about the music
But it was fur sure a nice evening.
People who were at my place: Liz, Jacky, Laura, Noni, Yvone, Anthony, John, Ken, Steven, Michael, Micah en ik

Nothing special this week, but for sure a great weekend!

Hope u have all been well…… this weedend i must say was just there… nothing eventful to say……Sammy though did a fabulous job on friday when he made some yammmeeee food….and boy….does he know how to cook….some minced meat and spagetti …..the guys and girls were very impressed by it!!!!

On Saturday we were invited for some dinner by our good Ugandan friends and they had really made some sumptuous meal …. and finally on Sunday we ended the day with sammy by going to the museum and there was a live concert by some guys playing the drums, percussion instruments and even the “jembe” it was a nice but hot afternoon…..but wonderful though.:)

Steven Kabiru

The day before going to Lake Bogoria we had to confirm the availability of the vehicle….and boy this must have been the most nerve wrecking work i had to do as the guy i had initially asked had canceled the availability of the car. Thank goodnes i had a backup guy and even a backup of a backup…hehehe it sounds wiered but….T.I.A (This is Africa) When one is making plans u most definately have to have this kind of arrangements coz 60% of the time i does not go as planned. “Enough of all the negativity…….its fun though we all were looking forward too00…” Fortunately we got a Toyota Rav 4 in the evening at 8.30pm inspected it test drove it and was fine…but dam…it we had to re-fuel it as it was totally empty. We took it to the nearest fuel station and filled it up checked all the other necesarry stuff and then went to do some shoping.

The day arrived and as scheduled we were to leave Nairobi by 6am…. i (steven) awoke at 4am prepared and went to the randevour point that was sammy’s digs. I found him making the sandwiches and yammy!!!! they looked great. Then drove off to pick the rest of the crew that was muchiri,sylvia and liz. We were running behind schedule but …guys…we have all day till the sun sets……its “African time” guys chill out.

We actually started off at 7am up waiyaki way into kikuyu highlands,limuru……and this place was cold alas! The car at this point was filled with this good smell of fooood…that was lovely.We were just enjoying air burgers(the smell of the food)

The Great Rft Valley was before us beautiful and magestic it is. At this point sammy was driving and was doing it rather well as compared to the evening before where his first turning was to the right and here in Kenya we keep left! We had to stop and take photos as u will see in the blog photos the mountain u see far ahear is the Mt Longonot a domant montain that may be easily climed in 1 day…..may be that should be our next adventure in 2 weeks time….but back to our weekend adventure….the stop over was at a point called the “view piont” where one can see the great expance of the great rift valley till where ur eyes can see. But the breeze was cold n gastly.. sammy told us it was as if he was back home…hmmm yeh right!

Down the rift valley we zoomed off…overtaking a lot of trucks that were on that road…. and this is where u see good and competent drivers n guess who was driving……?????? Sammy cudos u were ok. Passed the turnoff to Naivasha town which is a lake side town where there are these big flower firms that cultivate cut flowers and horticulture flowers for export to the European union…. there is alot of $$$$$ here…..coz of the firms….. then cruzed on to Nakuru town…. and we did reach there in good time as our estimates were the trip to Lake bogoria would take 5hrs but so far to Nakuru town we had taken 2hrs 30mins so we had made up for lost time earlier.

We stopped for a short break in Nakuru and had a small snack and stretched abit and we were off…it was getting warmer now ans we were in the rift valley floor… and this time it was muchiri who was driving and man……his left was his right when he came to be given directions and we all had a laugh about it. Turned off into Eldama ravine road north of nakuru town….he was cruising rather fast but kept to the speed limits…i guess we passed kabarak university which is an institution that is owned by the former president of kenya. Those roads up that side are good…. although not so much vehicle traffic but guys…….animal traffic is soooo much we had to watch out for cattle sheep and goats crossing the road with their little ones. The climate there is semi arid…..there is an acute shortage of clean water as u see women children and men carrying cans to go and look for water and when u find it its, stagnant and it shared by man and animals…i feel for them!

At last we were getting near the place and we reach a lodge the lake bogoria lodge hmmm seemed inviting….and it is set in a place where is abit swampy as the water is bubbling forth from the ground and is said to be very nice for the skin if one baths in it.

Finally we arrived early though but excited ….checked through the registration gate although be tried to get a bargain the kenyan way but ….lol could not!!!! I think next time we need to give the some TKK (Toa kitu Kidogo) then Sammy will go through as a resident….is it illegal….lol

In the park we started by seeing small antelopes (Dik dik….and not what u were thinking guys). Rather small but are wonderful jumpers and are perfectly adapted to the climatic conditions. Then the lake got more visible and there were flamingos all along the shore line but the stench…..that was eminating form the place….boy…some one must have “farted”. I was cool though. Drove down as we were taking photos….as u can see and seeing Sammy there with his eye on the camera….we got a rather fantastic shot of us 5 using the timer…..wooohhh…that was a nice one. We reached the point where the water bubbles forth from the ground and this was quite breath taking…..but guys we forgot something that crowns….the whole Lake Bogoria trip u can go there and u don’t do this!!!!!! The eggs and potatoes. You have to have the experience of boiling them in the super heated water and eating they are said to be fabulous. After that we sat down for our lunch and do i say…..the girls and Sammy had made really nice food…yammeeee even the birds were all over us grabing some bites…….This is when idea of going also to lake baringo came about and we decided to go……as we were driving to exit the park that’s when the car lost control and entered the bush it was a hair raising experience….. we quickly got out of it drove ahead and then got out to assess the damage that had been caused….the bamper was off and the hood was dented …even the radiator was leaking abit…… so ingenuity is the mother of invention and quickly Sammy took off his shoe laces and we tied the bamper back and the best course of action was to head back to Nakuru to have it fixed….everybody was shaken..though.

On our way back we had to stop to but some wild honey that was being sold in re-used bottles of brandy and whiskey and zebra water melons they were rather cheap this time Sammy was driving… then we reached the equator its in a place near mogotio although the locals overwhelm u as they want u to buy their stuff..its abit irritating. Then we were back in nakuru town. Here we got some bush mechanics to start working on the car as we i.e. Steven, Sammy and muchiri decided to tour nakuru town by foot…. and this is where i had to make a pit stop in the Eco-toilets and boy i had creatures in my belly. As we were walking around we came across this curio place where they were selling this tourist stuff and there was this wonderful and good looking “jembe” as Sammy calls it. I proper Swahili its called a “ngoma” drum and what he calls jembe is actually a digging hoe. what ever! We now tried on the art of presuation…..the kenyan way and really got a bargain for it and it really delighted Sammy now he had his own Ngoma (jembe) and its up to him to learn how to play it……! It was a spectacle to walk around with a Ngoma (jembe) everyone smiled and was asking him to play it for them.

Back in the car the girls were having their own small talk enjoying….some classic sweets we used to cherish when we were children called “KSL” in Swahili “patco” these were the coolest sweets to have and eat…as they were so cheap with 1bob u could get so many….it was the coolest experience ever….guys u rock.

At the garage the had manged to strighted the bumped parts and now it was time to start the paint work…..and at this point….it took soooooooo long they were sand papering the car sooooo much..i thought they would actually make a hole in or make it worse but the final pruduct was fantastic….then we had to chill till it dried…it was an argonising 5hrs waiting for the whole job to be finished.

Then we were off back to Nairobi….this time it was dark about 8pm, there was alot of traffic along the busy Nairobi, Nakuru highway as expected that when all the big truck ferrying goods to the port of Mombasa start their journey. We reached safely at about 11pm and dropped off the rest of the crew at their respective places…..

The next day we had to take the car to be washed as it was really dirty…..

I must say i really enjoyed the adventurous trip we took….and its a must for all…ok without the crush part…thanks guys.

Steven Kabiru

Owkey I can’t say anymore, I miss you all, because there are people in Kenya who are reading my blog too.

First of all i want to excuse me for the mistakes in my english.

Owright, week 4, during the work week, we moved our office from Nairobi City to Kenya Science University. Why? Too long story to tell that

But I had a wonderfull saturday, we wanted to leave at 6 o’clock in the morning to drive to Lake Bagoria, we thought it would be 5 hours driving, but it was only 3 and a half. The view to that place is just ‘wow’! Lake Bogoria is famous because of his big number of flamingo’s and the water geisers.

I have never seen so many flamingo’s and sadly enough you can’t go close to them, they fley away :(. And the water geisers, you can’t touch the water! Its so hot, that you can boil an egg in it. Really! There were some boiled flamingo’s :p!!

After Lake Bogoria, we went to another lake……………OR NOT!

Sadly enough we crashed into the bushes when we wanted to drive out of the park :(. We lost controle over the car. Result: we had to tie the bumper with a shoe lace, or radiator was bend a little bit. But we still could drive the car.. ..

So we went to the nearest city (Nakuru), to fix our car, because it was a hired car and the insurance is not so good here. But they fixed it well, they even had to repaint some parts of the body.

But it was the time to get to know eachother beter!

That was mij story for this week, I hope you still enjoy it. I know you do! Because i have really a big number of visitors.. almost 1000!

Cu all people next week on my blog!

Owkey, this week didn’t happened a lot, but I want to copy some text out of my “Lonely Planet Kenya” book:

Khartoum Characters

One classic Nairobi con trick that you’ll almost certainly be subjected to is the Sudanese refugee storyn commonly with the equally well-worn university scam. In the gambit it turns out that your interlocutor has totally coincidentally just won a scholarship to a university in your country and would just love to sit down and have a chat with you about life there. Then at some poin you’ll get the confidential lowering of the voice and the Sudanese portion of the story kicks in with ‘You know, I am not from here …’, leading into an epic tale of woe that involves them having walked barefoot al the way from Juba to flee the civil war.

Of course once you’ve shown due sympathy they’ll come to the crux of the matter: they have to get to Dar es Salaam to confirm theri scholarship and fly out for their studies, and all they need is KSh 1700 to get there, not that they could ask you, their new friend, for that much money, just anything you could spare to help them out. Giving money or anything else is likely to result in you being ‘arrested’ by fake policemen and forced t pay an exorbitant fine. In some cases these accomplices get so into their role that they beat up the original conman for the sake of authenticity, which is obviously quite intimidating!

As with al these type of scams, the best way of avoiding real trouble is to be very chosy in whgo you talk to and decline any ofers or invitations made on the street. After a day or two in Nairobi you’ll quickly learn to spot a budding ‘refugee’, especially the third time the same guy approaches you…

Owkey this story has hapened for real. But now the guy was a Zimbabwe refugee and he needed 5000 KSH, and I have him 500 KSH and, yeah, the fake police was already waiting for me:). They showed their badges but very fast, and asked me to come with them. But offcourse I didn’t do that! Again a funny story in my life:)

Friday evening I went to the Village Market with some friends (Steven, Anthony, Laura, Jacky, Jo, Noni). We had dinner there, really a nice place to stay, wow! When driving to the market we were stoped by police for checking our seat belts, and I didn’t wear one, but i had it very fast on :).

Saturday morning I went to Westgate Mall to get some food and beverage. And in the afternoon we went to the Kingdom Hall to clean it, but there were some waterpipe was broken so we didn’t had water. So we went back home.

Sunday morning I went together with Steven, Laura and Jacky to a study and after that we went to the meeting. In the after noon I went to the Nairobi National Museum (boring!!!). But outside the museum there were traditional african music players, really fabulous!!

So this was my week, and I see you all next week on my blog!!

Dus dit was mijn week en ik zie jullie volgende week terug op mijn blog!!!