Oy! I almost ran over a  monkey on the way to school this morning. It darted out suddenly in front of the car and zipped across the road as I slammed on the brakes. I've never seen a monkey move so fast before!

Driving

   Along with the standard developing country road problems like potholes, narrow lanes, no paved shoulders, unmarked speedbumps and carjacking, you also have to watch out for matatus, privately owned minibuses that zip around at breakneck speeds.  And then of course, the maps are not always accurate, which sometimes leads one to get slightly lost. 

   On a practice drive to the school one time I missed the turn off and I ended up driving to the next town over, Gachie, a small, crowded town where I found the driving very difficult with so many people and bikes on the sides of the narrow road. I was worried about hitting someone so I went super slow and eventually did a U-turn. The next day, I asked a friend's driver to show me the turn off that I had missed, and told him how I had driven to Gachie, which is actually not that far away.

"Gachie? You went to Gachie?" he said, in a funny tone of voice.

"Yes. Is there something bad about Gachie?" I asked.

"That's where a lot of carjackers come from."

"Oh." I laughed nervously. "Does this mean you wouldn't go to Gachie?"

"Well, I have been there before, but I would not feel comfortable living there. There are more Mungiki there than in other areas."

"Mungiki?"

"They are sort of like...a criminal gang..." [see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6685393.stm and http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/07/01/us-kenya-gang-idUSHUL13001020070701?pageNumber=2]

"I was very nervous because there were so many people crowding the road and I didn't want to hit anybody."

"If you do have an accident, even if it's completely not your fault, you should not stay in the area."

"Why not?"

"Because they might beat you, or lynch you, or torch your car."

"Oh. So I should leave right away?"

"Yes, and drive to the police station or another safe place to call the police and report the accident."

That discussion certainly made me feel excited about driving. Gachie did not look so bad in daylight. The advice about leaving the scene of an accident seems odd but is probably true. Just last weekend there was a story in the newspaper about some young men from Gachie who had gone out drinking, and while walking around at night, one of them was hit by a car. When the driver of the car got out to check on the victim, the victim's friends threatened to beat him up. Scared, the driver jumped back in his car and sped away to a police station to report the accident. Unfortunately, the victim died, and it is not clear if the friends, some of whom are now missing, did anything to try to help.

In the meantime, my driving, which was slow and shaky here to start with, has been improving every day.  I drove M. to school and K. to work one day recently. K. complimented me on my ability to keep up with the local traffic speed: "You've moved on from the Glacial Pace of Infinite Fear" he said with admiration. This was followed by the ultimate praise, something that every driver likes to hear from her passengers: "I wasn't even scared once." 

Nairobi news

My hands are cold, and I'm wearing a fleece as it's early morning in Nairobi. Keith and I are here, slightly south of the equator, and more than a mile high at 1700 m.  Our new home is a house in a gated compound in Runda, a leafy green suburb north of Nairobi's city centre. 

The road in the compound in front of our gate, which is barely visible on the right, past the guardhouse.

After you enter our gate, you will see the house:

Home for the next couple of years.

We are camping out in the empty house with hardly any furniture, as our shipment won't arrive for 2-4 months, assuming Somali pirates don't get it...

Empty living room.

But the weather is beautiful every day and we are enjoying the garden.

View from dining room. 

July and August are winter months, the mornings and evenings are chilly (12-15oC) and light sweaters have come in handy. During the day, it's 20-24oC. Even during the summer months, it's temperate; the daytime high is usually in the mid-20s, and a record high temperature would be 31oC.

Bird of paradise in the back yard.

Bottlebrush tree by the driveway.

We haven't been on safari yet, but I've already spotted some wildlife lurking in our garden:

An endangered black rhino, Clayus pottus ssp.  planterius, 
whose horn has been stolen for nefarious (medicinal?) purposes.

The past week has been a non-stop round of banking, insurance and other move-related errands, but I did manage to take an afternoon off to go for a walk in the nearby Karura Forest with my friend MK. We heard lots of strange bird noises, saw a thick, writhing ant trail across our path, and visited some lovely waterfalls. Karura was recently revitalized as a safe place to go for nature walks. Apparently though, some people (personnel of a certain embassy) are not allowed to walk there for security reasons. I can sense my mother getting anxious already...don't worry, I'm careful! It seemed perfectly safe to me, although it was a bit disconcerting that the only other people we encountered was a group of nature lovers hiking around accompanied by two armed guards, menacing looking guys toting AK-47s and decked out in full camouflage gear. 

Only 4 days left

The apartment is a mess, and I haven't done an inventory yet or filled out the insurance forms. What have I been doing to prepare for the move from Paris (land of Berthillon, Martine Lambert, and Picard luscious ice creams) to Nairobi (parched desert almost devoid of frozen treats?) I've been making ice cream with my Cuisinart ice cream maker, the kind that has a built in freezer unit so you don't have to pre-freeze anything. It's important to make sure all is working properly before the move, yes? My good friend "Amazon" is right on with their recommendations. If you have room in your kitchen and want an easy to use ice cream maker with built in freezer unit, get the Cuisinart one, plus two books, Ben and Jerry's "The Homemade Ice Cream and Dessert Book" (for American style uncooked ice cream and traditional flavours) and David Lebowitz's "The Perfect Scoop" (for European style cooked custard based ice creams and exotic flavours like Basil Ice Cream). Perhaps it's just coincidence that American style ice cream is fast and easy, and European style tastes creamier and smoother but involves a lot more work and takes longer. So far, so good: raspberry-rosé sorbet and chocolate with chunks of chocolate-walnut praline. I think I can face the move now.

Only 4 days left until the movers come. The next few days will be a frenzy of sorting, organizing, and paperwork. Yesterday afternoon when I walked into our apartment building I could barely get to our mailbox as there were stacks of huge TeamAllied moving boxes piled up in the front hall. TeamAllied is our mover too and I wondered who else was moving out of our building. A big, burly mover stepped out of the elevator with another box.

"Who's moving out?" I asked.
"Someone on the 6th floor," he replied.
"We're moving with TeamAllied too, next week in fact," I explained.
"Where are you going?"
"To Africa, to Nairobi."
"That's Kenya, right?"
"Yes."
"This is also a move to Nairobi."
"Really? To Nairobi?"
"Yes, it's that man over there," and the mover gestured to the hallway where a man was talking to the gardien (caretaker) of our building. There are many neighbours that I say hello to regularly, but I had never seen this man before. I accosted him as soon as he was done talking to the gardien.

"I hear you're moving to Nairobi. We're moving there too. TeamAllied is coming to move our things next Tuesday morning."
"Interesting, why are you moving there?"
"It's for my husband's job, with UNEP."
"I work for UNEP too."
"Really? What's your name?"

So that's how I met Dr. DM. He gave me his card. We'll look him up after we get to Nairobi.

House staff: do we or don't we?

We haven't moved yet and I'm already wracked with guilt and anxiety about servants. We currently have cleaning help for four hours a week, and that is enough. I don't want more, both because we don't need it, and also because the kids can do more and if there's constant help they'll never learn how to do things on their own. The current tenants of our Nairobi house have a part-time gardener and one full-time maid/nanny. We were asked if we wanted to keep them on, and since I don't know them, had barely met them, don't need a nanny and don't like household help hovering while I'm trying to work at home, I initially said no. Since then though, I've been gently persuaded/guilted into keeping them on for a 3 month probationary period. It's good for them, they aren't left unemployed, and it will be good for us, to have experienced help right away who know the house and garden, and who come highly recommended.

Take a look at the Monday June 13 post and comments from http://africaexpatwivesclub.blogspot.com/ for a brief discussion of life with servants. Is it modern and independent and admirable to do everything yourself (with the help of electric appliances) or is it cold and callous to refuse to employ house staff? And here's an opinion from a Kenyan who grew up in Nairobi and now lives abroad (from comments, http://africaexpatwivesclub.blogspot.com/): I really feel sorry for women in the West who have such a huge burden. They feel sorry for women of the south but they are the most burdened women in the planet. They have such demanding domestic work as well as the pressure to go out and have careers they are the real 'beasts of burden'.

Nairobi: First Impressions

The garden at Gigiri Homestead B&B, Nairobi,
where we stayed while househunting,

"What were your impressions of Nairobi?" a friend asked me recently. We had just returned from a 3 day trip, to look for housing and to visit the school that, hopefully, the kids will attend. Sorry, no exciting photos of exotic landscapes and awesome animals. Nairobi itself, brief glimpses caught from the car on the way from and to the airport, seemed like a typical city in a developing country--a mix of mostly run-down, scruffy buildings with a few shining office towers, young men loitering on sidewalks or sitting on universally popular white PVC chairs, and lots and lots of road construction with deep ditches and big piles of red dirt everywhere. The soil is red from iron, just like in PEI (that's Prince Edward Island for you non-Canucks).

Most of our time was spent looking at houses, weighing the pros and cons of each one, and especially, thinking about security. Yes, I'm paranoid, yes, I'm spoiled, and no, I have never lived anywhere dangerous before, so that is why I was so obsessed with finding a house that was as secure as possible. I've learned a lot about medieval siege mentality this week. Within our castle, we will have a keep, a "safe haven." This is the safe haven's entrance: a thick metal gate at the top of the stairs that we will close and lock at night to separate the upstairs bedrooms from the rest of the house.

Gate at the top of the stairs, to close and lock at night.

The idea is to have layers of defences, making it harder for burglars. The house has an alarm system, of course, including "panic buttons." One press, anytime during the day or night, will summon armed guards to our door within minutes. There is a high electric fence around the property: and the property is in a fenced in, gated compound that is guarded 24/24. In addition, the neighbourhood itself has barriers and guards at the two main entrance roads. By the way, it is not just expats who live here, there are plenty of Kenyans who prefer to live in gated compounds.

View of the electric fence from upstairs.

Some other things I have learned: Try to avoid choosing a house next to an open field, a construction site, or a busy road, as all of these places allow strangers to come and go right next to your property. To maximize security, you want to minimize uncontrolled access by strangers. The more you isolate yourself from people in general, either by driving in a big, 4x4 car, or living in a fortress, the safer you will be.

The good news is that everyone says the bad guys are only after stuff, and not interested in harming people. Some things that people have said to reassure me: "It's much better here than in Johannesburg, where they'll beat you up for the fun of it," or "Nairobi is so much better than South Sudan." Ok. I'm feeling very safe now.

Goodbye Old Friend

1998 Mitsubishi Space Wagon

       I sold the car tonight. Our faithful and trouble-free companion for the past 11 years. K. put up the ad today for la voiture, and by evening I already had several heavy breathing, heavily accented phone calls from men who wanted to look at "her" and hand over the money. It made me feel like I was in a slightly sleazy Cold War spy novel. A Bulgarian chef desperate for a car came by to look her over tonight. He inspected carefully, verified that there was a spare tire (I didn't even know there was a spare tire, under the car--this is how ignorant I am), and ran his fingers over her in places I bet she had never been touched before (in the little holes in the hubcaps). A short test drive, he said Yes, paid a deposit, and we shook hands.

       It's a relief that it sold so quickly, one less thing to deal with, but I'm also a little sad. Even though I don't even really like cars to begin with, there's more than a decade of memories bundled up with that car, ski trips, weekend outings, frantically trying to entertain screaming babies strapped into car seats, then fast forward a decade to listening to Agatha Christie mysteries, all of us guessing whodunnit.

Naroibi skyline.

       Now, the reason why we're selling the car, and the real reason I have been such a blogging sloth recently, is that I've been dealing with our impending move to Nairobi, Kenya. July 9 is the deadline. This weekend we head to Nairobi for a few days of house and school hunting. I know practically nothing about Nairobi other than the following: lots of petty crime and gated compounds, great Indian food, wonderful temperate climate year round, stunning wildlife and landscapes nearby. By next Wednesday I'll know a lot more, I hope.