Kenyan nightlife, bribes, language and Bruce's birthday

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Have just had a few eventful days. On Thursday at St Dorcas the kids decided it was time that I learnt Swahili, the local language. They have started me off with some common greetings and numbers 1 to 10 and I have till Monday to learn them as they are going to test me when I get to the orphanage, I'm sure I'm meant to be the teacher

Some examples are

Hello - Habari
How are you - u hali gani
Fine - mzuri
What is your name - jina lako nani
My name is Chris - jina langu ni Chris
Thank you - asante sana
You're welcome - karibu

On my way home from St Dorcas on Thursday I saw my first bribe taking place. I was on a Matatu travelling home when I saw 2 policeman, one on either side of the road. The one on the other side of the road to us pulled over a matatu and before the policeman could open his mouth the driver handed over some money. Apparently this is very common practice here.

On Thursday night I had my first night out in Nairobi on Thursday night. Meet up with a kenyan guy, Alen, in a cafe called Artcafe, a trendy cafe/bar in a shopping centre called Westgate in a suburb called Westlands in the Northwest of Nairobi which is a big ex-pat area. Had a few Tusker's (kenyan beer), ok maybe a bit more than a few, and a good chat about the Kenya, Nairobi and the nightlife on offer in Nairobi. There are only 2 bars that could be classified as gay, a bar called Gypsy's in Westlands, mixed gay/straight and ex-pat/local crowd and another bar in central Nairobi with a mainly local crowd. However as this was a Thursday night the bar to go to is a place called Havana's in Westlands so off we went.

Normally when travelling around Nairobi at night mzungu's (local name for white people) would drive or get taxi's everywhere as it's not normally safe to walk around on your own but as I was with Alen we decided to walk from Artcafe to Havana's. Which was great but I did get a few strange looks. Anyway off we went to Havana, we walked for about 10 mins down some side streets, I was starting to think that there can't be any bars down these streets, then suddenly we come to these two bars, one being Havana, next to each other and loads of people out on the street drinking and dancing. Alen's introduced me to some of his mates and we had a good night of drinking and chatting. Then it was time to go home, I was a bit tipsy so Alen sorted me a taxi and made sure i was given a good price.

The next day, Friday, was Bruce's birthday so Julie had arrange for some friends to come around for some food and drinks. If my head on Saturday morning is anything to go by a good night was had by all. According to Julie at the end of the night I was slurring my words and holding court, opps, at least Julie said that I didn't embarrass myself, first time for everything. Then on Saturday, Bruce, Kai, Sabrina and I went Paintballing, I had forgotten just had much they can hurt, got some nice bruises now, but had a great time as there was only the four of us playing so it was me and Kai against Bruce and Sabrina. The aim was to get hold of the flag, which was in the middle of the field, before the other team. I would like to say that we won but it ended up in a draw.

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