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Published: October 22nd 2013
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Hello Folks! I was sick this past weekend and did not get to updating the blog. I didn't do what I planned on doing, so I'll have to write about our domestic troubles and little day trips.
One of the pressing matters that needed to be dealt with was the water situation. Here at the apartment we have water pumped in by the city into individual reservoirs for each of the apartments. I say reservoir, but it's really a frightening concrete hole in the ground with highly questionable sanitation... My father was informed by the general maintenance manager, Ken, that the water was disconnected for some reason and the men from the water company wanted 750 Kenyan schillings to reconnect the water. Whether it was a money making scheme or legitimate charge by the water company is an unanswered question, but there was no way he was paying!! So, we piled outside to see how to fix the problem. It turns out all the men from the water company did was use a wrench to disconnect and reverse the water meter and then shove a plastic bag and some paper inside it. So, Ken went to go get his tools
to reverse the pump. Of course that wasn't the end of our problems! We found out next from Ken that the water is rationed here, so it's only pumped into this part of the city half of the week and we would have to wait a couple days for the water flow. In addition to the lack of water flowing, when we used a mallet to break the lock and get into our reservoir we found it empty except for some foul smelling muck at the bottom.
Now I wondered, was the water being cut off a curse or a blessing? At least we had the opportunity to clean the reservoir and ensure we were getting clean water into the apartment! Ken and his side kick quickly saw their opportunity to make a few "bob" and started negotiating with my Dad to clean out the reservoir. They felt a fair price was 500 ksh or $5.95. I tried to keep my face neutral as I contemplated what you would have to pay me to get down in there!! As they greased the hinges on the door to the reservoir, the concrete surrounding it began to crack away. We settled
Finally Fixed and Flowing!
What a relief... I could finally resume my long stress relieving showers after days! on 1000 ksh to do a good job replacing the concrete, welding the locking mechanism, and dredging & cleaning out the whole thing. Can you imagine? It made me think what is the minimum wage here? It turns out that the new President recently increased the minimum wage by 14% when he took office in May from 11,995 to 13,674 a month. That's about $163 a month or $1.16 an hour using a standard 35 hour week...
After this fiasco and the day spent in bed I was impatient to get out of the Riara complex and so we took a drive into Karen to visit one of my father's very good family friends. As I mentioned before Karen is one of the more affluent neighborhoods and we were treated to drinks in the garden and "bitings" of traditional yama'chomo (or intensely barbequed goat). The garden was lovely, the goat not so much! It was the perfect spot to sit and chat and enjoy their large family and listen to the discussions of ways to improve the infrastructure of Nairobi and musings on the local politics. Across the expanse of Zimbabwe grass I spotted a beautiful tree covered in
Kapok Thorn Tree
There's no comfortably climbing up this one! thorns that I haven't seen since I was a child. I doubt the kids are tempted to climb that tree!!
To finish off the weekend, Capt R and I decided we wanted to go to the Yaya Centre to the Masaai Market to look for handcrafted gifts. My father tagged along and kept a hold of the money, a strategic move on my part! The market is held in an area of rooftop parking on designated days where the multitude of vendors lay out their items for sale and then wait to play their game of "rip off the tourists for as much as we possibly can!" The challenge for the vendors these days is that after the terrible killings at the Westgate Mall, there are basically no tourists braving the malls and the locals are impervious to their tricks.
When my father and I walked in with our snow white skin and Canadian accents, we were instantly surrounded by vendors pushing us to look at their things and engaging us in a blur vapid conversation. The first women I stopped to speak to tried to sell me two beaded necklaces for Ksh 8000 ($95)! I moved on
Masai Market at Yaya
This is a token photo - sorry but I was way to hassled to take my own photo :( at least it gives you an idea! as quickly as I could. On the far end, I found the only other foreigners in the whole place, a couple from Toronto with Maple Leafs t-shirts on. I assured them how sorry I was that they were fans of the Leafs (apologizing for no reason like a good Canadian haha). I could see the unimpressed look on their faces, my humor is lost on some people I guess. I went back to my task determined to at least purchase something and chose a pair of beautiful hand woven Kikoys and used Capt R to negotiate an acceptable price. I then hoofed it out of that chaotic odorific place as fast as I could! After such an exhausting and scorching dash through the market I realised I could not handle the pressure of their sales tactics and I've resigned myself to waiting to shop when I have some local Kenyans with me.
Tomorrow I'm off to Zanzibar... I've never been there before so I look forward to it very much!
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Auntie Sue
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Glad you're well enough to shop! At least in South Africa there weren't the crowds and smell that you're experiencing. I know I wouldn't handle the harassment that you experienced. I'll get some in Morocco. Your comments are helping to prepare me. Give my love to your Dad.