Going Downtown

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Today was Sunday, and that usually means church. Speck and Caroline did not go for 2 reasons, Speck speaks no Swahili and the water was off, delaying showering. Junior is expected to be back and provide transport at noon to downtown Nairobi so that Speck and Caroline could catch up with Bilha Muthoni, aka, Caroline's sister in law. Caroline grew impatient when at 12:30 Junior was still a no-show and she and Speck walked to the bus stop and took the Double M bus into town. This was Specks first experience with Kenya traffic and he found it very similar to Panamanian traffic. Two lane roads had three lanes of traffic, stop lights are suggestions, and pedestrians are nearly fearless.

Bilha was found quickly even though her cellphone was dead and the identification she had provided was her lisence plate... Kimathi and Caroline were glad to see each other again and figured out that it had been 18 years since they had last seen each other.



Kimathi drove the 4 of them to Kiama's where they got to meet the twins, Bilha's new grandkids, Aida Muthoni, and Aiden Murage. They were very cute and well behaved even though they were sharing a cold. (how does one get a cold in Kenya?) Lunch was goat, ugali (the white maize stuff), and cabbage. After lunch they hopped back in the car to go to Bilha and Tirus's house.

On the way the stopped at the Ridgeways Mall and speck was surprised by the security to even get into the parking lot. There was even a guy with a mirror to look under the car. Kimathi ran in to deposit some money and then they shot back down the road. Just before reaching the house Kimathi stopped and hopped out. He had other places to go but promised to try and see them again before they went back to America.

When they got to Bilha's they discovered that her daughter was down the street getting her hair did and had the key. The trio went to get her and met Geh and her son Ty. They also met Armand, the little boy who thinks he is Ty's big brother. Ty is 3 but had the energy of someone twice his size and the vocabulary of a child 3 times his age. He also likes to be disagreeable, when asked where his legs were he said "I don't have any legs" same for fingers and his name. He an Armand were chasing each other around the house and Speck decided to join them. When Speck shot Ty with a water pistol Ty said "the green mwizi" meaning green thug, because Speck was wearing green. By the time they left though Speck and Ty were friends.

As Bilha drove Speck and Caroline back to their base, there was a white corolla that had gone over one of the traffic island and nearly hit a woman. The idiot then tried to merge into the side of Bilha's car but ran over a cart. When he did manage to get back onto the road Bilha let him pass and stayed far away from his drunken driving. (it seems drunk driving is a real problem, on the first weekend of an Alcoblow effort 92 people were arrested for drunken driving, this may not seem like very many but the standard for drunken is .34, 4 times the legal limit in the US.) Speck and Caroline were let out in the street when.Bilha took a wrong turn in the roundabout and then walked home.

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