One of the most funny thing was a very impressive writing on a mountainside. There was letters as big as a department building in Farsi. I wondered what the people would write in such big letters on a mountain. Maybe a sentence from the Koran? Mohammed explained me after a short bored look, that it is an advertisement - Welcome to the Capitalism.

In the middle of our trip again we came to the rest place. I got some free hot water there to mix my Cappuccino from my bus tour lunch box. The Iran people was standing in jackets around an oven in the middle of the little mall with restaurants and shops. I felt warm from the bus an just was wearing a pullover. After a few sips from my Cappuccino I even put this off and sat in a T-shirt there. Mohammed came from the bathroom and was astound about my sense of temperature. I am used to cold environment. The Persians obviously not in general. Even if the north half of their country is more like North Europe than an Arabic desert.

Back in Teheran we had have snow. I loved that, because the plan was to go to a Snowboard trip not far north of Teheran tomorrow. Everything was like it should be on this trip. The only problem was, to get back home. Nearly no cars was on the iced streets. I had to go north to my hosts flat and this is uphill to the mountainside of Teheran. It cost us a while to persuade a taxi driver to take me there. I had to promise him that I push the car if he will go off the road. A direct ride with such a taxi is possible at night, but it cost ten times the usual taxi ride. I paid 4,000 Toman this time. If you remember - this is 40,000 Rial. I miss heard him and was pretty astound, when his wanted to have 40,000 Rial from me, but I was to tired to argue. This is much here and for my small budget, but it is not much in Euro or in comparison to a German Taxi ride. It’s about 4 Euro and this is just a quarter of the prize of a German taxi ride of that length.

A new day with persian breakfast on the carpet. My host brought me back to the university and went to a business meeting, while I met my friends in the Member Committee office of AIESEC. While I updated my website and browsed in the web, I waited for my friends to solve their work, and then we wanted to go together to the Mountains and have a snowboard-afternoon. The hours passed by. Most of the conversation was in Farsi and I just got that something is wrong. Skype and telephone conferences later and a lot of eMails in Farsi, I got that the AIESEC office have to struggle with a kind of attack. On a walk to the city later my friend Ali-Raiser explained me, that they have trouble with the Government. AIESEC in Iran is brand new. Just two years ago the started to build it up and just now it become official status. My Iran support shirt I wore today was from a year ago and still was reading “AIESEC extension project Iran” instead of “AIESEC Iran”. Last year Ali-Raiser became the first President of AIESEC Iran and spend a lot of work to establish the student organization in Teheran. He had to convince the official from the government and had to beg the university for support and allowance to build up this student organization here. This was the time when I found out, that just half of the office was AIESEC office and the other side with the black cloaked women was part of the PR section of the university. Now that they got support and was established Ali-Raiser wanted to end his one year term and hand over to Saman. In between a former member, who lost elections against Ali-Raiser tried to split the AIESEC group. After he even lost in reelections he now tried to crush AIESEC. A total weird guy. He informed even the ministry of inner defense that AIESEC would be a kind of spy group that did illegal things. Sound silly to you? In Germany it would, but in Iran is the political structure a bit different. The problems with nearly all other nations on the world make the administrations there a bit paranoid, especially if a international student group in Teheran has good connections to Europe, and the USA for example. Ali-Raiser was not the first time in a police station to explain the targets and ideals of AIESEC. Up to now AIESEC was not forbidden, because it is a non-politic organization. But for sure it was struggling and the university was unhappy about police asking about the student group and want to stop the support.

To tell you what happen later: Ali-Raiser solved the problem and handed successfully over to Saman. While I was at the end of my travel they even participated at an international conference in Italy. They planed also to go to Germany, but Saman got no VISA for Germany. He has relatives there and our Government fears maybe he would get support from them to stay in Germany illegally. Freedom of travel would maybe fix a lot of problems on this world and some governments had to change their politics a lot if the people just could move away from the pressure. But this is still a problem and even with a country like Germany. Maybe Europe has even really hard travel polices to foreigners, while the Europeans really have the freedom of travel in Europe. I not even need a travel passport to go from place to place in the EU. If I don’t travel with plane, I not even get checked and have to show no kind of passport at all. It is no problem to have this freedom of travel. It’s just a matter of trust and understanding between the governments. I still hope that the EU is a concept for the hole world. Maybe we overcome someday the nationalism at all. Up to know I would say that nationalism is pretty normal in most countries, even in the EU. Germany - because of it’s history had until the last world championships in football nearly no nationalism at all in the general society. Now it is an extreme low level in comparison to the countries of my travel and the even liberal people I know from other countries.

Back from that drift of thoughts to the day in Teheran. Snowboarding was skipped. It was to late. Ali-Raiser gave me therefore a tour around the city. We went to the longest road in the middle east: Valiasr - saviour street. It is a very long streets full of shops, restaurants, company headquarters and administration buildings. In about the middle of the street length is a big park. We walked there a few kilometers - about a third of the street length. On my way their I had my first Iran soft ice cream. It was amazingly high. About 35 cm of ice cream to balance. I not even dared to walk with it. While standing and eating the ice cream, I saw my first police check in Iran at the other side of the street. It was the “religious” police. A special group of police in Iran that checks mainly old religious traditions, do and order. Part of it is for example to check how the women dress themselves. I told you that the most women in Iran have a very liberal behavior in comparison with the most muslim countries. Like a trademark for Iran women, the scarf around their had is nearly that far away from the forehead, that it fall down back of their had. Usually in this check up the police men stand bored at the sidewalk telling young women to put the scarf more to their forehead to cover their hair completely. The check up was not very aggressive. Anyway, even on the other side of the street, where we was standing, all women was wearing a lot of make up and had a bit uncovered hair on their forehead. The policemen knew that they tried to force an order that nearly nobody cares about. Interesting country. It has on one hand very modern people with a very ambitious government on the other hand side, that is much more traditional then the average people - at least on the streets of the big city. This extremely ambitious government had not helped the country with making the international relations worse. One of the buildings we passed on this street was the European trade center in Teheran. Not much business is going on their, since the nuclear researches under the Achmadinedschad regime. A problem that will tangle me soon on my travel and everyone that will come to Iran for a visit - I just don’t know that now.

After a walk in the big park at the Valiasr we came to the very modern cineplex in the middle of it. We are in the middle of revolution week and like every year there is a film festival only for Iran films hold in the cineplex. The tickets are sold out weeks before. I just had a short look inside, walking over a red carpet. In a shopping mall, a bit later I met Mohammed again. He wanted to spend the night with me to give me a substitute for the snowboard event. First he went to bathhouse with me. Great and relaxing experience. At the entrance was to doors. One for the mens area and one for the women’s area - for sure. I got a bath trouser from Mohammed and we went after the shower to the cold water basin first. I just jumped in and dived completely in. Mohammed was a bit to peaky. Next was the relaxing part in the hot whirlpool. After a swimming in the main pool we had a trip to the sauna area. I felt really absolute clean and relaxed. It’s also a good help against the cold and wet weather here. I guess I was a bit of an attraction, because I was the only European in the bath. To be honest, I not really noticed foreigners at all - away from Rainbow in the AIESEC office.

Then Mohammed went out with me for a meal. I could decide and he was surprised when I asked for a baguette with goat tongue meat. It was really good. I guess Mohammed didn’t believed me until then and we bought too sandwiches to go. We went for our dinner to a special park at the north end of Teheran. It was a busy place at night. And very steep. When Mohammed parked his car I really thought the car just would slide down. It had snowed over the day and it was nearly as much salt as snow on the street. The watchmen on the park reminded us to park in with the back side first. I wondered about that and thought it was for security reasons until Mohammed explained me, with a strange smile and some scary look in my eyes, that it was to prevent that gays could kiss without the watchmen notice it. We made some jokes about that homophobic behavior in a traditional society and agreed to kiss later in a dark corner of the park

The climb to the viewing point in the park was an adventure in itself. It seemed that all the young people of Teheran was here and now slide down on the steep and iced walkways. After a very slow uphill walk we reached iced stairs to the view point. This is the place were the youth of Teheran go instead of bars and discos like in Germany. We sat on a bench an ate our goat tongue sandwiches. Bye the way, a bench in Iran is different from a park bench in Europe: The are more in the size and shape of a french bed. The reason? Usually the come with a carpet, lay it on the bench and sit down on the bench like on a carpet at home, when they have lunch. I tried to invite some nice girls to our bench. Mohammed asked me for - it seems that a lot of people like to push me in front because I have not much shame to make a fool out of myself - wimps. I was not sure, but it might be my broken Farsi, the strange style of sitting like I would prepare to shit on an Asian style toilet or the goat tongue sauce around my lips, but the refused to answer...

But we had fun anyway. We had a nice walk in the park and listen to some guys singing in the night. We climbed up to the end of the park, where wall stopped us. Some unused buildings was up here, and a great view down to the lights of the multi million hub. After a while a park watchmen found us here somehow and forced us to go. It was late anyway and tomorrow was my last day, where I had to leave. So I wanted to have a last trip to the city at daylight. So time to go to sleep.

Read you tomorrow!

]]> http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-18-slow-start-office-trouble-sauna-night/feed 0 http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-15-become-a-millionaire-busy-in-the-streets-ride-to-esfahan http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-15-become-a-millionaire-busy-in-the-streets-ride-to-esfahan#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:47:01 +0000 Georg http://www.lexiophiles.com/?p=4678

Introducing more structure to the blog with corners:

As a prequel to this episode, I will introduce more structure. I have already left Iran when I write these lines, so I can now look back to a bigger variety of cultures, so I will compare them in corners about specific issues I found in all that countries. So maybe you will hear in newer episodes even more about the older places I have visited. I know that I travel through countries of all the three worlds (I don’t like this expression, but it comes in handy) and even so called “Tiger states” which are countries on the jump to another level in this picture of the three worlds. The phrase Tiger states was developed to describe the economical growth in the countries of South East Asia, but used today for all countries that have such a uprise of GDP. This all makes it hard to compare them, but still I think, this is useful for a foreigner to understand the countries. A lot of things - the wast majority is just normal and not worth mentioning if you stick to the terms of this society. But for every foreigner from a different culture and level this differences - comparable or not - stand out like mountains in a plain veldt. And it is important to mention this points, if you traveling to this countries to be prepared.

Let’s start the episode:

The morning started very nice. When I came out of the shower, I saw Saman getting a massage from Hojjat. What should I say, I laid myself next to Saman and asked for a Massage. And I got it. Yeah, it has its advantages to backpack to places with a very hospitality environment.

I also get used to eat on the ground. It is like pick nick - each day. So the breakfast was fine. Tea, persian bread, cheese, scrambled egg, honey and a spacial sweet for the bread. The Persian people like it sweet - for sure.

But enough for this morning prequel. The most important part is: I became a millionaire today! How come? We went down to the AIESEC office in the university. After a bit surfing in the net Ali Raiser took me to one of the view places were I could get money with my credit card.



Time for the money corner:

I write this after I already left the country and can give you now the full information about this issue. Iran has the money Rial, which you hardly can get abroad. Not in Germany for sure. They take US-Dollar, but they tend to give you a bad change rate. Euro are fine. In Teheran you are supposed to bring cash along. A lot of cash. I didn’t because I had not enough when I started my trip and I also don’t like to carry a lot of cash with me. Iran is different. If you not earn money there in an internship, you need to bring Euro for your hole stay to change it. It’s not a problem to change money somewhere, but it is hard to find a place, where you can transfer money to Iran. Or even use a credit card. This is something which not only me experienced, but also the AIESEC intern, that stays here since 7 month. She flies home to Canada every few month and bring cash along, because she doesn’t earn a lot here. The problem is that Iran is cut of from them international trade in a lot of ways. Especially in the case of money transfer. So if you have no cash like me, the charge you an awful lot on the very few place you can get money. I was charged 50%. So I asked for 100€ and had to pay 50€ for the transfer. Actually I asked for a 150€ and they subtracted the fee directly from the amount of money I asked for, due to an translation mistake. In the the end it was good to get only 100€. This is a story for another episode, but I will tell you what the other problem with the Iran currency is - You can’t get rid of it. Don’t carry it outside the country. Change it if necessary at the end of your trip, but don’t take it abroad. In my naivety I carried about 60€ in Rial with me to India and no bank will change it for you. Also not in other countries. F***. Now I have worthless paper with the beautiful face of Imam Khomeini. Take care.

By the way, because the Rial is not much worth, they think about introducing a new currency soon. So I have to find a way to spend it or change it.

Back to the episode. After I had my 100€ it was more than a million! I got a really big stack of notes, even if they have printings like 20,000 or 50,000 Rial on it. Baby, I am rich! First time millionaire in my life.





Away from the curse of money to daily problems of  life in Teheran. The chicken situation came up. We was late for lunch in the university and had today was the only meal a chicken with rice and sauce. Because we was late, there

The proof: there was chicken!

By the way, this gesture means in Iran “F*** Y**!”

was no chicken left. The General totally freaked out. She can be very harsh. After she screamed a bit around, and about two or three people in the kitchen died, we got a tin can with tuna instead - the chicken of the sea. Anyway, chicken tastes a bit like everything. Even like snake or maybe tuna. Finally I found my chicken in the in the sauce - a tiny little bone, with a tiny bit of flesh on it. Hmmmm. I guess I mentioned, that the girls bring along there own food.

Todays duty was a trip to the city. The general directly gave us something to I had to look for a ticket with the bus to Esfahan, the pearl of Persia. After we bought the tickets for me an Mohammed who suggested that trip and wanted to come with me, I had the pleasure of a subway ride in Teheran. The subway entrance near the bus station is at the most ridiculous you could imagine. We went around the very big bus port and walked along a six lane street with no sidewalk outside of the city. After about 500 meter over the bridge to the motor-way along the city there was a zebra crossing on the street which leads from one motor-way to the other and cars with high speed came around the curve to the lower motor-way. We stand now in the middle of a motor-way crossing. “Are we still on the right way?” Ali Raiser was not sure, but he pushed me forward. The other side of the zebra crossing had not even sidewalk but little fence at the side of the motor-way. After climbing over it and walking for a nother 500 meters, there was suddenly in the middle of nowhere outside of the Teheran the entrance of the subway! Who planned this? It really looked like the just digged upwards, an then decided to build a staircase instead of digging another entrance closer to the city. The subway itself is very modern and also not very old. Just about 7 or 8 years now. They have three Subway-lines and they build two more at the moment. Because of the rocky area in the north of Teheran, this side of the City has no Subway yet. It is harder to build it there. Also there is the problem with the water from the mountains. Anyway, the subway was cheap and brought us easily to downtown, where all the markets where.

In the city center there are streets which specializes in specific goods you could buy there. So there are modern shopping malls in other parts of the city, but in this area it is still old fashioned. There are rows after rows of small shops and narrow side streets with lively, busy, hectic, loud bargaining and trading people. For sure I done videos about this to catch the atmosphere. Look out for this most likely after my trip - to busy yet to produce it. Motorbikes all over the place - the Persians love to ride crazy on their motorbikes. Fuel is just too cheap here and the bike squeeze through the traffic jams. After the street with the tools, the street with electric goods, we came to a famous side street, which is called the arabic street. This street is special. The buildings are old, but in a really good condition. The most houses and sidewalks in the city are in a not so good condition, and historical buildings are often in a very bad condition like ruins. At the moment there is a new renovation program in Teheran - close to local elections and the elections for the president are just in four month time. Back to arab street: Here you got most likely perfumes from the arab immigrants. The hole street smells sweet and nice. This was the moment, when I recognized, that the rest of Teheran smells like a dirty pit of oil and gas. I remembered Samans quote “Teheran is one of the ten best polluted cities in the world.” Yeah it is! Back on the main street I start to feel a itch in my throat. Suddenly I noticed that a few people, like policemen or other people working on the streets wear often a filter mask for the air. I started coffin from time to time and remembered the advise to drink a lot. Wonder oh wonder, drinks are in the streets of the inner city more expensive than food. Anyway the street food here was not recommended to me.

Downtown I reached my first mosque in Teheran and the Bazar around. It seems, that it is always that way. Where there is a mosque, there are trading places around. The mosque was not so big and under renovation and we was in need to find shops with pots for the general. So we moved on. The Bazar war a great experience. It was ten times more lively than the streets and anyway it was a system of streets with a roof over it and staircases like a labyrinth of a thousand small shops. Wonderful. I am not into shopping, but this is definitely the place for it. Anyway not for really important stuff, because you most likely get cheap things here, which are of not so good quality, but for a tourist it is good, because you can get nice things for a low price. The traders of Teheran don’t face a lot of tourists here. Outside the Bazar we found a street where they sold most likely pots and we found what the general needed. It got dark and so it was time for us to go back.

Back in the university I met Mohammed. We had to wait a bit for him, so I shared a meal with a girl in the office.

Dating corner:

Yeah this is a important travelers notice! From my first flirting with the girls in the office I have to report that it is like in all countries: The more intelligent women tend to be more shy and therefore hard to get. From later experience I can tell this not so true for the women with a lot of make up in their face. In Iran the girls have to wear - Muslim or not - a scarf around their head to cover their hair, and a piece of cloth to cover their upper body to the hips. The women in Iran struggled always with this rules. So most likely you see the half of the hair under the loose scarf and instead of a traditional upper body cloth they wear fashionable jackets and coats or long pullovers. Anyway the most clothes are so tight, that they cover the body, but show more shape, then if they would wear just a t-shirt. The face is for the most of them then the perfect projection platform to show how beautiful they are. Therefore they use A LOT of make up. In Germany this would look strange. Only people in a theatre, show or professional women have so a lot of make up in their faces. It seems make up must be also cheap here like fuel. So if you meet such a women, with a lot of make up and tight cloth, this is worth a flirt. For sure it is a country where the women supposed to stay virgin until marriage and often they fix it with a divorce and another marriage. But like all traditional countries where you don’t talk a lot about sex, they have it more likely more often then in countries like Germany which are oversexed. So don’t think there is nothing going on! They can’t drink - in public - but they have fun anyway. But to give the proper picture. There are also - rarely - very traditional women, which also cover their full body with cloth. Easy to tell, that you are not supposed to talk to them, but again, rarely seen in Teheran.

Mohammed was downstairs busy with a beautiful girl. After some jokes about him flirting with this girl I found out it was his sister. Bad for him, good for me. They took me in their car to their house. Again I had all my luggage with me. We stopped by a street dinner and picked up my first Iran fast food. It was a sandwich like a french baguette and Coke like all around the world. But mine one had a special meat, which I was not told in the first place.

We came to Mohammed’s house and was in a bit of a hurry. We had not much time to eat, because we was late for the bus. So I just was warmly welcomed by his parents and then showed around in the flat. My impression from the flats in Teheran so far is, that the love Persians love to have a spacey living room which starts from the entrance door. It doesn’t matter if it is a rich person with a lot of other rooms, or just a middle class one with a small flat. The living room is the center of life in the flat/house. Suddenly a beautiful women appeared and now I know, it makes a difference if girls wear a scarf. His sister really changed with her open hair. So in general, if you are considered as a friend, the women don’t wear something to cover her hair. If you are just a guest, they still have to wear the scarf also in the house, as long as you stay.

We had our meal together and I had my sandwich with a traditional meat: goat tongue. I didn’t notice in the first place, because it was cut in little squares and tasted just nice and soft - sure it was tongue.



But it was really good. I had a second one on another day and I loved it.

We also took the time for a last joke before we left. Mohammed is the man with the biggest typical “arab” nose I have ever seen. He thinks of my the same. So we had a comparison of our noses with a proof photo I place here. So now I know for sure, there is someone out there with a bigger nose. Anyway in Germany we say “Die Nase eines Mannes, ist wie sein Johannes.” If you have trouble to translate this, ask a German or leave a comment

Finally the bus station to Esfahan. We bought our tickets today and could jump right into the bus. We was pretty late. I got a box of food - most likely sweets and ready mixed coffee powder. The bus was a regular travel bus and will bring us in about seven hours to Esfahan in the middle of Iran - again, we are up north in Teheran. It’s a big country with lots to see. The bus ticket was buy the way a bit difficult with no help from locals. The taxi drivers speak most likely a bit english and the subways have english names and its easy to buy a ticket, but at the bus station everything is in Farsi. That means arab letters from left to right. So I couldn’t read anything on my ticket. Not even the numbers. I always thought our numbers came from the Arab. This might be true that we was influenced by that, but just inspired, not copied the numbers. If you look carefully, you could see a lot of similarities between European numbers and Arab numbers, they use in Farsi as well. But at the moment I just had no clue at all.

Football corner:

Just to mention it. The Persian people are really nice. Even random people was happy to meet a tourist - it’s not so common. Anyway the was very welcoming. The only annoying thing is, as soon as I tell them, that I am from Germany, the ask me about a famous Iran football player in Germany. I HAVE NO CLUE ABOUT FOOTBALL! Not all Germans are into it! I don’t care about football - and by the way I drink wine! Not beer! O.k. It seems there is football player in a club in Frankfurt, which is famous here and from Teheran or Iran in general. Leave a note if you want to help me out with this topic.

I was especially annoyed because everybody in Africa asked me if I know that Kenyan football player in Hamburg in the HSV. I guess it was in this club, but again, I DON’T CARE ABOUT FOOTBALL! So if you know the names of this two players, just tell the world in the comment I nobody bother me any longer with football...

So I am on my way to Esfahan and close for now.

]]> http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-15-become-a-millionaire-busy-in-the-streets-ride-to-esfahan/feed 0 http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-14-traffic-in-the-humming-hub-muslim-beer-persian-food http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-14-traffic-in-the-humming-hub-muslim-beer-persian-food#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:25:11 +0000 Georg http://www.lexiophiles.com/?p=4647

Again I move with all my luggage - which is a rucksack of about 15 kg and a computer bag with about 4 kg. Enough for a man to stay away from home for 2.5 month. I guess I could get around with that equipment for even a half year. It might would add a few gifts and souvenirs, but at the same time I brought host gifts along. This is a good idea if you live for free in the places of other people. I recommend to bring along small gifts which are related to the country and could be easily identified as such gifts. For a few friends I brought along some some special gifts related to Hamburg, because I knew, that they could recognize that from their stay.

Enough off topic. You might notice, that I tend to write like I think, surfing from one thought to the next. It’s called inductive thinking, but this is for sure another story.

I came to “my” office in the university and sat down on a free space. Later I found out, that this is Ali Raisers place. So it seems I have a good sense for what is the bosses place and naturally sat down there A good half of the day I spend surfing in the net, updating my website with the entries from Africa, which I finished here and going through the pictures. My biggest problem at the moment is to save disk space. I really think about buying another external drive, because I produce here easily a three to four GB content a day. I must be a very awful tourist or at maybe a very productive journalist.

The internet in the university is a bit unstable if you use a wireless connection. Therefore it is hard to upload or download big files like a website. With a cable connection this is no problem at all. Very enjoyable I nearly forgot to leave the office at all. The Chines girl form Canada, lets call her the drill sergeant , told me about on of the rare places to get money with a credit card. I didn’t brought along a lot of money, which was a failure in this country. The drill sergeant told me, she brings along a lot of cash from Canada, when she travels home from time to time, and the rest comes from the small income in Rial she has with the AIESEC job as Coordinator for this new branch. She is here since seven month and will stay for a hole year in Teheran. For sure she get along fine here - even if she is a very independent liberal western women with a very strong character - a drill sergeant . Saman, the MCP elect, who spend a lot of time with her chatting, told me, that she struggled in the beginning very hard with the traditions and rules in the society. For sure, there is a bit more to care about for a women, then a man. On the other side, I know from the stories of a lot of German girls, that they had a lot of fun here. Germans are pretty common in this AIESEC office, because it was a German who started to build it up. There is also a German professor teaching in this university and not long ago my friend Tobias was here for six weeks to help them with the work here, before he went to his internship in Delhi, my next step on the trip. Ali Raiser speaks by the way a very good German and will apply for a German university after his AIESEC Term. Saman, who is a tour guide in his side job, also speaks a bit German. I tend to switch to German, when I speak with Ali Raiser. Sometimes we end up in a wired mix of German, English and a few words in Farsi, when other people chat with us in between.

While I referred to you about this issues, I already left the office with Ali Raiser to experience the traffic to this money transfer place.

At first let me tell you about the taxi here. Fuel is cheap and a Taxi ride is about 400 to 500 Toman. Sorry if I confuse you with that, but it also confuses me: The official money you get in Iran is Rial. They have really high numbers printed on them, like 50,000 Rial. To calculate in lower numbers, which is usually easier for the people, the invented the Toman. A Toman is actually not a other currency, but another way of thinking about the same money. Just skip a zero at the end. If someone told you, you have to pay 500 Toma, he wants to have 5,000 Rial from you! So be careful. The price might sound cheap to you, but is then ten times bigger! Anyway a Taxi ride for 500 Toma or 5,000 Rial is about 40 Euro Cent or 50 Dollar Cent. The problem with the Taxi in Teheran is, that they don’t bring you to your target, but go straight in lines to through the city like busses. It is kind of the same system than with the Matatus in Kenya. You squeeze in a small old car with three other people - I usually wait until the car is full, or you told him to pay for the empty seats as well. Then he brings you to a specific area. If you are close to a turning point, you have to get of, move around the corner and wait for another taxi. This is not really a problem, there a millions of taxi in Teheran. It is the major transport system for the people. Since a few years they have three subway lines and they still build some, but in the northern area, close to the mountains, this will take a while longer. In the meantime, there are a lot of different taxis, and even private cars honk and stop at the street, when they see someone waving his hand for a taxi. I pretty sure this is illegal, but it is extremely common, that they act then like a taxi. You jump in, if he drives your direction and you pay the regular Taxi price. After surfing with two taxi and some walkways to our place of interest, we changed money for the drill sergeant and found out, that the person who is responsible for the credit cards money is no longer in the office. Therefore I had to comeback the other day to get money for the trips I planed with Ali Raiser and Saman this morning.

Back on the streets I experienced another truth of the traffic here. When I told you, that the people in Kenya drive crazy and you run over streets in the middle of the traffic, the Iran system is just insane! To make it more complicated for me, They drive right hand side like in Germany. After two weeks in Nairobi where they drive on the left hand side, which I got used to now, they come from the other side. Sometimes you see traffic lights for the cars, which are most likely are just blinking yellow which means exactly nothing. It should mean attention, but what does this tell the people? They not even reduce the speed. Sometimes you see traffic lights for pedestrians, but they also just flickering, which means with a Green walking man: You may go if you see a chance to stay alive. A flickering red standing man means you may stop if you see a reason to stop. Which is exactly no meaning. The same goes for Crossing lines on the streets for the pedestrians. Absolutely nobody cares about you standing on this lines. If you not move your bum, the run you over. The rule seems to be: If your will is stronger than the will of the other person to go, they will stop. So sometimes a car stops for a pedestrian, and sometimes the other way round. Motorcycles stop never and for nobody. The drive on sidewalks and in wrong directions. Stay away from motorcycles! They are out there everywhere and they don’t care about any life at all! The picture above shows just a minor regular situation, but I saw worse things and got some of the situations on video for my videocast. So you may find people walking over a street with three or four lines, with with about five to six lines of cars going down and a few motorcycles squeezed in between the lines. It looks just dangerous.

Back in the office I had my first canteen food in Iran. This might be everywhere in the world the same, There was not much to choose, just one meal and all the girls brought their own lunch boxes with them. I guess that tells you enough about the quality. It’s like in all canteens around the world. The meal was a pretty common Iran meal: Gorme sabsi. Sabsi means always a mix like a stew. You got fine Persian rice. A bit is coloured with saffron and a few dried red berries in between. The stew is with spinach and beans and in this case with a very few pieces of beef from a lamb. Tab water at the side. Not really something, but o.k. for a canteen.

Later I was showed to the major source of energy for the students, the little shop outside of the university, where they got their crisps, sweets, instant coffee and lemonades from. Their I found my first beer in Iran. Yeah, right - beeeeeer! So nobody should tell ever again the don’t have beer in Iran. I went for a beer and drank it down with Ali Raiser. But let me explain. Beer in Iran is always non alcoholic. Usually it is flavored with fruit juice like mix drinks in my country. It looks a bit like beer if you pour it in a glass, the bottle or tin can looks also a bit like beer if you have just a short look at it, but it tastes not like beer at all. Its more a kind of lemonade, which is brewed. We have something like that in Germany, which is called Bionade.

Anyway, I had a beer in Iran, even if it was not really recommendable - check.

I spent the rest of the day in the internet to update my website about the Africa adventures and found out that Facebook only works here if you use the prefix “https://”. Try this if you have problems with a website in Iran.

In the evening I moved again to my final hosts house - Hojjat. I will call him the kind guy. Saman is a good friend of Hojjat, who is speaking english not that good. Hojjat is a early member of the AIESEC project in Iran and has since a while finished his studies in law. He is the kind of person that reads poems and cares more about other people then about himself. Just to mention this about the attitude of Persian people: The tend to be driven by emotions. They love everything which is full of tragedy and big feelings in general. So the tend to very welcoming, very sad, very angry and so on. So don’t give to much about it, if they say something you don’t like. But on the other hand side, it is touching who much they care about you and fine their hospitality is. Up to now I have just good experiences about all my hosts.

Hojjat and Saman soon made them selfs more comfortable. I copied. So it seems, that Persian people have outside clothes and as soon as they come back home, the switch to very leisure “inside! clothes”.

We cooked a dinner in the small kitchen. It was a mix from spinach with eggs and vegetables which was fried in a pan like an omelet. It’s called Kuko Sabsi. Sabsi means mix of something and is a common ending for meals in Iran. The most food in Iran is a mix of the really good special rice there with butter and saffron and something else like a sauce of vegetables and/or meat. At the side you have the flat bread of Persia which is tasty and quite different to the 5000 kinds of German bread. But I still consider Germany as the bread hub of the world. We are not really famous for our food, but when it comes to bread and sausage, there is no other place.

If I am talking about food, I just will mention the trash. Even in Kenya the used to split between organic and other trash. In Iran is just one trash bin for everything. Environmental and sustainable issues are not really a big deal here, as you can tell from the founding of fuel and the air in Teheran. Saman called Teheran as one of the ten best polluted cities in the world. You will believe it after a few days with out rain. The other thing is, that I don’t saw the habit of energy saving. But these issues might be only important if you fixed other economical and social problems first in a society. So may be there is a bit about the historical development steps a society has to go through. This theory is under harsh critic, but it seamed to be developed from impression like I have while traveling. So maybe these impressions of mine are just because of my short stay. Put that in mind, while read my lines. On the other hand it’s just true what I tell you for various families in more than one families while I write these lines always a bit later then in the date above.

To finish this episode: I found out why Persian carpets are so famous and important for that culture (I never had much use for carpets). They eat on the ground and carpet. Not all, but it is the traditional way. My kind host has not even a dining table. Just naturally placed the food on the small living room table, but he just put a plastic piece on the carpet to make sure it will stay clean and we sat down to eat with our bare hands - I love that part. So you sit then maybe on one hand and place the legs on the other side oder you sit with the legs under you body “Buddha style”.

Even if America is not very loved in this country - there is no American embassy allowed since the early 1980’s, and Americans have to go to the embassy of Switzerland - Coke is all over the place with Farsi printings on it and usually in a 1.5 liter bottle packed and filled local. By the way, this is a McDonalds-free country. One of the few, even in the Muslim culture.

So good night for today and...

...read you later!

]]> http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-14-traffic-in-the-humming-hub-muslim-beer-persian-food/feed 0 http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-17-boat-tour-rotating-restaurant-back-to-teheran http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-17-boat-tour-rotating-restaurant-back-to-teheran#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:31:06 +0000 Georg http://www.lexiophiles.com/?p=4826

At the breakfast I gave a report about yesterday to the host family and went alone with Mohammed again to the city. We had a long chat about various things of our cultures. I guess we became friends. We sat down in the arc of a bridge and talked about religion. Mine and his. Very serious with a lot of understanding. I liked that.

After such a serious start into the day, we decided to go to a boat tour. Just half an hour a bit chilling on the river. In winter times the river has even some dry places, but around the boat site it was good. The boats are looked like Swans and moved them like a bicycle. After we hang out a while on the river we crushed into a bunch of funny people. Three girls and two boys in a boat for four people. One girl was sitting in front and gave commands while she was making photos. Her name was Lale. She was very extroverted. She couldn’t speak english, but I got her with my romantic Farsi knowledge The rest was translated by Mohammed. We connected our boats to each other and shipped together, while we chatted. A bit later we picked up some other boat with two nice girls and finally we connected four boats, which was a bit hard to hold. After a funny conversation and an entering maneuver with an other funny group we drove back. The guys at the boat shop was pissed. We should not connect the boats, and time was flying by. We had to pay extra, because we was on the river for more than an our. We exchanged eMails and said good by to each other.

Mohammed brought me a bit further down to a posh hotel. We went up to the eleventh floor, where there is a rotating restaurant. We sat down and a very posh meal for an affordable price. Just behind us sat some important rich man from Iran, Mohammed mentioned. It was really nice to sit down here and see the scenery of the city and the mountains pass by.

I finish this episode later... I feel very ill at the moment

]]> http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-17-boat-tour-rotating-restaurant-back-to-teheran/feed 0 http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-12-leaving-africa-back-to-doha-1000-ft-high-interview http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-12-leaving-africa-back-to-doha-1000-ft-high-interview#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:13:17 +0000 Georg http://www.lexiophiles.com/?p=3913

This episode will be short, because I am pretty tired when I write this in Doha airport...

This morning everything turned out good. I said a thousand time good bye to my hosts mother, to the cousin, the little brother and after the lovely princess read my new blog episodes Day #10 and Day #11. So read it if there are misunderstandings with my blog.

I got a new input from her, that will may help to prevent such misunderstandings. I will blog offline over my next stay and confirm all informations more, before I bring them out. Therefore the blog will be not so up to date from day to day, even if there is a internet connection. Anyway I don’t know how the connection is at the next stops. So you may get a week update or just the daily episode just once a week in a row. Therefore they may be not so unstructured. I not even had time to read through all of them, because I was just busy with writing them between my adventures. Therefore less sleep - uuuh!

Speaking of being sleepy, I sit here since about 9 hours at Doha airport and have still about seven hours to wait for my connecting flight. I spend the time here with blogging, editing, uploading, skype-calls to Germany, eMail-checking, eating free meals for people who stay longer then five hours (ha, ha). So keep your flight receipts and watch out for the Doha airport canteen. They don’t advertise it to much, but they are very friendly, when you come for the meal. The airport is pretty boring here in Doha - even the shops, but it has a cool free internet connection. So I edit my podcast from the sky after play card games and saying good by to Jamie, that will be soon arrive in London, while I am writing and listening to his songs.

Speaking of Jamie. He is the lead singer, guitarist and founder of the Magic Lanterns. He has a very nice band you can check out at his website. I give you the link under their name. I got to know him, when he and his brother checked in the lounge in Jomo Kenyatta international airport lounge in Nairobi. They were the only cool guys around, so we started a chat. He asked me a bit about the how to bring out his website better. I have a little knowledge about that and shared this. In the meantime I get interested in the musician. Coincidence, coincidence, we sat next to each outer in the airplane. I had a chat with him and when it get slightly less busy in the plane, I started a podcast about 1000 ft high in the sky, while we flew over the dune sea of Saudi Arabia. We to get ready soon, so the end of the episode was recorded in the Doha Airport. A few hours later he caught his flight to London where he has to move house tomorrow and play a gig. Yeah, rock and roll. While he fly’s west, his brother went to sleep here on the Airport and will fly east a bit earlier then me to Thailand and travel around there up north to China for about 6 month. This quite a longer travel - I am jealous. Anyway they had a good travel already done - more in the podcast. Myself will jump in a plane to the north, to Teheran. So coming from the South, randomly met and had fun with a few card games, we split up in all other directions this world overs - Travelers life.

Now I am really in the mood for some of the songs of the Magic Lantern.

Speaking of mood, it was quite a sad mood when George and me met today a last time for maybe a long time. We just hang out in his place chatted a bit about life in our Counties and promised to visit each other in Germany or Kenya, what ever, when ever. While the digged in new internet cables around his neighborhood. Maybe soon the connection will be better in Africa. Hmmm. Then I could consider to live here In the meantime, I had to leave for the airport. Up and away, I hugged my lovely host and before her sister goodbye and then I was away... Kwaheri Kenya!

Read you later!

]]> http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-12-leaving-africa-back-to-doha-1000-ft-high-interview/feed 0 http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-8-learn-from-the-worst http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-8-learn-from-the-worst#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 13:28:49 +0000 Georg http://www.lexiophiles.com/?p=3903

My lovely hosts mother took me to her company today. It is an insurance company close to the city center. Actually the palace is about 25 km away from the inner city. It is a wide spread area. There are not so much big cities in Kenya. Most important are Nairobi and Mombassa at the coast, which is a extreme hot place, but I was told I should visit it once, because the girls there are amaiwa and umebeba. Back to the company, my mothers host are a department leader of this company. Her husband works in a bank, but he has some private business with an office for his own in the same house than the insurance company. I could use this one and yeah! A wonderful working landline internet connection! Great! The hours flew by and I surfed and answered eMails and updated my website and, and, and. I could have sat there for the hole day. It was really good to be reconnected to the world. Again, internet phones are a good idea in this country of all that unstable internet accesses. My little princess seems to be all day long somewhere online in facebook or somewhere.

Back home I fall asleep while searching for my next flight connection. So learn this. always print out your flight plan, or write them all properly down in a single list, if you have as much as I did. I forgot to write down the leaving time. So its nice to know for the people that pick me up, when my plane is arriving, but if I am not in it, than there is not much to pick up. I also forgot to write down the flight number. So don’t be as lazy as I am.

Just to mention it again, the house of my hosts is big and empty, but this is because it is new and still furniture will be bought. The lot of bathrooms all over the house are in use, because they have on one hand often visits from other people for a dinner and also the grandparents will also move in soon. At the moment I have the rooms they will use then. Also they soon will have maiden again. I told you that this is very common here. In this case the maid have her own flat in the house with her own bathroom and entrance. At the moment this is just unused.

In the meanwhile I had laundry day. I hang everything outside on a line in the bright sun. I nearly forgot to bring it in, but when I did, I saw a flash that night. Ten seconds later a thunder. Then wind came up. So a storm from nowhere in ten km distance. I put in everything in a hurry and when I get back to pick up the rest, the first raindrops came down. My first laundry day in the dry season, where it not supposed to be rainy, and it rained the hole night. Not to bad for the dry land. Next morning still a few drops came down in the bright sunshine, the ground sucked up nearly each drop of water and before noon everything was as dry as the days before, but the trees and grass looked even more fresh and shine green.

We spent the evening with watching photos from the Travels of the family to Tanzania and Zansibar. And had a look to the visit of the family in South Africa, where Wanja got her bachelor degree. At the moment she is looking for a job. I also listen a lot of local music and saw a lot of African and Kenyan music. Music is here all over the TV all day. It is essential. Most likely R&B, Reggae, Rap, Dub and some Gospel. Speaking of Gospel, religion is strong here. My hosts family is very religious in comparison to German people. We pray before the meal and at night times before we go to sleep. But even if my family is catholic, it is a different kind of praying. Next to the regular lines of the pray, the ad a lot of personal things to it, even including me and my travel in it. Never had such nice wishes for me in a prayer. For some reason this kind of believe makes just more sense then the Europe version. It is a interrupt in the daily routine, that changes the mood, make the people contemplate a bit and calm. I have to say, I like it, even if I am not religious in that way, but Agnostic. Maybe thats the reason, why I can get something out of this between all the lines of the learned prayers.

A travel is not only leaving something and find out something new. It is also a travel to your self. Therefore I started it. I not only like to see new things and visit friend, I didn’t saw a long time, I also like to think a bit about myself, far away from all the normal things, that keep me busy with unimportant daily live, to make sure all things will stay the same. Hopefully, I come back as a different, better person. Therefore I also suggest you to go abroad - and I don’t mean a holiday in a Robinson Club with a guided tour around the regular tourist sites.

Read you tomorrow with more adventures!

]]> http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-8-learn-from-the-worst/feed 0 http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-10-the-biggest-slum-of-africa-nunnery-and-running-battle http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-10-the-biggest-slum-of-africa-nunnery-and-running-battle#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:48:38 +0000 Georg http://www.lexiophiles.com/?p=3907

Wanja and me went this morning down to the city be a Matatu ride. From outside of town this can be Sh70 to Sh100 to get there. We changed, and I get used to the Matatu’s. One of them was so awful loud inside with the Hip Hop music next to my ear, that I felt like becoming deaf - and I am used to loud discotheques.

In the inner city we walked to down town, because of the heavy traffic there, it was easier to walk to the next big Matatu stop. I recognized the area, from another day. I also did a video before in this area, so this will be as soon as possible on my website. We also had a short stop by a supermarket to by some gifts for the nunnery we wanted to visit in the slum.

Wanja take me along this day, because she wanted to visit her godmother, which she calls “auntey” (like in aunt). She is the sister of her father and a catholic nun, working since a while in the middle of the biggest slum in Nairobi, which is called Mathare. There is also another big one here in Nairobi which is called Kiberasare. The other day, when we picked up friend to go to Olo Polos, I shoot a video, in which asked, if they would call this area a slum. No, compared to what we headed for, this was at least a place to stay, which is o.k.. Randomly we met some jung nuns on the street to the Matatu stop in down town. Wanja asked them if they maybe going our way and if we could join them. This was because of two reasons. First, Wanja did’t saw her aunty for a long time and was not sure about the way. Second, I is not a recommendable tourist area, a Mzungu like me should visit. Mzungu by the way means white person in Swahili and has no racist connotation, like the German translation of black guy (= Schwarzer) slightly has. German people are a bit difficult about these issues. Therefore the nuns with us, are in a slum like the perfect body guard. The nuns do a lot of really good work around this area and most of the people here are very religious. So the all greet the nuns respectfully and some even greeted me and Wanja like friends, because we was with them carry the gift for the nunnery around. I would not

Anyway I shot some video and photos more around the entrance of the slum, but not while we walked through. It is not recommendable to carry obviously expensive things or clothes around this place. So maybe also not a good idea to take a lot of pictures around here.

Behind a hugh wall and a big gate was a kind of a oasis in the slum. Outside was a dirty street where need to watch each step and water running beside it. With little huts made of everything, you could think think of a material to build something. On each corner was a little “shop” that sold random stuff for daily life. Goats was carried along the streets to the next butchery to sell. Children saw me and came to beg. Men came to say hello. In between the huts, there where then more and more old buildings made of stone, which looked then most of the time more nice than the huts. Also flat buildings. It seemed, that they just build one story after the next on top of these houses. Some of them had six stories and the had started a seventh story on top.

Inside the nunnery, they had trees, a chapel, a school, a paved yard, an orphanage, a home for disabled children and grown ups, and a place for young women, who want to go the long way of 12 years to become a nun.

We sat down in a room, where we had a chat with sister Bethlin, Wanjas auntey. She told us a lot of her work here, and for sure Wanja and she had to talk a lot about family stuff. From time to time some young nuns came in to say hello to the visitors. The where then giggling like little girls. For some reason I think this was not really because Wanja came to visit... Anyway, I asked sister Bethlin, if she could show me around this place. It was not allowed to take photos around this place. In a few areas I got permission, but then I just decided to leave the camera away. This was no tourist place. So I will just tell you.

First, we waved a bus of nuns good bye, that went to the airport for a mission abroad. The nuns was send all around the world for their work. Sister Bethlin was 12 years abroad, before she came not so long ago back to Kenya. This place here is very international. You find here nuns from Asia, South America and even a nun from Germany. Since quite a while she had not spoken German, but just after a view words and a handshake she went to the bus for the airport and the mission abroad.

Then we was shown around to the orphanage. The have a lot of stuff for the children to play, but often it is under a plastic cover to make sure it will be clean and could be used a long time. It looked a bit strange, all this teddy bears with plastic covers in the hands of the children or just hanging from the roof. The also employ women form Nairobi as caretakers. I guess the children are here in good hands. But this was just for the little ones. They don’t have much space for older children to stay, so they have to find parents for the children to doped them, before they go to school.

Opposite of the orphanage was the home for the disabled grown ups. Here they have just women, because it was a nunnery. Around this house they had a lot of constructions and renovations going on. This is by the way very common all over Nairobi. You see constructions of houses at each corner of the city. It seem, that there is at least one or two construction site in each street. Often the take not so much care about security for the traffic at roadworks or the builders on the construction site, but there is that mentality to get it done. Nairobi is definitely a place of growth, even in the world finance crisis. But back to the home of the disabled women. I worked in an internship with disabled children, but again this was not really easy. I feel always a bit bad when I am around this people. It’s like feeling guilty to be brighter then they are. But they all seemed to be happy here. Most of them just chilled out in a yard behind the house. Most of them was able to notice the visitors and again most of this group was keen about saying Hello and give a handshake. You should treat them just like normal persons - may be more kind, if you treat the most people not to well -, even if you feel in the beginning the urge to treat them like little children.

We just had a short look in the house for the young nuns. I guess men should be around here. Inside is a small praying room like a chapel, where we kneeled down for a short prayer. Next two this house is the home of the disabled children. This was something I was more used to see, so I felt here a bit more comfortable then with the disabled women. They have a very good psychologist here, who helps this children to develop. I learned in my internship in Sheffield, that the target for such children is to be later able to live their live independent from other people. The grown up women in the other house are the not so bright ones, that cant life on their own. In two very big bed’s they had a lot of not so bright kids - by the way, “bright” is the regular term to talk about the status of a disabled person. This was sad to see. Most of them are barely able to notice the world around them. The bit more bright ones, with hope of getting better when they grow, are at least able to show emotions when you move the toys above them, which was hanging from the sealing. A very bright boy, which was very hyperactive came to show me around. I guess he will be able to live on it’s own one day. He introduced me to everybody and was obviously enjoying it, to take a guest around. So I started playing with the more bright ones. It was fun. I like to play with kids, but especially with these little ones, you have to take care, that they get not to exited. They are less able to behave than other children their age.

Next stop was the school. Children from around this are go to this elementary school. They even have afternoon lectures, but this is not for the same kids. To use the school best, they have in each classroom two classes. One in the morning, and one in the afternoon. The teachers came from the city to this school. They educate the children here well and take care about special needs the slum children might have to catch up with the children from other areas. The hope, that the most children are then able to go to a regular school afterwards. On my way to the slum I saw boys in school uniforms, so it seems it works. So with this education a few of them might be able later to leave the slum which is the most important work the nuns do here, in my eyes. We visited all the classrooms until they had a play brake. It was interesting to see. Some of the children was able to speak a good english, some just learned it. In the slum it is not so common that the children grow up with two or three languages - remember, the native language is still the tribe language like Kikuyu AND Swahili. The other native language is English, which some of the people here don’t speak. The english people here are speak therefore no tribe languages and not even all off them speak Swahili. So one of the children didn’t got my name right and understand “Georg” as “Kioko”. Sounds similar if you try to pronounce it in a english way. Since then I have my African name. Kioko is a name from the Kamba tribe. About the fourth biggest ethnicity in this country. Again a short lecture about the tribes here. The Kikuyu are the major ethnicity here. The famous first president Kenyatta was Kikuyu. The third and actual president is Kikuyu again. That was the reason for other tribes to stand up after the elections, because the see a need to have a president form each ethnicity. So the tribe is still something very important here and builds up most part of the identity of the majority of the people. I guess this a important key to understand the habits of the people here. Massai are the most famous tribe here and often still live traditionally as herdsmen and warriors. The Kamba are known as kind people that get along with everybody. Kioko means “early in the morning”. Maybe it fits, because I am often early for breakfast But the most of the names give just a hint about when someone was born, like “in the afternoon”, “at a sunday” or something. By the way “Georg” means “Farmer”, like my father was farmer and want me to become one - it fits.

After the school we sat down again. Sister Bethlin was away a while and had prepared a nice meal for us. A traditional tomato-salad, not to different, to what I am used to and spaghetti with sausages. The sausages was bit like Frankfurter, but sausage is not very famous here. They more likely have british breakfast sausages, which are not to good from a Germans point of view (like most british food kidding, actually I liked the pies in England a lot).

While we ate, the sisters was away in a mass. When they came back we had another chat with sister Bethlin. She asked me about my travel, what it is for. This might be also of interest for you:

“This travel is on the surface to visit friends. I would like to see and hear and sense as much as I can. I would like to find out about other cultures, what it is like to live here. If possible I want to find out even about all parts of the society. I came to see the good things and the bad things, to be able to understand. I want at least to get clue where understanding should start. At the same time this travel is not only about going away form my home, it is also about finding a way to myself. When you are entangled in the duties of daily live, you might be not able to reflect that intense about yourself. So I also hope to come back as a better person, then the one that started this travel. Therefore it is also a struggle with my inner self.” For this two reasons - the external and the internal - I recommend such a travel to all of you! But this only can work, if you get involved with the people, and not just living in hotels and having guided tours or seek for exotic romance. You might have noticed, that my first week was a lot about party, drinking and having fun. This week is for sure the more serious one. There will be a few more parties in each country I will go to, but I also think there will be also more time to understand and reflect.

With that we left the nunnery with blessings and gifts from sister Bethlin. Sister Bethlin and one of the young nuns, she teaches brought us to the Matatu place more outside the slum, from where we went back to the city.

On the way to Nairobi city Wanja got a call from her father, that we should stay away from down town because of a fire. We passed by the fire on our way from one Matatu stop to another big one. A supermarket was burning. Most likely you saw just a lot of smoke in between the skyscrapers. Wanja told me that it take quite a while in Nairobi clear a fire. This might have nothing to do with the equipment, because I saw very modern fire trucks, but with the crowed around. It was like hole Nairobi was standing in the streets, looked out windows and even climbed and entered buildings and balconies to have a better look. Even the advertisement screens on the streets showed live pictures from the fire a few streets away and people was standing all around, blocking the roads. Also the police started to close roads to make sure the people stay away from the fire and the firemen can do their job. We went in the meantime to a internet café. Even there I was not very satisfied with the speed of the connection. It need a lot of patients. Something I have a lack of.

Because the streets was still busy with the crowed of the streets we could get a Matatu to get home. Wanja told me, the people might wait for a chance to lot the supermarket. So we decided to got to a bar, met there a friend of Wanja and stay away from the streets a while. So we sat down and I had a nice chat with Wanjas friend. He is graphic designer and showed us his newest work in a newspaper. He created two advertisements for Computer equipment. While we was sitting there for a beer - I learned to order it in Swahili, and feel therefore from now on independent and able to life in Kenya. The people on the streets start screaming and running outside the bar. The barkeeper closed the door and blocked it. Through the window you could se the people running away from a place. It was not because of the fire - we had a live NTV news from the fire to update us in the bar. Then I saw police horsemen pushing the people away. Wanja told me, this is what they call here a running battle. When the police cant manage it to make the people stand away from the fire, they force them. As far as I could see it, the police was not aggressive, but you would run, if a horse would run behind you. Wanja explained me, that this is for the own good of the people. When the US Embassy was bombed in Nairobi, there was fist a smaller explosion, and everybody came stare. Then came the big explosion and even a skyscraper next to the embassies place came down and lots of people died and was injured. By the way, the place where the embassy was is now a park. The embassy of the US moved out of the inner city.

Enough adventures for a day. We went back in a very big Matatu, that felt like a rolling discotheque.

Read you later.

]]> http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-10-the-biggest-slum-of-africa-nunnery-and-running-battle/feed 0 http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-16-sweet-persia-accident-in-traffic-blessings-in-a-mosque http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-16-sweet-persia-accident-in-traffic-blessings-in-a-mosque#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:23:50 +0000 Georg http://www.lexiophiles.com/?p=4785

Good morning. After a seven hour bus ride with a short break in between we reached the hart of Iran, the pearl of Persia: Esfahan. About five o’clock in the morning the hole uncle of Mohammed my travel companion welcomed us with half the family. Mohammed’s aunt prepared a breakfast, She still wore the scarf around her head for my full stay. So the all was awake to welcome us and offer us a meal and a lot of sweets and a futon in the living room. I was working on sorting out pictures and wrote the first episode of Teheran this morning, while Mohammed slept a bit. I had a good sleep in the bus, because I was the only one who couldn’t understand the movies the showed there the hole travel. So I switched of the soundbox over my head and slept there.

The movie corner of Iran:

To say something about film and movie in Iran. Iran has its own movie industry with a lot of films. There is no other country which could produce films in Farsi - in Afgahnistan they speak a similar language which is understandable like a very ruff slang to Iran people. The movies in Iran are most likely family movies. Romances and Tragedies are fitting to the emotions of Iran people, so they are popular. Something like an action movie you can’t find here. The have famous actors here also women, but they for sure have to wear in the hole movie then a scarf and clothes to cover they upper body down over the wast. One very beautiful actor even made it to hollywood. But don’t ask me what her name is. Movies are pretty harmless here. No kisses, no hugs, not even a touch between a male and female is allowed. But if you want to see some great movies from Iran, go to the net and search for “Where is friends house” and “Philosophy and sex”. Both are new movies and they was recommended to me. By the way, they even have sitcoms here in Iran, but for sure, I didn’t got the jokes. In TV they have the regular stuff. I saw some children shows in the morning, which looked pretty close to the American Disney Club or the German Tigerenten Club.

The family I am hosted in is a pretty wealthy one. The father is an engineer and even visited Germany before. They have three children - all boys. The oldest cousin of Mohammed became our tour guide to Esfahan. The mother is pregnant and maybe this time it is a girl. They have a very nice big flat in good house, close to the river in Esfahan, which is the most expensive area in this city. Again the main part is the Living room, which is just wast big an includes an open dining room and kitchen and goes into the floor to the sleeping and bath rooms. They even have two toilets, and one is a western one - yeah!

Toilet corner from all around the world:

Never thought I write about this, but it is a major MAJOR issue of your daily life, but nobody is mention it. The just say I go to this and that place and the sun is shining, but the most important things are missing. Here it comes: While I write this, I saw a few more toilets in other countries so I know how different this is. I told you in Iran the have about half and half western toilets and this ugly holes in the ground. I was talking to Mohammed about this, who explained me how to use them. He is convinced, that this is more comfortable and hygienic than the other one. Hygienic maybe, but not comfortable. You have your cloth lowered under you knees an holding them to make sure, you not pee on them while you duck down. Two steps on the ground mark the place where you supposed to place your feet to not miss the target and sometimes there is not even paper. I wondered about this, but there is usually a SCHLAUCH to clean everything. So this was the reason why in Doha Airport and a lot public toilets everything was messed up with water all over. Not really the best way to keep it clean.

Mohammed’s Cousin guided us then this morning through the Pearl of Persia. Our first step was the famous Khadjoo bridge over the river nearby. The Bridge is really worth seeing it. It has slightly the shape of an eagle if you look from above. The constructions of the arcs in the bridge allows to whisper messages from one corner to the other. Very funny, we tried it and it worked. I was told that the guards could communicate from one end to the other on this bridge. On one side are some stairs to the water, where the people of Esfahan sit down and chill out. You can see groups of old men sitting there with a teapot and have a chat. Very relaxing. Also the bridge has a good echo. If you stand in the arc it works like a loudspeaker and volumes up your voice. A boy sang a traditional song there. It sounded beautiful.

Further on my way to the inner city we came across a statue of Kamal Esmaeil a persian philosopher. That reminds me, that I have no clue about the philosophies in the middle east. This might me a interesting topic to read when I am back home. Also all the way in the park along the river are little postbox like things. I was told this is to spend money for some muslim organizations to do charity. The muslim have a strong culture for charity and this might be especially true for the bighearted Persians. Also it is said, that the people are blessed if they spend money, so I put in some coins. Just in case of a case.

After reaching the inner city we went into a restaurant to have the special and traditional meal of Esfahan: Beryani. It is a very rich meal, which you only should eat often if you do hard physical work. It’s tasty, like everything with a lot of fat . Beryani is a meat paste wrapped in a big piece of flat bread. You got a hole onion at the side and a meat soup. Very tasty and very unique. As a drink we had the common yoghurt drink from Persia. It looks like milk, but it has a bit sour sparkling taste.

After that meal we went further down into the city to the main attractions. But before we reached them I came across the driving habits of Persia. When we crossed a one way road I concentrated on the cars from the right and suddenly I was hit from the left and fall down. A second later I pushed my self up and it seamed everything was fine. Legs move. No ripped trousers. Nothing hurts. I just moved fast to get over the street before a car came. On the other side I turned back and saw an old man on a motorbike. He said something in Farsi. Mohammed and his cousin stand totally bluffed next to the motorbike driver. Obviously he was going in the wrong direction of this street, which is common for motorbike drivers. He just don’t cared about the traffic of the cars and the pedestrians and drive. Again: motorbikes in Iran are driven by people which signed a contract with the devil. The drive everywhere: On sidewalks, between cars and for sure the down care about traffic lights, one way roads or other signs on the street. Mohammed couldn’t believe that I came through without a scratch. Me too. Then his cousin mentioned, that it might be, because I but some coins into the charity box and was blessed. Hmmm. Maybe, there is something on it.

Finally we reached the center of Esfahan. Mohammed asked me to close my eyes. I was not so pleased about this after my traffic experience before, but I did and he carried me through an arc into the place of the city center. When I opened my eyes, I was standing in the middle of Naqshe jahan square. The place is like a big stadion and I was told that they really played a kind of polo here in former times. Now there is a big lake in the middle and on all four directions of heaven is a building representing: Politics in opposite of culture, religion in opposite of economics. The politics building is a small palace with a good balcony to have a good view on the square. Today there is a museum inside. Opposite is a small mosque for women. A beautiful building. The south side had big gate to a hugh and famous mosque. The mosque itself was in a different angle to face Mekka. Our first target was the economics building, opposite of the mosque. We went up to a tea house through a very narrow staircase. Now we was sitting in one of the loges on the wall around the square. We got some tea with saffron and a ghalyun and sat down in the sun. A ghalyun is water pipe where you can have different flavors to smoke. Mohammed call it “Hubble Bubble”. It’s easier to remember. It is very chilly to sit here in the sun and just let the time pass by. I learned how to drink tea Persian style and we made a lot of fun. After our tea ceremony we went down into the bazar. Persian bazars have special flair. I like it. I also did a video of that, to catch the atmosphere. watch out for it.

Then we crossed the square to go to the mosque. It is really a famous one. It is also printed on most of the money here. Mohammed gave me a tour to the mosque and I also did a video about this. It seams that Muslim has a very different understanding of their temples from christians. While a church is a sacred place where you can’t do photos and have to behave, is a mosque a natural daily life thing. Other tourists form Persia where there and checked out the acoustic of this hugh dome. It has a really loud echo if you say something or just tap the ground in the middle. After a while Mohammed went away to pray here. His cousin carried me a bit further around. Then they changed. In Persia, the people are not so strict with the five times a day praying. But they pray when they feel like praying. While we was walking around in the mosque I had my only contact with the police here. Two policemen stopped us and asked some questions and wrote something down. Mohammed explained me, they checked the personalities of Mohammed and his cousin, because they was afraid that me, the tourist, was kidnaped by them. Very careful, but strange. I didn’t now that kidnappers bring their victim to a mosque...

Before we left the mosque I put in some money in the a charity box. This time no coins, but a bit more. You never know, it is a long travel and some blessing could be helpful.

Mainly that was it for this day. I also had a ride with a horse chariot around the square, I was invited by a carpet dealer for a tea, and some other small things happen, but this is not worth telling.

Oh, one thing, when I came back to my host, we watched the first Iran vessel start into space. President Achmadinedchad pressed very seriously the button for the first rocket start of a Iran space vessel. I guess the people here are proud of that.

]]> http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-16-sweet-persia-accident-in-traffic-blessings-in-a-mosque/feed 0 http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-13-reach-iran-meet-friends-start-an-asian-travel http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-13-reach-iran-meet-friends-start-an-asian-travel#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:47:34 +0000 Georg http://www.lexiophiles.com/?p=4545

Doha was really boring. Most people just fall asleep on the seats and was fine. I don’t think there are a lot of thief in this airport, but my computer is the most expensive part of my life, and the informations, including this website are unnameable worthy for me. Therefore I couldn’t sleep while I was alone on the airport. I blogged a bit, edited podcastepisodes, videocasts and made Videophonecalls to Germany (the free internet is the best in this airport, by fare. The food is really not worth spending the high prices, but in an 15 hour stay, you need to eat a bit. I would recommend everybody, if possible to sleep somewhere on such a long stay. I was absolutely dead in the plane. I put on my sunglasses, that the people don’t saw my sleepy read eyes and stumbled my way down to the bus and up to the plain. The plane to Iran was half empty. Next to me sat a Japanese business men. It seems, that I meet Japanese people everywhere on my wired trip to Japan. I thought about chatting with him in the view phrases I knew, but then I felt asleep. A bit after was my off phone ringing. The alarm clock should reminded me, to go on board the plane, but after shifting my flight twice, I was already sleeping in the plane when it disturbed the hole plane. Because I was sleepy, I set it just on snooth. 15 minutes later I woke up again and was for sure the most disliked person on the plane. I stopped the alarm, moved a bit to let my neighbor change the row and then fall asleep again before I noticed any angry faces around me.

I missed the start and the landing of the plane. This was fine. It was the first time I had no trouble with my ears from the pressure. The stewardess woke me up with a kind tip on the shoulder “Sir.” For some reason Qatar Airlines has only Chinese personal. Maybe a Indian girl in between. Very pleasant to look at. Another good reason for this airline. Oh, by the way, the other good point it the food. I woke up when the came along with the meals. My body has a fine working system completely separated from my consciousness. If I need food it wakes me up. I had a nice chicken and a lot of water in this hot plane and fall asleep right after the meal again to miss the landing.

Still sleepy I stumbled through small corridors in the Iran Airport. I still wore my glasses and there was nearly a bit sun, when I left the plane. I lined up in the row for “Iran citizen” because the office for foreigners was not opened. The most part of the personal sat in a corner watching a football game. The officer told me, that I have to go to another line to get my Visa first. So I stumbled to the other office for Visa. I applied online for a Visa, but the online counter was closed. So I lined up behind two complaining businessmen from an Arab country and waited. Down the hallway was some young soldiers trying to do a salto. They felt on their back and laughed. The businessman complained loudly about the bad service. I couldn’t understand, but I guess from their angry faces. The three people behind the counter sat on living room style chairs and watched the football game. There must be an important one going on in today in the national league. From time to time one of them looked back to the business men and shook his shoulders. Most of the time they ignored us. I just stand in the line and waited until finally one of them spoke to the businessmen, gave them a paper and they moved - still loudly swearing. I asked for my Visa, and was then send to the next counter, which was free all the time to pay the money first. Now that he pointed to it, I could see the english letters. I walked to that counter and found out, that my bank was wrong. Because I couldn’t get Rial (Iran currency) in Germany, I was told, that I need to bring along Dollar. But they wanted to have Euro. I spent nearly all my Euros in Doha, to get three coffee and a sandwich which looked like paper and tasted like it. Then I was told I could pay in Dollar. For some reason it is more expansive to pay in Dollar. The wanted to have $70 from me. My bank in Germany gave me $65 for €50, and the current trade is $63 for €50. So I searched for my last Euro coins to fix the missing $5. I was just happy that worked. Back in line - the adventures of bureaucracy or “bureaucrazy” - I waited a moment until someone left the football game to give me my visa, I applied three month before - you should do it a minimum of two month before for Iran.

I was told, that I have to fill out a form first and he pointed to a counter behind me. I was just to tired to complain about that or to get angry. I had no energy left for such a senseless fight. Maybe that was good. So I filled out the form came back with all papers and zag zag, I had a new Visa in my collection. So back to the entrance, where I was the only left passenger. So no line to cue up, but also no open counter. The people was sitting with the TV in a corner. Uuuhh.

I was told to wait. In the meantime, my body told me he felt ill with so much coffee and so less sleep. I asked for the way to the toilets and found it. Then the next bad thing hit me: Squad toilets! Let me say it in a more clear way: Shit-holes in the ground. Aargh. I was not prepared for that. I thought I could spare the squad toilets until China and Korea, and was thinking about eating nothing for two weeks to have nice long session in Hiroshima airport, but then it hit me here like a hammer. I never asked my friend about the toilets. Dam. It was moist in the hot airport, it smelled strange and the hole toilet was wet like a shower. I never used such a thing and had not really a clue about how to stay clean while doing my business on this, this... hole. Nearby was a something that looked like a half finished shower, and it seemed, that the last user had a proper shower in this cabin. While I thought how to prevent it, I checked the other cabin and - WONDER OH WONDER: a wonderful European style toilet. Thanks to all the gods out there, that send blessings to travelers like me. I felt like Al Bundy. Uuuuuuuuuuuuh!

A good while later I came back refreshed and the football game was over and a policemen stand at the counter and I could enter Iran - nearly. A man came in the middle of my Visa check and brought from somewhere a stewardess along that urgently needed to get a check up and enter the country. The policemen behind the counter was as unpleased as me, but he logged out and checked her in first. I wondered about nothing any more. I was now really the last person in the airport beside bored people behind the counter and the cleaning personal. I found my luggage at the lost and found office and stumbled through the empty airport. Someone banged next to me on a glass wall. I didn’t new him, but it must been a AIESECer form the Teheran office to pick me up. After an absolute senseless checkup, where just my luggage was scanned - no one watched the monitor -, but not me, I walked out the airport. I was honored, that the MCP Iran elect in person picked me up and pushed me in the next Taxi. To entangle this AIESEC-language: MCP mean Member Committee President and is the highest position in an country branch of AIESEC. AIESEC has about 23,000 students in a bit more then 100 countries, and he was boss of the newest office. Since last year Iran is a full grown branch of AIESEC. I wore this day still the T-shirt with the print: “AIESEC extension project IRAN”. Elect means just, that my friend “Ali-Raiser”, the first MCP of Iran, was still in his term. The official change is then in the middle of march. It works like the US president system. This position is, by the way, a paid job and therefore really serious and not just a social commitment for a student.

It was a long drive from the Airport to the city. It was already dark and didn’t noticed a lot. I had just a conversation with the MCP elect and took some notes about helpful phrases to get along in Farsi, the Persian or Iran language. I will give you a few at the end of this entry.

In the university for Entrepreneur bachelor and master, I found the office of AIESEC Iran. At the same time it was the office of the Local Committee Teheran - which is the only LC at the moment - and at the same time half of the office was shared with the university PR management. Anyway it was a nice office with a lot of desks and computers and wonderful wireless internet. After I hugged “Ali-Raiser” - it’s his nickname from his time in Hamburg, when he was hosted by me and did an internship in our AIESEC office to learn about the work of AIESEC - I was introduced to the hole office and had a bit time to settle and work on my blog. I was just to tired to do a lot.

The AIESEC coordinator for the start of AIESEC Iran in the office was a Hong-Kong Chinese Girl from AIESEC Canada, named Rainbow. Coincidence, Coincidence, my contact in Hong Kong is a girl named Rainbow, I matched to an internship in Hamburg. The world is somehow strange.

The worst part of the trip was over. I walked with all my luggage through the streets of Teheran. It was cold, windy and it started to rain a bit. Wonderful. I felt like back home in Hamburg. No kidding, it was like coming home. Friends, weather I am used to and blocks of concrete in the night, was like home to me. Could have been Hamburg - away from the steep roads at the north side of Teheran. I case you don’t know: Iran is not a dune-sea of desert with sand. The very most part is quite different from that, even if they have a lot of desert and wasteland. Teheran lies in the subterranean north of Iran in the middle of the mountains. Speaking of mountains - you can go skiing around Tehran. The city it self is hugh, big, wast, endless. A real monster city of 13 million inhabitants. The biggest German city Berlin has just 3.5 million and the second biggest city Hamburg has just 1.72 million people. All four Over-a-million-cities in Germany has just about two thirds of the inhabitants of this city! It is just hugh, o.k.! The biggest thing, I ever was walking in. At the moment I could just see a few streets until the next corner, and I was to sleepy to get, that I was in one of the biggest countries of the Muslim cultures by far. A lot of the desert countries in the middle east has in hole, just enough inhabitants to fill two or three big cities. Iran has 68 million people and is beside Egypt and Indonesia the biggest Muslim country. Oh, by the way, I know a bit about this country, because I was related to a persian girl.

My first stop after walking around in the city and place my stuff in the flat of Ali-Raisers parents - it is quite common to stay with the parents a long time in Iran and especially in expensive Teheran - was a Kebab restaurant. I was told that Kebab is THE food of Persia. So I had to go for. I took of my shoes, washed my hands, sat down on a carpet with my friends around me and ate a wonderful dinner with my hands. Kebab from a lamb, rice with saffron, and a yoghurt drink at the side. This was then worth all the trouble of this day. I was just fine.

I was brought to the flat of a women from AIESEC. She prepared a guest room for me. It was a bit sad, because she wanted to talk to me with her friends, but I was so absolutely tired, that I strait went to my room, plugged in my batteries for reload and fall down on the bed to sleep. I not even used the bedcover, I just fall down on this big double bed and spread all my limps in different directions and was in the land of dreams.

Survival phrases in Farsi:

Salam - Hello

Choda Fes - Good bye

Are - Yes

Na - No

Es me man ... est. - My name is ... .

Man as (alman) hastm - I am from (Germany).

Bebakhshid - Excuse me (very helpful if you ask for directions)

Merci - Thank you

Chetori? - How are you?

Khub - Good or I am fine

Khub nista - Not so good or bad

Kahesh mikonam - Please

Lotfan (Arab) - Please

Balor - Name extension for a man you like as a friend - for example Georg balor.

Man mikham beravm be in adress - I want to go to this address (extremely helpful to hand over a piece of paper to a taxi driver, with the address)

More fun stuff and swearing:

Gom sho! - Get lost!

Khafe sho! - Shut up!

Duset daram. - I love you.

Asalam - My honeypot (cute name for a girl/boy(friend))

Dshigaram - My liver (lovers nickname)

Read you later!

]]> http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-13-reach-iran-meet-friends-start-an-asian-travel/feed 0 http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-7-plan-what-plan-robbery-slums-and-battle-the-massai http://www.lexiophiles.com/georg-on-tour/day-7-plan-what-plan-robbery-slums-and-battle-the-massai#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:44:18 +0000 Georg http://www.lexiophiles.com/?p=3901

Uuuh! Even after my morning sport I felt dizzy this morning. But it was more the problem, that I didn’t slept the hole night through. I was working all night on my blog and then barely fall asleep and woke up all the time again and again. Anyway, we woke up and moved. This is something my in-passionate personality loves. Get your ass up an do something. Outside the house, we found out, what drunken drivers could do to the other peoples car. Some one missed the parking space by half a meter and pushed parked car out of his space. A third of the car was hanging over a cliff, while the front was completely demolished. Don’t drink and drive! You can’t do two things at the same time. First drink, then drive, then drink again.

O.k. it was fun for us, but not for the owner of this car. On our way to the street we went up a serpentine road, which was just not to narrow to get around with a car, if you be a bit careful and go back and forth around the corners. This crazy people here tried it with a 3.5 to Truck. Quit interesting, and by the way they needed all the space, so that we had to wait for them.

Finally we arrived uphill on street level and caught the first Matatu. Matatus are the most important transport for the people here. A Matatu is a kind of Taxi-bus which has about 15 seats inside. Very narrow and squeezed. There are also some busses running, but not really reliable and very rarely. On the other hand side they have proper Taxis, for sure with not so big cars then in Germany, but I would say Germans used to have the biggest and most expansive Taxis all over the world (most likely a Mercedes). About middle class cars, but to expansive for the most people. Usually it seems, that the Matatu drivers try to pimp their cars so much, that the people would more likely go for a ride with their car, then with the competitors. Our Matatu this morning had quite a good sound system, with a big bass under my seat in the back. Also a nice soft sealing and LCD Monitor with music videos. The drive has about two people next to him, the rest squeeze in the back. The passage between the seats to go to the back rows is about 20 cm, so that my stuffed baggy pants barely could fit through. Argh! Matatu means Three-Cent-Ride. I guess it should mean Schilling Cent. But this was from way back then. Today a ride is 30 Schilling, about a 100 times more. But this fine according to German Taxi, where you pay about 2.50€ when they just turn on the engine. 30 Schilling or Sh30 is about 0.30€. The system works like that: On a Matatu stop they scream “Come in to these or that area” to collect a full load of people. They start, when they have all seats full. Next to the door sits the Money collector how push the people back in and tells the drive to move, when he picked up a full load. On the way he collects all the money from the passengers, which is more or less always about Sh30. If you need to jump out, you just bang the wall or the glass to make the driver notice you and stop. They usually go like drive by jump outs and ins on the way. With no signal at all they may slide from the middle lane to a bus stop, the slide door already open and the guy behind stand in the door while the car is still driving. The passenger jumps off, even the car is still driving, and maybe another one jumps in at the bus stop, to go a while in the same direction then the Matatu. On their way back, for sure, they not always that stuffed with people. I will upload some videos to my videocast later.

After a ride to the inner city, a walk through down town Nairobi (I give you also a video of that), and another ride to the area of the Nairobi stadium we reached a friends flat. In the same house was also a student from AIESEC in Colombia living. Would go all for some Food in the countryside. At that time the Safari was already skipped, because of all the people show up so late. At least I didn’t got it, because I was still a bit dizzy. So we hang out spend a bit money, for someone to get us food, that we - me and the German girl which was with us since yesterday - could have regular prices. White people have to pay a colonization fee on top - that’s just how I call it.

After that, we suddenly found out that seven people don’t fit in a five seat car. Sometimes it’s hard to be a German, but you get used to that - especially if you are to tired to care about. So they decided to ask a friend, to bring a second car along. You can imagine, what happened, if you read my blog before - we saw a lot of African music videos until the other car arrived. At least we had an interesting interruption:
Suddenly we heard girls screaming. I was not sure if this is something serious or some fun, but like the others I went outside. They screamed something in Swahili or maybe a few lines in Kikuyu - the people here mix all their languages together while speaking; even in a single sentence - so that I didn’t understand a word. But the other guys started running out the main gate, so I was sure, this is serious. The girls just was puzzled if they should just shut the doors. The doors of more affordable places like this one, are usually from metal or at least very solid. They have metal bars to shut them, and most likely several locks. I went outside, to find out what all this screaming should mean. Three girls stand on a balcony like staircase in the top floor and pointed down to the streets. Someone from our group was still in front of the house and talking to them. After a few questions and a look around, I found out, that they got robbed in the top floor, next to the flat of the Colombian intern. Two guys with guns went in the flat, but everything of worth in big suitcases. While they where busy, the girls who owns the flat went back and stumbled in them. Because they screamed so extremely loud, the robbers get nervous and started running, whit whatever was in their hands - luckily not to much. Three of us ran behind them. Pretty silly, because they didn’t knew, that they had weapons. The only weapon they had, was a nearly empty bottle of Vodka. I would say this breakfast Vodka - don’t drink before 2 p.m.; but it is always 2 p.m. somewhere - was the reason for their “courage”. Anyway the robbers got away and no one was shot. Strange and bad feelings arose in me. I would liked to have a chance to get them, but they plain got away with it. But the lost their suitcases which make it maybe a deuce.

Nobody called the police, because I was told, that calling the police is like getting robbed again or not calling the police. Maybe they tell you, they have no cars available, or they tell you, that you have to pay their full to bring them there and write a report. Mmmh.

So had bad feelings about, because The staircase the robbers went all up to the top floor, was right next to our open door, while we waited for the other people to come with the second car. I wonder, why they went all the way up and not ran into the first door with their guns...

Anyway, I was told that this is the first robbery in this area, as far as it concerned the locals here.
Finally they other group came with a big jeep and the me and the other two foreign AIESECer squeezed in the third row of the car.

We went then to a low class area of the city to pick up to other guys. I took a video of it to upload. I thought in the first place, this must be than a slum in Nairobi, but I was later told, that this is just a “not so nice neighborhood” but far not the worst - Omigod!

Then we went quite a while outside of Nairobi for a fuel-stop. I say fuel-stop, because we didn’t needed to buy gas for the car, but fuel for us. A box of Pilsener - which is a proper south German tasting Kenya beer -, a few half dozens of canned Tusker - for some reason I would say it tasted better then the bottled version, but maybe it was just cold enough out of the store - and a packed of Irish Guinness in cans. Enough for a long ride outside Nairobi. This time it was good to sit in the back seat, close to the storage of the beer. By the way, they just used to drink here warm beer and cold beer. Even a lot of Kenyan would never go for a cold beer. Strange, in Germany you would consider the offer of a warm beer as an offense...

I took a fee photos while we drove to Olo Polos. But most of the time I was busy with chatting and drinking. The others already arrived in between and had already ordered our food as well. Soon I found out why this was a good thing. While we waited, we had a few more beers and a chat, but after a while I started to worry about my food, and took a walk around the place. We was on a hill and had a great few over the countryside with all the mountains around. It is dry season - what you could compare to winter, but actually it feels like hot, hot summer. So the land looked brown all over. A strong wind was blowing over this mountain and made it a quite comfortable place. The Massai had here a kind of village with most likely just round wall of about 1.6 meters high. So If you stand close, you could easily look inside. I was told that the Massai men used to wander around with there animals all day long, while only the women stay at the village and raise the kids. Often the men with the animal following the rain a long way and came back after weeks or months. So I was told about a still common and quite nice tradition to keep the village running. No matter to whom a women is married, when her husband is away, any man can come to her hut and but a spear in the ground in front of her house. That means plain “stay out, I am busy inside”. Even if the husband returns, he had to wait outside, until the other warrior leaves the hut. It’s seems to be nice to be a Massai warrior.
One of the huts was the butchery. I was allowed to walk inside and have a look around. A few goats hang down from a tree branch, that hang over the butcheries wall. Behind a inner wall under a roof, was a table where they cut the meat. So this was the reason for the long stay. The don’t have any electricity out here to run a fridge. If you come, you order a number of goat legs and pay Sh2,500.00 each. We were about a dozen people, so we had ordered two legs. I only saw legs, so I guess they keep the torso and the head for themselves and selling the legs for a 100 € per goat. Sounds o.k. for me. So I saw the goats around the village, the butchery and the kitchen, where they prepared the side dishes and grill the meat. It must have bin about two hours or three, before we had our meat, and they already ordered it, before we arrived. I don’t wear a watch since a while - which is quite calming and helpful to handle African time.

The serving of the meal under a few of this nice Savannah trees was quite nice. As soon, as the meat was placed we came over it. The waiter just had placed the last side dish and left the table, when we had nearly eaten half of the meat. To eat with your hands, they placed all around the area metal containers with water. It’s just enjoyable to rip your goat meat from the bones - a true mans world, baby! This meal is called Nyama choma. At the side we had british style chips with a house made fruity salsa and Mokimo - mashed potatoes with vegetables and herbs that colour it green. Extremely tasty! A group of older Massai walked all around the area to show the people some dancing from their culture. They sang along and then start jumping from the stand up about a meter high. Pretty good. I was told, the man that jump highest will get the most beautiful women of the village as a bride. So this is a good reason to work on your leg muscles. I did, so this is my match. I ran around the table and tried to copy them. The showed me there technique and I did as they did. Two of them jumped pretty high, but at least I was in between them, so I matched even one of them. I also showed them a few funny jump moves from the clubs. It was so a lot of fun, that I totally forgot to take pictures from that. God that a friend took some at the end of our jump event. Unfortunately non with me high up in the air. The better Massai came afterwards to me and we had a handshake and a chat. He told me really honestly, that I was very talented in jumping as a Massai and would just need a bit more training, to match with all of them. Yeah, I like to dance.

So I just end with the best part of the day and spare you the boring drive through the night back to Nairobi over crushed small streets with high speed, no seatbelt, suddenly appearing pedestrians and Trucks in the middle of the street.

Read you later!

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