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!

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!

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.

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!

So let’s start: This morning we had to wake up early at 7:30h to have a breakfast before my two lovely hosts have appointments with their doctors. Everything in this country and every second is a experience of something new for me. It’s even so wonderful to look out the kitchen window and see the sun so bright even in the morning. I just take a step outside before the breakfast and get a sip of this wonderful air. My hosts little brother left his breakfast stuff when he went to the school. I hoped to loose a bit weight in this trip, so I was looking for the cereals, but then I saw something strange. Chocolate flavored peanut butter. Even such small things are so nice for me to experience. By the way it was tasty. I am just used to have the plain peanut butter flavor, because it’s not so common in Germany and therefore not so easy available. But move on to more interesting stuff.

Today I found out a bit about the health system and get an inside to the private health system. While on our way to the doctor, I heard about the public system which pays only a bit, and most is payed by the people. Therefore a stay, even for a single day in a hospital bed is usually not affordable for the regular people. If they are employed in a company, the company take the part which is not covered by the insurance. But the major gap is between public and private health care, which is not like in Germany in the same hospital and by the same doctor,but in very different kinds of locations. This one was like a mall where a lot of different doctors had their office in. So no hospital, but the private hospitals we past in the city look more nice then the very most hospitals in Germany. While my hosts went to dentist and regular doctor, I strolled around the place. Quite not what most people would imagine in Africa. There where also on each floor two people constantly cleaning the already mirror-like stone on the ground. Strange, but labour is cheap and service jobs are all over the place for absolute everything.

Today we went to the biggest museum in Nairobi and explored the Life in Africa there. The have Sections about the development of mankind in this very starting place of our species, about the different cultures of the tribes in Kenya, and about the Animals of Kenya. Usually they have stuffed versions of real dead animals. So the Animals on the pictures are the real ones, just died many years ago. The most amazing is a hole model of the famous Elephant Ahmed, which is kind of a national symbol. Also Elephants are the symbol of the Tusker beer, which is so famous over here. He was so famous, that the people forced the government to give him a own bodyguard, to make sure, nobody will hunt him down. The real skeleton is also in the Museum. Most interesting for me was a photo tour about modern life in Kenya, reflecting in a very modern installation like way about a big range of social realities in this country. Something I will try to experience, as much as possible in my stay.

In one of the two restaurants in the museum I had today my first traditional African meal. I shoot a short video about that, but not had time to bring it up now. So look out. To give you a clue: At first, I found out, why they have sinks in front of the restaurant or in the dinning room of my hosts house. Traditional food is still eaten with their hands. So you clean your hands properly before eating. They for sure use also knife, frock and spoon, but thats just not the real way to do it. I enjoyed so much eating with my finger. I went for a traditional cow stomach soup, which is quite similar in taste to the palatinate pig stomach, we used to eat in my part of Germany (but only there). I also shared some liver stew with Wanja. The traditional side dish or the basic of their meals (like potatoes in Germany) is a paste made of corn flour. Tasty and sweet. A bit like rice. So much for this days food section, because the rest of the day I got my meals in liquid form.

We drove up and out of the inner city and entered easily the most posh gated community in Nairobi, where all the important and rich people of this City live. I shot a view pictures their, which is not really something they like to see there, so I had to hide my camera and only could do it from the inside of the car. We even where passed by a car of a minister, which you can tell from the flag at the side. I tried to get a picture of that, but you can’t see the flag clearly. I even found out, that in this place is a embassy of the Vatican. The first Vatican embassy I ever saw. I will but up a bit of a video about that to give you a impression.

At the end of the travel in the posh area we visited the former high school of my little princess. It’s really a nice place at the corner of the very posh gated community. I even visited a very impressive catholic chapel to meditate there a bit. A really calm place. Even since I am not catholic any longer, I visit a church from time to time, and it was refreshing. When we went out then to the road and had to wait a bit before we crossed, I smelled again something in the air, which a few times in my stay here, makes this place so special to me. I thought first about a perfume, but with a look around, I just found out, that they had eucalyptus along the road. Like in Germany with trees in the summer, they cut it to have free roads. So there was the smell of fresh eucalyptus all over this place, which was a little bit magical.

Back in the city we drove a bit around to visit some malls. On our way I found out very fast, how much more religions are all over this country and how close they are together. In Germany, I believe, is the identity of the people much more derived from the religion. Even if the believe in religions is in general not so strong than here. In Africa the people get their identity more strong from their clan or tribe background and divide people from by that difference. Therefore it’s not so a big problem to have a lot of religions in the country, but more of a problem are the different ethnicities.

We passed by one of the first malls in Kenya, before we came to the mall in Westland. Westland is an area in Nairobi, which has a strong Indian population. Indian people here are known as good business man which easily get wealthy. So this area is a bit posh or upper middle class.The mall, I was told, has an pretty Arabic style. The security checkups at the garage are as strict as at an army check point. Finally they found out we had no bombs under our car or in the storage of the care. For some reason this mall is a bit keen about security. It was not allowed to take photos. Anyway, I bring you some beside. But I couldn’t do much or proper ones, so it’s just to picture it. It was for sure a very nice and posh mall with everything a women’s heart could demand For me it was a mall with some nice restaurants and cafés.

Next stop was the very most posh mall in Nairobi. Actually it is not a mall, it is a build like a Village with several connected houses and plazas with shops and restaurants all over. We had a look around and it was quite funny, to be welcomed by an advertisement for the “Tokyo” Sushi restaurant next to the entrance. We had a look around and found a bar called “German point” which et least serves German beer. I spoke a bit German and ordered a beer, and the Kenyan service craft had enough humor to puzzle out of it, that I liked to have a Beck’s, which was the only German beer at this bar. The rest was Tusker. But I didn’t went for a beer, we bought us some Smoothies next door and sat down on a plaza to upload this new content. Unfortunately the WLAN here was protected by password, so I showed my hosts just a few pictures and movies from Hamburg. By the way, that reminds me, that I wanted to edit them and put it in my videocast. I fear this will wait until the end of my trip. Maybe I will find in the trans siberian train a bit time to do such stuff. Strange to sit in the African sun and “waste” my time to watch pictures from back home - or better show to others. But I cant say that I get homesick at all.

It was quite nice to see all that stuff which is so far away from how I thought of Africa. For sure this is just a piece of the picture and the rest will still come up, but missing piece up to now. hat is really worth mentioning is the security in the mall. This time it was not only the security service in this place - which was quite nice to me. I saw three guy’s around the entrance, hanging around like Rambo in the jungle with full camouflage uniform and German Heckler & Koch G3 Riffles! I was trained with this weapon in the German army and know it well. This is now the old version of our army riffle. I knew it is common all over Africa, but I didn’t was prepared to see soldiers in a mall in full assault gear. It was like the worst nightmare of our minister of inner security came alive and we use our soldiers in the inner country like police. Later I was told, this is actually police. A special group of police to protect some areas. Strange, all this weapons around, and all that security and walls and wires. That’s Africa. You get used to it, and you wont think about an alternative, because there is just around the corner a real danger from poor people that just want to survive.

Outside of the mall, again, it was not allowed to take photos. This time for a reason. Next door was the area of the US embassy and some very nice houses around for the employees of the US embassy. I have to say, it seems to be a good idea to work for the USA in Nairobi.

On our way to party I had a short overview about, what it look like to live in a low, middle and posh class house or flat. Even I got some pictures of nearby slums. I will visit all this places to find out about it.
Back in the police station canteen, the place was filled with AIESECers all over. This time I bring you a photo along. We had a good evening with meeting even more new people from all over the world. I met all the people from the last night out in the canteen and also a girl from Canada, a guy from Colombia and another girl from a country I forgot. Nihonjin san turned out to be Kobe san and will be back home in Kobe in march when I am there. So he promised me to show me around, host me and even will help me maybe with getting an internship in Japan next year. I am looking forward to that. He is teaching english here Kenya, by the way, and would like to have an internship in Germany as well. Hmmm. I think there should be a possibility to work in this lovely Hamburg plattform bab.la. I would love to introduce Japanese-English to their site with Kobe san.

Speaking of tie up knots, I meet a interesting upcoming Local Committee President (the boss of an AIESEC dependance at an university) which is still Vice President for Incoming Exchange (responsible for the trainees in Nairobi and to bring them to the country). I did the same job in Hamburg, and maybe we could learn a bit from them or at least share some experiences in an later talk. I also was blessed to meet the new Member Committee President (which is the boss all over an AIESEC country - Kenya in this case). She is quite a sexy women Best looking MCP I ever saw. And boy could she move...

...speaking of move: We moved to a club, where the MCP Kenya and a nice big crew of AIESEC people overtook the bar and the dance floor. After a few nice chats it come to more and more beer and Tequila, which is also very fancy and expansive in Kenya. Finally we had a dance night which would be fine for the most sexy gangster rap video on MTV. After the DJ went home we just changed club. Really hard. I have to admit, that I was down and a bit sleepy from all the beer. But I got to know a fine other club, called Havana.On a flat screen there I saw my first African music clip from a Kenyan TV station. I lost a pool game - how come! And finally decided with my driveress Wanja to end the party. I grabbed my still dancing little princes and threw her over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes and carried her downstairs to the streets and all the way to the car in the early morning of Nairobi. I look a bit funny with this yerking girl over my shoulder. The people around the street was pretty puzzled. With a full load of drunken guys in the backseat we drove them home. I found out, that even the lower middle class live in gated communities. It just that the gates not so strong and the houses not so big and nice, but the same system. The intern from Colombia lived in a place which looked quiet scary at the night, because of the awful roads, filled with stones and trash and fires burning at the side of the roads to get rid of trash and to warm some poor people. On our way back at a round about, we saw a car in the middle of the street with warning lights and a young women waving her hands. Wanja drove fast by this car and said in a casual tune “It’s so sad that no one would stop, because you never know if it is a helpless women or just a girl and three guys in the car with guns.” Again a bit reality on the way back home. I would have stopped to help the women, like I always do, if I see someone in trouble. Hijacking and robberies like this, I never heard of in Germany. We not even have a word for it in our language. We just say the english term “hijacking”.

CAUTION! If you don’t like to read the self reflection of a plain boring German, then skip the first part until the next gap in the text, to read more about my experiences of Africa.

Important things first: The end of the day, I had a hard talk with the General. Maybe you wonder, why I didn’t mentioned the General before. Usually his orders and attention is not on me, so I had no reason to mention him before; just smiled, when other people had to run, when he shouts his commands. The General is the strict attitude of my lovely little princess host, when this tinny slim person want’s to get things done. I tell you, you will follow the command, if she wants you to move your a.. bum. This time the General prepared me in the morning, that bad things will happen, as soon as there is a time and space. I should have been afraid the hole day, but I don’t care much about bullets, when they don’t hit me. Anyway, it was another day full of excitement. But now about the bullets that hit me, and new informations about misunderstandings in all directions:

My lovely host was the last days not so lovely, but more sad. Now I know she became upset about my blog. I was thinking a long time if I should run a blog and I always refused to do so. Now that I am just amazed about the wonder of web design and content management, I need to do this blog, because I need content to design and manage. I also like to find out about myself with the help of this blog and this tour, and finally I have to keep my memories in line with writing it down. At least I feel like the guy form the “Peepshow” comic. You might know it or saw it in a book store. It is a interesting comic experiment with a printed diary. Usually people write a diary just for them self and maybe it is published after their death, when they and all the people mentioned in there are dead. That’s fine, because the people who read it have a more neutral look on the raw informations about the experiences and feelings of this person. The comic artist did just paint his more or less boring life. He showed all his failures and stand therefore naked in front of his audience. I am doing here kind of the same - but I spare you the most worst and awful parts of me. But the people who red his comic and found themselves in there, they just saw themselves throw the eyes of an other person - and they hated it. Therefore they hated the artist of the comic. He even painted that parts of his life. So do I. We always forget, that every bit of information run through the hole experiences of our individual lifetime, before it is placed somewhere in our mind. Therefore it is way far from being objective. There is no objectivity, and I am not the first who found it out. So first important message after this preparation: I am telling you MY experiences, if you forgot the idea of a blog. This is what I understand, what I know, what I found out, what I experienced. It is from MY background, with just MY knowledge and MY lacks of knowledge I fill with the informations I puzzle out, or someone tell me, and therefore I quote that here, don’t I did this? O.k., I did. This blog is exactly about ME, ME, ME. Then it is about MY view on Africa, from the few things I saw. I wasn’t born here, I wasn’t raised here, I not even had lived here for a while. So a lot of impressions might be wrong. But at the same time I am sure, that someone from my country or background would have similar impressions. What this blog is not about: It is not about the people I met. It is not about judging something with no proper inside knowledge. It is not about characterize people. It is not objective.

So what for you should read it? At first, enjoyment and plain curiosity. Like a little child, I just walk around and stare. I might not understand what’s going on around me, but I ask when I can, and most of the time I do what everybody does the hole day long - I compare all new things with the old things and experiences in my life. So if I compare something with Germany, then therefore, that I have no other scale. It is not about judging! Can’t say it often enough, until I found out, I was totally misunderstood in that point. Got it?

On the other hand, I am a struggling character with more self confidence than earn. I am the center of the universe, and all people are just minor actors, moving in and out a scene of my life. Uuuh! Yeah, but tell me you don’t feel so, at least sometimes in your life. Don’t throw a stone! Sure, behind that big self confidence is something else. Usually more or less one of two things to find: Plain stubborn ignorance, or a character the hates himself more then ever someone else could. Ignorant people wouldn’t self reflect. For sure not in a public blog. The other kind would rather kill somebody before he found out the truth about him, or whip himself. I am more likely the last kind. At least I carry the hope that finally someone would step out of the stupid selfish mass of minor actors and found out about me, by herself. Now that I wrote that down, I am not sure, if this could happen any longer. Why I call the people who don’t like me selfish? Because the have the same problem, than the most people in the “Peepshow” comic. The think THEY are the center and hero of the universe, and therefore the comic, blog, whatever is about them. But it isn’t. In the very moment of reading this piece of work from someone else, this person is the center of the world. This is the reason for an writer to write books, an journalist to publish articles, an singer to sing songs, and moderator to run a show. When people consume, they lean back from their own live and gave room for the life of someone else. In the very moment you read this lines, I am truly the center of YOUR universe. If no one reads it, I am doing just a diary in the net and all my self confidence is truly wrong. For sure we all are just a piece of dust in infinity. To think that we ore the things around us, like houses, cars, money, friends, family, religion, politic, world environment, philosophy or anything else could be of any worth for the universe that carries us, is just extremely silly if you just think about it for a minute. Also for sure, we never can feel this with our heart. Therefore we trick people, kill people, lie on people and do the worst we can to keep up with that lie for ourselves. Any strong believe in something means also a strong disbelieve in something. Any strong opinion about something, means always a strong argument against something. Any strong integration in something, means always to shut your community from outsiders. This all must lead to what they call bad in moral philosophy. Before I get to far off topic (already, huh?), just let me say, that I am not a nihilist. I am not neutral at all. I am not a entity from a other sphere - I am just a human, who try to entangle from time to time his mind from foolish random ways of thinking, the world force me to.

To get some impressions right that you might got wrong, because I just forget to tell them, didn’t got them in the first place or for other reasons I couldn’t imagine - because this is your head and not my brain:

At first - I love Africa! Got it? Why you might ask? Because I am the character for it. You might be a other character and don’t like the things you read there. Anyway, this is not a PR blog for the tourist or economic department of the Kenyan government. I write down what I see and feel. I like a lot about Kenyan attitude, and think a plain German and other people could learn a lot from that. At the same time I am sure, that this attitude is not the best one - and this is not a judgement, it is just true for all things. Get the best out of it and leave the rest. Kenyan people seem to me extremely relaxed, from a Germans point of view. Sometimes they stand in the middle of the road, not even really care if there is car moving behind them. It might be the heat, it might be trust in drivers behavior, or plain not caring to much about the own life, but in Germany this behavior would be just a good way of suicide. Therefore I love this attitude. I saw only a few stressed drivers on the street, even if the traffic there is from my point of view often just madness. I still can imagine some worth traffic, but I am just glad, that I have no drivers license for this country. Just by the way, I told people the same thing, when I went from the countryside to Hamburg. I guess you get used to it. Respect to Kenyan drivers. In all that Chaos on the street I saw a lot of nearly accidents, that I just gave up to mention them. Nothing happened, so the system works - somehow. In Germany the would had a hundred killed people on the street each day, if the would drive like in Kenya, just because of a different habit and attitude. The only crashed car I saw, was hit by a drunk driver missing his spot and going full speed into a parked car. That could happen everywhere... Maybe not in Saudi Arabia

I mentioned that I felt like in a jail, when I noticed all the keys, locks, blocking bars, doors, gates, spiked wires, electric fences, walls, guards, watchmen, guns, riffles, machine pistols, security lights, body guards, etc. This is for sure and fact much more true than all over Europe, and maybe the most countries all over the world. Maybe not, I will see a few more places. To me it is just extreme. I mentioned not in my blog, that I get very quickly used to it. I don’t feel like in a jail any more, but more like in a save harbor, after seeing around, that there are reasons for all that security. I mentioned at least this. Also I mentioned often, I didn’t even thought of a danger, when my hosts told me that there is more likely one. I didn’t experienced that dangers, but this might be true, because I was then a bit more careful. To say, there is everything fine and you just have to be more careful then in Lüneburg, is just plain nonsense. But it is also true, that fear is always the key to the end of your life. Just get used to the habits of security here, and everything will be fine. Maybe more fine, then caring about nothing and get robbed in Hamburg. As my former trainer in the army taught me: If you have a lock in front of your cabin, nobody steal something from you. If you have no lock in front of your cabin, you earn punishment for giving people the opportunity. At least you have to take care about how security affects your life and if the level of security is still necessary, but this is a different story. The people here, are fine with it, so it shall be then like it is.

I mentioned the house, how big it is and that it still have not all the furniture in it, and at least, that I have no Idea what they use it for. For sure there is a need for all that rooms including a lot of bathrooms, a farmers soon from the backyards of Germany would never have use for, while they have a big family and guests to visit them often, while I haven’t both of them. At least, the house is not crowded with posh stuff and the habit of the people are not posh at all. In a lot of ways I would say it is the other way round. Maybe you don’t got it, but these all are MY impressions about it. It is not pure gold of wisdom and knowledge.

I will mention two absolutely identical examples about African attitude: The broken kitchen light that flickers, and the car, in which I was carried around most of the times, which came out of a service in a garage. Nobody noticed the light, because it will get fixed some day and in the meanwhile you can easily get along with. So I decided to do like they do and say nothing. The German in me would moron about it all day long until it is fixed. This is just a bad attitude of Germans, and everybody who understands at least a bit of living a mental healthy life, would got it, that this is the way to handle such problems. Copy that habit! I try to. The impression in this episode, was not about a hole country, that is not able to fix a flickering light. Same goes for the car today. It came out of service with more problems than before. First reaction was: we bring it back until it is fixed. What would you do? I, as a German would run to the garage, shout around, blame them for bad service and sue them if they don’t give me my money back. Maybe I would live a few years longer, if I would have that, what I call the African attitude. Got it? Copy that!

A other thing, that was mentioned, was the funny picture with the alcohol bottle next to the plant in the ground. Was anybody of you really thinking they water the plants with liquor? At least one person. Therefore: No they don’t give alcohol, drugs or other fun stuff to plants. Plants have a very nice and clean life in this country. To make them stay alive in the dry season, they use just random bottles to make sure the roots are watered.

Another truth I can tell after this few days with this scratch on the surface of a culture is, that there are many places in Kenya or at least in Nairobi, that have a better live style, then any other place I have seen in Germany. At the same time there are places in Nairobi, that have a so bad lifestyle, that I even couldn’t it imagine, before I saw it in the biggest slum of hole Africa. The reason why this is so may lay in the existence of both places. It’s just my opinion, that there is a specific number of material things in the world to share. If someone, for what ever reason use more of them, someone else have to use less. If someone use extremely much more of them, someone else HAS TO use less. It doesn’t depend only on the will of someone to work hard and get more out of it. Often it is not earned. Especially then, if you save more food, that you can eat. That is my opinion and my believe. Take it or leave it. In the terms of my blog I just have to mention if I see some wealth on one side, and some poor on the other side. I just mention it, because I have no clue at all, why this specific person has more than another person. So therefore I blame no one. Got it? Brilliant.

Just to mention it again: I was warmly welcomed all over the place, that I really got sometimes water in my eyes - no, I don’t cry before it hurts. I also never felt a kind of racism against me. Actually, I don’t have the impression of apartheid or racism at all. For sure you don’t see a white men packing up the things you bought in a market, but you can see a black guy in a Country Club with a 18 hole drive range.

Anything else? Maybe I don’t think about it, but no, life is not worse here than in Germany for a student like me. It has some better sides here, and it has some not so good sides here. Same goes for living in Germany.

To end this information piece of todays blog, I will give you a bit of travelers advise. If you are so silly like me to, and have your informations not on a simple list printed out or at least on your laptop, then you get totally lost. Because I am so used to daily internet, I never put my informations in one proper place. I just collect them from the places in the net, where I store them. So just write down all your contacts you need for your travel on a simple list like in numbers or exel. Names, addresses (I don’t even know exactly were I am staying), telephone numbers (even if you don’t carry a phone around), eMail (even if you have no laptop with you). Write a proper list from where to where you go, when you are leaving, when you arrive, how you get there. Print out flight plans and tickets, even if they tell you the print out is not necessary. Copy your most important papers like passport and tickets and store them on a different save place, most likely close to your body. There are niche belly pockets or leg pockets for under your cloth. They are also useful to carry money around. But this is just for traveling. If your in the country, I recommend to have just the amount of money with you, that you intend to use on that day. At the same time I would recommend, to carry only copies of your papers or like me a international student card with you. Then it can’t get stolen or lost. Rest stays with your luggage in your place. If you like to go to an adventure tour into the slums or in very busy areas, you shouldn’t use a camera. At least I cary mine on my belt under a jacket or t-shirt and when I shoot a video or picture, there are friends around me, or at least, I have a look around the place fist. You can get nice pictures out of a car or bus, so consider this. At least don’t do like I did, and forgot a cable to connect your new Mac to beamer. I guess I have to by a USB in Teheran before my next presentation.

With that, I will move on to the regular entry of this day... long one today, uh?

This morning we get up early, but we still hit the end of the line, way out Nariobi city. We made a good decision. My hosts mother turned around the car and went a bit back to the Safari Park I was two days before. They have a nice Safari style restaurant there and we had a nice breakfast with little monkeys jumping around us. My host mother just called in her company, that she will arrive later, and everything was fine. I tasted this morning with my fried egg - they do it here like an omelet, but I had that problem in England as well - a typical Kenyan fried bread. Yummy.

When we was finished, the traffic jam was vanished. Thats the way to handle heavy traffic!

In the city got my $50 for the next trip. My host father took care for that. A employe of the bank was informed to help me with the formalities even for such a small amount of money. Very kind of my host father and the bank, which was Barkleyes (I am not sure about the spelling, but you will see it you are there.). Also I sent my first Postcards back to Germany. I was so annoyed of me, that I forgot to copy the new address of my best friend, and had not chance to find out in the internet. Pal, you will get your card later... still two month to go!

We had a Matatu ride back to the company of her mother to pick up the car fresh from the garage. I noticed, that I start to see where I am in Nairobi, recognize streets and Matatu lines. So I guess, if I would stay here for a week or two longer, I could get easily around by my own for all major matters.

We drove to the University of my lovely host to have my presentation there for the AIESEC Members. The Catholic University there is really nice and for my short look around, as good as a German university. The campus at least is more pleasant, then in Hamburg. The AIESEC office is just tiny, but in Sheffield they had even non, when I was there. But this is just this little office, LC Nairobi has a fine big office, at least the campus is there not so pleasant. I met a lot of nice AIESECer. Also a guy, who was working on our conference in Germany this November. It was just to short to talk with all of them. I would have loved to stay longer with them. We went straight to the meeting room. I had an very kind audience of about 25 people in the beginning. After the first presentation it grew up to about 35 people. I say kind, because I missed a cable, like I mentioned. Therefore they stood tuned with all the trouble in the beginning to get it started. But it seemed they enjoyed the presentation, so I won’t change to much on it in the next country.

Very supportive, someone helped me out in between with his laptop and we ran two other presentations from my Local Committee in Hamburg on Windows. Sad, that Microsoft refuse to run keynote presentations on their power point. It works the other way round. I was not so good prepared for that presentations, but the audience got something out of it. Because I never thought, they will give me so much time, to run all the presentations, a lot of informations in the presentations came up double and triple the time. Anyway, they was very supportive, asked questions afterwards. Payed good attention and seemed to me keen about getting projects with our Local Committee. Very well then. Get something started. I guess there will be a few eMails cross the equator the next days.

Afterwards we had a quick meal in the canteen, which is really a nice one. The food, I went for a backed fish with Ugali, was like all canteens all over the world: O.k.

We took to friends from Wairimu along to our next trips this day. Next stop was the home town of my lovely host, Rongai.

Rongai is in terms of Germany not a town at all. Wairimu tend to call it a village, because of the lack of infrastructure. I would call it a big city with about 100,000 inhabitants. It’s just a bit further away from Nairobi Center then the suburbs my hosts live in. My first impression is, that there a construction sites all over the place.They build mainly houses, but also improve the roads. They really need it. The house was a bit deeper in a labyrinth of narrow side streets. Most of them so small that only a car of our Mercedes size could fit through - not even a pedestrian beside. We reached the house behind a big gate and had a short look inside. The house is now rented out to parts of the family of Wairimu. So we was warmly welcomed. It was not as hugh as the new one in the suburbs of Nairobi, but also far from being a small house. The garden behind was at the moment a mess, because the build a bigger fence around the backyard and want to do a different garden. Same goes by the way for the new house. The will build behind the garden a pool area at the moment, but there is not much to see now.

After this short trip to the house, we went down to the main road and had a short look to the church. I get the impression, that most churches in Kenya are in a round shape with a roof in the shape of a round hut and just a cross on top.

We left the city then to get a bit outside to a house in the wilderness. Wairimus knows the people who owns this, and they used it often for AIESEC events. It was an interesting trip through the suburbs of Rongai. At first we say a big roadwork. There was not much to hold back the traffic and it was plain driving in the construction site. A land rover would have been find. We drove like all other people through the sand of the new road, which was not finished yet. The bigger houses outside and uphill the “village” Rongai was maybe a bit smaller then in the Nairobi suburbs, but also the walls was smaller. Often it was just a fence. I was told, that the reason therefor is, that there is not much crime in Rongai. They need the fence most likely to keep away the animals. We went outside the village and the roads get a bit more wild. It was most likely just a stripe of more or less plain sand where they removed the biggest rocks. Not to easy to drive for a regular street car. We passed a the city limits by the biggest house I might have ever seen. Pure senseless luxury. Wairimu told me it is own by a rich Italian guy, who behave like maybe all new rich people behave - badly, with no manners and shame.

Close by is a national park and we passed by antelopes and baboons. At the boarder between Rongai city and the national park is this lovely house. It is great. Its on a cliff over a river bed, where even lions came down at the night to drink. At the moment there is not much water to see, because it is dry season. We had a bit of rain, so there was at least some water, but usually you just see plants and dry sand.

Further into the national park we went to see the Massai lodge. A very nice hotel for tourists. in the middle of the countryside. We had a look around the countryside there and this really cool hotel over a river. The main picture with this hugh outstanding big tree comes from there. It stands opposite of the hotel in a forest like the mother of all trees.

On our way back to Rongai, we passed the same construction site. At this time they had finished the road piece, that we could easily drive through. It is this will of the people to get things done, which I really like. In Germany it feels more often, that the people search for a reason not to do it, instead of move their ass. I guess we are a bit fat and to leisurely in comparison to this people. This is really something I like about this place.

Before we went home we dropped of the girls and went to the country club. Wairimus father moved up in the hierarchy of the country club, and so he got not even a better parking space, but also Wairimu is soon be able to get all the services of the club, like using the tennis court and the gym, the pool and the massage, the library, and what ever. The design of the houses at the club is to make them look like what a US-American would think of a old fashioned house would look like in Europe. Anyway it is just posh, with a niche green big 18 hole green and a very pleasant restaurant. I strolled a bit around the place, but it was not allowed to take pictures. I would say it looked like the best you can imagine from the impression of a Hollywood film. Pretty posh here. I also was told, that this - for sure - a important place to make business. That is bay the way the reason for Wairimus father to be a member. The membership for this club is buy the way something around 80,000 to 100,000 Dollar a year. Like buying a posh car each year. I have to say, this place was niche, but it barely tipped an emotion in me. I guess, I really don’t care about material or posh things.

I just had look around the country side and therefore not so much detailed explanations. Anyway, you know if you read the first part of this episode, that there were others things I was thinking about when I wrote this down. So I leave you with that and call it a day.

Read you later!

After a bit sport and a shower, I felt like a human again. Now I was in a big empty house. Breakfast was already prepared, while wonderful host was away for her lecture, her brother in school, the cousin as well, the parents away... and wait, there was another drunken sister upstairs. I knocked at the door do find a companion for my breakfast at 13:35h. “Are you already awake?” “Aaaahhoohaaa. Yeees.” Came a zombie voice from inside. No bad hair day with dreadlocks. The girl was ready in a view seconds. I had to smile, while she looked so already awaken from the dead, waring an all white sleeping suite with a read out “I am Irish - Kiss me!”, while I was all dressed in my black in my Sportswear form Ninjutsu training. We looked like a chess board, while standing next to each other.

After proclaiming at the breakfast never to drink again, I looked a bit around the house to write my first proper blog from here. Wairimu arrived and looked pretty fine for a girl with no sleep and a morning lecture. She took me out for some fast food, while her sister tried to get back to life under a shower.

We went to the city to buy some stuff in a nearby little mall and went to a quite different local fast food shop to buy some stuff to bring home. I was just funny to see. Maybe the place was most comparable to a German Doner Kebab shop (in German = Döner, we love Turkish fast food). By the way, the had a way different Kebab there, which I will try some day. So this episode ends up in a food corner from all around the world, so I just fast forward a bit to tell you what we had that afternoon for a late lunch or early dinner: Chicken and Chips. Not to strange for the beginning, but I had Spaghetti Bolognese Italian style the first day. The difference of the chicken was just, that they give you portions in quarters of an animal, which the cut in little snack pieces in front of you. In Germany you usually got only half or complete chicken from a grill. Not to spice for my taste and less crusty skin for my taste, but good. The chips (= British for French fries, or you may know it as Freedom fries form the yesterday gone Bush era, and by the way “Pommes Frites” in German, or just “Pommes”) are British style. The even love Fish and Chips here. I felt like in my Sheffield internship. British means soft big chips. The Kenya style came with a special spicy flavored kind of chips, which is mild in my taste. Also a not to hot salsa like homemade souse, which is more fruity sweet then hot. Yeah, nice. But I look out more for stuff like Crocodile meat from a nearby farm

Back in time, right after we bought the food:

We drove around some more posh areas to find out how the upper class is living. I did also some video, which I for sure will get out a bit later, after editing it a bit. So maybe this loads of material will come out even weeks and month after I got back home. Problem with this area is, that they really get out of sight. It was not that big trouble to enter this gated community with private police patrols in the streets, as long as you drive a big car and carry a white face. But behind the gate we drove through streets with poor people seem to live at the sideways of the street and in front of big walls and hedges. Behind there you saw most likely just the roofs of the houses, but you could see, they was even bigger than the places I live in. The way most posh buildings have so much “garden” or better forest around them and so big gates and hedges, that you can’t tell what or if there is a building hidden on this land. Anyway, I will have access to the local Country Club with my little princess and have a look to their faces then.

We stopped our little tour, when it was time to pick up her little brother. We also did the day before, but I didn’t mention it, because of all the other stuff. He went there to a very posh private boys school, which is run by the Turkish embassy. I never thought of a Turkish community in Kenya at all, but her brother is even learning Turkish in this school. There is a separated girls school on the other side of town, but Sera didn’t went to this school. While we waited for her brother she told me about the influence of the Turkish people here. Kenya is on the East coast which has a strong influence from the arabic world. While North Africa’s colonies became native arabic world, the old Slave countries from the east coast of Africa are still influence by the arabic world. Even Suaheli, a widely spoken language from the east coast of Africa, is a mix of the Arab language and native African languages. The Osmanic reich, which shrink to the borders of Turkey after they lost the big battle in Vienna, spread out even down to Kenya. So also a lot of Sunit Muslim in this country. Wairimu was not sure, but something about 30%. You just not see it to much, because the African people are no so strict and fanatic about their religion, and women often wear nothing special, even if they are Muslim. The Sunit part of the Muslim religion is the wast majority of this religion, which is generally pretty calm with their religion like Christians are in Germany. You can see even more beautiful mosques in Kenya, than in Germany. I put this on my list, to visit a mosque here.

After the meal back home we had a nice chat about the languages here, and I learned some first words and phrases to get along. Now I have a good use for my Notes booklet, I got a s a present on my farewell party. The language lessen was mixed like the languages here. Beside English and Suaheli, they speak here Sheng, which you can’t learn from a book. It’s a kind of street language, which is very lively and changes its words and particles every few month. So my Sheng will be out of date, when I ever come back. Maybe even after I finished my trip in a good two month. For sure all this ends up in some more dirty words and phrases you can’t learn from a book anyway, and are maybe useful at a drinking night out in a bar or club For sure, the best way to learn a language is with a native or even better in the country. So go out to the countries you love to learn the language. Because I can’t focus on that wired trip, I have to write down the words to learn it, just plain learn it. I asked ten times for the words for “thank you” (= asante sana, by the way). Since I wrote it down and read it a few times, I just can remember it. Sasa from the Headline means “Hello”. The rest of the word from the Headline, are too dirty mens talk to translate it here. So go to Kenya or ask Kenyan guy.

Night out was a not a too hard party. We went out to a very cool Restaurant and Disco, that easily can match with every German one. A big sized one, like we used to have for Techno and stuff in the outskirts of our cities or at the countryside in a very nice style. But it was a plain dead place. Beer pretend to be expansive, with a Tusker for 190 Schilling, but a Martini for just 110 Schilling! Boy, thats in a bar in Hamburg more like five to six Euro! Don’t know why I didn’t had one. Maybe because there was no party mood. George from the last night meet us there and excused the rest of the people for being finished even now. So we hang out at one of the bars and complained, about the not so Rock music. I got a little chance to have a look to the news and TV programs around here, because they had flat screens with different channels all over the place. A lot of US series and even the Ophra talkshow, we don’t have in Germany. The news channels brought specials with the Obama election day. Maybe it’s not true, that African people don’t like Rock and just Whitey’s do, because my little Rock Princess is the prof. She was also a bit puzzled, but guessed that the people just celebrated to long the new US president. Wairimu herself was a bit more calm about her emotions and think about politics more neutral. She’s a sociologist like me, and likes to stay with facts and results. We will see, but the Hope is there with the people all over Nairobi, thats for sure, and I believe, this is just a reaction to the light dark skin of that president. We will see if he can use it for good.

Just a little note for the alcohol corner of the blog: Smirnoff is over here pretty fancy and expensive. In Germany it’s since a few years not any longer so fancy to have a Smirnoff Ice.

Just in the moment we got our bill and was on the way to leave the party, the DJ, decided to play my favorite songs. So I went to the dance floor and shake out my energy a bit. There was nearly nobody dancing, and the few obviously didn’t know how to dance to Rock music like Linkin Park, Rasmus, System of the down, Puddle of mud etc. It was a bit like the DJ played songs with lines from my heart, covering my mood of being just now and here and enjoying myself. So I freaked a bit on stage and was for sure the “crazy white guy” when I left. I think a lot of people who ever saw my dancing a night, could imagine. So I was sweeting all over when we left for the cars. We even had to open the window a bit on our way back, because I made the front window misty with the heat from my body. But just a bit lowered window, because of the dangerous corners, where cars often get hijacked... back to reality.

Read you later!

Get up early again. Like a good German, I am again the first in the kitchen, cleaning up and prepare, while the girls came a bit later. This days list is: Explore the city with Wanja. Meet the AIESEC people with Wairimu and go to a overnight event and a Safari. But actually in Africa some plans turn out different...
Wanja showed me around the city, which is, like she told me, the nice part of it. I saw a lot of general tourist stuff. In general my impression is, that this city is quite modern and even the streets are fine here in the inner city. They have lot of skyscraper in the city. Much more, than in the most German cities. Also a lot of nice old buildings from the colonial time. So I will give you just a view on some landmarks, like the town hall, the parliament, the high court and the national monument, which is the tomb of the first president of Kenya. Bye the way, it’s not allowed to take pictures from it. The should have told me earlier

A quite interesting experience was the biggest mosque in Kenya. It was my first visit to a mosque - and also for my tour guide Wanja. The guy at the entrance was really kind to us. He offered us a guided tour - including the allowance for Wanja to visit the mans praying area, which is forbidden for Muslim women. Also I was allowed to take pictures, which is usually forbidden in christian churches. So I was glad to get this tour. They really have five to seven prayers a day and up to 15,000 Muslim pray in this mosque in the Ramadan time! Wow! The main building is quite small but beautiful. The extension is just hugh. It includes Seminar and lecture halls. Offices and library, free to visit for everyone with more than just religious books.

The market was quite different from what I am used to in Europe. It was just extremely colourfull and a lot of busy traders try to make a business with you. Especially if your white and looking like a tourist with a camera in your hand shooting photos and videos, it can get a bit annoying. Actually I felt after a while pretty uncomfortable the first time in Kenya. I found out that flags are truly more expansive than in Germany - which was the only thing that I really would like to take along from Kenya. For sure he tried to get out a lot of money from me, but I was told by my lovely host, that they can’t sell a flag under 1,500 Schilling. Cheapest in Germany is 295 Schilling and most expansive in tourist stores is 1,000 Schilling. Thank you, but no thanks.he “zi” phrase was quite helpful. I also met in front of the market the first beggars. Skinny women with babies and little children. The proper phrase is hard to say “zi”. You won’t get happy if you give money. Anyway I was here first time a bit nervous about my stuff, even when I don’t took along much more than a bit money and a camera. So I recommend to you, not to take a camera along and look to much like a tourist, say “zi” often and be prepared to trade instead of pay the first given price. My lovely hosts won’t let me go without a gift, so Wairimu bought me there a African mask, small enough to but it in my rucksack. Wanja gave me a funny Kenyan shirt.
I relaxed from the market experience in the very first Jawa coffee house in Kenya. Jawa has the best coffee in Kenya and is kind of Starbucks here. By the way, the sizes are much bigger than in Germany. You than don’t need a “double coffee” or like in Germany a middle size. A “single” is just enough.

Next stop was AIESEC office Nairobi. First time I saw the university at daylight. It has a lot of nice sides and not so much different lecture halls, but the toilets there are not recommendable, if there are some not “out of order”. Then I had my second bad experience that day.The third time I tried to get into the internet, but it was just f****** slow. Internet is like breathing for me. So I really felt like someone cut off my arms. I really liked Africa so far, but without a good internet connection it’s not my place to life. It seems in general internet phones are a good idea here. So just be prepared to have a mobile internet contract that is not to expansive to use abroad. In Africa you won’t get flat rates. So no update today, and not much mail done.

The girls took me along with a cool other Mercedes. German cars are famous here all over the place. I didn’t new that! I shoot some videos in the city, which will come up and will be at least interesting for Europeans to see. Like the behavior of pedestrians an cars on the streets. Or how they take care about traffic lights and signs. They mainly don’t care, even the police. As long as everything is running.

We stopped by at the flat of the upcoming president of the Nairobi AIESEC office. She’s a student like me, but she has a maid, which is not so uncommon here. A housemaid from the slums is about a 20 to 30 Euros a month. For me it feels just strange, but labour is really cheap over here. We picked up a big box of Heinecken beer on the road to her place and chilled on the balcony while waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive, before we went for our Safari and a party first.

That was the time I experienced a new thing about African attitude. I was told that the clocks in Africa are more slow under the hot sun, than in cold Europe, and I am not patient at all. We waited for the crew all afternoon until it was dark night. The only one that showed up was a German intern about two hours late and about four ours late a Kenyan friend of Nairobis AIESEC President. She was calling them all the time, but it doesn’t helped. She didn’t showed any anger about it, like she is used to it, but I had in the meanwhile just a beer to much.

This day I had barely eaten anything, and in the last days I had drunk down more alcohol than in the last three or four month in Germany... may be more. When we finally decided to have some food without them, I really went for it. What I didn’t took care about with my empty stomach and a drunken head, was that I am a bit sensitive about spinach if it is not fresh. This one I guess was from yesterday and heat up again, so with my second big portion I registered a tickling in my fingers and toes and my throat became so small, that I barely could breath. Washed my face used about a hundred tissues to take care about all the fluids came out of my eyes, nose and mouth. Hardly I could breath and decided to try to sleep, that my body could take better care about it. It worked well, like all times with my wonderful surviving machine, but I was pretty dizzy, when the crew finally arrived at about ONE O’CLOCK! They immediately was then in a hurry to go to the party, while I decided to stay and sleep a bit longer. After the small rest came back that morning, it seemed I missed a cool pool party. I never had one But therefore I am still alive to go to more parties and hopefully this Safari “tomorrow” or better later - if someone shows up before the close down the Savannah....

Read you later!

So read:

I just start from the beginning, to get the memories in order. At the airport, which is way different and smaller, I filled out a form for my VISA which I get for 50 Dollar. I had a lot of Kenya Schilling with me, but the only like to have Dollar for the VISA registration. So take care about that if you ever go to Kenya. Gladly I had some Dollars for my VISA in Iran. I new that they don’t use their local money there at the Airport.

I got a nice welcome from the AIESEC people of Nairobi. Not all was only there for me, because a little bit later was a guy from China coming. By the way, the Nairobi AIESECer seem to do a good job in incoming exchange, a lot of people from all around the world a now in Nairobi - but more of that later. Even a German intern was at the Airport to welcome me in Nairobi. I have to say, I was not polite. The first line, come to my mind when she told me she’s from Germany too, was “oh, how boring. I travel so far just to meet a German. I never thought I would.” Yeah, I speak out my mind. I felt a bit tired, when Sera started a shout from our AIESEC group back home in Hamburg. To not confuse you to much, I will explain that Sera and Wairimu are the same girl. Wairimu is just a Kikuyu Clan name - a female first name, I also was a bit puzzled about this. So Kikuyu is the biggest ethnicity in Kenya.

Out there in the sun, I got back to life. It was hot! Bright sunshine, smooth warm wind that cools your hot skin a bit down, blue sky, white wonderful clouds, just like painted on glass with a extreme strong light behind it. I felt so unreal. It is really different to stay there. Even the air tasted different. The earth is red and rich of minerals to grow everything. Great! Before I sound to much like my father the farmer, I just will tell you that I had my first beer in a very chilly airport bar for 160 Kenya Schilling, which is about less then 1,50€. Maybe I start a little corner with Beers from all around the world so this country is the Land of Tusker beer. And as a German beer sommelier I have to say, a good one. This is beer by the way was kind of expensive. A cheep one is about 110 Schilling.

We left the airport in a big Mercedes, which is the spare care of my hosts family, so Wairimu and her sister took me with this big car home to there place. I shot some videos from driving on the Kenya roads. It’s pretty unusual for me. Like in Britain they drive on the left side, so my first failure was to go to the wrong side of the car to enter. Most countries are used to the left-drive-system, but in Germany you never think of this, even if you know it, like me. The roads are even close around the capital just a stripe of concrete with sand holes and stones around and lots of holes and bumpers in it. To drive can sometimes a bit ruff, but funny. Not much, not far as much signs on the streets like in Germany. No lines on the “three-line-highway” and everybody moving in what ever speed, shifting from left to write and drive their own lines. Even in this single day, I felt like seeing a dozen nearly-accidents.

So first stop was her house. The area was kind of posh or upper middle class, but this means something different than in Europe. The “house” was a hugh, roomy, spacey, big, wast palace. The parents were away for a few days, so just me three kids and a cousin living in this palace. Then a gardener in building outside and a watchmen for the gates at night. Since a while, my little Kenya princess told me, they have no longer a maiden, so the kids running the household by themselves. Except from cleaning lady helping them with this brand new big palace, where they moved in not long ago. Awesome much space. I don’t regret ever to come to Africa at all.

I thought of getting a corner to roll out my sleeping bag and snort a while, but this is really something: I have a whole guest area for myself. It includes one of the seven bathrooms for myself a own entrance area and double bed sleeping room. all together this guest room is about the size of my flat in Hamburg! My next hosts have work hard to catch up. Just kidding. I don’t expect that and just want to see how people live in this country. So I don’t live here like the majority, but I will find out. This is part of my mission on this trip. Not to judge or tell people how to do, just listen and see and learn. But it’s a comfortable start. Space is an extremely luxury thing in most countries, but here it is affordable and available. So this house is big, has its own chapel and they have some people serving their household, but kind of typical are the small things. They have lot of bathrooms, which are rarely in use, and on the details you can see they are not so well installed, then I am used to it in Germany. So the material itself is there, but the craftsmen in Kenya don’t seem to do the best work. In the kitchen and other places of the house, they have problems with the light, which sometime flicker or turn down. You might think, this has to do with power problems ins Africa, and yes there are some, because the use in Kenya nearly just energy from natural sources like water streams, which not produce so constantly in the dry season, but in this case it is just the bad electric in the house. So they got used to it and don’t care to much while the light go out in the middle of the dinner. Also they have just spare rooms, which they have no proper use for. The house is just spacey. So they moved in not long ago, so maybe there is some more furniture coming, but for some rooms I just can’t think of a use.

Around the house is a nice garden, and they watering the plants there with bottles in the ground. But for some reason this household are very kind to their plants, as you can see on the picture.

One of the bottles is a wine from my father, which was a gift to Wairimu, when I hosted her in my place. By the way, behind the house a nice place to sit down, which I use for updating my Blog while I am here. For some reason this place outside, has a much better internet connection with WLAN, then the landlines in the house. Some companies in Kenya run their advertisement with that problem like “Your internet is down again? Just buy....”. So a problem with a stable connection. I think I will publish my updates therefore just once in a while all of them. So maybe you just get a update all four days or with a few new entries then. Wairimu and her sister fix the problem with using mobile phones with internet connection. So I think mobile devices with easy and proper internet is a great thing for Africa. Maybe a good expanding area for iPhones, even if I heard they spread out in some Africa countries.

The interesting thing about this middle class society is, that they have to live in cages. They have a nice place to live, but big walls around and electric fences around each house and even unused fields, to protect them from people simply building slums on it, while you own it. You don’t see much street work going on, but a lot fences where build all over. Each house has a watchmen, at least for the night, often also someone in the day times. Also not so nice wire at the top of the walls. From the inside the cover the walls with high hedges, but still it feels a little bit like a jail, where you have to look constantly doors behind your with several keys, close windows, have nearly hole day all windows sight blocked, that nobody can see if someone is in there. At night you have to put on safety lights and instead of a doorbell you have gate bell and wait for the watchmen to open it, when you like to drive in. At least the water is transported in fresh water trucks to the houses and around the palace like buildings are tiny wooden huts where poor people live who have jobs in the big houses. With a look over the wall of the Palace from a balcony, I could see someone taking care of his chickens next to a wood and metal construction which looked like the house for the chicken, but was his home. All that so close together. Strange feelings. That’s Africa.

Our way to the university was interesting that evening. I saw first time Nairobi policemen. Just a hat and casual cloth under a kind of police jacket, with no printings on it. So nearly no uniform, but a big machine pistol. Not possible in Germany. Rarely you see a policemen protecting an embassy with a machine pistol, but usually just a pistol and a proper uniform. Also you never would see a policemen leaning on his car like a lazy gangster rapper, nearly sleeping on it in the sun. The check ups on the streets are pretty tuff for German ones. Nearly no warning signs in the dark roads at night, and then suddenly a blockade with nails and a policemen with a machine pistol. Usually they just check busses with a lot of people and cheep cars. So our Mercedes never was checked. So there seems to be a kind of rule on the street, that a more expansive car can go first. Even at the university the gatekeeper didn’t checked after he saw a white guy in a big car going to the private parking area of the professors of the university.

This night was Obama’s election party all over Kenya! I missed that totally, because the US president is not that big news in Germany and I was busy with the preparation of my travel in the last weeks. So I guess every black guy in hole Africa celebrated it. There was a live act on the university of Nairobi, which was a famous Rapper from Africa, that I fore sure not knew. Several beamer gave live News from the USA to the walls of the Buildings around the campus and everybody was dancing. I went with my to girls to a area with tents in the colours of the US flag. I just thought this was the bar area, with not so much people in there for some reason. Coming closer, I noticed the fence around and the policemen with the machine pistols, but again for a white guy and two girls no check. Inside I found out this was the VIP area with two own projectors and drinks for free. Cheers Obama! But we came a bit late and all beer was already gone, so just Fanta and Sprite for us. We also meet some friends from Wairimu and her sister, but we had just over the fence talks, because they couldn’t enter. So a bit boring for us and sniffed around for a beer. Wanja, Wairimu’s sister, was busy giving a random interview to a young journalist and then we finally moved to find a beer.

The shortest way to get one was right over the street to the biggest police station of Nairobi. A quite interesting short walk. Unfortunately I had no camera with me, because I was just on a party at night. There is a sign at the entrance of the university read out “this is a corruption free zone”. You might think about how the rest of the city including the police station over there is like. Next thing is, that this police station looked not far as big or shiny and nice like you would imagine a central police station. There was not even a proper stone ground around the station, but just a lot of holes in the sand and nearly no light to see where you put your feet. Moving around the building to the officers canteen, where you can go for some reason like in a bar, I smelled the jail block. Yeah, you read right. In a distance of a bout 20 meters you could smell something like behind the cow stable on our farm back home. I guess it came from buckets with shit and wet hey. A place you would not like to see from the inside, just while smell it from the outside.
The police station canteen was quite a place, boy! It was small, smelly, stuffed with loud talking people, that you would not miss any music. Bright colours all over and dirty. Yeah, men! That it wasn’t a bar, you could tell from the very improvised serving way. A guy in casual cloth walked around the place and took orders taking the money. He had a wall with locked up cupboards with warm Tusker beer. There was only one tiny locked fridge with just a few bottles inside, which he saved for some reason while he sold a cheap warm beer. While walking around to found out, how to get a beer I moved in the first policemen with a really proper and shine uniform. I can’t tell you who he was, but the uniform looked just so way different that he for sure had some important job in the police. I just had a short chat with him, while he kindly explained me the ordering system here.

We found a table with a bunch of AIESECers entertaining their interns from all around the world. Great! Such a international table in the middle of a noisy police station, while having a beer! I met a girl from Hungary, a guy from Poland, a girl from Brazil, a girl from another country I forgot and finally a Nihonjin san , さとし is his real name. In the middle of Africa at the first night of my trip in a other country I could have my first Japanese chat (his nickname, I gave him, means just Mr. Japanese). Great! He also was completely puzzled to hear some Japanese from a German guy in Kenya. Quit something, but not to unusual if you are three years in AIESEC.

This become quite a long entry, but there is more to tell. What a day!

On our way back we just had a stop at a gas station with a restaurant, while the girls went for a pee. Next to us stopped a bus with a bunch of people in party mood. It turned out, that it was friends of Wairimu and her sister that got a little bit drunken (yes, old british english. I love to speak british, even if my american dictionary on my laptop alway wants to correct words like colour to color). Kevin celebrated his birthday and I got to know another George, with a proper “e” at the end of his name . So we started a very loud and bad choir on this gas stop, singing “Happy birthday Kevin” and got therefor all a nice Whiskey-Coke mix. After we end up finishing to bottles of Whiskey in the bus having silly chats - it kind of a alcohol Blog, isn’t it - we decided that the early morning has just began and there must be something to do with is. Sera, the only one not drunken, skipped her plans going early to bed to be ready for a lecture in the university by eight a.m., and just went through this night without sleep and directly going to the lecture hall in a few hours.

So finally we end up in two upstairs bars/clubs in Nairobi changing club and beer when ever the DJ decided to play a lame tune. I quit was in the mood to dance a bit and the people loved it. A wonderful first day. I never had thought I even would have the stamina to have such a long first day after the trip or expect all this weird stuff, like drinking with random people at the early morning outside a gas stop and rocking club in the early hours. WOW!

And there is still more to come!

Read you later!

After a while Wairimu appeared. She had much more drinks than me last night and I am nearly double her weight! She teared Wanja an me apart, to take me out to a friends house. He’s called George as well - coincidence, coincidence.o we went down to Nairobi more close to the city center in a middle class area, with a lot of Indian houses, which are pretty close to the German standard, according to the look outside. Also a lot of a bit lower class flat where also around the streets. George lives in one of them. A bit cheaper than mine, also a bit less fine than mine. But with a nice living room, where we came together like a big family. A friend of George brought also her child along and we had a nice chat, while I tried to upload my website, but for some reason had trouble. Internet in Africa is slow and rare, even in the better houses. Also they have a lot prepaid contracts, where you pay for each MByte you load, instead of flat-rates, like in Germany.

I also was able to watch a bit TV. News look a bit like NTV in Germany (there is a big station her in Kenya also called NTV, but not only for news - its National TV) or CNN. There are also a lot of Hip Hop Videos in the TV and series from America like in Germany.

We relaxed a bit and had a chilled day. George prepared us a very big bowl with chips and chicken. We washed our hands and just eat all from this one bowl which was fun. I really eat to much, but it was finger-licking good.

I had also a walk through the neighborhood with George. I was the only white guy around, so I got a lot attention. We compared a bit life in Germany and Kenya and he showed me a regular mall and market around. A bit later we came back in the evening to sit in front of one of this bars with a chilled beer and chatted a bit, like all the other people do around this place. It was really niche with barbeque on the streets - and fellas, no problems with the food at all; it’s nice, tasty and you won’t get ill from it or something.
George told my about his plans going to China. He already studies chinese. I also is looking for a internship in Europe, so I at least invited him to come around my place. Cool guy. It seems we are two of a kind.
The area around this place is quite different, and the streets are awfully bad. The sidewalks are nearly not existing. But this is also true in the very posh areas. You will see in upcoming videos.

It was a very interesting experience for the little girl I met in George’s place, because she hardly ever saw a white guy like me before, so she was pretty puzzled about everything on me, my face, may skin, my lips, my nose, etc.

After that chilled day, which was a good rest, we went home to wait for Wairimus and Wanjas parents. They arrived a bit earlier and brought the “father” - their priest along. The three of them visited the oldest brother of Wairimus and Wanja in the USA. The priest spoke a bit German because he studied and worked in Europe a while. Their parents included me in their prayers that evening. I don’t knew that kind of praying from back home, even if my family is catholic as well. It was touching.

So not much drinking today, and not much party. But I had that evening again wonderful food, prepared by Wanja: Chick stew with nearly hole chickens with all the bones and stuff. A side dish of potatoes and pumpkins, which is a bit reminding me of German potatoes, but we rarely use pumpkins at all and some African bread and cabbage aside. Delicious!

You may notice, that I am not so passionate in writing today, because I am a bit sleepy, but I will give you a bit of language, like Survival phrases in Suaheli, I try to learn and use at the moment.

So just give you a short overview. They speak a lot of languages here in Kenya. Official languages are English, because this was a former British colony. Also Suaheli is official language and the news on all the stations are at 7 p.m. in Suaheli and at 9 p.m. in English. Suaheli is widely spoken along the east coast of Africa, because this is a mix out of Arab and African languages. This came back than from the Arab colonizations in the middle ages. Beside that the people speak there tribe languages like Kikuyu most likely in Kenya, but also some other languages. Beside that they speak Sheng. Sheng is the Sheng word for Slang This is a very alive street language, which is different in each African country. Also the words in Sheng I give you now may be not used any longer in half a years time or maybe even less.

So, survival phrases in proper Suaheli now:
Hello - Jambo
Good bye - Kwaheri
Thank you (very much) - Asante (sana)
How are you? - Habari yako?
O.k. - Soso (or Sawa Sawa)
It’s o.k. - Nisawa
I am fine - Nikosawa
Sorry (a lot) - Pole (sana)
Pardon me (or excuse me) - Samahani
Yes - ndio
Yes (formal) - eh
No - La (or Hapana)
Cheers - Maisha Marefu (literally “long life”, it’s not a African thing to say something while drinking)
Ugali = most common food here, made of corn flour
Matumbo = hmmmm. Cow stomach

Then some survival phrases in Sheng to sound cool:
Hello - Sasa
Yes - Powa
No - Zi
What’s up? - Niaje?
Your lovely - Una pendeze
You smell so lovely - Una nukia
You stink - Una nuka (so be careful to pronounce the “i” properly )
She’s hot - Ameiwa (literally “ripe fruit”)
You are hot - Umeiwa
Refering about the backside of a women is - mahaga

So from now on I spare out the more fun stuff, but you can imagine what’s in my vocabulary. Have fun learning languages from all over the world. Beside. My experience is, a single good line in the language of the women you go for is really helpful, if you like to get to know her

Read you later!