samedi 26 mai 2007
Missing clubbing in Kenya!
I've had 2 glasses of champagne (don't try to know why), and since it's late at night, this is what I miss about Kenya right now. When you go clubbing in a huge group of girls with males from the family to protect you. Get to the club, all heads are turning like "where are these beauties from?". I open my mouth, they see I don't live here so they're all over like ...anyway you forgive.Then loud music in the club and you're clapping away with your girls. Then some guy absolutely wanna do collé-serré with you. And you dance all night. You're sipping some very bad cider or is it Smirnoff on ice (very bad quality Vodka mixed with soda), but that's sawa. At 1.00am you eat some nyama choma.You go home at 3.00am bila voice. You don't even know how you got home.You're woken up at 11.0am with your splitting headache to go wash...and go to church to confess all this!
Book harvesting...part 1
Many people who left school in Kenya more than 5 years ago, may not know what this is all about. I must confess I didn't know what it was till I got invited to one. I was gonna simply talk about this particular book harvesting, but I realise in fact the topic can be given a wider scope, as far as my "book harvesting" experience is concerned. To make things clear, "book harvesting" ofically is a sort of "harambee" to harvest books for a school. Now, before I tell you how, you'll ask me why would a school need to harvest books, What happened to the school library? This is where my second point comes in. Where did the books we used in school go to?
The answer to this second question is to be found in the streets and back streets of Nairobi. As an avid reader and a teacher, I've always loved purchasing books. Now, there're some books that truly marked my growing up. The syllabus books, novels you name it. In July 2005 when I went to Kenya, I decided I was gonna look for all those books we ready in primary school, put them in my library for posterity. To my chagrin, I realised after checking with Text Book centre and other reputable libraries in the city that msot of these books were not to be found any more as either they're no longer used in the syllabus, or they're simply out of print. When I told my little brother about my sad fate, he told me he knew where I could find virtually any book under the Sun. That's how I found myself on an Eastleigh (an estate in Nairobi, now dreaded for the underground activities that go on there). bound matatu.
Ndugu mdogo was right because no sooner had we arrived in Eastleigh than I found myself literally swimming in tons of tons of second hand text books.From the "Hallo Children of Standard 1...the first official school book I read in life to all the Mzee Safari books. Then of course some very rare books such as
1. Man, Civilization and Conquest ...Margaret Sherman
2.Peoples, Revolution and Nations by Derek Wilson
3. Fist edition of "poems from east Africa" Cook and Rubadiri
4. Poems of Black Africa Wole Soyinka
I also got all my Safari books from book one to four
May of those orange African readers' series
Sembane Ousmane's "God's bits of wood, Elechi Amadi's "The Concubine", an old tatarred copy of Okot pBtek's "Song of O'col and Song of Lawino.
In a nutshell, my escapade left me with a rack sack groaning under the weight of "treasures" some tattered, some pages yellow with age, some pages bearing marks of the previous owners imprints "Like this scrbbilings in an O Level Geography text book by Ojany and Ogendo...
BED..Accounts, Eco, Com and at the bottom Phy-Maths -Engineer . Probably a youngster pondering over which "combination as we called them, he should opt for in A level, in order to be assured a place in the university.
The answer to this second question is to be found in the streets and back streets of Nairobi. As an avid reader and a teacher, I've always loved purchasing books. Now, there're some books that truly marked my growing up. The syllabus books, novels you name it. In July 2005 when I went to Kenya, I decided I was gonna look for all those books we ready in primary school, put them in my library for posterity. To my chagrin, I realised after checking with Text Book centre and other reputable libraries in the city that msot of these books were not to be found any more as either they're no longer used in the syllabus, or they're simply out of print. When I told my little brother about my sad fate, he told me he knew where I could find virtually any book under the Sun. That's how I found myself on an Eastleigh (an estate in Nairobi, now dreaded for the underground activities that go on there). bound matatu.
Ndugu mdogo was right because no sooner had we arrived in Eastleigh than I found myself literally swimming in tons of tons of second hand text books.From the "Hallo Children of Standard 1...the first official school book I read in life to all the Mzee Safari books. Then of course some very rare books such as
1. Man, Civilization and Conquest ...Margaret Sherman
2.Peoples, Revolution and Nations by Derek Wilson
3. Fist edition of "poems from east Africa" Cook and Rubadiri
4. Poems of Black Africa Wole Soyinka
I also got all my Safari books from book one to four
May of those orange African readers' series
Sembane Ousmane's "God's bits of wood, Elechi Amadi's "The Concubine", an old tatarred copy of Okot pBtek's "Song of O'col and Song of Lawino.
In a nutshell, my escapade left me with a rack sack groaning under the weight of "treasures" some tattered, some pages yellow with age, some pages bearing marks of the previous owners imprints "Like this scrbbilings in an O Level Geography text book by Ojany and Ogendo...
BED..Accounts, Eco, Com and at the bottom Phy-Maths -Engineer . Probably a youngster pondering over which "combination as we called them, he should opt for in A level, in order to be assured a place in the university.
Abandu safaris express
So here I lay the first stone of my blog. I don't know what I'll write in, but I certainly know what "I'll not write therein!". Okey, that's a line picked straight from the just ended presidential elections where I live! "Je ne sais pas pour qui je vais voter, mais je sais pour qui je ne voterai pas...said one Fracois Bayrou.My immediate worry is getting "hooked up" and never finding my individual freedom once again, when I want "not to write anymore". We live in a world where everyone can get to know where you are 24/7 and can reach it 24/7!
Anyway, my Abandu safaris is a "clin d'oeil", to a vehicle I was once so fond of. In Kenya, the main means of transport are mini buses or even smaller covered pick-ups that we call "matatus". Each one of them usually has an evocative name such as "God's case no appeal" go figure! , ""Msamaria mwema (the good Samaritan), ""Bwana Msafiri" (the traveller), "Mla chake (he who eats his rightfully earned bread), and so on. Abandu safaris was such an appelation. It was the only vehicle that ferried people from my grandmother's village (Emanyulia) to town (Yala, Butere, Kisumu etc). So I'm hoping this abandu safaris will be taking me places. It may take me just to the next village , Eshirotsa, or bring me all the way to this desk where I'm typing from.
Watu wakae square, walete chapa, gari linaondoka!
Bon voyage à tous et à toutes!
Anyway, my Abandu safaris is a "clin d'oeil", to a vehicle I was once so fond of. In Kenya, the main means of transport are mini buses or even smaller covered pick-ups that we call "matatus". Each one of them usually has an evocative name such as "God's case no appeal" go figure! , ""Msamaria mwema (the good Samaritan), ""Bwana Msafiri" (the traveller), "Mla chake (he who eats his rightfully earned bread), and so on. Abandu safaris was such an appelation. It was the only vehicle that ferried people from my grandmother's village (Emanyulia) to town (Yala, Butere, Kisumu etc). So I'm hoping this abandu safaris will be taking me places. It may take me just to the next village , Eshirotsa, or bring me all the way to this desk where I'm typing from.
Watu wakae square, walete chapa, gari linaondoka!
Bon voyage à tous et à toutes!
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