Culture, & Rioting in Nairobi

Wednesday-Friday, March 30, 2011

While working in the flat our old friend Sampson stopped by to say hello.  He used to wash our cars when he was an unmarried young adult, but now he is married and has an 18 month old daughter.  He is still washing cars but he has worked with the employment couple and learned a new skill and is installing window coverings.  He is getting new referrals and his business is growing.  Like he says, he needs to take care of a family now and work harder.  He told me that he had moved out of Kibera, one of the most dangerous slums in Nairobi.  He goes to the Westlands Branch and knows his Branch President, an Australian with three daughters who works for the UN, so maybe he actually attends.  I asked him if he remembered what we had talked about so many years ago and he did: I told him that good, Mormon men don’t hit their wives.  He was astounded when I told him that if you did this in America you might end up in jail.  In Africa, you can beat your wife all you want to and it is simply ‘tradition’.  I was even happier when he told me how he treated his wife.  I gave him a hug and he said he would visit again.

Above: Sampson with a doll for his little girl.  Since we can’t seem to leave our flat yet we might as well give away what we can while here.  Jim gave a doll to the cutest little girl dressed in bright clothes.  When I tried to take her picture her older siblings wouldn’t let us and took her away—we never know exactly what prompts this—afraid of the camera?  Afraid that we’ll steal her away?  Anyway, it would have made the cutest picture!

 

The difference between cultures: our friend Sarah was visiting and wanted to see some pictures of my family so I looked on my laptop but didn’t have very many.  I remembered that Mike had a website for his dental practice and that his family picture was on there so we looked him up.  He has this little sidebar showing his veneers with the before and after pictures.  One was of a woman whose space between her front teeth was ‘fixed’ with the Cerac veneers.  Sarah was surprised that anyone would want to do that.  Sarah’s mother has a space between her front teeth and in Kenya that is considered to be quite beautiful!  So all you Americans worried about the space between your front teeth—come to Kenya and smile big!

This flat (apartment) has the worst stove of any of the couples.  The one in my old flat and probably most of the other couples have a few gas burners next to the electric ones.  This one does not.  I spent a half hour trying to fry hamburger and it just wouldn’t cook it.  I changed to the burner that I found working and the meat was quickly sizzling.  The problem is that once it gets going it just gets too hot.  Last night I attempted to fix burgers and I not only burned them on the bottom but created a lot of smoke and an awful, acrid smell in the kitchen.  This is also caused by the very old frying pans that they have here.  The meat looks normal but when it is cooked it turns reddish instead of brownish—does that mean that it is free of chemicals or does that mean it isn’t from a cow?  Where’s the beef?!

When the power went off and on one day I also realized what a problem this would be to just have an electrical stove.  When we lived here before the power would often go out for three days at a time.  How would they cook without power unless they also had a gas stove?  Luckily they are doing an inventory of all apartments to update and replace what is needed.  I decided to make a list for them as I have lived here for a few days so that when a new couple comes the place will be ready for them.  We have settled into our routine of filling water bottles with the filtering system in the apartments, and putting Jik (bleach) in our water to clean vegetables and dishes.  One of the happiest things to return home to is to NOT have to do these routines.  One added job this trip is that I actually have to do some housework.  This is usually something I get to avoid on these trips, but we’re in this flat alone and dirt sort of blows in on everything. 

I remembered one good tip from our friends the Banks who are from the UK and lived here as the missionary couple when we were here long ago.  And, this is actually the flat they lived in.  She said she just kept the hallway door closed because then the mosquitoes would not find their way into the bedroom.  This works like a charm!  No more night-time buzzing.

While busy wading through the massive paperwork we didn’t notice what was going on at our nearby park the last couple of nights and especially late Wednesday afternoon.  I even had to go online to read all about it. There was a massive uprising by university students who lit fires at the Uhuru Park (that we can see from our top floors), vandalized whatever they felt like and clogged the streets so that vehicles moved only inches in hours.  They pelted police with rocks and beat up journalists, and blocked the main roads (they like to ruin everyone’s day).  All of this rioting is because of their unhappiness over government corruption.  They also wanted to get rid of the police commissioner.  The Kenyans want to see real reforms and transparency in the government and this is hard to come by in these countries.

Last week some known gang members were killed by police instead of being arrested.  You’d think they’d be happy to get rid of the bad guys.  Kenyan police are known to be corrupt--worse yet, they all think that they are ‘dirty Harry’. But when university students took to the streets to protest the government, no doubt easily fired up with the help of activists, the peaceful demonstration turned ugly.  That is when the police shot into the crowds and killed two activists and later a university student. 

Luckily, most of the couples had left the office before things got out of hand, but the Tuttle’s had an appointment downtown and really got stuck.  They spent four hours getting home when it normally takes about 15-20 minutes.  They were so exhausted after their experience that they went directly to their flat to recover.  They were supposed to have dinner with us and later dessert with the employment couple, Elder & Sister Byrd.  We were having yummy peach cobbler with Byrd’s when we finally saw their truck drive up at 8 PM. 

We had another problem--Sarah was here that day and had eaten dinner with us and didn’t leave till 7:30 PM.  We were concerned for her because we knew it would take forever for her to get a Matatu (mini-bus) back to her friend’s place.  Normally the buses are everywhere, but during times like this they don’t run at all.  We put her large purse in a plastic bag to lessen the possibility of it getting stolen.  She walked from our place to the Serena Hotel and worked her way around till she finally got a bus ride home.  We had gone to bed at 11 PM and sometime between then and 2 AM she had sent us a text message that she had arrived safely.  She told us that even though she was nervous it was safer for her to be out than it would be for us, and she just might blend in with the university students.  We thought we’d not be going out to dinner anytime soon, but as it turned out they must have gotten tired of rioting in the streets at night because it only happened a couple of evenings. 

We continue to work in our flat while Tuttle’s go into the office. Next week we’ll be going back to the tented camp that we went to last year.  ‘Tented’ sounds a bit scary, but even though it is made of a heavy canvas and you unzip to get into your room, it has all the amenities of a regular hotel—well, most of them anyway.  They do shut down the power in the middle of the night, but by then your overhead fan is not needed to breathe as the weather cools down.  Of course, there is no air conditioning, but the setting is beautiful next to the large river.  We get fed three times a day and they have a swimming pool.

Stuck in our flat, we still found a way to give some things away--a soccer uniform for her little boy.

I’m usually better at getting over jetlag, but for some reason I wake up at 2 AM or 4 AM and can’t go back to sleep.  This is not a problem this week because I just pass out on the couch whenever I can’t keep my eyes open anymore.  This has been quite a relaxing week—Monday we begin our journey.