Tuesday, October 31, 2006

african rains

it is raining. no light sprinkle. no drizzling. no shower. rain. and i think i will be drying out until about the time i have to turn around and walk back home after today's morning commute. i am pretty sure that the red mud will stain my cute stripey capris and i will most likely be too cold all day as i sit at my desk, feeling rather soggy. at least i had an umbrella and didn't have to tie a plastic bag on my head like some of the people i saw walking to work this morning. but that didn't do much to stop the matatus and buses from splashing me with dirty road puddle water as they sped by.

last night i had a true post-colonial experience although it could have been 50 years ago and i don't think much would have been different. i went to a gorgeous house in a totally landscaped and secluded neighbourhood and ate THE best indian food i have EVER had and watched Liverpool beat Bordeux 3-0 while a house man (what do you call them - steward, butler, house help...?!) made us a fire to keep warm on a chilly kenyan night and served us the aforementioned delicious food as we sat under the stars and drank Tusker beer. it was a pretty strange feeling, being served by a kenyan man while listening to accents that would be more familiar in the halls of oxford or king's college than nairobi. but all in all, it was a nice time and i met some rather interesting people.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

that sounds absolutely amazing. does somebody from your work live there?

lu said...

it was pretty nice but i got to bed late and i think i am still getting caught up on my sleeping! and our hot water heater is broken so i had a lukewarm shower this morning, which did not make me want to get out of bed this morning.

Anonymous said...

hola Larita, how are you? just finally sat down and caught up with the last several blogs you've posted. They're really exciting, nice to hear everything is going well. remember my friend corey? he's over on Mafia island south of Zanzibar, so i thought it was cool you're both way the hell over there, somewhat near one another, even though not really. speaking of rains, we had alot out here in Van today, and delivering mail in it was quite an experience. I was soaked and the mail was getting soggy and the envelopes were starting to fall apart, but they made their destination. Our station flooded today. boring info really but you'll be pleased to hear that one of our stations walked off the jobs when a 'hate mail' flyer showed up to be distributed. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2006/10/26/bc-postal.html
gives going postal another meaning i suppose. anyway, keep posting of your adventures and having fun. it's inspiring
peace
-Yef.

lu said...

yef!!

glad to see you are getting the mail to the people and i heard about the hate mail business. well done vancouverites!

if you happen to swing back here, send me cory's email and maybe we can meet up. maybe you should come and visit both of us at the same time. maybe i should just send this to you in an email.